Missionaries, and more Missionaries!

Every time I receive that wonderful missionary recommendation email, I say good news, and I also say ohhh more work.  We have 25 coming 3 April, 9 the 15th of May, 24 the 26th of June, and 5 (so far) for the 7th of August.We are supposed to be over 200 missionaries by the time the mission divides the 1st of July. We are at 168 now so I guess the figures do add up to that. We will have about 17 that will be finishing their missions by the 1st of July, so there is definitely more coming than going. Anyway it is all good and keeps us needing to stay on our "toes" every minute.

We have had a full week with one new missionary, that arrived Wednesday, who had postponed for a few weeks, 40 missionary Zone interviews with President Judd and 40 going to the temple. It is neat to see how the Assistants organize this and it all goes so smoothly. We will have two days this coming week that will be 78 missionaries doing the same thing, and the next week there will be two days with 48 missionaries. President Judd meets with each one individually and it amazes me all the more as to what goes in to making a mission function and to think this goes on all over the world. When I call the Temple Recorder to set up the visits there, I was so grateful that members who were coming from the Cape Coast Mission would need the 10:30 session and we needed the 8:30 and 12:30 sessions. I have to look at little things like that as enormous blessings.

We had a good day in Senchi today and feel very blessed to be serving with these good people. The attendance was better and we had the opportunity of sitting in on the Branch Council meeting.  Elder Avery will be working with the Young Men and I will be in the Primary helping sweet Sister Owusu. She has poor eye sight and is probably in her seventies. I wish there were more of the dedicated ones because we need some younger women serving in Primary. I had prepared the lesson and sharing time just in case she wanted help and she asked me to do it all. Because of the language, she interpreted a lot of what I said. I really feel the children need to learn their English better, so I had them repeat what I said from the scriptures and from the lesson I prepared, and they saw that it was possible for them and I to communicate They need that experience from the scriptures, so that they know from where we hear the word of God.The music time was fun and I need to spend a little more time preparing for that as well as the lessons as they enjoy music a lot. Oh by-the-way, all 25 children that were there today range from nursery age to probably 9 or 10 years of age, and it is a small room..They have to be all together because there are not enough rooms and not enough teachers. I think that quite a few of the children come from homes where the parents are not members but they like to come so it is wonderful to have the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Learning all their names is a challenge but one that I need to accomplish.

Well, it has been a long, but good day. I had some later nights this week getting some curtains hemmed so the Oda Elders could have them when they came for their interviews, so I need to try to get to bed earlier. I also am doctoring a sore throat and feel I need to get some more rest. I am most grateful for the great companion I have and it is a blessing to be serving with him.

Love to you all,
Sister Avery (mom & grandma)