Week of 17 April 2017

Monday was the official holiday for Easter in Ghana.  All the wards (or most of them) had beach parties.  Even our Stake met in Salt Pond at the beach.  The Stake President begged President Stevenson to let the missionaries come and participate.   Especially with investigators that would be coming.  Pres. Stevenson said it would be alright if they showed up in their missionary attire.  Don't know how many went, but on the beach in shirt, tie, good pants and shoes doesn't sound interesting to me.
President started Zone Conferences again.  They went out to Takoradi and worked their way back to the Coast.  Both him and the assistants were gone all week.  Kind of lonely without them here.

On Wednesday, we took Elder Oforikumah back to Winneba to the doctors.  The doctor didn't do much today and he didn't even change the cast.  We called the american doctor when we got home and he said to get the cast off as soon as possible and get his foot in a walking boot.  Well trying to find a walking boot was fruitless.  We then called the area doctor and asked him if he had one.  He said he would try to find one or get one from the US.  Hopefully, we get one soon.

Took some pictures on the way back from Winneba.

 This is one of the old castles (forts) that the British built.  The ocean is just down the other side.

They just build homes everywhere.  

These people were selling potatoes and that's all.

Some of the towns put up their own speed bumps to slow everyone down.  Between Winneba and Cape Coast there are 14 of them.  I tried to get a picture.  The speed bumps are about 8 inches high and almost the length of car.  You have to really slow down.

On Friday, we had 21 missionaries come to the Mission Home.  The President has the missionaries that will be going home in 2 transfers come and tries to reinvigorate them to finish their mission strong.  They makes commitments for new investigators and baptisms.  This group that came Friday is the first set of missionaries that we will have been with for a whole year when they leave in July.

Sister Danga is the only sister missionary in the group.

Two of the Mankessim branches were made into wards on Sunday.  It was neat to see all of their smiling faces.


This is the new Mankessim 1st Ward.



New Bishop Godfred Ninson is 3rd from the left and the Stake Presidency is on the right.  (Yamoransa Stake)



New Bishop of the 2nd Ward is Alex Tawiah.  3rd from the left.


This is the primary.  Lots of kids.


These are two of our beautiful Sister Missionaries.  Sister Kundundu and Sister Oladejo.


Here's some of the members from the 2nd Ward.  We were late.

We will be organizing another ward and new district next week.  Ghana is growing.
Wonderful!!

Have a wonderful week.
We love you and miss you all.

Week of 10 April 2017

Again, another crazy week.  Without the internet, transfers were very difficult.  But somehow we made it through, using a cell phone as a "hot spot" to make the church computers work.

Tuesday morning, we received 13 new missionaries.

There were 5 missionaries from Nigeria, 4 from the Ivory Coast, and one each from US, Philippines, Sierra Leone and South Africa (Lesotho)  It is always fun to see who they are and how scared they look.

They are getting ready for Wayne and me to speak to them.

All set and ready to listen.

Wayne and I joined them for dinner after we gave them the "welcome talk."

And what did we have - none else than chicken and rice!

We said goodbye to them on Wednesday morning and then the departing missionaries started to arrive.  We had the custom "Fufu" dinner and then a wonderful testimony meeting.  Even in the 9 months we have been here, you can see a marvelous growth in these young men and women.  4 of the missionaries going home are from Ghana and were a big help with the native language.  They will be missed.

6:00 am breakfast on Thursday. 

A lot of the missionaries like toast and peanut butter sandwiches.  

We had two Polynesian elders that went to Accra on Tuesday the 11th.  Since it takes them 3 days or more to get home, they leave a day earlier.  Elders Pohahau and Talamoni went with Elder and Sister Sorensen on Tuesday.  

This picture is from President Stevenson's blog. 

On Wednesday morning, we learned that Elder Talamoni's flight had been cancelled.  He would not be able to fly out again until the 20th of April.  Pres. Stevenson called our travel person in the area office and told him that Elder Talamoni had a brother in Hawaii, so if he could get to there, he could stay with him for a while.  Elder Talamoni is from PagoPago and there is only one flight a week from Hawaii to his home.   

So off to the Accra and the temple and the airport.

Good looking bunch of missionaries.  Our session was packed full.

We got the first set of missionaries through by 3:45 pm.  About an hour to spare.  

Elder Egwu and Elder Igbinedion (Both going to Nigeria)

Then to Kentucky Fried Chicken to eat with the remaining missionaries.  They love that chicken.

We took 3 more missionaries to the airport at 5:00 pm.  Elder Talamoni (got a flight to Hawaii, finally), Elder Mapfumo and Elder Hodson.

I gave them all a big hug and sent them upstairs to wait for their flights.  We felt pretty confident that all had gone well.  About 20 minutes later, we got a phone call from Elder Talamoni telling us that the two elders that left for Nigeria were still at the airport.  Their flight had been cancelled due to weather.  Those two elders had been waiting at the airport for almost 7 hours.  The airlines finally took all the passengers to a hotel and they got out the next morning.  Always an adventure when we go to the airport.

We went shopping on Friday before coming home.  Spent lots of money buying things for 6 weeks.

Sunday was a fairly cool day for Ghana.  Not too bad at church.  We did have a baptism.  This is Lydia with Elders Ogar and Chavengwa.

