Visitors from HQ

For the past tens days we have enjoyed the presence of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Steven E. Snow recently released as one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy. They were here for an Area Review which required weeks of preparation by us. They began here in Accra, then spent a few days in Monrovia, Liberia, back here in Accra and then on to Freetown, Sierra Leone. They return to Accra this evening to start their journey back to Salt Lake City tonight.

Below is a snapshot of Elder Holland, Elder Snow and our Area Authorities and their wives. The group picture below was taken just prior to a devotional with the Ghana Accra Missionaries standing on the steps of the Accra Ghana Temple. Next is a picture of the Area Presidency wives with Sister Holland, Sister Snow and Sister Dunn.

The visitors had a devotional for those working in the office building on the temple grounds. The pictures show greeting them before a lunch held for the department heads, the temple choir which is made up of employees and workers on the grounds, a camera crew that was traveling with the authorities, and the authorities waiting for devotional to start.

Another day a devotional was held at the stake center on the temple grounds for the members in the immediate area. Gordon is placing reserved seat signs on the stand. Members started arriving for good seats more than an hour and a half before the event. There were over 1800 people in attendance; many standing in the foyers and outside on the grounds as the building was full. One young man had this Book of Mormon which is paper back covered with plastic and obviously well loved and studied. I asked to see it. It was well marked.

The next few pictures are of Elder Holland and his wife before the start of the meeting, the stake choir, our area authorities and wives seated before the start of the meeting. They are such a pleasure to work with on a daily basis. The choir director is very animated while leading the singing and always shows the number of the next verse.

Next are pictures of the Christiansborg valiant age Primary children choir. They are beautiful!

Right after the meeting ended, security was there in a flash, as a matter of procedure and directed the authorities out a back door. Before I knew it, Elder Holland blew the audience a kiss before exiting by the back way. I felt lucky to get this much! In all the interaction he had with any of us, individually or as a group, he just over flowed with love for the people. His counsel was wise and timely. What a privilege and blessing to have met him and interacted with him!

We had a number of occasions to be with Elder Holland and talk privately with him. He is very friendly and kind and just an ordinary man doing something very extraordinary! Oddly enough, we never happened to get ourselves in any pictures with him!

Update - I just got back from picking up the Area Presidency from their trip to Sierra Leone to bring them home and had a few moments with Elder and Sister Holland before they went to their gate to begin their long trip home. I got that elusive picture we talked about.