Lucky Bugs

St. Patrick’s Day!  The Chicago river is green.  I get to remember my Irish heritage and the traditions of Chicago where my parents come from.  This letter is all about being lucky.  I am a “lucky bug” to be here in Africa, to be with my best companion Sister Bertha, and to be with the Jacobsens and the other missionaries here.  It could not be better in any way.  It has to be hard to be worthwhile in many ways.  You are faced with a challenge and you do your best to learn from it and to help with it.  So much to do in Africa, and so many blessings and miracles every day!  So grateful to be here and grateful to those who came before us to prepare the way…

Lucky Family: When Sister Bertha married me, I had one brother, one mom, and one grandparent living at the time.  Kind of easy to add them into the seating chart at the wedding.  I now have my own kids and grandkids and also I have my cousins and aunts and uncle and my growing extended family.  Maxwell is added in this weekend with Anne!  I love all my family members and extended family too.  There is the luck of knowing our pioneer heritage (grafted into the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints) and the luck of being able to create your own pioneer heritage with every challenge you tackle - win or lose.  Things may not work out the way you plan, but the movement and the diligent effort toward a goal make you a pioneer in your own life.  This mission has given us a chance to pull a handcart in a way…grateful for the path of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to give us some pointers to direct us in the correct way.  Grateful to have the family I have to travel this journey through life…

Baton Rouge.  POV: If you think of a person, count it as a prompting and just act on it.  I reached out to my friend, Joe Griggs, in Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission.  He is also having a Terrific time on his mission!  He is even extending his time there.  Years ago, Sandy and I visited our friends, the Davis', when they were living there; you need a visa to go to that part of the USA it is so different.  Elder Griggs “and the wife” are managing 88 cars the way I manage bikes.  My mission bikes break because they are old.  His cars are all Toyota and are used for 12-18 months and traded out.  I would love to do that with bikes, but I think it’s better that we use the franken-bikes and keep rebuilding them.  I think the bikes last about 6-9 months before they wear out and need to be refreshed.  It was fun to talk to another person who loves his mission the way we do.  There are people all over doing good things.  Wardle’s in Berlin, Parsons in Poland, Browns in France. So much to do. If you want to help, there is an opportunity for you just waiting.  It’s a good way to say thank you to God for a good life and for being Lucky… 

Balance out:  I have to throw some money in the mission kitty (the petty cash account) once in a while to make it balance and I don’t know why, but I really do…it can be chaotic, and I round things up and down to make it go faster with the missionaries.  But I am sure it is the fact that I have 3 cash balances that move around a lot and also two phones we use for payments that never balance right with a corrupt and stupid (Just my expert opinion) Electricity Company of Ghana (I made a check that was written “Electric" Company instead of the proper Electricity Company. They kicked the check back to rewrite it!!.)  The other odd thing is that they ONLY take mobile money in some areas with a special card that you hold up to the phone.  Give that to a missionary and they might lose it or take it when they get transferred.  I am getting better at reconciling daily and double-checking, but when the Ox is in the mire…I just pay it…Lucky that it is not much and the work is getting done…

