July 31, 2008

Dear family, The reason you didn't hear from me last week was because it seems so routine now and I am getting lazy. Hope all of you are doing good. Monday was p-day , and we cleaned a little, the rest of the time I sewed and played the organ and just had a great time. Thanks to all who e-mailed us. Tues. Kathie's birthday and now we are on to August. Lots of Birthdays in August. We had an appointment to teach Emanuel but he didn't show. We have no way to get in touch with him. He has no telephone and the road up to his house is now a big rut and we can not drive up there. It rained and rained so hard and these dirt roads are continually getting worse. When I tell you things I'm not trying to sound negitive but just stating facts. Anyway, The missionaries came to teach with us and so when Emanuel didn't come I fixed them lunch and then they had finally fixed their bikes and they rode off on them to teach somewhere else. We were suppose to teach another family but the Elders went there instead because Charles had a Branch Pres. meeting, I stayed home and did my own thing Yeah. Wed. we were up and off to the Zone meeting in Ashama. We got up early so we could get over the bridge before 8. We got over okay and the toll man said it would be open now for two weeks and then closed again for more repairs. The new Pres. is great, he has been the exec. sectretary to the Area Pres. Pres. Snow. He was that for l8 months and then was called to be the Mission Pres. here. So he knows a lot about the people here and loves it here. He and his wife are great, simple to the point people, very spirirtual and gets things done now. First thing he did was tell the mission couples that they could travel to other coouples areas etc when they wanted and has shortened the meetings somewhat. He is going to be great. Our zone meeting was good, but on the way out of HO in the morning we got stopped by the HO police barrier and when the policeman ask Charles for his drivers licence all he could find was his temporary and me the same and we suddenly found out that we had never received our permanent ones. Well that was one shocker but when the officer looked at the Temporary he found that it had expired two months ago. Oh , my he was not to nice with us. Charles called Afasi (the man at the mission home who works on all the pass ports, driver licences , helps us to get them now when we first arrive etc.) to ask him what to do. He talked to the officer and he reluctantly lets us go , but said you be in court tomorrow. Well Afasi worked on getting our others while we were in the zone meeting. Come to find out he hadn't picked ours up and got them to us. Pres. said don't you go to court you let Afasi handle it all or they will charge you big bucks. We heard later it would have been $l200.00 See what happens to the rich white people. ha ha Anyway we had to go to the mission home in Accra after the meeting ( 40 mins.) to get the new driver licenses and some papers in an manilla folder to take to the police today. We don't know what the papers were or said but Charles had to take them out to the barrier this morning and Afasi was coming up here today to finish bailing us out. we had not checked our Temporaries nor even thought about our licences since we got here, so in a way it wasn't just Afasis fault that we didn't have them. Soo I guess we learned a lesson. Things like that can be scary and of course dad was freting about having to pay any money at all. If you know what I mean about him ha ha. today I had lit class and only Vivian was here at the time and so since dad couldn't go out to the barrier without his companion, we had to take her too. So I got a book and had her read to me, we were in the back seat. by the time we got back Diesmond was here too and so we had a class with the two of them. It is such fun to teach them. Diesmond is doing better and far more advanced in his reading and so it is a challenege to try and keep them both going on something. They always get a lesson in something else beside reading and writting. Today Vivian had brought her bread;. One other time when we were talking about the letter J and I showed the class a bottle of jam and let them taste it . Now Vivian had brought her bread and aask if she could have jam on it. So I got the jam, Raseberry and Apricot and gave her a choice. Well I couldn't let Vivian eat in front of Diesmond and so I got the loaf if bread and cut him a slice and they both ate their bread and jam. Then I got out the peanut butter and they tried that. In the mean time I got out the bowl of jello that I made this morning. (don't make it often because I can't find the boxes of jello that is right for here) and let them have a few spoonfuls in their bowl. I wish I could have had a video camera to take a picture of their faces when they tried to eat it. Diesmond is 20 and vivian is 27. Anyway I read with Diesmond a small childrens book about Farm Animals that Janalee had sent in the suitcase to me and when it came to the sheep it tells about shearing the sheep and he didn't know what shearing was nor scissors and so I got my sewing bag out and showed him the scissors and told him that shearing was done with bigger scissors or an instrument like a razor that gets the wool off of the sheep. Anyway that led to something else and then something else and I'lm always teaching and showing them things. They love it and that's one reason I like to have the class at my house so that I can find things to back a word etc. Dad spoke in church on Sunday, it rained so hard and long on Sat. night and Sunday morning that we didn't have that many people to church. You see most have to walk and one lady came late, she told me everything was wet and flooded in humble house. We have a car and didn't get a single drop on us. Boy are we the spoiled ones, It really lets a person think about how fair life is for some and not for others. A lot of men wore their suits on Sunday, first time it was cool enough to wear one and it was still awfully warm to me. It did quit raining just before church but people would have a lot of mud and water to get through to come. Anyway dad did great with his talk on tithing. We had fretted about it for days and finally got something on paper . Then the girl that gave a talk before him got up and said practically everything dad had on his paper. Then the Branch Pres. got up and told them how to fill out a tithing reciept and a fast offering reciept etc. and said the rest of his talk. I was sitting there laughing to myself because he had told me his talk the night before and I knew they had said everything he was going to say. I kept telling him to just talk by the spirit because he knew it all anyway and so I wasn't surprised when he just started telling them things and stories and it was just a great talk, I had moist eyes and dad had a catch in his voice. It really truly was a talk from the Spirit. I have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am truly learning more from these wonderful people here than we can ever give. I love my Primary job on Sunday. I teach them new songs and play the keyboard at the same time to most of the songs. It is a challenge to do it all but is possible and we have such fun. Dad had to give the sharing time in Primary this past week also and he did great there too. I can see the growth in him too. We are trying so hard to do all we can while we are here. It's still not enough. I love you all so much. I hope you will always be good and try to stay close to the Gospel , it is the only way to reach the Celestial Kingdom. Please help each other when you can and remember , FAMILES ARE FOREVER. Love and kisses to all the Grandbabies please don't forget us. Love mom and dad.