Sunday, August 19, 2012

Ho Branch


 
 This is the road the the building.  As you can see it is a very well maintained road.  It has been this way since we have been here and will probably be this way when we leave.

 A group of young men by our church sign.

 The chapel area of the building is set up in a way as to almost surround the podium.  But when changes to the formation were suggested, they didn't want to try.  Change is very difficult for them to handle.

 Members come to church in all different ways most walk, some take a taxi or tro-tro.  Very few have their own vehicles and when they do, everyone wants a ride.

 This is the famous Ho baptismal font.  When people see photos of it they will invariably ask "How do you baptize people in there, do you kneel down or what"?  Actually most of the font is buried in the ground.  If you have a tall person that is going to be baptized they have to be all the way to the front to get them totally immersed. 

 President Reck, the Branch President when we came.  Here he is testing the waters to see if our truck could make it across this swollen river  He has just started to cross and he is already to his knees.  We decided to wait until the waters receded to cross.

 Patrick Ansah our current Branch President and his new wife Claudia.  This photo was taken before their wedding and sealing, that's why the tank top.

 The young women Sister Lyon works with learning a song for Sacrament meeting.

 Abagail and Abagail with the best smiles.  Sometimes it is so hard to get people to smile and they have the prettiest smiles.

 The Young Single Adults enjoying watermelon after a heath walk.  We are their advisers.
 
 A YSA service project.  We cleaned a wing of the Volta Regional Hospital that had not been cleaned or used for over 5 years.  We really needed the masks and gloves that day.

A few Melchizedek Priesthood brethren from left to right Edem, Bernard, Anthony, Bartholomew and Gilbert.

 Sister Lyon with Justice who is now serving a mission in Nigeria and David who will be going soon.

 Sedem, Emelia holding baby Jesse, Vida, Harry and Diana.

 The YSA's favorite form of refreshments: sodas, toffee, biscuits and Sister Lyon's famous "Ghana Chocolate cake".

 What is a church activity without food?  That is one of the signs of the true church, there's always food or refreshments served.

 Mable and Cephas, 2 of the members that live in Tsito coming all the way to Ho.  All the way, because it takes half an hour to travel by taxi or tro-tro from Tsito to Ho.

 Janet, or as we call her "Mama Be", which is Ewe for little Grandma.  She is one of the elderly of the Branch and has trouble getting around, so we give her a ride to church when she is not traveling.  She is adorable!

 If there is a camera around, children and even adults flock to have their picture taken.  They love it.

On August 18th there was a "Mormon Helping Hands Service Project Day" all over West Africa.  They had different denominations and whoever else wanted to be involved, do service for the day.  Our Branch was given the assignment to clean up an area around some government buildings.  This involved weeding, sweeping, cutlass work, cleaning the gutters, picking up garbage, trimming bushes and of course, having a good time with the fellow members.  We had about 100+ members and 6 investigators there, so it was a huge success.

As we have said before "WE LOVE HO AND THE PEOPLE".  We are so grateful President Judd assigned us to serve here.  We can't think of a better place to be serving.  As we travel around to the different places in Ghana, it's always good to come back.  Ho has become like home to us and the members will be greatly missed when we finish our mission.  But we still have a long time to serve, so "Onward, ever Onward".

No comments:

Post a Comment