Suomi!

Okay, So it's taking me forever to finish this post! But I'm convinced I'm going to do it soon!

After an overnight flight, tacking down a lost piece of luggage (luckily only the small bag full of books that wasn't vital for our first couple days)and major exhaustion, we finally made it to Finland!!!

Once we got to the airport, we waited there for about an hour until my parents flight came in from Paris! It was so great to see them again! It's rather nerve racking trying to meet people in a foreign country with few communication resources - but luckily everything worked as planned, our flights came in on time and Uncle Kim and Aunt Pam got to the airport only a short time after we walked out of the baggage claim.

Uncle Kim and Aunt Pam are Spencer's aunt and uncle - Aunt Pam is Spencer's mom's sister. They are in Finland serving as missionaries in the Helsinki temple there. It's such a beautiful place! Driving through Finland was totally surreal because I knew we were so close to Estonia and there are so many similarities between the two - I was just mesmerized by the amazing place we were in.

We started out in the open market. It all reminded me of the Estonian markets and the fun we had there. So many of the artifacts and souvenirs were exactly the same! I was in heaven. But I left my camera in the car... :( So we don't have any pictures of that first part, but hopefully we get some good pictures of a market in Estonia.

After playing around in the market, buying some amazing fresh cherries and peas, we headed to a grocery store where I was able to get a hold of some of the chocolate bars I've been craving since the day I left Estonia a year and a half ago. By about this time, I knew I was in heaven! It was amazing!

Uncle Kim then took us on a little tour to their favorite lake in the area. It was such a gorgeous area! And if we hadn't all been so exhausted and falling asleep in the car, we probably would have gotten in to go swimming.
Here's my mom and Spencer heading straight for the lake.

It took about 1.3 seconds for my mom to get her shoes off and start wading in the water and the same amount of time for Spencer to find some good flat rocks and head off to go skip them.

After spending some good time with our feet in the water (which my mom really needed to take some of the swelling off of her feet) we headed home more than ready to get to bed.

We all slept so well that night! I don't think I even twitched until about 6am, which is pretty incredible for me considering I usually wake up 2 or 3 times a night, so I felt so good when I finally rolled myself off the bed that morning!

That afternoon we got to go to Seaurasaar, an island where they have imported different buildings from all over Finland to represent time periods and the way the people live there. It was such a cool place!

Here we are, standing on the bridge heading over the Baltic to the island.


Uncle Kim saw me kiss Spencer like this and made me do it again for the camera.

I don't know why I feel like the trees here are so different and beautiful, but I love them!
Spencer, Me, Mom and Dad


I love the Baltic Sea! It brings back so many wonderful memories, so it makes me especially happy to be able to share it's beauty with my wonderful husband and amazing parents.


When I saw this I was convinced it was the biggest bird house I'd ever seen. Turns out it's actually a little storage house where people could keep their food out of the reach of bears and other prying animals wanting to raid their supplies.

My mom was really excited to see a windmill - I thought this old guy was pretty cool too.

Look at the cute squirrel!

Spencer thought it was so cute, he just had to feed it! It literally came down the grab the food right out of his hand.

Uncle Kim, my parents and Spencer in front of an old Finnish cabin.

I love this lodge! It's got a nice little restaurant inside and everything.

We had a lot of fun with all the ducks that were around.

We all had fun feeding them.

I didn't really dare to let the ducks and geese do this to me though.

Spencer was even brave enough to feed the swan! Apparently it hurts when they get you with their beaks though. This swan even starting hissing at Spencer when he stopped feeding it. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it.

I loved this old phone booth. In fact, I wish they still made them like this (or made them at all really) :)

More of Spencer and I. Oh how I love him!


The best part of our stay in Finland was not all our wonderful excursions or the fun way of city life there, it was the view from our front window where Uncle Kim and Aunt Pam live.

It was like our whole life there in Finland was centered around this beautiful temple. It was such a peaceful and wonderful place, I will never forget it.

