Sept. 18, 2012

I could upload one picture today.  This is a picture of a family right on the main highway that we drive on every day.  We had to quickly take the picture and drive off.  They were starting to yell at us.

Mormon Helping Hands...

These pictures are of a "Mormon Helping Hands" activity at a hospital near us.  There were American service men who work there doing work as a service to the people of Cameroon.  We and the members of the BonoPriso branch helped them.  It was a great activity and the service men were very impressed with the church missionary program all over the wrold where they have been stationed.  The little african boy is wearing one of the workers hard hats.  The hospital was very primitive by our standards and we saw people whose limbs were missing and bandaged.

More MTC pictures and our Elders

These are our good friends Grant and Terry Whitesides.  We are both serving in Cameroon about 4 hours apart.  We are in Douala and they are in Younde.  We hope to be able to get together occasionally and have some companionship.  We talk to them on Skype and the phone.  They are as lost as we are.

We were able to leave the MTC on our 3rd day there and go to Ogden to see Brett and Catherina's new daughter Emilie born.  We were really glad that we were able to do that before we left.  She weighed 8 pounds and 15 ounces.

These are 6 of our 8 Elders who live near us here in Douala.  They are really amazing.

Our home in Africa

September 16, 2012. We are standing outside the door to our apartment building.  We enter these doors and then the door to our apartment is on the left.  We are on the first floor and I think there are two floors above us.  We back up to a major road and the traffic is quite noisy during the day.  It does quiet down at night.  

This is our living room.  It is really quite nice.  The furniture is wicker and is probably hand made here.  We see some of it on the side of the road for sale.

I guess you only get two pictures for this post.  It takes forever for them to download and the internet is so spotty that I have to be trying to post at just the right time to get them to load at all.
 

Our dining room

A cool Tree outside our apartment. It's like a giant peacock tail or fan.

 

 First appointment out with the missionaries. This sister is planning to be baptize soon. Her knowledge of the gospel is incredible. They have 5 generations living in this little shack with no running water. Dirt floors. So humbling.
 

 This is this ladys (pictured above) grandaughter living with her. She is so dang cute! She was dressed so well. I got to hold her the whole time. It was so hot in her house.

 

This picture doesn't do justice to the traffic we drive in everyday.

Our newest pet, we have alot of these around our apartment, and see them all over doing push ups. Some have green heads. We had a small one in our spare bedroom.

Our first few days..

This is the airport of Douala-home for 3 millon people. It was my first experience in Africa.

This doesn't really do justice to what the streets are really like.  We took this out of our windshield, because people here don't like to have their picture taken.  We have to sneek a picture when we think we can and make sure our window and doors are locked.

On the side of all the roads, where ever there is space people set up booths to sell things.  Some of it is crafts they have made and other times it is just anything they have found.  We were told that when we put our garbage out they will go through it 10 times to look for things of value, even food.

This is Elder and Sister Nuttall who we replaced.  They were here for 4 days to help us get trained and to show us where things are.  They had been here for 2 years and stayed a few extra days so we could learn from the.  They live in Provo.

These are six of the Elders that live in our city Douala. They are in two districts and live in 2 apartments. They are left to right, Elder Hoiland, Elder Rambelosom, Elder Porter, Elder Addington, Elder LaFluer, and Elder Prince. Elder Schmitd and Elder Lavering are missing.

Our district in Bona Priso in Douala. We have another district in Bonoberi.

 So far, they are our favorite part of our mission. They are so noble and amazing. We see them walking down streets of dirt and filth and are smiling and radiant. They inspire us.

The MTC

We are struggling to get our blog going, but we do have one picture from the MTC map to post for today. Its tradition to have your picture taken here. We probably had the record as the shorest time spent at the mtc. We came in on Aug 27th and flew out on Aug 31.

 One of those days was spent with Brett and Cat having their 3rd child on 29th. Little Emilie Anna. She is so cute! We were so glad we were able to be there when she was born, and spend time with them before we flew out.

These are our good friends Grant and Terry Whitesides. We are both serving in Cameroon about 4 hours apart. We are in Douala and they are in Younde. We hope to be able to get together occasionally and have some companionship. We talk to them on Skype and the phone. They are as lost as we are.

GETTING SET APART AS MISSIONARIES
 

All of our children were there when we were set apart as missionaries. It was a very sacred spiritual experience with Pres. Porter setting us apart. Bishop Murdock and wife, Jan's brother, Larry and Linda Pike. Jan's Sister Melva and her husband Brent Minster were also in attendance.

Our oldest son Steve, his wife Lindsay and Neal, Paul, and Jake.

 Our daughter Heidi, her husband Ryan and kids, Olivia, Josh, Jason and Maddie

Our son Brett, wife Catherina and kids, Issabella and Mel

Our son Blake his wife Cherie and their kids, Brier and Sawyer

Our son Darin his wife Katya and son Alek

Our youngest son Ryan and his wife Sarea

 

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THE MISSION CALL

We got our Call on May 23rd 2012
 

Our children, their families and a few friends and siblings were there to see us open our call from the MTC. 

 

Explaining to the Grandkids why we decided to serve a mission.

Everyone had the chance to guess where they thought we were going. Several said Africa!!

Called to serve in the Democratic Republic on Congo, Kinshasa Mission.

AFRICA HERE WE COME!!