Sunday, July 12, 2015

Happy 37!


Sister Stevenson and I took a few days at the Busua Beach Resort to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary.  While it is not possible to completely relax from our missionary responsibilities, it was nice to clear the schedule and spend the time together.  
  

The property is very nice.



And the food was awesome!





We didn't take surfing lessons or jet ski or kayak to the island.  





But we had a great time together.  I am grateful that we are encouraged to take these short annual holidays within mission boundaries.

Prior to hitting the beach, we welcomed four new missionaries to the mission.


They arrived in Cape Coast on Tuesday.  The sisters are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and have been in the MTC for six weeks learning English.  The elders come from Ghana and Kenya. They spent Tuesday night with us and we were able to get to know them and give them additional instruction in preparation for their service.

On Wednesday, we gave them their assignments and sent them into the field.  Since the sisters were going in the same direction that Sister Stevenson and I were, we drove them to their companions.


We stopped in Kissi on the way to drop off a package.  The elders look good on their bicycles.  Kissi is the only area in the mission with bikes.  It is big and the traffic is light.  I couldn't sleep at night if there were bicycles anywhere else.  The traffic is too wild. Frankly, bicycles could not access many of the places the missionaries serve.  Walking is slow, but it is safe and allows access to the homes of the people.

We dropped our new sisters off with their companions.


They seemed to bond right away.


On Saturday, we gathered the leadership of the mission branches in the Western Region for their quarterly training.  I had forgotten to bring a pen for the white board and was facing the prospect of doing three hours of training without being able to write anything down.  In desperation, as we began the meeting, I apologized for not having everything I needed and asked if anyone happened to have a dry-erase pen on them. Two hands shot up and soon we were in business.  I call that the miracle of the pens.  

Sunday, we attended church services in the Agona Branch.  Sister Stevenson and I both were invited to speak.  It was a very nice meeting.  It is a sweet branch.


We had gotten friendly with a couple of the staff members at the hotel and Sister Stevenson got their contact information for the missionaries.  When we told Elder Hanneman and Elder Ameyaw about the referral, they said that the man had come up to them yesterday and said he had met two "old" missionaries at the hotel and that the man was tall and only wore long-sleeved shirts.  Anyway, they already had an appointment with him for later today.  I hope it goes well.  He and his brother were very nice.


From Agona, we drove on to Shama.  Elder Okehi and Elder Egwu had invited us to meet with one of their investigators.  They hiked us up this hill and we had a delightful visit in a member's home (my new most peaceful discussion).  The whole process took about 2-1/2 hours because as we were walking back and forth, we were able to stop and talk to people.  All good.

We arrived home safely, ready to jump back into the missionary interview schedule.

CREATURES OF THE WEEK:



I decided not to get close enough to see if this was a hornet nest or a bird nest.  Mother Stevenson never raised such a foolish child.





It's tough being a source of protein in Ghana.






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