Young Single Adult Activity

We were invited by the Young Single Adults from the Lumley Branch to attend the activity they sponsored for the YSA's of the whole stake.  Marian Campbell, who was on the organizing committee, asked us to judge their "quiz competition."  She had written some questions about the Church and its doctrine.  Each branch who attended had an opportunity to answer the questions.  We kept track of whose turn it was and kept score. 

We  awarded the certificate for highest points to a young man from Goderich Ward and the certificate for the “Best Quizzer”  to a young 11-year-old girl, Virginia, from Congo Cross Ward, who answered 3 questions—all of them fairly difficult.  She quoted 1 Nephi 3:17 for one of the answers! The YSA’s had an opportunity to bear their testimonies and then they had a dance, complete with loud music out in the courtyard of the Church.  We left just after the dancing started, but we could tell they were all ready to dance and celebrate.

The Young Single Adults enjoy watching the organizing committee introduce themselves with a little dance exhibition.

The committee and their dance exhibition.  Notice the young men all have matching blue shirts and the young women all have matching pink shirts.

Our young friend, Marian Campbell, who helped organize the activity.  Not long after this activity she received her mission call to the Nigeria Enugu Mission.  She will be the first sister in the Freetown Sierra Leone Stake to serve at age 20.

Christmas in Sierra Leone

We decided to do something for Christmas in Sierra Leone that we could not do at home.  We decided to have a barbecue.  Elder Lauritzen offered to be our chef.  The Roggias had brought a barbecue grill with them and had only used it one other time, the Christmas after they arrived, so we asked to borrow it.  Elder Lauritzen filled it with the local charcoal that the locals cook on and it performed beautifully.

Hamburgers are not traditional Christmas dinner fare, but lots of things are different here in Sierra Leone, including that water tank you see in the background. 

Here is our happy group, including Sister Cathy Burns, Elder Ron Burns, Sister Marlene Lauritzen and Elder Mike Laurizen.  We had hamburgers, potato salad, deviled eggs, pasta salad and lemon bars, coconut cookies and ice cream for dessert.

Christmas Eve with Basma and Nadia

We were invited by our landlord, Mohammed Basma, and his wife, Nadia to have dinner with them on Christmas Eve.  It was a lovely occasion.  Nadia cooked most of the day to prepare our food.  We had three different kinds of meat, including some whole fish, all of it prepared so well.  There were some Lebanese vegetables, some hummus and Lebanese flatbread as well.  We enjoyed some lovely pastries and ice cream for dessert.  Best of all, Basma, who is Lebanese, but who was born here in Sierra Leone, told us a lot about the history of Sierra Leone and some of the progress that is being made.  We discovered that he is a good resource for people to help us, such as a good mechanic to fix our cars.  He lives next door to us and has helped the Church find properties to rent for apartments and chapels for many years.  He is Muslim, but is a good "friend to the Church."




 

A Visit with the Haws

We had a visit from a couple serving in Ghana on 18-20 December 2013.  They are Elder Greg and Sister Debi Haws.  They are assigned as auditors and they travel around to each of the ten countries in the Africa West Area and train the local auditors to conduct the audits of the church units.  They will see a lot of West Africa before their mission is over.  We love meeting new couples and the Haws were no exception.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner with them at Country Lodge and had a nice visit in the two days they were here in Sierra Leone. We took these"snaps" on Lumley beach on our way to the hovercraft which took them to the airport.




 

 

"Primary Day"

Sunday, 16 December, 2013 was what the members were calling “Primary Sunday.”  It is a tradition in the Freetown District (now Freetown Stake) to have all of the Children’s Sacrament Meeting Presentations on the same Sunday.  We have been serving for several weeks in the Belliar Park Branch (now Belliar Park Ward) and so I decided to try to attend all four sacrament meeting presentations.  We started at 8:30 with the Freetown Ward.  They had a simple program but it was beautiful.  Two young girls gave talks (probably at least 5 minutes each).  One of their Primary teachers spoke and then they had a group of about seven children sing two Christmas Primary songs.  At 10:30 we attended the Dwarzak Ward presentation and it was picture perfect.  I was so proud of Sister Pieh-Sharkeh.  She had asked me how to organize the program and I had shown her how to do it, but she had written it all herself and handed out all the parts.  Each child had about three speaking parts and the Primary as a whole sang six of the eight songs for the year.  Many of those songs they had learned just in the last six weeks because Sister Pieh-Sharkeh had not known before what the Children’s Sacrament Meeting presentation entails.  She has been a member less than a year.  She spoke at the end of the presentation in a well-prepared talk, praising the children and encouraging parents to teach their children the gospel.  Bishop Oneil closed the meeting with a wonderful address thanking the Primary leaders, but especially Sister Pieh-Sharkah. At 12:30 I attended the Belliar Park Ward Children’s sacrament meeting presentation.  There were about four children with parts to say, then two children with well-written talks prepared and then the children sang five songs.  It was well-done and I was so proud of Sister Charlie.  She gave a wonderful talk at the end highlighting many of the gospel principles she has taught the children this year in sharing time (she has taught the Valiant Class and taught Sharing Time and Singing Time all on her own this past year; she has a counselor who teaches the CTR class.) Bishop Sesay spoke at the end praising her and her counselor and saying that he has seen changes in his own daughter this past year and knows that the Primary leaders have played a big part in those changes.

Dwarzak Ward Primary before their Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation.

Dwarzak Ward Primary

Dwarzak Ward Primary Leaders

This girl and the one below both helped direct the music for Dwarzak Ward during the Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation

 

Belliar Park Primary

Belliar Park Primary Leaders

Mt. Aureol Ward Primary

Mt. Aureol Ward Primary leaders

On Our Walk

This woman is carrying a building block on her head.  This is a common sight near any building under construction.

We walk every morning, six days a week for about 40 minutes.  We walk up around the American Embassy.  Most mornings it is too dark to take good pictures, but on Saturday mornings we go a little later.  These are some pictures we took on our morning walk.

This is Adama plaiting her daughter, Zainab's, hair.  She has another daughter, Mariama, and a son, Ibrahim. 

Here is Zainab's happy, smiling face!

And this is Mariama.

You can carry anything on your head in Sierra Leone.

Just had to have a snap of this little beauty.

Christmas "Carolers"

They have an interesting twist on the traditional Christmas carolers in Sierra Leone.  A few days before they plan to carol or play (if it is a band) they drop off a letter announcing when they will be coming by.  This informs you that they will come to entertain, but it is also understood that you will hopefully have a little money available to them.  This band followed that procedure. They were affiliated with the police.  The Lauritzens invited them into the compound to play and they were actually quite good.  We enjoyed it so much and it really brought the Christmas spirit.  (They are standing just inside the gate of our compound.)  Both couples gave them a little money for their performance--when in Sierra Leone, do as the Sierra Leoneans.