July 4th Celebration and other activities

The Senior Missionaries celebrated the 4th of July with a BBQ and Pool Party. Chris and I were in charge of organizing and putting it all together. Everyone had a great time. We had lots of delicious food, laughter and fun.



Elder Wakild and Elder McCullough were in charge of grilling the burgers.




The Pierson's, Sister Woods and the Temuses enjoying their food.




The water was very inviting for those who got in.




Part of the group eating.




This was our attempt to wear patriotic colors.




This is Sister Jinny Simpson, wife of the Accra West Mission President. She is from New Zealand and she wanted us to learn how to use the Poi Balls.



Sister Simpson was very good with them, but the rest of us, not so much!














I finally got the hang of it after a while!




Before Mary Richards left, she had a recital for her piano students. She asked me to sing on the recital.







My good friend Mary!





Every 3 weeks a new group of missionaries arrive at the MTC (Mission Training Center). We help with the intake. Only a few of them had been seated when this picture was taken. We enjoy greeting them and helping them get oriented. I usually help by checking their immunization cards.




This is Sister Mensah who was helping me get things organized to begin.



This is the staff at the Osu Library, where Mary Richards, Wendy Eaton and I volunteer every Wednesday. We thoroughly enjoy these people and they love having us come and read with them. We started a reading group with them and we are now on our 5th book. Reading aloud helps them with their fluency and pronunciation. There are also many words that they do not know, so we define and explain them. They take notes and write down the words and their meanings. They are so excited to learn new words and what they mean.





This is another picture of the staff taken on a different day. The tall young man, 2nd from the right, whose name is Galen, was there working on a project to document the positive effects of the Kathy Knowles Community Libraries in Ghana. He filmed us reading with the staff and then interviewed us and asked many questions about why we were there and why we volunteered our time to help out the community. He hopes to turn it into a film documentary. Besides Wendy Eaton and myself, Shelley Nash had joined us that day. Mary Richards had been there but had to leave before the picture was taken. Back row L-R Wendy Eaton, Amelia. Shelley Nash, and Seth. Front row L-R Justine, Me, Richard, Galen and Joann.




Kathy Knowles and me. Kathy is the lady from Canada who started the community libraries in Ghana. She has been here 4 times this past year to check up on her libraries and do more training of the staff. She has written a ton of children's books and is an extraordinary human being. It was an honor to meet her and work with her.

Accragio Choir Concert

This was the final concert before the summer break for the Accragio Choir. I have enjoyed singing with this group this past year. I am 3rd from the right. Everyone dressed in bright African attire for this concert, instead of our usual uniforms.




This concert was held in the back yard residence of the 2nd in Command at the American Embassy.


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This is Paolo singing his solo with us humming in the background. He is from Italy.





This is a close-up of some of the singers. Our very close friend, Joseph, is in the green shirt.



We were having a good time singing this song. It was, "Ride The Chariot in the Morning, Lord."




There were about 40 of us singing on this program.



My good friend, Mary Richards, has been the accompanist for the choir for the past 3 years. They gave her a gift and honored her for her contribution to the choir. She had to say goodbye, since she was returning to the States a couple of weeks later.









One Sunday recently this young lady wanted her picture taken with me. She kept hanging on to me and giving me hugs. She was very sweet. Unfortunately, I didn't get her name.





Chris took these 2 pictures from the 2nd floor of one of our church buildings on a recent Sunday.






Here we are at the Office with our good friend Joseph, on a day that we all dressed in African print.

More goodbyes, Chris' birthday and random pictures.

President and Sister Allen honoring Elder and Sister Hill. The Allen's are the President of the MTC.




Elder and Sister Hill served at the MTC (Mission Training Center) for the past 18 months. They were assistants to the MTC President and his wife. They provided an invaluable service and will be missed by all of us. They loved those missionaries and the missionaries loved them!




This is Ryan and Mary Richards being honored by Elder and Sister Vinson, our Area President and wife. Ryan was the Area Legal Counsel in the OGC (Office of General Counsel) Department.and was Chris' boss. He had been here 3 years and his time was up. How we loved Mary and Ryan! Ryan was great with whom to work and Mary became my best friend right from the beginning of our arriving here. Mary got me involved as a volunteer at the Nungua and Osu Libraries, at The New Horizon School for the handicapped and singing in the Accragio Choir. She is an accomplished, professional pianist and flutist and the sweetest human being alive! I miss her! I wrote a song for Mary and sang it that night. I only wrote the words, and put them to the tune of "Mr. Sandman." It was fun!





Elder and Sister Vinson presenting them with their Kente cloth scarfs.









Mary receiving gifts and appreciation from the librarians and friends at the Nungua Library.







A tearful goodbye from Abigail, the head librarian.



More goodbyes the next day at the Osu Library.




This is Sepi, Enni and Lahja Noso. They are from Finland and were here for 3 months. Sepi was doing an internship here in the Area Office. They lived in our apartment building and we became great friends. They are wonderful people and we miss them. Little Lahja called us Seta (Grandpa) and Tati (Grandma) in Finnish. She became our sweet, little stand-in Granddaughter.



 Enni and Lahja.



We celebrated Chris' birthday on two occasions. This is at one of our fun restaurants, Noble House
Chinese Restaurant. We were there with 7 other Missionary couples a few days before Chris' birthday. The staff treated everyone of us with ice cream and sang to him. everyone had a fun time!



Chris celebrated his 70th birthday on June 12. We invited friends from our building for cake and ice cream.








There were definitely not 70 candles on the cake.




This is Esther, Chris' secretary and assistant to the Legal Department. Her niece was visiting the office on this day. Her name is Afua, which is Fanti Tribal language and means Friday born. Chris had a lot of fun playing with her.



Every Monday morning we have a Sister Scripture Study Class. These are the wonderful women that attend. Our Area Presidency wives, Temple Presidents wife, and the wife of one of our Mission Presidents are in this picture. One of the ladies husbands works at the American Embassy, another husband is a businessman, and 3 of the husbands are Church employees and work in the Area Office. The rest of us are missionaries, all serving in different capacities, such as Welfare, Self-Reliance, YSA (Young Single Adults), Auditing, Executive Secretary, 4 are Temple Missionaries, 2 are secretaries in the 2 Accra Mission Offices, and Sister Temus and I are the Area Gospel Literacy Specialists. We also come from many different places. 2 are Canadians, 1 Australian, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from England, and the rest from the USA. The states represented are: PA, MN, WA, ID, CA, NC, AZ, WV, UT, Ghana, and of course KY!



Moving Day!! I don't know how they get so much stuff piled on top of the tro tro's!