I think we mentioned in our last post that we have had many visitors here doing various assignments. We have had a film crew that was documenting the water wells project, also talking to the early pioneer members of the Church here in Sierra Leone and Liberia. (They will also be going to other West African nations to do some filming of pioneer members in those countries.) Elder and Sister Johnson were the main people working on the Pioneer project. We spent quite a bit of time with them--arranging the interviews, getting them to the locations, etc. The film crew consisted of the 2 main photographers (Erik and Geneva), and then there were 3 individuals from Salt Lake who came with them--Peter Evans, Matt Heaps, and Howard Collett.
We had John Buah come and do some training with the branch and district clerks. Since Brother Buah came, we have found out that he has since been called to be the new mission president in the Nigeria Enugu mission. We also had visits from Elder and Sister Bevans--family history missionaries. They did training in Bo and Freetown. Elder and Sister Bingham, the Public Affairs missionaries, also came--both to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Petersons who came in mid-January to do the water wells supervision will be leaving on Friday (February 19) to return to Arizona.
Along with all the above, we also had Elder Mensah, the Area Seventy over the Sierra Leone mission, come visit and do a mission tour. Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah, who is the Area Welfare Manager for the Africa West Area paid us a visit. You can see them below with President and Sister Squires. (Elder Mensah is the one on the right by Sister Squires). Both of these men are such delightful people to be around. They have such a great spirit about them.
We have also had some changes in the mission office. Elder Stice who had been an Assistant to the President left the mission office and is now serving in Bo. You can tell that Elder Jones will definitely miss him. We had a great time with Elder Stice. Elder Stice will be doing the regular missionary work instead of administrative work until he finishes his mission in April.
We had two new missionaries come in the 2nd of February--Elder Kotey and Elder Afadi. They are both from Ghana.
Here are the two Assistants together for the last picture prior to transfers--Elder Kpodi and Elder Stice. Elder Kpodi is from Liberia. He will finish his mission next month (March).
While we were getting pictures, we got pictures of the past Assistants (before Elder Kpodi came in as an Assistant). They are Elder Stice and Elder Amegayie. Elder Amegayie left on February 2 to return home to Ghana. We will miss him so much. It is really hard when the African elders go home. The chances of seeing them again in this life is very slim. Thank goodness we believe in a life after this. In fact many times the elders will say to each other as they part "see you in the next life."
There were four other elders who went home with Elder Amegayie. Elder Thomas Tabi (Ghana), Elder Muthwa (South Africa), Elder Adjei (Ghana), Elder Amegayie (Ghana), and Elder Agamah (Ghana). They are and were a great group of missionaries. We will miss all of their smiling faces!!!!! There is nothing like an African smile!!!!
Loading the mission van to go to the water taxi that get's them to the airport.
It is quite amazing as I work with the missionary files to see the elders' files moving forward--which means that they are getting closer to their release date. When we came this group of elders were in the middle of the group and now they are gone. With each group that leaves, there is a little part of our heart that goes with them. We have learned to love them and will miss them a lot.
We had a new missionary couple arrive to serve in Liberia--the Cutlers. The Mauldins who are currently serving in Liberia will leave in about 10 days. The Kimballs who will take the Mauldin's place will arrive the middle of March.
We have also received notice of the new Mission President. It is Presidnet and Sister Roggia from around San Antonio, Texas. He has been a chaplain in the Army. We look forward to seeing their picture in a future Church News.
We are still keeping pretty busy. Elder Jones is in the middle of doing branch audits and lots of other projects that never seem to end. I am keeping busy with office work, transcribing the interviews of the Sierra Leone and Liberia pioneers, and in teaching keyboard. We are getting more students. We now teach in 3 branches--Kissy on Wednesday nights, Goderich on Saturday afternoons, and Hill Station on Sunday afternoons. We have students come and go, but some are sticking to it and progressing nicely. It is a challenge to learn without instruments to practice on. Bringing in keyboards would be nice, but they tried that in the past and all it did was provide some individuals with keyboards, but they didn't necessarily learn to play.
It is hard to believe that we are getting close to our year mark. Sometimes it seems like forever since we have seen family and friends, but other times it seems that time is passing quickly.
We appreciate all the support we feel from the homefront. We send our love and best to all of you. We feel it a privilege to be able to serve the Lord here at this point in our lives. We would not be able to do it without help from many members of our family. We thank you for the sacrifice that you are making on our behalf. May the Lord's greatest blessings be yours.
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