Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Small and Big Miracles Happen every day

 I want to start out this New Year with my knowledge and conviction that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are sending divine help, guidance, and blessings every day.

Someone we love told us about his car breaking down with his wife and children at the store. He was currently walking back to his home to get the things necessary to fix it and had a walk of seven miles to go to her aid. Jeffrey and I decided to pray and Jeffrey asked God for a miracle in his behalf. 

Taking the faith I have, I texted back that Jeffrey asked for a miracle for him. He then texted and said a lady from the ward jump started his wife's car and that he was headed back to work to take advantage of the miracle working in their behalf. Not much later, he texted back his amazing results. Prayers to God work!

I know the protection and guidance we have received while in Accra are from God also. Some things are so little that it is after I am home safely, or given a talk someone comments on, or I find what I need, or the right person asks the right question that I realize the prayers I have winged up to God have all been fulfilled. 

The truth is I pray my way through almost everyday. Walking on the sand, I prayed my ankle would not give out and that I would keep my dignity. Prayers answered. I prayed as we traveled for safety and a smooth trip. Prayers answered. I pray for help in my lessons, and I pray for what I should do for the day. All prayers are answered. All the time. Every time.

Beautiful ladies

 On Sunday as I walked out of the Sunday School class to go to another meeting, I had to stop and take a picture of three lovely ladies. They were gracious and let me take their pictures. I had to hurry to my meeting so I got one lady's number and just put Beautiful as her name and ran to the Bishop's office for ward counsel meeting. We talked about retaining members after they are baptized.


Can you imagine my surprise when I went to the baptism after the meeting and two of the lovely ladies were getting baptized and will be in our ward!



The mother Barbara who I called Beautiful on my phone was baptized a few weeks ago. Now her girls are getting baptized also. Time to put in practice what we were talking about in our ward council meeting. At least I have her number! I sent all pictures to her.

Missionaries on Saturday

 Most Saturdays Jeffrey enjoys talking about questions and finding answers in the scriptures with the Elders. We are privileged to have them in our home.

the youngest two are from our ward

The Elder on the left is leaving to go back home to Tonga this week.


Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year in Twi

Before and After

 Jeffrey and I went to Antoinette's on Saturday morning. Before his haircut he jumped out of the car and fogged up because it was so warm outside - 8 am


After, he jumped out of the car and fogged up again because of the air-conditioning in the car and warm humidity outside.


I don't see a whole lot of difference after his haircut. Still it is always s nice to have a trim to look good.

Times and Days are Changing

 After getting home on Thursday, we had no fresh food in the fridge. I arranged with Eugene to go out shopping at the market and then at the grocery stores to stock up.

Hey! It was a great idea. Going at 9 am instead of 10:30 or 11 makes a big difference in the crowd and transportation on the roads and shopping is much better. I wanted to see if the market was really a good deal or not. Eugene took down all the prices he paid at the market and then we compared them to the grocery store prices. Hands down in the market, the prices and freshness are better.


Some of the streets are still colorful due to the political flags still flying
The haze you notice is not fog.  The Harmattan winds are dropping fine sand (dirt) all over Ghana.

In some cases it was a third cheaper in the market. Some just a bit less. My 20 Cedi cabbage from the market was four times bigger than the 20 Cedi cabbage head in the grocery store.

It is nice to find good deals and better prices. It takes a little more time and searching, so I know why some want to go in one store and walk out with everything they need. But I have so many causes to send money to, that I want to get a good deal where I can. 

Since I'm making a new shopping day, making a new temple day is going to be easy too. Instead of Thursday being out Relief Society day, I will now go to the temple on Thursday and have Tuesday be the Relief Society day. Wednesdays and Thursdays will be temple working days. Tuesdays will be Relief Society concerns, and Friday morning I'll go shopping. We'll have to see if anyone is available to go with me. 

Monday, December 30, 2024

Christmas Day 2024

 Jeffrey and I got up early to watch the sun rise and go see any turtle sightings. Nada.

No movement of any kind in the hatching grounds

Fishing boats headed out to ply the ocean waters

Dogs had dug up and eaten all the turtle eggs

Lots of broken turtle shells

The mama's trail - slide of shell with flipper marks on each side


The conservatory lady could tell us how the mama turtle had come ashore, started one hole, found too much rock and had began another. After she laid her eggs and left, the dogs came early and ate them all.

She said that usually they have guards patrolling the area, but they always have a vacation at Christmas time........note to self, do not come during vacations.

