INDIA: RETURN TO DELHI AND SUNDAY CHURCH IN AN LDS WARD

 December 21-22, 2024

Bob left early in the morning for one more birding trip with Bablu while the rest of us enjoyed a slower morning with time to pack and eat breakfast. A van and driver picked us up around 10:30 AM and we began the long trek back to Guwahati and the airport. This time I sat up front, and the driver was much, much smoother. We also seemed to be on better roads, so I wonder if we took a different (perhaps longer?) route. Anyway, I survived without motion sickness.

We had another difficult pass through the airport. We had no ticket confirmations or boarding passes, which apparently were required just to get through the first door. The officials finally let us in, but three of us had to stay near the entrance guards while Bob picked up our boarding passes. Our time in Guwahati and Kaziranga was the only part of the trip where we were not with Audley Travel, the agency Bob used to plan the rest of the trip, and it reinforced that when you travel to India, it is a good idea NOT to do it on your own. We are pretty experienced, savvy travelers, and it was almost too much for us!

When we had arrived in Guwahati four days before, we didn't stay long in the airport. This time we were there for several hours waiting for our departure time.  We admired the holiday decor. 

We tried to understand why these signs were on the trash cans.

We hunted and hunted for something for dinner and finally ordered a veggie pizza that came with corn, green olives, green peppers, onions and ketchup.  Yeah, no.

CANADA: TORONTO TEMPLE, SKYLINE, AND KENSINGTON

September 29-20, 2018

One of the things I like to do as we travel is visit LDS Temples. Currently there are 168 around the world, with 24 under construction and 39 announced that haven't begun construction yet. That is a lot of temples, and I'm not likely to see them all, but it is fun to see one when I can.

The Toronto Ontario Temple was completed and dedicated in 1990.

Like every LDS Temple I have ever visited, the grounds are exquisite.

MEXICO: AROUND TOWN IN VILLAHERMOSA AND LA VENTA PARK MUSEUM

March 17, 2018

We started our last day in Villahermosa by seeing a few of the local sites of the city with our friends. One of the places they took us was the Mexico Villahermosa LDS Temple, built in 1999-2000.  The LDS Church tries to draw from local architecture in designing temples, and that is certainly apparent here.

There were lots of church members milling about, including families (or maybe a youth group) having picnics.

It was fun to be there with our friends, who were somewhat of local celebrities among church members. Everyone wanted them to take their picture or be in a picture with them. 

MEXICO, VILLAHERMOSA DAY 1: MISSIONARIES, COMALCALCO, CACAO, GROCERIES, AND BARBECUE

March 15, 2018

On the evening of March 14, after having spent the day at the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the pyramids of Teotihuacan, we caught a flight from Mexico City to Villahermosa to visit some friends who were serving as as the head of the LDS Mexico Villahermosa Mission of our church.

This large map shows the location of both Mexico City and Villahermosa in the context of the country of Mexico.

Zooming in, you can see that the flight time is about 15% of the driving time. Local flights are cheap (although more than the $16 noted on the map below), so it was a no-brainer to fly.

We were met at the airport by our friends and posed for a picture in the same spot they took photos with newly arriving missionaries. 

We picked up a rental car and then went to dinner together at Tacos de la Estancia before heading off for a good night's sleep at the Hampton Inn Villahermosa.

In the morning we made our way to the Mission Office, located next door to the church building that serves the LDS Villahermosa Stake.

The Mexico Villahermosa Mission covers a large area, with one finger reaching all the way down to Guatemala.

Our friends were putting on a conference for the missionaries (which included lunch), and it was fun to see them in action.

AFRICA: LDS CHURCH IN GHANA, PART II

Just a few miles east of Cape Coast is a secluded beach with a view of the Atlantic Ocean stretching to the far horizon. A line of rocks a dozen yards from the shore makes a nice wave break.

This is where the Cannons and Mabeys brought Joseph Billy Johnson and 88 members of his congregation to be baptized on December 9, 1978.

Rocky mounds on the shoreline provided privacy for changing into and out of baptismal clothes:

The group named the place Baptism Beach.  They waded out into the water in the area in front of those rocks for the baptisms:

Ted and Janet wrote in their personal memoir:
The water was warm and pleasant, [but] it was not always as deep as we would have liked it, especially when we had tall men and big women whose feet and knees wanted to come out when their heads went in. The swelling waves added to the difficulty, until a team system was begun, with one of the two officiators baptizing while the other held down the feet of the person being baptized. Some of the young men helped the women and children in and out of the water. Women on the shore held the babies that had been wrapped on their mothers' backs. That night Janath wrote in her journal, "What a glorious, exhausting day!"

Newly baptized members were confirmed at the waters edge, and the ordinances continued past sunset and into the night. Ted and Janath wrote:
The moon came out, casting a pale light on the beach. Fireflies and glow-worms sparkled in the dusk . . . "It was a lovely night," wrote Ted in his journal, "a memorable day. The people sang together as they walked back to town."

AFRICA: LDS CHURCH IN GHANA, PART I

One of the things I really looked forward to on this trip was the opportunity to attend church in Ghana. As we drove along the Ghana coast, we noted LDS chapels in almost every town of any size, and if not a building, at least a sign for the church with an arrow pointing down a dirt road. The LDS Church presence is very strong on the coast, a miracle considering it's been there less than 40 years.

Graph from here

I've already discussed the fact that Bob's third-great-grandfather was a slave trader on these shores, and it was partly to better understand that part of Bob's ancestry that we went to West Africa, but there is another part of the Cannon history that drew us to Ghana. In 1978, Bob's uncle Ted Cannon (his dad's brother) and his wife Janath were called to serve an LDS mission in Ghana and Nigeria with another couple, Rendell and Rachel Mabey. The two senior couples were the first official LDS missionaries in West Africa, and what they found when they got there was astonishing, and I'll get to that story in a minute. First, a few words and pictures about our experience attending Sacrament Meeting in the Cape Coast 2nd Ward.

Unlike many of the other LDS buildings we had seen during our travels, this one wasn't the typical American-style architecture:

It looked more like a hotel or apartment building, and it's probably a lot more practical for Ghana than the more Westernized versions of an LDS chapel we had seen in other towns.There was a nice entry:

. . . with a nice barbed wire fence:

 . . . coupled with a welcoming sign. (However, I think you're only welcome if you come when the gate is open.)