Ground breaking for the Kumasi Ghana Temple

 

Senior missionaries turning the ground at the Kumasi Temple ground breaking with President Boateng (mission president)

We have had a very busy, amazing last couple of weeks.

I will start with our zone party.  Sunyani zone took their work to the next level this last transfer.  We had two amazing zone leaders that lead out with great leadership and example.  Elder De Guzman from the Philippines and Elder Njelika from Namibia.  They begged the mission president to be able to have a party to celebrate with the zone.  The mission president consented.  They talked about ordering pizza, but Elder De Guzman insisted that we bring our cultures together and cook a meal.  It was such a wonderful suggestion.  They fried chicken and made Jollaf rice.  The Islanders cut banana leaves and washed them and put them down as a table cloth.  We all sat at the table and ate with our hands Ghana style.  It was a day to remember.  So much love and unity from so many different cultures.  I loved every minute of it, even though it was a long hot day for us all.

The African's think it is so funny to throw flour on each other. Haha!  I'm not going to lie, it is kind of funny.  At the end of the party they played a game where they were all dumping flour on each other.  Thank goodness it was after we left.  They did get some good pictures though.

The next day Elder De Guzman (far left in picture) finished his mission and returned home to the Philippines.  We had the privilege of driving him into the mission office.  He served a great mission and will surely be missed and is surely a legend here in Sunyani.  We encouraged him to take this momentum and carry it into life.  The mission should not be where you peak.  There is much left to do.

We had a big transfer the next day and most of our beloved zone completely turned over!  We gained many new missionaries this transfer and quite a few of them are American!  This is so great!  We love our African missionaries too with all our hearts.

These were the American's that came in from the Provo MTC.  The guy on the far left in the red tie is from my hometown of Bremerton Washington.  I thought that was pretty cool!

We specifically got to bond with Elder Warnes and Elder Hurt on our way out to Sunyani.  Elder Warnes just finished his training in Kumasi and now will be training Elder Hurt.  He is most definitely a stalwart missionary that stands ready to work.  He reminds us a lot of our Fuell boys.  He is just a great kid.  Sunyani is in the bush so it was fun to see their reaction as we drove out here.  They had a good laugh as Elder Fuell did some 4x4ing over the dirt road.  I heard Elder Hurt say quietly "Let's go!"  I get such a kick out of the energy these young Elder's bring.  Once again it reminds me of our boys.  They are just so excited to learn everything and immerse themselves in the culture.  Elder Hurt is a great guy and full of service.  He will do amazing work here in this area, I have no doubt.  Sorry the road was too bumpy to take a picture with these guys.

This is a picture of $100,000 American dollars worth of equipment the church handed over to a hospital in Kumasi.  As you can kind of see, it was mostly beds, wheel chairs and partitions. 

 This is our good friend Elder Isaac Morrison first councilor of the Africa West Area.  He spoke a little about how we do these donations in behalf of our Savior Jesus Christ.  He is the reason why we give. 

Later the next day, we attended the ground breaking of the Ghana Kumasi temple.  Elder Morrison also presided over this.  It was a great day with an out pouring of the spirit. 

This is the Nana's (chiefs) who came to support the ground breaking

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of our mission president and his sweet wife and kids.  They sacrifice so much and work so hard to take care of 200 missionaries and 5 districts in the Kumasi Ghana area.  They do it so joyfully, as this picture represents!  We love him with all our hearts and are constantly looking for ways to relieve this poor man's stress.  He see's the Lord's hand in everything and has taught us so much.  They have dedicated their lives to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They have two other children, one is at BYU Idaho and the other is serving a mission in Nigeria.

We are looking forward to a mission tour in which a General Authority will come out and tour our mission.  They are being very quiet about who is coming, so I am getting excited.  I have to play the piano for the zone conference, so I would appreciate lots of prayers on my behalf.

Humanitarian stuff:  We have most of our contracts done for the teachers quarters at Kulpeliga and they will begin construction here soon.  We are still getting contracts together for our equipment for handicapped children.  It is the first time we have done an equipment order so it is going a little slow, but we are getting there.  Also, we are almost ready to bid out the 5 boreholes in the Drobo area.  I am excited to get this going.  Last but not least, our Women's Cancer clinic proposal is coming together and we hope we can pull it off.  It will be on next years budget.  

Also, our gospel literacy push is coming together small small.  We will soon start an english class in Kenyasi.  It is so neat.  The church teaches this curriculum second hour.  It teaches them English as well gospel principles. Out here in the bush, we have many that don't speak English.  Our Twi is coming along small small.  So we understand that it is hard to learn a language.  We are praying to get a district Self Reliance class going soon.

Elder Fuell and I hit our hump day just last week.  We love our mission!  I have had a few hard days, but mostly good days.  The utilities are sketchy here.  Our electricity gets very week in the evenings and we have to budget what we want to have on.  This makes me grumpy sometimes.  I am a very spoiled American.    We have a beautiful orange grove in our yard that is producing lots of oranges right now.   Elder Fuell makes me fresh orange juice.  It is so yummy!  Elder Fuell has it out for a particular rooster that likes to crow at 3 am (I think because of our security lights) and the rooster also poops on our porch.  Needless to say, when he sees Elder Fuell, he exits very quickly.  Haha!  We are heading into the dry season, which I of course dread, but it will be okay.  I've got this!  We are so blessed to have this experience.  I will always be grateful for it as the years roll on.

We love you all, the gospel is true!