Week 40

The weeks just keep coming and going!!  This week was transfers, incoming, and departing missionaries so we were in Accra two days for that.  Most of the transfer movements happen without coming into the mission office, so we have limited involvement with transfers which happen on Tuesday morning.  On Tuesday afternoon we had the bi-weekly Gospel Literacy Zoom call with all the senior couples working with Gospel Literacy in Africa and those over Gospel Literacy connecting from the US.  We were involved in departing missionaries events on Tuesday evening.  The incoming new missionaries and their training happens on Wednesday morning while we are taking departing missionaries to the airport.  Here are some pictures of the departing events.

It was our turn to go to dinner with the departing missionaries

Getting ice cream after dinner!

 Final message from President Jacobsen and Sister Judd leading the music 

at the departing missionaries devotional.

Senior couples (Judd, Bertha, and Divis) with Elders Greenfield, Dymock, 

Newbern, and Flomo and Sister Sandili.

Sisters Judd, Bertha, Sandili, Jacobsen, and Divis

Senior couples, Jacobsen's, A.P.'s, and departing missionaries in one last photo.

Weighing bags before going to airport.  Sister Judd with Sister Sandili at the airport.

On the way home on Wednesday afternoon, we dropped off a new refrigerator and two sleeping pads at the sisters' apartment in Galilea.  Wednesday evening we had a Zoom/phone meeting with Brother Seglah who is the Winneba Stake Gospel Literacy Specialist to coordinate Gospel Literacy happenings in the Winneba Stake.

On Thursday, we got a delivery of 1,000 gallons of water for our poly tank since the community water stopped flowing into the tank, our generator was serviced, and Isaac came and picked up the empty diesel drum to get it filled and returned so we have diesel for the generator, which we have needed quite a lot in the last couple of weeks.  

Isaac taking the diesel drum to get it refilled

Also, an electrician come to replace a switch so the water heater for our shower would work again.  The only hot water in the house is from a small on-demand heater for our shower water only.  The dishes are washed in cold water with dish soap and Clorox, and all the sinks have only cold water.  So, it was important to get the shower heater fixed so we could take hot showers again!   

Thursday evening is Midweek where members of the branch get together at the church and discuss topics from the Gospel Principles manual.  This week the discussion was on "Baptism."

Friday, we headed back to Accra.  Shortly after arriving in Ghana, we ordered a hand carved nativity set.  The carver, Wisdom, had finally finished it, and we stopped at his home in Accra to pick it up.  

This African Nativity set was designed by Wisdom's late father, years before Wisdom was born.  It was also during that time that his father met the first missionaries in Ghana and joined the Church.  Wisdom's father learned to carve from Wisdom's grandfather, and Wisdom was 5 years old when he started learning from his father.  The set is carved from Ebony which is a very hard wood and takes several weeks for the wood to dry naturally before he can begin carving.  The wise men are Ghanaian chiefs and the animals are all African animals.  One chief represents the Ashanti region of Ghana and is carrying a stool as a gift for the King to sit on.  Another chief has gold as a gift and his short smock represents the Northern region.  The third chief carries a sword representing the Volta region.  The chiefs are accompanied by their "spokesman" who holds a staff with a star on top.

We then went to the temple and performed initiatory work.  It is always good to be in the temple.  We are so blessed to serve in a mission where we are so close to the temple and are able to go regularly.   

President Jacobsen, Sister Bertha, Elder Divis, and Sister Judd all have birthdays in October, so we all went out to a nice dinner at the Polo Club in Accra Friday evening.

We spent Friday night at the Jacobsen's, and on Saturday morning we went to the Butterfly Market which is near the mission office so we could get a few things.  The Butterfly Market has a wide variety of hand made and specialty items.  Embassies, the Church's Africa West Area Office, and high end residential properties are in the area where the Butterfly Market is held so a lot of non-Ghanaians go to the Butterfly Market.   

As we were leaving the Butterfly Market, Sister Judd saw Sister Jenny Doan (the "Missouri Quilt Lady") and her husband who just arrived in Ghana a month ago and are serving in the area office working with the Young Single Adults.  Sister Judd and Sister Doan got acquainted and enjoyed a good visit.  Sister Doan was so excited that Sister Judd recognized her and stopped to talk!

We were attracted to this fun-looking game that Sister Judd thought some of the grandkids might like.

