Elections and Transfers

Ghana's national elections were held this week and it was also our scheduled missionary transfer.  In order to avoid moving missionaries on election day, the schedule was adjusted so that our new missionaries arrived to us from the MTC on Monday.

Fresh off the bus.

The missionaries in this group come from Etheopia, United States, Zimbabwe, Tonga, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  We are certainly a multi-cultural mission. 

We feed them lunch, then Elder and Sister Durrant help them with some paperwork.

First Instruction.

The "Sistas."

I interview each of them and then we have a nice dinner together.

After dinner, we watch a video talk by President Uchtdorf about being fearless missionaries.

Fan Ice and cookies, then off to bed.

The next morning, its more food and more instruction.

Then they are off to their first assignment and companion.

December 2016 New Missionaries.

It is still Tuesday and the returning missionaries begin to arrive. Because we were laying low during the elections on Wednesday, we kept this group in the mission home an extra day.  By the way, the elections were orderly and peaceful.  The winners won gracefully and the losers respected the voice of the people.  This is a great place.

The Farewell Fufu.

Elder Smith is new in the office this transfer working on supplies.

Wednesday morning was a little more casual than usual.

The sisters watched Christmas movies.

Mr. Kruger's Christmas

Sister Stevenson challenged the elders to a football match.

After lunch, everyone got cleaned up and back in missionary mode.  I did my final interviews with them.  Then we watched our family favorite Christmas movie together, "A Christmas Carol."

After dinner, we had a testimony meeting together.

Thursday morning started early with breakfast at 6 a.m.

In an unprecedented turn of events, all of the sisters were on time to breakfast and non of the Elders were.

We were on the road to the temple at 7 a.m.  We were delighted to see that the new overpass through Kasoa was open.  This is significant because we no longer have to slog through the Kasoa markets on a two lane road, it cut 30 minutes off our drive time, and statistically reduced my stress level enough to keep me alive an extra ten years. 

Sister Asare and Sister Baah came to say goodbye to their former fellow servants.

This group has four missionaries who come from French speaking countries.  They learned English while serving here and will be a great blessing as they return home.

We returned home from Accra on Friday, just in time to pack again for the branch conference in Axim on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, we held training for the Branch Councils of the Axim and Nkroful Branches.

I also got started on the interviews for this transfer by meeting with the missionaries serving in Axim and Nkroful.  These are the Axim Elders.  I didn't get pictures of our Nkroful missionaries, but will see them again next Sunday at the Nkroful Branch Conference.  They will surely make the blog then.

It is a three hour drive back to Cape Coast, so we stayed overnight at the Axim Beach Resort -- it is one of our favorites.

We were with the other members of the Mission Presidency and the Tarkwa District President and their wives.

I had grilled Talapia and fried rice.

This angry cat wanted some.

On Sunday, I spoke in Sacrament meeting along with the District President and the Branch President.

Later, President Nelson taught the youth.

President Adjei taught the adults.

And Sister Stevenson taught the Primary.  There were 75 children in attendance!

You could hear the children singing very well all through the building.  They were very enthusiastic.

We also saw a cool butterfly.