A Spiritual Feast; Tema Stake Conference

The first week we were here we were invited to attend a stake conference in Tema. It was our first time to drive anywhere far. We left very early and ended up driving to the MTC instead of the Stake Center. Luckily there was a Nigerian MTC instructor there who was going to the conference and got into the car to be our guide. He must have been new too because we all wandered around for a while on some paved and some dirt roads and then we found the conference. We were only 15 min. late. Bob sat on the stand with the Stake President Isaac Morrison. (see picture) It was a great conference. Every single speaker was interesting and spoke with such strength and the spirit. Elder Okungbowa was first. He talked about how members and missionaries all need to work together. Remember their face, learn their name and share your heart with them. Members can pray mighty prayers for investigators. They can invite missionaries to teach in their homes and bear testimony. Even the new convert who spoke was creative. She talked about having a new baby and going to the hospital when friends came celebrated with her, visited the baby in the hospital and brought gifts. It was so great. But when she went home, she forgot to take the baby. She left the baby in the hospital. People wondered why she left her baby. She compared that to leaving a new member all alone and not calling any more or visiting them after they are baptized. She then gave some examples of what we could do to help new members such as invite them to you homes for FHE and dinner, sit by them and be their friend. We can also help them sing because not everyone knows how the hymns are sung. We can help them to read the scriptures because they may not understand them; they are not written in every day English you know. Pray for them and let them meet your children. This conference was a Spiritual Feast. We got to bear our testimonies on African soil.

We love Africa. It is the new frontier of the Church.

We went to the temple to do sealings. The session was about an hour long. Deanne and I were first up as proxies for a husband and wife who I had found. Then we did a family with a daughter. The proxy for the daughter was Sister Mensah, from Nigeria. The officiator was Elder Edward Dube, one of the members of the area presidency from Zimbabwe and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. What an amazing experience caucasian parent proxies with a black daughter proxy sealed by a black general authority. This family was from Kentucky in the 1700 and 1800s. Imagine how different life and the gospel are today from what they were in Joseph’s time. I attended Hawthorne Elementary, Lincoln Junior High and South High school in Salt Lake where we had probably the most ethnically diverse student bodies in the state but we could not have foreseen the changes and the blessings in the lives of all of us which comes from the blessings of the gospel in the lives of our brothers and sisters here in Africa. In conference President Uchtdorf said “don’t miss the miracle.” The miracle is here. The Africa West Area created one third of all of the new units in the church last year. It is on track to do more than that this year. We celebrate the restoration of the gospel in New York, Ohio, and Illinois. The restoration is occurring in the lives of tens of thousands of African saints each year. Don’t miss the miracle. Don’t miss the restoration; it is here.

Learning the Ropes

The Africa West Area created one third of all of the new units in the Church during 2013. It is on pace to pass its number of new members again this year. Someone has to do all the paperwork associated with getting those wards, branches, districts and stakes organized. That someone is the office of the area executive secretary. One of Bob's duties is to take the recommendations that come in to form new units and to make certain that the information submitted matches that which the Church has from its prior reports so that there are enough active members to make the unit viable. Part of Deanne's job is to create the maps for all of the new units for the Church headquarters in Salt Lake so everyone knows where all the units actually are. Every time we get to the point where it looks like the units we were working on are completed another two more e-mails show up and we start over. In the Air Force we used to say that we couldn't take off until the weight of the flight planning paper exceeded the weight of the air plane. Here the weight of the paper has to exceed the weight of the new bishop. These are very interesting callings and very much behind the lines where no one sees all those who make the nuts and bolts of the Church run.

Arriving in Accra.

Four hours from SLC to JFK and 10 hours from JKF to ACC in a completely packed airplane makes a full day. I always tell myself I have the formula for beating jet lag but I never do. The result was waking up somewhere between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. and then getting up to be in the office at 8:00 while trying to remember what it is that has been said. Jane Curtis had it right, about one day of jet lag for each hour of time change. I noticed a contest advertised here for five days and four nights in Singapore. I was right in the middle of jet lag and said to myself that would be four nights of jet lag in Singapore followed by four more back in Ghana when the trip was over. Some award. We had heard from a number of people how nasty hot the weather is here. Actually, having been to Italy in August several times prepared us for the heat just as living in New Hampshire during the summer prepared us for the humidity. It really is hot and it is humid but that is part of the package of living in this fascinating and adventuresome place, just like living with snow and freezing temperatures is part of the package that is Utah.

The luggage fiasco.

Being concerned about how much we could take on the 18 month journey after we learned we would be flying Delta I went on line to see what the weight limits were. The website said 72 pounds for two bags each. We used our luggage scale and got them all to 70 pounds. Since the luggage was being checked from Salt Lake through to Accra we decided to arrive early, check the luggage and then have lunch with our sons. At the ticket counter we were told that the 70 pound limit was for intra national flights and that overseas flights were limited to 50 pounds. That meant we were 120 pounds or $480 dollars over weight. The folks at the counter did tell us that for some reason we were each allowed three bags. We ran to the little shop across the concourse and bought two gym bags at three times their actual value and reloaded. After 20 minutes of reloading we were “close enough” and all of our stuff was checked through to Accra though not in the same bags as it had been carefully sorted. We then went to “guys lunch” at Tacos Daniel in Rose Park. If you are looking for a good taco (or four tacos) and are in the neighborhood try it.

Going to Africa

This is the story of how we came to Ghana

First there was the miracle of Deanne's neck. After we received her call and were getting ready to leave Deanne had a sharp and ongoing pain in her neck. (No, it wasn't Bob.) It turned out to be a herniated disk at C5-C6. After several major miracles she ended up in the office of Dr. Chuck Rich, Utah's pre-eminent neurosurgeon who managed to fit her into his schedule a month before our departure date. She was supposed to take six weeks to heal but we managed to leave on time.

This is Deanne with her neck brace on the plane on the way to Africa. When we landed she took off her brace and never needed it again.

Missionary work in Africa followed the change in policy which allowed all worthy men to hold the priesthood and allowed all families to be married in the temple.

We served in Ghana which is virtually half way around the world.

The founding member of the Church in Ghana was Billy Johnson who organized congregations so that when the missionaries arrived all they needed to do was interview and baptize the congregants. 

This is the building in which the congregation in Cape Coast met anticipating the arrival of the missionaries.

This is the interior of the Cape Coast building. The replica of the Moroni statue is now in the Church History Museum in Salt Lake.

This is a picture of people waiting to get baptized soon after the missionaries arrived.

This graphic shows how truly large Africa is. Africa is the future of the Church.

Here we have arrived at the airport in Accra, Ghana

Before we left Deanne ran into a friendly face shopping for shoes. President Monson bought his shoes from the same store as Deanne.

On to Africa.

We are finished with the MTC. It was a great experience. During the week we were there we got to know the 18 other senior couples who where going many places from Berlin to Layton, from Aukland to Heber. Though our assignment is primarily administrative we now feel much more comfortable approaching those we meet about the Church.