14-20 March 2016

Immunizations with Dr. Anderson and Comfort, the nurse who helps us.  I was surprised at how he was hamming it up for the picture; didn't know he had that side! 

Dr. Anderson cleaning out an elder's ears.  Now he can hear again!

I loved Sister Acquaye's hair - her
12 year old daughter did it for her.

Twins!  We happened to wear our almost matching
dresses on the same day.

Our entire MTC with Elder Rasband, an apostle, who came to visit the Ghana MTC.  What a treat it was for these missionaries to get to meet him and to listen to his counsel.  He was totally inspired as he spoke to them about shaking hands firmly and  looking people in the eye so they can see the light of Christ that is in each one of them.  He bore a powerful, emotional testimony at the end.  What a blessing to have him here and be able to chat with him about how we were the ones who drove him around Brussels when he visited our mission in Belgium.

Here we are, in one of our MTC vans, driving with the missionaries to the temple where many of them were going through for the first time.  The Brubakers were at a mission presidents' seminar for a few days so Loel and I were managing the 80 plus missionaries we took to the temple over two days; one day the French and the second day, the English speakers.  These were long days as we had so many missionaries. One of the vans broke down which made things a little tricky and took a little longer to get home, but we all made it, safe and sound.

This was the group in our van.  It always ends up
being a very busy day as you have to get the right
missionaries in the right session, with the right
ordinances, etc.  But it's worth it.  Especially as
the session I helped the two sisters go through
with just happened to include Elder Rasband,
his wife, and the Stanfills, one of the area
authorities.  I told these sisters, "Not many
people can say the first time they went through
the temple, they were with an apostle of the Lord."
They were so happy.

These were the two sisters I spent a lot
of time with.  The shorter one speaks French but also great English so I got to know her.  She's the only member in her family from the Ivory Coast and gave up a very good scholarship to study business internationally to serve a mission.  Her family was not happy with her.  She said "I have faith that someday they will join the church."

They love to be at the temple doors, ready to go in.

It's just a fact of life.  There will be a lot of pictures
of the temple and temple trips while we're here.
These trips are a large part of what we're about
because about 1/2 of our new missionaries have never
been to the temple.  It's kind of emotional being a
part of this first temple experience and through
this we become quite close in a very short time.

Silassi, a dear friend now,  is in charge
of housekeeping at the MTC.  She came over
on a Saturday to introduce us to her cute
daughter.  

Two happy elders after receiving shoes
and tee shirts for their sports time.  The
Brubakers and we brought some
donated clothes and shoes from home
and they are much appreciated.

Outside a grocery store in Accra, Loel encountered this man selling lobsters.  They ae fresh and he offered the whole pan for about $2.

An arts and culture center market where we got
to see the craftsman making their wares. It's really
 chaotic with people constantly after you to purchase
what they are selling.  We acquired a group
following us around, but they were fun  and I think
we made some new friends.

He's making a drum.  We also saw people weaving baskets, carving, making musical instruments, bowls,  and a lot of other things.

Goat,skin, cow hide and antelope skin is used for
the drum heads, depending on the experience and
skill of the drummer. Goat is the for the more
inexperienced drummer.

Desmond became one of our special
friends who we got to know as he
followed us around the market. He said
Sister Hill promised him a Book of
Mormon, so we accommodated him.

We liked this ebony nativity set. Desmond carves
these and knew one of our friends who has departed. He mentioned her name so I think he really did know her

This is David, who latched on to us, too.  We kept
accumulating more and more friends as we
walked around. David spoke pretty good English
and was a lot of fun.

The Brubakers love the old Kente cloth - especially
if it's blue. Note the old kiln in the background.
This are was covered and there were old potter's
wheels scattered around.  The kiln is large enough
to walk into.

The merchant had huge bags full of these cloths.
Because they are antique, cloths like these sell in
the U.S. for hundreds of dollars, but they're
 available in Ghana for $40-50. (Really big ones
cost more.)

We're really quite close to the beach - we drove
home on the beach road.

We laughed about the "beach front property" across the street from the ocean!

Tema, the town we live in, has a very big port with
lots of ships coming in and out.  It's the major port
for Ghana and at one time it was one of the largest
ports in West Africa.

Living it up on the beach.  It was a really fun P-day.
(and pretty windy)