When life gets too hard to stand, kneel.

just Alex...

(Asuoyeboa apartment - Elders Adu-Gyamfi, Baron, Holmes, and Darrow)

Hello, hello there family!

So I’m sure you’re super busy with Weston, life and all so I’ll keep this brief. Thank you so much for the pictures of him. He’s freaking sweet. He’s a great man baby. Thanks so much for all the emails as well. So awesome to have family who cares so much about my mission and me.

So this Sat. I got the 1-year package from you guys and it was over and beyond. Thank you so much. It was so cool to get cards from everyone. Plz be sure to tell them all that I am so very grateful for them. Tell Nick I got his gift too. It all meant so much. Thank you! Thanks for making all those dad. Ha. You’re too funny. Loved Ryan’s and Lance’s. ahhahahah. Too funny. Thank you!

So before I go on, last week when my mind was all over the place, I totally forgot to tell you about the baptism on Sat. Was a cool ending to my 1-year. Sis Joyce and her daughter doris. Always awesome to be apart of those.

(Sister Joyce)

(Doris)

This week we did have splits with the zone leaders. We got to go with e Adams and we enjoyed that very much. e Adams is a baller and really reminded me of what a missionary should be like. Was a cool day.

We had specialized training on Sat with both the zones and Pres talked to us. In a nutshell the Pres. wants us to focus on the promises and doctrine of Christ. Still teaching when guided by the spirit is always the best way, but it’s usually good to have a game plan and know where you’re going. The spirit doesn’t always give you word for word

So that’s about it on the week. Crazy that March is just about over. Weird. Love you and miss you guys so much! Hope you are all reading your scripts and saying your prayers.

I know God listens and loves us. He does want us to be happy. And I know this amazing gospel brings happiness.

"When life gets too hard to stand, kneel”

-Pres Gordon B Hinckley

xoxo

elder darrow

Home Sweet Home - Asuoyeboa

by dad

Alex said there wasn’t to much to talk about this week. The work is going well and he doesn’t have any “sweet stories” to tell. They had to drop a lot of investigators this week. They have been instructed by the mission president that they need to teach those who are serious about hearing their message.

He said he had a “little pizza party" for his one year celebration and is still looking forward to mail being delivered to his area. It seems to get there only a few times a month.

He did send home a memory card this week with photos of his new area. He said his apartment is very similar to the apartment in Sekondi, just one less bathroom.

(the apartment compound)

(the front door and hallway)

(main area and laundry room)

(the kitchen)

(the STILL COLD shower and bathroom)

(sleeping area - complete with fan and mosquito net)

Oh, and his sign-off…

love you guys big time

xoxo

uncle x2 darrow

Friday Foto

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go.

Friday Foto - When in Rome...

How blessed am I?

by dad

Alex’s weekly email was surprisingly lengthy. He shared his feelings about the civil unrest that is happening in the Ivory Coast. Most foreigners have been ‘chased out’ of the country. The Ivory Coast Mission is directly west of the Ghana, Cape Coast Mission. In the country of Ivory Coast, all of the non Ivory Coast missionaries have been transferred to other missions. Some have been sent to Ghana. Over the past year Alex has been serving with missionaries from the Ivory Coast. In his words he has ‘formed a bond of friendship that I can’t even describe’.

He wrote...

I often get caught up in the work, the people, the environment and such and I often forget where I really am. I forget what life is really like and forget that for me it’s just 2 years. For the people here (in Africa) it’s their life. For me it’s a story I will tell years from now to my kids or in some Sunday School class. To you back home it’s story, something you watch on CNN or maybe even some show on HBO. I’m here and for the people around me it’s reality.

He shared a story of a missionary from the Ivory Coast that will be returning home soon. He just got word from home that soldiers have raided his city and the neighboring city. Everything is shut down and anyone who stays in the city has a short life expectancy. All banks are on lock down. No one is working. Buildings are being burned and normal everyday people are being killed. His family is scattered. No one is in school or working or doing anything for that matter.

