This is Africa...You've Gotta Love It!

African's are creative. They have little but they make what they have work!


An African Walkman/Ipod


A Pick-up Truck


The Hot Water System


The Ambulance - Hope its not a Heart Attack!


Painting the Pool


Well it get's good gas mileage!


Good thing you have that Toyota Cowrolla!


Just Hitchin a ride! One day I saw a longhorn cow stuffed in the back seat of a car!


Africans tell it like it is!

Adenta Stake Conference.

Sunday, May 25th, we attended Stake Conference in Adenta Stake. We went with Elder and Sister Hill. They are in charge of security for the Africa West Area. We arrived an hour early and got to sit in the 5th row. They announced in the meeting that there were 1735 people in attendance. They came in buses, they came in tro-tros, they came in taxis, they walked, and some who have truly prospered came in cars.

The Stake President is John Koranteng. When we pulled him up on the CDOL (Church Directory of Leaders-a SLC Church database with limited access) the first week in May we noticed his photograph was a picture of an Obruni! (a white man) He came into our office a week or so ago and we showed it to him. He said some Obruni Stake President is really going to be surprised when he sees a Ghanaian man for his picture!!

This man is young – I would guess in his 30’s, but he is amazing in his knowledge and faith in the gospel. I was so impressed with his talk today. He was very inspired and knew how to relate his thoughts in parables the people could understand. As he told his parrables he also lead us on a journey through the scriptures to establish his point.

He spoke of being a light and of being salt. Salt can chemically change so easily. He spoke of obedience as the key to keeping our salt in the form of salt, not chlorine or some other solution. He talked about driving to work in the morning early at 4am and finding the dawn getting more bright to the point lights were not needed to see and what a relief that is. That this is what we are like when we are being obedient. We can see with assurance that as we increase in light, we can see our way in difficult situations, and we will be at peace. With each act of obedience we move further into the light. He then compared driving at dawn to driving at dusk as the sun goes down and it gets darker…that is the way our life is with each act of disobedience…our light gets darker and we cannot see our way. We become filled with fear and worry and have more trials than there should have been.

He related a story of men traveling: men who were told to fill their bags with pebbles. Some filled them with large ones, some with medium sized pebbles, and some with very small pebbles. When they got to the end of their journey they opened their bags to find their stones had turned into pearls and jewels. Those who put large pebbles or stones in their bags were filled with riches. Those who choose medium stones or pebbles were delighted when they opened their bags, but wished they had put large pebbles in their bags. Those who put small pebbles in their bags had very small pearls and jewels.

We choose likewise how we will embrace the gospel. Will we just show up at church on Sundays for the appearance? Will we occasionally open the Book of Mormon to read? Will we serve others? Will we be determined to make temple covenants with the Lord after baptism? Will we pray with our hearts morning and night or will we say the same thing (I call them celing prayers)? Will we read our scriptures every day? Will we study the scriptures or will our scriptures sit on the shelf and get covered with dust? Will we strive to live according to the words of our Prophets so that we can have the spirit in our lives, or will we selectively choose to do things we agree with, or choose activities that will take the spirit away? Will we listen and obey the Holy Ghost? Will we seek to improve ourselves through repentence? Each day we make chooses that determine whether our bags are filled with small, medium, or large pebbles. At the end of our journey, Christ will fill our bags with jewels according to the stones we chose to carry. He quoted Mosiah 2:20-22: When we keep his commandments all he desires is to bless us and prosper us.

President Koranteng spoke of standing in Holy Places and said it takes practice to Stand in Holy Places. He said we must FIND holiness. He spoke of obedience turning into sacrifice when we say “not my will be done but let thy will be done.” Sacrifice is when we follow God or the spirit even when it makes little sense to the way we reason things. When we do His will He strengthens us.

“Being in the Kingdom", he said, "is like climbing the stairs." Sometimes you get tired. Sometimes it gets hard to keep climbing. You want to just stop for a while. Some want to give up, but when you keep going through sacrifice, the Lord strengthens you to climb the stairs.

Again the spirit bore testimony to me that the gospel in its fulness is restored. That the spirit works in the lives of people all over the world.

The World's Greatest Treasure Does Not Lie in Gold or Diamond Mines

Everyday Elder Shipley and I open up the greatest treasure we have...our scriptures. Our Scriptures let us 'Come Unto Him'. As we read His words we come to know His Ways, what He expects of us, and how to love others. We learn from the past....things to avoid, what to treasure, why civilizations were destroyed, the importance of prophets, the tyranny of men who seek power and riches, the Oneness of God, the protection of the righteous...and the list could go on and on. Elder Shipley and I are reading in Acts together. I am reading in the Book of Mormon by myself, and he is reading the Doctrine and Covenants. All scripture enlightens the mind and brings the peace only God can give.


