This Is How We Roll

At the suggestion of our daughter Mandy, we are doing a post of what a typical day may be like while serving in Ghana.  Some days feel very familiar.  Others are filled with a variety of things to do.  They always start and end the same, with prayer.

 This is where we begin and end each day.  The lovely net is for keeping the malaria mosquitos away.  Elder Lyon's knot tying skills have come in very handy, notice the rod for his shirts.

 If we do not have to travel or attend an early morning meeting, we go for a walk just behind our home and up the hill.  We love the beautiful view which is the incentive for trudging so far.

 We are amazed at the huge trees and other wonders of nature.  Thank you Heavenly Father for creating such a beautiful world!

 Breakfast of champions!  Milk and juice in boxes that are unrefrigerated in the stores.  We love to read the labels to see where the products come from.  The milk is from South Africa, the juice is from Cypress.  Yes, we take our vitamins every day too.  We are trying to stay healthy and have been very blessed!

 Scripture study is a great way to begin the day.  We are really enjoying the Book of Mormon, reading a chapter, then discussing what we learned from the verses.  Our testimonies of the truthfulness of this sacred scripture increase each day.

 Our automatic dishwasher and food scrubber!  Elder Lyon is the best, we'll see if we can manufacture him when we get home.  All of the windows in the house are louvered, they have screens to keep mosquitoes and other bugs out, and metal bars for protection.  They are a pain to clean.  All food is cleaned in a clorox solution before going into the fridge.  More time is spent cooking and cleaning than we imagined.  No fast food here.

 Thank heaven for technology that helps keep us in touch with family, friends and the world outside of Ghana.  Each day we hope to receive updates and photos of grandchildren.  We miss everyone so very much.  We appreciate and love being able to get glimpses of life at home.

 District meetings and Branch Mission Coordination meetings keep us busy two mornings each week.  This one was held in our home.  The only thing our TV gets used for is holding up the District white board with the numbers and names of people being taught.

 Once a transfer (every 6 weeks) we feed the Elders breakfast after district meeting.  They love it and we are always amazed at how much they eat.  Never any leftovers!

 Some mornings you might find Elder Lyon working in the back yard garden.  Sister Lyon usually is busy in the house, but enjoys coming out to see the progress of the plants and harvest the beans!

The large pumpkin plant on the right side "disappointed".  Lots of blossoms, but no fruit, even after Elder Lyon hand pollinated them.

 Every time we come or go, the gate has to be unlocked, opened, and relocked.  Tedious yes, but Elder Lyon is a trouper, keeping us safe.  Our house is right on the main road into town, the traffic is always busy and pedestrians are continually passing by.

 Good thing Elder Lyon is a good driver and loves to drive.  He has said that when he gets home if the road is bumpy, narrow, or hard to travel on, he better be heading to a fishing hole!

 Traffic in Ho on Market Day, which is every four days. A small, two lane road becomes a four lane road with cars going every direction and hundreds of people walking every where.  We are glad our mirrors are higher than most of the other vehicles otherwise, they probably would have been scraped off by now.  There is no personal space for people or vehicles.  This is where we come to buy most of our fresh fruits and veggies.

 Our favorite place to buy green bananas.  This sweet lady speaks no English but she loves to see our truck pull up and is very happy to sell us only the green bananas.  Unlike the women in the big market who do not want to separate the green bananas from the ripe ones.

 

 This little store has been a life saver, it carries a few of the staples we are used to ... at least in a "somehow" sort of way.  You know like ice cream (3 flavors only), cheese, eggs that we know are "somehow" fresh, whole wheat sliced bread and a few other random items.  We try to shop in Accra for major staples and items that can not be found in Ho.  Interesting side note, the building is two stories.  The top story is the storage area, they carry all goods upstairs from the truck, then bring them downstairs to stock the shelves.

 Mingling with the shoppers at the big Ho market on market day.

 We have our main meal around 1 or 2 o'clock, complete with Doxycycline to prevent malaria.  We usually have a lite snack like popcorn later in the evening, because we are too hot or tired to cook.  The food in the black "rubber" is fried yam, one of the few cooked foods we occasionally buy on the street.  Everything sold is put into black plastic bags, you see them littering the streets everywhere.  They call them "rubbers".

