All Creatures of Our God and King

 All creatures of our God and King,

 Lift up your voice and with us sing,

Al-le-lu-ia! Al-le-lu-ia!

 Thou burning sun with golden beam,

 Thou silver moon with softer gleam,

Al-le-lu-ia! Al-le-lu-ia!

 Al-le-lu-ia! Oh praise Him! Al-le-lu-ia!

 Thou rushing wind that art so strong,

Ye clouds that sail in heav'n along...

 Dear Mother Earth,  who day by day,

Carry children on your backs in every way...

(Sorry, just couldn't resist putting that verse in)

 This world is so beautiful, sometimes you just have to break out in song to express how grateful we are for the "Beauty of The Earth".  Here we go again.  On the Monday before Thanksgiving we went to Tafi Atome.  They have a monkey sanctuary there for the Mona monkeys.  They usually come out to the road in the morning, but because we were lazy and didn't get out of bed before sunrise, we got to walk through the gorgeous forest with our guide to try and find them.  The guide was making some kind of loud, prolonged kissing sound to try and attract them.  Was he after women or monkeys?

One of the trees we encountered on our walk.  I love how the trunk is formed so large and then the rest of the tree is slender.  Our guide told us to stay, right in the middle of the forest, and he would go see if he could find the monkeys.  We enjoyed the lovely surroundings, so thankful Heavenly Father created it and we were there.  After awhile we were starting to wonder because our guide hadn't returned.  Then a young man came by on a bicycle and informed us the guide had found them.

 We followed him and all of a sudden there were crashing sounds and brush being moved and there they were.  Everywhere.  The sanctuary was started because the Mona monkey is a sacred animal to the natives and the settlers were starting to kill them.  This one is intently watching to see when we are going to break out the bananas we brought to feed them.

 Jessie held one out and a monkey jumped right on her hand to get it.  The guide told us to hang on to the banana tight.  If we held it loose they would just take it out of our hands and go up into a tree to eat it, but if we held on tight they would peel it and eat it.  We had them eating out of our hands.

 Very surprising the length's they would go to get the bananas! The good thing about them, they didn't have sharp claws and they only chewed on the bananas.  It was very fun when you held a banana in your hand and the monkeys would jump right out of the tree onto your arm.  Sometimes there were several trying to get the treat.

Ma'am I'm tired of swinging through the trees.  May I please have a ride.

 When this one saw me taking photos, he had to strike a pose.   

The guide told us this is the Patriarch and Matriarch of the group of about 30 to 40 monkeys.  That is about the size of each group.  There are about 300 to 400 monkeys in the whole sanctuary.  We are glad we went there, found the monkeys and got to feed them.  What a great experience.  We would love to go there again sometime.

 More beautiful African landscape as we leave the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary.  This is what most of the roads look like.  Sometimes they're better to drive on than the paved roads. 

 Mixed blessings come from a truck that takes three days to service rather than one.  We enjoyed more time in and around the Accra Temple.  Elder Lyon is standing next to a Traveler's Palm sporting his Kente cloth tie.  These fan shaped palms line the sidewalks of the temple grounds. Uniquely beautiful.

Gorgeous foliage surrounds the temple.

 "Beautiful Temple--God it's light ..." (to quote the words of one of the Ghanaian's favorite hymns, #44)

 "Beautiful palms the conq'rors show ...

Detail of the stained glass, imagine it from inside with the brilliant golds, purple, blues, greens shining with light from above. "Beautiful heaven where all is light ..."

 "Beautiful angel's clothed in white ..."

 Another blessing in disguise while waiting for our truck to finish being serviced, we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner with these great Elders. The AP's and Office Elders in the home of Elder and Sister Barney who are from Gilbert, AZ and serve in the mission office.  We were also blessed with their hospitality in letting us stay in their home during this time.  The reason Elder and Sister Barney are not in the photo is because the food had been blessed, and the Elders couldn't wait to dig in to such a delicious spread.

 From Arizona to Africa, sunsets are one of the many of God's great creations which we are so grateful for.

Elder Lyon, stop monkeying around, this blog post is finished.