How blessed am I? How blessed are we. No, I didn’t write this to scare you. Ghana is the safest country in Africa by far. Everything is cool here. I guess I’m saying all this because I have caught a glimpse of what life is like outside the bubble that I lived in back home. I will never really know what it’s like. I have seen it first hand, how it effects people who are so close to me, but I won’t personally go thru that. How blessed am I?

The real world is scary. There are bad guys who do bad things. There isn’t always a happy ending. I see things like this all the time but I guess when I focus so hard on how loving the people are or how amazing the kids are I look past those parts. I guess I just got a very realistic view this week of what life is like. I’m not sitting here freaking out, I guess I just had to get all that stuff out.

And now missionary news...

Another week gone. I’m safe so no need to worry. Transfers - e Mackay is the new assistant. (no shock to me). No change for our apt. I’m happy with my current situation and I will stay as long as allowed. 
Very excited to stay with Holmes. Just soaking in this awesomeness while I can. Thanks for all the awesome emails

Julia’s wedding was on Saturday and it was a big hit. She was so happy.

What’s funny is that she wasn’t happy about the wedding she was happy about the baptism the next day. She kept saying tomorrow is the real day. Haha. How awesome right? And sure enough Sunday came and she was baptized. She has been waiting for it so long and you could see the look in her eye. The look that tells you she is as close to God as she has ever been. 
“So fresh and so clean…” I just love being apart of it all.

I got to see Mike (McAllen) this week. Man

was that cool. It was hard to find time to go see him. But we got it done. He is still powerful. He is still in his conversion stage but he has a testimony of what’s important and the rest will fall into place. I love that man.

A a quick update on Gabriel. He’s sweet. We went and met up with him this week and I got my Book of Mormon back and gave him his own. He loves the book very much. He tells us with all of his own stress and problems going on, that whenever he sits down to read from it he is at peace. We answered a lot of his questions. Each time we leave we can see the peace that he has from our message. It’s really all so sweet and it’s hard to explain.

(McAllen and Elder Darrow)

I feel like you all got a lot of what’s going on in my mind. I usually don’t just sit down and pour out stuff like that, mostly because I don’t want to worry mom. You know how she gets. Hahah. Hope that was enough info for you.

Love you guys so very, very much. All is well here.

Alex

We completed the Goal!

just Alex...

Pricilla was baptized on Tuesday. I got to talk on the phone with her and that was so sweet. Really so cool to hear how happy people are after baptism. It’s no lie when we say “they will be clean”. e Matheson and I were the last 2 elders to complete the baptism part of the goal (close call). I also found out from e math that 2 people we were teaching, Mike and Richard Ainoo, are being baptized on the 15th. e Maths and his greenie are having some sweet baptisms. But then again, all the people here are so sweet. It doesn’t matter where you are, the people are incredible.

So let me tell you a little about a man named Gabriel. Last Monday when we were at the post office this guy walked up to e Holmes and said that he was interested in hearing about our church. He didn’t really seem serious at all but we asked where he lived and he said Tanaso (that’s at the edge of our area close to Abuakwa). We got his number and figured that was lucky that this guy happened to live in our area. Weird? I think not.

So we called him and met with him on Thursday. - Side note - We are really tying to focus on teaching people, not lessons. In doing so, we teach by the spirit, not by a pattern or for that matter in any certain order. Now of course you can’t jump right into the Word of Wisdom before someone even knows who Joseph Smith is, but we are trying to teach what people need and not just get in there door and start with who God is. So...

In the meeting with Gabriel, elder Holmes and I decided to do just that. I will tell you that I have never been guided by the spirit more in my life. What’s sweet is elder Holmes and I are so unified, that teaching goes so smooth. Can’t really explain that lesson with you but I will tell you this. He told us that since he met us he has been writing down questions. He has gone from church to church for years and years trying to find the truth. He had about 15 or so ready to ask.
In the first meeting we talked about; The Godhead, Jesus Christ, the Atonement, resurrection, and the purpose of life (which was one of his biggest concerns. "Why am I here? What is our objective?" Yes!!! Let us tell you!). We talked about exaltation, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end, tithing, prayer, and how to pray and how we receiving answers to prayer. BOOM> sounds crazy right? Ya it was. Absolutely insane.

