June

The mission is growing rapidly.  A new area was opened up in Techiman.  It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here.  Elder Reiss has been up there a few times with Cooper looking at apartments.  We now have 8 elders serving there.  They had 9 baptisms last Sunday and more scheduled for the coming weeks.

Techiman

Techiman Medical Center

Street going into Techiman 

Bicycles are popular

Watermelons

One session of zone conference was held at Techiman.  Sunyani, Tamale and Techiman attended.  These are some pictures of the conference.

We are picking up the food from the caterer for the conference.  We had chicken and rice.  What a surprise.  At least it was chicken and it was good. Elder Hopkins ordered the food and Sister Elmer, the area dr.'s wife wanted to see a little of Techiman so she went with us.

May Highlights

We have fallen into a routine now, so we mainly have just a few highlights and special things that we have done.  The first part of May was transfers.  We had 8 missionaries go home and 13 come in.  It was a very busy 2 days.  We did a lot of traveling and shuffling missionaries.  We got to take a group to the airport and see them off.  It is such an exciting time for them.  Then we went back to the airport to pick-up the new ones coming in.  It is fun to see their enthusiasm and their reaction as they arrive.

Waiting to go to the airport

Missionaries going home

We went to Tamale for the first time since the new area was opened up.  It is about a 5 hour drive.  There are 8 elders up there.  I'd heard that it was hotter there because it was closer to the Sahara.  I envisioned desert and camels and elephants.  So as we are driving I kept watching for the desert.  It really isn't that close to the Sahara.  The terrain is much flatter and the trees are much shorter, more like bushes.  It was somewhat warmer.  The streets are wide and it seemed cleaner.  There are no tro-tros just a few taxis and a million motor scooters.  We didn't get a very good picture of the motor scooters, but EVERYONE including the women in their dresses with babies on their backs ride motor scooters.  There are also a lot of bicycles.  No camels or elephants.   As far as missionary work there, it is a challenge.  It is predominately Muslim and a lot people go to Tamale to work, but are not there permanately.  We stayed in a pretty nice hotel.  We were glad to get back to Kumasi.

Not sure the what river this is

Petroleum bulk plant

Lots of these interesting little thatched-roof huts

Termite hill

Kind of a scary plant

Our room

Some highlights

Last month we went to Accra.  It is a very big and modern city.  We went to the temple and to the mall.  We ate at the food court at the mall.  It was just like being home.  The trip was fun, we met lots of other senior couples and President and Sister Judd of the Accra mission. Accra is very pretty but we were glad to be back home in Kumasi.

Ancillary building on the temple grounds where we stayed.

View from our window

The BYU-I collegiate choir came to Ghana.  They spent a couple of days in Kumasi.  We went to both performances.  It was really fun to visit with them and talk about home and people that we know.  Even if they were from areas other than Rexburg, everyone seems to know where Mud Lake is.

Getting off the bus

Guest Ghanian Choir

Trying out the stage, but decided to perform in front of the stage

Brother and Sister Page from BYU-I

The quarterly zone conference was held in April.  It is a 3-day conference to accommodate all the  missionaries.  We helped arrange for the meals and did some setting up and clean-up.  It was a little stressful and we were tired when it was over, but it turned out very well.

Mmmm, chicken and rice

Hanging out in our office