Week 15
Last week we indicated that we had multi-zone conferences on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week. Well, as we were leaving for home from the zone conference on Friday, Sister Judd started with sneezing and a runny nose like allergies. It wasn’t too bad, so we didn’t worry much about it. We had to stop at the West Hills Mall on the way home to do some grocery shopping. By the time we finished with that and started for home again, Sister Judd was beginning to get stuffed up sinuses, a headache, and body aches. When we got home, she pretty much just went to bed feeling miserable. Saturday morning, she was not feeling good at all. Elder Judd contacted the mission medical advisor, Elder Divis, who said we should test her for malaria. Luckily, we had a malaria test kit we had brought back from an apartment inspection. The test was negative! She stayed in bed all day Saturday and most of Sunday. By Sunday evening she was starting to feel better.
We were scheduled to go to the Odoben district council on Monday morning. It would have been easy to cancel out, but Sister Judd insisted that she would be okay. It was good that it was a 1 3/4 hours drive rather than 3 to 4 hours as more recent ones have been. By the time we got home, she was ready to lie down and rest.
On Tuesday, we had a full day planned of things to do, including Sister Judd making chocolate chip cookies to take with us for the missionaries when we do apartment inspections. Well, at 8:30 a.m., we got a call from Elder Divis saying that Elder Roche in New Abirim was terribly sick with malaria. He needed us to drive to New Abirim, pick up Elder Roche and Elder Cichos and take them to Accra to the mission office. Sister Judd was feeling about 85-90% better. Again, she insisted that we go help the missionaries. We got ready and left about an hour later. The challenge was that New Abirim is a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive away, with the mission office 3 hours from New Abirim, and then a 2 hour drive home from the mission office. It was about 8:30 Tuesday evening when we finally got home. Sister Judd still had the cookies to make, and we needed to get things ready to do apartment inspections on Wednesday.
The main highway through Ofankor on the way to the office from New Abirim is under construction being widened. It was interesting to see the properties taken for the road widening. Notice that half the house was removed because that is all that was needed for the road. The other half of the building was left as is.
The apartment inspections on Wednesday were in the Ofankor Zone. We had inspected six of the ten apartments in the previous two Wednesdays, so this was the last four to finish that zone. It actually went pretty well. Usually, we help the missionaries declutter their apartment and bring back a truckload of stuff to get rid of. Fortunately this time, three of the four apartments have had missionaries in them for a relatively short time. Meaning, there has been less time for previous missionaries to leave behind a bunch of stuff that needs to be cleaned out. Besides decluttering, it always takes a good chunk of time during the inspection to help them organize their bookcase, get rid of old manuals and out of date materials, and take back to the mission office the extra pamphlets they do not need. This time, the bookcases were in pretty good order. All of this meant that we actually got finished and home earlier than planned for a change.
Thursday is the day we recover from Wednesday’s apartment inspections by unloading the trash from the truck; sorting through missionary clothes left in the apartments to see what is worth washing and taking to Patrick (the agent stake Welfare bishop) to give to persons in need; getting the extra pamphlets ready to take to the mission office; deciding which broken fans are worth repairing to reuse; texting copies of the inspection reports to the housing coordinator, supplies person, and President and Sister Jacobsen; and getting caught up from being gone on Wednesday. Since we were gone on Tuesday getting Elder Roche, we also needed to work on Tuesday’s list of things that didn’t get done.
Friday proved to be a rather challenging day! It started by the power going off around 7:30 a.m. Elder Judd started the generator as usual. We have learned to just deal with it the best we can and continue doing whatever we are able to with limited air conditioning, spotty internet, and other inconveniences. About 3:45 p.m., Elder Judd felt that he should go check the gas level and shut the generator down to add gas if needed. When he got to the generator, the plug connecting the house wire to the generator was smoking and melting from getting too hot and sparking. He immediately shut down the generator which meant no power at all, no A/C, no fans, no lights, etc. Thankfully, Isaac (the contractor who takes care of maintenance and other work needed at our place) was able to get here with an electrician around 5:00. They had it fixed in about 45 minutes and left, so we were back on generator power. All of a sudden after about 15-20 minutes the power went off again with the generator still running. Elder Judd called Isaac, who turned around and came back and figured out what had happened and took care of it. The Electric Company of Ghana power finally came back on about 7:00 p.m. The generator is old and has been used a lot more in the last four months than ever before. The blessing is that the housing coordinator recognized about a month ago the need for a new generator and has been working on getting one approved and purchased. There is a good chance it will be installed this next week.
Since we have run the generator so much, Elder Judd has to make regular trips to the gas station to get generator gas. He has gotten very well acquainted with the attendants there. In Ghana, the attendant pumps the gas. One of the attendants is a young lady named Martha. She was taught by the missionaries about a year ago. Elder Judd has had some good exchanges with her about the Church and the Savior. She has told him three or four times that she is going to come to Church one Sunday. We were driving past the gas station with the missionaries on Saturday, so Elder Judd pulled in and introduced her to Sister Judd and the missionaries. Hopefully, she will be interested in being taught by the missionaries again.
On Saturday, we went with the missionaries to teach the sister, Navis, and father, Stephen, of a member. We have been there several times now.
They are slowly progressing in their understanding and acceptance. This time we read together 3 Nephi 11:1-17 where the resurrected Jesus Christ appeared to the people in America shortly after His ascension. We discussed what happened and talked about the Savior’s Atonement and the blessings we receive as we have faith in Jesus Christ, repent, and enter into a covenant with Him through baptism. We also shared how the Savior invited all the people to come to Him one by one to “thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet.” As the people did so they “did know of a surety and did bear record” that it was Jesus Christ who the prophets wrote would come. We shared that these people knew it was Jesus Christ through their interaction with Him. We testified that we can also know of Jesus Christ with the same surety through the witness and testimony of the Holy Ghost to each of us individually and directly.
Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts in our behalf. We know the Lord is blessing us daily with His tender mercies. We love you!!
Love,
Sister and Elder Judd
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