Bump day! We have been here 6 months!

Good afternoon friends and family! We have probably done many wonderful things, but it's hard for me to remember them all when I sit down and write. I will start by telling you a little about day to day life here in Central Ghana. I say Central Ghana because when you travel north of Accra it becomes very remote and therefore life is a little different out here. Utilities are unreliable. At any moment you don't have water or electricity. This becomes inconvenient when you have one preparation day out of the week to clean your house and the water is out the whole day. The water that comes out of the tap is not potable. The church provides us with a water filter in which we are most grateful. It is extremely hot here and most people do not have air conditioning. They carry around a handkerchief so they can remove the sweat from their face as they go about. Women carry their small children tied by a scarf to their backs. They nap this way through out the day as their Mother's work about. You see more people out and about in the morning because it is cooler. Ghanaian's sweep everything. The dirt, the rocks, everything. They sweep with a short broom that consists of a few sticks.

Greetings are very important. you greet everyone you see as you walk by. Shaking hands is very important. Every one gets in a line to shake hands with everyone else. When you do this you always do it it from right to left. I always get confused my right or their right. Anyway, they are usually patient with this abrony (white person). You should ask them how they are doing and enquire about their family and they will do the same back.

Getting commodities is difficult. We have to go to about 5 stores to pick up the things that you need. They don't keep things very well stalked. They are always running out of things. Their customer service isn't very good. If I ask a store employee where something is they act annoyed that you are bothering them. They stalk the shelves in the middle of the day and get annoyed that the customers are trying to shop. They usually have a parking attendant and they will help you park and they follow you around helping carry your stuff in the store. That is considered respectful. When we go to get gas, sometimes they are out. When they are out of a product they say that it is "finished". "The gas is finished", "the potatoes are finished". There is nothing here that is ready made or what an American is used to eating and I am not a picky eater. If you want a treat, you have to make it. I have not been able to find wheat flour in Sunyani. I'm pretty sure we will find it in Kumasi, but Kumasi is 2 1/2 hours away. The Goodriches left us with about 25 lbs of flour. We have been here 6 months and we are just getting to the end of it. I will have to go search for it now. Collaborating with the other Senior couples is life saving. We have a group text and we let each other know when we find certain treats or hard to find items. When the young American missionaries come over and we have certain treats they really appreciate our finds as well. I have developed a new love for cooking and baking. When it becomes essential I feel the Lord has blessed me to find the things that I need and even somethings we want. It is fun to feel grateful for the smallest of things. With all that being said, Pinapples, Mango's and banana's are plentiful. They are delicious too. We can also find Tomatos, onions, avacado's and plantains. I enjoy those too. Casava is their staple and I don't really eat it. They also have these really big yams. They are not orange yams, they are white yams and they are huge. I haven't really eaten those much either. We are very careful about eating food from the market such as these. We clean them well with bleach water and rinse them with filtered water before we eat them and we haven't had any problems.

The Junior missionaries do much to help the branches. When we show up they always have us get up and share something. I am finding it is getting easier to do. I usually share something that I have been reading in the book of Mormon. Elder Fuell always has something good to share that he has been thinking about. If I go to the primary (children's classes) I usually teach them a primary song and we talk a little about what the words mean. It is hard to get them to participate in back and forth teaching like that. They are not accustomed to giving their ideas. They just like you to teach them and they like to learn.

Ghanaian's love to stop and talk to white people. They are so curious about us and they want to know why we are here. They are never in a hurry and always have time to talk. I love this about them. They also have the best smiles. A Ghanaian smile lights up the whole room. They also love Jesus Christ and love to talk about him. They have messages about the Savior on the back of taxi's, Tro tro's (vans to take people places) and Pragia's (Little skooter type taxi's). They think Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to this world. They are not wrong. There is no separation of church and state here. They teach the Bible in school and they are all very well versed in the Bible. They readily accept the Book of Mormon because it is another testament of Jesus Christ and they love Jesus Christ. They carry big burdens, they don't have much and they are so happy.

I have really grown to love the young Missionaries. We are so lucky to have Sister Missionaries in our zone. They are all Women of color. They are either from Africa or some of the Islands. They are some of the best ladies I have ever met. They are very faithful and hard working. They are all very sweet. I cannot say enough good things about them. The Elder's from America cary a heavy load, because they speak English well and they make up much of the leadership. The African and other Elder's work very hard to learn English and to learn leadership and eventually lead out. We have many cultures here with hundreds of different languages and dialects. We learn much from each other.

Driving here is a whole other thing. I leave that up to Elder Fuell. There really aren't any rules. We Just pray that we are going to arrive safely. There are many hazards. I'm surprised that there aren't more accidents. We just haven't seen many.

Humanitarian stuff is coming along. There is much paper work. The Church doesn't just give organizations money. They will build them a clinic, bathrooms for a school or help them get a well and ect. It is a very long slow process. Nothing happens quickly. This can feel frustrating at times but in the end we know it is the Lord's money and we can rest assured that 100% goes to those in need. There is much to do to educate on taking care of what is given. I really like how it all works. Sometimes there are some cultural differences that we have to be patient with, but in the end we are all brothers and sisters working on the Lord's behalf to feed his sheep. I feel it is a pleasure to be a part of.