Farewell, Elder and Sister Hanlon.

Sunday night, Elder and Sister Hanlon will fly home to Kentucky after completing a wonderful, two year mission.  They have been such a blessing and we have had some awesome experiences together. They have already received their next mission call and will be serving in Boston beginning in January. We wish them well.  (Our first week in the mission, I was working with a companionship in Takoradi and a plane flew overhead.  One of the elders asked me how far away I thought the plane was.  I said it looked like about 10 kilometers.  He replied, "No President, for you it is about three years away!"  For the Hanlons, it is now only a few hours away.)

I went out to Saltpond to do another baptismal interview this week.  I really love that area.  The people are so sweet.

While I was waiting for the missionaries to join me, I enjoyed watching the children play.

I don't think these guys had ever seen an "old white man" before.  They were both amused and nervous when I entered the compound.

The Church is growing steadily in Saltpond.

We held our monthly Mission Leadership Council this week.  We have several new members on the council, so we spent some time discussing how councils work in the Church and how to make them very effective.  We talked about the importance of leadership by example and setting a high spiritual tone in the mission.  We finalized plans for the upcoming zone conferences and announced some procedural changes to the mission supply process and recording baptisms.

On Friday, we had the Finish Strong Seminar for the missionaries completing their service in October.  This is a good sized group of seventeen elders and sisters.

This is a powerful group of missionaries.  They set high goals for themselves to keep busy during the last several weeks of their service.  They have done much good and have much left to do before they are done.

Thursday was Elder Hanlon's birthday, so we had one last celebration with them at the Coconut Grove. 

We decided to see once and for all if the "Crocodile Pond" water hazard on the golf course was really a crocodile pond.  So, we set out across the fairway at twilight.

Let's just say, if you lose your golf ball in this pond, it's gone.