It was so crazy that I left there giving him my own personal Book of Mormon. We didn’t have an extra one and the reoccurring prompting wouldn’t let me leave without giving it to him. That was a first for me. That thing is like gold to me and just like that, I left it with a stranger. It actually had my funeral slip from g-ma. It’s always been in there and you would think that I would be worried about it. It’s kinda important to me. I didn’t even worry about it cuz I knew it was the right thing and that that book was going to do something special, as it has for so many other people.

We got a call from him Fri. night and he was more then excited. He kept saying how "marvelous" the book was and that he found many facts in there and he has wrote them down.

Sweet right?!?

Ya we were quickly humbled when Sunday he was a no show. We called alot but his phone was off and we had no idea what was up? I’m still without my Book of Mormon but not too worried. We were quickly humbled and again realized what missionary work is, not always a walk in the park

We did call him just a few hours ago and he was very apologetic. He said that he had some problem at the worksite and had to travel to central region. He still seemed solid. He even wanted us to come over tonight but can’t make it. So we will be going to see him on Wed. along with Steven.

Sister Juliana (Kingsford's mom) is still planned on being baptized on the 6th. It’s a big week. 5th is her wedding. 6th is the baptism and 7th is transfer news and stephs b-day. And the 8th. Well the 8th is a sweet day :-)

Crazy to think that the transfer is just about over. Time really has flown by here. I always heard that going from area to area makes time fly. I don’t know if it’s that or if I’m just absolutely loving every second of my time with elder Holmes? hmmm. Maybe both.

Thanks. Really you guys are just too awesome. You do so much for me and I wish you could understand how grateful I am. I’m out here working hard and enjoying life.

Ghana really is so awesome.

Too sweet.

loves!!

Alex

and his thoughts on the Utah Jazz news...

As far as the whole D-Will situation. I don’t even want to talk about it. I may or may not have put my head on the keyboard and laid there and held back tears for a minute or two. I may or may not have...

Meet Kingsford.

just Alex…


This little guy is adorable. This week at church as he was chilling with me in the back, he was pretending to be like me. So a little at a time he started taking my things and using them the same way I would. It started with the pen that was hidden behind my tie. Then he saw I was chewing gum and he stole that right out of my mouth. Then he took my nametag, my watch, my ring and my white-hand-book. I fell in love with him. Then he stood back and told me to take a picture. Hahaha. Maybe one of my favorite pics I have taken here! I love Ghana!

(elder Kingsford)

Focusing on Families

just Alex…

Hello family! All right so once again, as always, I thank you for the emails. You’re too sweet to do that. To get straight to the point, I got 2 packages from ma and pa, and one from g-ma. Mom, the pants fit perfect. Thank you so very much. The journal is awesome. But really the whole package was all about the calendar. That thing was incredible.

(Elders Mackay, Darrow, Holmes and Christensen)

As for this week, before I get onto the intense zone conf we had, I will first talk small about Steven. He is this guy that came to church with his friend 2 weeks ago. He is a student in what you know as college. He is studying business. He seems really sweet and we had our first lesson with him this last week. He’s very busy going to lectures and stuff so its not easy to find time to meet him but our first lesson went really well and I’m excited to continue with him. When we first showed up I saw on his laptop the Steven Coveys 7 habits you sent me. Mine is up on my wall and I quickly related to him. So that was cool. He’s smart and teaching people who understand English is so very awesome.

