Week of 20 February 2017

Week before transfers and everything gets crazy.
First of all, Elder and Sister Sorensen brought down the Zone Leaders fro Praso.  Elder Divver was in pain.  Found out he has an ulcer and it was bleeding.  The doctors gave him some medicine and told him to not eat spicy food.  So what to eat?????

They also had a flat tire on the way back to Praso, so they came down again on Tuesday to get some tires and spent the night with us.  Can't travel at night on the road from the Cape to Praso.  They brought over 600 movies with them and so we loaded our external hard drive with some movies.

The President had interviews again this week for Yamoransa, Assin Foso, and Telecom.  So it was fun seeing missionaries in the office.  What a great bunch of young men and women.

On Friday, the trainers and trainees that started their first 12 weeks of training in January came for a pep talk and to see how everyone was doing with training.  The President has all of them come to the mission home half way through their training.  They still look great and ready to go.

          The Sisters are always dressed very well and with the colors of Ghana.  Beautiful sight!

Saturday was transfer dinner with the Zone Leaders, Assistants, Supply Elders and us.  Elder Garry and Elder Warner let the Zone Leaders see the changes the President has made and then they start calling everyone.  But, of course, they eat first.  They made crepes this time.  I brought some cinnamon sugar, powered sugar, buttermilk syrup, and whipping cream.  I also baked a chocolate cake.  They sure enjoy themselves.

Elder Wadsworth - just chillin' before dinner.  He goes home in 5 days.

Elders Tugume, Sakala, Sithole and Adams.

Elders Smith and Wadsworth.  Elder Smith will be leaving us a one of the Supply Elders.  Sad!

Elder Warner calling with some transfer news.

Elder Hepworth was the first one in line.

Lookin' good!

When we left Saturday night and turned on our road to go home.  We looked up and saw that the jungle was on fire just above our house.  

We prayed they would get it out before it reached our place.  They did.

Also on Friday, our grandson, Alex got married to a beautiful young woman - Jessica.  By way of the internet, we were able to be there when they came out of the temple.   It was wonderful!  Also that afternoon at the luncheon they had, we were able to Facetime and talk with all of our family.  It made our day.  I just needed to share some pictures.

These are our three grandchildren that have been married in the past year.  Desiree, Alex and Sara.

Jere's family.

Alex and siblings. 

Jer feels dwarfed by Alex.

We love and miss you all.

Week of 13 February 2017

Not a busy week this past week.  The President and his wife were gone the whole week.  The Assistants were gone doing service projects and the Supply elders were sick.  So we were alone in the office for 3 - 4 days.  It got really lonely.  There's only so many things a couple can talk about and then they start over.  Oh well, c'est la vie!

It rained a little on Tuesday and the drops of rain were huge.  It sounded like a stampede of elephants on the office roof.  Just enough tho to make our road to the house a mess.

Because of the new President coming in July and a New Mission President Seminar he will have to attend in August, the missionary department did some shuffling of transfers.  In May, June, and July, we will have 22 missionaries leaving each month.  And since it's during the summer , I have to request their travel arrangements 4 months before they leave.  So I have had to contact 66 missionaries to have them tell me what airport they are flying into.  They are so funny.  They tell me how they want to fly and ask if they can stop over in a country and fly out the next day.  I just tell them that I don't make the arrangements and I can't request anything from the travel department.

Saturday, Wayne and I took off for a walk to places we weren't familiar with.  We walked for about an hour and when we got home, we were dripping wet.  Wayne turned on one of the fans and just laid there for about 15 mins.  \|I drank like a gallon of water and then crashed.  I don't know how the missionaries do it day in and day out.

Anyway, there was a gentleman waiting for us to do the yard work.  He worked from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm.  I didn't see him take a break or anything.  He shirt was soaked and I'm sure his back hurt, he was bent over most of the time cutting weeds with his machete.

At one point, he called us to come outside and showed us a couple of ant holes in the dirt near the grass.  These weren't just any ants,  They were about an inch long and they were building a nest underground.  They would go in the hole and then come out with some brown dirt in their mouth and discard it by the entrance.  We tried to get some pictures, but it doesn't show it very well.

