Missionary experiences 3 plus some holiday time

We were able to go to Cape Coast, Takoradi and Kakum National Park with 4 other missionary couples for several days.  It was so nice to get out of the city and explore the rain forest, villages and see the beauty of Ghana.

Senior couples are not primarily called to be proselyting missionaries.  We are usually more behind the scenes working with things such as medical, mental health, education, literacy, welfare,  Young Single Adult, Seminaries and Institutes, the list goes on and on.  But often we have opportunities to share the Gospel.  While we were on holiday, we had three such opportunities.  The people of West Africa are so open and wanting to learn, they often approach us when they see our name tags.

When we were at Kakum National Park, the head over the tour guides came to us and said he would like to read the Book of Mormon and would like to give one to each of his employees.  We asked him how many he wanted and he replied, "Twenty."  We didn't have that many of hand but came up with around 10.  He handed them out to his guides and told them he would like them to read it.  He also asked many questions and told us he would ready it also.

Later, there was a group of women on a retreat with their church.  They came up to some in our group and asked why the Church wasn't in their villages.  They said they needed it there and asked if we could send missionaries.  I don't know what the pastors who were with them thought about that.

We were in a small restaurant one day eating dinner.  There was a party of young adults across from us.  We were talking with them and found out it was one of the young lady's birthday.  So we all sang Happy Birthday to her.  They asked for another song, so we sang I am a Child of God.  They loved it!  We took pictures together and had a great time.

We stayed at a resort on right on the ocean.  It was beautiful!  The first full day there we went to Kakum National Park.  This is in the jungle, or rain forest.  We climbed a hill, then did a canopy walk.  We walked across 7 rope bridges connected to the tallest trees.  We were about 100 feet above the jungle floor and above the main canopy of the rain forest.  It was terrifying.  Poor Elder Emfield is terrified of heights, but he did it.  I'm not exactly in good shape to be climbing hills but I did it.  We were walking on wooden planks about 15-18 inches wide and suspended on rope bridges.  It was extremely hot and humid but beautiful!

The next day we went to two slave castles, Elmina and Cape Coast.  When slaves were brought in to be shipped out to other counties, they were housed there.  They were often there for over 3 months.  This was a very heavy day, I guess you could say.  The cruelty of everything about it is indescribable.  At one point, they took us into a dark dungeon where some were punished if they didn't comply.  They told us what happened there, then closed the door and let us stand there for a few minutes.  Needless to say, I was crying when they opened the door.  Something I will never forget.  At Cape Coast Slave Castle, they had built a church of sorts on top of the dungeon where the male slaves were kept.  It seemed so hypocritical!  How do you worship God while you treat your brothers and sisters like animals?  It's too much to comprehend.

We also saw many beautiful fishing villages.  There is a lot of poverty there but the people were very happy.  The seemed to appreciate whatever they had.

Everything here seems to be extreme.  Some of the people are very corrupt and evil but most of them are wonderful, caring and happy.  Some of the country is ugly and filthy.  Much of it is so beautiful it just takes your breath away.  This mission is probably the hardest thing I have ever done.  There are times I think I can't do it another day.  But this is an experience I wouldn't trade for the world.  We are experiencing things I never imagined and meeting people who will forever change how I view the world.

Sister Emfield

Kakum National Park and Canopy Walk

Some of the ladies from the Apostolic Lady's Retreat

Slave Castles

View from our Hotel Room

    

Views from some of the villages we passed through

Missionary Experiences 2 plus

Fishing boats beached on the shores of a major bay west of Accra.

British English is the basis of Ghanaian national English, though it is definitely distinctively its own.  But many British expressions are in use.  For example, if you want to buy "gas" you want propane.  You put petrol (gasoline) or fuel (diesel) in cars.  Thus, you stop at a petrol station for a fill up, and there is no self-serve.  Attendants always pump the petrol or diesel. Now, there is a petrol station that we stop at in order to fill up sometimes.  Because people normally know who we are (the name-tags help 😀), it is common to be addressed as "Elder" with obvious basic understanding of what that means.  The first time we stopped at this particular place the attendant addressed me as Elder right off and soon asked if we could give him a Bible.  Sister Emfield said, "Do you mean a Book of Mormon?"  We did not have any Bibles with us at the time, but we did have a Book of Mormon.  He said yes, that he loved to read.  Well, we felt pretty good about it and gave him one.  The next time, we stopped in there, the attendant said that he was a member of the Church, and that his children attended a local ward but that he didn't go very often.  He asked us if we could give him a Book of Mormon, though, which we quickly did.  Perhaps we should patronize that station more often!  But, that is not the only place where we have had that kind of an experience.  The sheer number of our meetinghouses here astounds me.  I expect this is not the case in outlying villages, but in metropolitan areas they seem to be everywhere.  Just to illustrate:

This is a ward meetinghouse that sits at a road junction.  As you can see it is contained within a compound.  All Church owned buildings are, though that is not always the case with rented ones.  This is something that is standard here.  That is not surprising as middle class housing is all contained within such compounds that have their own maintenance and security staff.  Many important businesses (banks, pharmacies, etc.) have the same.  It goes without saying that upper class everything has the same.

