We spent this week traveling the mission to interview the missionaries and some of the people they are teaching. On Monday, we were in Assin Foso. All of the missionaries were gathered at the stake center for an activity with the stake president (he treated them to fufu and it looked like he had played football with them). Anyway, they were all pretty happy -- especially the sisters when they saw Sister Stevenson.
On Tuesday we headed west and hit Takoradi, Axim, Tarkwa and Secondi over four days.
After the district interviews,Elder Keetch and Elder Bayoh showed us the Chapel Hill area. They have done very well there working with families where not everyone is a member of the Church. Our recent experience as a mission is that about 20% of those joining the Church already have family members in the Gospel.
On Wednesday, we were off to Axim.
After the interviews, we took a look at the progress on the meetinghouse.
How would you like to try to give a talk while facing that view?
If I was a young missionary, I would assign myself to Axim. This is what we saw as we were meeting members and investigators that evening. Stunning.
Sister Stevenson and I roughed it at the Axim Beach Resort. The Assistants were on pads on the floor of the missionary apartment. We took pity on them and invited them to breakfast at the resort. They accepted.
We hit the bumpy road to Tarkwa.
The four missionaries in Tarkwa will soon be joined by four others. It is a great town and will someday be the home of a stake of the Church. After the interviews, we went out teaching with Elder Wade and Elder Guymon. We were teaching the Law of Tithing with one of their investigators and after reading the scripture in Malachi about the windows of heaven, I asked him what that meant to him. He said that if he was honest with his tithing, the Lord would bless him. But it did not mean that he would always be blessed financially, but it would be spiritual blessings, which are more important. Yup -- he gets it. He will be baptized on November 8.
We drove in the dark back to Sekondi. We tried all of the offramps on one of the roundabouts, including the one we started on. It is so dark here at night and forget about a direction sign. Combine that with my sense of direction and we take a lot of side trips. In the end, we arrived at the Julander's home and enjoyed a nice dinner with them.
Friday we interviewed the Sekondi District.
Friday afternoon, I had two baptismal interviews in two different parts of town. We managed to get through the traffic and see everyone. I always ask how they came to find the Church. The last man said he had been praying for the Lord to guide him to the truth. As he got up from his prayers, he saw his neighbor leaving for Church services. He had an overwhelming feeling that he should follow him and see where he went. He ended up at the chapel and met the missionaries. As they taught him, he knew his prayers had been answered. He is a sweet man with an awesome faith.
We drove home Friday night and slept in our own bed. Hurrah! We counted the Axim resort as date night since we got home a little late. I think it's legit. Nice dinner and a hotel counts. We have big plans for this coming Friday, so don't worry.
Saturday was Coordinating Council with all of the Stake Presidents. We also have a sick missionary and his companion at the mission home, so its been a busy week. Our interviews next week will be with the missionaries around Cape Coast, so we will be fairly close to home. I'm looking forward to it.
CREATURE OF THE WEEK.
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