Farewell to Elams

On the evening of 3 February 2010 we said goodbye to our good friends, Elder Tom and Sister Donna Elam. They have served a 23-month mission in the Kenya Nairobi Mission and we have known them for the past 12 months. The past two weeks we have spent much of our time together as they have trained us to take their place in the mission office. It's been so much fun to get to know them better. What a great opportunity! We have always felt a bond with them because they have the same assignment we had in the Philippines and we understand a lot of the work that they do.

They have worked tirelessly in behalf of the mission. Several of the couples, as they wrote in their book about Kenya given to them by President and Sister Taylor, spoke of them as the "glue" that held everything together for the couples. That really was true. Elder Elam was our representative to the apartment managers. He made sure we were able to get money from home each month. They organized places for couple to stay when they came to Nairobi. They just made sure nothing fell through the cracks. We will miss them.

We've had a lot of fun playing dominoes with them on occasion, so the night they left, we had one last game before they went to the airport. Just as we started to play, the power went out, so we played dominoes by candlelight. It was a fun way to send off our good friends. Getting to know valiant, hard-working, sacrificing people like the Elam's is one of the greatest blessings of our mission.