We have just had a very busy week with all of the Mission President's in the Africa West Area. There are ten missions in the area in seven different countries. Besides, the ten mission presidents, Elder Don Clarke, Seventy and his wife Mary Ann attended. We, also had the MTC President and a couple that will be new mission presidents in July. Since we are good friends with Don and Mary Ann, we were given permission to spend a little time with them. So, on Monday, April 22 Kent and I picked up Don and Mary Ann to do a little sightseeing of Accra. After driving them around for awhile, we took them to a woodcarving place to do a little shopping.
This is a special woodcarver than we found very close to where we live. We have been buying several items from him. He seems to be very reasonable. Don & Mary Ann bought an elephant!
Mary Ann and I enjoyed a pineapple coconut drink.
The conference started on Tuesday Morning. We had ten mission presidents and their wives, the MTC President and his wife, the Area Presidency and their wives and a few others. In all there were about 42 people. Kent had worked hard to set it up.
 |
| This is a picture of the grounds at the La Palm Hotel - it sits right on the ocean. |
 |
| Before the meeting began Brother Dunn and I were testing to see if it would be a good place for pictures |
 |
| On Wednesday Afternoon they had a special meeting with just the Woman Standing Sister Dickson & Sister Curtis Sitting: Sister Clarke & Sister Sitati |
 |
| Amelia, Sister Judd & Sister Dunn |
 |
| Sister Atebyo & Sister Holmes |
After the meetings were over, we attended a temple session at the Ghana Accra Temple and then had dinner at the Magellan Restaurant. It was a very nice day. On Thursday, there was a very special testimony meeting and I took several pictures of some of our more special friends. We then attended a performance by BYU I, a Choir of 40 students. They spent two week touring Ghana and then ended with a performance at the National Theater on Friday Evening. The performance on Thursday evening was held at the Stake Center on the temple grounds.
 |
| All who Attended the Mission Conference |
 |
| Special friends the Graham's who preside over the MTC in Tema |
 |
| The Shulz's, they are from Hooper Utah and preside over the Cape Coast Mission |
The area presidency needs to make a special report for the Quorum of the Twelve. Kent has been very heavily involved with this. Elder Dickson asked Kent for some special pictures that he wanted to use for the presentation. So one Sunday Kent and I went to a branch to take some pictures. On Sunday's in Accra, most people go to church. You see them all dressed up, going as families. Most stores are closed and the sabbath is important to them. These are a few of the pictures that we took.
 |
| This was a family we saw walking to church. |
 |
These two woman were waiting for the Tro-Tro, they both had children on their backs. |
 |
| These were some children at the Branch |
 |
| The girls were so happy to pose for us. |
 |
| Kent asked the to walk into the chapel - This little girl could not resist turning and looking at us.
Last Saturday Sister Houssian had a Seminar for the Family History Coordinators in the Stakes. She asked if I would come and help her. I have been helping the family history people on Sunday's when we visit the different wards and branches. I have really enjoyed it. It is very hard for these people to do family history because so few of them have access to computers. The teachers are usually the young adults, who know how to operate a computer and have access to computers.
I took a couple of pictures.
 |
 |
 |
Dedication of the Temple View Villa's
 |
They even had tents set up!  
After the ceremony there was a ribbon cutting there were refreshments and lots of picture taking.
   |
May 11th Kent's Birthday.
This ended up being a very fun day for me. Several of the sisters learned out to make Batik cloth. Esther is a African woman that has a material shop here in Ghana. It is very close to where I live. It is a very small box shop down a dirt road, but she has amazing Batik material. I have been buying some material from her and she has been giving me some scraps of material for a quilt. She is always sitting in front of her store on a slab of cement, it is also where two sewers sit that make clothing for customers. I had a skirt made by them.
Esther, also, for a price will allow you to make some Batik cloth of your own, so we went to her house. She has a small cement room in her backyard where they made the material. Several boiling pots of dye.
The first thing you see when you walk in the small cement room is a wall that contains hundreds of sponges that have designs on them. They were very interesting and you can choose the ones that you want to use.
She then gives you two yards of material that you can leave either white or have dipped in dye. To put the design on your material, you must dip the sponges in hot wax.
 |
| The pot of hot wax |
 |
| She was scraping the extra wax off of the table so that they could use it again. |
After I stamped my cloth with a border and giraffe's I took is to Esther who mixed the dye colors and her son started dying the cloth.
When the cloth was dyed they layed it on the driveway to dry.
Then we stood around a waited for them to dry.
We then took the cloths back and did more stamping and dying... They then had to rinse all of the wax off of the cloth with boiling water. We had fun doing it, but when you see batik material with several colors, it truly takes a lot of work.
We finished the day by going to dinner with some friends and coming back for Ice Cream in Cake -- Happy Birthday Kent.
We love and miss you all, we hope everyone has a very Happy Mother's Day.
