Sunday, 1 October 2017

September 4 to October 1


  
There are some beautiful fan palms around the Accra Temple.



 This house was recently renovated to be a church in the district of Afienya.
  
An impromptu choir was formed to provide a musical number at one of the multi-zone meetings.  It was very good since all the hymns in Ghana are sung with great gusto!  The Elders and Sisters sang together and then just the Sisters sang by themselves.


I took these pictures of one of the missionary apartments to determine if more security is required.  We will arrange to have a metal door and bars placed on the windows.



September was transfer month which meant that over 22 missionaries returned home and about the same number replaced them.  The departing missionaries were given a nice chicken and rice dinner Sunday evening and a hamburger/hotdog BBQ the following day before they left for the airport.




After the transfers were over, I took the office elders and delivered some bikes, bought some bike helmets and had some ice cream.



This is a public washroom.

T
The fishing boats are made out of a single hollowed out log with added sides for a cost of less than $300.








Sardines, herring and larger fish are dried, smoked or fried for the Accra market.



The British once ruled here and one of their barracks remains.



Our guide through Jamestown was Humphrey who runs one of the schools and raises funds for the school by giving tours.


This lady was singing and trying to sell sandals.

The old British lighthouse and the beginning of a new boat.

Children running past a large patch of drying sardines.

The fishing fleet is coming in after a week on the water traveling along the coast as far as Nigeria.







The white building was built by the Dutch.



This pier was built by the British.  It is a good place to spread out nets and to jump off.  Unfortunately, this is where the majority of people in Jamestown go to the toilet!


It is a densely populated part of the city of Accra.




Sunday, 3 September 2017

July 31 to September 3




During the first week of August, Elder Renlund, visited Ghana and spoke to all of the missionaries in  our mission.  This was a good time to take a mission picture.


We visited a missionary apartment where the elders had taken off the counter top in an effort to get rid of cockroaches.  The apartment is going to be fumigated and a new counter top will be installed.



We attended a missionary farewell in the Burma Hills branch 

to say good-bye to Sheila who is going to serve an eighteen month mission in Jackson, Mississippi.






The new missionary training centre (MTC) opened in August next to the temple compound to replace the old MTC which was located an hour away in Tema.  The number of missionaries that can be trained has been increased from 100 to 400/month.




In the foyer is a huge mural of the Saviour admonishing his disciples to preach the gospel throughout the world.




The facility includes a barber shop,




a well equipped laundry,




many dorm rooms (4 missionaries per room),




outdoor running track, volleyball court,



a large meeting room,



and class rooms.



Numerous art pieces are hung on the walls.  Most significant was a wood carving of "Lehi's Tree of Life" using an African motif.



I paid this street vendor 60 cents to take his picture because he was wearing a toque on a very hot day!

 




Meg is assembling quite a collection of carvings including a herd of zebras.




These three children loved having their picture taken.




After a district meeting we bought the missionaries some drinks for 30 cents each.




This fellow was next to the drink vendor sawing a piece of metal so that it could be bent - very laborious!


We took some bikes to these missionaries and I had to take this picture of the pink top against the pink house.




I have another person to golf with.  Chris Wakild is from Kentucky and is serving in the law department. 



 
We attended the Teshie district meeting 

where we observed some role playing

and Elder Daw showed us the washing machine he had purchased for $60.



Speaking of washing machines, we have started a pilot project of installing 5 good machines in 5 apartments.  Once it is proven that they work, it is hoped that all 60 apartments will be equipped with machines which will be a real improvement!  These sisters were sure enjoying the machine that they had just received.








We attended the Ho youth conference the last week of August.


While in the Ho area we went to the Tofi Atome monkey sanctuary and had an experience feeding the

 




Mona monkeys some bananas.




This is a termite hill.  We see them everywhere.