 Many of our days are filled with various ways of teaching with the Elders. This was a visit to a less active member where she sells rice and chicken to the public. We are with Elders Gagnon and Anderson, Sister Avonyo and Justice, a Branch missionary.

 We drive to Kpong every week or two so that Elder Lyon can interview baptismal candidates.  Elder Kyremetang and Shults serve there.  We follow them all over town to find the people that need an interview.  Quite the adventure.

 These two Elders (Thompson and Smith) in Senchi are awating our arrival to deliver them some much anticipated mail.  They love receiving mail from home, especially packages.

 The Elders in Kpong arranged for us to "enjoy" fufu with them at the home of a sister they are teaching.  You never know what new experience awaits when working with these brave young men.  They give us courage to try new things.  Yes, we all eat from the same bowl, with our fingers.  This is fufu, with light soup and talapia. The table in the left corner is where the woman is making bread she sells four days a week.

 Sometimes we take the Elders on a P-day excursion.  This is Wli Falls.  They love getting the chance to get out of Ho and see the sights of Ghana.

 Many of our days find us interacting with the Young Single Adults we advise.  This was after an early morning "health walk".  We walked 7.8 kilometers to and from the chapel, up a beautiful hillside, then returned to have bread and "tea".  They call any warm beverage tea, this was actually warm cocoa.

 We visit members homes.  Meet Nephi, he is the oldest son of a good branch member.

 These investigators were busy cracking palm nuts when we arrived to visit them.  Bernice is so happy to see us and have her photo taken.  The palms nuts are cracked and shelled.  Then the nuts are taken to market and sold so they can be made into palm nut oil.

 We go over this bridge on every trip to Accra.  This bridge crosses Volta Lake, the largest man made lake in the world.  Catherine and Justine are happy walking on it.  Even though they have crossed  it many times in a tro-tro they have never walked across, because tro-tros do not stop.  On the way home from taking them to the Accra temple to receive their own endowments, we stopped so they could walk across the bridge for the first time. (Tro-tros are vans that take people and their goods everywhere. Most people do not have their own vehicles and travel primarily by tro-tro or taxi.) Tro-tro is short for trouble-trouble, at least that's what we say.

 Jessie and Jesse.  He was born about the same time we arrived on mission.  He still does not know what to think of us "Yavoo's" (white people).  This is in the church building in Kpong where we attend meetings for the newly created Kpong District, which Ho is now part of.  We wish Ho had a nice building and not just a rented one. "Someday, Someday."

 A typical Sunday with the Young Women of Ho Branch.

 After Church meetings, these children usually come to our home to get help with homework, Personal Progress and their Duty to God goals.  We call them our "Porch Children".  Their parents are not members and they were introduced to the gospel by the previous couple missionaries.  After they finish their "work" we play Book of Mormon Old Maid. 

 Every once in a while we find a day to relax and see some of the sights in Ghana, like Bojo Beach.

At the end of the day we often unwind by playing a game of Scrabble.  We found this french version from a street hawker.  Every once in a while Elder Lyon lets Sister Lyon win ...

Every day we ask the Lord to guide is in the paths he wants us to go, help us find those he wants us to find and serve those who need to be served.  We love being in such a unique place where we have the opportunity to do the Lord's will.  We never know what each new day will bring...

Halftime Highlights

We have officially reached the halfway point of our mission.  There have been many high points, but also some lows, but we won't post any here, just some of the highlights of our adventures in Ghana.  In some ways, time has gone real fast, but in other ways, not so fast.  We were pretty anxious when we received our call about how things would be.  Now we know.   We were called to a Membership/Leadership support mission, but truth be known, it's just a new way of saying Proselytizing Mission.  That word seems to scare a lot of us old folks.

Bojo Beach Resort

To celebrate our 9 month anniversary we went to the best kept secret in Ghana.  It was a very nice beach and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Walking along the beach, finding sea shells, eating seafood (which was surprisingly good) and just enjoying the day.  It was nice to get away for awhile.

Young Single Adults

Our first calling when we were assigned to the Ho Branch was advisers for the Young Single Adults.  We love working with them and have become very good friends.  We love them all.  Here are some of them enjoying a refreshing piece of watermelon after going on what they call "A Health Walk".

