Thursday, January 6, 2022

Thoughts Back

RETROSPECTIVE


       As I finally get ready to put this blog into book form I thought I should think back five and half years. I heard sometime before leaving for Africa that going to Africa was a life changing experience. It was indeed. We arrived in Ghana towards the end of the Ebola crisis and are well into our second year now of the Covid crisis. That has given me a greater realization of how the Lord is in charge and will at some point bring us out once again at the end of another tunnel. Maybe life is a maze that we need to get through with its twists and turns and steps backwards and then we set off again on a different route. 

       How glad I am that our route took us to Ghana. It was such a blessing! Whether our work helped build the Lord's kingdom we don't know but it did help build our faith as we saw the faith of the African Saints. We saw the love they have for the Gospel of our Savior. We experienced their joy and their thankfulness for what they had no matter how small their material gifts seemed to be. We rejoiced in their righteous desires and in their desire to work and learn and become better. Their faces were a testament to their thankfulness for life.

        Even now as we see stores that have a temporary shortage of some items I still marvel at how blessed we are here in the good ole USA. We have an abundance of everything. We will never really hear the phrase; it is finished.

       Barry and I were blessed beyond measure to serve in Ghana and will forever be thankful. May this record of our mission be a testimony to our belief in the God of Heaven, His Son, Jesus Christ, and his gospel and the witness of truth that we receive from the Holy Ghost. We are grateful to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and share our testimonies of its truthfulness as the church of our Savior upon the earth in these latter-days. We thank our Father in Heaven for all of our blessings, especially our family and our dearest friends, and pray that these thoughts will forever let them know of our testimonies. 

       I write and say these things in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.