Week of 21 November 2016

One more week of this transfer and we will be getting new missionaries and seeing a couple of our favorites leave us.  I guess we don't have favorites, just ones we gotten to know really well.

Well, it was an exciting week with Thanksgiving and getting together with the senior couples.  And we had another two baptisms.

Monday morning was normal except we had a guest in the house with us for breakfast.  Just a tiny newt.

When we got home on Tuesday after working at the office, I went inside and went right to the bedroom.  What I saw made me cry.  All of the drawers of our dresser were on the bed and everything was thrown everywhere.  Then I heard Wayne yell that our TV was gone.  Robbed again.  All they got as the TV though.  We had everything else with us.

So here is our bare wall.

They came in through the back door and really had to work at it.  At least they didn't destroy it.

We called Samuel and he came over the next day.  We now have "screaming" locks on all the windows and doors.  And they cut down all of the jungle growth in front of our home.  It looks so bare.  We told Samuel not to get us another TV.  

Before

After

And here is our Thanksgiving table.

We had corn, cucumber salad rolls, mashed potatoes and some soup, which we used for the gravy.

Here is the chicken, and frozen jello salad which was pretty good and some dressing.  All in all, we had a very nice dinner.

And I made a chocolate cream pie and apple pie.

Cutting the pie with ice cream.  Sister Sorensen, Sister Stevenson and President.

Elder and Sister Clements and me.

We watched a movie after wards and then went home.  Clements came with us to spend the night.

In the morning, we came back to the mission home for scrambled eggs, toast, fruit and cinnamon rolls, which Sister Clements had made.  Very enjoyable time.

Friday was crazy at the mission home.  We had all of the trainers and trainees that started their mission 4 weeks ago come for a meeting to see how everything was going.  But the office got busy, because they all want to buy things.  It really was fun though.  There were 36 elders and sisters in all.

Saturday, we had the baptism of two children.  The one little boy had to get permission from his father to be baptized and none of his family showed up.  It really is sad.  

Patrick and Belinda got baptized. 

Elder riding baptized Belinda.

And Jonah baptized Patrick.

It was a beautiful day.  Hopefully the children in the ward stay friends with Patrick and help him come to church.

Sunday morning, we had two visitors.  Boy these birds can wake the dead!

Anyway good and kind of bad week.  All the rest of the weeks through next year are going to be awesome!

We love you and miss you.

Week of 14 November 2016

It was a very, very slow week this past week.  The President and APs were gone most of the week to Zone Conferences in Tarkwa, Takoradi and Mpintsin.  So we had the whole place to ourselves and no one came to visit either.

Anyway, we did go down into the Cape to buy a few things.  There is always singing and political parades now where ever you go.  The election is on Dec 7th.  We have a political office down the street from our office.  They really liven things up some days.

Two of the sisters came in on Thursday to take the English Proficiency test.  They probably shouldn't have taken it.  They really didn't comprehend the questions or how to work the program.  Hopefully, they will get an ok grade.

Sunday we had a West Africa Area Conference.  Elder Stevenson spoke along with Sister Stephens from the General Relief Society and an Elder Dube from Africa.  We were all stuffed into the chapel at Yamoransa and boy was it hot!  Just fans blowing the hot and stinky air around.  There had to be over 300 people in the chapel part alone.  But the talks were excellent.  Here is a picture of the chapel and after the conference. The chapel area is the length of the four windows starting from the right.

So besides our car, there only 3 other cars in the parking lot.  All of the other cars were tros and cabs waiting to take people to their destinations.  The elders that live next to us came by tro and they said there were 33 people in the tro that only has 15 seats.  Think that's a little dangerous???

So we drove the elders home with us.

Well, have a Happy Thanksgiving this week.

We love you and miss you.

