to Santa Rosa, CA! We are so happy for her. She will leave May 15th for the Provo, UT Missionary Training
Center and will learn Spanish there, after returning home from a year at BYU. We are proud of you - - -
We were excited last week to have another abruni (White-North American) couple arrive in the mission. It
is nice to have someone that is from the same background and culture to share some time with. The couple
is Lester and Janice Reiss from Mud Lake, Idaho (town 30 miles west of Rexburg, Idaho). They are going
through culture shock and adjusting to the absence of North American comforts – such as reliable electric
power, reliable water supply, traffic rules and streets that are paved and smooth, supply of American food
products, etc. etc. They are approximately our age and are striving to adjust. It is so great that they live right
around the corner from us so we’ve been walking together the last few nights. We keep telling them this is like
an 18 month camping outing. (See picture below of their arrival at the Kumasi Airport.)
It looks like the Harmattan is over for now. The air has been so much clearer with less dust and smoke. It’s
so nice, even though it’s not as clear as we would like it to be – still pollution. We haven’t had rain for more
than a month now and it’s so dry and dusty. The other day we had clouds but no rain – helped with cooler
temperatures though.
One evening when we were walking home from the Reiss’ apartment we looked up at the moon, which was full,
and saw all of these huge bats flying over from east to west –I mean they were as big as crows. And they kept
coming and kept coming. No idea where they were coming from or where they were going, but there must have
been hundreds of them. It was later than usual for us to be out, but we may try to see if they are out there again
tonight. Interesting - - -
We will be opening up a new area in two weeks in northern Ghana to missionaries – a city that has never had
missionaries from the church. The city is Tamale (pronounced “tom-a-lay’”). The city has a population of
about 500,000 and is 60% Muslim. We will be sending 8 missionaries to this city which is 5 or 6 hours north of
Kumasi and will be 4 hours north of any other missionaries, so they will be a bit isolated from church contact.
We have a number of members of the church in the area that have been contacted and will be starting two
church groups. (We call them groups because they are not large enough for full programs of the church and
not large enough to be a branch – however we have arranged for the administration of the sacrament, etc.). We
have been told that there will soon be plane service between Kumasi and Tamale, which will be a blessing,
since a 6 hour road trip for zone conferences and missionary transfers is a bit of a challenge. It is always an
extra challenge in this country to arrange for a place to hold church meetings and find leased living space for
missionaries, but I think we have things in place for the first group of missionaries that will go there in the next
week or two.
We are gradually getting things in place to run with some degree of organization and ease. We have been
working for over 6 months to arrange an agreement with a Toyota dealership to service our vehicles and to do
that on a credit basis. Sounds easy – right? Not in Ghana. It was a major ordeal. We finally by-passed the
church West Africa Area office and negotiated with the personnel directly in Kumasi. Should have done that
sooner and would have saved a lot of grief.
We continue to be inspired by the faithfulness of the African missionaries. We have been compiling some of
their faith promoting experiences in the Ghana Kumasi Mission 2012 Annual History, and it is very heart-
warming to see the Lord blessing them with help and with His tender mercies. We have attached a second
attachment to this email to share one of these experiences written by the missionaries and edited by us. We will
probably attach other experiences in subsequent letters home to be shared with you and your families.
Love,
Mom and Dad
Two new missisonaries arriving from the Ghana Missionary Training Center in Tema, Ghana (located near Accra’, Ghana). These two young men are from Nigeria. Also pictured are Elder and Sister Reiss (noted above) on the right. All Senior Couples go to the Provo Missionary Training Center before reporting to their respective missions. Also in the picture - President and Sister Holmes and Elder Palmer. Sister Palmer is taking the picture. Lots of luggage!
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