Maize everywhere!

We discovered that just around the corner from us, there is maize (corn) growing in the most unusual place. We started to notice, that in every possible spot of ground, throughout our travels, there is corn growing. We think it is because we are in the rainy season and it will grow without having to get water to it; which you can see,by where it is planted,would be an impossible task.

Yes, that is where people have dumped their garbage and the man we saw planting made good use of it.

The road you see is just a short distance from our apartment. It will be fun to see this corn grow to maturity, and for a time, the garbage will not be noticed.

I finally had a response from the Nigeria Enugu Mission that the last two missionaries I was trying to send letters to are in their mission. Yea! Maybe the first emails did not go through. It is very important that missionaries hear something from a mission, so I am so grateful we accomplished that.

Elder and Sister Haws, who work at the Area Office, have organized an Open House at the Stake Center located on the grounds of the Temple, every Wednesday night. They had two banners made, advertizing this along with the sign that the church has, welcoming people to come in and learn about the church. It is a mini, mini, visitor center, but is very informative with a video shown about the Restoration, Eternal families,etc. The missionaries assigned to the ward and branch using the Stake Center, come to help with teaching. They have brochures and Books of Mormon to share. I was very impressed with their efforts to reach more people about the gospel and to teach about temples. The other missionaries can bring their investigators also. It is slowly becoming known, and last Wednesday, three people actually came in from the street and Elder Beaufeaux gave me their names to refer. Sister Haws called me to see if I received them and was so elated with the experience they had with these people and their interest in learning about the church. I think I feel some baptisms coming.

President and Sister Judd visited Senchi today. He came to interview men for a change in the Branch Presidency. My companion will be one of the counselors and the change will take place next week in the Branch Conference. I will probably be spending more time there while he attends meetings, so I guess it will be a good time to prepare a primary lesson, read the Liahona, maybe even teach some conducting or piano skills. We will see what the interest is. We have been working with Brother Coleman who is over the physical facilities of the church buildings in Ghana. We are gradually getting pictures, a decent white board for Sunday School, a sink, towel holder, and soap container for the men's bathroom, and hymn number holders. It may seem silly to get excited over such things, but I do, and I know it shows these dear people that the Lord cares about such things to make their place of worship better. We still need clocks in the classrooms and I want a cabinet for the primary so I don't have to carry so much back and forth each Sunday. I also want a bulletin board to display word strips for lessons, singing time, etc. They do not have magnetic boards here, so my plan to use magnets did not work.

We were able to get some used bedding for Julana and her boys and gave money to Elder Amumi and Elder Royce to take her shopping tomorrow for rice, beans, oil, and some other staples. We also talked to them about taking her to meet Emmanuel Ofori's wife Angela, to possibly teach her the skill of fishing. That saying of teaching a person how to fish versus giving them a fish, really took on powerful meaning today. We pray this will work for her, because her heart is willing and she needs to be able to provide for her children. We also talked about a calling in the church and with the new branch presidency, I see this happening. We also want to suggest that she come and help Brother Odunga clean the building for the District helping with her rent. It is all good good news!

Elder and Sister Wall arrived on Tuesday and we have spent and will continue all month, to teach the in's and out's of office work. They are a wonderful couple and it has been delightful working with them.
 
Before I close, I have one more picture that I think some of my grandchildren will like. We see this lizard every day on this tree just as we enter our apartment area and wonder if this is his hibernation time or what.  Children, see if you can google about this and see what you can find out. (click on the picture to make bigger).

With love,
Sister Avery (mom,grandma)