Four stakes now six …

For those not familiar with congregations in the LDS church a local congregation is called a ward. Multiple wards (5 – 15) in an area make a stake.Today was the culmination of six months of preparation. Last Sept I began the process of preparing the paperwork for the four stakes in Accra/Tema to be reorganized creating six stakes. There is quite a bit of work that goes into creating a unit and much more when it involves multiple units. Numbers have to be computed and verified, maps have to be created showing the new boundaries, etc. Last month Benin City Nigeria went from three stakes to five stakes. The church is growing quite rapidly in Africa. It leads the world in convert baptism per missionary. We had seven General Authorities in attendance.  Elder Callister from the Presidents of the Seventy was presiding.  As is typical in the Africa West Area, people started showing up at 7:00 am for the 10:00 am meeting. We arrived at 9:00 am to crowds of people. The International Convention Center in Accra was secured for this conference.  It is the largest indoor facility in Accra.

   

When the center was selected for the meeting we knew the main floor would not come close to holding the people expected to attend so chairs were rented to be placed in six other areas. The proceedings were broadcast via closed circuit tv.  Here are pictures I took of the overflow areas before conference started, while people were still gathering.The main entrance …

 

The East and West halls …

 

The two conference rooms…shots from two angles.

   

The balcony was also full.  It was filled with the choir.

   

The organist was actually on the main floor but he had a clear view of the chorister in the balcony.  They did a very nice job.

The stand was decorated very nicely…Bunting is very commonly used here.

 

The above pictures shows the Ghana Accra Mission President and wife on the left and the Accra Ghana Temple President and wife on the right.

And of course a couple of personal shots…

 

We chatted with friends before and after the meeting.  The man with white hair is a sealer in the temple we see often there.  Another friend asked if he could take our picture and was kind to send us a copy.  It was a very enjoyable day.