We keep thinking that we will put pictures on and write at least every 2 weeks, but somehow that just doesn't happen. So here is our month (or part there of).

We had some fine elders who finished their missions the end of April. Pictured are Elder Lamb (Utah), Elder Onuoha (Nigeria), Elder Stice (Idaho), Elder Gaxiola (Nevada), and Elder Quoibiedah (Liberia)--yest Elder Quoibiedah is as short as the picture depicts.

Elder Merrill with Elder Jones. Elder Merrill is from Mesa, Arizona. Elder Jones tries to keep him up to date on how the Phoenix Suns are doing--every missionary needs a little current events. Elder Merrill, who arrived in November, was recently transferred to Liberia. We will probably not see him again before we return home.

Here are the 7 new elders that arrived to begin their missions. Elder Ditsi (South Africa), Elder Bennion (Utah), Elder Tade (Nigeria), Elder Njgaga (Nigeria), Elder Wood (Utah), Elder Ogama (Kenya) and Elder Tims (Snowflake, Arizona).

Here are the two elders that we got the opportunity to be our trainers so to speak. Elder Quoibiedah and Elder Moser. They hadn't seen each other for a while and this would be the last time they would see each. When we made the transfers in April, Elder Quoibiedah rode back in the car with the elders that were being transferred to Liberia. We got the pleasure of making that transfer.

A fun shot of the elders serving in Bo with some of the elders being transferred to Liberia. We had stopped at the apartments in Bo during the transfers to deliver food, missionary pamphlets, letters, etc.

A fun shot of things we often encounter on the road. Markus with 3 of the elders are in the white truck. Markus was ahead of us since he knew the way to the border. I'm not sure that we would have made it to the border without him. There are not a lot of road signs and the maps are a little questionable. It just made it a little less worrisome to have some lead who has actually been to the border before. As to the other truck, it is not uncommon to see a number of individuals riding on top of the cargo. I guess it is a place to sit and maybe more comfortable than being squished in with 8-10 less than close friends.

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Thought you might enjoy some other shots along the road to the Liberian border. This is a beautiful canopy of trees. Yes, this is one of the main roads to Liberia. We were happy to learn from the President that it had recently been graded so the road was in much better condition. The bad thing is that the rainy season is coming and that will be the end of the fairly nice road.

There had been a little rain in the area so we encountered a few puddles. I'm sure that my children will laugh remembering how their mother got out and walked once when we were going along a hilly, dirt road.

In taking this particular road to the border, there is one river that requires you to go across on a ferry. The elders find it fun to help pull the ferry across. This road, however, is never used by the President during the rainy season not only because of the condition of the road itself, but that the river would be too high and the ferry I'm not sure operates during that time.

Waiting for the ferry on the return trip.

Some children along the road. Whenever you stop and have camera in hand, if there are children around, they will want you to "snap" them. They love to have their pictures taken. They then want to see themselves.

When we got to the Liberian border we were lucky enough because of Markus's contacts and friends at the border, we actually got to drive across the bridge into Liberia to exchange the elders who would be coming back to serve in Sierra Leone. Because of that, we also got to meet the couples serving in Liberia. The Cutlers (Idaho) and the Kimballs (Utah) arrived earlier this year. The Cutlers started their 18-month mission in January and the Kimballs started their 18-month mission in March. It was wonderful to get to chat with them while we exchanged luggage, letters, church mail, etc. We also had a quick bite to eat--peanut butter/jelly sandwiches, some chips, biscuits (cookies) and water. We had to bring something that didn't need to be kept cool as we had spent the night in Bo. I should say talking about that that for breakfast we had fed the elders a couple of boiled eggs, 3 (regular size) muffins and water for breakfast. We had hoped to have some bananas, but didn't find any in Bo before we left. We did find some as we drove along. Boy are bananas cheaper out in the villages than in Freetown. I think we paid 2 cents per banana (and that was double what they were asking). Here in town we probably pay 5-10 cents per banana.

On Monday, May 3, the west side of the Freetown zone wanted to go to Beach 2. The battery on the mission van had been giving the Assistants a little problem in starting so the Mission President didn't want the elders to go off on their own. They could go as long as we went along in another vehicle to jump start the van in case it didn't start. We had a wonderful time as always with the elders. Here is Elder Jones with Elder Doughan and Elder Degen--both of them go home the next transfer. We played a few games with the elders--we taught them "Set". It was interesting watching the African elders catch on. It is a different type of thought process for them. Elder Doughan did a great job as well as Elder Eyinda and Elder Asafo-Adjei.

The elders then played a game of "rock, paper, scissors."

The Assistants and Zone Leaders started a game kind of based on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

It involved being in a "taxi". A hitchhiker gets in with some quirky personality and everyone has to assume the same characteristic. It was so funny to watch them. These 4 elders are SOOOOOO creative. Below is (starting from the left) Elder Degen, Elder Grabau, Elder Bird and Elder Gunderson.

One day at the office a week or so ago, I looked out the window and saw a bunch of people running down toward the edge of the mission home property. I wasn't sure what was going on. I later found out that a big cottonwood tree had fallen and blocked the road. The amazing thing was that the woman who usually sat in front of the tree selling her wares heard the tree start cracking. She immediately got up and move. When the tree fell, no one was hurt. If it had fallen later in the day when the street is VERY busy, there would definitely been a death or two.

Several men got out their axes (which are not very sharp, but the men make up for it by their brute strength). They had the tree chopped and out of the way of traffic by the evening when we were ready to leave the office.

There are more things I could share, but this is all the pictures I got on the blog while the internet was working decently. I will check later and see if there was any more fun interesting things that happened that I took a picture of. Until then know we are doing well. We love the mission, the missionaries and mostly the opportunity to share our testimony and truths of the gospel with the people here in Sierra Leone.