The Mountain of the Lord

Holiness to the Lord -- The House of the Lord.

We were so excited for our neighbors in Cote d'Ivorie to hear the announcement in General Conference that a temple would be built there.  They are so faithful in coming all the way to Accra -- they come by the bus load and stay for the week.  The temple in that land will also make it possible for the saints in Liberia and Sierra Leone to receive those saving ordinances.  It is a great day in Western Africa.

I was invited to play basketball with some of the missionaries on Monday morning.  I gave up basketball three months before my mission began for fear of injury.  However, I gave in and took a chance.  

I managed to keep up pretty well.  I even hit a few three pointers and did ok on defense.  It was a good time and everybody walked away.  

Tuesday began transfers.  We welcomed 13 new missionaries at the mission home.  

We spend time on Tuesday and Wednesday to make them feel welcome and get to know them. 

They wait patiently to find out where they will begin their service and who their companion will be.  

On Wednesday afternoon, the returning missionaries begin to gather at the mission home.  

Can't handle the air conditioning.

My new Assistant is Elder Halversen.  He will replace Elder Larsen, who is part of the group going home.

This trip to the temple was especially exciting for Elder Larsen.  He had the opportunity to act as the escort for a man that he taught the Gospel last year.  This brother had joined the Church and was receiving his Endowment that day.  It was "sweet."

Because of the increase in the number of sister missionaries this transfer, we called a new set of Sister Training Leaders.  So on Friday, we had the four STLs from the Cape Coast Stake over for lunch and some training.

I'm not sure why the only picture we got of them was doing the dishes.

After the training, I drove out to Abakrampa to interview potential branch presidents for two new branches we are forming in that area (its about 30 minutes north of Cape Coast).  Branches of the Church have been approved in Abura Dunkwa and in Aseibu.  We will organize them on the 12th and will put the new leadership in place then.  

While I was in Abakrampa, I was admiring my favorite African tree and asked one of the men if he knew what it was called.  He said it is the Ceiba Tree.  Mystery solved.  They are magnificent.  This one is right in front of the church building.

On the way home, I picked up Talapia and rice for date night.  That always makes me popular at home.

This was General Conference weekend.  That normally doesn't mean much here in Western Africa since conference is not generally available live.  We receive DVDs a few weeks later and show it on a Sunday.

We didn't have enough bandwidth to stream the video, but we were able to get a decent audio feed off the KSL radio website.

It wasn't breakfast burritos in our pajamas, but we were able to hear all of the sessions live (except Priesthood -- it started a midnight our time so we listened to it when we got up this morning).

I had time before conference started to take a four hour round trip to meet with some members in Agona and say hello to the missionaries there.

It was a nice Easter Sunday.