President Hinckley said "Portions of the Book of Mormon appear like a vision to lighten a burdened heart." I'm sure he would extend that comment to the Bible as well.

These are the reasons he, a Prophet of God, gave for reading the scriptures.

1. We learn of Jesus Christ:

"We need to do more reading in the scriptures and more dwelling on the Lord Jesus Christ. He must become the foundation of all that we know about the gospel. We must grow in our hearts and our minds and in our very souls a knowledge and conviction of the Son of God and of His atoning sacrifice for each of us."

2. They are a source of divine wisdom:

"The truest source of divine wisdom is the word of the Lord in these sacred volumes, the standard works of the Church. Here is found the doctrine to which we must hold fast if this work is to roll forth to its divinely charted destiny."

3. Scriptures help draw us nearer to God:

"As you read of the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will draw closer to Him who is the author of our salvation."

4. Scriptures contain eternal truths"

"You may think you are too busy. Ten or fifteen minutes a day with the scriptures, and particularly with the Book of Mormon, can give you marvelous understanding of the great eternal truths which have been preserved by the power of the Almighty of the blessing of His children."

5. We and our children will be blessed.

" We can read scriptures, ponder their meaning and develop familiarity with them for our everlasting blessing. We can do so in our family home evenings, and as we do there will grow within our children a love for the Lord and His holy word."

6. Scriptures will help us in our daily lives.

"The more we read....the more we can establish a pattern by which to guide our own lives. The principles which are set forth in the scriptures become principles which can make for happiness and understanding, lofty ideals by which to guide our lives, and the faith by which to move through the problems which we will inevitably confront as we go forward with our lives.

7. You will learn to love the scriptures.

We truly love the scriptures. I cannot imagine living without them. Their words bring us close to God. All: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are great treasures to us: Treasures worth more than gold or diamonds.

Jon, There are Modern Buildings in Accra

Jon looked at pictures on Google Earth of Accra and wondered if it was just poor wooden shacks and adobe buildings all over. On the contrary - yes there is alot of that..but Accra is booming with development. Everywhere you look buildings are being constructed in Accra. When we walk in the morning we pass about a half dozen buildings under construction. It is a cash society. People begin building and get so far before they have to wait while they save money to complete the next step of the building. Cranes can be seen throughout the city. The economy appears to be on the rise!

Mother's Day in Ghana

Today was Mother's Day. The best of the day came in Relief Society. This little baby boy (probably about 1 yr old) sat next to me with his mom and grandma. He must have sensed that this grandma was lonely for holding a grandchild as he reached out his arms to me and climbed right into my lap. He was just so cute and made my day. His grandmother wrapped him around her when they came to church and wrapped him back up when they left. In Relief Society they gave all the women a plastic mug - purple - all wrapped in white polka dotted clear cellophane. Even the women in Africa know how to make something look special! It was a very nice surprise.

Last night dad and Elder Knudsen took me and Sr. Knudsen out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. It was great! I had actually forgotten it was Mother's Day until Elder Shipley mentioned going out to eat to celebrate. Here it just seems all days are the same. What a great husband to make it special.

You May Want to Buy Your Casket In Ghana

Ghana has interesting caskets. We drove by this shop and I told Elder Shipley "Look those are caskets." "No" said Elder Shipley, "Those can't be caskets." Well that was Saturday. On Tuesday, Kofi took us to get our driver's licenses. I asked him about the caskets. He verified that yes indeed they are caskets. In Ghana you are often buried in a casket that identifies your occupation. If you are a farmer, you might be buried in a Chicken casket. If you work on cars, you'll be buried in a car casket. If you are a hunter, a lion casket. If you are the tribal chief, you would probably be buried in an eagle casket. The casket makers will make anything you want! Here are some pictures.

Conferences

The last week of April was busy for us. During the week, the Area Presidency hosted a conference for the Area Seventy. Elder Shipley had a special opportunity of sitting in on the conference. I was in charge of getting snacks for break time and ran back and forth between our apartment and the office many times that day. Saturday evening we had a dinner for the Seventy and their wives at Elder Cardon's home. There I was able to meet these special men and their wives. The church has been in Africa for 30 years and some of these men were early converts, others had been converts for only 10-15 years. All have great minds and countenences filled with light. They spent the day discussing the future direction of the church in Africa...of building from centers of strength.

