New Pictures

With Elder Lords

Elders Barfuss, Lords, Kaelin and Keddington.  Quite the team

Getting Brave

Dear Mom, 

I can't wait to talk to you guys on Christmas. I'm probably gonna cry as soon as I hear you guys. Well, Elder Lords left this morning and it was very bitter-sweet. We will miss him here in Kwabeng, but he's going to Liberia finally. Elder Barfuss and I are staying together for another transfer, so if one of us leaves at the end, we will have been together for 4 1/2 months. Elder Kaelin is getting a ward missionary as his new companion so we will see how that goes.

I got my packages! The elders were especially happy about the beef jerky. We finally got invited to a members house for dinner and you know what, Fufu is actually very hard to eat. But I bucked up and ate an entire ball of it, plus the super spicy soup and made sure I didn't offend the member who made it. I was a little proud of myself. Also we had chicken and the only meat on my piece were the lungs. I ate both of them. :)

We weren't able to baptize this Sunday because Kojo went to a funeral. We will get it this week though. I taught my first lesson on my own and answered their questions with what I knew and with the help of the Holy Ghost.  Besides that, the work goes on.

When i call you guys it will either be in the morning or afternoon. I will call either your phone or the home phone, depending on where you are.

I love you all Sooo much and I will go forward in faith. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love, Elder Seanshine Keddington  

Oh my heart!  I'm having kind of a tough time with him being gone this Christmas season and it sounds like it's not as easy for him as I was hoping it would be.  I'm sure some of it has to do with Elder Lords leaving.  The four of them have gotten pretty close.  

I have to say, I'm proud of him for eating the food without complaint.  For YEARS we have told him that he needed to try new things and not complain because "when you go on your mission..."  So glad to know that those words stuck in his head ;)

We are looking forward to talking to him and will continue to pray for strength for him, especially this time of year.

BTW - for anyone who doesn't know, my mom has called him "Sean-shine" since he was tiny.  It's funny to see him using it as his sign-off.  :)
 

First Thanksgiving in Ghana

Dear Mom, 

Thanksgiving was fantastic. We went to the Couple Missionary's home and like 40 people showed up. The Ghanians didn't know what it was about, but they were happy with all the food. We had grilled chicken with Sweet Baby Ray's Barbeque sauce. It was fantastic! After the dinner we played the summer sport of water balloon volleyball. It was so weird.

We are entering the dry season out here which is the hottest part of the year. It's so strange to think that it's December.  The apartment is holding up well. We currently have a colony of really big, mean ants in our yard that we are trying to get rid of.  These things are like the ones of Indiana Jones.  The pastime we elders have right now is lighting off fireworks we get in town.  Yeah, Christmas is when they sell fireworks. Another we have is baseball using Elder Barfuss's baseball and these pick axe handles you get in town.

The work is fine, slow as usual.  I feel like I'm ready to be a senior companion. The Ghanians are really nice, but recently I'm meeting the jerky ones.  They are very judgmental and will report us if we inconvenience them. Oh well, that's the way they are I guess. We weren't able to baptize Sunday because he hasn't met the branch president.  But we did finally get to watch the Sunday Morning session of Conference. It was about time!  Bless the prophet. My Twi is coming along well. I can greet people perfectly now and now I'm working on questions.

I can't wait to talk to you guys and I love the pictures you sent.  They were both comforting and hilarious.  I love You Guys sooo much and I think of you every day.

Love Elder Keddington

Ps: if you could send a skills mini basketball hoop like the one we have downstairs for Christmas, that would be unbelievable

Look at the size of that email!!  It's a Thanksgiving miracle!  I'm so glad he had such a great Thanksgiving.  We missed him tons around here, but what a great experience he is having.  Looking forward to talking to him on Christmas!!  Now - to see if a mini basketball hoop will fit in a flat rate envelope.  ;)

Transfers are coming!

At the Accra Temple after Sister Hill's memorial.  Reunited with Elder Bedell. (also with Elder Lords)

So - I asked him if he will give us a little more detail about the missionary work that he is doing out there.  Here is the "Sean version" of more information...

Hi Mom, Happy Birthday Dad!!

So the work is going good.  Elder Barfuss is an awesome trainer. I have another baptism this Sunday for a man in his 60's named Kojo. Transfers are coming up and Elder Lords is going to Liberia, so we are doing something fun this week. I've spent 2 months with these guys!

This Thursday we are going to the couple missionaries' home for a Thanksgiving potluck. I'm doing good with the food. I kind of eat the same stuff everyday. Lots of ramen.  The members don't have us over because they usually only have enough for just their families.

Besides that, not much else going on. I wish I could tell u more but its actually very slow out here. So I'll keep it updated best as I can.

I Love u all soo much and I'll write you next week.

Well - a little more info.  Kind of like the Cliff's Notes version.  It sounds like the "slow work" is at least fruitful work.  It's going to be very strange to have Thanksgiving this week without him.  I hope (and imagine) that he will hold up just fine.  He seems to really like having these new experiences.  I'm really going to miss the "photographer", Elder Lords, when he goes to Liberia.  Hopefully Elder K will be able to find a wifi camera next time he goes down to Accra.  

So much to be thankful for every year, but this year my heart is ready to burst with gratitude!  Love this guy! 

Week ten!

