Week of 19 September 2016

Here is our picture of Elder Stevenson and his wife with us.







Also, here is a picture of the bird that knocks on our windows during the morning.

It was a very quiet week for us this week.  We both were able to catch up on some work that was neglected last week.  It rained so hard on Tuesday, we thought we were going to be swept away.

There was a huge puddle on the driveway at the mission office.  

And our road up to the house was awful.  And it was so humid! Yuck!

Elder Holman's parents came to pick him up and stayed most of the week with us.  It was fun to have them and to be able to talk and be understood.  They left on Thursday morning and would not arrive in Utah until Friday night late.  They flew through Istanbul.

Elder Holman

Friday morning, Wayne went onto the bathroom and found a scorpion.  I think we are through with the animals.  REALLY!  And we had two huge black spiders one of the nights the Holmans were with us.

I made some cupcakes for a luncheon that President and Sister Stevenson had for all of the Stake Presidents in the Ghana Cape Coast Mission.  Hopefully they tasted good.

Saturday, we went down to the city.  We heard some singing and a band playing, so we waited for them to come to us.  It was some people from a church group singing and praising the Lord.  Everyone was dancing and singing.

We were invited to have goat fufu on Saturday but left the office before it was ready. So the office elders got to eat it. I wasn't too heart broken, but know I will probably be eating it some time.  

It rained so hard on Sunday, too.  We couldn't hear the Stake High Councilman speaking it was so loud.  

Just got done listening to the Women's Conference.  Very, very good.  Sister Oscarson talked about a talk given by Elder Stevenson called - "Rise Up, Oh Men of God".  That song is our mission song.  We sing it at every MLC, District meetings, Zone conferences, and the last night the missionaries are here.  We replace the word "men" with "servants."

Can't wait for conference.  We will be able to watch the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions live, but all the others will be watched after they are over.

We love all of you. And miss you. 

Week of 12 September 2016

Wow! What a week!  On Monday we were trying to get everything ready for transfers and our trip to Accra.  About 12:30 the APs came into the office and told us the President wanted us over in his house.  When we went outside there were a lot of people just hanging around outside and three new cars that weren't there when we came to work.  There are no windows we can look out to the front in our office.  When we got over to the house, one of the gentleman outside opened the door for us and we were face to face with Elder Stephenson and his wife.  Bishop Davies was there also.  He had gone to Sierra Leone and Nigeria and came by Cape Coast to see the castle.  What a pleasant surprise.

They all asked us if we were part of the famous Durrants and we said of course we are.  They all laughed. (We are related but they don't know us from Adam.)

The other two Senior Couples came in Monday night.  Elder and Sister Clements came and spent the night with us.  We got up early on Tuesday and went to the Mission Home for breakfast.  We left for Accra about 7:50 am.  Elder Havea drove in the car with us.  He had to catch a plane on Wednesday.  We got into Accra about 11:30.  We were to take Elder Havea to the temple and attend the 12:30 pm session.  We got there on time and got dressed.  We then found out that we didn't have a reservation for our small group, but they would try to get us in.  Which they did.  And then it was all in French.  Most of the people in the session were from the Ivory Coast.  And they asked Elder and Sister Clements to be the witness couple.

Here is Pres. and Sister Stevenson and Elder Havea

Here we all are right before we left for Accra.

Here is Elder Havea in front of the temple.

