Sierra Leone Freetown Beach

Atlantic Ocean sunset West Africa view

Atlantic Ocean sunset from West Africa

Bamboo Bridge, easier to walk across than a rope bridge!!

Elder Gunderson and Elder Bird came with the "Sr"missionaries & Pres & Sis Roggia on our P-day outing to Charlotte Falls which is only a few miles from the mission home.

This is Peter (next to Elder Patterson aka Mike) and his aunt and cousins. Cute little children - so friendly and cheerful. Peter likes to sing and I think he should sing a solo in Sacrament meeting sometime.

Relief Society

These beautiful sisters were in Relief Society today with their sleeping babies. The sister in the middle taught the lesson with her baby sweetly sleeping on her back. The sister on the right rocked her baby asleep when he was fussy. He went right to sleep once he was in place on her back. It is amazing how they do this. And no babies ever fall out!!! We need to do this in the US -- frees up you arms for other things like teaching and carrying!!

New Elders

See the 8 new Elders from the Ghana MTC: Elders Mazani, Stott, Lambson, Norton, Chaparadza, Allred, Moss and Emanuelson

(double click on the picture to make it larger and you can see Elder Patterson in the background)

making donuts

see Sister Patterson making donuts for the Elders

See the donuts Sis. Patterson made for the Elders

See the Elders eating the donuts Sister Patterson made!

THE CARROT

Yes, Emilie, we found it!! What you are seeing is a shriveled and petrified carrot. This is not just any carrot, though. This carrot has been all over the world!! When Connor was 5 yrs old, Vicki came home to stay with him for a few days while we went to Biloxi, Mississippi for an IAAI convention and when we got back home we found this half-eaten carrot on our nightstand. So Mike put it in Vicki's suitcase when she left to go New York for an internship. The next time we went to see Vicki after she and Morgan were married, the carrot ended up in our suitcase when we got home. It seems to end up in the luggage of whoever is traveling. It has also been to Hawaii, California, Mexico, back and forth from Utah to Las Vegas and even to Bulgaria with Emilie and Branden on their honeymoon. Now it is resting in Sierra Leone, West Africa for the next 17 months! amazing little carrot! Wonder where it will go next?

mass of humanity

on the road to Kissy. No need for fast food drive- thru here; the street merchants bring everything to the car. We ate our way back to the mission office by buying roasted cashews, deep-fried banana chips (taste like potatoe chips), sweet roll and bread all from the comfort of the car as it was stalled in traffic.

the road to Kissy, this particular street is just one mile long but it took over an hour to drive because the traffic was so bad.

On the way to the service project with Elder's Korfeh & Tims (front) and Eshun & Grabau.

The Elders made arrangements for the zone to clean a mental hospital in Kissy, so we (the couples) came along to help.

We attended our first baptism in the Goderich Branch. Michael, the grandson of the Relief Society President, and Bro Cosby were baptized by Elder Laneri. Also in the picture is Elder Eyinda and Elder Jones, the mission financial clerk.

the view from our kitchen of the US Embassy across the ravine

the new In n Out

Pres & Sis Roggia, (left) our new mission president; and Pres & Sis Squires our first mission pres. We are so glad we got to meet the Squires and get to know them a "small small" bit - they are wonderful and dedicated to this mission and the missionaries. We look forward to working with Pres & sis Roggia and know they will be equally as great in this mission. We are thankful to be here with them. They are now the "greenies" in the mission at least for the next two weeks until we get 8 new Elders from the Ghana MTC.

We watched this fisherman catch fish with his nets. He posed for this picture for a few Leones. the beaches here are beautiful; but hard to get to

This is Sahr Doh, the facilities director for the Sierra Leone District

visitors at the mission office

us with mission president & Sis Squires

Elder Gunderson and Elder Bird (the APs)

We were so thankful when the APs, Elder Gunderson and Elder Bird met us at the
Freetown Airport. We rode a water taxi across the bay to Freetown and were met by Pres. Squires.

Arriving in Sierra Leone (turn your head sideways!!

Arriving in Africa