Our Last Sunday Devotional With These Amazing Missionaries!

I guess it is true......time flies when you are having fun!

The last three weeks have flown by!  It is always sad to say good-bye, as we have

shared many experiences together.  

 We wanted to talk about something that is so important for not only the missionaries, but for everyone.

Our theme for the devotional was

"It is Nice to Be Important, But It is More Important to Be Nice."

 A wonderful quality the Savior had is that he was  always lifting, encouraging, he used words of encouragement.  Never in the scriptures do we find a time when the Savior is finding fault, using unkind language, or making someone feel that they cannot succeed. 

Matthew 7:9-11

  "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask him?

We worship a bread not stone God.  He only gives bread not stones.  He doesn’t give serpents he only gives fish.  He doesn’t give scorpions he only gives eggs.  Sometimes it is hard to recognize that.  And if we are not careful, we may turn the bread into stones, if he doesn’t happen to be the kind of bread we want.   A stone is useless, and he doesn’t give us useless things.  Serpents and scorpions hurt us, and he doesn’t give us harmful things.

Sister Akpan and Sister Adjakpasu have a righteous desire to apply what they are learning.

Ephesians 2:19

Now,therefor ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the 

household of God.

We love each other, and put aside differences.

Remember......LOVE IS THE KEY.

We will miss the beautiful music.

We feel confident that they are prepared to......

Go forward in faith and SERVE!

The Smiles melt your heart!

We will miss Elder Kincaid.  He has been with us for 6 weeks.   He will now go to

Benin and share the Gospel in French!

Another Trip to the Accra Temple

 Our amazing Sister Missionaries

This is the A team (our 6 week language missionaries)

African Traditions - Tribal Cloth Weaving

Western Africa is home to hundreds of separate ethnic groups and many of them have their own traditional methods of making cloth. In Ghana there is "Kente" which has been declared It's national cloth. The Akan or Ashanti Culture is the largest in Ghana and they are the producers of the high quality and very bright cloth called "Kente". Many of the Cultural Textiles of Africa are no longer produced, but Kente is alive and well. There are special days when people dress up in Kente.

A piece of Ashanti Kete.

Here is a link to a site that does a succinct job of introducing people to Kente Cloth.

http://csdt.rpi.edu/african/kente/index.html 

There is an Smaller Tribe that is East of the Volta River in Ghana and extends into Togo and Benin, which is called the Ewe tribe. They also have a strong tradition of weaving traditional cloth but theirs is called "Kete" without the 'n'. Most people here refer to it as Ewe Kente. This is perhaps the most sought after traditional cloth in Africa. Like the Ashanti version it is woven in 4" wide strips about 8 feet long which are then sown together into men's cloth's which are worn toga style and Women's 'wraps' which are worn as wrap skirts and another piece is used for a top. The BIG DIFFERENCE is that the Ewe cloth is woven in muted colors and designs, and often have symbols on them which at first appear to be embroidered on. In fact these designs are woven in at the time the strip is being woven ... They are amazing works of art.

Last week we took a couple of hours and went to the weaving workshop of Bob Dennis and watched them weaving Ewe Kete. They have a huge order from Jeans West in Australia to produce the powder blue and white strips shown below

This one looks more like Ashanti Kente

Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy Delivers a Powerful Message to the MTC MIssionaries

 Sister Curtis speaks for the last time at the MTC. They have been reassigned to Salt Lake City

Elder Curtis has been serving as the Area President of the Africa West Area. He has been outstanding as a leader 

Listening and writing down 

Elder Soares spoke beautifully on the subject of Repentance

Post Discourse Photograph

Then saying bye to the Elders