Since the session was so big, we didn't get out until 3:30 pm.  We had to go over to the Area Office to get passports and money.  So with Elder Havea in tow and the two couples we all went into the office.  First stop was to get the passports.  I had emailed the person in charge and told her I would be there after the temple session.  She didn't have anything ready for us and told me that I didn't email her.  I have to learn patience, because that started the frustration.  She needed the names of the missionaries and I finally remembered them all.  While she was getting them put together I ran upstairs to the finance office to get the money for the missionaries leaving to go back home.  They send them with some money, in case there is an emergency.  What they don't use they have to give it back to their Stake or Mission President.  He then turns it back into the general missionary fund.  Anyway, the sister that I emailed (twice) wasn't there.  I told one of the brothers in the office that I had missionaries going home on Wednesday and what was I to do.  He asked me if I had the amount of money I needed.  I remembered that I had the list down in my bag, so I ran downstairs, got the list, ran back upstairs and showed them the list.  He asked if I had emailed Sandra and I said yes.  I got the feeling he didn't believe me.  But then he told me that Sandra had been sick for a week and never said anything to anyone.  They did give me the money - all in 100's and 20's.  It didn't mean anything to me at the time, but it did later.  I then went back downstairs to get the passports and some other cards that are needed to get Non-Residency cards for the new missionaries. Also, I needed to get some medicine from the area doctor and he knew we were coming.  I ran back upstairs to the medical offices and found out that he had left already.  Someone called him on the phone and he told that he had left.  Really!!!!  He asked if we were staying the night in Accra and I told him he was in luck and that we would be back in the morning.  The new missionaries from Provo MTC were coming in at 8:00 am and I told him that I needed to be at the airport at least by 9:00 am.  He told me he would be in about 8:45am.  We left the area offices about 4:45.  We took Elder Havea to KFC in the Marina Mall.  It should have taken us about 15 mins.  It took us about an hour.

Here we are at KFC.  It was so good.

  Then Wayne and I took him to spend the night at the Alma House - hotel.  We passed through a bunch of trees that were infested with bats.  They were flying all over the place.  Elder Havea was kind of nervous being all by himself and asked Wayne to give him a blessing.  It was a wonderful blessing and made me realize that we were in the Lord's hands and that everything would work out.  We got to the hotel and met the other senior couples there.  Come to find out that the President made our reservation alright, but it was for the wrong night.  We asked if they had any available rooms and she took a long time to find us three.  Anyway, while we were waiting, we heard a familiar song coming from the lounge area.  It was "Love at Home".  So Sister Clements and I went over to the lounge and went in.  The person singing was LDS and when he saw us, he started singing our names and welcoming us to Ghana.  That was fun.  We all went up to our rooms exhausted.  Then our phone rang and it was Dave Holman calling us from downstairs.  His son, Elder Holman, was one of our departing missionaries and they came to pick him up.  They are also from our ward in Salem.  We had a pleasant visit and then let them get to their rooms.  They had just spent the last 14 hours on a plane. We all had breakfast in the morning.  The Holmans joined us also.

Here we are at breakfast.  E/S Clements, E/S Sorensen and the Holmans.

After breakfast, Wayne and I drove to the Area Office to meet with the doctor and the other couples went to the airport.
So we got there at 8:45 and the doctor didn't show up until 9:10.  More frustration.  Good thing the other couples went to the airport, because the flight got in early and the missionaries were coming out through the doors.  Oh, by the way, we found out that the missionaries that attended the Ghana MTC did not receive their credit cards from the church for their monthly subsistence.  So we went back upstairs to finance and asked them what we needed to do.  They told us to call SLC to find out where they were.  After we got to the airport, we put three missionaries in each of the trucks and started our drive back to Cape Coast.  After about 30 mins. the missionaries were all asleep.  We got back to the Mission home about 1:30 pm.  The president fed them lunch and then put them all to bed.

Here's our new missionaries.

Here they are eating their lunch of chicken and rice.

Our day wasn't over yet.  At about 2 pm or so, the departing missionaries started arriving to the mission home.  We weighed their bags and got them ready for their famous FuFu dinner.  It was then that I realized I needed different denominations of the money so that I could give one person $50 and a couple of them got $80 and one of the got $150.00.  So I went over to President Stevenson to ask him what I should do and he had some money from the US that I could use.  It all worked out.

The new missionaries got their first taste of FuFu that night.  They were all good sports about eating with their hands.  The testimony meeting was awesome.  These young men and women sure do grow up.   After the meeting, we had six sisters come to our home along with the Clements to spend the night.  I don't think the sisters slept at all. And of course they were late in the morning.  They had to be at the mission home for breakfast by 6:00 and didn't leave here until 6:15.  A bus took all of the missionaries into Accra and the temple.  That night, the APs called me and said that 2 of the missionaries going to Uganda were bumped from their flight.  I called the travel department and just left a message.  They did call me back that night and I explained everything to him.  He said that we would need to take them over to the Alma house to spend the night.  So that's what they did.

