Its officially Christmas season Afihyia pa!! I know I’ve said this before, but time is going so fast! We have celebrated our 1-year anniversary in November- no we didn’t to the tradition burn a shirt celebration, simply because Kelly has discovered the secret to making his shirts white and revived most of his shirts. It involves a few items sold here in African that we will be bringing home. We of course had transfers in November and again we said good bye to some amazing missionaries. We also said good bye to our favorite Canadian senior couple, Elder Brock and Sister Pam Campbell. This may have been the most emotion departures since we’ve been here. Were so excited for everyone to start their new chapter and excited to see what the future holds for them. It also was a little bit of a reality check that the Campbells were going home and were going home to hug kids and grandkids (2 they have never held!) and be around family and catch up on the time they were gone. And we still have 11 more months to go; there are some days that are so hard to be away from my kids and grandkids. I look so forward to having them in our arms for a big Oma and Opa hug! Tiffany (my sweet niece who is more like a little sister) sent me a reel someone posted of grandparents coming home from their mission with the caption that it was the greatest thing the grandparents can do for their grandkids, It then showed the grandparents going through the door and their family running to them and hugging them! one of the comments were, “This is how heaven must be like” I cried watching it, I cried showing Kelly and he said that I was different for a few days after. I maybe was because we also got news that the sweetest family in family had lost their wife and mother to cancer. Carole Church had fought breast cancer for over 10 years. She was able to see her girls graduate high school, go on missions some get married and was able to see her first grandbaby. Carole and Brandon were the golden couple. they are both such amazing people, the kind of people we all strive to be like. Leave people feeling better than when you met them. We will all be able to see our families again. I know we will see ours in 10 months. So, many thoughts ran through my mind throughout the week. We had another family in Mt. Pleasant, the Wades, that were in an accident recently and Lindsy their mother had passed away in the accident. Her and Shane had played softball with us for a few years. Again, such great people and an amazing family! There is absolutely NOTHING more precious than families. I have always loved being with my family and being gone from ours has made me realize how much I need them, even more so now. I am so grateful for my Saviors Atoning sacrifice, that we can be together with our families FOREVER! So those reunions, whether on this side of the veil or the other side of the veil will always be precious to me. And yes, I look forward to the day I can feel my arms around each and every one of my family members!!
So to catch up on some of the amazing things that have happened in our mission.
We went on a couples retreat to the beach to celebrate having the Campbells with us for a year and wish them well as they go home. We stayed at the Breezes resort and had a good time. Our only complaint was, there was a birthday party going on at the pool until about midnight (and if you know how the Ghanaians celebrate you know the music was loud and the bass was turned all the way up!) and then construction began at 7 am outside our door! But we were at the beach, in a beautiful location only 45 min from Cape Coast. We walked the beach on Saturday and found a bunch of sand dollars! Weve never found any in all our shell finding beach walks. Kelly got creative and made some earrings for me and some other sisters from them. So cool! I have them on in the following pictures with our departing missionaries. They are probably my favorite earrings and will always remind me of our time in Africa and my sweet companion that made them for me!
AHHH These Elders!! each one reminds me of one of my grandkids and we absolutely love them all. Elder Teye is from Ghana and he reminds me so much of our Grady man. He was never afraid to ask the hard questions and always stands up for what is right. He had the opportunity to play pro soccer before his mission and chose the mission. He will do great things in life, whatever he does we know he will be blessed and be successful in anything he does. Elder Baivatu from Fiji was one of the first Elders we had in Wawasee and he and Elder Dungral took us out on a few lessons and ministering opportunities. He has such a big heart, and we had an instant connection with him, he is funny and I loved spoiling him with brownies. He shared his culture many times with us and puts on a delicious pig roast. Elder Hall is currently serving as the AP in our office. He is so funny and so helpful and he is BUSY!! he will be with us for a little while longer so we will enjoy having him in the office while we have him! he has mentioned he would like to go out and serve in the field before he goes home. Elder Bowen is from Las Vegas and was one of the recent office Elders we had in the office. Him and Elder Mayo would be laughing in the other room and Kelly and I would start laughing, not even knowing what they were laughing at but because they both sounded like they were sucking air and couldn’t breathe!! They were a great companionship, and it was a hard goodbye for the two of them when it came time for Elder Bowen to get on the bus. He was such a big help to Kelly and when he finally figured him out, they had a lot of fun, He is a great young man and is so dang smart! He did say he is planning on coming to our homecoming since he will be at school in Utah, that will be great to see him again!
Sister Mwia from Kiribati, Sister Zvavamwe from Zimbabwe, Sisster Woiwoi from Papua New Guinea, Sister Teekea from Keribati, Sister Kaintikuaba from Kiribati, Sister Gababoi from Botswana and Sister Campbell from Canada.
Elder and Sister Ladner, who will be going home in January, President and Sister Tachie-Menson, Elder and Sister Campbell and Kelly and I
We are so blessed to be serving with some amazing couples and with a great Mission President and his wife. It’s so fun to see how they interact with the missionaries and how they are getting to know presidents Ghanaian sense of humor. We love how they are teaching them to be leaders and they have high expectations for them, but mostly how much they love the missionaries!