March 2019: January 2018

December

The week of the first of December has brought about many new experiences. I have been known to say “Each day we get up we will see something we have never seen before!” We saw a prison today in Winneba and spoke to the CHIEF named Ebanezer. He was a referral from Elder Ballsteadt. We also met Rose and her husband Ike on our walk today and invited them to church. We also invited our neighbor Felicity to listen to the missionaries. Then there was Florence whom we gave a ride to her home from the Police Academy in Winneba. She also agreed to talk to the missionaries. We have sat in on discussions while the missionaries taught Elizabeth’s sons in Bontrase. Elizabeth gave us a huge bunch of monkey bananas and plantains. They have a children’s school on property covered with huge banana trees. We stayed late and drove home in the dark.

This week we also met with Eric (Elder and Sister Wood‘s boy). Dawn is helping him learn English. He is handicapped and uses his upper body since he is paralyzed from the waist down. We also visited the Bessambi family to interview Anna who was baptized on Saturday. Also, baptized was Greggory from Ghana Make a Difference.

I am now called to teach the Young Men each Sunday. Sister Russell is teaching the primary of about 20 kids. I have about 15 boys in the priesthood class of all three offices.

We met a couple from Idaho today staying with the Hofmans from Ghana Make a Difference. Tomorrow we are taking them around our area to introduce them to our mission tasks. They are interested in serving in Ghana as a mission couple.

It finally rained! I was so worried about my sweet potato garden because it was so dry. However, God loves the people of Ghana (especially the farmers) so he sends rain when they need it!

We have spent the week caring for a missionary who has damaged his knee and is unable to walk his area. After taking him to Accra for diagnostic MRI then back following the result, it looks like he will be going home early to have surgery to repair a meniscus in his right knee.

We also spent a day with the Moomey family (Ron and Ellie) from Star, Idaho. They are seriously considering a mission here in Ghana. We would hope so because they are very capable people.

We had a recent baptism (2 actually) last week and then Sister Russell hosted the YW to a bead making activity at our home. They were delightful youth. We picked up a large amount of supplies from the distribution center in Accra as well as the mission office. This next week we start our travels to inspect apartments and also have a mission tour event on Wednesday with Elder Nash and our mission president. Busy times.

For the last 3 days I have been hearing reports on my son, Ben. He has fallen and severely injured his head. He has been in ICU for three days. I finally talked to him but he is so weak I could hardly understand him. Family members are very concerned that I am not there to assist. There is great concern and I have requested from the mission president to start the process of emergency leave to see Ben before he passes on. This is a difficult time since we are involved with a huge task of providing for the mission tour meeting tomorrow. Elder Nash and accompanying party will be here to meet with all the missionaries of the Accra Africa West mission.

We are starting the apartment inspections and will complete them this week. Today we were in Swedru and Winneba visiting the missionary living quarters. We also had lunch with the Swedru district (12 of us). We took a bicycle to Elder Keith and a refrigerator to Ansaful house. We also picked up a bunk bed from Ansaful (Elder Beck and Cox)

I am very tired.

Today I was able to talk to Ben quite a bit. He was alone and had a chance to let me know how things are going. He has had a stoke which has affected his speech but he has no paralysis of any other sort. He is still at Stanford but will be released tomorrow. He will stay at Rebecca’s for a month before returning to Stanford.

Stanford med center will not operate on him to repair the mitral valve or even try to remedy the occlusion on his circumflex heart artery which gives him pain. Getting on a list for transplant is his only hope at this point.

His biggest concern is stress. He is convinced the high blood pressure due to anxiety (domestic not work) caused increased heart rate to fibrillation and clots to the head. He fell in the bathroom and hit his head on the tub. Nearly killed him and the scratches on his head was from the dogs as he lay there two days!

We have requested leave to go see him and are making plans to depart Accra on the 19th, however, I am unable to make the large payment using my card out of country. I will call travel at SLC mission to see if they can help. I don’t know the circumstances there and will only make a one way ticket and then make arrangements to return when I know all is well. This is a big deal for us to get there and return soon after.

We got back from California late last night Christmas eve. We were two days traveling to Sacramento and two days with Ben and two days back to Africa. Big Trip! We flew on marvelous aircraft, the most impressive was the KLM 787 Airbus Dreamliner named “The Flying Dutchman.” There were over 400 passengers on board.

Ben is doing much better. He is on the right medicine to control his blood pressure which caused the incident. The high blood pressure caused his heart to fibrillate and he passed out and hit the bath tub and laid unconscious for two full days.

I gave Ben a father’s blessing before we left. We had lunch with Sage and Ben at the Nugget deli in El Dorado Hills then off to the movies with Robyn and Indy. We are feeling much better now that the wounds are healed.

We are looking forward to a new year and continued service here in Ghana.