Showers of Blessing

There is a popular license plate holder that says “showers of blessings.”  The Ghanaian people are happy and see the blessing that come their way.  They are poor in the worlds eyes, but rich in their family, friendships, and faith.  They are blessed and see their blessings every day.  We can learn from them.  They have soft heart and welcome the teachings we share.  April showers are not supposed to be a thing in Ghana, but we have had a bit of rain this month.  My flowers, they are here already.  They rotate what blooms and when.  It was a great week, and we feel blessed to be here in the showers…

Road Trip: Last Monday, after the weekly staff meeting, we, President and his wife, Al and Sandy, went to Oda—it’s one of the farthest places, and it’s a rough ride to get there.  It is a long drive, 3+ hours, and we stayed in the “couples house” that has been vacant most of the President’s mission.  It is a place for a senior couple to work in the Oda area as an MLS.  No one has volunteered to do it.  You need to be country-strong, Judd-in-case (the current Senior Couple) if you are considering something like this… Even though Sister J. raised her kids on a ranch in Florida, I don’t think an old house sitting 4 years vacant out in the middle of nowhere down a dirt road with the owner living in his home 2 feet away is her cup of tea. She has been avoiding this trip…

Cleaning masters:  We think Ebenezer had someone clean the place before we got there, because there was not the normal layer of dust.  The wind enters the house, and the dirt is in its natural habitat.  They failed to open the drawers, and there might have been massive droppings from a rodent tribe.  “That is highly toxic,”…so we were not allowed to use the silverware.

Twinning:  While Erik and Renee had the “presidential suite,” Sandy and Al were perfectly happy in the secondary bedroom/kids' room… we both had our own twin bed, which was VERY firm. 

Eat what you bring:  The last time Erik and I were here, we took the Elders to the “Xecutive Lounge” for dinner, and it was not bad.  We “chopped” rice and chicken.  A roadside place for food is called a “Chop Bar.”  You eat fufu with your fingers (right hand only, please) and you chop it with your fingers like you were pretending your hand to be scissors…that is “chopping” or eating your food.  Sister J and Sister B made sure that we had enough food in our coolers so that we were not even tempted by a chop bar or any local fare.  No “A” rated establishments…no ratings at all. 

“This is one step above a tent...” “It’s like girls cam.p”

-Someone’s wife, but not mine, said this…

“We should have been coming up here every quarter…”

-My companion

-Sister Bertha loved it…”It’s like an adventure.”

Love Shack:  Ha!  Just getting Sister J. here was a trick.  She finally got to a place where she could not back out.  It was fun to just watch her expressions as she walked through the place.  In the end, I don’t think it was as bad as she had built it up in her mind.  We all love to play games, and the best part was that it was a quiet place to enjoy an evening of games and laughter with friends.  Loved that!

Quiet in the Country?  This is the thought…until 5 am, and then it is like Ace Venture’s apartment, or Mr. Macgregor’s house in Peter Rabbit when the animals take over.  The house party starts with the roosters, and they are in a Pitch Perfect riff-off with each group of roosters at different locations in the valley, so we were surrounded.  “Angry roosters” -Sister J.  All the other animals started waking up and making more morning noises.  It goes from 5 am to 7 am, and then it kind of stops when the sun is up a bit.  In Accra, we have sirens and horns, here we have roosters and birds.  Just a different noise, it is NOT really quiet (well, at least not in the mornings!!)

“Clean the drawers and kill the rooster.”

-Request to housing coordinator after Oda trip

Interviews and Exchanges: …the reason we came up was to stay in the house for overnight.  The President and his wife interview every missionary every 6 weeks.  That is how they know how things are going.  Sandy and I would keep the time and knock on the doors.  After half of them were done, we stopped to attend the weekly District meetings…

District Meetings:  Our mission has 164 missionaries, broken into 8 zones.  Each zone has 2 to 4 districts that have a District Leader.  Oda is one of the smallest zones and has 3 districts.  The President and his wife went to one, and Sister Bertha and I went to the other in the Oda building.  The District Leaders are like “Mini-Me’s” of President Jacobsen.  They know how to organize and run a good meeting and stay on point.  There is so much good training that goes on here with this mission, President…I am learning good stuff! 

