Empty Power Lines

We went out last week to find new schools where we can put in MGRs. We traveled to a school that the district said did not have electricity. We got there and noticed that there were power lines leading right up to and ending at the school. We asked the supervisor who came with us to explain what was going on. He said that, last year during the elections, one of the presidential candidates started a project to put up power lines in remote areas so that those areas would vote for him. The problem with this is that they started in the middle of nowhere and didn't connect the new lines to the old ones, leaving the new ones without electricity running through them. The candidate who started the project lost the election so the project stopped. Since there is still quite a distance between the old and the new lines, they are unsure whether the new president will continue to bring light to them. They think it is possible that, during the next election in 4 years, they will continue the project so that people will vote for them again, but nothing is for sure here.

It kind of reminds me of the Priesthood. Lots of people appear to have the power, but the connection is missing. There is no power flowing through the lines. What a huge responsibility we have to spread the gospel to all those without its light. There are some in our neighborhoods or even our own families who are living a spiritually primitive lifestyle. As Elder Perry said last conference: We are the finders. Missionaries are the teachers. If we approach our friends, they won't get scared and run away like they would if the missionaries approached them. Help them to see the benefits of having light in our homes. Invite them over. Allow them to feel the warmth of the gospel. As you prayerfully invite others to come unto Christ, they will see what it can do for them and they will come.

Child-trafficking

A few weekends ago Taylor, Matt, and I went for a walk with Arabna. She's the little girl we live with. We got about 5 minutes down the road when a woman pulled over in a taxi and called us over. We all walked over there and she asked us who and where Arabna's mother was, why we had her, and all sorts of questions. We explained what was going on and she said, "Well, where is her mother? It's just a little weird to see 3 white people with a black baby walking down the street without the mother." Eventually, she wanted to go meet the mother because she thought we were child-traffickers! She made us get in the taxi and go with her to meet Anowa! When we got in the car, I turned to Taylor to ask if she thought the woman was just trying to kidnap us. Don't worry, we made it safely back to the house. I guess it's a good thing that people are looking out for each other and their kids, but it's kind of sad that they have to.

Mormons and Masons

A few weeks ago, we began production on an EPI movie to help the schools understand to goals of EPI. Since the filming is taking place at a school that already has had a MGR for a while, the paint was chipping off a little bit and the MGR didn’t look new. When the producer was talking about the scene where the school gets a new MGR, he looked at us and asked when we would have it painted by. We had no plans to paint, so we consulted amongst ourselves and decided that we could come the next day to paint it. Taylor and I got dropped off at the school because the film crew needed to use our car and we started painting. Of course, it started raining half way through, but we kept going. It didn’t rain too hard, so that was convenient. We finished and, having no car, started to walk out to the main highway—about a 15 minute walk. We came to the main highway and looked around. The night before, we walked about 30 minutes to the closest town (left), but that was in the opposite direction from home so we decided to start walking right. We didn’t realize until about an hour into our walk that the next town was not “just over the hill” like we thought, but on the other side of the 3^rd hill we came to. So, after about an hour and a half of walking in the blazing sun, we finally came to the town. I now wear a permanent crew neck T-shirt, as if my farmer’s tan wasn’t defined enough before I left! We found a place to wait for the trotro (little bus thing) and started talking to some guys who were also going to Accra. We were talking to one guy and all of a sudden, he said, “I’m a mason, like a free mason.” I don’t think I’ve ever met one in real life! That was pretty cool. We talked about it for a while and Taylor gave him a pass along card with a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. He said, “It looks just like a Masonic temple.” I said, “Ya, it would.” We explained a little about the history of our church then invited him to come with us sometime. He said he would. He's been traveling a lot since we met him, but he said he would call us when he got back in the area.

After about 20 minutes of watching the trotros pass us by because they were all full, one of the guys finally stopped a car driving by and asked if we could get a ride. We got in and were on our way. As soon as we shut the doors, Taylor and I looked at each other like, “we just got in a car with 2 guys we’ve never met before.” That would never happen in America. It was nice to have a 2 hour drive in a car with A/C and for free!

Sorry

I just realized that it's been a month since I last posted on here. Sorry about that. I'll try to post a story a day now, so I can catch up on some stuff.