For those of you that have been following us, our blogs halted in March.  By way of explanation, this was because of Covid-19.  The appearance of the virus in Ghana led to the limiting of our ability to do our assigned work.  Later, we were largely confined to our apartment.  So there was not very much to report on.  Lastly, the U.S. State Department sent out a communique informing U.S. citizens that they needed to return home immediately or plan on staying where they were indefinitely.  As it was almost time for our mission to end anyway, we opted to return to the U.S.  When arrangements were made we were given 36 hours notice and so departure was rather rushed.  We arrived safely back in the U.S., where we completed our missionary assignments via technology, and were then released from our service.  We commonly thank God in our prayers, for calling us into His service, and sending us to West Africa.  God is real.  Jesus Christ is His Son, and our living Savior.  He has one true and living church: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  All human beings are brothers and sisters, children of God.  Let us all learn to love one another, as He loves us - in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thank you for following us.  May God bless you.

Where the Saints Meet

The number of Church buildings in Ghana surprised me.  In urban areas, they seem to be quite common.  Though I know that that is not the case in small towns and villages yet.  On a trip into the countryside a number of months ago, we ran into a group of women on a retreat sponsored by their church who said that they needed our Church in their village.  On another trip our guide told us that he had a copy of the Book of Mormon but could not find one of our congregations closer than three hours away from his home.  It will take time to expand into these areas outside of the cities.  Nevertheless, in most larger towns and in the cities the meetinghouses are not hard to find.  I thought I would illustrate this with some pictures.

Of course, the Accra, Ghana Temple is the premiere example of a Church building, as it is a structure that is sacred in ways that a regular meetinghouse is not.  Here it is at night.

Here it is during the day, with the Africa West Area offices in the background.  The grounds stay green year round.

Anyone who is familiar with Latter-day Saint meetinghouses around the world will see familiar features in this one.  However, some aspects of this building will seem different to those from the temperate regions.  It is designed to be more open air because it is in the tropics.  This building was so new that when we attended there the branch (a smaller congregation) was meeting in it for only the second Sunday.

This is an inside view of the same building.  It is the Sacrament Hall, as it is called here, what Church members in most of the rest of the world call the chapel.

This is the entrance to a meetinghouse compound.  The building is visible in the center of the picture.  A common plan for them here is the "H" plan.  There are three parallel buildings, the center one containing the chapel and sometimes a cultural hall, the outer two buildings containing offices, classrooms, etc.

This picture gives you a partial view of the "H" plan.  The center building has the steeple, and on either side are the outlying buildings.  They are connected to the center one by covered walkways going from the middle of each outer building to the middle of the central one.

Again, a Sacrament Hall.

Not all meetinghouses are "H" plans.  This is one that is well adapted to the climate, being quite open to the outside air and therefore allowing for natural cooling.

A view of the inside of the same Sacrament Hall that is in the last picture. 

 

Back to an "H" plan as viewed from the parking lot.  On the right is the center building containing the Sacrament Hall, and on the left is one of the outlying buildings.  There are walkways connecting these buildings.  The roof that covers each is visible.  They are a pinkish color.

This is a close-up of the same scene.  In this one notice the greenery planted between the buildings.  I absolutely love this use of the space - sort of a park within the confines of the meetinghouse.

This is a recently remodeled building, having been adapted into a ward meetinghouse.

A Sacrament Hall in the remodeled building.

As the Church continues to grow here in West Africa, these buildings are put to good use.  Here we have a convert dressed in white on the way to her baptismal service.  The font is the structure to her left with the steps attached.  It gets a lot of use as people come unto Christ, joining His Church.

Elder Emfield  

The Salt Lake Youth Association, etc.

A couple of Church associated pictures today.

A local youth organization dedicated to cleaning up their neighborhood wanted to select the name of a clean community in the United States - apparently so as to emulate them.  This is the name chosen.  It sort of rings a bell with missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  😉

This is our temple here, the Accra, Ghana Temple.  It is the smallest temple serving an MTC anywhere in the world but it is very nice.  Small has its advantages; I quite like this size.