“Stay Stay Stay”

-Taylor Swift

Mission Miricle:  One of the elders had “Mission Miricle” on his outline.  He then explained that he was going to be able to “have his companion for a long time.”  He really wanted his companion to stay.  The companion had some outside influences that were distracting him, and he was seriously considering going home.  He had told the president that he would wait for this round of interviews and make a decision.  We were so happy that at the last minute, with the love of a good companion, and talks with his family, he decided to stay.  The first two transfers are the hardest as you learn to adjust to a new country and environment.  He made it through…

“Idaho boys don’t come home from a mission early…”

Two Companions discussing Idaho-grit

“Heat advisory”:  I laughed at an online advisory in Ghana for a heat advisory…extreme heat?  Are you kidding me? Just walk outside most days, and it is extreme heat.  It is hot and humid pretty much all the time at the equator.  So thinking nothing of it, I went on exchanges in the afternoon with my Idaho Companionship.  They were happy with my offering of Dr. Pepper.  We went out and taught Mavis and Gifty first. Gifty is the mom (think BIG Momma!). She is a big woman, with a big voice, a big smile, and a big happy disposition.  I wish I could speak her language.  Elder McLean was pretty good at speaking Twi and had her laughing.   Gifty got up (not an easy task) to wake up Mavis, her daughter, whom we came to teach.   Had a good lesson with her and then went on to meet with Mary… we woke her up also.  She has a hair salon.  She just puts down a sheet on the floor and sleeps right there until we come there and yell “Ikko”.  She was nice to get up and speak with us.  We then circled back on a dirt trail, talking to people along the way.  I got back to the church as the President and his wife were wrapping up.  Erik looked at me, and I was drenched in sweat.  He said, “I’ll drive to Asamankese, you can drive from there…you can rest.”  He thought I looked tired.  I had no idea how tired until I got in the car and crashed for the next hour.  I woke up at some point from a pot hole bounce and noticed that it was raining…Then I kept on sleeping.  I was out hard for over an hour….so yes, a heat advisory in Ghana is a thing.  I was physically spent from that heat more than I had been before and didn’t know it, but Erik saw it.

Abomosu next…or not:  Had a cool three-exchange day set up, but got cancelled, because so much is going on here at the office.  We have a missionary in the hospital; we had a hurt missionary who went home for recuperation, came back, and we have another headed home early.  President has to juggle companionships.  Sometimes, you can’t get away.  Have to be flexible.

Leaks: I got up at 5:30 am and started reading.  I could hear the heavy rain outside, and then there was a drip on my leg.  Rain inside?  It was dark, so I used my flashlight to find the leak, and it was getting worse as there was bubbling of water behind the paint and more drips.  No way I was going to solve it in the morning rain, so I just put towels down and listened to the drops.  The bummer is that we may have to move out of our room for the room to get fixed. 

Grey Pants Day: For some reason, Sister J. does not like Grey Pants.  Erik only has so many pants, and so do I, and there is a grey color in the rotation.  I think it was Wednesday when she made a big deal bout “grey pants day,” so I wore grey pants the rest of the week…outfit repeater.  You never really notice that on a mission.  Grey pants are like a purple “Tap In” card…it just bugs someone.

“…it’s just a great day for grey pants…”

-It’s now time to donate them to another missionary

Roommates:  Renee and Sandy!  These girls (not women) are like college roommates and besties who find such joy being with each other.  When Renee was gone for only a few days, Sister Bertha was telling me how much she missed her, and when she came through the doo,r there were hugs and smiles.  They, the Mission Leaders, are out of their house while it gets repaired and painted.  They have been staying with us at our house…office.  We don’t have the comfy chairs, but it is sooo fun sharing the house with them.  The women talk to each other and laugh all the time, and ignore any conversation coming from our direction, BUT they are really good about feeding us, so that it's nice and makes up for our relative lack of importance. (not true-we LOVE our husbands-SB) It is super unique to have your best friends on a mission like this.  Showers of Blessings!

“I love anything with Renee…”

-Sister Bertha

Balancing the Books: Sometimes the Ox is in the Mire and I need to get cash so I do a check just on the coded expenses and leave the mobile money for next time, and then the next time….  Well, eventually, I need to make it all balance and square up.  Going back 8 weeks and rechecking everything I did took a long time.  I hate finding self-inflicted mistakes like a double entry or an added “0” that throw it all off.  I prepared everything and then invited my “boss,” or the accountant at the Area Office, to help me clean it up so it would be in good shape for the next Financial Secretary in a couple of months.  It took a few hours, but we got it fixed, and I was not too far off, but I’d rather catch it all now before an audit (might happen at the end of a mission presidency). He had never been to 80/20 burgers, so I took “my boss” and bought two extra for his twin babies (mostly for his wife).