After the Butterfly Market, we headed for home and did some shopping on the way to restock our cupboards and fridge.  

We had brought two bikes with us from the Mission Office to deliver to the elders in Senya.  So after we got everything put away from shopping, we left to go to Senya to deliver the bikes.  When we got to the main Accra-Cape Coast Highway, traffic was a royal mess.  Due to construction and no clear plan for the flow of traffic during construction, cars and trucks were going everywhere.  The traffic traveling east (opposite of the direction we were trying to go), were randomly spread all over in four or five lines of traffic across and then had to all merge together into one lane with no regard for the traffic trying to go west.  In Ghana, it is like driving bumper cars at the amusement park except you are trying to not hit the other car rather than hit it.  And the Tro-tros and taxis are super aggressive about squeezing into any crack in between cars.  The effect is a free for all!

We are trying to go west following a truck with vehicles coming from the other direction going wherever they want to go--blocking our movement forward and clogging the way on our left and right.

Vehicles on our left and on our right, jammed up with no one going anywhere!

We finally worked our way through the jammed up traffic mess, and then the road was completely clear with no one there!!  What an adventure driving in Ghana!

We got to Senya without any problems after that, delivered the bikes to the elders, and loaded up their old bikes to take back to the mission office when we go there next.  It was about 4:00 p.m., and since Senya is a fishing village on the coast, we decided to take a quick trip to the beach just for the fun of it.  

A fishing boat being built and one being repainted on the beach.

Here are some pictures that may be of interest.

A load of new furniture.  This load of wood seemed pretty unstable with only a couple of ropes holding it on.  We hurriedly got past it before he lost his load from one of the many potholes! 

We mentioned in last week's blog post about Elder Ucheagwu having a terrible bike accident.  His injuries are very extensive and painful and will be a while healing.  Elder Divis changing his bandages. 

Ebenezer and Elder Bertha

Ebenezer is over missionary housing.  It was very challenging dealing with landlords and leases and apartments when we were on our first mission in Tennessee.  We cannot begin to imagine how much more challenging that would be here in Ghana.  It is good to have a Ghanaian doing it!

Elder Bertha is financial secretary, and Sister Bertha is the mission secretary.  They are very dear friends with President and Sister Jacobsen.  Elder and Sister Bertha were instrumental in President Jacobsen getting baptized when President Jacobsen was at BYU getting his MBA.

It occurred to us this week that we have not mentioned in our blog post that we are blessed to have five of our grandchildren serving missions now at the same time we are.  Autumn (Allison's daughter) is in the California Sacramento Spanish Speaking Mission, Alora (Sara's daughter) is in the Provo Utah Spanish Speaking Mission, David (Stephen's son) is in the Columbia Bogota Mission, Bethany (Melissa's daughter) is assigned to the Scotland-Ireland Mission but is temporarily serving in the California San Francisco-Oakland Mission waiting for her visa, and Caleb (Sara's son) will be serving in the California Newport Beach Spanish Speaking Mission when he finishes at the Missionary Training Center in Mexico City where he is learning Spanish.

Autumn (Hermana Bird) on the right

Alora (Hermana Arny) on the right

David (Elder Judd) on the right

Bethany (Sister Coon) on the left

Caleb (Elder Arny) at the airport with Sara

Knowing that we and five of our grandchildren are serving the Lord at the same time in helping to gather scattered Israel, our thoughts turn to the recent October General Conference talk by President Russell M. Nelson wherein he said:

"My dear brothers and sisters, in a coming day, Jesus Christ will return to the earth as the millennial Messiah. So today I call upon you to rededicate your lives to Jesus Christ. I call upon you to help gather scattered Israel and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. I call upon you to talk of Christ, testify of Christ, have faith in Christ, and rejoice in Christ!"

"Come unto Christ and “offer your whole [soul]” to Him. This is the secret to a life of joy!"

"The best is yet to come, my dear brothers and sisters, because the Savior is coming again! The best is yet to come because the Lord is hastening His work. The best is yet to come as we fully turn our hearts and our lives to Jesus Christ."

May we each take this to heart and prepare ourselves and the world for the Savior to come by rededicating our lives to Jesus Christ, helping to gather Israel, and talking and testifying of Christ and having faith in and rejoicing in Christ!

We love you!

Love,

Elder and Sister Judd