We were blessed to be able to spend Saturday morning serving in the temple. I loved it there!
We started out at 9am doing some baptisms and lending Spencer and my Dad to help out a little with some of the youth that had come that morning.
We then got to go to the 11am endowment session, where Uncle Kim and Aunt Pam were able to join us. It was so great! What was even better was the opportunity to listen to the session in Estonian!!! I was actually worried that I wasn't going to understand it after such a long time - but I loved every second of it! It was so much fun to hear and listen to the pure Estonian language again - and what made it even better is the amazing spirit and love that I always feel there in the temple. This place (and any other temple in the world) really is heaven on earth! I only wish we could have spent some more time there.
Here's Spencer and I with my parents on a bench there on the temple grounds.

Honestly, every time I see the temple, no matter where it is in the world or if it's in person or in a picture I can't help but say a quick prayer of thanksgiving to our Father in Heaven for the blessings the temple has brought into our lives. It's the greatest comfort in this life to know that I get to be with Spencer for ETERNITY!

LOVE HIM! And I am especially grateful to have found a man who is so faithful and loving. His very presence in my everyday life helps me to remember the kind of person that I want and need to be in order to be worthy for him and worthy to live with him forever.

I am also so very grateful for my wonderful parents who were so diligent in teaching me about the gospel and about the importance of families. I love them so much! I am so glad they were able to come on this trip with us and share all these wonderful experiences with us.

Thank you also so Uncle Kim and Aunt Pam. It was such a joy to be able to be with them and get to know them better. I loved going around Helsinki with them and seeing all the amazing places that have become so dear to them in all of their service.
It was also so wonderful to be with them and to hear so many wonderful stories about Spencer's mom, Moana, who died when he was only 6. Learning more about her life and personality was such a precious experience that I will forget. This knowledge about the mother-in-law I will never meet in this life really meant a lot to me. It also brings a whole new and deeper meaning to the Plan of Salvation our Father in Heaven has created for us. I am so grateful to know that God loves us so much that He gave us His son, Jesus Christ so that we could one day return to live with Him and our families again. I am so grateful that we have been provided with the way to return to Him. It means so much to me to know that I will have the opportunity to someday meet the mother of my amazing husband and thank her for her the legacy of faith and testimony that she left behind for her family and mine.

Me, Spencer, Aunt Pam and Uncle Kim

Last Day In Abomosu :(

So Abbie decided that I, Spencer, should write this blog post. Lame, huh? I guess it's because most everything we did this day was related to what I did in Ghana. This was the day that four Utah State professors came to observe and do a little critiquing of what we had accomplished.

Joey and I meticulously planned the day, but because the crew got started 2 1/2 hours later than planned, we had to throw our inital plan out the window and improvise.

First we needed to meet them in Kwabeng on their way through to add Dave Herrmann to the local bank account. This trip to the bank was also to help Nkansah, who will be collecting the loan payments in the absence of SEED interns, make the deposit for the August payments. Considering Dave wasn't able to get his passport photos in Accra before they came, we made pretty good time.

By the time we finished, it was lunch time. We packed 10 people in the 8-seater car and headed straight to X-men's Catering Service, which has been our golden child. The professors were a little concerned about the sanitation of the food they would be eating, but we assured them that everything would be fine, and we really wanted them to experience it.



We also got to see Pres. Twum's DJ equipment and visit Daniel's mill. Nothing new there, so we didn't take any pictures.

Next was Faustina, who had just purchased the tomatoes and onions for her small home store. She was so excited to finally get something started and have a little extra money.


Then we went to see Dompreh's pharmacy. Konrad Lee decided that he should be in this picture so that it looked like he contributed something to the trip. Everyone else liked the idea and hopped in too.


We also found out that Dompreh has already sold GHC 400 worth of the GHC 600 he spent on new medications last week from the loan money. Looks like he's going to be able to pay off his loan really soon too!


We didn't give Dompreh enough notice to come meet us at the pharmacy, and Dave was really worried about missing their flight, so we just met Dompreh on the way to our next destination.


As always, there were plenty of kids that wanted to say hi to us all. Abbie likes these pictures, so these one are for her.



Dan Holland was also thoroughly enjoying the kids.


Next we had to beeline it to Asunafo so that we could teach our last lesson there. We're going to miss that class. They have been stellar!