We also found out this week that Sister Julie will be married on the 5th of March. Which is so sweet. She wants her baptism as soon as possible so I think as of now its planned for the 6th of March. Really so cool. She comes to church every Sunday and has been taught by so many elders. She has just been waiting patiently for the marriage thing to work out and now it’s finally here. So many missionaries have investigators who are in the same boat (Justice and Cathryn down in Sekondi). e Holmes is more then happy he gets to be here for the baptism. We will find out transfer news on the 7th (happy flippin b-day to Stephanie)

Marsha (in Sekondi) was baptized this week. I called her and got to chat with her. That was sweet. She was very, very happy and mostly happy that she waited so I couldn’t see it. She was basically waiting just to show her hubby she wore the pants. Sigh. It happens.

(Elder Darrow, Marsha and Rex)

Also Pricilla wasn’t baptized on Sat. She had something happen in school and couldn’t go. So they pushed it to Tuesday. They say she still wants to so I’m sure it will work out. We can only pray right?

(Elder Darrow and Pricilla Jackson)

As for zone conf this week, it was very, very sweet. Pres gave some powerful instruction. He explained how right now we are probably the oldest mission in the world right now. Because of the 2 huge mtc groups. In Aug 09 we got 24 then 15 then like 10. In 3 transfer our mission was doubled. Now it’s getting to the point where those elders are getting close to their way out. Then he really gave it to us about how we should be doing great things because of our experience and really pushed us to sprint to the end. In doing all that he announced the new goal. It’s his last goal as pres. It’s the 9th one and every other one he has completed. (If we complete the current one we are on)

The new goal of the Ghana Cape Coast Mission:

1. By Sunday, June 26, 2011, every missionary in the mission will baptize someone who has a family member in the church.

2. By Sunday, June 26, 2011, every missionary in the mission will help one family to be sealed in the Temple.

-A living couple goes to the Temple and is sealed.

-A widow(er) is sealed to a deceased spouse.

-A living child is sealed to parents.

-A deceased child is sealed to living parents.

He is really focusing on families. That’s all we ever do. It’s so important. When a whole family joins they are so strong. So we will be doing a lot of work with the members who are ready and haven’t been sealed. Really just trying to make that family forever. So awesome. Im excited to get going on that one. He also had a deep doctrinal discussion with us about the atonement and grace and works. It was powerful. Pres is such a stud. Really came out of that place ready to work.

He also changed our daily schedule. Before we were basically out 30 min earlier than most of the missions, because when Pres first came to Ghana, a lot of places didn’t have lights so you couldn’t really teach after 630pm or so. But now he has seen otherwise. So we are back to out the door at 10. He really has just pushed for being out for 9 hours. No matter how you get it done, just being out there for 9. Things are going sweet.

I'm very much enjoying my time with e Holmes. We laugh so much. I love laughing.

(matching tie companions - Elder Darrow & Elder Holmes)

Thanks again for all that you guys do and for the support you give.

Once again the calendar was amazing. You did very, very well. Thank you.

BIG LOVES

elder darrow

Called to Serve

by dad

Pictures from the last few months.

Pounding plantains and cassavas to make Fu-Fu.

Helping the sisters in the ward cook.

Making Kakra from plantains

Alex says they are always looking for opportunities to serve. Here they are helping to make bricks. The process involves filling a single brick mold with a concrete, sand, and water mix. Then they carrying the filled mold to an area where they can tip it over so the brick can harden. Once they harden, they are stacked and ready to use for building.

Filling the mold.

The drying process and the finished stack of bricks.

They caught the tater.

by dad

This week Elder Darrow expressed gratitude for emails, bemoaned the news of the Utah coach Jerry Sloan retiring and lamented about how long it takes for mail to reach his new area in Kumasi. The Harmattan Winds, Sahara winds that blow sand the first couple of months each year, have come and created a haze in the sky and makes the air quality a little less than desirable.

Here is what went down this week. This week we went with the zone leaders. It was really cool to be out and about with e MacKay again. He’s such a stud. Didn’t think I would get that ever again but SURPRISE... I did…

As for the highlight of the week. e Holmes and I walked around roaming and looking for service. A lot of the time when you serve, they feed you. Which is a bonus, but sometimes, all it really does is make for one great story, and here goes...

