Moving in Ghana

our old office, almost ready to go

Moving Day!!!

As you know we have been enjoying living in Alema Court with our office next door. We knew it was a temporary fix, as they were working on the Mission Home and Office in Tesano. Well they are have some troubles there, just slow going and the city is requiring the Church to put in another entrance/exit which may or may not happen on a busy street with the compound surrounded by other buildings. The builders are not going forward and the area office (who own the 2 apartments in Alema Court) are having a few more missionary couples come. So it is time for us to go! Luckily for us there is a house available 2 doors from where President Hill lives. It is a big house where the Area Presidency used to live, before they built apartments for them at the Temple Site. So we have moved to #3 Coco Palms, we have the office downstairs on the main floor and our rooms are upstairs. It was hard to move and have our office in an uproar and not be able to connect to the internet for a week. We had brand new office missionaries that could  not drive,  and one of our AP's is leaving and his head is in the clouds and he goes around singing.  Elder Wall and I packed everything, see above, and carefully labeled all of the boxes. Problem was the movers who were hired to do the actual moving did not know how to read and they were a little rough on the furniture. You know you have moved, however this was not even Ghana Good !!!!                   

This is the front door of our new office and house, it is very nice, we even have a little fenced in yard. There are about 30 houses in this compound, we do have guards to open and close the gates. They always have different guards here, whereas at the other place, we knew all 7 of the guards and gardeners.  

Below is a picture of when we were moving in. Our office area is almost twice as big. When they were wiring it for the computers and taking the wire along the ceiling, the technicians were risking their lives, as the ladder was too short for the 12 feet they had to reach and they tied it together with wire!
This is taken from the top of the stair going to our bedroom. It is all organized and the internet is working and looks very nice now. I will have to take another picture.

Yesterday we drove out to Kasoa for a district meeting, and we pass by the roadside markets all of the time. This is where most of the people buy all the necessities of life. You can see shoes belts clothes. Most of the casual clothes that the men and children wear every day t-shirts pants are bought from used clothing dealers. Most of these clothes I am sure have been donated, I have seen lots of t-shirts with city names on advertising a  the name of a 5K or another race or events from the U.S. Of course advertising with soccer clubs from US or baseball, football or food or drink. The other day someone came to our office and was wearing a polo shirt with Angie on it. It was from Logan, Utah.  I recognized how it was written, just like the restaurant there. So keep on giving to Good Will or Deseret Industries, these clothes are being put to good use.

 Ghana is moving also, this is a very big mall they are putting up on the way to Kasoa. They already have the Accra Mall, but this mall  looks like it will be 2 or 3 times as big. One of these days the umbrella stands and the metal boxes will slowly dwindle as they put up these malls.

 Since we are moving, this last week was also our Hump Day (1/2 way through our mission) Terry  and I walk 2-3 miles every morning and my shoes were worn down. I saved the 2nd pair I brought for our Hump Day, so I switched and am now wearing my new walking shoes.  Terry only brought one pair and he wishes he had brought two. We might have to have our kids send him a pair.

We love you all, thanks for keeping up with us, and thanks for your little notes and prayers, they work!

Goofy Missionaries

Sometimes our missionaries make us laugh, sometimes we are in awe of them and sometimes we just shake our head, sometimes I have to remind Terry just how mature we were or NOT at 19 and 20 years old. It is always lots of work and most of the time lots of fun. At the end of January we had Elder Bednar and Elder Clayton come and visit West Africa. We were able to have Elder Bednar and Susan talk just to the 350 missionaries of the Ghana Accra Mission and the Ghana Accra West Mission. We had our missionaries from the Bush come in and stay overnight and then we fed them breakfast. Then we were all sitting waiting for the 8:00 meeting at 7:30, even the Sisters who are usually 2 hours late for Zone conference were on time. About 15 minutes before it started we were beckoned to come out of our meeting, I thought oh no, something has happened to one of our missionaries. No, the Bednars wanted to greet us before the meeting because they had to catch a plane right after. It was fun to be remembered and given a hug by friends, from long ago even when you are far away in Africa.  Elder Bednar's instructions were wonderful, it was more a question and learning session for three hours. The missionaries were asked thought provoking questions and they answered questions and discussed answered more questions. Elder Bednar is really a master teacher and this forum of teaching, the teaching and learning model, which you would think would be impossible with 350 young people.. was wonderful, the 3 hours flew by.   

