Missionary service is the best!!

 Good morning to you all from Ghana.  We are busy here going about doing good.  I have loved serving a senior couples mission.  It has been very nice and refreshing to get out of the rat race of making a living and just immerse ourselves in serving others.  I highly recommend this to anyone who is considering serving.  It has been an amazing experience for Elder Fuell and I.  We have had some hard days and we have experienced some struggles here and there, but I have still enjoyed every minute of this experience!

This is our dear friend Akuragu.  Akuragu came to us about a year ago and asked us to help him with his English.  He wanted to be able to say the Sacrament prayer better, with out mistakes.  We also helped him prepare himself for his mission.  His biological Mother died and this is his Mommy that has raised him from about 16 years on.  Her name is Juliet.  He asked us to drive him two hours to Kumasi to the mission office.  There he would be set apart as a missionary by President Boateng.  The next morning he flew to the MTC in Accra.  He was so excited and also nervous.  I thought I was done sending kids off on missions, but I will add Akuragu to my little band of missionaries I have sent off.  This is a picture of him just before he said goodbye to his Mommy and will leave home for two years.  He will be serving in the Accra West mission.  We received a letter from Akuragu this week.  He was able to receive his endowment in the Accra temple while at the MTC.  He told Louie and I that he felt like he was in the Spirit World while being taught in the temple.  I thought what a great way to describe his experience.  He is learning so much and has a great grasp on the English language now.  We told him that he will have companions that know no English at all.  They will be coming from the Congo and Mozambique and other areas.  He is a hard worker and eager to learn.  God bless you Akuragu.  Let the Lord lead you as you serve.

When we arrived at the mission office, he was greeted by some of our best Elder's who had previously served in his branch.  They welcomed him with a warm embrace and brought him into the brotherhood of missionary service.  I could tell that helped him know he was in the right place doing the best things that he could be doing. 

We took our friend Akuragu to Burger King before we took him to the mission office. He had never had a hamburger before.  They just opened a Burger King for the first time in Kumasi.  

These  cute Sister missionaries role played with Elder Fuell and I at Zone Conference.  I realized the Holy Ghost always testifies of truth even in a role play.  Their humble way of teaching really made it easy for me to feel the spirit.  They did an amazing job.  

Elder Fuell and I after our lesson from the Sister's.  We love being with the young missionaries.  They teach us a lot.

Our 7 year old Grandson Earl broke his arm the week before last.  We sent him a picture of this lady to cheer him up.  No worries, if you can't carry things with your arms, you can always carry it on your head.  I have been here 18 months now and I have never seen these lady's drop anything ever.  They are so good at this.  It is unbelievable.  We try to be respectful and we don't take pictures of many things we see, but this lady loved getting her picture taken!

I had plenty of Dental issues to resolve this week.  We spent 8 ours last Saturday helping an Elder get a tooth extracted.  The actual extraction took from 5-10 minutes after getting him numb.  We had to drive 2 ours out to a town far out there to pick him and his companion up. When we got out there I brought them some banana muffins.  I wanted to make sure he had something to eat before his extraction.  You would have thought I brought them a million dollars.  They were so grateful!  We also found out that they had been with out water and power for about 2 days.  We gave them a ride to the electric company to get their bill payed and to get their power hopefully back on.  Sometimes it is a country wide outage.  It is really nice to minister to these young Elder's.  We also stopped and bought a pineapple and some banana's from a market lady.  They have a blender and now that they have electricity they could make some smoothies for the Elder who just had an extraction.  I overheard them talking to the zone leaders and it sounded like they were struggling small small.  Even missionaries need to be ministered to.  They are young and just trying to figure it all out.  It was a long day of driving, but it felt good to serve them.

I also got to play the piano for a special musical number for zone conference.  After all these months I still get very nervous when I play.  I am trying to work through my anxiety and it only seems to be getting worse.  Oh, well.  I will keep working at it.  The young missionaries inspire me.  I see them do hard things every day, so I guess on account of them I can't just give up.

This Scripture comes to mind when I think of them:  

"But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgements and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come." Alma 58:40.  Of course this is talking about the Stripling Warrior's in the Book of Mormon.  It also applies to the missionaries that are serving through out the world, but for me especially Ghana.  This is not an easy mission, but that is why it is so dear to me.  No one will ever no what we have gone through here except for those who have served along side of us.

Lastly we also visited a group of saints that meets in an area called Nsoantre.  They are a humble group that is just starting out and are not quite a branch yet.  We were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting and bare our testimonies.  In Ghana, greetings are very important.  Even if you are in a hurry you must always take time to greet others.  I told them if Jesus Christ was visiting he would greet each of them and call them by name.  They were all smiling and nodding.  It was a sweet experience. Elder Fuell talked to them about proving themselves faithful by exercising a particle of faith.  

We want to express our sadness of the passing of our good friend Paul Glauser.  He welcomed us into the home town mission and was instrumental in sparking the fire of missionary service for Louie and I.  He greeted us after our mission farewell and was proud of us as we were stepping into full time missionary service.  We are sad that we will not see him when we return, but we know we will see him again some day.  Thanks to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the atonement and resurrection.  We pray for you and your family Vickie and will let you know when we get home.  We thank you for your friendship and example.

We were also sad to here about the passing of brother Dave Hill.  He will surely be missed.  He inspired us by his quiet acts of service and gentle way.  God bless the Hill family as they will mourn.  We love you and will greet you when we return.   

Elder and Sister Fuell