April 17, 2016

We went to the Waterloo branch today. They had 6 people baptized yesterday and confirmed today. Other than that, it was a normal Sacrament meeting. Sunday School was also normal. I went to Relief Society and half way through a Sister came and whispered in my ear "they need you in Primary". I jumped up looking forward to teaching a class in Primary. I could not find the Primary. I looked in every room and they weren't anywhere. Finally, the sister that told me they needed me in Primary found me and lead me to a different building. I entered the room and all the primary children were sitting quietly waiting for me. I stepped in and a boy that was sitting in a chair next to the door was asked to move so I could sit there. So, I sat down. I looked at the children, they looked at me. I looked at the two leaders, and they looked at me. I looked from the children to the leaders and they looked at me. I said "am I suppose to do something?" "Yes, you teach". I said, "who is the teacher?" "We are". "Did you prepare a lesson?' "Yes." "What do you want me to do?" "This is singing and sharing time. You teach." Yikes! I haven't been in Primary for several years. OK! I grabbed the children's song book and looked for songs. They didn't know very many. I hacked my way through this and it was not well done. I will prepare a singing & sharing time lesson/activity and carry it in my bag so I am not caught off guard again. After Church was over, I was waiting for Don, who was giving a lesson on baptism and the Sacrament to an investigator. 6 Primary children came over and gathered around me. I visited with them, asked them questions and we laughed. They really wanted to touch me. I told them they could. They ran their little fingers though my hair and was amazed how soft it is (compared to their course hair). They tried braiding it but it would not stay in one place the way their hair does. While three of them were messing with my hair, one was tugging at a skin tag on my neck. Another was picking at something on the back of my neck and another was trying to scratch off of sun spot off my right cheek. They asked me for my phone number and I wrote it down. I gave it to the girl that asked for it and she tore up some paper and wrote my number down for everyone to have their own copy. It will be interesting to see if any of them call me. When Don was finished, District President Sesay invited Don and me into the Branch President's office. Don needed an accountability report on a food project that the humanitarian department of the church helped establish in 2014 before the Ebola hit. This project is doing extremely well. We went out to one of the garden plots (at least an acre in size) which again is down a long mountain side. The garden was beautiful. No weeds, the ground was nicely tilled and a couple of men were working the ground. They did not know we were coming so this was not a staged sight. When the Ebola hit, everyone was ordered to stay home and food was taken from this garden plus some other plots managed by this same group to the people. This Branch was able to supply potatoes (yams), tomatoes, rice, casava, and other root vegetables along with leave of some plants they consider a delicacy to its members and some of their neighbors.