This Week...

Our transfer week began early with two of our Polynesian returning missionaries coming in on Monday because it takes so long to get them home. It is a little sad that they don't get to have their final meal at the mission home with the rest of their group, but we tried to make it nice for them.

As it turned out, one of Elder Talamoni's flights was cancelled, so he was still in Accra when we got there on Thursday and was able to join us in the Temple.

Our thirteen new missionaries arrived from the MTC on Tuesday afternoon.

 

    This group includes five missionaries from Nigeria, four from Cote d' Ivorie, and one each from the Philippines, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Utah.  They are doing well.

On Wednesday, our returning missionaries came to the mission home.

The fufu was nice.

On time for breakfast -- 6 a.m.

Elder Hounkpe even had time to help butter all the toast.

We are saying goodbye to four Ghanaian missionaries this transfer.  In addition to being wonderful missionaries, they speak the tribal language.  This is a huge blessing in the smaller villages.

The group of twelve missionaries baptized 35 people in the last 10 weeks of their missions.  They finished strong.

Lunch at the temple annex.

  

The final goodbye before heading to the airport.

It is always nice when we see some of our former missionaries at the temple.

Elder Ukaegbu.

Sister Holm and Sister Ruskin.

We have been watching the construction of this huge, beautiful mosque since we arrived in Ghana.  It is on the way to the temple.  They are almost done.

When we arrived home from Accra on Friday, we partied with the other Senior Missionaries.

Saturday, we began the missionary interviews in Mankessim:

On Sunday we walked down the street and attended Easter Sacrament Meeting with the Nkanfoa Ward.  

And finally, we wish a huge happy 21st birthday to our son, Elder Evans Stevenson, who serves in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission.

If I were to take off my Mission President hat, and replace it with my Missionary Father hat, I could tell you how many days he has left until he completes his mission and joins us here in Ghana -- but I won't.  He is finishing very strong.

Happy Easter.

Last Week...

Internet problems prevented us from posting a blog for last week (April 3-9).  So, here is the catch up.

On Thursday last week, Sister Stevenson and I spent the day proselyting with some of the missionaries.  I was in Agona Abrem, where the Church has a fairly new group.  We taught some of the family members of this little girl as she was peeling cassava for dinner.

I was glad to be following the elders.  I don't know how they find their way around the villages.

There are some beautiful, green hills surrounding Agona Abrem.

It is always entertaining when an old white man comes to town.

We had a good day teaching.  I was glad that a few clouds rolled in and cut the sun.  That is a serious tender mercy.

Sister Stevenson also had a successful day in Abura.

In addition to meeting with investigators and visiting members of the Church, they also provided some unplanned service.

They went to visit a member of the ward who sells Sobolo and helped put together the next batch.

Sobolo is a Ghanaian drink made from bissap leaves, ginger, water and sugar.  Sister Stevenson likes it a lot.  I can only drink small amounts because there is usually a very strong ginger taste.

As I understand it, you cook the leaves and the ginger, strain it, cool it and add sugar.  Sister Stevenson says it is much more complicated than that, but since this is just a "catch up" blog, we will leave it at that.

They enjoyed helping out and even participated in quality control.

We had our monthly Mission Leadership Council meeting last week.  We discussed the following agenda items.:

• Improving the transfer process.
• Using the Book of Mormon more effectively in our teaching.
• Returning speculative doctrinal questions back to a focus on revealed truth.

We always enjoy counseling together with these mission leaders.

We spent one day last week in Assin Foso meeting with the members of the Telecom Zone.

Akonfudi District

It was a long day for the Telecom District, so they brought lunch with them.

Transfers are next week, so we had 13 new trainers to train.

After we finished with the Trainers, we had date night dinner with the Durrants at a new hotel that has opened a few miles from the mission home.

It was nice.

Saturday, we attended a baptismal service for the Bakano Ward.

On Sunday, we drove out to Komenda to meet with the Group there.

They meet in a school for now, but we think we have a building lined up to rent and the group will be organized into a stand-alone branch soon.

The Primary Children.

It was a nice week.  We got our internet back after six days.  It is amazing how huddling around a cell phone feels so much like the stone age.  We were very happy to be back in business.

Hard Driving

We started the week visiting with the missionaries in Praso Zone.  On Tuesday, we were in Hemang in the morning and Praso in the afternoon.

The sun was hot!  Where is the rainy season?

Then on Wednesday, we were on the road to Dunkwa.

Since the road is getting better, they had to keep it interesting by adding a slalom course.

The trip to Dunkwa was six hours of driving to spend two hours with the missionaries.  It was fun and they are doing well.

Then on Thursday, we were in Assin Foso.

The trip home was very exciting.  A big rainstorm hit and the temperature dropped about 10 C in just a few minutes.  A small tree blew over blocking the road in front of us.  We sat in the car for a while wondering how this was going to work out, when a bus approached from the other side.

About ten guys piled out of the bus, one of them had a machete.  They whacked away at the tree for a few minutes and cleared the road in short order.  However, they got very wet doing it. We were grateful and when the bus had passed, we continued on our way.

On Friday, we had the follow-up training for the new missionaries and their companions.

These missionaries have been together for five weeks and are doing great!

This was General Conference weekend.  We were able to at least hear all of the sessions.  For most of it, we just gathered around the cell phone playing the KSL Radio website.  While I shook my fist at the internet router a few times, it was nice to be able to participate in a wonderful conference of the Church.

We were happy to hear about the new temple in Kenya.  There will be several of our missionaries jumping on the bed tonight.