Sunday, June 25, 2006
TOLLESTRUP TWOSOME
Sister Nielson's brother Wayne has come to Africa for a visit - he plans to stay about three weeks and pick up on some of the local flavour and history. He arrived Thursday evening, and has already been somewhat exposed to markets, and cultural arts centre (fancy name for souvenir shopssssss -lots of them all under one huge cover - attended church and this visit to the the temple site in Accra where Sister Nielson and President Nielson were giving a fireside address. Barb and Wayne have a ton of tales to tell and the evening are full of reminiscing, remembering and revising (!) many of their past times and stories - I think it is good therapy for both of them - we are glad to have Wayne here with us.
The Yanks have arrived
Our largest group of American missionaries arrived via BOAC Saturday night about 10 PM. Sunday they attended meetings here in the Tema ward and the afternoon was used to drive into the temple square in Accra where we tested their durability by having them sit through a fireside President and Sister Nielson were giving for the Couples working in Accra. They survived admirably! Pictured in the group are: L to R back row: Sister Nielson, Elder McDonald (Illinois), Elder Benzon (Nevada), Elder Judd (Arizona), Elder Strong (Arizona), Elder McKewan (Utah), President Nielson, Front row L to R: Elder Bickmore (Utah), Elder Murray (Idaho), Elder Cooke (Arizona). We await now the arrival of the African portion of the group and will post a complete picture next Sunday. Sunday, June 18, 2006
50 YEARS HIGH SCHOOL REUNION -PROOF
While we are here in Africa, helping missionaries learn to teach the gospel, my high school graduating class will be "celebrating" 'commemorating" "eulogizing" the fact that it was 50 years ago (almost to the day) that we graduated from the Cardston High School. We are going to miss very much not being with them to reflect, reminisce, and ruminate the activites of years ago. It was rumoured that no one will be included in the memory handout unless they are living and can send verification of that fact. While we are not 100% positive of the first part (living) - we do have some photographic evidence that we are not under the ground yet - so these pictures might prove noteworthy. Please excuse just a moment of self focus, but the graduation committee wanted some recent pictures and I don't have a clue how to send them over E mail - I have not kept up with the times!!!!!!
GROUP 7 - JUNE 5/2006 - Thanks to the Rose's
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We did our best to get a photo of this group - improvised a bit with a little camera that was left here at the MTC - not too bad a result, but in printing up the pictures for the missionaries, I forget to publish it on the blogspot - and thanks to Sister Rose and her offering us the use of her son's camera - I remembered I hadn't posted it - so here it is - thanks to the Rose's for their reminder and help. The group is characterized by several countries - USA - 2 France - 1 (Sister Carrier came to give Sister Iyip a companion for the 16 days she was here - her English was very good and we thank her for coming, originally she had agreed to come to help with a Sister from the DR Congo who didn't make it, so she stayed and helped with English instead). Ivory Coast - 1; DR Congo - 2 Republic of Congo - 1; Ghana - 3; Sierra Leone - 1; Nigeria - 10. The group has been an exceptional group - the lesson teaching has gone extemely well, and their obedience and cooperation in all things is noteworthy. Their enthusiastic singing has been a joy to us also. Friday, June 09, 2006
BLACK AND WHITE AND MIGHTY TAME
One peaceful day what should appear to our wandering eyes than a beautiful butterfly - not colorful, but beautiful in its pristine coat of black and white. It lit on our window in the apartment and stayed there for quite some time (long enough at least to find a camera and take a picture) - we must be on a migratory path, because we only saw them for a couple of weeks and then they were gone again - but we enjoyed them while they were here - probably was about 4 - 5 inch wing span with perfect symmetry.FAMILIES WHO COME ......
One of the major differences between our MTC and others around the world is the lack of family that comes with their missionaries - we hear they are trying to cut down on that in other areas of the world, but here it is exceptional if we have even one missionary that has family come with him. The Group 6 had thr
ee missionaries with family who came with them needless to say all are from the
Accra area:
This is Elder Daniels - he had his mother, grandmother and sister all accompany him here to the MTC. One of the touching moments was the last few moments before Grandmother left, she took him aside and gave him strong counsel - in Twi which I couldn't understand - but I could feel the spirit of it - she isn't a member and I'm sure her emotions were running strong as she left her grandson here to learn to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ - he will have a great influence upon her through his letters.
