Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay…I guess they were chocolate chunk (Natasha said she couldn’t find chocolate chips, so she smashed up a chocolate bar), but they were SO good!  I had FOUR of them!  I know…but it’s just been so long since I’ve had dessert…I couldn’t help it.  And that’s even after the huge, delicious feast of jollof, fried chicken, fried fish, and salad that Marian made.  It was SO fun!  We had that Sunday dinner and movie night all together again…and this time the power stayed on = )  We watched that movie, “17 Miracles,” that we started last time, and it’s SO good!  I highly recommend it!!!!  It even made me cry a tear out of both eyes!  It was really sad!!!!  But yeah…so inspiring!...I totally recommend it!  What hit me the hardest (oh…it’s about the Willie Handcart Company) was when one mother was talking about how badly she wanted to get her family to Salt Lake so that they could be sealed.  I thought, we have such easy access to the temple and the sealing ordinances that take place there.  Why do we give up that privilege based on choices that make us unworthy when others sacrificed so much, even death, just for the opportunity?!  It really put things into perspective!

Church was awesome!  The temple president and matron were there…and the wife, especially, was so sweet…and it was really great to be able to talk to her for awhile!  Plus…she said that if I want to go to the temple before I can get my recommend…her husband just has to call my stake president or branch president!  Woo-hoo!  It’s interesting going to church in a place where Christianity is so common, but so are some lingering tribal beliefs.  I feel like people make such interesting comments from such neat perspectives, but then you also have these kind of cringing moments.  As we read 2 Nephi 26, where it talks about “churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice,” people were able to really relate personally.  There are so many churches here, many of which are wonderful, but some of which are really hard to understand.  For example, a friend of Mandy’s was tied up and beaten by her father for days because his pastor said his daughter was a witch, and he was trying to get her to confess to it.  And a man who was very sick called his pastor, who charged him 200 cedis to pray for him, instead of going to the hospital…and ended up not making it.  On the other hand, a mother at the school told of her pastor who came immediately to the hospital when her son was suffering from a head injury, and stayed and prayed with them until the middle of the night.  Anyways…the superstitions are still so close to the present (as opposed to being ancient beliefs), so you often find them mingled with doctrine a bit, which can be difficult.  But they’re just such a spiritual people, so you find so many blessings that come with that, too.  In fact, the four stakes in this area will be splitting into SIX, and they’re making a new mission in Kumasi! (…or so I was told by the temple matron)