Week 14

In addition to the usual apartment inspections on Wednesday, we had multi-zone conferences this week.  We did not go to a district council on Monday as we normally would because we were preparing for a presentation President and Sister Jacobsen asked us to give in multi-zone conferences.  

Multi-zone conferences were Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  There are three zones involved in each.  Tuesday was Winneba, Swedru, and Kasoa Zones, and it was held in the Winneba Stake Center which is just a half hour west of our apartment.  

                          Sisters from the Kasoa Zone                    Sister Nkoma, Sister Divis, Sister Topham, 

                                                                                                   Sister Judd, & Sister Van der Beek

                                  Teaching our break-out session in Winneba (see more about this below)

For the apartment inspections on Wednesday, we did two apartment in the Ofankor Zone which is on the north side of Accra.  

           Sister Kpahn (on exchanges) and Sister Apia.                     Elder Parks and Elder Saye

After the inspections, we drove into Accra to the mission office to join the other senior couples and President and Sister Jacobsen for a birthday dinner for Sister Divis, the mission secretary.  We stayed overnight at the mission office.  The mission office is essentially a house with the various desks on the main floor along with a kitchen and bedrooms upstairs.  Elder and Sister Topham live in the master suite upstairs, and the two other bedrooms with a shared bathroom are for missionaries who need to stay over.  

                                                                  Senior couples dinner

The conference on Thursday was in the Tesano Stake Center and was for the Asamankese, Abomosu, and Ofankor Zones.  Asamankese and Abomosu Zones are the furthest zones north.  

And Friday’s conference was in the Kaneshie First Light building for the Kaneshie, Tesano, and Lartebiokorshie Zones.  These are the three city zones in Accra in the Accra West Mission.

The theme of the multi-zone conferences was “Keys, Covenants, and Commitments.”  President and Sister Jacobsen talked about covenants and the restoration of the keys of the priesthood.  One of the enlightening slides Sister Jacobsen had was this slide showing how many times covenants and temples were referenced in these three general conferences.  Sister Jacobsen emphasized that the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, and other general church leadership is seeing and feeling an urgency for us to understand and keep our covenants.

For these multi-zone conferences, the Jacobsen’s asked the three senior couples to teach break-out sessions.  We were assigned to discuss with the missionaries the talk by Elder Dale G. Renlund titled, “The Powerful, Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Christ.”  We began our session by pointing out that the elements of the missionary purpose in Preach My Gospel is the same as the elements of the doctrine of Christ.  We discussed that living the doctrine of Christ is not a one time event for each element but a spiral upwards or forward as we grow and are transformed by exercising faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repenting, entering a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ through baptism, renewing that covenant through the Sacrament each week, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and enduring by continually growing our faith and repeating this powerful process over and over again.  As we draw closer and closer to the Lord, it is only natural that we will want to bring others along with us.  

A senior missionary couple serving in the area office who went home recently wrote a poem that pretty accurately describes what we see and experience here in Ghana.

There is an abundance of goats and chickens wandering free everywhere we go.  These goats come to visit and eat outside our compound pretty regularly.

It is amazing what the Ghanaians carry on their motorbikes.  It is a major way to transport people and items.  One day we saw a goat standing on the motorbike in front of the driver just as happy as can be riding along.  Unfortunately, we were not fast enough with the camera.  Sister Jacobsen was faster with her camera as she captured this video.

We feel blessed to be here serving.  It is definitely different from our first mission in so many ways, but it is where we should be and doing what we should be doing.  Thank you for your support and prayers!!

Love you each and every one.

Love,

Sister and Elder Judd