November 20 2016

We had the 6 missionaries over for thanksgiving pizza dinner this afternoon. It was a lot
of fun. We had 3 American missionaries and 3 African missionaries. I made the dough
for the crust yesterday. We get out of church at Noon and they wanted to come at
1:00. We ended up having a meeting with the Branch Council after the block and ended
up getting home at 1:15. Which worked out perfect. I wanted the Elders to make their
own pizzas and to help frying minced meat (hamburger), chopping onions, grating
cheese, thawing pepperoni, setting up the tables, getting the pans ready and rolling out
their pizza dough. They all got into it and it was a lot of fun. They ate until they were
beyond full and they all had pizza to take home and I sent all the left over supplies and
some leftover dough home with them. And yes, we had texas sheet cake. More than
one missionary loves texas sheet cake. And for a treat, we had pop, very cold pop.
They loved it. Transfers were this last week and Makeni received 2 new missionaries.
This was a good "get-to-know-you" activity, plus, it helped the American Missionaries
have a little bit of home for the beginning of the holidays.
We were going to go to Teko Beach with the NGO that invited us for Thanksgiving.
There is a water and sanitation meeting that day in Kenema and we will be attending
that instead.
We went to the Rogbani Branch today at the request of President Clawson. I attended
primary the 2nd hour and they had 8 children and no one prepared anything for the
children. They asked me to teach the children some primary songs. I asked the children
what songs they knew. They sang I Am A Child Of God very very slow and they only
know the first verse.. Other than that they knew no songs. I only spent the first hour
with them and then went to YW. I was early so the 2nd counselor in YW and I walked
out on the uptstairs veranda and were visiting when 6 primary children came out of the
building from the first floor and walked out of the compound. I asked Sister Turay
where they were going. She yelled down to them and they said they were going to buy
oranges from the market next to the church. 4 of them bought oranges and the other 2
were just hanging out with them. They did not come back. Then 4 YM came out of
the building from the first floor and walked out of the compound and 3 turned north
and 1 went south. They were gone. YW was good. They had the YW conducting,
leading the music, giving the lesson and I have to say, all YW regardless of nationality
are all the same - goofy. It was a lot of fun. Except for one thing. The lesson was on
modesty and after the youth finished their lesson, the President got up and asked a YW
her name and asked her to come up front. She put her arm around her and said to the
group "is she modest or immodest?" They all said "immodest". The young woman was
humiliated. The only thing you could say was immodest was her dress had capped
sleeves. I felt so bad for her. I continued to watch her throughout the meeting. What
could I do? I knew I had to do something. But I wasn't going to, until, at the very end of
the lesson, the President asked me to make a contribution. I did. I asked how many of
the women in the room had been to the Temple. There were 5 of them. None of them
had been to the Temple. I explained about wearing garments and how we cover them
up. I corrected some things the President taught. She told the YW they had to wear
sleeves to their elbows and long dresses. She said the YM had to wear long-sleeve
white shirts and ties all the time. I don't know if I offended anyone but I hope not.
Notes to myself: Elder Webber really liked the beaded stars. Elder Thor's favorite food
is noodles with any kind of sauce "stew" on them, the Americans miss eating mexican
food. That will be our next meal together, Elder Foote loves mozzarella cheese and all 3
American missionaries love cheesecake. I explained to them they don't have cream
cheese in Sierra Leone. They were disheartened. Elders Foote and Baddo asked. me if I
had the hymns made simple book. All 6 missionaries love coke and/or Fanta Orange
pop.
I am going to have Santos (our tailor) make some Christmas Stockings for each of our 6
missionaries and I am gleaning ideas of what to put in them. It is really hard to get into
Christmas with the weather always hot! And of course, there is no such thing as
Thanksgiving in Sierra Leone. However, they do observe black Friday from Friday until
Monday.

Nov 18 2016

Each night before Bob leaves to go home, we join hands and have prayer. Tonight he
wanted to say it. He gave a very nice prayer and closed it by saying, "Heavenly Father,
please tell all the angels hello from us. These are my needs, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen". Then he took both our hands and kissed them. Precious!

Thursday Nov 17

The miracle happened. Mr. Manasary went to the Minister of Health about our
problem of having very expensive medical equipment in customs for months and
customs wanting 22,000,000. Leones to get it out (a bribe). The Minisiter was very
unhappy he did not know about this medical equipment and the bribe was outrageous.
He contacted the country's Chief Medical Officer and learned that he has been sitting
on this since June 10th. He ordered the Chief to get the equipment out of customs and
there will be no fees of any kind. Don offered to pay the transportation costs from
Customs in Lungi to Connought Hospital in Freetown. The Minister would not hear of it.
The equipment is to be delivered tomorrow.
We hiked down the mountain to the community called "Down the Hole". Believe me, it
is called that for a reason. It is way down and quite steep. Part way down a man came
out of his home and told us he is a member of the Church. He has been a member for 2
years. Don asked him what his calling is in his ward. The man thought about it and
said, "I am a full tithe payer and I partake of the Sacrament regularly." Don
congratulated him and gave his shoulder a squeeze. The man beamed.
We are going to put in a very large spring box and two 10,000 liter Milla Tanks in Down
the Hole. While there, I asked about a stream running along side the spring that we are
going to capture water from. They said that stream is sourced from 5 small streams.
Don asked them to show us. That meant another hike up the other side of the
mountain. I chose to stay at the spring area and watched the people fetch water. They
were having a lot of fun. To them, fetching water is a very normal thing and they enjoy
their association with their neighbors who draw water there, too. It was quite
entertaining. Don and the crew came back and Don said we needed to put a spring box
up higher and connect it to the spring box and Milla Tanks down below and let gravity
fill the spring box which in turn will fill the Milla Tanks. Our contractor was with us so
they laid out a plan.
We received 3 more requests for assistance today.

November 16 2016

OH MY! The phone lines are lighting up. The youth of Sierra Leone are planning on a violent protest on Thursday due to the price hikes in gas, food, water & communication.
They are warning everyone to stay off the roads from Thursday night to Monday Morning. If anyone is caught on the road, their vehicle will be set on fire and if the
government tries to stop the protest, they are threatening killing them and/or using
their families as human shields.
I was cleaning out a drawer at the mission home and I came across the following note. I
am copying it exactly the way it is written. Keep in mind, Kreo is the language most
people speak here so this note is well constructed for a Kreo-speaking person:
"Elder Holland!"
"I learn't from the scriptures that the obedient & faithful are always blessed in all
things. But I have always relize that in Africa both the obedient and disobedient one
suffered the same. Is it that we haven't met God expectation yet?"
I think this is a really good question. Jeffrey R. Holland Must have been here and had a
Q & A session with a group of people.