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.