                                  This is a picture of  our whole mission - Ghana Accra West

We went to an Art Gallery last weekend and we just had to laugh at this picture. This is just the tip of the traffic problem add about 20 more cars to this space and you have Accra traffic. I told you I would not talk about the traffic anymore, but I lied. We have to be in it every day and just drives us crazy, especially Terry.
This week , Ben ( our facility man for our mission) was just stopped by a traffic jam and a big truck with a load of concrete blocks came and crashed into the back of some cars. The domino effect was 13 cars and Ben was car number five. His truck was only 2 months old (they cost about twice as much in US dollars here as at home because of taxes) His front and back need to be repaired 2 weeks to 3,4 months depending if they have to order parts.

We had to shift vehicles, so Ben could keep on fixing apartments. So we drove the van this weekend, at present Terry is the only one who knows how to drive a stick shift, hopefully a problem that will be solved this week. After church it started raining, an older couple asked as if we could drop them off  about 5 miles down the road we were going home on, we said OK, and suddenly while we were helping the missionaries all the seats filled up and we were a tro-tro, well can't drive that car to church again.(definitely against the rules)

I got some tomato seeds from my daughter and planted them. They are about 4 feet tall now and no little yellow flowers. Maybe they will be tomato trees. I hope so, good eating tomatoes are about 55 CD's per Kilo , that is about 14 dollars per pound!

This is one of our AP's he is doing some calling and had to type also, so he put his tie to good use!

                                          This is our other AP, he is just chilling out.

Shadach and being cast into the fire

Shadrach in all his glory.  His partners Meshach and Abednego have not shown up yet, at church, but we expect them someday as he assured me they would come.  The missionaries asked why does this young boy come to Church.  He is not a member but he loves the missionaries and he loves the feeling when he is at church. He comes to Sacrament meeting and sits between Sister Wall and myself.  He looks at the bible pictures and can tell you the story of each. I told the Elders he can feel where he is comfortable and some day he will want to become a member.   He is currently 10 years old, as near as we can understand.  Someone gave him a tie this week and he was in seventh heaven.  He wears a long sleeve yellow shirt and some sweat pants. He loves to play with the keys to the truck as it tweets when it is locked or unlocked with the key fob.  He is a sweet boy looking to belong and I can not think of a better place for him to belong than the Lords kingdom on earth, hearing the stories of Jesus found in the Bible and Book of Mormon.   

This week Heidi was called as the advisory to the primary while I was asked to serve as an adviser to the Young Men's presidency.  I would like to think that if I lived in Book of Mormon times I would have served with the Sons of Heleman.  Our goal is to create activities that allow the young men to have experiences that strengthen their testimonies increase their faith in the Messiah and build their conversion.