I left Relief Society early.  The chairs are hard to sit on after a while and I couldn't understand anything anyways.  They were all speaking in Fante.  So I just walked up and down the side of the building.  And took a couple of pictures.  

This is a place to fill up with gas.  Right across the street from the church.  Mostly cab and tros use it.  

Very interesting!

And I saw my first Albino newt.  It was following me around.

Happy Easter everyone.  We love you and miss you all.

Week of 3 April 2017

No internet service since Friday in the office and at home.  It has not been fun.  We are unable to do anything on the church computers.  With transfers coming up next week, it is very frustrating.

Sunday night we had some rain.  It wasn't much, but it cooled things down.  And also all the bugs and creatures come out.  

This snail was working his way across the grass.  Hope a bird doesn't see him.

Also after it rains there are thousand of bugs on our front porch.  This bird was eating them all up until I came to the door.  I caught his flying away.

These birds make the most horrible sound.  And it is really loud.

And this is the side of our house after the rain.  These  are all over in the house after a rain storm also.

Tuesday, the Sorensens came down to spend the night with us and then take Elder Oforikumah to the hospital in Winneba.  They had to get the stitches out this time and also to get his foot 90 degrees to his leg so that next week he can start putting weight on it.  So the electricity went out at the hospital and the generator was working, but they couldn't take any xrays.  But the doctor was able to put another cast on and send him home.

Wednesday for us was MLC.  Wayne had to get up again and tell the Zone Leaders to train their zones on how to do the paperwork for money the church gives to them for extra travel and doctor visits.

Here's the Supply Elders telling everyone that they will only be getting an allotment of dish washing soap, bleach and hand soap.  When they run out they will have to buy the items with their own money.

Wayne teaching.

The Assistants talked to them about transfer news.  The president is tired of having missionaries call around and say things about areas and missionaries being transferred that aren't very nice.  So no one will know where they are going until Wednesday and who their companion is.  

President talked about the Book of Mormon and how the missionaries can get the people to read and ponder its message.

Friday was the day for the new trainers to come and be taught by President Stevenson.  There were 13 of them.  We were in the office trying to get the internet to work.

I think the president felt sorry for us.  They invited us out to dinner Friday night.  We went to a brand new hotel that was built up on the hills in Cape coast.  It was very nice.

I had chicken and rice.  Wayne had fish and chips ????  We waited for 45 mins. for our meals to come.

Saturday was cleaning, cooking and baking day.  We will be housing 4 sisters on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  And the Assistants and Supply elders invited themselves over for dinner on Saturday also.  I made 40 biscuits and some Sausage gravy and chicken gravy.  Everything was gone.  No left overs at all!

After dinner they made the transfer calls to all of the zone leaders.  And then we had dessert.

Can't wait to get to Accra to restock my cupboards.

So on Sunday, we were suppose to have Fast and Testimony meeting.  But it was Ward conference.  When the bishop stood up he said that it was fast Sunday and Ward Conference.  REALLY!!!

The Stake President asked some people to bear their testimonies and then he spoke.  Weird!

But here is the choir singing.

They all had red ties on.  And they did a good job.

Sunday night we had a small tropical storm.  The wind was horrible and the rain came down like torrents.  We had a tree blow over in our compound.  I had to mop up water in our bedroom, kitchen and one of the other bedrooms where windows were on the east side of the house.  The rain just came through the window casings.  I sure know now that I don't ever want to be in a hurricane or any tropical storm.  It was scary!  And of course, our electricity went out.

YEAH for Ghana!

Actually, I love it here.

So that was our week.

We love you and miss you all.

Week of 27 March 2017

President and Sister Stevenson were gone all week with interviews.  And people were coming in and out of the office like crazy.  It's good, tho.  It keeps us busy.

On Monday, I requested travel for 22 missionaries.  It took all morning to do that.  We had our meeting with the president at 5:00 pm and came home to cook dinner.  We had pancakes.  I just didn't feel like cooking.

On Wednesday, we took some time to do some shopping, especially for fruits and vegetables.  We bought some green bananas so that they would stay ripe for a little while.  When we got home and cut into one of them, it was soft.  Too soft to eat.

So more banana bread to be made.

And here is a picture of the "american" store we go to and our sweet vegetable lady.  She really treats me great!

Not very big, but they do have a lot of the American brands.

The president got home Thursday night, just in time to prepare for a meeting with missionaries on Friday at the mission home.  This is the trainers and trainees that have been together for 5 weeks.  He just makes sure that they are on track and that all is well.

They are all doing great!

Saturday, I baked in the morning and got things ready for the elders that would be coming to our house to watch conference.

This is my bread for the week.

And I made brownies, but they always fall here.  I think it must have to do with the altitude or lack there of.

But everything gets eaten no matter how it looks.

We made pizza for the missionaries, as they sat and watched conference.

So Elders Young, Hepworth Wilhelm, Oforikumah in the back on his wheelchair, Warner and O'Meara.  Great bunch of missionaries.

Sunday morning, Sister Stevenson called and asked if we wanted to join them for Sunday morning session.  Their computer stopped working, so we just listened to KSL.  But it was good being with everyone and she had Taco soup afterward.

What a wonderful conference and I'm sure we had a few missionaries jumping up and down on their beds when they heard that Nairobi was getting a temple.  We are excited for them, too.

Well, that's it, I think.  

We love you and miss you all.