22-28 August 2016

You know it's a slow news week when we post a
picture of me getting my hair cut.  The barber
 is about 1/4 mile from the MTC and it costs
 me $5.00.  I finally convinced him to use a guard
on the razor so it doesn't get cut so short. My
last haircut lasted 2 1/2 months.

So I thought I'd try Loel's barber for
my cut and color.  A friend told me of
a good place to get a haircut and took
me there, only to find out it was Loel's
barber, two blocks from the MTC!
But I tried him and he was great.
My cut and color (I brought the
color) was $7.50.  Can't beat that!

We took Sister Carter, in front, along
with Sister Stutz in back, to the antique
Kente guy on our free day, in Accra.
We bought another one and she
bought several and was thrilled.

We were at the market looking at Kente cloth and
I saw this strange looking couch sitting against a wall.
Then I realized it was a very large version of an
instrument we've seen much smaller. It's like a
 xylophone, but made with gourds as the sound
chambers. It would be cool to have if I could
figure out how to get it home.

Also on our two free days in Accra we met two of our favorite teachers there and took them to a museum, and then to lunch at a very nice beach resort.  Here we are after the lunch.  They loved it so much and thanked us many times.  We loved it, too and had such a good time together.  We got lost getting there and ended up in a very bad ghetto called Jamestown, but we made it out.  

We spent the night here at the Accra mission
president's house.  They have an extra
bedroom and bathroom and invited us to come stay
over whenever we needed a break from the MTC
so we did.  We had such a good time visiting
with them, I went walking with her, they gave
us a tour of their mission home, office, bunk
house, apt for their elders, etc.  It's all in it's
own gated compound with a guard.

These are the Paces, the office couple there in the
Accra mission.  We visited a little with them, too.
I actually stayed over a second night and got a
ride back on Thurs with some elders who were
bringing a missionary to the MTC.  Overall, it
was a great 2 day break in a different environment
with different friends.  We also went out to dinner
one night with another senior couple.
I need to give a shout out to the Heids, the mission
president and his wife (no picture) whose home
we stayed in.  They served a
senior mission here for 18 months, went home
and were called back for 3 years as the mission
presidents!  4.5 years in Ghana!  They are saints.

And here I am with one of the teachers getting ready to greet the
85 new missionaries in this new
group.  I have my tape measure
ready, my immunization cards,
etc, all ready to go.  This is
Richard, one of the teachers,
who left the next day to come
to BYU!  So we will see him
at home.

We got to attend an African wedding in Accra.  These are some of the teachers from the MTC who were also attending.  Some had left so it was fun to see them again.

More teachers at the wedding.

The bride and groom - he's also one of our teachers and the son of one of the counselors in our MTC Presidency.  It was really fun to see all the dancing they did after the wedding that their bishop performed in the chapel.  They will be sealed this coming Wednesday in the temple and we'll go to that, too.  

Their pretty wedding cake.  There
were tons of people there, and they
fed us all chicken and rice!

The parents of the groom are next to us, alongwith President and Sister Obeng (MTC Presidency) and  President and Sister Graham, the temple
president and his wife.  

Ghanaians stack everything, This is rice
in progressively smaller bags.

The MTC is dealing with the severe injury of our
missionaries in an auto accident in Sierra Leone. This truck is typical of the craziness on the highways. It is in a ditch, on its side, going the wrong way. So some how it got all the way \across the road and rolled in the ditch. Glad we weren't in its way.

We said good-bye to another group of missionaries last Monday.  The hardest for me was saying good-bye to the elder I had been working with each day to help him read and write.  We were both crying, but couldn't hug, but he wouldn't let go of my hand.  I told him I would never forget him and he said the same.  I taught him how to use email so I hope to hear from him.  

Pres Brubaker asked Loel to share his testimony in the farewell meeting, so he did.  It was very heartfelt and sweet.  He gets really close to the missionaries he helps with family history and temple work.  Pres Brubaker was laughing as he said that he wanted to hear from "President Tibbitts."  So many of them call him that and not Elder Tibbitts.  

