This is a picture of a fairly typical meal here in Ghana.  It is Kenkey.  (The dough-like ball in the plastic) It is basically  corn meal mixed with corn starch and water.  Then it is fermented  in a warm place for 4 days or so and then partially cooked and then wrapped in corn husks, or banana leaves and steamed.  It is served here with shito . They eat shito here like we eat ketchup or hot sauce.  Shito sauce consists primarily of fish or vegetable oil, ginger, dried fish, prawns, crustaceans, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and spices. These ingredients are usually blended together and cooked in vegetable or corn oil for a little over an hour to create the sauce. It can be very spicy!  So this meal had an added whole deep fried FISH!  Bet you won't be finding this at McDonalds!!  By the way, you would eat this whole meal with your hands. Just take a wad of Kenkey and dip it into the shito and then break off a piece of fish and dip it too!  I am not converted yet.....

I have written it before and I will write it again.  The children here are just the cutest!

I had an interesting experience last week.  I was on Facebook and it recommended that I become friends with a young man named Edward _______. Well, we have a missionary in this mission by that exact same  name, so I requested to be his friend.  A few minutes later, I get a message that says, "who is this."  I then take a closer look and realise that this Edward is not our missionary.  So I tell him that I made a mistake and that I will unfriend him, that I am sorry.  Well, he writes to me:  "before you unfriend me, do you mind if I share something with you?"  I say ok, that is fine.  So he proceeds to write to me about how he has found a wonderful church that has brought him so much joy and that he knows that it would bring me great joy too.  He then says that it is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  At this point, I really do think it is our Elder pulling my leg....and I ask him is he is messing with me?  He says no!  Then he goes on to write about how he has just joined the Church and that it has made him so happy and that he has found the restored Church of Jesus Christ.   He is 14 years old and just so excited to be a member.  That is him in the picture above.  He and I "chat" quite regularly now.  I just love that he is so open about sharing the gospel. 

 Today we met up with Elder Soberly and Elder Mulambo and they took us to meet Edward and his mother.  It was fun to meet him. 

 Last Sunday, we attended the Dunkwa Branch in the Obuasi District.  The Branch was just so friendly and welcoming.  They asked  all of us (we traveled with the Moomeys) to bear our testimonies and also asked the 4 missionaries that serve there to bear their testimonies as they will all be transferred this next Wednesday. We didn't know we would be the program.....but I am getting the feeling that we had better get used to that.  When I attended Relief Society they again asked me to teach them.  This time it was a bit more difficult because most of them didn't speak much English at all, so it was a rather long hour!  I hope that they got something out of our "discussion" about Esther. Afterward, the Branch Presidency met with us and asked if there was anything that we could advise them on.  They are just so humble and teachable.  We reminded them of how young the church is here and how getting it to run exactly like it should will take a minute.  But I think they are doing GREAT and again I am amazed by their faithfulness, faith and humility. I wish everyone could experience the church in Ghana.

This has probably been one the roughest weeks for Elder Garrison.  He is over the finances in the mission and every other Wednesday he requests "subsistence" or the money that each missionary gets every two weeks.  He makes the request on Wednesday and then it is approved by the President and then the money should show up in the missionaries account and they withdraw it at an ATM machine each Monday. Well, for some reason this week the order didn't go through, so there were 200 missionaries that didn't get their money.  Needless to say, he got about a zillion phone calls and had to piece together money by sending it through the phone (called Momo-mobile money), or in some instances the missionaries came to the office for cash.  It was also the week that we got 16 new missionaries and 9 went home and to top that off it was MLC.  So it was a week of weeks!  He ended up doing another order and it finally went through on Friday, so hopefully it will all work out......it usually does.  Somehow it all worked out.....really, the Lord is in the details of this work.  

Speaking of Esther. I have really loved studying this book in the Bible this week.  Of course we all know the scripture in Esther 4:14.  "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” As I think about this scripture, I think about these young missionaries here, leaving their comfortable homes and circumstances and spending 9 hours a day out on dusty roads, sometimes rainy days and always hot days,  talking to people and teaching them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  I really do think that the Lord has saved them "for such a time as this" and for that I am so grateful.  

This past week marked our 1/2 point in the mission. The time really has gone by so fast.  We are grateful that we can do this service for this important work.  We feel the Lord's hand in our lives every single day and also the prayers of our family and friends.  Stay strong and steadfast!

Love,

The Garrisons