WWJD?  (What would Jesus do?) We had Mission Leadership Counsel (MLC) this week.  Each zone leader and STL has a zone pouch with cash to pay for emergency or unplanned travel and events as needed in their zones.  At this MLC meeting, I reconcile them all.  I take all the pouches, count the cash, add up the accounting on the small slip of paper I include, and then hopefully it balances.  Elder Wharakura said, “It might not balance.”  It did not, and at lunch I said, “Hey, I need to talk to you about the balance. It did not match up.  (1-5% I don’t care and I just make it good because the coins are a hassle and get lost.)  This was 13% and out of that range.  He said, “Whatever it is, I will pay it…”   I thought about it as I went back to the office.  He said what I would say after doing this for a while and knowing the gaps in the balances…then I looked at his situation. He just got a new companion. The other Zone Leader, also responsible for the cash, just went home and that Zone had to deal with another bike accident with emergency travel and the ensuing chaos.  There was a lot that he could have blamed it on…but he did not.  He was a leader and said, “I will take care of it.”  He is doing the best he can for his zone and the missionaries he is serving.  I thought that it was such a Christ-like attitude.  I just filled up his pouch with the right amount of money and let him start over.  That same things happens every Sunday when we take the sacrament.  We give our pouch of cash (good things) and rocks (sins and mistakes) and we give it all to Jesus Christ.  He (Jesus) says, “I’ll take that, let me refill your pouch, and let’s get rid of these sins…thanks for remembering me and keeping your covenants, have a good week…please strive to keep my commandments and serve others with love….” He fills up our pouch with the right amount for us to make it through another week.  Don’t make the mistake and hold onto your rocks (sins)!  He has already paid all the prices for all the sins…he only requires a broken heart (open to Him) and a contrite spirit (Humble and changeable to His will).  Another good trade from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Lucky in the Saviors Love…

Springboard:  The Misson leaders bring the missionaries that are going to depart in 1 or 2 transfers and make sure they finish strong and also are better prepared for when they get home.  I was helping (watching Sandy do it) with brunch preparation and eavesdropping on the messages.  They have them set goals for their last transfer (month) and also start thinking about after a mission.  They need to look for a H.O.T. spouse…one that is Humble, Obedient, and Teachable.  They also stress that they need to look for covenant keepers.  I once told Megan if the guy can’t make it to church on Sunday, he has disqualified himself to date a Bertha.  If that is too hard, they are a bad bet on a good life.  The Jacobsen’s have a great story with Sister J dropping a returned missionary for the rancher.  Erik Jacobsen went to the temple a year after he was baptized, on his own, and is a strong “covenant keeper”—who was attractive and an important item for Sister Jacobsen.  The missionaries are lucky to get advice from these good and faithful mission leaders.

Accra Temple.  We ran into Betsy Thorton (PC, Utah) this week.  She is at the halfway point on her mission!  How can that be?  The time is going so fast; we both just talked about how good the people are.  We are learning more from them then they from us, but it still goes both ways.  The best part of today was sitting hand-in-hand with my wife in the temple.  I really like her and she is so good to me that I am happy being here and not rushing to get home…Lucky us.

The Pink Tent:  Mason likes to grab her mom’s phone and talk to Honey and Pops. When her mom tries to get the phone away, she runs away and we see her bouncing face on the screen.  She goes into her pink tent and has us all to herself.  Sister Bertha has a pink tent that is our room where when she gets her work done, she hides and spends time in the scriptures (Thanks Ivory Family).  We should all be so fortunate as to have a pink tent to escape to and talk to who we want to talk to…hopefully, you make a little time for your Heavenly Father…he wants to hear from you and he does hear and answer prayers (in his way and in his time).  It’s good to have a place to read and reflect, pray and ponder.

Backgammon.  Sandy and I play a lot of backgammon here.  I could not get Disney+ to work so we just played game after game.  She pointed out that we would not do this at home in a big house as we have other distractions and places to go in the house. Here, we have an office below and our one room above.  It’s nice to spend so much time with my companion.  Sandy Time is Good Time.  She is nice to me.  Lucky Me.

Wrong time, Long time?  We showed up at Kotoba Airport Thursday to pick up a returning missionary from Nigeria.  The flight said “delayed” and there was no other information.  I just drive, but Sister Bertha always has documentation (fake ticket) to get in the departure area.  She went up to ask about Africa World Airlines flight 211.  Apparently, they haven’t flown that flight for over a year.  You would think they might take it off the arrivals screen.  You can go there every day at 9:10 am and that same flight will be “delayed”…for over a year.  Whacky!   When I went to get the returning missionary at 1:30 pm, the AWA 211 flight was still on the screen as delayed?!