“The accounting is simple if it adds up.”

-Francis Sosu

MOMO-Mobile Money:  We can only pay for our electricity with mobile money. I can wait in a long line at MTM and sit for an hour and a half (Like I did at the Bank Monday), or I can go to a Ga (a guy from the Ga tribe and a friend of Patrick’s that we trust). I drive to La and find this guy on the side of the road in a yellow metal box the size of an outhouse, and I give him a brown paper bag with 11,000 Ghc, and he puts it on a little Nokia phone.  I confirmed it with the Housing Coordinator, and we are good to go.  But it feels like I am a gangster in NY paying protection money.  But that’s part of the adventure, and it is working.

Missionary rotations: A lot of movement in the mission.  One came back from recuperating at home, one is getting out of the hospital, and another is headed home for a reason.  This causes the president to shuffle things, which usually brings missionaries to the office, and Sister B is ready to feed our guests at any time.  Sicknesses are also causing movements. No matter how inconvenient it is sometimes, we are there to uplift and help as they come in and out. We love these missionaries.

The Choice is yours….In Newport Beach, they just ask “motor or sail?”  In New Zealand and Australia, the question is “Union or League?”  In the USA, “American League or National League.”  When you teach the Gospel, we could ask, “God or Satan?”  …we have to choose, don’t we?  Turn away from God, you do “evil” - add a “D” and it's “Devil.”  When we repent, we change direction and turn toward God.  If you are humble and obedient, you turn to God …add an “O” its “Good”   soooo….D is for dumb, O is for obedient….your choice in life…

Spa Morning:  Nice ride on my stationary bike, great rolling hills.  A workout in the room with some “spa” music.  I grabbed a filtered water in my glass Voss bottle (reusable!).  A leisurely stroll under healthy vegetation and palm trees in the healthy, humid air to the exclusive, members-only pool, which at 7 am, is always set aside just for me for a private swim and water aerobics.  La Costa Glenn can be so crowded;  so much more exclusive in Ghana at the Coco Palms Residences pool.  After the morning water workouts, I relax and notice pink, red, and yellow flowering trees, and I appreciate the arborist who gave me such beauty to admire and enjoy at this private Accra Spa for missionaries.  I saunter over to my exclusive outside Caribbean Blue-tiled shower with Ghana Natural Water (don’t open your mouth) for a refreshing outside shower under the palm trees with a light breeze - Solar heated to the perfect temperature (no choice).  A warm-down return to our exclusive villa, only two doors down from the Presidential Villa that is home to our friends and mission leaders, El Presidente K. Erik Jacobsen and “his wife.”  What a great spa morning!

Sister Exchange:  …one of the best days gets better…As I came home from my spa morning, I shaved with exclusive green bar soap and put on my favorite grey pants (they’ve been good all week!) my white shirt (barely) and tie and I was ready to go out with Sister Bertha and Sister Jacobsen for an exchange to teach with Sisters Kendrick (USA) and Masango (Zimbabwe). We were a bit late because of the traffic, but we met them teaching Prince outside behind the green bar under a HUGE tree.  He was taught before and had a very good question…”how do I know when I feel the Holy Ghost?”  we explained that it can be a feeling or a “still small voice” or a peace that we feel when we pray to God in faith and believe that he will answer our prayer (James 1:5).  Just ask and then… wait, listen with your heart, what do you feel…peace can be God’s answer to you that what you are praying for is right, or true.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

