More Zone Conferences...

We had three more zone conferences this week -- all outside of Cape Coast.  We did the math and figured we spent over 20 hours in the car.  

We started in Takoradi on Tuesday:

I was able to release a missionary who had served in Nigeria. He lives in one of the mission branches in the Western Region.  Luckily, the zone conference location was on his way home.

I had a meeting in the evening, so Sister Stevenson when out teaching with the missionaries.  I think they taught six discussion that night.  The sisters love it when she goes out with them -- and so does Sister Stevenson.

Wednesday we were in Assin Foso:

 Practicing teaching.

Searching for "Attributes of Astonishment."

We both got to go out with the missionaries on Wednesday.

Thursday was Praso.  This is the most rural zone in the mission.

On the way home from Praso, we stopped in Elmina to interview this sweet grandmother for baptism.

 

On Friday, I drove to Asikuma and Odeben (about a seven hour round trip) to do some baptismal interviews.  I had to drive through a puddle so deep that my car alarm was submerged.  Now it sounds like a small cricket.  The Google Maps to Asikuma are still rough, so it was an adventure.

Saturday and Sunday we participated in the Takoradi Stake Conference.  We stayed overnight with Elder and Sister Julander.  Sister Stevenson and I had several opportunities to speak.

The members seem to like my stories.  I told them about a time that we saw a car go into the gutter and get stuck.  I got out to help, but alone could not do anything.  Then a bunch of men came out of the church building and began lifting and pushing.  Before long, the car was free and good as new (well mostly).  I said there is much we can accomplish if we work together that we could not do alone.  

The Takoradi Stake Choir -- can you find the Julanders?

Since we were (kind of) in the area, we drove the two hours from Takoradi to Tarkwa to see the missionaries there.  It is hard to get there often because of the distance.  We had a nice, but short, visit.   

We arrived home Sunday at about 8 p.m. with tired bums.

DATE NIGHT:

Both of our water storage tanks went dry on Friday so we had to have a truck come and fill one.  The city water that normally fills the tanks gets filtered twice between the street and the tanks, so this water was pretty brown for a day or two until things settled out.  As a result, part of date night included washing shirts by hand with filtered water.  We were afraid if we used the washing machine with the brown water, I would have brown shirts.  This is how almost all of Western Africa does laundry, so it was a nice cultural experience.  Not so nice that we weren't grateful for the washing machines.

CREATURE OF THE WEEK:

This Emperor Scorpion crawled up the shower drain in the Assistant's apartment next door while Elder Gqweta was showering.  Our grandson William says they make good pets.  Elder Gqweta disagrees.

 
On the softer side: