The saints know who they are, what God expects them to do, they are happy to do it and to let others know about it.
When we arrived at the office on Friday, 1 February 2013, all the temple patrons were there who had gathered on Thursday hoping to board the bus to the temple. They had stayed overnight at the chapel, thinking that the bus would probably come during the night. Sadly, that didn’t happen. We could see frustration and disappointment in their faces. Fortunately by about 2:00 the bus arrived after being delayed in Freetown to change some tires. The bus had traveled all the way from Liberia to pick up the saints and will go to Ghana by traveling through Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and down into Ghana. The members quickly gathered their suitcases, plus their food for the next eight days and water in small sachets. The sachets are little bags of water. They tear the corner off with their teeth and then such the water out of the bag. It looked like they were taking a lot of water with them—not more than they needed, but still a lot to carry. They had suitcases and backpacks and bags of rice. There were mothers, fathers, children, babies and people of all ages. We were so proud of them. This is a huge sacrifice for them and will be a very difficult trip. The bus was older than we had hoped and it’s likely that it has no air conditioning, so they will rely on any little breeze blowing through the bus to cool them. They will spend five days traveling, three days at the temple and then turn around and make the same long trip home again. .
Many preparations are made including a quick bath for the baby in the foreground.
The water in the jugs will be used for bathing. The water in the sachets on the right will be used for drinking. So many other preparations have been made including passports for all, yellow fever shots for all, and paperwork to allow the bus and the passengers to cross the borders into many other countries.
The baby on her back is only one month old. He will grow up in the covenant and knowing only life as a member of the Church. This day will change many lives for eternity.
Pure joy at being able to attend the temple!
There is luggage under the tarps and this is the final step in preparation.
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