Family,
This week was transfers. For those of you who don’t know, transfers occur every six weeks when the mission president may choose to transfer missionaries to a new area and change their companionships. It is also the time when we say goodbye to those who have completed their mission and when a new intake of missionaries arrive. It is a busy time!
So, on Monday Elder Lambert and I taught a self reliance lesson to the nine departing missionaries (three Americans and six Africans) We researched who they can contact in their home countries to receive SR services and explained the PEF loan available to them if they choose to continue their eduction. It was a productive meeting and gave hope to these sweet African brothers and sisters. Over the next several days we also fixed numerous sack breakfasts and lunches for the new missionaries and their trainers. Just to make this transfer extra complicated the African missionaries arrived on Tuesday from the Ghana MTC in Tema (half hour from Accra), and the Americans who came from the Provo, Utah MTC arrived on Wednesday. To add another element to the equation, Elder Gary E Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to all 350 missionaries from Accra and Accra West missions two hours after the Americans plane had landed!
Elder Stevenson, Elder Soares and Elder Nash, plus the two mission Presidents taught from Preach My Gospel. It was an inspiring meeting!
On Thursday we were privileged to take a newly set apart missionary to the Ghana MTC. Elder Joel Frempong is from Abomosu District and will be serving in Sierra Leone. He is a delightful young man and it bought back a flood of memories of when we had delivered our missionary daughters to the Provo MTC. As we got to know this young man I felt all the feelings of a proud mama, without the roller coaster of emotions I experienced back home.
On Friday we were back at the MTC on a family history assignment and Elder Lambert helped Elder Frempong enter his family names onFamilySearch.org. We will also accompany him to the Temple next week. So, along with Lucy Acquah our African daughter serving in Liberia, we now feel like we have an African son too! Lucy is doing well and we stay in touch with her through email. We will do the same with Elder Frempong. Most African missionaries rarely receive mail of any kind so it's nice for them to open their inbox and find a personal message.
On Saturday we were involved in a Self Reliance training for Church Service Missionaries and SR Specialists. It was thrilling to see representatives from 12 of the 14 stakes that were invited. We are impressed by the sacrifices made by so many to attend! If we can train local Church Service Missionaries to do what we are doing then we will have worked ourselves out of a job and SR will function in this area without Obruni (white man) missionaries.... we are making small progress, but still have some challenges to overcome.
At the conclusion of this training we slipped into the cultural hall to watch a music/ drama competition for Kaneshie stake. Within a minute we were asked to join the judging panel and critic the various performances of each ward. What?!!! It took us back to the days of Gold and Green Balls and Roadshows, the completion was fierce back then and it was fierce on Saturday!! Each ward sang the same hymn; “Master the Tempest is Raging” with their own arrangements/adaptations. It was pretty fun to see their creativity. Then they presented various stories from the Book of Mormon, including Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life, Wicked King Noah and Abinadi, Alma and Korihor, and Joseph Smith’s First Vision. The plays were great, with some humorous interpretations of some of the events, and we were not surprised by the memorization of lengthy passages of scripture which these people are so good at doing. When the winners were announced the audience resembled fans at a world cup soccer game. It was crazy!!!
So from teacher to sandwich makers to missionary ma and pa to family history consultants and "Africa's Got Talent" judges; we do it all!
Loving our mission...
Elder and Sister Lambert
Enthusiastic missionary- Elder Frempong
Pointing to Sierra Leone
Levi borrowed my camera and took 20+ pictures at the activity on Saturday. This is one I took of him.
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