We are so behind in sharing, but we have been so busy. We may put a lot a pictures on to get a little caught up.
We were out grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping is actually one of our forms of entertainment.  Topics of conversations with the other missionaries are often about what we were able to find and where.  Of course, that doesn't mean it's still there.  When stores are out they say it's "finished", and you never know when they'll get more in. We go to about 4 different stores and fruit stands to find everything.  Here's a pic of the fruit stand and fruit we purchase.  All on our sink top for $5!! 

However, we found a little place about the size of our family room at home called Hacienda, Mi Casa, American Grocery Store (strange) that carries some Costco like brands and gets shipments every few months.  Unfortunately, I got a little slap-happy and bought a few things.  Just these things cost $175 US! 

 

We had our first 2 encounters with the Ghana police today, one scary and one amazing!  It happens to all the "obrunis" (whites) often.  We'd been warned, but it was still a little hair-raising.  They stop   you for anything.  They may see you and catch a cab to flag you down.  They say they're arresting you for things like expired fire extinguisher (you have to have one in your trunk) or the like. Usually if you offer them $$ or food they let you go. 

In the 1st situation, a policeman jumped in front of our car and started yelling that we were in the wrong lane. Kind Elder Watson apologized, and said he didn't know. That didn't help.  Said he wanted to get in our car and take us to police station.  We were to be arrested. I reached for my phone and told him we'd call our "supervisor." He seemed shocked and asked , "Who!?"  We said we were missionaries and would call our leader about this.  He huffed and told us just to go on!  Ed said take his picture but I wasn't going there!  We should have given him a Book of Mormon.  That satisifies them sometimes.

The 2nd encounter was totally different.  We got going east instead of west on the highway. The next exit was 15 miles down the road. At the toll booth we explained our problem. The policeman carrying an AK47, looked at Ed's name tags and said, "You are a man of God."  He opened the side gate and let us turn around. We gave him a Book of Mormon as thanks. He kissed it, stood at attention, clicked his heels and saluted Ed.  The people here are very kind and religious and respectful. Most are familiar with of our church.

 

We have been able to meet with different congregations each week. Newtown Ward meets in a rented building and is so crowded that they brought in another bench part way through the services. All the Ghanaians sing joyfully & beautifully. They all break into parts, especially the men's parts. They even sing along with the prelude music.  When they stand at the pulpit to speak they say, "Good morning Brothers and Sisters", the congregation responds back with a rousing, "Good Morning."

 

  

    We also visited Nsawam (say letter "N" and "swam") Ward.  Elder Watson made a new friend, Shadrack. He wandered into the church about 2 months ago in tattered clothes. He lives with his grandmother. The ward members, who really have little, chipped in and got him a shirt and tie to wear. He comes every week.  I also met a new friend, Helaman.  He's about 3. Sat on my lap during church then ran out of church down the road. I had to run to catch him and bring him back. He laughed all the way.

 

We visited the Trade Fair Ward meeting in another rented hall, but they are all very excited that their new church building will be ready soon. They meet near the beach on the Atlantic Ocean, but it's not like any beach you'd want to visit, lined with shacks and very unclean conditions.

 

Last Sunday as we arrived at the Tema 3rd Ward little Eliaham, about 3, got out of a cab with his mother. Most come in small "cabs", trotro vans, or walk to church. He probably doesn't see many white people, "obrunis" (the other missionaries are the only ones we see), but he immediately reached out his little hand to shake my hand and welcome (akwaaba) me.  Bishop asked us to share our testimonies in Sacrament meeting, and we helped in Sunday School. 

 

Traveling in the city is interesting.  Often at standstill with "hawkers" walking between the lanes selling everything.  It's like a "drive-thru Target"!  But that's the way you buy many things here, and it's considered a regular job.  This is a total cash society.  Most are self employed.

 

 

We were not able to be at the meeting shown below, but I thought it was amazing. People have little but regardless of geography the Lord has a way for everyone of His children to share in the fullness of His Gospel.  This family is learning about the importance of and how to strength their family. Here, as everywhere, families are important to the people of West Africa.

 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  This is a very special place to be.

Missions are GREAT!!

The Ghana Temple is so beautiful.  It's amazing to finally stand in front of it.  It's a dream come true to be close to such a  peaceful, spiritual place.  We just walk across the small parking lot to be at the Temple vs. driving 3-6 hours through D.C. traffic.  The inside has dark African wood columns and African motif stain glass windows.  The building in the background is the West Africa Area office where our offices are located.
We spend a few days here and rest of the days out in other areas of Ghana.  We are waiting for additional visas to begin traveling to visit the other 6 countries in our mission.

 

We attended church our first Sunday at the Newtown Ward.  The members all greeted us with smiles.  The Ghanaian people are happy and welcoming to everyone. You haven't heard a hymn sung until you've heard an African choir sing, wow!   They also all sing along with the prelude music.  They just love being together. 

There were over 15 people in the investigator class.  The questions are interesting.  One person asked if the Koran was scripture, Never heard that at home, but there's a large Muslim population here. They also had 3 priesthood ordinations and 5 baptisms after church. The pictures are the neighborhood around the building. 

Elder and Sister Elmer were with us. She teaches the Young Women class and English.  The men speak English, but many of the local women do not.  It's a concern, because it limits their ability to get a job or to interact outside their local areas.

