Encounter with the Police

Last weekend we were pulled over by the police.
Elder Shipley: Hello how are you today?
Police: We need to check....Oh you are a servant of God. I don't want to waste your time. Go on.

Opps! There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant!

When Elder Shipley and I were children there was a song that had a chorus that went, "Opps there goes another rubber tree plant!" Well we had never seen or known what a rubber tree looked like, but the tune was catching and we loved singing it. Last weekend we walked through a rubber tree plantation singing that song.

The forest was beautiful - very tall white barked trees - ferns and other vegetation on the forest floor. Little pails attached to the trees to harvest the rubber (the sap) from the tree. Many trees had 2 and 3 pails - one below the other - to catch the drips with the pail above them became full. We pulled a small glob out of the pail and formed it into a string and then tied the ends together - it was just like a rubber band - amazing.



And so while we serve in West Africa we continue to learn about the world and the creations of God. Really interesting how one type of tree sap can give you maple syrup and another type of tree sap can give you rubber!

Palm Sunday

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday. As we entered Takoradi, a port city north of Cape Coast, we observed families walking to their services with palm leaves in their hands. Living in Utah we never saw a Palm Sunday celebration. We arrived at church in Sekondi. Accross from our church was another congregation. Their people had formed a parade and were marching down the street. I couldn't help myself I had to get a movie of it.


It was a beautiful site to watch the Ghanians show their love for Jesus. The people of Ghana love the Bible and they love God. Many will read their scriptures when they have a lunch break, and they feel no ridicule from those around them. Someone recently criticized the President of Ghana for meeting with religious leaders. He replied that Ghana was a nation that believed in God and would always seek His direction. It is nice to know there is a country in the world that honors God. We find it refreshing.

April is the month we celebrate the ressurrection of Jesus Christ. Latter-day revelation has taught us much about Jesus. He was not born in December but on April 6th. He was literally the son of God, born of Mary. He has a body of flesh and bones. He knows our thoughts and the intents of our heart. The world was created by Him. He created the animals, the plants, and man. He was chosen by Heavenly Father to come to this earth and take upon himself the sins of the world. He accomplished this in Gethsemanie and suffered not only for our sins but also the infirmities, pains, and sicknesses of all people that He may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infimities, and that he might be able to extend his mercy to us if we but repent. His atonement was completed as He gave up His life at Golgotha.

The atonement affects our daily life as the Savior extends to us his enabling grace that strengthens us to walk in His light and fulfill those things we were sent to earth to accomplish. He lovingly gave us commandments that would bring us joy and happiness in our life, if we would live them. He is unchanging: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is someone we can trust. He is no respector of persons. He loves each one of us. He knows the beginning from the end. Love comes from Him. In the last days the 'love of man shall wax cold' said Isaiah. That is happening as the world turns away from Him: man is loosing his ability to truly love another.

Jesus is my comfort and my joy. He is always there for me. I can trust Him explicitly. He guides my life. He answers my prayers. I know He lives. I have felt Him in my life. He is my hope and my salvation. I love Him. For me, my greatest joy would be to meet Him and have Him say "Well done."

Humility, the Ability to Distinguish Want from Need

In March our missionary couple in Liberia came for a two week break. We loved listening to them share their experiences. They live a much simpler life in Liberia.Our friends the Wires have only a hot plate to cook on each day for their meals. The hot plate is powered by propane. Electricity is questionable. Candles are reliable. They do have water and that is a blessing.

At Christmas time they came home one evening to find a fire down the street. They knew the area. It was where the less than poor, even below destitute call home. This was a world where every day you get up, and find a way to make enough small money to eat. There are days these people just wait and hope that the morrow will bring food. They say they simply learn not to think about food.

A pitiful old fire truck pulled up. The fire was put out, but not much was salvagable.

Little did Sr. Wire know that she would come face to face with one of the people who stood there with tears in their eyes and fear griping their heart, yet with faith that God would find a way to help her.

