The Weekend

Yesterday was really fun = )  The boarders asked me to come (well, told me I had to come…haha = ) for the Sports Festival that they decided to put on when they found out the Sports Program at the neighboring school was cancelled (the school, which is like a really good, highly sought after school is called De Youngster’s Academy…just think that’s funny = )  They did such a great job organizing it, going back and forth between girls’ games and boys’ games (I was very impressed with the time they gave to the girls = )  And the girls actually really got into it, especially when it was the Form 2s and Form 3s playing against each other (that’s the oldest and second-oldest classes).  They seemed to have so much fun, and everyone was watching was really entertained…so it was pretty great = )

Of course they didn’t start when they said they would.  I was told to come between and 11 and 12 because they’d be starting at noon, right after lunch.  Well…when I got there at 11:30ish I was told, rather, that lunch was at noon, and we’d start after.  We eventually ate lunch at 1:45...haha…and started after that, at about 2:30.  I thought Hawaii and Mormon Standard Times were bad…but we got nothin’ on Ghana Standard Time…haha = )  But yeah…those extra hours gave me the chance to practice some plays and drills with the boys…meaning football plays and drills, of course…haha…so that was really fun!  I never really get the chance to just take shots or dribble around.  I even taught them butt traps, which they weren’t really getting, but we all had fun kicking the ball high up in the air and trying to be the first to it = )

When I got home, Nana Yaw, Natasha, Dante, and Iris were over watching General Conference with Chuks and Mandy and Chichi!  I hadn’t even remembered it was this weekend since I was told we watch it really delayed here.  But Chuks had spent 20 cedis to buy enough credits to watch the first session, and then another 20 to watch the second.  I got there right for the closing song of the first session, but I got to watch the second.  I wished I had been more prepared.  I didn’t have the same experience that I do when I’m going into it with questions I want answered and spiritually ready, but it was still great = )  For the second session, Natasha brought up delicious, homemade popcorn that transported me home a little…watching conference while eating popcorn (or anything for that matter…haha = )  I got to talk to Julia later that night (which was WODERFUL!!!!)…and apparently I had missed that Elder Whiting was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy!  So cool!  I guess I shoulda taken notes because I can’t remember anything right now = /…thank goodness I’ll get to watch them again and read them!

Today was an awesome Fast Sunday!  I have such a testimony of the power of fasting!  I haven’t felt the Spirit very strongly for a long time, but today sacrament meeting was so wonderful and the Spirit was so strong, and I believe it had a lot to do with me fasting.  It was also very special because today was Chichi’s blessing (they call it a “naming” here).  She received a beautiful blessing…and looked so beautiful in this glittery, pale pink, poufy dress (that got glitter all over Mandy, Chuks, and me…haha = )  Patriarch and Sister Opare were there, and both shared their testimonies, recounting the miraculous experience they had in regards to Sister Opare’s healing.  And then some youth boys shared such sweet, simple, humble testimonies.  Oh yeah, and there were THREE confirmations today!  A young boy, a young adult woman, and an old man.  They weren’t related in any way…and it was SO neat to see the Gospel taking hold in such different lives - it really is for everyone and God is no respecter of persons.  The young boy was sitting right behind me, and when he came back to his seat he was just glowing! = )

A lady in Relief Society shared a story about when she came to gain a testimony of the divinity and importance of Visiting Teaching.  I didn’t understand all of it, but she said her landlord told her (she’s a single mother…I don’t know what happened to her husband…but divorce here is VERY rare) that she had two weeks to get out.  She had been longtime friends with him, so didn’t really believe him (the culture here is one of a lot of empty threats).  The next week he told her she had one week, and if she wasn’t out she’d see the bad side of him.  She was so hurt and lost and at her wits’ end…and she just sat down and cried with her children.  She decided that they’d all be better off if she just poisoned herself and them.  It was then that her visiting teacher stopped in…and ended up finding a place for her to stay while she got back on her feet.  The Bishop also intervened, allowing her family to stay with his family for awhile and assisting her in finding work.  Wow!  Talk about people living the way Christ wants us to!  That’s really what the Gospel is all about, isn’t it?

Tonight we got to watch Conference again = )  Like yesterday, there were a lot of technical difficulties, and I thought about how much more spotty it is when watching it over the internet (at least when it’s not a good connection) than on TV.  Then I wondered how often my sweet Obachan silently deals with these same kinds of problems when she watches General Conference in Japanese over the internet.  Of course, if she does have problems when watching, I’d never know because she never wants to trouble us.  Mom…please tell her how much I love and miss her!  I especially loved Elder Anderson’s talk, where he kept asking us to ask ourselves, not “Do other people know that I’m a Christian?” but “What does Jesus think of me?”  That’s something I want to do so much better at - caring about what Christ thinks of me more than what others think of me.