We had a Life Skills seminar with the YSA's.  The topics were Developing Talents, Self Reliance and Mate Selection.  It was very well attended but Elder Lyon does not photograph well.  We have a home evening with them every Monday night and we rotate between lessons, service, games, movies and of course, refreshments are always served.  With this group there are never any leftovers, they even want the containers we bring the treats in.

 Porch Children

  Most Sunday afternoons Prince, Abigail and Foster come over to our house to have us read to them, play games and of course, have some food and water.  They were converted to the gospel by the couple missionaries here before us, the Jorgensen's.

Baptisms

  What is a mission without them.  How many baptisms have we had?  None.  How many have we assisted in?  As far as we can count 31 as of today.  Why have we ourselves not had any baptisms?  Because we are instructed to turn over any referrals we have to the young Elders.  We are to assist in finding, they are to teach.  And we are fine with that.  This shows our famous baptismal font, small, but does the job just fine, unless you are really tall.

Tsito

 Some of the members who come to Ho Branch are from a town called Tsito (pronounced chee toe), which is about 1/2 hour drive from Ho.  There used to be a branch there, but it was disbanded.  When we first got here, we had William, the Branch Mission Leader, take us to visit some of the less actives.  He took us to Tsito to visit some of the members there that do not come to church anymore because of the cost of transportation to Ho.  We talked to them and wanted to bring some religious instruction to Tsito so we started meeting with them on Mable's porch every Wednesday night.  It started from 0 attending to now between 15 and 20 coming every week.  This shows some of the members of the group.  We keep hoping and praying that someday a Group or a Branch can return to Tsito so the members there can participate in the full blessings of the Gospel.

Patrick and Claudia

 This couple have been in love for over a year and a half.  They have wanted to get married but something called "The Bride Price" has been a obstacle for them.  We helped them to overcome the difficult traditions of their fathers so they could be married.  You can read all about them on a previous post.

Drifting Angels

As a service project for the YSA's we went to an orphanage.  This shows the children with some of the gifts we made and gave to them.You can also read about this service project on an earlier blog post.

Accra Temple

One of the many blessings of serving a mission here in Ghana is the temple in Accra.  The temple here is a very spiritual place because the members are spiritual.  The celestial room is one of the most reverent we have been in.  Everyone that comes in, sits down and prays.  We are grateful we are close enough we have been able to attend at least once a month or more.  Elder Lyon taught the Temple Prep. class in the Branch and we were privileged to see 7 of the 10 taking the class receive their own endowments.

Elders Holland and Snow

One of the many highlights was to have Elder Holland and Elder Snow, of the Presidency of the Seventy, come and inspire us at a missionary conference.  This photo shows Elder Holland with Elder Dickson, who is the West Africa Area President.

Gabriella

The young girl in this photo was very ill.  She hadn't been able to eat for almost a week and when the parents finally called us, we went to visit them and were shocked at how much weight she had lost.  She was so weak she couldn't even stand up so Brother Wama and Elder Lyon gave her a blessing.  We helped them get her to the hospital where they were able to treat her and now she's doing very well again.

Kente Village

We like Kente Cloth, the national cloth of Ghana.  We have been going to a village where they weave and train a lot of the weavers throughout the Volta Region.  One day when we visited, this woman was not able walk easily because she had a painful planters wart on her foot.  We went back to Ho but couldn't stop thinking about her and her suffering.  So we got Catherine, a Branch Member who is also a nurse, and took her to treat this problem.  It was taken care of and the next time we went there, she was well and they were all very appreciative of the assistance rendered.

Ernestina and Her Sisters

This young woman is very strong and courageous.  She had a medical condition 5 years ago that has resulted in her losing the ability to walk.  She is now confined to a wheelchair and her bed, but she has the best attitude, is always smiling and happy.  A while ago, she was very ill and was taken to a hospital in Accra for treatment.  While she was there we were able to visit her, arrange for her to get the medication she needed and a custom wheelchair from LDS Humanitarian Aid.  We have been very blessed to know her.  She wants to walk into church to be baptized, but she in unable.  If she could walk she would have been baptized long ago.  We pray that someday she will change her mind.

Liberty Preparatory School

This is another of our blog posts you can read about but definitely a highlight.

