6-12 June 2016

This is my miracle elder who we tested
for malaria, it was positive, got him
started on the malaria drugs, and
the next morning he was bearing his
testimony as to the power of the
priesthood blessing he had received.
He's doing great now.  This was at
the temple a couple days later.

These are actual sisters from Nigeria, who decided to serve missions, turned in their papers the same day, got their calls the same day, and entered the MTC the same day.  They're going to different missions in Ghana.

There's a story behind these bananas.
We were driving down a busy street in
Accra and found a street hawker selling
the bananas on her head, so we quickly
told her we wanted some.  While we were
trying to get the money out, she threw two
bunches of bananas in our car, but then the
traffic moved and we had to move with it
and weren't able to pay her.  We felt terrible
but the next day, we found the same place on the
busy street, and found her, and quickly gave
her the money and more!  She was so
happy and remembered us instantly.
The sad thing is that tons of other vendors
started crowding around the car, begging,
with one hanging on the car and running
alongside as we had to drive away, almost
falling down before he let go.  Very scary.

The monsoon has started.  They tell us that June
and July are the big rain months.  It has rained
nearly every day for the last five days. There was
quite a bit of flooding in Accra this week.

Paula arranged for a tour of a large textile factory
in Tema and we invited some of the Senior Missionaries
from Accra.  We were waiting in our office and a
question was asked about maps.  My navigator
background kicked in and I gave a little lecture
on map reading.

During the tour they let President Brubaker try
stamping the wax prints.  He said it was harder
than it looks.  The workers are paid by the piece,
so they work fast, with minimum breaks and over-
time when possible.

The red is the wax on the fabric.  It was a fascinating
tour and everyone loved it.  We invited them to lunch
at the MTC after and Aba cooked a wonderful
meal for the 10 of us.  We all bought fabric at the
end and they all proclaimed it a great success.

On a quiet day we went to a beach resort between
Tema and Accra.  It was very clean and it's pretty
expensive.  I don't think we'll stay overnight, but
we may go there and pay a pool fee.

This is on the sand on the ocean side of the beach
resort,

Another picture on the beach.

A little lagoon between the hotel and the beach.

Fresh flowers in the ladies restroom.

We stopped at an Artist's Alliance. Kind of a gallery
where everything is for sale. We had heard about
custom caskets in Ghana, but we'd never seen them.
This really is a casket.

And this one.

And this.

And this.

Of course there is a polo club in Accra. Why not?

One day I stepped outside for a minute
and this sister comes charging over to me,
throws her arms around me yelling,
"Sister Tibbitts, Sister Tibbitts, it's
Sister Karma!"  She had been one of
our first missionaries who had gotten very
sick and we took her to the hospital.  She's
doing very well on her mission and was at
a training at the church next door.  It was
wonderful to see her again.

This is how they mow the grass. The technical school next door has a large soccer field and they were out Saturday morning cutting the grass with machetes preparing for a soccer game.

Just your friendly machete lawn cutting party.

Aba helped me make these two
necklaces and earrings from some
of our beads we've bought.  We copied
a necklace Sister Brubaker had
purchased.  I was really happy with
the results.