We're here!

This is the Ghana Airport.  We arrived at 5:00 p.m. Ghana time.  We were greeted by another couple who took us to meet the Area doctor who we will work with when the missionaries are ill. We went to the hotel and discovered that our ankles had disappeared.  15 hours in the air will do that to ya!

Ghana Temple.  It was very beautiful in Ghana and the temple is too.  There was a group from Togo visiting.

This is the waiting area inside the Ghana Airport. We were waiting to get on the flight to Sierra Leone.  Yesterday when we got off the plane, we had to walk through soccer goal posts and there was all sorts of Ghanian flags....very proud of their team.

 This is the road to the water taxi from the airport.  It was all rural and the roads were very very bumpy.  The dirt reminds me of the red Georgia clay and the flora is very much like Okinawa---humidity and heat the same.

We are just leaving the dock in the Water Taxi.  You can see how green it is...I was trying to get a picture of the little children playing in the water as we left.  They were all waving.

Coming into Freetown...

This is the Water Taxi that we rode on.  We had to wear life jackets...It made me think of water skiing at Flathead Lake in Montana.  Bouncy ride with the water spraying....loved it!

These three wonderful missionaries are leaving Sierra Leone to serve missions in Nigeria.  Pres. Roggia set them apart as missionaries the second day we were there....jet lag and all...the work rolls forth.

President and Sister Squires with us as they left.  They were so good to teach us and give us as much information and direction as they could in the time we had together!  Everyone will miss them and their wonderful service to Sierra Leone and Liberia.  We will miss them too and wish we had them in our pocket every time we had another question to ask. They had a long flight ahead of them...they were happy to go home and sad to leave these beautiful people.

We're on our way!

In the car heading to the Salt Lake Airport with Cathy and Jason at 12:30.

"All our bags are packed we're ready to go...cause we're leavin' on a jet plane..."

Let's go! Let's go! Exciting!

We love you all! We're excited for our new adventure while doing the Lord's work. :)

We're on our way!!!

UPDATE: Cathy Jr. here...They just called me from Atlanta at 7:30pm (mountain standard time) and are anxiously waiting to board the plane to Ghana. It will be around an 11 hour flight and then they will connect to Sierra Leone. They sound really excited to get out to Sierra Leone and start working. :)

Last Day at MTC

After a wonderful Sacrament Meeting with the First Presidency with Pres. Monson speaking, and a nice lunch, we're heading to the motel to check out.  We loved every minute with the other mission presidents.  They are all such good people with deep testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a very filling experience----good food and good spiritual food.   We spent the rest of the day with seven of the grandchildren with more good food and visiting before we leave.      Notice the official name tags!!  We fly on Tuesday, June 29th....to Atlanta then to Ghana.  We'll spend the night and arrive Sierra Leone on June 30th.

2nd day at the Mission Presidents Seminar

We loved the Standard of Truth with it's generations of missionaries over the years.  You'll have to double click it to read it better.  The second picture is when John the Baptist baptized the Savior and they are looking at the dove---symbolizing the Holy Ghost.  The third picture is Samuel Smith, Joseph Smith's brother.  He was the first missionary in this dispensation that went forth to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are loving the training and meeting several apostles.  Wonderful!

First Day of the Mission President's Seminar

The traditional standing in front of the Missionary Training Center photo shoot!

 Preparing to walk into the MTC to learn "everything" we need to know to serve others in Sierra Leone and Liberia. We are told it is like drinking water from a firehose....

 

.Pointing to the world map and finding our mission.  We are eager to meet the wonderful people of West Africa and the great missionaries that we will serve with.

 

President Roggia loved this sign!  The Missionary Field truly is open!!

The Beginning of our Wonderful Adventure

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June 10th was the beginning of our wonderful journey!  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle of Jesus Christ and a member of the Quorum of  Twelve Apostles, and Elder Steven Snow of the Seventy, laid their hands on our heads and gave us a blessing--- setting my husband apart as the President of the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission and me as a full-time missionary/companion beginning July 1st.  Left to right: Cathy, our daughter, and her husband Jason, myself, President Roggia, Elder Holland, Joy, our daughter, and baby Elias, her husband Tyler, Elder Snow and Aaron our son.

Mission postings

We will start posting pictures and information after July 2, 2010.