Monday morning a branch president came by the mission office with a 'request for fast offerings' form and told the Wires the inteneded recipient would come for an interview the following morning. (On the first Sunday of every month the Latter-day Saints fast and contribute the cost of the meals they missed to the church to help those in need.)

When they pulled up at the office on Wednesday morning to find a fragile elderly woman waiting to speak with them. We will call her "Mary". The Wires asked Mary to tell them what had happened in her life. She said she joined the church in 1991 and that her husband had been a member for 10 years before he was killed in the war.

Do you have any children? she was asked. "Yes she smiled, a strong boy, but he is not here. He is in the interior because of the war." "How old is he?", Sr. Wire asked. "He is 15." "So what has happened now?", Sr. Wire asked.

"Well there was a fire and I had one room where I slept with all my things. The fire came, and no one would go in the room for my things, and I have just me. Sunday Sister Jallah (the branch Relief Socity President) gave me this new dress. It was hers. She asked the sisters if they had small things they could bring me. So I'm doing fine.

"Where are you sleeping?" Sr. Wire asked. "I am with my brother. They have made me a space to sleep, and my brother's wife is fine with me coming."

"What is your plan now, Sister Mary?" Mary's face clouded with sadness. I lost my cooler. I sold water. I don't have a plan, I don't have a cooler. I'm strong. I can take care of myself. I sold water and made small money for food everyday."

Mary, Sr. Wire said, "If we got you a cooler and some water, what else would you need? Mary's immediate reply was "Nothing, Sister Wire. I can take care of myself. I have a place." The sister missionary told Mary, "I think we can get you those things." Mary's eyes filled with tears, she wrapped her thin arms around Sister Wire and said, "Oh God bless you, I can take care of myself now. I don't need money. I don't need things. I can work and save small-small I can do it!!

They were off to find Mary a cooler and some water to sell. The first stop was a street vendor who sold coolers. He had a sturdy cooler that included a small six-pack cooler. Best price: $75.00. Sr. Wire said, "I looked at him and said 'this lady is your sister. Her house burned. She lost her cooler and can't sell water. Now what can you do for her?" "Ok $65." he said. They took it. Next stop was another vendor where they purchased 10 packs of water (each pack hold close to two dozen water sachets).

They drove through town to the place near the river's edge, where mosquitoes feed on the people. The road had long since been forgotten by anyone in the way of repairs. Her new home was not an upgrade. As they travelled to her home Mary said, "What a wonderful day. My Relief Society sisters are taking care of me, the Lord blesses! If the church gave me money we would just eat it, and those I am with would see it and want part, but instead you gave me my life again."

Mary, a humble member of the church, is now in business again. She sells thin plastic bags (water sachets) of water, about a pint each. She keeps the water cool with a 'log' of ice in her picnic style ice chest, and sells them on the street for $5 Liberian apiece (.08 cents US). On a hot day she may clear as much as $1.50.

Joy in the Spiritual World

Last week, the saints of Cocody Stake in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire came in busses to spend a week in the temple. This year is the 30th anniversary of missionaries coming to West Africa and the revelation of the Priesthood to all worthy males. To honor and celebrate the occaision, the saints in Cocody set a goal to bring "Joy to the Spiritual World". They spent the last 6 months collecting their family history records. Family history specialists divided the stake into two sections. There were two laptop computers in the stake. Each family was visited and information was collected and imputed in New Family Search. They printed their Family Ordinance Request forms, placed them in a box, and tied them up with a bow to deliver to the temple when they arrived.

In the scriptures we learn "For except a man be born of the water and the spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (John 3:5). The gospel has been in Africa for only a short time - 30 years. So many have died without ever hearing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To give all men the equal opportunity for eternal life, we do baptisms in the temple for the dead and thus we answer the question presented in 1st Corinthians 9:15.

Elijah said he would "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children lest the whole earth would be cursed." Why? The earth was created for man to live upon, that he might have an opportunity to choose to follow Christ and gain Eternal Life. Without the ordinances of the temple, God's purpose of bringing to pass the immortality and Eternal Life of man would be frustrated. Elijah restored the keys of temple work when he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland temple on April 3, 1836.