 

At Sister Hill's Memorial Service

Oh, how I love to see pictures of my boy - even if he is being a goof ball!!  This one showed up on the Elders in Ghana FB page and I almost passed it by without recognizing it was him.

Hi Mom! 

 

Things are awesome out here and I'm healthy. This past week we didn't do a lot of teaching because Elder Barfuss lived up to his name and was sick. He's better now. 

For my birthday the elders gave me journals and supplies and Chex Mix, which was awesome. MY PACKAGE CAME ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!! It was fantastic. We went to the soccer field and played football and then baseball. Then that evening we got fried rice and chicken. It was an awesome birthday.

By the way, I think it would be great if I could go to Accra to get a smart camera. I will keep u posted on that. For now, Elder Lords is the photographer.

I love U guys sooo much. I'll keep praying for Dad to come out here in 2 years. This place was made for him.

LOVE YOU ALL, Elder Keddington

For the love - this kid!  Poor Elder Barfuss!  Also, I imagine that he is, in fact, doing missionary work.  I think I need to remind him that we would like to hear about this work, you know, since that is why he is in Ghana and all.  Oh well, he will always be Sean.  You gotta love him - right?!  We do!  And I'm so glad he had a great birthday!  On to another great week!  

Hanging out at the waterfall

"Hey guys - look!  A camera!  Guys?!"  Haha!

Wow!

 

More Pictures

These are from Elder Lords.  So thankful he has a camera that can send pics!

Sister Hill

LDS mission president's wife dies in Ghana

By Tad Walch, Deseret News

Published: Monday, Nov. 9 2015 1:50 p.m. MST

Updated: 8 hours ago

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Sister Ruth Raelene Hill, the wife of the president of the LDS Church's Ghana Accra West Mission, Norman C. Hill, died Sunday from a medical condition. The Hills are from Klein, Texas, and had been serving together in Ghana since July 2013.

SALT LAKE CITY — Ryan Hill suspected the worst Sunday morning when his father, an LDS Church mission president in Ghana, phoned and asked him to hold while he added Ryan's siblings to the call.
Ryan thought there may have been a death in the family, but it didn't cross his mind that it could be his mother, Sister Raelene B. Hill, 64, who unexpectedly died on Sunday in South Africa from complications following a routine medical procedure.
Sister Hill, a native of Ogden, Utah, had been serving in Ghana since July 2013 with her husband, President Norman C. Hill, president of the Ghana Accra West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"One of our ancestors is Rebecca Burdick Winters, who died as a pioneer in 1852 and whose grave is marked on the Mormon Trail," Ryan Hill said. "I've thought today about how my mom is like that. Our family has always been willing to sacrifice whatever the Lord would ask. She went on this mission because she knew it was important and the call came from the Lord."
Sister Hill traveled from Ghana to South Africa for a procedure to remove kidney stones and died when complications developed.
"(The Hills) are deeply loved by their family, church leaders and their missionaries," LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said. "We pray for each of them at this difficult time and extend our love to President Hill and his family."
The Hills were members of the Klein Texas LDS Stake before leaving on their mission. Sister Hill was a former Texas Mother of the Year and a past president of American Mothers.
Sister Hill regularly taught the missionaries serving in Ghana that they could do hard things. Ryan Hill said she asked Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to confirm to the missionaries that they could do hard things when he visited the mission last year.
"I perceive you know a lot about that, don't you, Sister Hill?" Elder Bednar said.
She did.
"It wasn't necessarily easy for her to leave on a mission," her son said.
For one, she had to leave behind grandchildren; she now has 12, with two more are on the way. She worried about her parents, Neal and Faye Ball, who still live in Ogden and now are in their 90s.
Returning to West Africa, where President Hill had worked in business for five years, also was a sacrifice, in part because she suffered from several health issues that she managed privately and that caused her pain.
Sister Hill was born in Ogden. She and President Hill were Ogden High School sweethearts. She waited for him while he served an LDS mission, then for another year as he fulfilled the promise his mission president required of every missionary to wait one year before marriage.
They married in the Ogden LDS Temple, which she had helped raised money to build. She attended Weber State and BYU, where she studied home economics and education. She taught at Tintic High School in Eureka, Utah, before focusing on raising four children. A fifth died at birth.
"She dedicated her life to her kids and our interests," Ryan Hill said.
Sister Hill's previous church service experience included time as a stake public affairs committee member, ward Relief Society president and stake Young Women president, according to a February 2013 LDS Church News article.
The Hills' mission has been noteworthy. After the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the evacuation of the missionaries from the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission, President Hill doubled for a year as president of that mission, too. He wrote an article for the Ensign, a LDS Church magazine, about how church members in Sierra Leone dealt with Ebola, isolation and the lingering aftermath of the war.
Their missionaries also helped Accra recover from the effects of major flooding in June, when more than 160 people died.
Sister Hill helped one missionary shed his initial reluctance to help people who had badmouthed the LDS Church.
"Sister Hill, our mission president’s wife, is always saying ‘we can do hard things,’" said Elder Victor Uzoho of Aba, Nigeria, "so I soon stopped complaining in my mind and instead saw how much good we were doing. I think they see us differently now because we were willing to get dirty by cleaning out gutters and washing walls alongside them."

Email: twalch@deseretnews.com