26 September-2 October 2016

Sisters Anderson and Spackman came to Tema to go to the market with us as they had never been.  Selasi took us, of course.  We borrowed these hats for the picture and of course, the lady wanted 5 cedis for the use of them!  We paid her the equivalent of $1.25.  We all bought fabric, mostly.  The other ladies loved it and bought a lot.  Loel and Brother Spackman dropped us off and picked us up - traffic was terrible as Monday is a big market day.

This week we were able to be a part of an exciting
sealing. The Senior Couple in the picture are
Elder and Sister Bingham and they are Member
Support missionaries in a small city 3 hours
away from Accra. They brought this sister to the
temple and were proxies.

Elder Frempong and his mother did the temple work for her parents and Elder Frempong did the work for his father. His grandparents were sealed, then his mother was sealed to her parents. 

Then Elder Frempong's mother was sealed to her
husband and then Elder Frempong was sealed
to his parents. There were five Senior Couples at
the sealings and a few tears.  We also had all of our
missionaries from that session witness the sealing.
Two sisters were touched with lots of tears.  Pres
Brubaker told Loel that orchestrating this big,
complicated task in the temple was like his 'Super
Bowl" of family history.  It was a beautiful day.

These missionaries are brother and sister from
DR Congo. The Elder  was in the MTC a few months
ago, learned English and is serving in Accra.
His Sister is in the MTC now and will be going to
Cote d'Voire. We couldn't believe how good his English
had become!  It was amazing.

We are just continually amazed at the
creative way the Ghanaians arrange
goods to be carried on their heads.

These sisters came into the office and showed
Paula their new hair styles. I whispered to Paula
that she needed to get pictures.  The sister on the
far right did all this.

I've never seen this style before.

Very creative.

We went by our Kente weaver and one of his weavers
was working on this design.

We liked it so much we bought some place mats.

 

This Sister Missionary is in Accra for some medical
evaluations. We met her at a market on Saturday.

 

This market is held once a month at a German
institute and is one of the nicer markets we've
seen. We run into most of the Senior missionaries
here.  We always buy bagels here as there's a man
who makes some really good ones.  

More beads.  Loel bought this amber necklace.

Snacking on a German bratwurst.  It's pretty close.
But the bun didn't come close to a brochen

We pass through a toll on the way
from Accra to Tema. This lane was blocked and I thought this truck
overloaded with bags of charcoal
was wedged against the toll booth.
When we got on the other side the
engine was open and it apparently
stalled.

Elder and Sister Stutz joined us for
Sacrament Meeting and Priesthood/
Relief Society.  The Stutz are our
family history couple who come out
to help us quite a bit.  We love them.
They're from Orem and return home
in December.  This is their 3rd mission
in about 5 or 6 years.  

They joined us for lunch, too, in the cafeteria.
We had chicken gizzards.  I didn't eat them but
the others did!  

When youth groups from Cote d'Voire come to
the temple, they like to stop by the MTC.

Our current group of Sisters.

We loved conference weekend as we were able to watch all 4 sessions live on Saturday and Sunday.  They were long days as the sessions started at 4 and 8 pm.  On Sunday we also had all 3 hours of regular church, plus presidency meetings, and a devotional.  I counted that we were in meetings for 9.5 hours.  I love how when the Tabernacle Choir sings a number, the missionaries like to hum and sing softly along with them.  Music just bubbles out of them.

I was amazed at the many references to missionary work!  It felt so nice to have these missionaries hear how important it is and to have them currently be involved with it.

In the Brubaker's devotional, they had me speak for about 5 minutes on the Self-Reliance program the church has set up.  Many of our missionaries are worried about what will happen to them when they return home as they don't have a lot of family support, money for school, etc.  I was able to reassure them that with this Self-Reliance program, they will have the resources they need, which could include the Perpetual Education Fund, etc.  We've had missionaries ask us if they can be a part of our family when they return home, ask us not to forget them and their situation, email us frequently, ask us to help the find wives when we return, etc.

We had Elder Koranteng, an Area Seventy, who is over the Self Reliance program for West Africa come and speak at a devotional here this week.  Sister Brubaker and I visited with him afterwards and were able to learn a lot about how the church can help them after their missions.  It was nice to be able to share this with them to try to give them more peace of mine for after their missions.  We stressed having faith and hope and knowing that the Lord will bless them and help them, but for now, serve valiantly, learn many life's lessons while serving and come home more prepared for life than ever before.