First Sunday in February 2021

 I drove the car today.  The traffic is very light on Sunday so it is a good day to practice.  I drove to the ward meeting in Tesano at the Tesano ward.  We had sacrament meeting (fast and testimony) and then Sunday School.  We met many of the ward members.  The meetings are in English.  I will learn to train my ear to understand better what is being said.  The grammar is generally very good.  It is the accent that makes it a challenge to catch everything that is being said.  I will get there because I am guaranteed a great deal of practice of the next many months.  The testimonies are short and straightforward.  It was good to be there.  Here are some pictures of a few people we met.  

The woman in red cleaned the podium and microphone after each speaker.  Dominique works for the UN in Accra and has been a member for about two and a half years.  He was formerly the preacher in his prior church.  I asked him why he converted and he simply said he heard the restored gospel and that God spoke to Joseph Smith.  It makes sense to him, so he was baptized and now wants to know everything he can about the restored gospel.  He is working with him family for them to be baptized and has great hope they will be.  He speaks French as well as English.  Prince is a ward member.  He knows some Tongan words learned from the Tongan Elders working in Accra.

We have visited the last two days with two other couples who live in this complex, Mike and Zoe Weston and Steven and Kathy Kittelson.  The Weston's go home around May of this year, and the Kittelson's just arrived a week ago.  The Weston's are working with the YSAs in two stakes, and Steven is Area mental health advisor with Kathy as support; like what the Waterbury's were doing in Pennsylvania.  We had dinner with these great people this evening at the Weston's place.  Here is a picture of the three sisters and a neighbor, Brigette (pronounced "Brigita"), who also lives in the complex.  She is friends with Zoe and went to a baptism last night with Mike and Zoe.  Brigette works for the German government in Accra and is from western Germany.  She is interested  in the church.  She has a strong German accent and excellent English.  Elaine, Brigete, Zoe and Kathy.

As we were finishing dinner, we noticed some birds outside the window and of course had to take some pictures.  

What we have seen of Accra so far is that it is not full of tropical creatures.  It is a busy, growing, sometimes messy blend of rural and urban dwellings and activities, so It was fun to see these beautiful birds.  When driving around yesterday Mike pointed out some large trees on the main thoroughfare, Liberation (or Freedom) Avenue, that had "clumps of bats" in them and huddled together hanging upside down.  There were hundreds of them.  They fly around, mostly at night, eating the mosquitoes.  These are not the small bats I am used to seeing, but about the size of a small raven we have flying around our home in Bountiful.  Big wing span.  Sorry, no pictures of those yet.  

Tomorrow is to be the first day at the office.  Looking forward to it.  We get an office and a car and get to meet the people we will be working with, and around.  The finance people and other departments are also in the same building.  The only guy we expect to be working with is Peter Brown, the Area Auditor. 

By the way, our sleeping is expected to improve this week as we get accustomed to the seven hour time difference from home.  We are looking forward to that.  We have noticed the days and nights are equally split as we are just north of the equator about 5 degrees.  This lasts all year long; not the swings between long days then long nights, in the summer and winter, respectively.