This is Elder Ezah - and his brother and sister who came with him to say their good byes - for a moment when they arrived I feared the sister was our one missionary coming from Ghana, and I was ready to run and find Sister Nielson for the first lesson in Missionary attire and dress - but it turned out she was just here to say goodbye to her brother!
This is Elder Mensah - his father is a Bishop and his mother a loving mother - they live in Accra and it was interesting that they had not chosen to take their Elder to the temple before he came - the temple is here in Accra. President Gunnell says that few families come with family to be endowed. It may take awhile for them to realize what a special time that is for families.
ee missionaries with family who came with them needless to say all are from the Accra area:
This is Elder Daniels - he had his mother, grandmother and sister all accompany him here to the MTC. One of the touching moments was the last few moments before Grandmother left, she took him aside and gave him strong counsel - in Twi which I couldn't understand - but I could feel the spirit of it - she isn't a member and I'm sure her emotions were running strong as she left her grandson here to learn to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ - he will have a great influence upon her through his letters.
This is Elder Ezah - and his brother and sister who came with him to say their good byes - for a moment when they arrived I feared the sister was our one missionary coming from Ghana, and I was ready to run and find Sister Nielson for the first lesson in Missionary attire and dress - but it turned out she was just here to say goodbye to her brother!
This is Elder Mensah - his father is a Bishop and his mother a loving mother - they live in Accra and it was interesting that they had not chosen to take their Elder to the temple before he came - the temple is here in Accra. President Gunnell says that few families come with family to be endowed. It may take awhile for them to realize what a special time that is for families.
TERMITE TOWERS
Because so much of the ground is red sand here, you see a lot of these sand hills - actually what they are are termite hills. Where the red piles are, there once was a tree, but the termites took care of that, eating the wood particles and disposing of the dirt (sand) in a pile. Then after a while the soil is fertile enough that a new growth will begin right in the middle and on the sides of the termite tower and I guess the process starts all over again. These are two out of about 7 or 8 that we pass each day going into Accra. They are about six or seven feet high and very striking given the green foliage that is around everywhere right now (rainy season) . In the background of the one picture you can see some of the Tema-Accra area - houses and businesses in the background. On the other picture, you can see the toll both - we pay 500 cedis (about 6 cents) to travel on the toll highway - it is a divided highway and is very much faster than taking the beach road, however, the beach road has lots of Africa interests on it we'll put up a few pictures of the Ocean and that route in the future.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
LAWN MOWERS - GHANA STYLE AT THE MTC
Nearly every morning the area around the MTC is treated to a lawn care session by a herd of goats from the farm next door. These goats come by looking for anything green to eat - sometimes they can find some of it on the ground - especially during the rainy season, but for much of the year the area is pretty barren as you can see in the picture. So they will nibble at the little trees we've got planted on the driveway - interestingly, the groundskeeper have put little stakes all around the trees to protect them from the goats - but these tiny fellows can still get their nose in and have a little nibble. Also, some of the stakes they planted around the trees are starting to sprout as well so we might have all kinds of trees in ten years. These little goats are about the size of a small dog - just a bit larger than Penny was. They are much cuter than mom and dad and it is fun to watch them frolic in the morning hours. Sadly, one of them got run over on the road, and the herd didn't come back for about a week. I'm not sure what they raise them for - some milk them, some butcher them, some breed them - I'm not sure what our neighbor does with them.
Trees of Ghana
These pictures are not particularly exciting - in fact there isn't much happening in either of them - other that two of the beautiful trees that grow in Africa - the one on the left is a substitute picture - we had taken a shot of a more blossomed out red tree with Barbara in the picture and guess what - I hadn't down loaded it when our visitor got away with my camera, so using the MTC camera we got a sub, but Barb declined to get in the picture. The blossoms are very red and fall off the tree a lot like leaves - there is a yellow tree just coming into bloom right night - we'll try and get a picture of it when they get more blossoms - we see a lot of them on the highway between here and Accra. The fan palm trees are on the temple sight - the walk ways down both sides of the temple are lined with these beautiful trees - they do require quite a bit of maintaining for as the fans get older the end (or edge) ones have to be trimmed off and the next ones just unfold in their place. The effect on a walkway is very striking. So enough already from an illiterate horticulturist!
