Our Friends, the Lauritzens

In June of 2012 the mission was fortunate to have the arrival of another couple to serve in Freetown, Elder and Sister Lauritzen.   We were so happy to welcome them. They have stewardship for the Freetown East District and the missionaries in that area.  In Ecclesiastes 4:9 it says:  "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor."  We are so happy to have two couples in the office.  Everything is easier with another good couple to share the load. It really is true "two [couples] are better than one."

Elder Lauritzen demonstrates his novel way of making sure a key does not get lost. 

Sister Lauritzen is the self-appointed "fire boss."  We burn all of our paper trash.  City trash pickup is "small, small."

A super P-day with the Freetown Zone gives everyone time to relax.

Occasionally the "kingdom builders" get a little dirty in the work.

Elder Lauritzen knows how to use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.  Note the giant hole in our burn barrel.

Elder and Sister Lauritzen volunteered when they first arrived at the mission to do a very sorely needed dirty job.  They cleaned out the storage area under the mission.  As you can see, manuals are not in short supply in our mission.  Now we have a good view so that we can find what we need.

Thanksgiving 2012

How good it was to be with good friends, the Lauritzens, Roggias and Burns for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Each of us commented on what a wonderful meal we had with the culinary contributions of all. None of us have time or energy to make such a meal just for the two of us, but we enjoyed coming together and sharing.

Every occasion requires photographers to document it.  Sister Lauritzen and Sister Roggia are quick and ready with a camera.

Thank heavens for holidays so Elder Randall can enjoy BOTH chocolate and coconut cream pies on one plate!

Sister Burton and Sister Dalton Visit Sierra Leone

Sister Elaine Dalton with Sister Fatmata James, Freetown East District Young Women President and Sister Petan Mansaray, Freetown District Young Women President

The evening’s activities were so spiritually inspiring.  Sister Mariatu Brown had arranged to have the Minister of Social Welfare, and Gender and Children (I know I haven’t remembered that title correctly) and the Director of SLANGO (Sierra Leone Association of Non-Governmental Organizations) who is also a woman, come to the dinner.  They were introduced before dinner and then given an opportunity to speak.  The Minister of Social Welfare said that she had actually joined the church in Liberia, but had not been able to find it when she moved to Sierra Leone.  She knows where it is now, of course, and had actually been encouraged by Elder Holland when he was here to come back.  She was very complimentary of the Church and all we do for the people of Sierra Leone.  The Director of SLANGO says she has wondered many times why the Church does not publicize more about the humanitarian projects that it does.  She also mentioned that she knows of our youth and really wanted to know what makes them so different from others.  She has noticed something about them that she cannot find in other good youth in Sierra Leone.  She wondered what it was.  We all smiled and knew that those young people have the Holy Ghost with them and the joy of the gospel shines in their eyes.  Previous to her speaking, Sister Dalton encouraged everyone at their table to recite the Young Women theme for her.  She was quite impressed.   President Roggia spoke next and  mentioned many of the humanitarian projects that the Church has coordinated in Sierra Leone including bore holes, wheelchair distribution, neo-natal resuscitation training, measles immunization campaign as well as others that are in the beginning stages through the work of Elder and Sister Burns including helping a polio camp orphanage, a blind school and a deaf school.  He said that the Church does not publicize a lot of the projects because that is just not our way, but that we are so grateful for an opportunity to be of service to the people of Sierra Leone. Both ladies were presented with a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and a Personal Progress book.

Both Sister Burton and Sister Dalton had an opportunity to introduce themselves along with their husbands.  We were inspired by what the husbands said about their wives and we could see such a great example of valiant marriages that was inspiring to us and will be to the Sierra Leone saints. Elder and Sister Sitati each gave some remarks and I was impressed with what they said.  Sister Sitati just told of the daily habits of family prayer and scripture study as well as weekly Family Home Evening that had helped their family to grow and mature in the gospel.  Elder Sitati said that when they joined the Church many years ago, their oldest child was 9 and the youngest was 2.  The branch they were in had 19 members.  There was no one to look to for guidance about how to integrate the gospel into their families so they just listened to all that the prophets said and tried to follow their teachings.  Elder Sitati said, “We began to have family prayers, scripture study and Family Home Evening ‘because the prophet said so.’” I was so impressed with his example of a willingness early in their church membership to follow the prophet. 

Brother and Sister Burton told everyone the story of how they met.

Brother and Sister Dalton

The Minister of Social Welfare

The Director of SLANGO (Sierra Leone Association of Non-Governmental Organizations)

Elder Joseph and Sister Gladys Sitati

So many important sisters enjoyed the visit of Sister Burton and Sister Dalton

These are the leaders from both districts in Freetown enjoying a moment with our visitors.

Mission Blessings

There are senior mission blessings where there are no words.  What could be better than being blessed with the presence of Sister Linda K. Burton, General Relief Society President and Sister Elaine Dalton, General Young Women President! The senior couples were privileged to be among a group who had dinner with these inspiring sisters and their husbands.