Entry to those compounds are through gates such as this.  This is the entry into the compound of the same meetinghouse pictured above.

This is another view of the meetinghouse.  Notice that there are three buildings.  It is not unusual here to have three parallel buildings, side by side, that make up a meetinghouse.

Notice how the vines climb through the tree here.  Then the tree catches dead leaves and other material.  As a result, there can be quite a collection of organic matter.  This is in the city.  Out in the rain forest this process becomes extreme!  Life in the tropics.

Speaking of life in the tropics, it really knows how to rain here!!!

Stairways can become waterfalls.

Elder Emfield

Missionary Experiences 1

They can get creative when it comes to wiring here.  Pictured is the power room for a block of flats. Remember, this is 220 volt electrical power.

When we were in the Missionary Training Center they showed us a video of Elder Bednar, one of the Twelve Apostles, teaching missionaries a few years back.  While I was impressed by all that he said, there was one simple thing that I found especially profound.  It is obviously a foundational principle of Christianity, but I was greatly impressed by the way he put it, and find myself remembering and taking into account his phrase often.  He said, "It's not about you."  Then he repeated it.  "It's not about you."  How true that is.  "It" is about others.  It is about Jesus Christ, and about other people - remembering that when we serve them, we serve him.

Elder Emfield

Arrested!

Last night we went to the temple, then out to dinner with some other senior missionaries.  On the way home we got arrested.  First, let me say that in Ghana, arrested means pulled over by the police (who are sometimes not really police but impersonators, you never know).  I think they call it arrested because they can take you in to the police department right there if they want.  They also are known for jumping into your car and making you go where they tell you to go.  We have been trained to keep our doors always locked, so they couldn't do that to us.

Here, the light system is a little different than in the US.  The light is green then it is a flashing green.  Flashing green means it is about to go yellow and yellow lasts only about 2 seconds then turns red.  If the back of your car or truck is still in the intersection when the light turns red, you have run the light.  We were driving along a main road and the light flashed green once, then yellow, then red.  We did not have time to stop because it was about a 3-4 second interval between flashing green and red.  We kept going and a bit down the street, an officer pulled up next to us on a motorcycle and banged on the door.  He told us to follow him and pull over.  We were in the left lane of 3 lanes to he took us to the right lane and into a tro tro stop.  He came to the passenger side of the car and told us we had run a red light and he was going to take us in.  I guess I should clarify. He told Elder Emfield that.  He made it very clear that I was the passenger, not the driver and I should keep my mouth shut and hands in my lap.  I had been looking in the glove compartment for the cell  phone and international driver's permit.  He told me to put the papers back in the glove compartment and just sit there because this didn't concern me.  We needed the cell phone, so I quietly opened the glove compartment and found it without him seeing me do it.  

He said he would take us to the Police Station and we would have to go to court.  Then he "reconsidered" and said he would make us a deal.  If we would pay him 300 cedis right then and there (also known as a bribe) he would let us go and save us all the trouble.  We told him we needed to call our fleet manager and he would handle it.  The fleet manager is the man who is in charge of all the cars we rent as senior missionaries.  He also has contacts in the police department and makes sure we are safe and don't get ripped off or thrown in jail.  We are taught to always call him whenever something like this happens and let him handle it for safety reasons.  Elder Emfield was looking up the number and the officer kept telling him to put the phone down and pay him.  He did not want us to call.  He kept asking what we had for him, so we offered him a Book of Mormon.  He said he already had some at home and didn't want that, he wanted money.  At least it was a good try.  Some arguing went on for a while and he kept telling us we could save both of us a lot of time if we would just pay him on the spot or he would take us in and we would have to appear before the court and pay 1200 cedis.  We refused to pay until we talked with the fleet manager.  Finally, he seemed to  lock onto the word "manager" and asked if he was a big man in our church.  He asked if he was over all the missionaries.  We told him yes, when it came to our cars.  I think that scared him off at that point because he said we were wasting his time and to just go home and get some rest.  We were able to leave without paying or any other trouble.  Almost all the senior missionaries get arrested at least once while they are here.  It's almost a rite of passage.  

Life is never boring here.  We are taught a lot of safety rules here that often seem silly or strange but there are important reasons for those rules.  As long as we follow them, things seem to fall into place.  Obedience does have its benefits.  

Sister Emfield

Ghanaian Car Wash

Notice the big water container on the right.

This is David.  He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He made these batiks for Primary and Relief Society.  He  also makes beautiful carvings.  I hope to bring some home with me.  We were at an outdoor Cultural Market.  

Challenges and Rewards

Hello friends,
Mission life here has both its challenges and its rewards.  Let me begin with the former.

