The missionaries look forward to transfer day like Christmas. Some hope to move --- some hope to stay, but the chance of change is always exciting. We said goodbye to ten very fine missionaries this week with our traditional fufu dinner.
And we welcomed eight new missionaries. To keep things even, we also will have two local members serving with the missionaries for the next eight weeks.
We started using a bus service to transport the Elders and Sisters from the MTC this transfer. It worked very well, except the bus driver picked them up at 6 a.m. instead of 10 a.m., so they were rolled out of bed and rushed onto the bus as quickly as possible. Plus, they arrived four hours early to the mission home, which caused us to scramble a bit. Still, it was better than driving the seven hour round trip to Accra. Its an easy bug to fix.
Six of our new missionaries come from Nigeria, one from Zimbabwe and one came from Utah, the hard way (more on that later). Transfers go like this: Transferring missionaries are grouped on Tro Tros by their zone leaders and sent to one of several central stations.
Once at the station, they are grouped together again by general destination, where they are met by their new zone leaders and final transportation is arranged.
It is quite a process and the Assistants plan it out in detail together with the Cape Coast Zone Leaders. I was so nervous about this Tro Tro business before I came to Ghana and I mentioned it several times to President Shulz. I remembered how scared I was being put on a train by myself my first day in Sweden. I could only imagine how it would be to be dropped on a tro tro in Africa.
We always get our new missionaries from the Ghana MTC, except, as it turns out, when the Ghana MTC is full. Then we get new missionaries from all over the place. Last week, one came in by himself from New Zealand and this week we picked up Elder Holman fresh off the plane from the Provo MTC. He had missed a flight due to some airport fire in Chicago, so he was completely wiped out when we finally got him on Thursday.
We gave him a quick intro to Ghanaian food and put him to bed. The next morning, he was a new man and we gave him some instruction and sent him to Tarkwa.
This was also the transfer that we opened Dunkwa-On-Offin, the new northern outpost of the mission. Because of travel time, we had the four missionaries assigned there stay at the mission home on Wednesday night. They spent the extra time putting together their plan to establish the Church in that new area.
On Friday, we finally had a minute to catch our breath, so I celebrated by getting a haircut. The barber holds a razor against his comb and adjusts the length by sliding the razor up and down the teeth of the comb.
Sister Stevenson got two referrals while I was in the chair.
For date night, we went back to Cheez for more talapia and fried rice. I guess we are in a rut. We did try to get into a restaurant at a hotel, but they wouldn't let us in because we were not guests of the hotel.
On Saturday, we drove to Praso and worked the evening with Elders Adjavon and Wight in Hemang. It is a beautiful area.
As we crossed a footbridge, we saw these two boys fishing. They were using a huge hook on a line with a tiny little worm. I thought, "No fish would be dumb enough to fall for that." I asked them if they could catch anything with a hook that size and they pulled out a bucket with a nice catfish. So, either the fish in Ghana are stupid, or I am not smarter than a Utah trout.
We stayed with Elder and Sister Hanlon in Praso on Saturday night and left early Sunday morning for Dunkwa.
I always get the willies when I cross this bridge.
Some wet weather turned a 2 1/2 hour bumpy ride into a 3 1/2 hour bumpy sloshy ride.
Pretty, though.
The members in Dunkwa were very excited that the missionaries are finally there. We had eight investigators attend the Church services today.
Creature of the Week:
None. Sorry.
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