Wednesday 1 March 2017 waiting on the dock at Sea Coach for our Visitors.  Sister McConkie (General YW first counselor) and her husband, Sister Jones(General Primary President) and her husband, Elder Nash(counselor in the Africa West Area presidency) and his wife.  It was a perfect day in Sierra Leone.  There was such a nice breeze coming off the ocean. 

 Brent and Ali Kargbo.  Ali is the Branch President of Jui Branch in the Kossoh Town District and he works for the mission.  He is invaluable to us and we love him dearly.  We love his wife and family also.  They are both returned missionaries and kingdom builders here in Sierra Leone.  He went with us this day.  Brent was a back up driver and Ali drove the luggage for our visitors. 

                      A boat that went by while we were waiting.  It was a nice afternoon. 

 Thursday 2 March 2017.  Brent and I with our Elders leaving from Sierra Leone today.  They went with us to the Stake Center and the office Elders took them to Sea Bird about 12:30.  Elder Kamara is next to Brent and Elder Steven is next to me.  They are both going to the Nigeria Enugu mission. 

 Leonard is one our guards.  He is assigned to the Stake Center right now and we miss him in our compound, but he will be back.  He was at the Stake Center for our meeting on Thursday and wanted a picture with Brent.  He was a lot of help that day. 

Our beloved Upgun Family.  President James Rowe,(our Branch President) is by Brent.  Sister Fotmata Conteh is by me, you can only see her face.  She is my sister in Primary and she is amazing.  The sister in front of her is Zainab Kamara and she serves in YW.  The sister next to Brent also serves in YW.  I am not sure about the other 2, but they were from Upgun at the meeting.  I have not seen them at church, but it was good to have them come to this meeting.  We do love these people!

 Out front of the Church, Elder Waybright, front R and Elder Evans Back R.  These two Elders teach here often.  This is their area and this is how they teach many lessons.  I see them out my office window often and had to have a picture.  They are both amazing missionaries and remarkable young men. 

 3 of our Sister Missionaries.  Sitting in Sister Soja. This was our last Transfer day. 

 Brent was talking to our AP's.  They were shifting positions.  Elder Oyebambi (Left) has been an AP and is being transferred for his last area out to Bo.  Elder Smith is still an AP and Elder Izekor (right) is the new AP.  Elder Izekor has been serving in Upgun, and though we are sad he is leaving Upgun we are grateful to have him as an AP.  We will get to see him more and get to know him better.  GREAT young men!

 You gotta love Africa.  We were going shopping on Saturday and this was in front of us.  We were driving down Wilkinson Road.  I also got a picture of about the only stop light in Freetown that works.  We have even had to stop at it a few times.  If this truck had to stop fast both of these young men would be thrown off 

 Here is a picture of our little Gecko now named Spot, thanks to Mindee.  He was above the toilet this day and I had just used it and was washing my hands and looked in the mirror and saw him.  We can always see where he has been, but don't always see him. 

 These two pictures are of a guy that was trying to knock down some plums that are ripe.  The tree is outside our kitchen window.  You can see he is on the high wall that surrounds the compound.  He had a stick that he would try to knock them down with.  I wanted a picture and took a few. I stood kind of behind the curtain in the kitchen because I didn't want them to see me, but I took a close up and there were two young men and they both saw me and looked right at me and then took off.  They were not suppose to be getting the plums, but I just wanted a picture.  They do notice everything you do. 

Our cute Grandson in the mission Elder Cornista.  This is how they show respect to their Grandparents in the Philippines.  Elder Cornista and his companion are serving in Freetown, so we get to see them about every week or so.  He is such a darling boy.  He is the one that reminds us of Nique. 

 Primary at Upgun 12 February 2017, Standing on the left is the Primary President and this is her last week.  She is going to go to Goderich Ward now on the other side of town. 