Right time: Because that pick-up was later than planned, the President had to drive to Oda earlier, so we were sent to pick up the missionary and her family and take them to the TroTro station and give them some snacks and bus fare for the ride we had planned on giving them with the President.  The mother had a 2-year-old with her wrapped on her back in the matching material of her dress.  Beautiful colors.  The sister missionary served in Nigeria and a friend from the same mission came to meet her.  I drove them to Kaneshie market to let them catch the TroTro.  They have never been there, but like all missionaries, they just figure it out.  They will meet the president at night in Oda where she will be released.  President Jacobsen is the District President (a smaller version of a stake) and releases missionaries and also interviews perspective missionaries.  Gabriel, the brother, is turning 19 in July and he had to wait for his sister to come home before he could go on his mission.  The family has to work it out together.  Great faith. 

Token:  Remember the black kid in South Park?  Or if you get on a flight with Delta and you see the posters on the wall, you can check the box for every gender, ethnicity, and marital status.  Very DEI.  As I was looking on Africa World Airlines for information on our “Ghost Flight”, it was clear there was no DEI or token Abrone.  There was not one white person on any web page…there are plenty Abrone in Africa, so why haven’t they decided to put us in advertising?  I recall Gaijins (foreigners) going to Japan for modeling work.  Being a white model in Africa is akin to being an orthodontist in England…just not used or needed.

“What happens in the fishbowl stays in the fishbowl…”

-Elder Roldan

“SYL” - Speak Your Language was what we would say in the MTC when we were learning a language.  It forced us to struggle with what little language we had and to use it with our companion and other missionaries going to Japan.  It was practice (yes it is important Alan Iverson!).  We have two South Americans (Chile & Argentina) and I have to remind them to SYL once in a while.  This is an English mission (in a Ghanaian way) and they need to practice.  They work in what is called the fishbowl because there is a sliding glass door between our office and their office (it was once an outdoor sitting area). I sometimes get to hang out with them and share stories.  They like it and I realize that I really have had a great life and so far a great mission.  My focus is to make sure they are strong men when they return.  Elder Roldan has a friend from Argentina on a mission who wrote about anxiety.  They just don’t have it as much here in Ghana.  “By His grace…” is the answer for most everything.  If they have a meal for today, life is good.  If they already have a meal or money for tomorrow, life is grand!  We can learn from that faith.  SYL can also mean Share Your Love…

Familiesmentoringfamilies.com:  An interesting woman came into our office this week.  She was raised in Provo Utah; married a guy from the same street in Provo; had 10 children together; made a major move from Provo to Orem Utah.  Then, when she had half of the kids at home, decided to move to Kumasi Ghana.  (She had a son who served a mission in Ghana).  They did not know what to do for 18 months, then they started doing literary centers in Ghana and now have 300 around a few counties in Africa.  They do a good thing, but what a story of faith and action.  Crazy!  She is doing good things in Africa with a God-will-provide attitude. Burn your Boat Faith Part 2!

New Elders in New Places:  After a transfer, I have to figure out where people are and I got some invitation to go and teach with elders I have been out with before.  He invited me and then on Saturday I got to go out with them - President with one companionship and I took another.  We walked the hills of New Gbawe (near the Wrong Roads miracle) taught three lessons and gave away two Book of Mormons…SO good to see these good kids.  Aside from the fact I drank 4 bottles of water in the 3 hours while I was out with them in the hot sun and sweated it all out, it was another great day of teaching.  Sitting in the shade on chairs and benches they pulled out, we just taught the basics.  It is so good, that I don’t care how much I am sweating.   Sister Bertha and Sister J. also jumped at the chance to go out teaching with the sisters because that’s where we get to see miracles and see the gospel change lives.  They also taught three lessons to the open-hearted Ghanaians in New Weija.  Lucky to teach. 

