Elder Dickson (the second counselor in the West Africa Area presidency) and his wife were in the same branch as Spencer's father, Jerry, when he and his family joined the church up in Washington State. Elder Dickson just kept saying that they were the best of friends and had so much fun together back when they were in high school. So when we found out that we were coming here to Ghana and we knew that the Dicksons were here, Jerry made sure that we got in touch with them and they insisted that we come stay with them while we visited Accra.
Spencer and me with the Dicksons.
All of us together!
Joey, Emily, me and Spencer with Elder and Sister Dickson.
They are just the most wonderful people and they treated us like kings and queens. Their place is unlike anything I have seen in Ghana yet. It is the most beautiful apartment, and the beds that we got to sleep in were absolutely heavenly. I slept like a rock!
Literally, the Dicksons treated us just like their own children, and kept telling us how wonderful it was to have us there because it felt like they were with their family again. They get to go home for the month of July, and they haven't seen any of their family since they got here almost a year ago. I'd be excited to see my family too!
They fed us so much delicious food and ice cream and honestly, it was really nice to have a little food from home. We are just so grateful to them for their kindness and hospitality. We couldn't ask to be surrounded by better or more wonderful people here. We love it!
On Sunday, we got to attend a ward in Teshie (a part of Accra). The people there were so completely wonderful and kind to us. Sister Dickson then took us girls into the primary room for the last hour of church to help out in there. I got to play the keyboard for the kids as Lindsie (who we picked up early that morning so that she could come with us to church) taught the kids some new primary songs. It was the sweetest experience. We are so blessed to have these amazing experiences. We just keep thanking our Heavenly Father every day for the wonderful experiences we are having here, and words just never seem to be enough to completely show our gratitude.
On the way home we were greeted with one MASSIVELY large rainstorm. We couldn't even believe the amounts of water that were coming out of the sky for one, and two, the amounts of water flooding the streets.
When taking these pictures and driving through all this water it was more of a novelty. We kind of thought it was a normal occurrence and it was really easy to brush off once we got to some higher ground. But we found out later that there were actually quite a few people killed (I thought I saw a paper that said 35 people had been killed by the flood, but Emily thinks it said 25 - so we'll just stick with "a lot of people"). Apparently thousands of people were displaced from their homes and it's the worst flood they've had in recent history. In light of this, they have coined the day "Black Sunday". It's just weird to think that we were right there in the flooding areas and also right there in Accra during the whole thing. We pray for those people and their families who are suffering right now, and pray that their lives here will be able to be put back together soon.
I'm glad you love spencer babies, since supposidly we have more than this one..... I also think that your kids may have the same potential to be just as ginormous as ours. Also maybe as cute. :) P.S. Don't you just love monsoon rain?
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