Recent pictures...

Elder Hickey and Elder Gunderson carrying Books of Mormon out to the van.  After being here as long as they have, they have learned to acclimate to the customs.

It is so fascinating to me that everyone uses their heads and necks for such heavy loads.  Most of the time it makes one's hands free to carry other things.

This is Elder Clawson reading his mail. The missionaries love getting mail.  When the elders came in for President interviews, we had mail that had recently come in.  We get boxes and letters.  It just takes time to get here.  We get them out to the missionaries as fast as we can.  If one of the senior couples is going past one of the missionary apartments, they will bring mail for them. The Senior Couples and President and Sister Roggia love getting mail too. 

Elders waiting patiently for their turn with President for interviews.  Interviews are every quarter now instead of monthly. We bring everyone in Freetown into the mission office.  Then, we go to Bo and do all the interviews there.  We will finish interviews at the end of the month when we go back to Monrovia, Liberia.

Elders Lancaster, Bennion, Tims and Ewudzie after interviews preparing to start walking.

Elders Smoot, Elder Vogl and Elder Chaparadza waiting for interviews in Bo and reading their long awaited mail.

Elders Ogama, Priddis, Allred, Chikwendu and President Roggia in Bo after interviews.

Elder Ellsworth in long white baptismal clothes and Elder Vogl prior to the baptism of the two good people in the middle. It was a very nice service.

Elder Smoot's smile says it all when it comes to mail!

Yes, preparation day is on a Monday here.

Elders Tims, Amoa, Norton and Lancaster. This just looked like a neat picture so we had to post it.





This is not a "poda poda".!

Here are some of our elders getting transport in the mission van.  What is a "poda poda"?  A poda poda is usually a van filled with about 20+ people squished together with no air conditioning, perhaps a chicken or two, bags, charcoal or anything else that can be squeezed in.  Sometimes passengers will ride on the sides or the back of the van too...sometimes goats or cows are tied down on top with baggage.

Internet problems

We are having difficulty getting on the internet lately.  We have lots of pictures to share from interviews in Freetown and Bo.  And soon, Liberia.  We are hoping this will be resolved soon.  Once we can download, we will get as many as we can up.

Preparation Day with the Senior Couples at Bureh Beach

We had the opportunity to watch this gentlemen cast his net.  He was a very interesting person and had a tried and true way of doing it.  He holds the net in his mouth and hands then tosses it into the water.  He has a bag on his side where he puts the fish that he catches.

We were excited to have caught the net in the air in this picture.  

Such a beautiful view of the rocks, beach and palm trees.  Over to the right, someone has just done their laundry for the day and is drying it on the rocks.  Here in Sierra Leone and Liberia, people drape their wash over rocks, on the highway, on the bushes, over old cars, over bamboo clothes lines and even on the dry ground.  Any place that it will dry.

Elder and Sister Patterson "walking their dogs"...not really, missionaries don't have pets on their mission.  It was fun to see the dogs taking a walk with them, however.

Elder and Sister Neves enjoying time together.  It was a really creative chair he was sitting on and he said it was very comfortable. It was nice to celebrate Sister Neves birthday on preparation day.  A fisherman sold us a barracuda, cleaned and filleted.  We took it back to the mission home and we all had a nice dinner together.  Mondays are the only day to relax a little.  Sometimes, when things get really busy, even Mondays get lost but we try to always use the time to rejuvenate ourselves.

On the road to Bo and back to Freetown...

"Sleeping Beauty?"  Anyone who says missionary work is easy has no idea...picture by President Roggia...(while I wasn't looking!)

Last week at the Embassy...

Elder Lambson and Elder Tims in the vehicle the next morning after taking 15 of us to the American Embassy.  The new ambassador wanted to talk to all the Americans in Freetown.  We got all the missionaries together, put their passports together and drove the few minutes behind the mission home to the Embassy.  For two hours, the missionaries were on "American" soil, got to drink out of a water fountain with clean water, feel the air conditioning and have refreshments with about 25 other Americans who came for the meeting.  We had the biggest group there and visited with everyone.  It was delightful for the missionaries and wonderful to be in a building which, as the ambassador said, "belongs to all of us because we built it with our taxes".  We met other representatives of other churches, government officials and students here doing internships.  We think the Church was well represented with these faithful missionaries in their white shirts, ties and name tags. 

Let there be light...

You are looking at Elder Patterson's truck filled with empty propane tanks.  The missionaries, the senior couples, President and I use propane for our cooking stoves.  Elder Patterson gets them all filled. Then, Elder Neves, in his truck, delivers them to Bo and Freetown.  The red object in the front is a generator that the missionaries use to produce electricity for their lights and fans. We in the mission home also use a generator.  The national power is spotty at best but getting better all the time. It only works during the rainy season because it is hydra---powered by water.  So during the dry season, there is little or no national power.  There are few places that get it.  Although, we don't have to worry about heating fuel for those cold winter nights.  Charcoal is used everywhere here.  It is a blessing to have propane and diesel.  The truck is just going out of the mission home gates.