Today we had an experience we never want again.  We were driving back to the office from the local office supply store called Kingdom Books.  As we were traveling the mirror on the passenger side of the car slammed against the window and shattered. Heidi put her head down and said we just hit someone.  I was driving at a slow speed and being very careful as people are always on the street, walking or darting in front of us.  With that I stopped and a man came up to the side window and said I need to go to the hospital, let me in the truck, I of course did so.  But in preparing to leave a taxi pulled in front of me and motioned for me to stop, we thought we were in big trouble.  But the taxi driver got out of his cab and told the man to get out of our truck, stating that the man in the back seat hit our mirror.  About that time another pedestrian came along and told him to get out and us to leave.  They had seen the entire incident and were not going to allow him to get away with such shenanigans.  Thank heavens for the taxi driver and the other man.  I will now try to be more generous to the drivers as they make 3 lanes out of 1 and crowd in and block me and anyone else out, they can.  We are grateful to the Lord for his watching care and your prayers, I am sure we have been saved several times from unpleasant if not major problems by His tender mercies.  We did however miss Elder Bednar and Clayton's investigator devotional tonight as we waited for the mechanic to repair our side view mirror.  I did not dare drive the truck with a shell on it without a side mirror.  How grateful I am to our area fleet manager Kofi, and traveling mechanic for their quick response.  You see here you can not go to the Nissan dealer and get a new mirror, for if you do you have to buy the entire housing at a very high cost. So the mechanic went to a local shop, along side the road, and had a mirror made, mounted in the housing, then re-installed the entire housing on the truck. He carries all his tools in a back-pack, and travels by tro-tro.  It is amazing what these souls can do with very little resources.  Please know we are grateful for your prayers and the Lord's tender care.        

Bats and more Bats

Bats and more Bats

Whenever we drive down Independence Avenue , especially at dusk, there are just thousands of bats leaving these trees. They are very large, in the daytime, when they are hanging in the trees, it looks like each tree has hundreds of big pineapple size fruit hanging in it, yes it is a bat. They are fruit bats. I just hope they are not eating all of the mangoes. Mangoes have been out of season for about 3 months and they have just come back into season Yum!!

Our Internet service has not been good, our down stairs neighbors and friends left to go home, we miss them and their internet service. We are getting new family history missionaries that are coming next week, so here is hoping that my internet service will get better.

 This last week was the 10th anniversary of the Ghana Accra Temple, Our friend Ben who finds and takes care the missionary apartment and does lots of other things for our mission just got married this last week.
He met Pearl and she is a beautiful girl. This Wedding has been a very difficult process. At least once a week we would get an up date. First he is getting married much younger then the average Ghanaian. He is only about 24. Pearl she just finished her college and she has to do a year of service for the Government. They can get sent anywhere in the country to do that, luckily she got a company here in Accra. Then Ben had to do the knocking (ask for the Bride) and pay a Bride Price. After they got through with all of that they set the date and an Uncle died. You can't have a wedding unless everyone is buried and that process can take months. That was settled then they reserved the Church, and sent out the invitations and they got bumped because it was the 10th Anniversary of the Accra Temple Dedication. Pres. Hill  interceded for them. It was back on and the week before a great aunt died. You can see that this can get complicated!! Well to the chagrin of some family members they went ahead with it and first had the traditional Wedding last  Friday, then the Wedding and Reception at the Chapel (8 hours) on Saturday then the next Tuesday they got sealed in the Temple. These are a couple of pictures after the Temple.

They are a wonderful couple and are very excited, oh did I mention, Ben was also made 1st counselor in his ward Bishopric a couple of months ago while all this was going on, and he is still happy.


We had a very busy week, with going to all the weddings, Terry got a Ghanaian driver's license, a 3 day process, that produced a paper license.  I can go back in three months and pick up the plastic covered one.
We made a 8 1/2 hour trip to the bush with a record 6 police stops, all very pleasant and placing 3 copies of the Book of Mormon.  We decided we needed to take more cookies next time to share. Time is passing quickly, Mr. Potato from Shelly Idaho is our first AP and he has just gone to the bush to finish up his last 2 months of full time service. We love and miss him  in the office to brighten our days.    