We went to a family who isn’t even really investigating the church they are just good friends to the missionaries. (Seed has been planted... in time). Well we got the chance to help them fetch water. Really such a humbling experience. I always forget how much of a luxury it is to turn on the faucet and boom! Water. Well they were filling all of their empty gallon jugs. I would guess they were 5 gallons. We took them all to the closest working well and one-by-one filled them. Then we loaded them up on our noggins and carried them back to their house. Soaking our shirts and making a mess. It’s not easy. I have so much respect for the women here. They do WORK. They are so strong.

So after helping them we came back to their place and they had a little table and stools set up for us to eat. What’s weird is that they had the table set up in the front of their house so all could watch. Usually when you’re fed your put in a back corner somewhere so no one can see you. Well they come out with our food, a big bowl of okra stew (research okra) and 2 big fat balls of Banku. Banku is made with cooked FERMENTED corn dough and cassava dough. They put that in a big pot and heat it up and mix it with water. It turns into this sticky ball of warm nasty stuff. Some missionaries learn to love it, but as for this guy... I DONT THINK SO. e Holmes also does

not like it so when she put down 2 huge balls of this stuff we got REAL worried. 1 ball is a little bit bigger than the size of softball. I have tasted it once before but hated it, so I would go out of my way to avoid this stuff. And I did very well. Went 11 months without being forced to put this stuff down and at a last. They got me. (They caught the tater)!

I take the first bite and just about lost it. It’s not like when you’re first learning to eat fufu where it just slides down your throat. This stuff sticks and doesn’t go down so easy. Each bite got harder and harder for me to swallow. It seemed like this was a never-ending ball of Banku. The problem was I was out in front of the whole family and kids so; A) I couldn’t just take a baggie and put it in my backpack cuz they can see me, and B) they are watching so I can’t really make nasty faces as I eat it. I have to show a poker face the whole time. Being totally honest with you, mentally it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Bite after bite I struggled to swallow then I had to use all my strength just to keep it down. NOT EASY. There isn’t a single one of you back home who could have stomached this. It was a full-blown miracle that I ate it (cuz leaving any left is not an option). Honestly it was. The blind can see. The deaf can hear. And I ate Banku. All the same in my eyes.

To make the whole thing awesome is on the way home I puked it all up. Very Sad. It’s like "hey elders... come and do some hard labor for us and then sit down and eat some food only we like!” Sweet?

That small warm fuzzy feeling I had from doing all the service was thrown up with the banku.

Love you all so very much. Thanks for all that you do. You guys are so awesome.

LOVES & SNICKER-DOODLES

Elder Darrow

McAllen Kweku Oppong a.k.a. Mike

by dad

Beyond the emotions of transfer news, Alex also emailed about the missionary work and service they have been providing. It seems that he has been very blessed with amazing experiences. The members of the Sekondi wards are very strong in the gospel and are very supportive of the missionaries. He will miss them and their friendships. Regarding the past week, Elder Darrow wrote...

I called e Mackay earlier in the week and he said "you wouldn’t believe what I did today. I had a baptismal interview for Mike Allen.' He's the guy who we taught every single day for a month and then he moved to Kumasi. Well long story short, they have been teaching him and things are going sweet. (Duh...) He said the day was set for Sunday. So come Sat night I called Mike and he freaked out. About as happy as I have been on mission. He told me 'Thank You' like 30 times. He was just so happy and it was so cool to hear him tell us how grateful he was for us.

Come Sunday e. MacKay said the baptism went great and Mike was more then excited. He was trippin. Was just so awesome to have all that work out. I really got to see the hand of the Lord work thru me as we were teaching him. I have never been guided by the spirit more then when I was talking to him. Said a lot of thing and made a lot of promises to him that i would normally never make, but when I did it wasn’t me talking. Just such a great feeling and I'm so happy that he is actually baptized. Wow. So cool.

