Farewell to Clarks and Heckels - Out to Tema New Town-Replacements coming!

We look forward to Family Home Evening every other Monday.  This week we said good bye to the Clarks and Heckels.

Elder and Sister Heckel are given their farewell banners by our Area President, President Vinson. The Heckels have only been married 3 years and have spent two years of their "honeymoon" here on a mission developing literacy materials.  Sister Heckel is a professional in that field.  Elder Heckel served as a mission president in the Salt Lake area many years ago with his first wife.  The "newlywed" Sister Heckel had never been married. Yes, there is a 20+ year age difference, but they really are great together.

Farewell also to the Clarks.  They will return home to Dallas, Texas and prepare to return to Liberia in July as Mission President and Mission Mom.

Sister Ama Boateng opened her mission call to Nigeria Lagos.  Sister Boateng's father is the Koforidua district president in the 'bush."  She was so excited and leaves for the MTC on March 2.  

Friends had recommended a butcher shop, not far from the mission home.  We stopped by and met David.  The place was clean, so we purchased some pork chops.

We attended church in Tema New Town this Sunday.  We did not take this picture, but it was part of a previous church news feature regarding Bishop Azumah.  This unique pulpit was constructed by a senior missionary couple in 2015. It allows the Bishop to address the congregation from a normal position. The Bishop contracted an illness when he was 4 years old that paralyzed his legs and stunted their growth.    The missionaries tell us that the Bishop is a handyman by trade, has a family, and that many people in the congregation were introduced to the church by him.

This cute little guy sat next to me in church this Sunday. 

President asked us to attend church in Tema New Town, near the MTC, and transfer missionaries back to Accra.  He was making some changes in preparation for departures and new missionaries arriving this week.  Elder Hales and Elder Olschewski, on the left, were companions.  Now Elder Hales and Elder Skelton in the background will be going back to Tema New Town and Elder O and Elder Robertson will stay in the Jamestown area, about 10 minutes from the mission home.

Elder Olschewski spent nine months in Tema New Town.  It was difficult to say good bye to all his young friends.

This last two weeks we learned that President Heid and his wife will be replaced by a new Mission President.  We needed to wait until there was a formal announcement in the Church News to release the name.  We understand he is an attorney from South Africa.  We will have about ten days with the new president before we leave the mission field.


Mission            Current President   New President

Ghana Accra

David L. Heid

Trevor T. Keyes

In addition, a new office couple has accepted a mission call to replace us in the Ghana Accra Mission.  We look forward to meeting the Glanfields, when they arrive about June 20. Our neighbors are excited because the Glanfields are also from Canada.