Roughing It...

When we call our children to garner sympathy about our plight here in the rough and rugged frontier of Africa, we don't discuss Africa's little secrets. Yes we see a lot of poverty, a lot of disease, a lot of pain and suffering, but we also see a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, in short, if you look, you will find bits and pieces of paradise. We spent the week with the mission presidents here in Accra at the La Palm Hotel on the beach. In the mornings, we watched the fishermen pulling in the nets, in the evening, we sat outside by the pool and enjoyed some of Ghana's best food.

We know we won't get a lot of sympathy showing pictures like the one above. We might be mistaken for vacationing  in Hawaii, Tahiti, or you pick an island in the Caribbean. But no, its downtown Accra--who would believe?

We spent the last two weeks frantically preparing to teach our little session. We had plenty of time to prepare, but kept getting side-tracked. We had several elders sick, we even sent a few home over the last couple of weeks.

Preparing for our Health Lecture

Health Discussion with Mission Mothers

We taught two session, one on the state the health of our missionaries in the Africa West Area. Another with the "mission mothers"  who are in charge of making all of the health related questions that come up. Little did the wives of the mission presidents know that along with the calling came a big responsibility--answering all those 'middle of the night' phone calls. 'I've got a headache', 'my stomach hurts', and 'I got a fever'.

Over all the conference was great. We had four general authorities, Elder Curtis, Elder Sitati, Elder Dixon, and Elder Gavarett (visiting from Ecuador). We had great lessons, discussions, and felt privileged to see all the 'behind the scenes' workings of the church in this area. We learned a lot.



On the side the road (the bus broke down) waiting for our rescue



Elder Fife and the Mission Presidents pushing the bus off the road

We met all of the mission presidents and their wives in person. Some we have worked with quite closely via the telephone over the past several months.

President Froerer, Sister Fife, Sister Froerer, and Sister Shulz

Sister Egbo, Elder Fife--Health Discussion

Over all, things went well. Our lectures were well received. The discussions went well, and we felt the preparation was worth it.

We had a great week.

...Elder and Sister Fife