Teach small:  The way we teach the gospel now is different than when we were in Japan 40 years ago.  With the world of people like me who grew up on MTV and SportsCenter highlights, we have killed attention spans.  It is worse with my kids' generation with Twitter’s 140 characters, Reels, Instagram, TikTok, and the like.  We teach the principles of the gospel in bite-size principles and leave it to the person to decide if they want to chew a little more.  Our missionaries teach 8 to 10 lessons a day in 15-40 minutes.  Then if the person investigating isn’t progressing, they pause for a while.  It’s interesting that they drop 10 people a week to make room for 10 new people to teach.

“Can we learn small with you today?”

-Ghana English from an Idaho Missionary

“If you haven’t been pulled over in Ghana, you really haven’t lived in Ghana”

-SJ after hearing the Kaaens were pulled over twice in one day

“It does not take baptisms to make a difference”

-The Browns doing their thing in France!

“Do you have the Mormon Bible?”  We were walking to our next appointment and we started to talk to a man walking in the same direction.  He didn’t want to talk to us at first and said “I am a sinner…” We responded, “Great, so are we…” I don’t think he expected that and we talked a little about it.  He was standoffish but softened a little.  Then he asked if we had the Mormon Bible.  I pulled out the limited edition Sandy and Al copy I carry with me and wrote my number and name in it.  He said he would read it and the missionaries got his number.

Parenting Advice:  Elder Tanner asked me what to do as a parent.  I am not an expert, but I married one and she is good.  But it still comes down to love and teaching them all you can and they should be able to make good choices.  The older they get, the more agency you release to them, but when they are young, you need to parent (verb not noun).  It’s an action thing that you do to share the gospel in your own home…

“And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.  But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.”

-Mosiah 4:14-15 (Book of Mormon)

Lucky Events:  I missed a great wedding this weekend with Maxwell and Anne.  I wish them the best, but I was selfishly happy to see all my kids together supporting their cousin and the family.  These are important events that bring people together.  If you are invited, you should try and attend…they are not likely to be repeated.  Glad my family shows up.  Lucky Dad and Mom sitting in Ghana with smiles!

Bat walk. I like doing the bat walk loop.  I have never walked it at 6 pm on a Saturday while the sun is going down.  All the market people are loading up their cars after a long day of selling (Yes I supported the cause today).  There are outside furniture makers (woven ratan-like) and wood carvers that just cover their stuff with plastic. Some workers just keep going. They might have been sleeping in the heat of the day and want to make more stuff to sell.  So many people walking.  Only white people like me walk for exercise and do a loop and think it is a good idea. Everyone I see is coming from someplace and going to someplace. There is no evening exercise…that is just life.  The first tree I took Mo to on the bat walk was completely empty. There were a lot of bats in the air, but it was weird that these two very large trees did not have any bats hanging around.  The other trees on Liberation Street were loaded with bats and they were all flying in and out of the trees.  They move at this time of night….

“May I have a ‘proximity blessing’?”

“What is that?”

“I am his companion, I am close to him, I would like one too…”

-Elder Abule when I gave him a Dr. Pepper to take back to his new companion he is training…I gave him a Mt. Dew.

“… get on with it, If you want to change the world, shut your mouth, start this minute”

-Cracker (Translation: Talk is cheap)

“We want to come back exhausted; not going on a mission for holiday.”

-A Maverick in France

St. Patrick:  Saint Patrick to me is Patrick Botchway who is the other BikeMaster for the mission and the mission driver and supplies person.  He really does everything and serves in his church as a Bishop so he has a lot of people to take care of.  The Mission President had two long road trips - Thursday and Friday. It rained hard Thursday and was a muddy mess for Friday.  He was out early Saturday washing the car so it would be clean for the President when we went out to teach on Saturday.  He looks out for others.  My challenge to family and friends is to go do something unexpected for someone this week.  Be kind and minister with your actions rather than your words.  Good luck…

“You are a lucky bug!”

-Mushu in Mulan

Elder Bertha

Wearing a green tie

Happy St Patrick’s Day