Mold!  We live in a tropical climate where it is always quite warm, and often hot.  High humidity is ever present.  While it is not as bad as it is in some areas, it is still high and the result of all this is that mold grows everywhere: shower tiles must be regularly treated with bleach or, you guessed it, mold grows; a wash cloth left in the shower to dry molds; bread molds (our record is 3 days after purchase); we have neighbors whose ceiling is unsound due to . . . (wait for it) . . . a mold infestation! Even leaving your toothbrush in its container from one day to the next can have moldy consequences.  Trust me, I have gotten mine in the morning only to find that mold had grown all over the bristles since the day before!!!

Outside clothes lines.  Can't use them.  That is fine, as we have a dryer but not everyone does and there is a fly, I am told, that lays its eggs in clothing drying on a line.  When the larvae hatch they burrow into the skin of the person wearing them, normally in the more personal parts of the body.  This leads to rashes that are uncomfortable and hard to cure.  It looks like some of the young missionaries have been victims of this malady.

Bodies of fresh water.  They must be avoided.  They tend to have parasites that will infect any human coming in contact with them.  There are some beautiful falls north of here that people like to visit.  But, if even the spray gets on you, you will get a parasite that can seriously damage the liver.

I do not speak Twi.  It is a common tribal language.  Nuff said.

Environmental consciousness.  Non-existent.  Accra normally has a grey sky - smog.  A large percentage of the vehicles spew out great clouds of black smoke as they drive down the road.  There are large piles of litter next to roads, near housing, and along drainage ditches (which are seen everywhere, needed during the rainy season).

 Stalled vehicles in traffic.  This is a daily occurrence.  In the middle of rush hour cars, SUVs, taxis, tro-tros (especially tro-tros-for a description of these see our earlier posts), and semi's break down and block lanes, forcing vehicles to move into the surrounding lanes, choking them up.  Traffic can then back way up.  The latter is especially true when one after another after another breakdown occurs on the same street.

But, there are rewards.  Consider.

Road rage is unheard of.  In spite of some of these challenges, people almost universally keep their cool.  The worst that happens in my experience is someone honks their horn.  If someone breaks down, or puts a wheel in one of the drainage ditches, or is in an accident and as a result blocks the road, a group of young men will come forward, pick up the vehicle unless it is a semi or something, and move it out of the way!  They do this in the way of helping out, trying to be of assistance, not with a resentful attitude.

People are exceedingly polite.  "Yes, please" is the common expression but it doesn't mean what it does in the States.  For example, the question "Is it your birthday?" would elicit the response, "Yes, please."  Basically meaning, "Yes, if you please," even though it would be true even if you don't please.  It is just a polite way of giving a positive response.

We are met with such love and shown such respect.  Yes, that occurs in the church elsewhere. But this goes a step further.  Virtually every time we show up to church our presence is acknowledged by the individual conducting the meeting, and we are often invited up to the stand to bear our testimonies.

Interaction with the littlest ones is cute.  Many of them are unfamiliar with white people and if they are about two will come over to us as we sit in Church and stare.  It is not offensive as they do not mean anything by it.  They are curious.  I always try to wave at them and normally they wave back.  Some will eventually kind of adopt us.  I have one young boy who comes over to me each time I visit his ward congregation and wants up onto my lap.  I have more hair on my arms than most of the men do here.  As a result, little ones will come over and stroke them in fascination, or run up and touch me, then run away.

Recently, we attended a stake conference and the choir was really quite good.  They were color coordinated in white shirts and blouses, the director was very animated, and professional (for those who do not know, choir members and directors in the Church are unpaid volunteers) and the accompanist (also an unpaid volunteer) was very good.  Pianos and organs are not in use here so electronic keyboards are what are used in the meetinghouses.  The choir did a fantastic job, and sang with conviction and enthusiasm.  I was especially moved when they sang, "Because I have been given much, I too must give" because of how little some of them have.  I was also impressed with "Come Oh Thou King of Kings" as they called for the Second Coming of Jesus.  These people who lack make sure to have one set of nice clothing to wear to church to honor God.

There is a hungering after God in the land.  Twice when we have gone for fuel (there is no such thing as a self service pump here) out of the blue the attendant asked us for a Book of Mormon (yes, we carry these with us) and we gave each of them one.  Just out on the streets people often know who the missionaries are and call me "Elder" before they can see my nametag.

Yes, we have our challenges but we are so glad that the Lord sent us here.  We will always love Ghana.

Elder Emfield

Many men here, if they have to go, will simply pull off to the side of the road and urinate in the dirt, drainage ditch or whatever is there.  Someone clearly does not want that to happen next to their property!

This is a view of the crowded parking lot after the recent stake conference we attended.  Notice the pavement: bricks.  Much nicer looking than simple asphalt.  If you look closely enough you can see that almost none of these are private vehicles.  Mostly tro-tros (vans for hire as a half taxi half bus - hired basically like you do a taxi in the States), with a few taxis, and even fewer private vehicles mixed in.  Few members own a car.

This is the first driver's training car we have seen here.  Notice the scratches and dents.