Saturday afternoon, May 15, 2021 After the training, we picked up the Kittelsons and drove off to visit another castle, this one in Elmina: the Elmina Castle.   Bigger and better than the Cape Coast Castle, I think.   The same stories were told about how the castle was used.   It is located west of the other castle.   You can see the other castle way off in the distance.   The usual salespeople outside the castle.   Pressure tactics used.   Didn’t buy a thing.   The drive to the Castle took us through town.  We saw this familiar sign. That black sign at the end of the street.  Welcome to the church house in downtown Elmina.  Everyone is welcome. Here's a picture from another angle after we had toured the Castle and were checking out the neighborhood. The Castle was bigger than Cape Coast Castle in my estimation. I took this just because it looked cool.  A solitary soul again the water and rocks.  She was down by the ...

May 16, 2021, Sunday Sunday morning, I selected the Cape Coast 1 st ward to attend.  Bishop Albert Sam.  A good young man, who I learned later, has been involved in a stake position and knows the Church’s financial policies and procedures.  We, the Kittelson’s and Elaine and I, were asked to share our testimonies in Sacrament meeting.  The assigned speakers were good and there was still time, so the Bishop asked two brethren to share their testimonies; two brethren, one older than the other.  I spoke with the older one after the meeting.  He was baptized in 1978 after he had a vision of the SL Temple and told it was the church to join.  Years later he visited SL where he walked around the temple and saw the same thing he had seen in vision.  This is a church of miracles and heavenly experiences, he said.  I agreed.  He was a young man in 1978 and is still strong in the church. In Sunday school there was a lengthy discussion among the ...

 May 15, 2021, afternoon The drive back to Cape Coast was a different route.   We went along the coastline most of the way on our journey to “baptism beach” where the first baptisms in Ghana were performed in December 1978.   If you remember, the revelation on the priesthood and all worthy male members was announced in June 1978.  Ghanaians and Nigerians had for years petitioned the Church for missionaries to come and for the Church to be established here.  That finally happened in December 1978.  The baptism  location, just on the east end of town, has changed appearance over the years.   It is now used as a slaughterhouse.   There is a large cement pad where the slaughtering takes place and ocean water is used to clean the place up.     The best part of that visit was to talk to two fishermen who keep their boats there; Andrews and Isaac.   They appeared to lack education except for how to fish.   Had a good visit a...

 Saturday, May 15, 2021 Saturday, Elaine and I got up early, ate the buffet breakfast (pretty good because we avoided the fish heads), and set out to our training not far away at the Abura Stake House.   All three stake presidents were there along with some counselors and clerks.   We spent three hours together talking about how these three new stake presidencies can get started off right regarding Church financial policies and procedures in the stakes and wards.    It is very, very important and tough to deal with especially in this “cash economy”.   As the economy is maturing, there is currently little credit available to businesses and none really to individuals.   People work from day to day to provide food on the table and a roof over the heads.   They can’t save much, if anything, because they don’t make much.   The basic deal is, m any work each day to make it through the day.   The church provides the local units with funds to ha...

Friday late afternoon and evening, May 14, 2021 We checked into the hotel, put things in the room, jumped into the truck and proceeded down into the city.   We had been warned to expect to be swarmed at the castles by locals selling their stuff.   So very true.   We took the tour, saw the dungeons, for the men and separate ones for the women.   The slave trade was a bad thing.   Those being sold were treated terribly.   The sellers were stupid businessmen as well as morally retarded persons.   Many slaves died in that place due to the living conditions.   Many died as well on the ocean voyage to North American and the Caribbean Islands, and wherever else they were sold. I had to include this last picture.  These are Ghanaians enjoying a visit to this castle just like us. These people look so good in colorful clothing. Remember, these people had been sold into slavery by their fellow Africans.   The Europeans wanted gold, silver and oth...