 Our first training meeting with members from the southern Ghana area.  Many of the members traveled hours to come.  They were so grateful and excited to be there.  Can you find Elder Watson in the picture?

 

 Lunch after the meeting.  That's Pat's new friend, Rebecca.  She laughs all the time.  Believe it -- We ate cow feet and liked them!!  We also liked the fofo, fermented corn meal, but the fish soup with whole fish, heads, insides and all, wasn't our favorite.

 Have to wash all our dishes and food in Clorox water.  Takes a lot of time to prepare every day, because you have to eat breakfast so we can take malaria pills, need to pack lunches and have had to go back to cooking every night (only drawback of a mission!).

Elder David A Bednar, of the Quorum of 12 Apostles, visited us last week.  Over 2000 members attended on this night.  He had the first 4 rows reserved and after the hall filled, he told all those standing in the back to come fill those seats. We also had a meeting with him with 300 younger missionaries and about 20 other senior couples. 

He told us the Atonement of Christ is for everyone. We do all we can, but we can never do enough.  The Savior does all the rest for us.  When Peter stepped out of the boat to walk on the water to Christ he first said, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee.." As soon as Peter heard Christ say, "Come", he was out of that boat onto the water and into the storm.  Losing focus and confidence he began to sink.  The cool thing is that IMMEDIATELY Christ reached out and lifted him up.  That's also when He is there for us, immediately.

Better close, need to be up at ..., well, let's just say it's early!  Love to all, and most especially to our wonderful family.

We've ARRIVED!



We had an amazing 2 weeks in Utah.  Our 1st week was at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT and was one of the most memorable weeks of our lives.  It was intense with much studying and learning, but also full of excitement and joy.  You can't help but enjoy being with over 2000 smiling young missionaries along with our 100 senior couples, who are preparing to go all over the world to serve.  Can't deny that the "all you can eat at every meal, didn't have to cook or clean up" dining hall was also memorable.  The younger missionaries even let us cut in line and carried our trays, can't beat that.

 

                                              Elder and Sister Watson at MTC World Map

We are so grateful to our dear friends, Kerry and Teresa Adams, for housing us for our 2nd week of training in SLC.  They took care of us and filled us full of our "last" favorite foods.

We had a great surprise when our son Ted was able to fit in a business trip to SLC to visit with us one more time.  It was wonderful to be with him.  Ted now holds the bragging rights as the first child to visit us on our mission.

                                                             Bragging rights for Ted
We left SLC at 11:00 am, Monday, Jan 20 and arrived in Accra, Ghana at 11:30 am, Tuesday, Jan 21.  We feel like we lost a day in our lives, but we'll get it back in July 2015.  We walked off the air conditioned plane into our new climate.  We were worried about the heat, but turns out it's just like VA in July, but for 12 months.  We'll have 2 seasons, dry and wet, with a little dust season in between. 

After 1.5 hours in customs we were picked up by the Fitzgeralds, a missionary couple.  They took us to our apartment, which is in a small, very safe complex about 3 miles from the Ghana Temple and our offices.  There are 5 other couples in our complex, and they all have made us feel so welcomed.  They had dinner waiting for us when we arrived.

                                                               Love our Apartment

The Elmers took us grocery shopping on our 2nd day. We went to 4 different stores, because you can't get everything at one store, and you can't even find the same things at the same store the next day.  The food looks familiar just in different languages.  Some food is very expensive,  Ed won't be eating Ben & Jerry's for a while at $21 per pint.  Fruit is plentiful, delicious, and sold in stands along the roads.  Pineapples are only 50 cents.

                                                             Recognize anything?

The other couples drove us around for the first 3 days to get acquainted with the area.  On Friday we ventured out in our own car.  The city traffic is like NYC times 100.  Plus there are street sellers walking between the lanes of traffic at every intersection.  Ed thinks it's fun, but I just grip tight to the map and navigate.  I'm glad he's enjoying himself!

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on Jan 31st.  We went to dinner at Pinocchio's (fun place because we could get real milkshakes!) with the Elmers, Bullocks, Smiths, and Walls.  The Stokers were visiting Nigeria.

One special thing this week was a visit from Elder David Bednar of the Quorum of 12 Apostles.  We were able to attend 2 meetings with him, one with 2000 members and the other with 300 missionaries.  What an amazing time.

The people of Ghana are just as wonderful as we'd imagined they'd be.  They are very poor but are happy and welcoming and always smiling. 

We are having a wonderful time and are so thrilled to have this privilege and blessing in our lives.  As the scriptures say in Mark 9:5, "It is good for us to be here."

Someday has Arrived!

We discovered that there are 8 days in a week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and finally Someday.  Someday has arrived for us!! 

We have been called to serve in the West Africa Area Mission.  We will be living in Accra, Ghana and serving the countries of Ghana, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin and Nigeria 

We began our mission at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah January 6, 2014.    Our first week was spent learning "Preach My Gospel", and our second week was in Salt Lake City for instruction in Family History.

We had a wonderful send off by the Gayton Ward members at the Upton's home,
December 29, 2013.   Had a fantastic time!   Couldn't believe all the people that came to wish us well.  We appreciate ALL of their support. 

A huge thank you to our children, their spouses and grandchildren.  Their love and support mean so much to us.  We are very excited and looking forward to our arrival in Accra, Ghana.