26 July 2017  Elder Palacay arrived from the Philippines.  We have been waiting for him for a transfer while his Passport was processed.  We are glad he is finally here. 

 25 July 2017, changing of the guards for the AP's.  R.to L.  Elder Izekor, (leaving us to go open a new area in Koidu) Elder Wheelock and our new AP Elder Badoo. 

 

 

 25 July 2017, our newest group of missionaries to arrive.  They are all from the States except Elder Oloucho and he is from Kenya. 

This is what our lobby to the mission home looks like on transfer day. 

24 July 2017 -  For "PIE-oneer Day" We made pies and also that was Sister Clawson's birthday and how we celebrated with her. Above is Elder Carly's pie and the first one he has ever made.  It was a chocolate pudding pie.  The crust was a little tough but pretty good for a first time.  Sister Carly made a peanut Butter Pie and I made a Lemon Meringue pie.  Sister Clawson made an apple crumb pie and President Clawson made a Banana Cream pie.  President and Elder Carly decided to have a pie contest.   Sister Carly wrote on Elder Carly's pie, "This is the Place", on her pie she wrote, "This might be the place BUT this is Heaven."

 On my pie she wrote "That may be Heaven BUT this is the Celestial Kingdom."  It was pretty fun.  That is the first Lemon Meringue pie I have made from scratch and I couldn't find any Crisco on Saturday so I substituted margarine in the curst.  It turned out just fine.   

 Above is Elder Carly taking a picture of all our pies.  Below is President, Sister Clawson, (organizing things just right as always) and Sister Carly. 

 President, their daughter Auria who is visiting and Sister Clawson.  Happy Birthday and Happy "PIE"-oneer Day. 

 Top Picture is Elder Vele.  He arrived on 4 July 2017.  He came 3 weeks later than our last missionaries because he is French speaking and spent 3 weeks longer in the MTC.  He is doing pretty good with his English.  (Brent and I look shorter because the road slopes down at this point of the property.)
 Below is Sister Francess Ngekia, she is from Sierra Leone and left on 6 July for the MTC.  She is going to the Ghana Cape Coast Mission.

 I took these around the mission office and mission home.  I wanted you to see how beautiful it is right now in the rainy season.  This stairway leads up to the mission home and our apartment

 This leads to the water pump just below the mission home.  The picture below is a closer view of one of the hibiscus bushes we have growing.  They bloom all year round, every day. 

 Above is the mission office and below you can see some of our banana plants.  Our banana grove is to the left. 

 These three are all out our office window.  It really is green and beautiful right now.  I have a big palm bush that blocks my view of the missionaries leaving, but I still like the green. 

 Below is a picture going along Wilkinson Road a couple of Saturday's ago on our way home.  The road is completely covered with water and it was pretty deep in this part.  When it rains here it really rains.  That is why everything is so green  and alive right now.  It is also a little cooler.  We LOVE the rainy season. 

 This is another Bird Post for my sweet Mom.  The other day it had rained most of the morning.  It cleared up and I could hear all these birds outside my window.  I went outside to see what they were doing and there were tons of little white moths that were flying around and the birds were eating them.  It was pretty cool to watch.  I walked along the driveway near here and the lizards were trying to catch the moths.  Now that was funny.  They were on the ground, running and trying to catch  the moths.  They would run and stop every few feet and do their push up thing they do and then start running again. 

 This is a bird we have never seen before.  We actually have only ever seen it this one time. 

 Here is another shot of the vultures. We have never seen them on the ground before, they are usually perched in a dead tree.  They were after the moths also. 

 This is our King Fisher and taken on a different day, but it was a good angle of him.  These little guys have the prettiest tune and they are beautiful.  They are only here in the rainy season.  Hope you enjoy the bird pictures Mom.  I love you!

 Saturday 1 July 2017.  It was such a beautiful day, the air was clean and clear so we rode up to Leicester Peak.  This is where Elder Scott came and dedicated Sierra Leone for Missionary work.  You can see a lot of Freetown and the ocean.   

 The wind was blowing up there and it was pretty cool.  Below you can see clear to Lungi.  That is where the airport is. 

                    Above is looking the other way.  This really is the top of the mountain. 

 There was no smoke in the air and it was probably one of the clearest days we have ever had.  It was beautiful. 

                                                  You can see the big ship in the harbor. 

 Of course I had to take a picture of some pretty flowers up there.  The picture below is red leaves that I thought were pretty.  That is as close to fall leaves as I have seen here. 

 Coming back down from Leicester Peak all along the road were rock piles with people hammering the rocks.  They pound the bigger rocks into smaller rocks by hand with hammers to make the road base for the roads. 

                                   You can see the lady above sitting and pounding the rocks. 

Above, people will sit like this lady all day and just pound the rocks with a hammer.  Below you can see how the piles of rocks are right by the road. 

 P-Days we always get a lot of missionaries in the office.  We love when they come in and bring all that energy. 

 Above is Brent with Elder Torh and Elder Raongo.  Below is  Elder Otekhoigbogie, (say that fast 5 times)  Brent and Elder Mandegra.  Elder Mandegra is serving here in our mission and he is from Sierra Leone.  He is our only Sierra Leonean serving here. 

 These pictures I took out the window of where we meet for Relief Society.  It is behind the building where we meet for church. This is a pretty typical street.

 There is a beautiful Mosque that you can see in the back.  There are a lot of Muslim's in this country and we hear the call to prayer often. 

 On our way home from church.  The picture above is the PZ market.  They close on Sunday and the trash is terrible.  On any day but Sunday you cannot drive down this street, it has so many markets and people.  Below, we were stuck in traffic on Kissy road.  Usually the traffic is pretty good on Sunday's but for some reason it was backed up this day. 

 Sunday 18 June we are at the Kissy District Center.   Now it is the Kissy Stake Center.  Kissy District was made a Stake today.  It is the Kissy Sierra Leone Stake and the 2nd stake in the country. This little girl sat by us and she followed us after the conference and wanted a picture with us.  She was so cute!