Two members of the Area Presidency and their wives came to our Sacrament Meeting today and spoke about hard things happening, like this accident in Sierra Leone with 4 of our elders who had just left the MTC a few days ago.  They gave beautiful, inspired talks that were very comforting to all of us.  We are all praying for one elder who is still unconscious.

15-21 August 2016

We've had this map for months.  We bought it off a street hawker but we
haven't been able to hang it because we
didn't have any masking tape. We brought
some from the U.S. Amazing what we take
for granted

It was Loel's birthday last Monday and I decided it would be more fun to celebrate it with more than just our MTC foursome.  I opened it up to any senior couples who might want to join us at this nice  hotel buffet, the same one we went to for my birthday back in February.  We had 19 of us there - way more than expected.

The restaurant brought Loel this special birthday sparkler that shot quite high in the air and sang Happy Birthday to him.  

Then that night Aba made him a chocolate cake
and we celebrated again with the staff.  It was
a great day in Africa for his birthday.

Three times during a missionary group, we are
supported by Senior Missionaries from Accra
to help our missionaries do Family History.
Elder Wolters will be serving in Sierra Leone.
He has experience with Family History and
was helping one of the other Sister missionaries.

Elder and Sister Spackman serve in the temple.

This just a few of the 25 or so.

Elder and Sister Stutz are the Africa West Area Family
History Consultants.

This is how Family History makes me feel sometimes.

This is how Family History makes me feel sometimes.

A group effort.

At the temple - missionaries love to
jump in the picture.

The reward of Family History is the temple work
these missionaries can do for their ancestors.

But it's really a thrill when missionaries can be sealed
to their deceased parents, like these three elders.

All of them are from DR Congo, so the language
barrier can be a problem. But other French/English
missionaries are willing to help us out.

These three elders just got their Hep B. shots. 

Our sister missionaries during sports time getting
ready to exercise by dancing around in the
courtyard of the chapel next to us.

This is an elder I've gotten really close to in this intake.  Pres Brubaker asked if I would work with him to help him learn to read and write.  He went to 12 years of school in Nigeria and was just passed along each grade because his family couldn't afford to pay anyone to help him or send him to a better school.  I was able to get some excellent literacy materials and have spent about one hour a day each day for the last 11 days.  He has made so much progress and is so happy.  We begin each session with prayer and he likes to close it with prayer, too.  Tomorrow will be our last session before he leaves.  I said the closing prayer today and got really emotional as I prayed that he would continue to work with his companion in the mission field and that his mind would continue to be open and he would feel the spirit.  He kept saying, "Thank you, Mum, thank you Mum," over and over.  I was overcome with gratitude that I got the chance to work with such a faithful, dedicated, and motivated student.  What a blessing it's been.

Here he is again, but this time with his mission president.  They just happened to be at the temple on a day that he was in the temple and then we had an apt to see another literary expert for more advice.  He was able to meet them while there and they were wonderful, delightful people who were so welcoming and loving.  We felt very good about putting him into their hands as he leaves us.  Just another tender mercy.

4-14 August 2016

We have a great group of missionaries in this group.  They all get along really well and are very positive and happy.  Here's a picture of a group of Africans, Americans, elders and sisters playing a rousing game of volleyball together during sports time.

Only one picture on this whole blog entry!  Oh well, our safari pictures made up for the lack we have now.  We find that we're doing the same thing every three weeks so there's not much new to talk about.

Elder Bednar came to visit the MTC this past week, along with his wife, and the Area Presidency and their wives.  He mainly held a question and answer period with the missionaries for almost two hours, with him inviting the Area presidency and their wives and his wife to join in at any time, which they did.  It was very inspiring - so much about following the spirit and listening to it, not trying to be perfect, but just being obedient and good, and you will be guided - many times you won't even realize you're being guided until later when you think about it.  It just feels natural.