Elder Emfield

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Some of you may remember the lyrics.  Well, they fit, even if you are too young to know the song.

Of course, some signs make you think a little more than others.  And you were worried about Coronavirus.  Wanna trade?  Actually, there have not been any recent outbreaks of Ebola around here.  Then again, that may have something to do with the campaign that brought about the posting of the sign.  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," right?

Speaking of prevention, for a number of years the Church has been quite involved in a campaign to vaccinate children in Africa against polio.  That disease is still a problem here, and immunizations in general are not what they should be.  This sign is part of the campaign to change all that.  If you look at the bottom of the sign you can see sponsoring organizations such as the Ghanaian Health Service, unicef, the Rotary Club, and I am glad to say, The Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter-day Saints.

Sometimes, we come across some signs with unclear meanings.  "Who Knows Tomorrow."  ???

This isn't a sign, of course, but I wanted to mention that it is Harmattan when the hot, dry, dusty winds blow off the Sahara and into West Africa.  Not only is visibility quite poor right now, it is downright hard to breathe!  Sometimes I can feel the grit in my mouth, and everything is coated with it.

This sign looked very familiar to me.  😁  It is used for making batic cloth.  Go Cougs!

Again, not a picture of a sign.  But, we are missionaries.  This is a baptismal font for one of our meetinghouses.  They are not all outside like this.  Recently we attended the baptism of a young man that we know (at another meetinghouse with an indoor font - but this is the only picture of a font that I have).  When we arrived we were pleased to discover that he was not the only one being baptized that day.  In addition, there was a girl from a Latter-day Saint family, and two other adult men.  Three converts and a young lady who had been raised in the Church.  Another young man who we did not know, came in and sat with us.  He was clearly new and we were able to be of some assistance to him, I think.  I do not know if there were other visitors present, but it would not be surprising; here in West Africa the work of Christ prospers, and His Church grows.  It is an exciting thing to see.

Elder Emfield

Monkeying Around

Just so you didn't think you have been deceived all your life, I thought I would show you that Africa does, indeed, have monkeys.

And while we are discussing that branch of the animal kingdom, here are some baboons.  What is interesting is that the building in the picture is a school.  Now school was out on holiday at the time, so none of the kids were there.  From what I was told the baboons are not afraid of children and there are places where they will knock them down and take what they have if they want it.

How about mixing the old and the new.  Here we have traditional huts and concrete blocks.

We got a ride in a van that carried this first aid kit.  We thought we would take a picture for those who have not been to Ghana.  This is a very religious country and the people express their beliefs in all aspects of life.  As you can see here, businesses and products are given religious names.  I think we can safely say that the owner of the company that manufactured this kit was a Christian.

Elder Emfield

On Safari 2

Hello again.  Further Safari pics.  Would it surprise you to know that male warthogs don't always get along?  Well, as this picture shows, they don't.  We were quite close to the action but well protected in our Land Cruiser.  There were many times that we were quite grateful for it.  It took us through rough terrain, saved us much walking, and protected us from some circumstances that had the potential to be unhealthful.  But when these two went at it they didn't get too serious about it and soon pulled apart without drawing any blood.  Our guide told us that they eat their young and so the mama warthogs have to find safe places for the little ones.  He also said that even the mamas will eat the young if food gets to be in too short of a supply.  Wonderful parents warthogs, huh.

This elephant is getting a tasty bite to eat.  They are wasteful eaters, though.  We saw many trees pushed down, broken off at the roots and dying that were the result of elephants going after the leaves they desired.  The haze in the picture is smoke from the fires set to burn off scrub.

We had breakfast next to this lovely, calm little pond several times.  Anyone for a morning swim?  You can even swim over to that nice log in the center of the picture.  Of course, if you look a little closer, you will see the eyes protruding from the water on the right side of the "log."  This is a Nile Crocodile and he was very well concealed, which is why he gets enough to eat.  The photo was taken from about 20 yards, which is probably the closest I ever want to get to one in the wild.