(Baptism of McAllen Kweku Oppong - next to E Lehr!)

To explain the name... he said his name was 'Mike Allen' but said it with a Ghanaian accent. He told us to just call him Mike. Then e Mackay said he thought it was actually Mac, but just said it like Mike. And now that they have the actual spelling it's 'McAllen Kweku Oppong'. - He will always be remembered

Things are going great with Sarah and Augustine. Lessons are still super powerful and we have really been focusing on if they get an answer to prayers. (They are active in their church and are in the choir and all so it’s hard) They tell us they always feel different when we are around and that they do feel something different when they pray about all the things we teach.

Also this week we have been going to Kojokrom a lot to teach Pricilla. I told you about her last week. We have spent some time with e. Dodd and e. Bassey out there. Well the lessons with her are sweet and sorry I haven’t told you more about her. Lots of crazy stories not enough time. But we have a baptismal date this week for the 12 of Feb. so that will be cool.

elder darrow

Almost everyone...

by dad

From June 11th thru July 11th, 32 countries will compete in the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. It's held once every four years. For the first time ever Africa, specifically, South Africa will host the World Cup. Six of the teams competing; Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa, and GHANA are from Africa. In most countries, normal life stops during matches. It's estimated to have cumulative views of over 26 billion, from all over the world. That would be 250 times the record 106 million that watched the 2010 Super Bowl. Almost everyone in the world will be watching, almost everyone.

... zone conf was so powerful. as of May 23, 73 missionaries have completed the mission goal. so in 6 weeks over 55 missionaries need to baptize a part member fam. :) President Sabey just laid down the law and let us know that without the Lords help we can't do that. it’s not realistic. he told us that the path ahead is dark and unclear, but as H. B. Lee taught, we need to "walk to the edge of the light and perhaps a few steps into the darkness, and you will find that the light will appear and move ahead of you" Pres. Sabey talked about how we were going to do that. so we are starting another goal. and its crazy, but so sweet! he said this is the best way to get help from God.

New goal... 1) every missionary will enter into and keep a covenant not to watch any football matches from June 11th to July 11th (World Cup) and 2) by Sunday Sept 26th, every missionary will be blessed to baptize someone who was found while a World Cup football match was being played.

Boom right?!?

The point of this goal is "a unique opportunity for us to draw near to the lord and covenant to obey him and in the process find peculiar and powerful people" super excited for this. he went into depth about it and said every night each missionary will report to his district leader on their obedience and every night we will get a text from the assistances with the scores of each game each day so we stay in the loop. sweet right. its gonna be crazy.

To Africa, the World Cup is more important than anything, and when you have a mission of 60% Africans its quite crazy. excited to see how that turns out. it will give us a chance to receive help thru obedience.

Alex will participate in his first baptism on June 1st.

we have a bapt. tomorrow the 1st, King David, Joseph, and Kojo. Kojo will complete the goal for us. crazy to teach him. he doesn’t know any English at all. it was interesting when we were filling out bapt. info sheet. we had some problems... ahhaha. he lives in a small fishing village and has no idea how old he is. or for that matter, how old any of his kids are. we asked and he said. um... 50. then the wife said no 60? then another 57? they have no idea. stinks right.

i love it here.

i love you all so very much i think about you guys like crazy. Can’t wait for letters.

Xoxox

elder darrow

Laryngitis doesn't stop the laughter.

by dad

Alex's second letter started with this...

I woke up yesterday and I couldn't really talk. My throat has been scratchy but that's nothing new. Today it was just as bad, but it doesn't hurt. No swollen glands, no fever so i know it's nothing serious. I went to see the Area Dr. (he actually happens to be an Ear, Nose & Throath doctor) and he knew exactly what was wrong. I have some form of Laryngitis. He said my voice box or something is swollen. He said I should just try not to talk or if I do, whisper in a low tone voice. If it doesn't get better, then it's a virus and we will do anti-biotics. He said it is caused by by the change of climate or the dust in the air. But by the time you read this, I'll be all better :-).

