September 8, 2016

What a day - A very tiring day! All the General Authorities arrived tonight. They include the following: Elder Gary Stevenson from the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Dean Davies from the presiding Bishopric, Elder Ulisses Soares from the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Vern Stanfill from the Africa West Area Presidency, Elder Madu an area Seventy, and Elder Francis from the Department of Temporal Affairs and all their wives. President and Sister Clawson left at 3:30 to pick them up at the Freetown International Airport in Lungi. They drove them to the Radisson Blue Hotel. Sister Clawson wanted to put snack baskets in their hotel rooms so she and I made up baskets from the baskets I bought on Monday and the snack foods we purchased on Tuesday. We didn't have anything to wrap the baskets in but she remembered seeing some clear basket wrapping plastic in a store and sent someone to buy a large roll of it. We got the baskets made and wrapped and she delivered them to their hotel rooms on her way to pick them all up at the airport. At 1:30 she received a phone call from her husband saying 4 of the local priesthood brethren he was meeting with were coming up for lunch. We dug into the refrigerator and pulled out some chicken salad, made sandwiches and cut up some cucumbers and Sister Clawson found a can of pop for each one of them. We called it good. At 2:00, she received a phone call saying the 48 missionaries coming on a bus from Bo, Kenema, and Makeni were going to arrive and they were starved and they would be there in 20 minutes for lunch. YIKES! They were suppose to come in later in the afternoon and dinner was going to be catered. Sister Clawson sent someone out to buy 7 loaves of sandwich bread and Sisters, Corbaley, Miner, Sherwood and I worked like crazy making lunch for 48 missionaries. Thank heaven for Peanut Butter and Jelly and all those eggs we cooked yesterday. We whipped up a huge batch of egg salad, cut up a ton of cucumbers and called it good. Finally, The Clawsons were at the airport, the 48 missionaries were fed and just hanging out until dinner arrived and the 4 of us set to work bringing all of Sister Clawson's ideas together. I swear Sister Clawson and Cholena are made from the same creative mold: At the eleventh hour this is what we were working on:
Cooking, peeling and slicing 60 more eggs (to replace the ones we used for the missionaries this afternoon.) 1.

Carmelizing 25 onions and making Pepe after sending Yetta out to buy the onions and peppers 2.

Icing 16 birthday cupcakes for the 16 missionaries who had birthdays in August and September 3.

Making 100 journals with the picture of Christ emerging out of the tomb glued to a piece of colored paper that had the words "Always Remember Him". Then we had to laminate each one and then we used double sided tape to tape the picture to the book. Laminating took about 3 hours. 4.

Sister Clawson's Daughter in America whipped up a really nice newsletter to give to each missionary. 5.
6. We made 16 handmade birthday cards
When Sister Clawson got home she had to do the following because none of us knew what she planned: She had to fill the birthday basket with treats for the missionaries to choose from, Get the Snacks ready for the General Authorities and their wives for between meetings Write personal notes on each of the 16 birthday cards Print off the newsletter her daughter prepared And GET SOME SLEEP! NOT! President and Sister Clawson were invited to eat dinner at the Radisson with the General Authorities and their wives and did not get home until after 10:00. The mission home is not big enough to house 48 missionaries so they rented hotel rooms to house the missionaries that came in by bus to night and then tomorrow night the priesthood leaders coming in from the outlying areas will use the same rooms. The missionaries leave tomorrow at 4:30 to go back to their areas.

Don spent the day in the office and then spent this evening transporting missionaries to their hotel which was at the top of a mountain. On one trip, Don saw a huge rat and pointed it out to the American Missionaries. They were dumbfounded to see such a huge Rat. They were not pleased to see that the rat was across the street from their hotel. The hotel is in the New England area and all the Africans know that the New England area is noted for its rats!