Week of 7 November 2016

The President and APs are starting Zone Conferences this week.  Tuesday was their first one in Assin Foso.  Wednesday we had MLC.  The President talked to them about some of the Zone activities that were going on.  Especially the ones that were being held be the ocean.  There were pictures on Facebook which he saw of one of the sisters sitting on the lap of one of the elders.  NO NO!!!!!  And how they got on facebook was kind of upsetting to the president also.  So he said NO MORE activities on the beach until after the new year and then he would re-evaluate everything.  And they also kill whole pigs and roast them for activities, so the president said no more of that either.  Silly things these kids do.

Here is Elders Garry and Ameyaw teaching at MLC.

This is just milling around after lunch.

Here's our leadership in the mission.  All of them are excellent missionaries.  4 of them will be going home in December.

MLC is over.  Pictures of those going home are being taken.

On Thursday morning, we were eating breakfast when we heard on knock on our front door.  We thought it was the missionaries but no, here is what we found.

Beautiful little bird with a big beak and a bright red breast area.  It was really cute.

Saturday we had three more baptisms.  

Here is Patience, Elder Jager, Desmond and Joshua.

I was telling the kids what was happening.  Everyone just comes off the street to see what we are doing.

At four in the afternoon on Saturday we came back over to the office to skype with Tim and Tracy's family.  It as fun to see them and talk to them.  We don't get much of a chance to do that because of the internet or lack of.

Sunday was the Primary's program.  They had all the children sit on the one side of the room.  We have over 50 children in the primary and they did an awesome job.  Since they have no person to do music, one little girl gave them the note to start singing and another little girl led them.  They had 10 children say the ten commandments by heart and another 13 gave the articles of faith.  Everyone enjoyed the morning.

So we also learned on Sunday that there is Cholera spreading and multiple cases have been found in Cape Coast.  The Bishop read a letter from the area health department and told us what we needed to do with our food, water and especially shaking hands with people.

We will have to make sure that all the missionaries follow the rules.  This could become an epidemic real fast.

So that was our week,  We love and miss you all.

Week of 31 October 2016

Happy Halloween everyone.  Work was normal for us at the office but when we got home things livened up.  Wayne and I were reading in our living room when we heard some commotion on the porch.  And this is what we saw:

A mattress person

A ghost and Ninja person

And another Ninja.

The elders sure thought they were cute.  So we gave them some candy and said good night.  About 30 mins later this is what we got on our doorstep again.

They had carved out watermelons.  Really cute!

On Wednesday we met the other Senior Couples in a place called Kakum.  It is a rain forest with a tree canopy and wooden bridges that are way up in the sky.  It was very scary, but I traversed all seven bridges.

Elder and Sister Clements starting their climb upward.

Bamboo shoots

And then there were stairs.  And boy was it muggy and hot.

But it sure was beautiful.  Our guide told us that most of the ferocious animals hide during the day.  Good thing.  We didn't want to come face to face with a lion.

This is one of the trees the rope bridges was tied to.

Okay ready to start.   And I hung on for dear life.

We were hundreds of feet above the ground.  And the bridges would sway, too.

Can't describe how beautiful it was.

Elder Sorensen looking over things.

And Wayne had to show off.

Anyway it was a good day and we had a lot of fun.  Sweated like a stuck pig.  We had lunch after wards and then each departed to their own home.

When we got back to the office at about 2:00 in the afternoon, Wayne received a text from the President.  It said that we needed to take a missionary to Accra and meet the President and then babysit him until his plane left to take him home.  This missionary was one of the new ones that just arrived from the US last Wednesday.  We were so tired of driving to Accra.  4 hour trip on bumpy and dirt roads.  

President met us at the temple before they went in and then we had him until his plane left at 11:00 pm.  We went to some of the malls in Accra and had Pizza Hut pizza.  We finally took him to the airport at 8:00 pm and then stayed with him until 9:00 pm.  We then went to the hotel and spent the night.  Don't want to see Accra for another month!!!!

Saturday was spent in our house all day.  Cleaning, laundry and baking.  Our kitchen is so hot!  The sun shines in it all morning long.  And never cools off.  Even the floor is a real toasty warm.

Best news that we received this week was that the Cubbies won the World Series.  I was jumping up and down.  It is awesome!

We love and miss you all.