We found a few cultural differences in Nigeria. For example, in some places in Nigeria, they have adopted somewhat of an eastern greeting. Thus, when they greet you they put their hands together and give a slight bow. Also, in one of the cities we visited, Uyo, they have the cutest taxis; they look like the ancient hand-drawn carts, rickshaws, used in China. The only difference is that they are motorized. There were hundreds of them.
The hardest part of the trip was getting there and getting home, i.e. long delays in the airport. However, we tried to make the best of it and enjoyed some pleasant conversations with several other travelers.
Waiting at the airport.
Making friends with local Nigerians
February also brought an additional "assignment". After an inspiring Devotional by President Curtis of the Africa West Area Presidency, Elder Call and I decided to walk over to the temple to see if we might be of assistance there. We had noticed when we went on an Endowment Session, that often there were not enough temple workers to facilitate the Endowment process in a timely manner. We offered our assistance and before we left an hour later, we had filled out the temple ordinance worker application, had our picture taken, and had our official ordinance worker name tags. Thus, along with our regular missionary assignment, we will be working in the beautiful Accra, Ghana Temple on Wednesdays from 1:30-8:30pm.
The temple where we serve the Lord and help do saving ordinances for our wonderful African brothers and sisters. On the side is the Ancillary Building where we live.
A picture of our two name tags, one black and one white and, of course,
a picture of the One we serve.
February brought to a close, temporarily, one of our most favorite activities...teaching Institute. The class ends in March, but because our travel schedule takes us away every Friday in March, our last Institute class was in February. Elder Call and I have grown to love many of these wonderful young people. They face many challenges living in Ghana. Our hope was that in some small way we could give them a desire to remain faithful.
Institute students working on an individual assignment
For our last Institute Class we had the students go on a treasure hunt. The final clue led them to the steps of the Temple with a small laminated picture of the Temple inside for each student. Our invitation that night was to go home and covenant with the Lord that when they got married, they would marry in the Temple...with the caveat that they would invite us to come, of course.
Besides doing training, one of the sweetest experiences being in Ghana is just working with the people here in the Area Office. We were so sad to leave our office on the ground floor, but we have met such wonderful people on the 3rd floor.
The young man next to Elder Call is Benjamin. He is a student but also works in the travel department. His "girl friend" lives in China, who he hopes to marry some day, but first needs to convert her to the Gospel. The beautiful woman standing by me is Jessie. She also works in the travel department. We call her "Miracle Jessie" because she got visas in time for us to go to Nigeria, which some said could/would never happen.
This beautiful young lady's name is Rebecca Mensah. She is doing her "national service" as a receptionist/secretary at the Area Office. (After graduating from college, each Ghanaian is required to give a year's service in some part of Ghana). Rebecca has become a good friend as we have tried to love and support her in a situation where she receives no Gospel support from family. This is her new apartment. The most exciting thing in her "new" apartment was the fact that it had electricity, i.e. light. Three years previously, she had been living with her uncle who had no light in his apartment.
February ended with training in the Winneba Stake. We stayed with a missionary couple, the Ivies, who live in quite a lovely 4 bedroom apartment in Swedru, a city just north of Winneba. They have come from Farmington, New Mexico and had quite the story to tell about finally getting to serve in Ghana. After they received their mission call, Bro. Ivie fell off a ladder breaking several bones and then had a blood clot. They were told they would never be able to serve in Africa. However, they were determined to come, and they did and are loving their assignment. It was fun being with another missionary couple. We had three great trainings, as the Ghanaians would say,"they came out in their numbers"; meaning there were alot that came to the training. The stake presidency has just been called and they are excited to do everything right, including running the YM/YW and YSA programs correctly. We left very hopeful.
As we were leaving Swedru, we passed this old Methodist Church that was built in 1920. I asked Elder Call to stop because I wanted to take a picture. As we stopped, a young man, Charles, came up to us. We asked if we could take a tour inside the church and he agreed. I also pointed to my name tag (the black one) and asked him if he had ever heard of our church. He replied he had and even said, "Yes, you have the Book of Mormon". We knew immediately this was not his first contact with the church. We toured the church and it was not hard to notice the drums. Most churches here in Ghana use the old African drums. Charles and another young man ended up giving us a "concert" and even a beginner drumming lessons. As we left, we gave Charles the last Book of Mormon we had in our car and a pamphlet on "The Purpose of Life". He said, "I know where your church is, and some day I am going to join". We assured him that if he did, he would be even happier than he was now. 
The "concert"; Charles is the one
with the tambourine.
As you can tell, our experiences in Ghana just keep getting better. As a man again asked at one of our trainings, "Do you like Ghana?" We assured him that we LOVE Ghana; it's only problem was that our family was so far away. However, even as we miss our family, we have the knowledge and assurance that the message we bring not only binds families on this earth but binds them for eternity...including our family!