How can you not love the faith of a missionary? He was all better by time he mailed the letter.

Turns out, in Ghana this time of year, they have what is called Harmattan Wind. It's sand that comes from the Sahara (see the map to the right), so there are dust particles in the air which make it constantly hazy and dirty. I guess a lot of the missionaries have had sore eyes and/or sore throaths.

On one of their trips to the temple, Alex took these photos of the area near the Accra Temple. He said...

The drive is about 45 min drive w/traffic, maybe 20 mins or less if the roads were like Utah, but they never will be. Everything is so different. It's mad chaos on the streets. Anywhere that you slow down or where it's bumper to bumper, there are people walking up and down selling things. Worthless things to me, but if I were in Utah, they would get me. You know I'm an impulse buyer. Seeing the city got me so excited to serve.

It's nice to see Elder Darrow is still Alex and he still has his way about him...

The teachers call me the most energetic/outgoing/happiest missionary. Actually, this whole group is always smiling, happy and always singing... ALL NIGHT LONG! The big joke around the MTC is about me and the French missionaries (that speak french, from Congo, Ivory Coast etc.). For some reason they love to say my name, ELL-DAH DAHHHUN (that's how they sound it out). Everytime the French see me, they yell it out and everytime they walk by my room, apparently even when I'm not around. And from that, a lot of other Elders copy them and laugh. So my name is constantly being called and they all laugh about it. Just making the people happy.

He sent home this video from a break during class, that shows dispite their different languages, French, English or sometimes their tribal language, Elder Darrow is making new friends and loving it.

ALEX goes to Ghana

by dad

After months of waiting, Elder Darrow left today for the MTC in Tema, Gahan. His last day at home was spent with Mom and Dad at the Salt Lake City Temple, followed-up with eggs benedict at Market Street Grill. Needless to say, Alex won't be having eggs benedict anytime soon. He spent the afternoon packing and saying good-bye to Haley. He was set apart as a missionary that evening. That night, Molly and Stephanie flew to New York for a Nat'l Drill team competion traveling on a non-refundable trip paid for in October of last year. I won't even go into how painful those good-byes went. UGH!

In the morning, we took Alex to the airport for his 8:35 flight.

He was very excited to get to the airport. We had to talk him

out of being there 3 hours early like it requested on the travel documents. Two 50lbs suit cases, a duffle bag and a briefcase will hold his life for the next two years. The check-in at the airport went far to quickly and then we found ourselves at the top of the escalator looking sadly at the security screening area. We shared hugs and tears and laughs and more hugs and more tears. I tryed

to get him to hang-out with us a little bit longer but he said, 'Nope. I'm ready to go.' He walked off and said ' Hey, take a picture of me leaving.' After he got through security and before the screening he reached over the railing and gave me final good-bye hugs.

I got a phone call from a Utah cell phone around 1:00pm. A man sitting next to Alex on the plane, gave him his phone to call home and let us know he made it to New York. I sent a thank you text to the phone number that he called me from, and quickly got a response that said, 'No, problem. You should be proud of your son. I am traveling with my sister who is very anti and I think your son made a good impression. He is already becoming a missionary.' Within the next hour I got another cell phone call from a 301 area code. Alex borrowed another cell to call from the plane headed to Ghana. He said he was very comfortable on the hot plane, in his middle aisle seat, ready for the 10 1/2 hour trip to Accra, Ghana.

The next morning I was awakened by a call from Alex reporting he had arrived at the MTC in Tema, Ghana. He was one of 3 missionaries from the states that was reporting in. 37 missionaries from Africa were still coming that day. He was all settled in his room, waiting for his companion, Elder Mbithi from Kenya. He said Ghana was Busy, Crazy and Hot. He said he has showered and changed and his shirt is already soaked. He said the MTC is GREAT. He told me to tell everyone how much he loves them and thanks for all the prayers for him. He will not get e-mail until he reports to the Cape Coast mission in 3 weeks.