Making Beautiful Glass Beads

 We went to a glass bead "factory" outside of Accra, Ghana, where they make beautiful glass bead bracelets and necklaces.  This pictures show their raw materials which are empty glass bottles which they recycle.

 They grind the bottles into powder and pour them into molds and fire them in a wood-fired oven.  They get the temperature up to 800 degrees.

 You can't see it very well in this picture, but there is liquid glass in the black mold.

And here is the beautiful finished product.  Glass bead bracelets of all different colors.

Tour on the Beautiful Volta River in Ghana

 One afternoon during our mission presidents seminar in Ghana, we went on a boat tour. This shows the type of boat we were in.

The scenery all along the river was very beautiful!

Volta River Picctures

More Volta River Pictures

Yet, More Volta River Pictures

 This is a Talapia fish farm.  We saw several of these along the river.

Gorgeous scenery!

Panorama shot of everyday traffic on Samalia Drive

Elders putting Ping Pong Table Together at Mission Home

Elders Skouson, Burr, Kouao, & Pentreath putting the ping pong table together.

Eric Tukalo getting ready to immigrate to Minnesota!

Sweet little girl visiting mission office

This is the daughter of Brother and Sister Kalala.  Brother Kalala needed my ecclesiastical endorsement for his application to BYU.  He is a medical doctor from the DR Congo.  He and his wife are returned missionaries.  They live in Buchannen (a 4 hour drive from Monrovia).  He wants to get a masters degree in public administration.  They are a wonderful family. We wish they were in Monrovia!

Pretty flower at the mission office.

Pres. Wisseh's home & office in Harbel

 This is Pres. Wisseh's home.  He is branch president in Harbel. These are some neighbors.Some investigators require an interview for their baptism from the mission president.  I took these pictures when I went to Harbel to do some baptism interviews.

This is President Wisseh, branch president of Harbel branch.  Pres. Wisseh was a member of the Church 4 months when he was made branch president.  Until their meetinghouse is "done" (a house is being rennovated), he turned this room into his branch office. I did the baptism interviews in his "office". 

Zoelu cleaning the croc pit

Inside view of "Pela Hut"

Curley & moe

Visitors to Our Mission

 Elder Vinson of the West Africa Area President and Sister Vinson did a mission tour here and stayed with us at the mission home.  We hope they come back, now that our funiture is here.

 Sister Vinson and Sister Kirkham

Sister & Elder (Dr.) Elmer stayed with us at the mission home while he examined many of our missionaries.  Dr. Elmer is our life saver.  He is enormously helpful, helping ensure the best medical care for our missionaries when they need it.

Two of our resident deer at the mission home

After 4 long months of waiting, the furniture we bought in Salt Lake City finally arrived.

View from the balcony outside the President's Office

The view is spectacular from my office!

Assistants' "apartment" & Dormatory for incoming & outgoing missionaries

L to R. Four great missionaries going home: Elders Willis, Smith, Harris, Anderson and two Assistants, Elders Pentreath & Skouson

Just another typical, rainy Sunday, coming to Church in the rain

Sister Kirkham is crossing the "road" to come to Church at the Logan Town Branch.

Mission Office in Monrovia

L to R: Brother Sayon who takes care of the missionary apartments, Elder Miles, financial secretary of mission, Sister Hezseltine & Sister Kirkham, Elder Willis (Assistant to president)

A temporary detour to Frankfurt, Germany

 About 10 days after arriving in Liberia, I suffered a small stroke.  We were flown with Dr. Elmer, the West Africa Medical Advisor, to Frankfurt, Germany for diagnosis and treatment.  Every conceivable test known to medicine (inside & out) was performed and it was confirmed I had suffered a small stroke of unknown cause.  I became well acquainted with German hospital food.

 While I was enjoying hospital food, Judy had opportunity to tour the beautiful Frankfurt countryside.

A wonderful blessing of going to Frankfurt was attending an endowment session in the Frankfurt temple.  It was thrilling to hear the session in German.  I served my first mission in Switzerland.  It was a fantastic experience.