While I was trying to greedily drink water from a sachet, it EXPLODED in my face! Right in the middle of our lesson! Everyone was laughing so hard they had to stop and get a picture. Sorry Martin--I guess that's what you get for sitting right in front of me.



Here is our class: Richard, Martin, Frank, Douglas, Samuel, and Pres. Benjamin.


Afterward, we went to see Ben Boadu's sugarcane starters. He's been having some troubles with his farm that has delayed the planting of the starters. First, there was a lot of rain upstream from the nearby river, so the river had flooded his land. Now that the river has gone down, he can't get workers to plant for him since everyone would rather work at the mine. Hopefully we'll be able to figure something out there...



Another Abbie picture. Oooh pretty.


This is a picture of Margaret Abu's houseware shop in the market, with Sevior, who runs the shop. We never got a picture of it before, so here it is.


Last was a visit to Sampson and his wife as they made Kenkey. He hasn't purchased the corn he's going to hoard away, but we thought our professors might find the processof what it will be used for interesting. Unfortunately they wouldn't try any. Their loss I guess.



From there we just packed up and shipped out. Abbie and I went back to Accra with the professors and left Joey and Emily to hang out in Abomosu for another week. We're going to Abomosu, but we will not miss the drive to and from Accra.

We were able to spend two more wonderful days with the Dicksons before we flew out. Thank you to everyone that made our experience in Ghana so wonderful. Many people have told us that they could never do something like what we did, but they only say that because they have never done it! We have learned many valuable things. We wouldn't trade our time in Ghana for anything.

Some Things We'll Miss

I know this is kinda random - but I'm honestly going to miss the windows these windows... I have found them fascinating from the day we got here. If there are windows with glass in them, the glass is always like this. Just little strips of glass panes that can each be pulled open like shutters. I love it and I love this picture where Spencer looks like he's been imprisoned. This is at the church.

We are going to miss the puppies... I'm especially going to miss watching Spencer play with them. He's so cute... and so are the puppies!

Can you see what's written on this wall? BALACK OBAMAH. We have gotten a pretty good laugh out of this. This is just one of many proofs about the people's obsession with Obama. Weird as it sounds - I am going to miss the that obsession. It's just so amusing and I'm going to miss laughing about it all the time.

I am going to miss these beautiful little children and the sweet joy they find in the simplicity of life. I love walking around and watching them play and seeing their beautiful smiles as they wave to us or come running up to us just to touch our skin. It's going to be sad to suddenly be invisible again and be just like everyone else. It's going to be a pretty big change.

Aren't they so cute!?

These two little girls, Eva and Evon, are a couple of my favorites. They come to church each week and are our very best little singers in the younger primary group. They love the songs and I love their beautiful voices and smiles every time I see them.

Although we didn't actually do this very often, I am going to miss the social acceptability of eating with your hands - or I guess HAND is more correct because only the RIGHT hand is used for eating because the left hand is considered unclean and it's actually rather offensive if you eat with your left hand.

Even my left-handed sweetie, when eating with his hands makes sure to eat with the right hand. :)

One of the things I will miss most though is our weekly family home evenings with the Abus. Last night was so wonderful and I have loved every second we have had one-on-one with the Abus here. They are the greatest family and we have been so blessed to have been here with them for the last 2 1/2 months.

Joey made a little slide show of pictures and videos we've made here and showed it for everyone last night. It was so fun to go back and remember all those fun times we had! It was so nice to sit and talk with Stephen and Margaret and Gloria and thank them for the kindness they've shown us.

At the end of our little evening, Margaret pulled out a bag and gave us our going away present.

She had dresses made for Emily and I and shirts made for Spencer and Joey! I love them! They are so beautiful and I love having these beautiful outfits to take home with me! As for Spencer - He LOVES his shirt! He looks pretty great in it too!

Here's the picture of all of us! Oh how I love them all! What an amazing 2 1/2 months we've had! We'll miss this!

GREAT NEWS!!!

ESTHER PAID OFF HER LOAN!!!
The guys had a meeting with her last week and they were going over her statements and everything she's made and they encouraged her, that if it was possible, she should pay off her loan.
Well apparently she was wishing and hoping that she could, but was worried that it wasn't going to be okay for her to pay off her loan so much earlier than originally planned. She was so happy! And on Saturday she gave us a call and asked us to come collect her final loan payment.