Elder Bednar made sure that we were going to have lunch with the rest of them afterwards, and we had a delightful lunch that Aba prepared.  He singled us out after lunch before he left and shook our hands, looked us in the eyes, and told us we were warriors.  He said many senior couples won't serve because they can't leave their grandchildren.  He thanked us for our service and told us that our absence (at home) was far more important than our presence - at this point in time.  He said it's not forever, just for now.  I got so choked up as he spoke to us that I could hardly talk, but I told him how much this meant to us, especially coming from him.  Afterwards, Loel and I just stayed in the room, pretty emotional, and I said, "I can live on his words for the rest of my mission."  

1-3 August 2016

We stopped overnight in Johannesburg after the game drives.  Then we spent the last two nights at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We stayed in a 112 year-old British railroad hotel that made us feel like British royalty.  Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world along with Grand Canyon and the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).

Our friends, the Beckstrands, came to our hotel in Johannesburg, picked us up, took us to visit the Johannesburg MTC, where we visited wit President and Sister Ashton, took us to dinner, and drove us back to our hotel.  It was wonderful to visit with them again.  They served with us in the Netherlands and we went to Alaska with them a couple of years ago.

The front of the Victoria Falls Hotel. The pictures below are more of the hotel.

A view of the courtyard at the hotel.

Formal British high tea - we had to experience it.

Scones, cream and jam on the
bottom, little cakes and cookies
on the second level, and little
sandwiches on the top.

Another bed with a mosquito net around it, but we
always took it off as there were no mosquitoes
this time of year. (Loel: Actually there were no mosquitoes in the hotel.  I received three bites when we went on a hike around the falls.  Mosquitoes in the rain forest.

This is our sitting room - bigger than the bedroom.
It was such a classy hotel with amazing service.

One of the big lounge areas of the hotel.

This is where we ate breakfast each morning at the hotel - and a buffet dinner one night.

Just a warthog wandering around the hotel grounds.

We took a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi
River one night - this wasn't our boat, but
another one floating by.  

On this dinner cruise we saw more birds, hippos, and crocodiles.

On the dinner cruise - they had these cute little lighted things at each table.

Again, the African sunsets are spectacular.

My favorite sunset.

Loel and Scott took a helicopter ride over Victoria
Falls, which they absolutely loved.  Look at the
pictures they got:

The falls was created by an earthquake that
created a fault line.

It also created this delta effect and the water
flows into the canyon over a mile wide.

We had a great local guide at the falls who explained all about them plus the economic situation in their country, which isn't good.  He was great.  We stopped for lunch at this place called The Lookout Cafe, which overlooked the falls with people bungi jumping and ziplining below. Coincidentally his wife is LDS.

The mist from the falls drops onto the Zimbabwe
side of the gorge.  The river is a natural
boundry between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The increased moisture has created a small rain forest
on the Zimbabwe side.

This is the dry season and Zimbabwe is experiencing
the same drought as South Africa. Our guide said
this is the best time to see the falls because in the
summer when the rains come, all the water over the
 falls creates so much mist it's hard to see the falls.

When the water is high, the scene from the air would be spectacular.
Video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qul6tmHMiIs

It's hard to describe the volume of water.
Video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt-5N54P4ks

This bridge connects Zimbabwe and Zambia.
They bungi jump from the little building in the
middle of the bridge.

An almost perpetual rainbow from the mist.

Some of the wildlife in the forest.

We went to a local market there in Victoria Falls.  Here is Ginger bargaining for a cool wall hanging she wanted.  So many of the booths had exactly the same things and they were all pretty aggressive and pushy, which got tiring.

This is the old Zimbabwe money from a few years ago.  It finally became worthless and they now use the American dollar for their currency.  Loel had fun buying a few of these huge bills.  (Loel: These are actual bills.)

The Zimbabwe economy is in a shambles. The current president is 92 and has been in power over 30 years. The economy became so tenuous that money put in the bank one day could lose half it's value by the next day. A 50 trillion dollar bill is humorous to us, but it was catastrophic to the people.  The government finally asked the U.S. if they could use U.S. dollars as their currency and that has brought some stability. But the people still have very little and that's one reason you see so many people making things to sell - because there are no jobs.  I picked up a $1.00 bill that was issued in 2008 and I've never seen a bill so worn, tattered and dirty.  It's be used hard for a lot of years.