August 3, 2025
This week flew by so fast! We have been so busy, I can’t believe it’s August already. We had Zone Conference last week and Kelly and I took our turn bringing the food on Tuesday. Rebecca and her mother worked their butts off cooking for 180 plus missionaries over a three day span. It was homemade and delicious. We also grabbed a bunch of Pizza from Pizza Hut. It’s a rare treat for those that live out in the bush. These missionaries can EAT!!! We changed the way we gather for zone conference. We now go to churches that are closer to where the missionaries are living. So they don’t have to travel as far, they are more awake and they seem to participate in the meetings. I am always amazed when I watch these young missionaries give their reports. They love the work, they love the people and they love our Savior. These awesome humans are our future leaders, future parents to the next generation. We sit there sometimes and whisper to each other “There is a future Relief Society President” or “There’s a future Bishop” and even if they never will be, they will be awesome leaders.
I think the soup is called palm nut soup. There was fish and small crabs. I wasn’t quite sure what the little round things were. Then I bit into one and discovered it was quite chewy! I found out later that it was cow hide! I think next time I’ll just stick with the soup base and banku ( like fufu, but a fermented corn dough ) when I’m feeling adventurous. Or just stick with fruit and pizza 😂
After Zone Conference is a time when missionaries take pictures with their zone, or pictures with others from their home country and sometimes they even ask the old folks to join in a picture.
Elder Pili and Elder Mashiyyat are the Elders in the Wawase area where we go to church. It’s about an hour away and is a small village. This was Elder Pilis last Zone conference. We will sure miss him as he goes back to the Philippines.
Elder Baivatu (kneeling by Kelly) use to be in Wawase, he’s got a big heart and is easy to love. He is from Fiji and we hope we can go there someday and see him and meet his family. We love our Island boys and they seem to adopt who ever is their companion is.
Left to right: Elder Fungavai from Tonga, Elder Tom ( kneeling) from Papua New Guinea, Elder Osarumwense from Nigeria, Elder Faumuina from Samoa, Me and Kelly, Elder Baivatu (kneeling) Elder Alaelua from Samoa, Elder Mitivao from Samoa, and Elder Reynolds from Vernal Utah.
Sistern Gababoi from Botswana and Sister Katokwe from DR Congo. Such cute ladies!
Elder Ntumba from DR Congo, Kelly and I and Elder Makwaya from DR Congo. When Elder Ntumba first arrived, he stayed at our house. We sat around the dining room table and visited with him for quite a while. It’s so fun to hear their stories from home. However, it’s a harsh reality of the hardships some of them have had in their short 20 years of life. Yet they choose to serve and share the gospel.
Elder Standley from Australia and Elder Alaelua from Samoa cleaning up after our first zone conference at the Ola Chapel. We always offer a ride to the missionaries and this round we had Elder Probst from Erda Utah, Elder Mwakajila from Tanzania, Elder Gordon from Mesa Arizona and Elder Gwanda from Zimbabwe. Powerful Young Men!
Elder Dimmick received a request from President Tachie-Menson to give a presentation at MLC. This meeting includes all the Zone, District, and Sister Leaders. He discussed the subsistence and problems missionaries face when pulling their funds from the ATM on pull day. The leader then take the information back to their zones and communicate what they have learned. Kelly was in his element, he is a natural ad did a great job!
We had the van (the white whale is what the missionaries call it). We took a bunch of missionaries closer to where they live. This way, they didn’t have to take a taxi or tro tro too far. Staying busy is good for us, especially this month. July is the time when we gather at home with family and friends for the 4th and the 24th. We have barbecues and sleep out with the grandkids the night before the 24th. We wait for the booms and sirens at 6:00 am to kick off the celebrations. It seems like once those celebrations are over though, it’s time to start getting ready for school to start and start prepping the yard for fall and winter. We sure miss our friends and family but being around these missionaries makes our hearts happy, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve in Cape Coast Ghana.