So on Thursday, I called the Accounting Dept in SLC and they told me that the missionary's subsistence cards were held up in customs. But they couldn't tell me when we would get them.  Then our internet service went down in the afternoon and was off all day Friday also.  We had decided that we would put the new missionaries subsistence on their companions card and then they would have their monthly allotment.  But couldn't do that until the internet came up.  Friday morning the Clements called and said that they had been robbed.  But they were asleep in the house when the people robbed it.  They took their TV and VCR and all of their Ghanian money.  Elder Clements woke up and scared them away. 

We decided to check our filter system to make sure it was working okay.  The church provides a system for every apartment in countries where the water is unsafe.  So we were told our filters were changed the week before we moved in.  But I don't think so.  This is a picture of the filters.  There are three in each system.  The dirtiest one is #1 filter, then #2 filter and the white one is the 3rd filter. they hadn't been changed since the last couple was here.  Good thing we haven't been sick because of it.

Well that's all.  We are very glad to be here and among these wonderful people.  Next week will be a whole lot better.

                                                      Love you all and miss you.

We had a grandson and granddaughter get engaged this weekend.  We are very happy for the four of them.

Week of 5 September 2016

We had MLC this week. We mainly went to pass out what they call here "Imprest funds".  It is given to the Zone Leaders to use for transportation and emergencies.  Anyway, Wayne puts anywhere from 200.00 to 1000.00 cidis into little pouches and gives them out after Zone Conference.  So here we are handing out the dough.

The AP's talked about how each companionship needs to help lift each other.  So they did a little role playing first.  Everyone got a big laugh when they actually "lifted" one of the elders.

Of course, we had chicken and rice for lunch.   You think they would get tired of it.  I am!

So here is Elder Blay.  He is the senior AP and he is one awesome missionary.  He will be going home in January.  And will sorely be missed.

And here's our missionaries goofing around.

Elder Johnson

Elder Simpson

So this is how transfers are going to work this time.  Elder Havea will be coming into the Mission Home on Monday.  He flies out on Wednesday.  The three Senior couples will be driving each of their cars into Accra on Tuesday with Elder Havea.  We will take him to the temple on Tuesday and then drop him off at the Alma House for a night's stay.  They will also take him to the airport on Wednesday.  The 7 missionaries in Accra MTC will board a bus Tuesday morning and come to Cape Coast for their interviews with the president and spend the night in the mission home.  Usually the AP's meet the missionaries in Accra and have breakfast with them.  But not this time.  All of the couples will spend the night in Accra and at 8:00 am on Wednesday will go to the airport and pick up the 9 missionaries flying in from the states.  Each truck will hold 3 missionaries.  We will bring them back to Cape Coast and the mission home Wednesday afternoon.  Meanwhile at the mission home on Wednesday morning, the 7 new missionaries will meet their trainers and leave to their assigned cities.  Wednesday evening the other 15 missionaries going home will have the famous FuFu dinner and testimony meeting along with the 9 new missionaries that just arrived that afternoon.  Thursday morning the AP's will take the 15 missionaries to Accra and the temple.  President Stevenson will remain here and interview the 9 missionaries and send them with their first companion.  I know this sound confusing, but it should work.  It will be a busy week.

On Saturday, Wayne and I went to Accra to make sure we knew how to get to the Alma House and the airport and Kentucky fried chicken.  We also did a little bit of shopping.  And we found a Pizza Hut.  So we ordered a small pizza for us and a medium to bring home to our elders.  We laughed when our pizza came.  The small was the size of a salad plate and the medium would have been a small in the US.  Oh well, live and learn.

On Saturday night, the Zone leaders came over to see the transfer board and start making calls to the missionaries to tell them where they were being transferred to.  We had ice cream and cookies for them.  I had made four different kinds of cookies during the week.  They sure enjoyed.