-James 1:5

Walk on:  We then met Steward at the Methodist school, and we walked to his house.  It was like a maze to get there.  We walked through everyone’s front, back, and side yards, all on bumpy, potholed dirt paths. Saturday is always a big laundry day.  Kids are out of school, playing with the other kids.  You see a lot of fish being smoked since we were not far from the ocean.  Metal grates and screens were stacked all over, waiting for another big catch of fish. When we went to his house, he brought chairs outside to start our lesson.  Then the wind started blowing leaves off the tops of roofs and swirling, and then it started to rain.  We went inside Steward’s home porch…10X8 with a barred, broken screen window with a sheet over it.  The rain was light to start with, and we taught him about the Book of Mormon.  He had been taught months before by Elder Erickson and then lost contact after the Elders left the area.  He had lost his Book of Mormon and really wanted another one.  He had read quite a bit in the book and had missed it.  He said it made him so happy.  A few months later, the Sister missionaries reconnected with him.  He was so happy to get another Book of Mormon.  There was so much joy and excitement that came from this young 22-year-old in that small room.  He kept saying he wanted to get baptized.  While the teaching was happening, the wind started to blow the rain through the soot-filled screen, blowing little dirt/soot spots all over my white shirt and Sister Masango’s white shirt.  We moved around a bit in the small space and kept talking.  We all ended up standing up against the wall, and the conversation continued.  He gave a beautiful, simple prayer at the end.  He couldn’t stop smiling the whole time we were with him.  He loved having us there.  As we waited for the rain to stop, we sang 4 songs.  Started with I am a Child of God, followed by A Child's Prayer, then Search Ponder and Pray and then I love to see the temple.  The now-wet small porch had turned into a holy, reverent spot through song. He came to church the next day.  He will be baptized soon. He saw the change in his life from when the missionaries first started to teach him.  He missed the interaction and the learning he was receiving.  Now they were back teaching, and he knew that THAT feeling, that joy, is what he wanted forever! What a Golden Seeker of truth!

Next Parking Spot:  The sisters set up the appointments so we could keep teaching.  We drove down the road and parked near the store that the Bishop of the Bortianor Ward owned. I parked on the road like a full Ghanian.  People could get around the truck, but you can’t park on the side when there are big concrete drainage ditches that don’t drain.  We then walked through the next maze to meet Rebecca.  She is a red-headed Ghanaian?  Her two cute kids were hanging around with us.  She was very receptive and had a great connection with our two sister missionaries.  Great to just watch.

Young kid: The next one we taught was Alex.  Again, it started outside, and then the rain pushed on to a thin porch, and it looked like we were loaded in a van, teaching him.   He has family who are already members and was totally understanding of what was being taught.  When we left, the rain was forming a river down the dirt road as we went back to our vehicle.  It was a great day, in and out of the rain and in the lives of 4 people all wanting to know more…they get to choose…

Dirty Driving:  The showers and rain reveal that whoever controls the drainage plain in Ghana has no clue about gravity and the fall of water and where it slopes to…crazy how unprepared they are for the rain.  When they drive, they seem to avoid the mud puddles and the mud, and stay in the normal well-traveled trails, but the mud puddles are shallow, and I have a 4WD truck, so I like to use the puddles and muddy places for passing lanes.  You can always make a new lane here…that might not work in the USA, where they use lines in the road.

“Nobody puts Baby in a mud puddle.”

-Patrick Splashy

Friends in Winneba: Sunday was Stake Conference in Winneba.  More mud driving to get there, but nothing like the Thomas’s in Liberia (we have it easy). President Sam and his wife, with their beautiful kids, were there.  Bismark (age 16) was there from Nkwantanan (Branch in a barn) Area was there with Francis, the Branch President.  It is fun to see people from different areas and to reconnect with the missionaries.  Gatherings like this are one of the things I love about this church.  You learn and you feel the friendship of others.  Faith in Jesus Christ brings a good bunch of people together, and they just want to do what is right…

Speakers:  …a 13-year-old got up and preached!  He was an old soul with deep faith. He shared his passion about many principles of the gospel to a group of 500+. Literally everyone was captivated! Amazing young man.  Then there was a young man called to Cameroon on his mission.  “I live in a house where we go on missions.”  Cameroon will be in French, there are only 3500 members, no stake, and no temple.  The church is getting established there, and there is so much room for growth. 

OG Dinner.  We all went to dinner at the Judd’s home.  They are an MLS couple, and they are “camping.”  Nice house with 13 different tiles and a room with BOTH Spiderman and Ariel wallpaper on the same wall.  It’s a Ghanaian mystery House with steps up and down and quirks!  Great meal and entertainment with Elder Kaaen breaking a plastic chair during dinner.  I love these people for their fun and friendly personalities and their willingness to come do this work. We feel a close bond with these people, the same way Jr. Missionaries bond with each other.

A wild drive back, talk with some family on Sunday eve, and a good night's sleep….so starts the next week.  Looking forward to more good.  Have to enjoy each day….My morning spa awaits.

Elder & Sister Bertha

Accra Ghana

April 2025