 

This is What We Do

Elder Randall hands a prospective missionary his mission call.  All of the mission calls for missionaries who leave from our mission come through the mission office and Elder Randall sees that they get to them.  He is responsible for processing all of their applications including making sure that everything is complete on the application before it goes to the Area Office.  Once the call arrives, he keeps a checklist of ten things that they must obtain before they can enter the MTC, including a resume, a copy of their call letter, a copy of their acceptance letter, 10 passport photos, a police clearance letter, passport, yellow fever immunization card, and others.  He also requests our helper in Ghana to make the travel arrangements for these missionaries, for those going home from our mission, and also tracks those who are returning to our mission, occasionally picking them up at the wharf.  It's a huge job to keep track of all of that.

This is the smallest denomination of bill in Sierra Leone.  It is worth about 25 cents.  It gets used a lot and so most of the ones we see are pretty dirty and used, but the bank gave me this package of 500 new ones one day when I replenished my cash working fund. 

This is typical of the money I get from the bank when I replenish my cash.

This is another one of the things that I do, on occasion. 

One of our assignments when we first arrived at the mission was to furnish a couple apartment for a new senior couple.  It was challenging because we were still so new ourselves.  This is the furniture we had made for the Schlehubers.  We even went to the fabric store to choose fabric.  We also had dining room furniture and bedroom furniture made as well.

We spent several months looking at apartments and homes to find this one for our new humanitarian couple, the Burns.  It is a beautiful new home, but the road to get to it is challenging, to say the least.

One of Elder Randall's most recent projects is to get prepaid electrical meters for the mission office and the chapel next door.  Each of these is loaded with an amount of electricity which is paid for in advance.  You can check the balance at any time and purchase more electricity.  We have had trouble with the electricity being disconnected because bills are not delivered in a timely way (they are not mailed, but hand delivered) and when either the chapel or the mission gets too far behind in the bills, the electricity for both is disconnected, and it is a long process for re-connection. 

Even with the prepaid meters, there are many days when there is not enough power for the city of Freetown, so we have two backup generators to provide power for the chapel, the mission office, and an apartment for 6-8 elders. Elder Randall keeps an eye on the two new generators we recently obtained to provide backup electricity.

Here I am working with a couple of the district leaders teaching them about how to record expenditures in their district funds.  I have nine district leaders who send me a text once a month with their expenditures in four different categories.  I put money in their bank accounts based on those figures to replenish their money so they can pay for diesel fuel for their generators, propane gas for cooking, dishes and cleaning supplies for their apartments, repairs on refrigerators, and medicine for sick missionaries.  It's amazing that young men can learn these basic accounting practices mostly with just a little coaching on the phone.

Some Helpers in the Mission

There are lots of assignments in a mission--some you would not expect.  Sister Roggia is always anxious to help our assistants, as they are her.  Elder Barth has some pliers keeping the hose on the water connection while Elder Appleby works to fill the jugs for our water cooler at the mission office.

Every apartment uses a three-stage filter (in this picture in the bottom right-hand corner) to make sure our water is safe.

Siaka helps with the maintenance of the grounds around the mission office.  He sweeps the whole compound with that broom in his hand.  He has planted a small garden on some vacant land behind the office.  There are many banana trees at the office and he makes sure to cut the bananas at just the right time.  We are so grateful for his help to make our mission office grounds beautiful.

Markus is the do-it-all man in our mission.  His official title is Mission Physical Facilities Supervisor (I think) but he does everything for us.  He runs errands, he looks for missionary apartments, he furnishes missionary apartments, he contracts for carpenters to make furniture, he delivers cooking gas to missionaries, he picks up people at the wharf who have come to Freetown, he pays bills, he monitors security, he drives guests all over the mission, he registers all our vehicles, he helps people get drivers licenses, he works with immigration on visas and residence permits, etc. etc.  His gentle optimistic spirit keeps things on an even keel in the office; he never seems stressed about anything.  Every mission president deserves a "Markus" in their mission.  We are so blessed to have him in our mission.

An Evening on the Beach with the Couples

We have a nice place to eat on the Lumley Beach in Freetown.  It is called China Town BBQ House.  The restaurant is across the street from the beach, but they have built a cabana on the beach where you can sit and eat.  The waitress carries your food across the road to serve you.  We took advantage of the time while the Gredings, a short-term humanitarian couple, were here, to have dinner together.  Gredings have been here for ten days training our new humanitarian couple, the Burns.  They have driven all over Freetown and Bo looking at well projects which the Church has constructed.  From left to right:  Burns, Lauritzens, Gredings, Elder Randall

 

 

 

  Every time we come, we comment on how much it rejuvenates us to be here.  This evening there was a gentle breeze blowing and the weather was perfect.