So the pictures below are from Saturday.  Hope you can see the ants.  The brown granules are the dirt they are bringing up from underneath.

These pictures are from this morning.  They have built quite a mound of dirt.  And now there are two entrances. Or maybe one entrance and one exit.  We think we need to get some bug killer or spray, before they come in the house.  These are the ants that bite.

Well that's all for this past week.  

We love you and miss you all. 

Week of 6 February 2017

Monday was an interesting day.  It was very hot and muggy and we knew it would probably rain.  And it did.  The thunder and lightning started about 8:00 pm.  And it was a brilliant show of lights and noise.  Anyway, we went to bed about 9:30 and the thunder seem to be getting worse. About 11:00 pm the crack of thunder was so horrendous that it set our car alarm off.  And then the rain came.  Very weird for this time of the year.

Tuesday was our zone conference.  they talked a lot about the new schedule and the key indicators in the morning.  It's just fun to be with the Elders and Sisters.  Then in the afternoon they discussed how to teach the from PMG.

Elder Brooks talked about baptism.  And then they did some role playing.

Elder Kinzanza talked about church attendance.

More role playing.

They didn't like it very much when the president came to listen.

We had a special musical number.  Elders Momoh, Harward, Neville, Taylor, Kiiza and Elder Williams leading them.  It was very good.

The Assistants talked about Tithing.

More role playing.

And finally the Zone Leaders talked about Chastity. Hardest thing to teach to investigators.

And more role playing.

Here's our whole zone together.

Getting ready

Final picture.

Wednesday was my birthday and Thursday was Sister Sorensen's birthday.  So we decided to get together and do something.  On Friday afternoon we took off for Praso, where the Sorensen's serve.

It was a very dusty ride.  They are fixing the road between the Cape and Praso.

Looked great until someone was in front of you.  

And then you couldn't see anything.  

Even the trees on the banks of the road were covered in dust.  Our truck was filthy.

We had papers that I needed some of the elders to sign so we headed off to Nyenasi in the morning.  Had to cross a bridge that was only one car width wide and there were railroad tracks in the middle.  The bridge was over the Pra river.

We haven't seen any of the apartments that the elders live in, but I really felt sorry for the two elders we went and saw.  

This is the way they sleep.

And this is their study room.  The floors and desks were covered with dust from the Harmattan season.  And they had just swept and dusted the day before. 

And this is the chapel

Everything was covered in dust.  Elder and Sister Sorensen are awesome!

We had to stop at Hemang also.  But the Elders were busy cleaning their chapel and didn't get any pictures.

So we decided to go to a place called Monkey Haven.  Hoping to see some monkeys.  And we did, but they were all in cages.  

The guide would feed them peanuts.

These are twins.

They had a few other animals there.  

Can you see the cat among the rocks?

Here it is a little bigger, so you can find it. It's on the ledge by the yellow pole.

It was a fun weekend.  Glad we got to go.  

We love you and miss you all.

Week of 30 January 2017

Busy week again with interviews, zone conferences and MLC.

MLC is so fun!  All the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.  The first 30 mins. when everyone is arriving is chaotic.  So much laughing, hugging and talking.

And of course, we had chicken and rice for lunch.

Elder Durrant talking to the missionaries about money - again! 

This is Samuel Laing.  He is our miracle worker.  He takes care of all the apartments.

Sister Smart leading the music.

Assistants writing missionaries responses on the board.

President Stevenson talking to them about the new daily schedule.

All about working with members to help teach and convert.

During MLC the president pulled us aside and told us that we would be taking another missionary to the airport.  So Thursday we took off at 11:00 am and headed for Accra.  We were kind of happy though.  We needed to get some food.

Elder Edwards and us at the airport.  He's been having some difficult medical problems.  Brilliant missionary.  He was talking to everyone. 

We stayed overnight and got back to the Cape about 3:00 pm on Friday.  Had lots of cleaning and laundry to do on Saturday.  And as we were sitting on the couch, look what came by for a visit.  Right by our feet.  

 Down the toilet it went!!!!

So goodbye for now.  We love you and miss you all.