Helen and Justice

This is 2 of our YSA's that have been called to serve a mission.  Interestingly, they were both called to the Lagos, Nigeria Mission and entered the MTC the same day.  We were able to help them a lot with their paperwork, because we have been down that same road.  They were both very excited to serve.  We know they will be great missionaries and represent the Lord very well.  Helen is the first Sister Missionary to serve from Ho Branch.  She has set an example that hopefully many others will follow.

Couple Missionaries

We are blessed to serve with the best couple missionaries in the church including the best Mission President, President and Sister Judd.  The couples are from left to right, the Dalton's from Utah, the African Lyon's, President and Sister Judd also from Utah, the Baker's from Idaho and the Barney's from Arizona.  We love getting together with them and learning from them.  We have made friendships that will last forever. 

These are a few of the highlights we have experienced while serving here.  There are many more we could list such as all the less actives we have helped come back to church, Sister Lyon getting the Young Women to start their Personal Progress, lightening Sister Judd's load by taking medical calls from the Missionaries, having a Family History workshop put on by the Area Family History Specialists, helping the Elders teach, feeding them breakfast once a transfer and many others.  We love serving here in Ghana and especially in Ho.  We can't think of a better way of serving the Lord at this "particular point in time", as Elder Makandangwe would say.

WE LOVE THE PEOPLE OF GHANA

Liberty Preparatory School

We were invited by Godsway, one of our Young Single Adults, to give a presentation at her school.  She teaches at Liberty Preparatory School in the village of Akrofoe Xenife.  We were given the freedom to choose the topic to be presented.  We decided to teach "Choose The Right" and "I Am A Child Of God".  These are 2 universally accepted ideas in the Christian world.  

 

 Sister Lyon and Godsway meeting the proprietor of  the school.  Ghanaians have an unusual custom when shaking hands.  Because the proprietor is working on new thatching for the roof, his hands are dirty, therefore to shake hands, he extends his wrist.

The inside of Godsway's classroom and her students.

 Liberty Preparatory teaching staff.

 When we arrived the children saw we had a camera, so they flocked to us to have their photos taken.  They love this and then giggle delightfully when they see their image on the camera screen.

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 Sister Lyon loved this little boy and wanted his picture, but every time we tried to get a photo of just him, the kids would all crowd around.  So Elder Lyon pointed the camera in a different direction and when the kids all went that way, he was able to get a picture of the boy alone because he was camera shy and not running with the children.

 Doorway of a classroom where the children are anxiously awaiting the morning assembly.  

 The proprietor, in the white hat, is calling the children to come.  On the left side of the photo you can see one of the thatched roofed classrooms.

 A bell rang and pandemonium broke out as children came from all over the school compound with their chairs and stools to gather under the big mango tree in the courtyard.

 They're in their chairs and waiting.  There were about 100 students ranging in ages from 3 on up.  In Ghana schools ages can vary a lot in each classroom.  Sometimes parents can afford to send their children to school every year, sometimes they cannot.  There are years the children have to wait until there is enough money to pay for the school fees.  That's why you'll see kids of all ages in classes.

 All schools require uniforms, so when a student doesn't wear one, they really stand out. 

 The assembly started with a prayer and then singing.  The children love to sing and this is Godsway leading them in a glorious rendition of "The Lord Is My Light".  A video of this song can be seen on our Facebook page.

 Sister Lyon teaching them to Choose The Right using a simplified version of the Ten Commandments.  For example, "Don't take anything that isn't yours".

 Elder Lyon teaching them they are each a Child Of God, He loves them very much.

 Then we taught them the song, "I Am A Child Of God" and gifted them this poster.

At the end of the assembly the children all started to sing an African song.  While they were singing students brought up different items and placed them on a table.  Sister Lyon was then asked to give a prayer of gratitude for the bounty the students provided.  Pineapple, okra, corn, gari, plantain and the nasty looking brown stuff that is used to start cooking fires.  We think it's made from palm kernels, but really, we have no idea.

We loved going to teach these young children small about some of our beliefs.  There is no separation of church and state here, every school has religious instruction as part of their curriculum.  They start the day with a prayer and a devotional.  On Wednesday's this school has a worship day, which we were privileged to be a part of.   Thank you so much Godsway for inviting us and for Liberty Preparatory School for allowing us to be there with such lovely students.