We are so grateful to celebrate Easter with Christians throughout the world. We are so grateful for Jesus Christ, His life, His teachings, and His infinite Atonement that provides the gift of the Resurrection from the dead for everyone and the hope of Eternal Life. We are so grateful to enjoy General Conference and receive instruction, guidance, and counsel from the Lord's living Prophet and Apostles. It is a blessing to serve Him as missionaries in Africa. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

We are finding our way around Accra quite well. Even I feel comfortable driving to the area offices, the NGO library and grocery stores. I don't like the grocery store veggies but found this stand close by. It's now our favorite. The three stands are run by three different women. So I try to take turns and go to each of them. They pick out the veggies/fruit for you or let you pick them out. They also throw in a few extra items. Anyway, we're becoming friends.

I've turned our second bedroom into my office:) We moved the love seat recliners into this room so I can do my own thing while Steve talks to missionaries from his office in the family room (the only sure WiFi). I can iron white shirts or use the ironing board as my desk to mark copies of the Book of Mormon to give away and to use my laptop. This is where I keep my Christmas stocking cross stitch and embroidery projects. I also crochet sleeping mats out of plastic bags for the homeless, listen to podcasts or read, etc. The laundry rack is great for swim suits and walking clothes. The recliners are the best.

Our wall of fame to keep us company.

I now teach keyboard on Sundays after the two hour meeting block. The Church has a project where they will supply keyboards to anyone who will take lessons. These kids each take their keyboard home to practice and bring them back every Sunday for a lesson. They get to keep the keyboard if they become proficient and will teach others how to play. Today we had eight in the class. They are all different levels. Two of them played prelude in church today. They love to learn and are doing well. The lessons stopped for a year when the senior sister missionary/teacher went home a year ago because of the pandemic. So far we have Liberty, Dennis, Victor, Joshua, David, Emmanuel and Florence who want to take lessons. One young man said he would practice 1 1/2 hours a day. Just think what you can learn if you don't have video/computer games, and other electronics that consume your time.

On Wednesday morning I lead a 'book club' of men and women at the NGO library. The purpose is to help increase their English reading proficiency. We discuss vocabulary, etc. Remember, English is their second language after a tribal dialect. Thank you Diane Vella for loaning me this book to read before we came to Africa. It's non-fiction and an easy read about the desperate need for water in Africa. Add this to your next book club list. The library had several copies so we share books as we read out loud.

This gentleman has a woodcarving shop nearby so we bought two small elephants. Remember you have to bring home anything you buy, so it must be small. We love supporting the local vendors. 

In the center of the picture is the Temple spire lit up at night. This is another apartment complex with about eight missionary couples living here. Someone had a birthday and I hitched a ride there while Steve was home talking with missionaries. The two apartment complexes with senior missionaries are about 3 miles apart. We really love our location and are happy to live where we are.

This is pretty self explanatory:)  Everywhere else is a public restroom because there are no public restrooms.

We turn our two rocker recliners toward the computer screen when we want to watch something on TV. We signed up for SLING with a VPN. We get a few fun choices to watch; NCIS, NatGEO, FOX news, etc., and an occasional movie. We've seen Hitch, Escape from Alcatraz, and Monuments Men. Steve doesn't do counseling on Friday night, we reserve it as Date Night so we try to find a movie. We love our recliners.

Cute Muslim girls we met on our morning walk. They are in school uniforms.

This is Nathan Belnap who is 14 years old. He's the son of the area attorney and wife, Brent and Lorinda. With the Covid shutdown, he's been indoors practicing a lot and gave a piano recital to the senior missionary couples. It was absolutely, amazingly beautiful. It was all classical music. I do remember playing one of his numbers, 'Rustle of Spring', in my younger years. His piano teacher was there also. Nathan and his sister and several other expat kids living here attend the American International School in Accra.

We pass by this gentleman every day on the way to the offices. I would like to give him my plastic sleeping mat when I finish it. He lives on this median in the middle of a very busy road. I don't know if I could give it to him or if he would even accept it or want it.

This is a portion of the beach that looks relatively clean. We are above the beach on a platform where Prince Charles met with the Ghanaian gov't a few years back to announce a joint effort in building a fancy resort sponsored jointly by the  UK and Ghana. In the distance is the Jamestown lighthouse I told you about in the previous blog. Jamestown is known for it's poverty in Accra. Everyone burns their trash whenever and wherever they want. It just seems so sad to have such a huge discrepancy between the very poor and very rich. 

If you have too much cement leftover in your truck you just dump in on the side of the road. Where's your common sense? It even plugged up the  gutter/sewer beneath.

There are lots of three-wheel scooters carrying loads around town. I guess it's the poor man's pickup.

This is Midas. He sweeps the brick courtyard of a banking school. This is the extra large broom they use for large areas. He told us he makes 300 cedis, their currency. Divide everything by 5 and he makes $60 a month. He would like to go to university but of course can't afford it.

I have been recruited to work with the Young Single Adult program in the West Africa Area. This photo was taken from one of the many zoom meetings I am now involved in. This is a program to help the African returned missionaries assimilate back into the wards and stakes after they complete their missions. A few months before the African missionaries head home they can become very anxious about their future. One-third of these missionaries come without parental support, 15% are orphans, with no place to live when they return home. They come from poverty and will return to poverty. This 'Gathering' program is a place for them to meet with other Young Adults, to take Pathway Education classes, self-reliance classes, learn or practice English, learn how to build a business, take and teach seminary and institute classes, addiction recovery classes, family history, social interaction, service and other meaningful activities. Full-time Missionaries are asked to give 10 hours of service a week. They can teach or facilitate many of these classes. All of this will be held at the local stake centers where Wifi and computers will be available. This program will be available for member and non-member young adults ages 18-30. It's a huge program to get up and running (especially when we don't even have wifi and computers in most church buildings) and one that is desperately needed. This program of course is needed in all developing countries like South America, the Philippines, etc.

Three of us sister missionaries that volunteer at the NGO library drove to Jamestown to visit the children at their 'school'. Their previous school, homes and fishing village were totally razed by the Chinese so they could build their own fishing port. Sadly, China owns a lot of Ghana. The older boys up to age 20 love to do acrobatics and put on quite a show.

My feet hurt every time they jumped on the cement on their bare feet.

These are the toddlers that don't attend school yet. The fellow in the white t-shirt leads the school and cares for the children who truly are orphans.

This is the school room. There are no lights or electricity. It was really dark until our eyes became accustomed to the dim light.

Tidbits:

In my evenings when Steve is busy, there are so many great things to listen to on YouTube while I do my hand work. I listen to Glen Rawson who tells stories in Church History. I follow several different 'Come Follow Me' podcasts from Meridian Magazine, Tyler & Taylor and Tom Pettit. Of course all the Conference talks and BYU Devotionals are wonderful also.

I must give a shout out to Richard and Jane Porter for driving our cars. Thanks also to Sherm and Eilene Gardner for checking on our house and picking up the mail. Thank you Adam for watching over our yard.

We are feeling very comfortable in our driving. We have found all the short cuts to work and can get anywhere with our GPS. How did we ever survive before GPS?

Everything here is still so new to us and it's still fun to add pictures to this blog. When things get routine you may not hear from me as often. So for now, I'll keep sharing even the mundane things with you and see.

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sabbath.