Ghana Cape Coast Mission

  Selling Crabbing Fishing

  P-day is the day that missionaries look forward to all week.  It is the day that we take off from missionary work and "prepare" or play.  P-days in Ghana are especially wonderful.  Most of our P-days are spent by the beach.  The beaches are not crowded, their lined with palm trees and a surfers dream (Although you never see any one riding the waves).  We spend most of our P-days eating on the beach or today golfing on a coastal golf course. No one kept score today!  We blamed it on the "greens"              

Ghana Cape Coast was the hub of most of the slave trade that started in the middle of the 15th century.  There are over 60 Castles that dot the 300 mile coast of Ghana.  We visited the Cape Coast and Elmina castles this week on P-day. The outside looked like a castle, but inside was a dungeon.  This cell housed hundreds of female enslaved people that slept on hard brick.     There were three exits from the Castle for the enslaved people.  This exit was called the Exit of No Return which led to the ships.  The other two exits were over the castle wall for those that died while imprisoned and the last exit was for the pregnant women who who had been impregnated by the Governor of the castle.  They were let free because no one would purchase an enslaved person with child.    

 After it was announced in 1978 that "all worthy male members of the church may be ordained to the Priesthood without regard for race or color."  The first baptism's happened here at Baptism beach in Cape Coast Ghana.  Billy Johnson was one of first African's baptized at this beach and was the first African to exercise his priesthood and begin baptizing others at this beach.  Billy Johnson had obtained a copy of a restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon from a friend in 1964 and he knew from the start that it was true.  He began preaching from the Bible and Book of Mormon to his friends.  He contacted Salt Lake City but it was not time to expand into Africa so the Prophets told him to be patient.  He began to preach the gospel without the priesthood and established 3 congregations with thousands of members waiting for the gospel to come to Africa.  When he joined the church in Oct 1978, hundreds followed him into the waters of baptism.  H...

  The Ghana Cape Coast missionaries are incredible.  The first church building we went to this morning for zone conferences did not have water or electricity so we traveled to another chapel in Takaradi.  None of the chapels have air-conditioning.  These amazing missionaries sat in a hot and humid chapel for 5 hours to be taught the word of God.  If you look close enough there were even some missionaries wearing suits.  At the end of the day, the missionaries were treated to an unexpected performance   .