Kind of blurry.  And Wayne was taking the picture.

Sunday when we were coming down the hill to go to church (it had rained all night), we got to the bottom and there stuck in the mud was the mission tro.  And three of our elders trying to push it out.  Elder Garry was turning around and thought the grass would hold him.  Not so.

All four tires are in mud almost up to the axles.  They had to come after church and pull it out with our truck as the tow.  It added a laugh to the end of a long week.

And next week will be even longer.

Love you all and miss you.

Week of 29 August 2016

So transfers are coming up and so is the receiving of 16 new missionaries and the departing of 9 missionaries.  And this is how it all should work.  Tuesday afternoon all of the new missionaries that have spent three weeks in the MTC in Accra come to the mission home in Cape Coast.  They spend the night at the mission home, the AP's apartment and our house.  We will get all of the sister missionaries.  The next morning the new missionaries will be assigned and meet their trainer.  Then they leave the mission home.  Then we will start receiving the departing missionaries in the afternoon.  They will get their luggage weighed, their last fufu meal and testimony meeting.  They will all spend the night in the mission home, the AP's apartment and the sisters will stay with us.  Then we leave on Thursday morning for Accra and go to the temple and eat lunch.  Then all should fly out that night.  Pretty easy if all goes as planned.   

So this transfer things aren't going that well.  Out of the 16 new missionaries, only 7 of them have been at the MTC in Accra and they have to leave Tuesday morning.  The other 9 are coming in from the Provo MTC and they won't be arriving until Wednesday morning.  And we have one missionary from Tonga that will fly out on Wednesday night instead of Thursday and one sister that will fly out on Friday morning.  The president is really trying hard to figure out what to do besides trying to decide on trainers and transfers.  Hopefully we will know next Monday what he is going to do.

We had the Yamoransa Zone Conference on Wednesday.  The President talked to the missionaries about being a "Zion" mission.  One of the ways is not to be contentious.  Here President called up Elder Adams pretending they were companions.  Pres. told Elder Adams that he thought his tie was not appropriate and he should take it off.

Elder Adams told him that he thought it was okay, but he would go and change it.  Everyone laughed.

Then he had the sisters come up and he started talking badly about another sister.  And instead of stopping him, they just let him go on and on.  Finally he said, how long are you going to let me say bad things about Sister Newton?  So they tried it again and stopped him before he really said something bad.  All the sisters had the same material made into a piece of clothing.  Neat, huh?

The Pres. then talked about getting rid of our bad habits.  So we all went outside and burned ours.

We had lunch (chicken and spicy rice)

and then Wayne and I had to get back to the office.  But this was waiting out in the parking lot for us.

One lonely goat.

It rained all day Thursday, so our road up to the house was mud and puddles.  We had to put the truck in 4-wheel drive to make it up.  Wayne wanted to show you how steep our driveway is.

It still doesn't do it justice.

Sunday Sacrament meeting was very interesting.  We were being serenaded by a rooster right outside the door.  One of the guys tried to shoo it away, but it just kept coming back and then the church across the street started banging it's drums. 

We decided to go for a walk on Sunday.  This is the jungle outside our backyard.  The two trees have monkeys in them, but of course, not today. 

Here's a yellow bird that we see all of the time.  It's tail is twice as long as the body and it has a beautiful song.  Love to listen to this bird in the mornings.

This is for Kameron.  This was out in our backyard.  It's four different colors.

And this is one of the snails we watch every morning climbing up our wall.  They are pretty big.

This is the city of Nkanfoa.  It is where our missionaries from the office tract.

As we came to the other side of the town we saw this sign.  I guess they still believe in their tribal doctors.

On Saturday, the President didn't want anyone to go to the city.  They were celebrating "Fetu Afahye" which means "adorning of new clothes".  The tribal chiefs are all carried in on the large chairs which the traditional warriors carry on their shoulders.  And everyone is dressed in very colorful clothing.  So there were parades and singing and dancing in the streets and of course a lot of people drinking.  Maybe next year we'll try to get some pictures.

Well, that's it for this week.  Love you all and miss you.