We are in a Kingship now!

 Good morning friends and family!  Hope you all are well.  We have had a busy month of traveling and contracts.  Here is a little bit of what we have been doing:

This is Elder Fuell hard at work hosting a pre bid meeting for contractors to build a 10 unit teacher's quarters in the far off village of Kulpaliga.

Kulpaliga is a nine hour drive north of Sunyani.  The further you drive north into Ghana, the more remote the country becomes.  Kulpaliga is very remote and struggles to keep a teacher in their village.  We were sad to find out the a teacher was living in a shed during the week with no running water, shower or toilet.  The school cannot teach math or science because they cannot get a teacher who teaches these subjects to commit to teach out there.  At the very least the students are taught to read and write.  Oh how they need more.  We were able to chose a contractor out of those who bid and we are now working on the contractor agreement small small.

I was inspired by watching these children play see saw with an old tree.  They worked so hard in order to have a small thrill or a little fun.

We were able to hand over this borehole to the Asonomaso primary school and community

The children at this school had to cross a busy road and stand in line at a borehole quite far away to get a small drink of water during school.  Sadly a few children were knocked down by cars just trying to find a drink.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints decided they needed a borehole on their property and after talking with an assembly man and a few Chiefs we came to the conclusion the whole community would also benefit from the water by adding this borehole.  

They were plenty happy and showed their joy through dance

 

and also by poetry recitals about how water is life

We see plenty of friendship while visiting the schools

We often see children walking down the road like this.  It warms my heart

They were very gracious and made us these Kenti scarves.  You will see the symbol of the stool on the scarf.  That meant they were inviting us into their kingship.  It was a very sacred honor.  We tried to explain that we only did the paper work and over saw the construction.  They insisted we accept the scarf as a symbol of their friendship to us.  We told them that we would accept it on behalf of Jesus Christ and that the gift was from him.

It is our honor to serve these beautiful people

I love this scripture that I have come across this week in the Book of Mormon.  It sums up how I have witnessed God's love.  "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth.  Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."  Alma 26:37

There has been much to mourn going on in the United States.  Also, there is much to rejoice about and much to be grateful for.

Our dear prophet President Russel M Nelson passed away recently at 101 years old.  He lived a life of much service.  He gave much to the medical community, in his personal life (10 children) and as an apostle and prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We will dearly miss him and his wisdom.  He truly is a prophet, seer and revelator.  He will always be the great peacemaker in my eyes.  I love how transitions of the prophets are so flawless.

We have had a tragedy involving a gunman at a church.  Our prayers are with this congregation.  It seemed so personal.  I think of all of the times I have sat with my family to worship for sacrament meeting.   I have been reflecting on some of the persecution that happened when the church was young.  I had a Grandfather on both sides of my family that were murdered by angry mobs.  One was murdered for a pint of whisky.  There will always be martyrs for our faith.  The Lord's work presses forward.  I am grateful that I have families members that were willing to live and die for their savior Jesus Christ.  It strengthens my testimony.  It helps me stay on the covenant path.

We had a lovely weekend with Elder and Sister Miller and were able to watch general conference.  Every message was an inspiration.

If you get a chance there is a wonderful documentary called Pathway to Hope on youtube.  It talks plenty about missionaries in Africa that are leaving their missions into homelessness.  It is such an inspiration about how these valiant young missionaries are pulling themselves out of poverty with the help of our Savior Jesus Christ.  It really hit home to me, because we experience a lot of worry for our young missionaries of what they are returning to after their missions.  Our mission President said he deals with much home sickness from the American Elders` and much anxiety about going home to nothing from the African Elders and Sisters. We are very blessed in the United States.  The African's are blessed with humility and faith.  There is much we can learn from each other.