HAPPY HO NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year!  With 85 degree weather and minimal Christmas and New Year celebrations it hardly seems like we have passed that milestone and entered 2014, but we will go with it. We continue to meet fascinating people such as Foster, Rodfaith and Gladys.(Foster's radio nick name is "Iron Rod" and yes he has read about the Tree of Life in 1st Nephi 8 and they are being taught by the missionaries) and Grace (with the baby) and Gifty. And we continue to  have wonderful experiences. We did try our best to simulate Christmas at home byhaving the missionaries for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.They opened their presents and then divided up the toys and candy that was sent from home and took it to the children in the area.

Elders Jones, Hancock, Johnson and Van Wagoner

Sister Cosgrave wrote a play for the youth of the Ho First Branch and they all performed like pros. 

Faith playing the role of Mary

 There young women in our daughter Cristen's ward in Sandy designed and sent journals along with their testimonies to the Ho first youth.  The youth were so excited and have replied with their own testimonies

Our days are always different and usually never turn out the way we plan. In fact, we often have to leave it to the Lord to give us direction. Many times we begin the day not knowing what we will do, and before we know it the day is full and we are on our way. At the beginning of each day we have to take care of our house and physical needs. If you are rich your house has some grass or cement surrounding your house or compound where you live. But for us and most others usually it is a lawn of dirt. So instead of mowing the grass, we sweep the dirt. It seems a little different, but it keeps the seeds from germinating and keeps the weeds down. We use a special broom that we buy at the market.They cost 1 cedi (about 50 cents). The ground is very hard so any excess dirt is taken and dumped in the brush. We usually try to do this early in the morning before it gets too hot. We do a lot of sweeping inside as well. It is the Harmattan season which means that the air is very dusty from sands blowing down from the Sahara that are stirred up by winds and carried to West Africa. I don’t know how much of other parts of Africa are affected by them, but we certainly are. The air looks like our inversion, but it is fine dust. The sun and moon are always red (if you can see them at all). They say it lasts until February. We get very little rain during this time. So back to the sweeping….because of the harmattan the floors are always dusty and need sweeping. I could probably sweep a couple of time a day, but I don’t.

We always eat breakfast. They are pretty normal breakfasts. The mission gave us a blender for Christmas, and we have enjoyed having pineapple/ mango smoothies for breakfast. We don’t have much ice so we freeze the pineapple to make it cold. It works pretty well. Lunch is a sometimes thing, and usually if we have lunch we don’t eat dinner or it is something light. We have a couple of places we can trust that serve rice and maybe beans. Sometimes I fix cabbage, tomato, and onion in a soup and we will have it for a couple of meals. I can add noodles or rice to it for variety. Our favorite place to eat dinner is at a roadside shop owned by a member. She fixes yummy bread and egg. There is a place that has pretty good pizza. So if we want to splurge we go there. We drink a lot of water. We fill bottles at home and keep them in the fridge and then take a couple of them with us when we leave for the day

We are constantly amazed at the way of life her in Ho. Much of their time is spent cooking. Their staple foods, banku and fufu, take a lot of time to fix. They are always doing something to prepare food whether it is drying corn, making oil out of palm nuts, or making some kind of stew. Most of the cooking is done outdoors on small stoves that are heated with charcoal. Usually one person cooks and the other person fans the charcoal to keep it burning.

We have met some sweet people. Michael and Agnes are 80 and have been married 50 years.

They live in the same house together (which seems to be unusual for couples) and seem to love and care for each other. He is very active and seems like he is 50. Agnes has some blood pressure problems and is less active, but they are both very sharp. The missionaries have been teaching them for a couple of weeks. Mike has been able to check on their blood pressureand advise them on their medicines which they appreciate. They live at the end  of a rough road. When I say rough, I mean rough. But it is quiet and beautiful.  like everyone else have goats and chickens. The goat population in Ghana has decreased rather drastically in the last few weeks, however, due to the fact that most everyone kills a goat for the New Year’s celebration. They are also surrounded by beautiful children who like to play football have their picture taken. Well, most of them like to have their picture taken!

We have met some new neighbors. Actually the Elders met them and brought them to meet us. He is from Ho and she is from Massachusetts.  Her parents have moved to Moultonboro, NH! They have 2 boys, one is 4-Semeko  the other 20 months-Setri. Bennicent (the dad) is a Ghanaian drumming and dancing expert and has toured many college campuses in the US teaching Ghananian culture, drumming and dancing. He has also used his drumming at a school in Vermont to help disabled children. That has proven to be interesting for them because their baby has Downs’ Syndrome. We have enjoyed having them visit. Last Monday his group of drummers and dancers put on a Family Home Evening for the young single adults. It was very entertaining and interesting. (See the video above)They all  were very, very good. very good.Life at our house continues to be filled with many wonderful people. We are blessed to have a place where people can gather. We often show church DVDs to investigators and serve them a little banana bread. We had six girls that are somehow related over for family home evening on Monday (a couple of weeks ago). We showed the DVD Spiritual Crocodiles and then had a discussion on the crocodiles in their lives.