 This is my friend Josephine.  She is the only young woman that is Young Women's age in Upgun.  My friend Camille from Cedar Hills is the Young Women's president in her ward and she had her Young Women write sweet notes to Josephine.  I gave them to her today and she read everyone and was so happy.  It was a sweet experience for me and her.  Thanks Camille and the Young Women in your ward.  The top picture is in our Primary room and the bottom picture is just outside the entrance to the chapel.  We are on the 2nd floor. 

 9 February 2017 the group of missionaries that left from SL to go on their missions.  Left to right:
Sister Abu, Sister Domingo, Elder Kamara, Sister Browne and Sister Conteh, and me with them.  

 This is outside the mission office before the missionaries left. Above is Brother Smith, he is a counselor in the Bishopric in Dwarzak ward.  Below, One of the families brought lunch. It was rice with a stew over it.  This is usually what they eat. 

 This little girl was part of the group of family members and she was so cute.  Elder Sarkodi is in the picture below with her.  She really liked him.  He is one of the office Elders now. 

 The group of 16 missionaries we welcomed 7 February 2017, they are a great group of missionaries.

 Sheka and his boys.  Sheka is our gardner and takes care of all things with plants in our compound.  He sometimes brings his boys to help him when they are not in school. 

President James is the District President for the Kissy Branch.  I took a picture of him because I am always mixing him up with his District Clerk, Aba John.  They look a lot alike to me and they tell me people get them mixed up all the time, but I want to get them straight. 

 Last Saturday 28 January 2017 Brent and I went for a walk in the morning down town.  We have walked this several times, but I took my camera to take some pictures of things we have seen and wanted a picture of.  Above is a picture of a Mail Box just on the street.  It is not used anymore, it just has trash in it, but we thought it was cool.

 In the middle of downtown Freetown is the Cotton Tree you can see behind Brent.  It does not have any leaves right now. When we arrived last April there were thousands of bats in that tree, but several weeks ago when the leaves started falling the bats disappeared.  We wondered where they went.  Well on our walk, we were about 2 blocks from the Cotton Tree and were walking by some markets with trees above them.   We could hear a lot of chatter and looked up and there were the bats.  All along the street in the trees.  The bats were about 10 feet above our heads.  It was kind of creepy, but I didn't freak out, I just took some pictures.  You can see them in clumps in this picture. 

 We walked to the Fabric Store that Jokella had taken us to several months ago.  We were able to find this sweet lady and I found some beautiful fabric.  I talked her into selling it to me for the same price she did before.  20,000 LE for 2 yards.  I bought 10 yards that day.  She was so cute, when she saw us she gave me a big hug.  She let me have a picture with her again. 

 We walked down to the Red Lion Bread store and bought their yummy bread and then walked along Siaka Stevens street and I saw this fellow selling something in his pail.  It looked like whipped cream so I stopped and asked him what it was and he said Shampoo.  He let me take a picture of him, but the gal to the side of the street said, "You pay me."  I told her I had permission to take the picture and would not pay her.  I am going to take a copy of this picture to this fellow next week.  I hope he is still selling there.  You never know here.  That is why if we see something on the street we want, we buy it because you never know if it will be there tomorrow. 

 The top and bottom pictures are the same street.  I stood the same place to take the picture.  The top picture is on Saturday and the bottom is on Sunday.  Since Ebola, they close all the markets on Sunday.  They can actually be fined and have their products confiscated if they sell on Sunday. 

 Here is another comparison of a street, top is Saturday and bottom is Sunday.  The name of this street is Wilber Force Street.    These pictures are the PZ market.  It is the biggest market in Freetown.  If you want a live video of it, google PZ market in Freetown.  It will give you a good flavor of what it is like to walk down while the markets are open.  We never drive there during the week, but on Sunday's that is the way we go to church at Upgun. 

 Behind Brent is a construction site.  This is close to our apartment.  They are digging that hill away and there are some pretty big boulders.  The smoke you can see is charcol they have built a fire on the rocks until they break.  Then they beat the rocks with a hammer until they are in small pieces.  In front you can see several Okada's.  That is a taxi and Okada stop and it is tricky crossing the street.  I would not let the grandchildren cross this street, without an adult, or any street in Freetown for that matter.  