Welcome to the World Baby Adelyn

This is little Adelyn,(parents, Kristi and Justin) she arrived 2 days before 2013 ended. She is the 3rd Grandchild to be born since we have been in Africa. All three of them are far away, but we couldn't love them anymore then if we were there holding them, and believe me we wish we could be there holding them. Unfortunately we can't  be two paces at once. Today Eli is being blessed,(parents, Emili and Brian) in Logan. This morning we had a cute baby blessed in our Nsawam Branch, I must admit that a tear came to my eye when I thought about Eli's blessing in just a few hours time. I must admit I am being a little prideful when I say that all 14 of our Grandchild were born into wonderful families. Families that will love, teach and care for them. Terry is going to write the rest of our blog, thank you all for your Christmas wishes.

We are in the middle of a season called Harmaton, not sure how it is spelled.  It comes in the dry season, between November and February and is the time when the Sahara gives up its sand into the air and fills the sky, so you can not see the sun or any blue.  Everything inside and out gets covered in dust.   The truck we drive may be washed in the morning but by evening it has collected a significant amount of dust. It can be so severe that ones lips crack and the skin drys.  We understand that in other parts of Africa, it is much worse.

This week was a week of miracles.  One I witnessed was the protection of our Mission President Hill. The pleading to our Father in heaven for that protection which answered ended up being our physical facilities representative and his gentle demeanor.  Ben Botwe is a counselor the local bishopric, was due have his traditional wedding Saturday but because his future Father in law's aunt died the wedding was postponed. Ben works very hard to bless the kingdom and those he serves.  He has worked many Saturdays and sometimes on Sunday not taking a day off for weeks trying to help the missionaries have the needs of water, electricity, etc.  Things that many of us take for advantage, but are often difficult part of a missionary apartment here in West Africa.  His testimony and goodness are exemplified in his service.  This next Saturday is their White Wedding significant of a wedding in the Church.  He will be married in the Christensborg Stake Center, there must be a civil wedding, prior to a temple sealing, and in February they can go to the temple to be sealed.  I can witness that because of his goodness and all of our pleading President Hill received Father's protection.  We see miracles daily and and know God lives and loves us, as he does all of his children.          

Christmas Time

I had better tell you about Christmas, before going on to the New Year. It is so strange to get reports from our children about the snow, cold , skiing and sledding that they have been enjoying ,or not, when we are so hot here. The larger stores are decorated and they even have some red and green decorations out. The stores are playing Christmas music, and I have to chuckle when I here "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" or other songs like that. Almost every night for about a week before Christmas to this time between Christmas and New Year. We have heard large outdoor parties going on in the neighborhood. They like to play the music really really loud and the parties are always outside.  This is picture of a couple of our missionaries that built their own Christmas tree out of branches that were being trimmed from a big evergreen, they did a pretty good job.

 Our mission had a fun Christmas Conference with 1/2 of missionaries one day and 1/2 the next day. We did a lot of singing, heard an inspiring message from President Hill, had a talent show, we had some good musicians and as you can see some of our Island and New Zealand Missionaries did the Hawkua  for us. They were very good. We also had a good lunch and gave all the missionaries some small small presents and a phone chip with 35-40 minutes on it so they can call home on Christmas.

On the 24th we did our last mail/cookie - run before Christmas. We went up to Oda and Asamankese, an Area about 3 hours drive time away. ( This is where the Nielson's were before they had to go home because of Sister Nielson's illness. They were never able to figure out what she had in Salt Lake Hospitals either. They are at their home and she is recovering.) We met another missionary couple from Abomosu, the Daltons ( 2 hours further  from where we were in Oda, and he picked up all the mail for the missionaries in the Abomosu area. We then drove on to Nsawam and delivered more mail and cookies. We had started out at 6:00 A.M. and got back about 5:30, just in time to go to a very nice Christmas Eve dinner with the 20 other couples that are here in the Area office and the other mission. It was at a very fancy Hotel and one of the best dinners we have had eating out.
On Christmas Day the Senior Couples took our a nice
Brunch to the MTC to share with the missionaries

that were still at the MTC over Christmas. We also played funny games and had a white elephant exchange with them. We went home at 3:00, just in time to Skype with our children and grandchildren and enjoy their Christmas with them.Thank goodness for Skype but we still missed a lot. Hope you had a great Christmas. Love, Terry and Heidi

