Bakers in Ghana

We survived—and in fact, we thrived—in our first week here in Accra! We were sad to say goodbye to our good friends, the Broxes. We are so appreciative of all they did to help us get settled, get going, and acclimate to our new surroundings. This week continued to be a steep learning curve for us! Doug is getting everything set up for his medical Zoom calls and meetings with mission leaders throughout West Africa. Most of his meetings are in the afternoon to accommodate participants in the United States. He has around two to three meetings each afternoon. Each meeting includes him, the mission leaders, the AMHA (Area Mental Health Advisor), a dentist, and a mission health advisor. The mission health advisor could be a nurse, PA, EMT, or another medically trained person assigned to a specific mission. If no health advisor has been called for an area, the mission leader’s wife will serve in that role. These meetings are held to discuss the specific health needs of missionaries in each ...

The first part of our week was spent in Salt Lake City, learning all about the resources, policies, procedures, and technical details Doug will need to know as he serves as the Area Medical Adviser. The amount of information packed into just four days was unbelievable! It was very well organized and presented—but it was A LOT. Unfortunately, the air conditioner broke during our training! They brought in giant fans to try to cool things down, but Salt Lake had an unusually hot week, even reaching 100 degrees one day. Maybe it was good preparation for the African heat! We’re grateful for the many resources available to help us serve better and more efficiently throughout our mission. After two days and two flights, we’ve officially arrived in Africa! We left SLC on Thursday evening and flew to JFK, where we spent the night. The next evening, around 5:30 p.m., we boarded a 10-hour flight to Accra. We’ve only been here for a little over 24 hours, but we already love Africa! We were war...

We arrived at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) at 9:30 a.m. on June 9th—and what an incredible experience it has been! Our days were filled with the Spirit and an abundance of learning. Our training for the week centered around Preach My Gospel , and we truly felt like we were on sacred ground. A typical day began at 8:00 a.m. with classes running from 8:00–12:00 and then again from 1:00–5:00. The days were long, but thanks to our amazing teachers, they were enjoyable and uplifting. Everything we were taught, saw, heard, or did pointed us to our Savior, Jesus Christ. It doesn’t get better than that. We learned in a district (see pictures below) with three other wonderful couples. Two are heading to Africa—the Bakers and the Holloways—and the other two, the Shannons and the Blacks, are going to the Philippines. Three of the couples will serve as Area Medical Advisers (AMAs), and the Holloways will serve as Area Mental Health Advisers. We loved getting to know these faithful couple...