Behind the church in our compound.  This is where they burn (smolder) the trash and leaves from our compound.  If the wind blows toward the office we smell like a camp fire. 

 A big bunch of bananas in our banana grove.  Shaka actually cut this down a few days after I took the picture.  These bananas are "strong" which means they will be good.  They are in a box to ripen, kind of like we ripen pears at home. 

 Kassi, here is the picture of our hibiscus that you requested.  We 5 or 6 hibiscus plants like this out front of our apartment.  We have pink, yellow, and white and they have been blooming since we arrived last April.  I think they bloom year round, since it is February and they are still blooming.

 We were coming home from St. Mary's, which is a grocery store up a hill from our home.  It was the same day we took our walk 28 January 2017.  It was actually pretty clear and you could see the ocean, (they call it the sea) and ships out there too. 

 Yes, if you speak like Yoda this really says what you think it says.  We see this often on buildings.  This is to the side of St. Mary's where we get groceries sometimes.  There were some street beggars there that were laughing at me when I took this.  Some of them are crippled and we usually give them small bags of rice or ground nuts when we go there.  They are super nice and had a good laugh on me that day.   

 The top picture is a beautiful sunset in Freetown.  We do have pretty sunsets sometimes, other times it is to smokey to see. I took this from our apartment.  The bottom picture is the same hill, but it was a really smokey day.  You can see some smoke in the middle that is a fire smoking.  I took this outside the office.  

 We love these boys, (young Men).  Top is the office Elders and the AP's.  Left to Right: Elder Sarkodie, Elder Saunders, Elder Oyebambi and Elder Smith.  We invited them over Sunday night after my Birthday to celebrate and have Birthday Cake.  I made a carrot cake and for me and Africa, it turned out really good. (Not as good as the one Keri makes though)  We ate most of it that night. Bottom picture, Left to Right: Elder Saunders, Elder Sarkodie, Elder Smith, Elder Oyebambi, Me, Elder Okwir and Elder Igwe.  Yesterday 4 February 2017 we found out that Elder Oyebambi is being transferred this week out to Makeni for his last transfer.  We will miss him, but we are excited that Elder Izekor will be the new AP.  He is the first missionary that we welcomed after we arrived.  He has been serving in Upgun and he is an amazing missionary,

 Sunday 5 February 2017.  This little guy is about a year old and just came up to Brent today in Sacrament meeting and wanted to be held.  Usually little ones are afraid of us because we are white, but this little guy loved Brent.  He tried to eat his tie and wanted the pens in his pocket.  Kids are the same all over the world. Pretty cute!

                          This is the group of Missionaries we received 27 December 2016

 Sister Salamatu Kolokoh leaving on mission. 29 December 2016.  She is from Dwarzak Ward, but came to see me the day she left on her mission.  She is a dear friend that I met about a month after we arrived in Sierra Leone.  I will really miss her, but she will be a wonderful missionary. 

 This group of SL missionaries departed 29 December 2016.  Left to right: Elder Sesay, Elder Alieu, Sister Kundundu, Sister Sesay, Sister Koroma and Elder Vandi. 

 Elder Kondo and Elder Morison are from SL and left for the MTC 9 January 2017.  They are both going to South Africa on their missions. Next picture is Elder Kondo with friends and family the day he was set apart and left.  They had a party.  That bottle is Soda. 

 This is Elder Songo and his family.  He left on 19 January 2017.  He is also going to serve in South Africa. 

Elders who live in the Fort Street apartment.  We inspected their apartment and they are a great group of young men.  My handsome companion is also with them.  L to R. Elder Evans, Elder Waybright, Elder Peterson, Elder Gamil and Elder Amoah-Baafi, Back row is Brent and Elder
Ayabowei,  We do have the best missionaries in the church serving in our mission.