The Accra Temple is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year.So the Africa West Area has urged all of the members to become more diligent in Family History work and Temple worship. We had a fireside where I talked; we showed a DVD prepared for the anniversary and had several testimonies. We had a great turn out.  have had the opportunity to go to the Temple here.  is a beautiful temple. So hopefully we can accompany some of the members in Ho when they go to the temple this year. There are also being called more members of the district council in preparation of Ho becoming its own district. The missionaries will be opening up a new area in Kpando, which is about 1 1/2 hours north of Ho, this next transfer. So that is the next step in becoming a Ho district. You can see the Lord’s hand in placing people in areas to strengthen and serve. A couple in the other branch area who has children who are members are wanting to be baptized. He has a problem because he is a reverend priest in the Anglican Church so he is going to retire so he can be baptized, and they will then move to their hometown which is Kpando, which is the new area to be opened. They will be there to build that new branch.

Two weeks ago all the missionaries in our zone joined the Koforidua Zone for a mission conference tour. Elder Vinson of the Seventy and also the counselor in the Area Presidency  the main speaker. President and Sister Judd also spoke. It was a good conference.

Last Saturday Eric was baptized.  There been some tender and sad moments with him in the last couple of weeks. As you may remember, he is a 13 year old boy who lives with his aunt because his mother passed away last October and his dad is not a very nice man.We bought him a white shirt and a tie so he would feel comfortable going to church. He is very diligent. The other night we stopped by to see him and he informed us that he was moving in with his father. We were shocked and wondered what was going on. Upon questioning him and his older sister, who was on break from Senior High school, they said that their dad wouldn’t pay his school fees if he didn’t move back in with him. I asked his sister if that was a good thing and she started to cry and said no that he was not very nice to them. His dad has also remarried and his new wife does not like the children.  So we offered to pay the fees. It is only about $15.00 and we are not suppose to give 4, But what were we to do.?! We could not let them go live with his father. We also found out that his father would be moving and the 2 little boys would be on their own.  Life here can be pretty tough. But in spite of all that he was baptized last Saturday. It was a stormy night and it started to rain. The font is outside so it was getting a little wet. Luckily, it didn’t start to pour until we got inside. Then I bore my testimony and in the middle of it the lights went out. Soon cell phone lights were turned on and we finished the service. It turned out to be very nice. It will be a night we won’t forget. There are some other stories about him that we will share at a later date.

We have been getting GPS readings on members so we know where people are. Their addresses read something like this. House#21 Ho, Ghana or Housing Road Ho Ghana or just Ho, Volta region. So we were out one Sunday afternoon and were about to call it a day, when the branch clerk who was helping us find the people said, “I think Gabriel’s wife lives down here.” So we thought we should go try to find her. Of course, they (Gabriel and his wife) don’t stay in the same place. So we went down a rough road and down a hill and went to a compound where she lived. We found her and while talking to her a young boy came up and asked if we were from the Church and we said yes and he said, I am a member”. For some reason he had been “lost”. His mother lives a ways away, and he lives with his other brother and sisters  an older lady he called grandma takes care of them. His dad lives in the house, but he has an alcohol problem. Donne has been to every meeting since we “found” him. He is so hungry for the gospel. Once again we see the Lord working miracles. He is a sweet boy. He is 17 and still in Primary school. He cannot read. He says the kids at school laugh at him and the teachers don’t help him. So we are going to do some teachingJ. I think he is plenty smart, he has had some health problems and probably some times when he could not pay his school fees and he has just been left behind. I need to be careful because I get too attached and want to solve all their problems which I can’t. But we can help them understand the gospel and that Christ has suffered for all their sorrows and all their disappointments, and all their pain. We can assure them that they are children of a loving Heavenly Father who will always love them. We can help them learn and have strong testimonies of their own. We can teach them how to pray and to call upon Jesus Christ to strengthen them and show them the way to find joy and peace in all their trials. It is the only answer. We are so grateful that we are able to be associated with these precious children, and we ask that each of you keep them in their prayers.
And also for the missionaries who are seeking to find and help them.

We do love and miss you all, but we so love what we are doing and these beautiful people with whom we get to live every day.