19-25 December 2016

Our friends, the Brobbey's from the Netherlands  They invited us over for a wonderful day full of visiting with their 3 beautiful daughters and a delicious Dutch meal.  Victor is from Ghana but lived most of his life in the Netherlands.  He brought his family back to Ghana to experience life here.  We had a wonderful visit with them.  It had been 6 years since we'd seen them on our previous mission.

This is a sister from Sierra Leone who was sealed
to her parents.  We were proxy for them and she was
very emotional and happy.

We're all in our MTC tee shirts for our service activity with the primary kids on the day before Christmas. The goal was to teac them things they my need to know as a missionary.

One activity was teaching kids how to learn how to
tie a tie - they call it "fixing a tie" here.  First, the
sisters had to learn to do it themselves, then teach
the kids.  This little boy didn't really get it.

A cute African primary kid.

Another activity was teaching kids how to sew on
a button. Of course, we had to teach the missionaries
how to thread a needle and the correct way to sew on a button. 

Another was teaching them to lace and tie their shoes.

And how to polish their shoes - even if they're
sandals!

Cyril was Santa - I felt so sorry for him in this hot Santa suit in Africa.  He was a real trooper.  Many of these primary kids were from his ward where he's the bishop.

We had some fun relay games - carrying
limes on spoons.  These little girls just
held their limes on the spoons as they ran.

Our French Congo and Cote d'Voire missionaries had a great
time singing, dancing, and chanting their
country's soccer team song.  They were
pretty wild!

Our whole group - it's a small one this time.
Only 57 missionaries.

Downtown Accra - you have to look closely, but there were two goats on top of this big truck as we went driving by.  You see it all here.

We made gift bags with the Brubakers
one night for the staff here - we made about
48 of them with things we each had brought.
Thanks to Matt for all his Altoids, Starbursts,
and lifesaver mints!  The Brubakers added a
can of hot green chilis, some almonds and
red licorice.  

Here's our finished product.

A close-up.  Of course, Sis Brubaker had the nice
gift bag and cool ties and tags to attach.

This is our gardner with his gift bag.  He was so happy to receive it.

The kitchen staff with their gift bags.  They don't
do too much for Christmas here and the way they
were so happy to receive these, you'd think we'd
given then keys to a new car.  They were so sweet.
It was really very heart-warming as we really
wondered if for some, this might have been their
only gift.   

A couple of our teachers who wanted
to take a selfie with us.  We look kind of washed out.

One of our French elders is a pastry chef so he made
some cakes for us to eat on Christmas day.

The finished product.

Aba outdid herself for our Christmas
buffet.  It was incredible with her staff
all dressed up.

They re-arranged all the tables, put on
tablecloths and centerpieces and made it
a very beautiful, delicious, enjoyable lunch.
We sat with Elder and Sister Stanfill, along
with the Brubakers, the Obengs and Acquayes at the end.  

Christmas Eve we had a nativity program with
the missionaries acting out the nativity, some
scriptures and lots of songs.  The costumes and
props were contributed by many!

Christmas Day was a spiritual feast with a 3 hour meeting with the Elder and Sister Stanfill from the Area presidency.  We were all in tears at the end as he gave a beautiful blessing.  I hadn't felt like I had experienced much of Christmas before this, but Christmas Day in the Ghana MTC was really a beautiful, spiritual experience and one I will always remember.