Water Sachet Volleyball

The Bo East Zone missionaries held a water sachet volleyball event last Thursday at the district center.  They counted off by number, paired up holding a towel and took up positions on the volleyball court.  Water sachets are plastic bags filled with drinking water and only a little sturdier than water balloons.

Our vehicles were parked off to the side but we weren't worried about them getting wet since they could use washing anyway.

OK, time out to wipe off and dry the side rear-view mirror!

Missionaries on the bus from Bo to FreetownAll All

The mission bus needed engine repairs before it could take eight missionaries from Bo to Freetown, so they all had to catch the public bus.  The only problem then was that they were out of tickets for the 1 o'clock bus.  Happily there was another bus at 2:30 pm that "might" have space for them and their luggage.  We were so happy when we heard that they would have enough seats for them to buy tickets ... but it wasn't certain that they would be able to have their luggage as well.  Their was extra cost to haul their luggage and it wasn't too much so it was all piled on top of the bus and tied down.  Here they are.

Left to right: : Elders Barth, Otaniyuwa, Dyngee, Liufau, Hill, Tawiah and Svongwa (almost out of the picture).  It looks like Elder Hill has already begun to teach someone on the bus.

All the missionaries' luggage went on top.

Sister Awuoche and Elder Barth as the bus departs.

Dinner with the senior missionaries

Saturday evening, 1 December 2012, we gathered at Mamba Point Restaurant and President and Sister Roggia were able to spend about 45 minutes with us before they had to leave (for final preparations for the creation of the new Freetown Sierra Leone Stake).  Left to right: President Roggia, Elder Lauritzen, Sister Lauritzen, Sister Schlehuber, Elder Schlehuber, Elder Burns, Sister Burns, Sister Kirkham, Elder Kirkham, Elder Randall, Sister Randall, Sister Roggia.

Correcting the BKPS wiring

After several visits to the BKPS (Bo Kenema Power Service) office, several phone calls every day to multiple persons and a visit yesterday from Mr. Ambrose Koroma to see if anything could be done to get public power back into our home, Mr. Koroma came back this morning with a crew to properly attach the aluminum to copper junctions.  They brought clamps to hold short pieces of aluminum and copper wire firmly together, then wrapped the copper wire pieces to the copper wires already in place and wrapped the aluminum wire pieces to the aluminum wires that had recently been strung on the main distribution line.

Adding better connections to main lines

Adding better connections to line to our house

Mr. Koroma (wearing the suit) with his crew.

Refreshments after "brushing the grass"

The vegetation in the yard behind our home was getting up to our shoulders in some places so it was time to have someone cut it back.  Since lawn mowers are scarce and would have a hard time anyway with grass as high as it gets, a machete is used to "brush the grass."  Felix Kanneh is the Young Men President in the Messima Branch and brought 3 young men with him to help cut our grass.  Felix is squatting in front, another member is standing to the left in the picture and the young man on to the right in the picture is an investigator.

We had several papaya getting ripe that were more than we could eat since we had already picked some earlier.  The young men were happy to have five papaya to divide between them.

We've been going through a lot of water

We didn't know it but we've been supplying the neighbors with water

For the past 11 months we've been supplying water to the neighbors next door and we didn't discover it until today.  We thought we had a bad leak somewhere for the past couple of weeks because every day our water tank (2000 liters) would be nearly empty within 24 hours.  Last Thursday I found a pipe that went out the back past the elder's kitchen, perhaps used to water a garden in the back at one time, and thought that there might have been a break in that line.  So we had a plumber put in a stop-cock Friday.

Today I took a couple of papaya to the neighbors since we had plenty, and they pointed to our water tank and tried to tell me that they needed water.  They brought me back to the back of where they live and pointed to a sink and said they were now getting no water.  Since both we and the elders use less than a sixth of a tank in a couple of days of normal use, I'm guessing that the neighbors have also been watering their crops with our water.

The APs washed some dishes

Elders Barth and Appleby at our kitchen sink

The first stake in Sierra Leone

A historic milestone was reached Sunday, December 2, 2012 when Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles organized the Freetown Sierra Leone Stake.   It is the 3,000th stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Left to right:  Abibu S. Charles, 1st Counselor, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland., Pres. Patrick Swarray, Jr. and Pres. Theophilus Minna, 2nd Counselor