As ordinance cards were printed to allow the work to be done, stacks and piles were filling the counters in the temple office. Over 4500 names were presented. The saints attended the temple all day long for 4 days. In that time they acted as a proxy for their ancestors. Youth over the age of 12 were being baptised for the grandmothers and grandfathers. In all the saints in Cocody did over 6,000 ordinances for their ancestors, giving their ancestors a chance to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught to them in the spirit world. Certainly the saints in Abidjan brought great joy to the spiritual world during the week of March 16th.

Things Sacred

The world is loosing its beauty. Little anymore is sacred. Families once were sacred and revered. Today they are ridiculed. In our children's cartoons, mothers and fathers are talked-back-to and made to feel "out of touch". Weekly programs on TV deal with affairs between co-workers, neighbors, friends, all with the a focus on physical gratification, without addressing the pain and consequences of such behavior. A relationship between a husband and wife is filmed for all to see in living color and on a 20 ft screen. This relationship is sacred in the eyes of God. It is the means of bringing his spirit children to the earth. It is the beautiful gift given to bind a husband to his wife emotionally and spiritually as well as physically. We are now continually pressured by the world to believe less and less in God's defintion of a family as a husband and a wife, accept relationships which are contrary to the Laws of God.

Values such as honesty were at one time valued and man's word was sacred and trusted. Today our politicians lie to gain power, students cheat on exams, and newspapers twist facts to endoctrinate us on their hidden agendas. Just to believe you should live God's commandments is laughable to much of the world and labeled out of step with progress. His commandments are no longer sacred in many people's minds.

God was once a sacred subject. Today His name is profaned daily. His existance is questioned. And yet God is what gives us our life, and any desires we may have to be good and loving people. He is the giver of love. The world is turning away from him and so love, true love, is vanishing before our eyes. And Isaiah's prophecy that in the last days the "love of man would wax cold" is becoming a reality.

In the lives of faithful Latter-Day-Saints the temple is the apex of sacredness. It is literally the House of the Lord to us. We enter to make serious covenants with Jesus Christ to live his commandments. It is a House of prayer for us. In the temple we can take time to pour out our heart in silent prayer to our Heavenly Father. It is a place where we are baptised for our ancestors that they too may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a House of Learning where we are taught more about the purpose of life. It is a place where we are given an opportunity to be sealed or to our spouse and our children forever, meaning our marriage will last through eternity.

Not everyone may enter the temple. In order to be worthy to enter you must obey God's commandments. Without purity of people Christ's spirit cannot dwell in the temple. I share this video with you to help you understand my love for the temple and why we treat it as sacred. Unfortunately "the world" has decided to attempt to remove the sacredness of the temple. Fortunately there are a people, sons and daughters of God, who will forever have reverence for things sacred.

Our Weekend Adventure - Part 1

Friday, March 6th, was a holiday in Ghana - Independence Day. The offices were closed and so a group of senior missionaries decided to take a two day vacation and see some sites in Ghana.

Our first stop was the Baboon reserve in Shai territory. We paid a guide 30 cedis to take all ten of us on a 1 hour tour of the reserve. We saw baboons, and antelope and then we hiked to a cave where the Shai hid their women and children in the 1800's while they had sacrificial ceremony's. We asked if they sacrifice people. "Well not our own!" was the answer. The British came in in 1892 and shut the practice down because the Shai were not paying their taxes.

The Baboons were at the entrance - they have about 4 tribes of baboons in the reserve. They had taken over the tracktors that were out of commission because no one had the tires and parts to repair them. The baboons loved them - they climbed in and out and through every part of them. They also liked swinging in the limbs of the trees.
We drove with the guide in our car through the reserve where we saw many antelope. They seemed quite at home on the Savannah.
Good thing they were protected because the Ghanains would most likely kill them for food if they could! Past the Savanagh we came to the tall trees.

These trees grouped in threes were where the Shai would do their sacrifices. They hid their women and children in the cave which we climbed up into. If anyone attempted to come after them, they threw rocks down on them. The cave protected their families quite well.