The end of the month has brought a lot of variety--lots of work and a little bit of "variety".
Thought we would show you what we follow at times down the road. Love that exhaust!!!! This truck was on its way to get sand from the beach to haul to a location for people to make blocks which they use for construction.
On May 17 we had a "variety" show for a Super P-day. We had the Super-P day early in the transfer since the Assistants would be coming home from Liberia on the day when Super-P days are usually held. Some of the districts did skits and some sang. Some of the elders did individual talents--magic, singing, roller blading, etc. We didn't get pictures of all the different talents. The zone leaders also built in some fun participation games involving acting--kind of like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" There were also some district competitions.
Elder Doughan rollerblading.
The eating contest--eating rice and plasauce (I don't know if that is how you spell it.) It is made of various things. One of the main ones is potato leaf. Elder Hilton eats as Elder Eyinda looks on. Hands came in very handy--forget the spoon.
Elders drawing Elder Jones. The pictures were then voted on by the audience. (Elder Ndlovu's picture won--he is the one in the foreground. Also pictured is Elder Ditsi and Elder Degen.)
A water drinking contest--who can drink the 1 1/2 liters of water the fastest. Elder Bird ended up keeping his title.
There was also a dessert baking contest. There was a fruit cream pie (Wellington district), peanut butter cookies (Kissy district), snickerdoodle cookies (zone leaders and Assistants), and an apple pie (Lumley district). Sister Squires and Sister Jones were the judges. All of the entries were wonderful!!! The apple pie ended up winning--mostly because of the effect taken for the lattice top (neither of the two judges would take the time to do the lattice top).
President Squires participated with a rendition on his African drum. He is quite the drummer. The elders definitely saw a different side of their mission president. I didn't get a picture of Sister Squires playing the African xylophone.
The Assistants and Freetown zone leaders did a skit based on "Aladdin". Don't you just love the magic carpet? While Elders Bird and Degen act (dance), Elder Gunderson and Sister Jones provide the voices.
We had a great time. It was interesting to see that side of the elders. There are many very talented elders in our mission.
Now for the work!!!! The Dwarzak branch was recently moved from this building and are now meeting in the same building as 2 other branches. It had outgrown the rooms in this building and it was also decided that this would become the apartment for the Freetown elders. It is fairly large but not as big as it looks. It is only the top floor. The bottom part where the windows are is where the small generator will be--so that the elders can have electricity when National Power is not available. You can also see that there was work being done on the landscaping. They did some terracing work and then we will figure out the plants to put in.
In order to get things ready for the elders, we were busy cleaning and fixing. Bathrooms had to be plumbed, kitchen counter/cabinets had to be done, etc. We didn't do the actual construction ourselves. We were just in charge of the cleanup.
We are also getting the mission home ready for the 2 new senior couples who will be coming in the month of June and the new mission president and his wife who will arrive July 1. June will be a very busy month of endings and beginnings.
On Sunday (May 23) as we were driving back from church, we had to drive through the center of town. We ran into this parade. Parades here are very common. The parades are done by schools. The students, teachers, parents (and anyone else who wants to join) are led down the street by a big banner and a small band. Traffic stops!!!! Sometimes you can get around them, but most of the time you just wait until they have moved on. We ended up seeing 5 that day. Even in the rain, they were having a great time and dancing down the road.
This one passed by the mission home. We knew that one of little boys whose father is a security guard at the mission home and office was going to be involved. We ran out to see if we could get a picture. We got a picture--just not a very focused one. He is kind of in the middle of the picture. After taking the picture, we were quickly surrounded by lots of kids who wanted to come and shake our hands as they moved on down the street.
Here are the two elders that have been our neighbors for the last few weeks--Elder Doughan and Elder Asafo-Adjei (both from Ghana). They are great elders and have been a joy to be around. When they came in at the end of the day, they would knock on our door and check in with us. They always want to know how our day had been. They have definitely loved having Sunday dinners with us. In fact on Sunday, May 30, they said they REALLY missed us because that was their first Sunday away from the mission home. It has been funny to see the other elders' response to all of this. The other elders tease these two pretty good about their cushy apartment. It was also fun to share experiences with them.
The night that they moved to the other apartment, they called us up to tell us that they loved us and missed us. We will always have great memories of our time with them.
Missions are wonderful things that bless all. It doesn't matter what you are doing while serving. No mission as a senior couple is the same--and probably not as a young elder or sister. The Lord tailor makes each mission for your own personal growth and development.
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