The Wilson's walked a long ways down the beach with the conservatory lady hoping to find some live turtle eggs, but to no avail. Jeffrey and I stopped a little early and just enjoyed the morning together and made videos to send to our children.

Our video will show up on January 1, 2025 https://youtube.com/shorts/6cvjTlBiuA4


Jeffrey and I enjoyed the day together. The Wilson's walked miles along the beach, had breakfast and then went home. We stayed for Christmas and enjoyed walking, talking, exploring, and taking pictures. It is a very fun and enjoyable resort to stay in.

Really great fish and chips - second only to those found in Ireland






We talked to our children and could tell we were having a different experience 

Day had started to cool down as the sun started to set



Christmas Eve

 The sun seems to come up right over the ocean. I noted that it went down just off to the right of our room. It looks like it makes a high arch in the sky and comes down close to where it came up. I'm wondering how it all works and why it looks like that.

When I called reception, they told me no turtles had hatched, so I skipped the turtle walk. The Wilson's went and wondered where I had been. They didn't find anything. My ankle doesn't work so well in sand and on gravel. But I told them I would be there on Christmas morning - just in case there were hatching turtles!

Sun coming up over the ocean

There were four or five people raking up the trash that had floated ashore in the night

Plate of fruit for breakfast - yummy!

The Wilsons had planned to go to a fish market that had a smoked fishery. I decided to go along with them as Jeffrey had to deal with some work-related things. I could tell it was serious and hard decisions had to be made.

Our trip was interesting, fun, and not quite what we had expected, but interesting anyway. First, no one goes out on the ocean on Tuesdays. A day of rest for the ocean on Tuesdays. The smoked fish was not being smoked but we could see how they had stacks of wire to hold the fish in wire trays over the fire. I would imagine the fish next to the fire would possibly get burnt, but the rest would get smoked through the layers. But we could only use our imagination. 

No one spoke very much English and the children hardly at all. We did not take the "tour" we were offered but went down to the ocean to see the beach. The children came in ones and twos until we had a small company following us all over the sand on the beach. Elder Wilson said he felt like the Pied Piper. He took some fun pictures of the kids which they loved.

We found plenty of boats that had come to die and plenty of boats that were in use. The fun part was watching men sew up nets. They used their toes to hold the line taunt and very nimble fingers with a "needle" to sew the cord with floaters to the net and also to sew pieces of net together. Lots of head motions to talk as we didn't speak each others language well. They spoke English better than we could figure out their language.


None of these children spoke English. They would just point or bring things they thought were of interest to us. 


Old boat that is just about gone


Sister Wilson started collecting shells. The children quickly brought her all kinds of treasures.


Driving back from the ocean, Sister Wilson saw a woman sewing in a little shack. We stopped to explore and watch them sew without electricity.


Fishing Nets being 'sewn' --








By the time we got back to the resort, I was a little too hot. Fun day but had a headache and just wanted to stay inside with the AC. I worked on the elephant puzzle and then went out at night with the Wilson's for dinner and watching all the many activities the resort had available for fun.
Activities for every age group. Three swimming pools, ball games, archery, chess, etc.

Tennis courts next to our rooms


Singing and Dancing


Prampram-- for the Turtle Conservatory Resort

 When the Powells came out last summer, they had an unforgettable experience watching the newly hatched turtles go out to sea and made sure some newly laid eggs got put in a protected place. Our trip didn't quite have the same experience.

We started out early with Eugene driving.


It wasn't too long of a drive and we actually made good time and got there before noon. Eugene got an uber back to Accra and told us he would be back at 10 am on Thursday morning.

We met the lady who takes care of the turtles and she told us the batch had just hatched the day before. The information on the website is close but not exact as the turtles decide. She said the weather is the biggest factor and the more hot it is the longer they take to hatch. The time in the egg is shorter if it is colder. Interesting.

I asked all kinds of questions, she was very nice to answer what she could.

We looked around at the animals they have here and couldn't resist taking a picture of the tortoise and the hare. No running today. Just good buds.


This is the closest to turtle watching that we got for the week. But there were other great things about the C Resort. Good food, lots of entertainment, and a really spacious room. 

The Room -- Wow

Going around the room......
The space was large enough for three king size beds - with room between them















And a finishing touch, the turtle keyring


I set up a jig-saw puzzle that I had gotten from another missionary.


A fun thing to do in the heat of the day. The evening had a nice breeze and was very comfortable. We went to dinner with the Wilson's whom we had told about this place and invited them to come along.
Elder Dean and Sister Wilson, the secretaries to the Area President

Delicious food!

When we unrolled our placemat, we found out silverware. I think my sister Sharon should check it out.