Front Row: (L-R) Elder and Sister Cardon, President and Sr. Snow, Sr Golden and Elder Golden
Second Row: Sr. Nwankpa, Sr. Dil, Sr. Ounlue and President Ounlue, Sr. Brockbank and President Brockbank, Sr. Garff and President Garff
3rd Row: President Nwankpa, President Dil, President Harmon and Sr. Harmon, Sr. Evans and President Evans
Top Row: President and Sr. Dyreng, Sr. Satati and President Satati, Sr. Squires and President Squires

On Monday the 28th we hosted a 3-day conference for the 10 mission presidents in West Africa. Elder Shipley and I both attended this conference. Presentations were made on internalizing the gospel rather than just learning or knowing it. Coming to experience the atonement in our lives, that our testimonies become immoveable. How? Well the basics: read the scriptures daily, pray, ponder, live the word, repent and attend the temple. This journey can not be done for you, it is an individual journey to Christ. It is a journey that we have the opportunity to choose everyday or not.

Another subject was again the future direction of the church in Africa: Building Centers of Strength. The google mapping that I was asked to do was the center of this presentation.

A seperate section was held with the women. The six mission president's wives who were being released in July shared the things they learned being a Mission Mom. All said they gained an extra amount of love for the missionaries...that in essense they became their sons and daughters and loved them as much as their own children. They agreed the spirit led them while giving talks and dealing with health problems the missionaries had. There are no specific duties for the mission president's wife..and many expressed the frustration of trying to discover their role.

The last day we again talked about how the missionary work should change based on the things that had been discussed. The mission presidents who leave at the end of June were told that they must make the changes before they leave because the new presidents would take months to make the changes they could make in weeks. In the afternoon we attended a sealing session in the temple. The group was divided among the two sealing rooms and Elder Golden and President Snow conducted the sealings. It was a special experience. After that, we assembled in the Area building and were able to participate in a testimony session. It was a spiritual experience for all. These sessions were great learning experiences for us. Our feelings about how the Church should be administered will never be the same.

To top off the week we attended the Tema Stake Conference. This was a two day event. On Saturday we were invited by President Snow to attend the leadership meeting. He said he was going to take a new approach to leadership training and wanted us to view it. He had all the ward councils sit in ward groups. His training premise was that everyone in the councils was there to help the bishop in his task, which was described as helping people come back to the Father by following the Son. He told them they were all doing the work of the Priesthood. Some may be in charge of the children, some of the young women, some of the Relief Society, some on the non-members within the ward boundaries, but their primary job was to help the bishop in his job. He said that although we need the church to help us with the ordinances, the real work of helping people become born again was likely to best be done in homes. He challenged them to change their thinking about running church "programs." He said the programs were not that important, only changing lives was. They must change their ministry to helping people come back to the Father. Again, there was a great spirit present and thoughts and approaches changed.

We decided to drive back along the ocean from Tema to Accra. We had never been on the road before, and did some exploration in finding it. It took about 10 times as long as the Tema expressway would have taken, but it was a real experience. I (dad typing) ran into a pot hole that almost swallowed up the car. We came close to blowing a tire and we lost a hub cap, although we didn't learn that until about 15 minutes after it happened when a tro tro pulled up beside us and the driver honked his horn. He rolled down his window and handed us our hubcap. I guess I'll have to change my perspective on these drivers who normally cut you off on the highway, honk if you're a minisecond late in moving after a light turns green and generally ignore all traffic lights and signs. Some of them are actually nice people.

On Sunday, we again started for Tema. Not having been at a Stake Conference here, we didn't know exactly what to expect. We arrived 20 minutes early to find only about 20 seats left in the very rear of the building. It was truly a center of strength. The missionaries had displays set up outside the building. People had come in buses. There were over 1600 people who attended the Tema Stake Conerence. What a wonderful experience to see with our own eyes such strength. The meeting was conducted by the spirit. People were called up to bear their testimonies for the first hour. The children were all called up to sing "I am a Child of God". The last hour Sr. Snow talked to them about their families how they were eternal and what care we need to take with our children and spouses. Then President Snow spoke, followed by Pres. Ounlue the new Area Seventy and currently til July 1st the Cote D'Ivoire Mission President. He is one year older than Holly! President Snow then spoke again and ended the session.