This elephant kept coming around the lodge where we were staying.  In the immediate foreground is a rock wall.  That wall encircled an artificial waterfall used to beautify the entrance, which lay just off the right side of the picture.  This elephant would come in at night and drink from the waterfall, sometimes coming back to do so early in the morning.  We stood out there one night and listened to him break off foliage - branches I think - about fifty yards from us, and then chow down on them.  Each night when we finished dinner, a member of the staff was sent to accompany us back to our tent/cabin (It was kind of a cross between both.) with a lantern.  That was a nice way to see that we didn't stumble in the dark.  But I suspected there was more to it than that.  The staff knew how to keep us safe from wildlife that might wander onto the lodge grounds (which happens) and always carried walkie-talkies, reporting in when we arrived at our accommodations.

We have had some beautiful sunsets in West Africa.  The smoke and Sahara dust make this possible.  Here is an example of the sun setting behind the bush foliage in Mole National Park.

We do enjoy nature here.

Elder Emfield

On Safari 1

We recently took a few days off and used the opportunity to go on safari.  It is always nice to get out of the city and away for a few days.  But this was incredible!  The picture below was taken from where we stayed looking out over the area that we visited on safari.  As usual, captions will be posted below the pictures.

If you are wondering about the haze, it is not mist.  It is smoke from fires set to clear the brush.  Hunters (including poachers) do it, but so do the rangers.  It both flushes out wildlife and lets new sprouts come up.  The wildlife loves to eat the new sprouts and hunters lie in wait for them when they come to eat.  The rangers do it in the national park because it clears places so that the wildlife can be seen, but more importantly, when the new sprouts come up the wildlife come there to eat and thus stay in the park where it is easier to protect them.  If no burning is done in the park, many animals will go searching outside of it for the new sprouts and be killed by the hunters.  Again, some of that is sanctioned and not a problem, but many are poachers and that is.  In this photo, if you look carefully, you can see some antelope just left of the center of the picture (There are three in almost an exact straight line - the top one is standing between two trees, and the other two are down and closer to the center of the picture.)  and two warthogs.  The latter are just a bit past half way up the picture and half way between the center of the picture and the right hand edge.  They are dark in color, and walking in line toward the center of the photo.  The lead one has a bush just below him.

This is our driver on the left, and our guide (a ranger) on the right.  The guides carry the rifles (powerful enough to stop an elephant!) to scare off animals that menace those on safari (They fire them in the air.) and if absolutely necessary to bring down an animal that will not be persuaded.  He gave me the impression that the latter is almost never necessary.

Our guide again.  We road in Toyota Land Cruisers such as the one behind him.

They certainly have termites in Ghana!  This is one of numerous termite mounds we saw.  It is taller than I am.  These are common in the bush, but not unheard of in the city, either.

I know this is what you were waiting for: elephants.  Here are three that came down to drink from the waterhole and to play in it, which they did later.  There are three: two walking side by side in front, and one following up behind.  The guide told us that there were crocodiles in these waterholes, but that they know better than messing with elephants.  All the other animals that came down to drink were very skittish, many not ever getting up enough courage to drink and leaving again while still thirsty.  We wondered if that was due to crocs, so we asked the guide and found out the answer.

One of the many varieties of antelope to be found in Mole National Park.  I believe this is a Cob.

Have to get a warthog in here!  This one (Pumba maybe?  I neglected to ask. LOL) is walking right through a human settlement, as you can tell by the background.  Much food available for them there and they were all over the place, mixing with the inhabitants without incident, even though they can be very dangerous.  Apparently, there is peaceful coexistence there because they have it so good.

I am going to finish with four vultures, sitting in a dead tree.  They were plentiful in the park.  Beautiful birds when in flight, unless of course they are circling above you, I suppose.  LOL  But we didn't have that experience.

We would astounded by the plentiful wildlife in the park and by the opportunity to be among so much beauty created for us by God.  More to come,

Elder Emfield