Port Harcourt, Nigeria

We spent the weekend in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, trying to keep up with Elder David A. Bednar and Elder L. Whitney Clayton as they and two members of the Africa West Area presidency held meetings from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and a tri-stake conference on Sunday with 2,725 members of the Church in attendance. While priesthood leaders met in the cultural hall of a stake center on Saturday for 4 hours, Sister Bednar and Sister Clayton carried out a wonderful interactive session in the chapel with the wives of the mission presidents, stake presidents, and bishops of three coordinating councils in Nigeria. What a thrill to see the members of the Church gather for this very exciting visit from an apostle and a member of the presidency of the Seventy.

Right before the priesthood session ended on Saturday, I looked into the inner court of the stake center to
find this incredible sight -- scores of missionaries waiting their turn to hear from the general authorities who
had come all the way from Salt Lake City to meet and instruct them. For safety reasons, there are no
Caucasion LDS mission presidents or missionaries in Nigeria.  

    

The congregation on Sunday filled this Port Harcourt convention center and poured out the back, where
members sat in the shade of canvas tents. Those who sat outside were able to watch the meeting on a
large screen. Everyone was grateful for air conditioning on this very eventful day. We felt privileged to
share this day with our fellow members of the Church in Nigeria.

Newest Members

This Sunday was busier than most. We had planned on attending our regular block of meetings at Trade Fair Ward, then a training session for teachers of youth taught by a missionary couple (which I had been looking forward to), and ending up at one of the special stake firesides that have been taking place to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the dedication of the Accra Ghana Temple. I even packed a snack in our little cooler, knowing that lunch/dinner would have to be on the road. We ended up missing the training when we found out after church that a baptism from our ward was taking place at the stake center on the temple grounds as soon as the family and the Elders could get there. The darling family of five was going to take a taxi from our church building, so we suggested they pile into the back seat of our Toyota so we could get them to the stake center faster. As we drove between buildings, we quickly realized that the mother speaks very little English. The father has been a member for several months, and has been looking forward to this day when he could personally baptize his wife and two oldest children. The youngest will need to wait until he turns eight. We were so drawn to this sweet family as we became acquainted in the car that we decided to stay and support them on their special day. Along with the missionaries and a few members, we enjoyed some tender moments with the newest members of Trade Fair Ward. We feel so blessed to be able to share in these memorable experiences with the dear people of Africa.

Bad Hair Day

African women are beautiful! When we first arrived in Ghana, I couldn't get over why they always looked so great. They never seemed to have a bad hair day. I was also amazed at all the different hairdos they had. After becoming more familiar with a few of the women in the office, it finally dawned on me that they wear a lot of wigs and hair extensions. It's not uncommon to see a woman with short hair one day and long the next. We never get tired of seeing what they will come up with next.

  

Dansoa and Rebecca show off examples of some of the options.

Here they are a few weeks later. They both really have short hair.