One of the things that has been so sad for us to see since we came here are the rising prices of food and gas.  Not because we cannot afford it, but because it is so very hard on the people here.  The above sign shows the prices of gas (on the top) and diesel (on the bottom).  To give you an idea of how they have risen:  when we got here a year ago, diesel was 6.99 a liter and gas was around 4.99 a liter.  So the prices have quadrupled!!  This causes such a hardship on the people here.......because the gas prices are so high, of course the food prices have also skyrocketed.  I hope there will be some changes for them soon.  

The above is a picture of our mission assistants and office elders with middle school children holding pamphlets that teach "The Law of Chastity".  The assistants to the President were able to go to this school and teach them all about this principle.  One might think that they are too young to be taught this commandment, but it is a problem here just like it is everywhere else.  They received it joyfully and there have been quite of few of the students come to church and some of them have already joined the church.  

This is a picture of Elder Beck from Lehi, Utah  and Elder Njirayafa -from Bostwana (our wonderful office elders)....holding fistfuls of Ghanian money.  They do a lot of shopping.  I always ask them if hey knew they would become professional shoppers on their mission?  

We were able to visit the branch that we attended for the first 9 months of our mission and snapped a couple of pictures of two of the families that we love so much.  They each have only been members of the church for about 5 months, but remain faithful and true and it was wonderful to see them again. 

On most Mondays, we are so happy to talk with our missionary grandson, Talor.  He is serving in Goiania, Brazil.  He just hit his year mark too and we are just so proud of his willing heart and diligence.  I know just from the changes that took place in our own boys, that a mission is really such a great foundation for their lives.  We love him so so much!
 

I snapped this picture of this sister at church a few weeks ago.  I have written about the fabric here before, but this fabric  really takes the cake! Can you you see that it has the name of our church on it : "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."  Then it also has pictures of all the Latter Day prophets!  I asked her where she got this fabric and she said that they had it made about 8 years ago!  Isn't she beautiful?

This cute girl is holding up a Strength of Youth pamphlet.  Recently our church revised these wonderful guidelines for our youth.  I was so surprised to see the youth here in West Africa get them so soon!  Now the direction for our youth is more principle based and less rule based.  The idea is that we want our youth to be able to live as Christ would want them to live because they love Him and want the blessings that they will have as a result of their actions.  I know that the Lord loves the youth of these latter days and that they have been saved to live in these days.   Aren't the little ones just so cute too?

Here we are with Elder Kabusubabu and Elder Kabonzo.  They are both from the DRC, so their native language is French.  They come here and have to learn English as well as try to learn a bit of Twi or whatever other dialect is spoken where they serve!  It's not easy.

Last night we attended a cultural event.....probably the only one that will happen on this mission.  It was a big choir concert sponsored by the Celestial Evangel Choir of Ghana.....now renamed Kumasi Evangel Choir Ghana.  There were other choirs there as well.  One of the choirs there was an alumni choir from BYU Idaho.  They joined this choir for some numbers and also sang songs of their own.  The music was absolutely beautiful!  The founder of this choir is interested in the church and a couple of our elders have been teaching him.  He is, however, a very busy man.  He is a medical doctor as well as the director of this choir, and has a family so they haven't been able to teach him too much.  Toward the end of the concert it really got rockin'.  The people in the audience got up and started dancing and singing and really getting into it.  It was a fun evening....although long.  It lasted from 5pm to after 9pm.  I wish I could load the video onto this blog so you could see that, but it won't load!😐😐

That is our last two weeks in a nutshell.  We are so grateful for this opportunity and have fallen in love with the people here.  They just have an overall happy disposition, regardless how hard life can be for some of them.  It is a blessing to witness that and to see the faithfulness of the members of the church here.  Thanks as always for your love and support.  Stay strong and steadfast!

Love,

The Garrisons