Thanksgiving

This blog is a little late for Thanksgiving "the day" mainly because our computer has not been working for the last couple of weeks , but it is never the wrong day to give Thanks. When we go walking in the morning at 5:30 we pass quite a few people who are on their way to work, we always greet them and ask them how they are doing, they always are very positive and tell us they are fine and they add by His Grace, or By the Grace of God. They are always acknowledging the presence and blessings of the Lord in their life. I am grateful to have that example of Gratitude in my life .

I am grateful for all the other people that bless my life, especially our family. It takes all 5 of our children to take care of us while we are on our mission. We are also grateful for friends who send their encouragement or a couple of cans of pumpkins & a box of Stuffing or some special soap. We spent Thanksgiving with our 40 some friends that are also Senior missionaries here in the Africa West Area . It was fun spending time and eating great food,(best coconut cream pie I ever had) even turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. It was fun to spend time with some of the couples that have different responsibilities then we have and find out what they are doing or what is happening in their area.

 This is our 2nd Thanksgiving Dinner - we went up to Abomosu - about 3 1/2 drive through some rough road. The Daltons arranged the dinner, These are 5 interns from Utah State University. They have been staying here for 3 months, and been teaching a business class or micro - businesses. This  week was their last week and anyone that finished the business class, had them turn in a business plan and if it was a sound plan  then they were given a micro-loan for that business. Hope the businesses are all successful!!

Of course we had the 6 missionaries that are there- what great missionaries, only the best go up to the bush, or else they get to be great missionaries while they are up in the Bush and mentored by Elder and Sister Dalton. We only got 3 of them on the camera, maybe the others were preparing their mashed yams and no-bake pan- cookies. We were also joined by friends and ward members from Abomosu. This building is where World Joy ( a non-profit)  does some of it operations out of. They help with schools and medical care in this part of Ghana.

Guess who was the Birthday Boy that day! Elder Dalton baked Terry a Ghanaian Chocolate Cake, it was delicious!! Elder Dalton is the one on the left and behind Terry is the West Africa Area Dr.

This last week was very sad for us we had to say good-bye to Elder and Sister Nielson - they are our good friends and the Bush Couple up in Asamankese and Sister Nielson developed a problem with her joints and legs, it progressed so fast. They were down here for blood tests ( they never did find out what it was) but whatever it was, was progressing fast, so we flew her home. They got to Salt Lake yesterday and we hope to hear what is happening in the next couple of days. I do want to tell you this story about Asamankese. They had a King die there a few weeks ago (they sometimes wait months to have a funeral and bury someone) and they could not bury him because, they had to have some heads (human) to put under his coffin, so it would hold up his coffin and it would not touch the dirt. Anyway, people in the town were very worried they told the missionaries and Elder and Sister Nielson to be very careful and not go out by themselves and not go out at night. The Nielsons, told us that everyone in the town was very worried about and even one of the missionaries from Ghana was very worried about it. I just told the Nielson's that they should just tell the missionaries to not say where or why they had gone, (everyone knew who the Neilson's were because they are the only white ( Obrunis) in town, and then every one in town would assume that the King had 2 of the 4 heads.

 This is just a path to someones home, reminded us of Hawaii. If you have a car and live in a village, many times you cannot get it close to your home or compound so you might get your car stolen the first night, so you might as well not get a car. You have to pay it all up front, 3/4 of the US might not have a car if that was the case there.

 These are our great missionaries from Amasaman, it is on our way to our Branch in Nsawam, so almost every Sunday we stop and deliver, mail or something to these Elders .

Apartment Inspection in Tantra Hills, they have by far the best out door space of any of our missionary apartments, the problem is the land lady won't let them sit on the grass, but it is very pretty.

This is in case you have not had any stomach problem, just have some Banku here.