Dear Family and Friends,
Tuesday,
August 6, 2013
We
had 3 missionaries come into the mission office from their fields of
labor today – Elders Donaldson, Nickel and Stewart. They begin
their journeys home tomorrow after serving faithfully for two years.
I have had encounters with all 3 of these wonderful young men in the
East. They were there when I arrived in the mission field and my
second Sunday in Sierra Leone began my sweet association with them.
At the dock in Freetown as Daniel Donaldson begins his return home to California.
At the dock as Hunter Stewart begins his return home to Louisiana.
At the dock as Jacob Nickel begins his return home to Arizona.
These four all came together but Elder Liufau goes home in 18 days.
This is a continuation of farewells that started with Elder Adah last
week, of missionaries going home with whom I have a connection, a
bond. For a brief moment in time, I cared for them, prayed for them,
worried over them, loved them – maybe just a little like their moms
would if they were here; I am grateful for this experience I am
having serving with these young men and women – an experience
parents don't get to have, that of serving along side their children
in the mission field. It feels good and I am grateful for Heavenly
Father's tender mercy in allowing me these feelings/experiences to
help fill in the space in my heart that was left open for the
children I didn't have as a young woman.
Thursday,
August 8, 2013
The
mission president had his new car delivered yesterday, and we were
fortunate to get his old one and our truck went to another senior
missionary couple. We are now driving an SUV that has more room and
can be secured without too much worry of our things being stolen out
of it. The truck had a cover over the bed, but it didn't lock so we
could never lock anything in the back; we are hauling stuff all the
time out to missionaries – books, rain gear, mail, water pumps,
cooking gas, water filters – it would all be gone if we left it
briefly to enter an apartment.
So today, with the “new” vehicle,
we are at the mission office loading it with all the items that must
go with us and I am re-arranging everything Scott had just arranged
in the back end with the hatch open (that swings like a door – nice
feature). He is back there with me, but it starts to rain (so what
else is new now that the rainy season is here) so he moves towards
the front of the vehicle and I assume he is getting in! I go to shut
the door and he yells “don't shut that door!” How was I to know
he had left the only set of keys we had in the car and my shutting
the door locked them in there! I decided to stay outside while he
went inside to call the mission president and have him drive down
from the mission home with the other set of keys.
Once
we got the keys all figured out, off we went out East to look at
apartments for missionaries. We currently have 90 missionaries but by
the end of November we will have an additional 42 new missionaries
and no where to put them at this time. With the mission president's
directive, no missionary or member is to live beyond 20 minutes walk
from the church building (center of strength). Presently, some of our
missionaries, if they were to walk, spend over an hour just getting
to their area of proselyting. Members spend more money than they
should to travel to church and the mission president wants the focus
now closer to the church.
We
took Marcus Wallace with us to inspect the apartments. He works for
the church with the specific assignment to help find apartments, and
then to maintain them. There is so much that goes into keeping an
apartment running in this country. There is a generator that needs
maintenance and fuel, there is a stove that requires cooking gas that
is always needing to be replaced; the water filter/pump system that
has a hand pump the missionaries use to take contaminated water, hand
pump it through a filtering system into water bottles so they can
cook and drink it. The hand pump is made out of pvc pipe and the
missionaries get a little carried away with their muscles and they
break quite often, so those are in constant need of
repair/replacement. Each missionary has a fan for their use, as well
as a net for their beds that need replacement and repair. What can I
say about the bathrooms – they always need repairs (I need my
brother-in-law Stan here).
Back
to Marcus. He joined the army when he was 17 and when the civil war
broke out he was 19 and fought for 7 years. While he was fighting the
rebels in Kissy, his wife and daughter, who was 7 at the time, were
in Freetown, but the conflict was so horrible, they escaped and made
their way to Guinea, then eventually to Liberia. Marcus lost all
contact with them and he has not seen them since and his daughter is
now 22. He has tried to find them through the Red Cross but been
unsuccessful.
So, as I continue my story about Marcus; the church
produced a video of 4 West African countries, one being Sierra Leone,
that traces the history of the church, and the difficulty the members
had during the civil war. While watching the video on Sierra Leone,
we saw actual footage of the war, and suddenly, on the screen is
Marcus as a soldier! It was not staged and Marcus was so surprised
when he viewed it for the first time to see he was part of church
history in Sierra Leone. What would be the odds of one soldier out of
thousands to be filmed and be a member of the church? Remarkable...
Friday,
August 9, 2013
What
is it about some days that feel so good and sweet? This morning was
one of those days, at least at the Mission Office. It has been
raining heavily for 4 days, but this morning, the sun was out
momentarily and so I went out back and up the little hill to burn
some garbage. It was then I had a moment with Heavenly Father, and
Nature; Grandkids came into my mind and heart. I prayed, as I was
missing them, Heavenly Father wouldn't let them forget me...then I
turned around to see a banana tree with fruit ready for picking, and
thanked Nature for her bounties. It felt good being in Sierra
Leone....
And
then.....the past 3 days or so, the foulest order has been wafting
from the bathroom – every time I went in there I didn't think I
would come out again, succumbing to the fumes, but I couldn't figure
out what it was or where it was coming from. I could smell it in the
sink and at one point, I saw something dark and thought it was the
hind-end of something dead thinking that was the reason for the
smell, but as I pulled it out (with tweezers) it was a twig with
something attached. Then I got closer to the drain (?) or whatever it
is that I pour a cup of water in every week – Oh my goodness! That
was where it was coming from, so I poured anything I could get my
hands on to try to “flush” out the problem – Draino, bleach,
baking soda, boiling water. They all worked momentarily but then back
it would come (truly awful). So I checked with my neighbor across the
hall. She advises more water than just once a week. Because we use
more water during the rainy season (so much more flushing), the drain
is dryer (go figure) and the fumes come back out into the bathroom! I
also had a stroke of genius (doesn't come very often) and took a
dryer sheet (thank you people for sending me dryer sheets!) and
placed it over the drain. A little bit of heaven....
Love, Robin
More snaps:
An ordinary day hitching a ride.
Bo dental clinic
Kissy Zone Conference - Meet the new mission president and his wife.
The fillings from digging well. Like a miniature city. Once the lighter color is found water is imminent.
The foundation of the Waterloo font. Soon, we will no longer walk to the river for baptisms.
Waterloo Zone Conference - meet the new mission president and his wife.
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