She literally pulled money out of every pocket! It was awesome! She said, "If I put it all in one pocket then it will be too big and people will know I have money."

She had a lot of pockets and a lot of money to hand over!

We are so excited and Spencer and Joey are so proud that she has been so successful, so quickly! Congratulations to Esther and her family! We love her and are going to miss her!

Cute Elvis! I'm gonna miss him... even when he's crying :)

The Last Days Are Upon Us!

Tomorrow is our last day in Abomosu :( We are going to miss this place and these wonderful people more than we can imagine. I just keep thinking about how incredibly blessed we have been in getting the opportunity to be here this summer. It isn't very often that a newly married couple like us find the means and ability to have such a wonderful adventure - especially together. I am so grateful that we had the means and opportunity to come here. I have little doubt that if it weren't for this, a journey of any sort on the African continent never would have happened. How wonderful it has been to be here and experience such a wonderful new culture and way of life. Life here has taken on new meaning and priorities and I am so grateful for the many lessons we have learned here.

I will never forget their generosity and kindness. Everyone here is so welcoming, kind and happy. Walking down the street you frequently are greeting people and meeting others who want to sincerely know how your day is going. They are so happy to see you and so excited that you would take the time to be in their village and learn even a few words of their language.

Another thing that is amazing about these people is their constant willingness to give of themselves, even though they don't have much to give. So many times we have witnessed someone's eager willingness to give of their means and food when they don't have anything. Even the children - when all they have is a 5 pesewa piece - are so excited to give us a bite of the buscuit they buy with it, or give you the water they waited so long to get. I find that I am still so much more stubborn and unwilling to give compared to them, and I know we have so much more ability to do so! It's been so eye-opening and humbling to see and learn how to be less selfish with the things that we have. They have such a firm grasp on the concept that God has willingly given them everything and that they should give of themselves just as willingly. I wish more than anything that I could have this wonderful trait as a constant part of me instead of needing to remind myself about it everyday - I feel like such an awful person and wish that I could be more like the Ghanaians we associate with here everyday. They are so Christlike and wonderful! I love them!

I have also come to love and appreciate children more than ever before. I have always enjoyed children in small doses and sometimes not been so patient with them. But being here has brought whole new light to the precious innocense of children and helped me to remember Christ's advise to "become as a little child" and to know why that is so important for us. I had my ups and downs with working in the schools, but I learned so much there and I know that from it, I will be so much better and patient with my own children (luckily for them). :) Working in the primary and having the opportunity to sing with them and teach them new songs has been one of the biggest highlights here. I honestly loved every second in those darling classes! Hearing the children sing of Christ's love for them and seeing their excitement each week as they learned new songs melts my heart and brings tears to my eyes. They are amazing! On Sunday we had a short program in sacrament meeting where the children sang "I Know My Savior Loves Me" (the main song we taught the kids in the last 5 weeks). They were so wonderful! They sang so beautifully and the adults absolutely LOVED it! I am so proud of them all and am SO grateful that we were allowed to be part of the primary here.

Here are some darling pictures of them singing! Love these kids!



Here are some other fun things that have happened lately.

Joey and Emily helped Gloria again on the bike and she's got it down!

Her next feat it to learn how to drive the Rhino... :)

On Saturday was a big practice for all the youth in the surrounding village branches in the district. It was so fun to see so many young church members in one place. They are practicing for a big program that is being put on in Accra at the end of August. It is a sort of song and dance festival and over the last few months they have had weekly song and dance practices. The songs they are singing are beautiful and it was so fun to see Sister Terry putting ALL of them together into the full dance they are doing. The weekly practices are with each branch separately, so they have never all done the dance together. They did so well though! It was so fun to watch!

Sister Terry's such a great teacher!


We love it here and I can hardly for the chance to come back someday when we're a little more established. It will be so great to bring our children here and introduce them to their Ghanaian grandparents and aunts and uncles. So many people have already taken us in as family and they have been an absolutely perfect substitute in the absence of our own immediate family. We love them all!