Week 55
The weeks keep coming and going!!
We have been teaching temple preparation lessons to several members of the branch desiring to go to the temple for the first time and receive their endowments. On Monday, while we were teaching Brother Osei on his front porch, a "parade" of school kids come marching by to celebrate something. Here is a video of it:
After we finished with Brother Osei, we went to Acotse and picked up Sister Linda, the branch Relief Society president, to take her to visit one of the members of the branch. Sister Lizzie is a new member of the Church and speaks very little English. She was baptized along with her son, Kelvin, and her daughter, Elizabeth, a short time ago. She is has an enthusiastic personality and is overjoyed to be a member of the Church.
Sister Linda, Sister Lizzie, and Sister Judd
Sister Lizzie's home is the second door from the left. Each door is a different family's home.
For district council this week we stayed close to home by going to the Adom Estate district council in Kasoa a little over an hour away. One of the things done in district council is for each missionary companionship to give a report on the missionary work in their area for the previous week. The key indicators used are: (1) the number of new people found and taught, (2) the number of lessons with investigators where a member participates, (3) the number of investigators who attend Sacrament Meeting, (4) the number of individuals who have accepted an invitation to be baptism, (5) the number who were baptized and confirmed, and (6) the number of new converts of less than a year who attended Sacrament Meeting. The missionaries report what their goal was for the last week, what the actual number was for the week, and what their goal is for the coming week. There is often also a discussion about challenges a companionship may be having and suggestions from the other missionaries about what might be done.
The district leader, Elder Lekeyi, sharing some thoughts at the end of district council.
Note the results of the companionship area reports on the whiteboard.
Elders Mpessa, Lukhele, Lekeyi, and Otieno and Sisters Khuphe and Fandresentsoa
Wednesday was apartment inspections in Abomosu Zone, and it was a long and tiring day. We got up at 4:30 and left at 6:00 for our first apartment visit at 9:30.
Elders McCallister and Marchant at Akrofufu
Elders Chiwaye and Johnbull at Asunafo
Elders Ilunga and Kaufusi at Abomosu
There was nothing unusual about the apartment inspections. It just takes time to go through the process at each apartment. We finally got home again around 6:30 p.m. and were more than ready to be back home!
Here are a couple of things of interest we saw in our travels to Abomosu and back.
The "gutters" along almost all of the roads are 2 1/2' to 3' deep and have sides that are straight down. This poor guy got a little too close and ended up not having a very good day
There is one village we drive through where they sell "bushmeat" along the side of the road. Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat is the primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities in West and Central Africa. The wildlife species hunted for bushmeat include primates (e.g., lemurs, chimpanzees, and monkeys), bats, marsupials (such as possums), porcupines, giant rats, and other rodents. The bushmeat being offered in the picture is a large rodent of some kind.
Thursday is the day we go with Sisters Lautaimi and Najjuka to Ojobi. This time we went with them to a couple of men who they had talked with a few days before who had a lot of questions. The Sisters wanted to take us with them to talk to these men so we could answer their questions. We talked a lot about the plan of salvation in answering their questions. We were there for a solid hour.
We then went to teach another man whom they had taught two or three times before. As we visited with him, it just didn't seem like he was really interested. He had excuses for why he couldn't come to church. He hadn't kept his commitment to read what the Sisters had asked him to read. I believe the Sisters will probably drop him from their teaching pool.
Kids and women getting their evening water to take home.
Friday, we went to Accra to the temple! It is always good to be able to spend time in the temple. It is stressful driving the two hours in Ghanaian road construction and traffic to get there, but it is worth it. On the way home, we stopped at the West Hills Mall to do some shopping and get some KFC chicken to take home. We also stopped when we got back to Awutu Breku to teach another temple preparation lesson to Brother Osei.
Saturday was our usual going with Sisters Appia and Tavita here in Awutu Breku. We visited Beauty and ended up talking a lot with her about the temple and eternal families. She has a little boy about two and a four month old baby girl. Beauty came to church on Sunday and seemed to be very much engaged. We also taught Jenna, an older woman, about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We also tried to visit some others without success.
Sister Judd taught the Relief Society lesson Sunday on "Burying Our Weapons of Rebellion" by Elder Christofferson from October 2024 General Conference. As part of the lesson, she had the sisters write down what "weapon of rebellion" they each had in their life they wanted to "bury." Elder Judd had dug a hole where their "weapons of rebellion" could be put symbolically getting rid of them from their lives. (Unfortunately, someone walking past the church stole Elder Judd's shovel so he had to use a machete to backfill the hole with dirt.)
After the meeting block, there was a baptism where Jessica (a 19 year old), Michael (a man in his late 20's), and the 9 year old son of Brother and Sister Williams who were baptized a couple of months ago.
The baptism service with many members attending in support of those being baptized
After the baptism service, we taught a temple preparation class to Evans and Charity.
The Kwofie family leaving for home after church meetings.
Lizzie, Bernice, and Benedict were baptized recently. John (father) is preparing for baptism.
A "Tow Mater" tow truck in action
Painting of sister missionaries in Bortianor
As we learn from Elder Christofferson's talk, our “weapons of rebellion” are our disobedience to God and His commandments. This can be active (willfully disobeying) or passive (ignoring His will in our lives).
"In the end, burying our weapons of rebellion against God simply means yielding to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, putting off the natural man, and becoming 'a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.' It means putting the first commandment first in our lives. It means letting God prevail. If our love of God and our determination to serve Him with all our might, mind, and strength become the touchstone by which we judge all things and make all our decisions, we will have buried our weapons of rebellion. By the grace of Christ, God will forgive our sins and rebellions of the past and will take away the stain of those sins and rebellions from our hearts. In time, He will even take away any desire for evil, as He did with those Lamanite converts of the past. Thereafter, we too 'never [will] fall away.'"
"Burying our weapons of rebellion leads to a unique joy. With all who have ever become converted to the Lord, we are 'brought to sing [the song of] redeeming love.'"
May we each ponder what "weapons of rebellion" we need to "bury" to be converted so we never will fall away and so we can have the "Unique joy" that is promised.
Love,
Elder and Sister Judd
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