Older and Wiser...

My birthday was this week.  It was very pleasant.  I got new pajamas.  I ate cake and ice cream.

Not like last year when Sister Stevenson and a band of missionaries showed their love by giving me the traditional Ghanaian birthday greeting.

So to avoid any well meaning conspiracy, we got out of town by 9 a.m. and didn't return all week.

We spent the week in the Western Region interviewing the missionaries in the Takoradi, Tarkwa and Kojokrom Zones -- 72 missionaries.  We drove to chapels convenient to their areas and had them come in groups of 4 to 6 at a time.  On one day, we hit Agona (60 minute drive), Tarkwa (60 minute drive), Axim (2 hour drive), Nkroful (40 minute drive) and back to Takoradi (2.5 hour drive). 

Our home base for the week was a nice hotel in Takoradi.

This is the view from the Shama Chapel.  See our car way down there?  It is a bit of a hike to get to church.

Baptism interview in Tarkwa.

Pineapple growing at the chapel at Tarkwa.

The Harmattan continues to cause problems.  

On Saturday, about 400 church leaders gathered from all over the mission to meet with Sister Stephens from the Relief Society General Presidency and Sister Durham from the Primary General Presidency. Unfortunately, their plane from Accra to Takoradi was cancelled due to poor visibility relating to the Harmattan haze.  Elder Davis, our Area Seventy, had to break the bad news to everyone.

About 15 minutes before he did that, he turned to me and said, "President Stevenson, why don't you take about an hour and lead the training since we have all of these people here."  Well, I was a poor substititute, but I think the Lord was merciful to the people who had come so far and we ended up having a nice meeting.

This is the man who walked into the Takoradi Stake Center in December 2014 and asked Sister Stevenson what he had to do to be baptized.  He is now a counselor in the Sekondi Ward bishopric.

All of our sister missionaries had been invited to attend the training and we had received authorization from the Area Presidency to hold a Sisters Conference with them afterwards.  If you could bottle that energy, the oil companies would be out of business.

We had a very nice time together.

Sunday, we were back in Cape Coast and did get to meet Sister Stephens and Sister Durham.  

Sister Curtis, Sister Stephens, Sister Stevenson and Sister Durham 

We went to the Abura Ward with Sister Durham and her husband and Elder and Sister Curtis accompanied the Stephens to the Ola Ward.

Sister Durham with the Primary.

After church services, we had a quick lunch at the mission home before they had to leave for meetings in Accra.  

It was very nice to meet them and spend part of the day together.

As lunch was finishing up, there was a knock on the door.  It was Elder Hackmeister!  He completed his mission in August and is back for a week with a group doing a service project.  It was great to see him again and we hope to catch up a little later in the week.

He looks good.  White shirt and tie and we could put him back out there.

CREATURE OF THE WEEK:

Don't forget to pray...