Our Missionaries

We are in Douala, Cameroon, which is about 21/2 hours by plane away from our mission home in Kinshasa DR Congo.  It is a separate country with a different Visa.   North American missionaries who are called to this mission come directly here to our city, or Yaounde or Pointe Noire, which are the other two outlying cities.  We are there to pick them up when they arrive and we put them on the plane when they go home.  They use our computers to Skype with the mission president for their first interview.  We have always said that the best part of our mission is our association with these young Elders.  Sister Gailey calls there moms when they arrive to let them know they have arrived safely.  She lets them know that they have a nice apartment and that we are here to watch over them.  They seem to get a lot of comfort from the calls.

Every 6 weeks we have Zone Conference at our apartment.  They come for a couple of hours of training and then we feed them.  The mission president comes to it about every other time.  It is amazing how much these growing young men can eat.

One of the hardest parts of our calling is when they transfer or go home.  Some of them are with us for up to 10 months before they leave our two districts.  We get very attached to them.  Elder Andrimamonjy is from Madascar and went home a few weeks ago.  They don’t get to go to the mission home for a farewell dinner, so we have one for them here at our apartment.  We have a testimony meeting and their favorite meal.  The testimony meeting is always very tender.  They have their exit interview with the mission president on his last visit before they go home.

We love picking up our new missionaries at the airport.  We picked up our first 18 year old a couple weeks ago.  On the left is Elder Wright from St George.  He is 19.  Next to him is Elder Beutler from Mapleton, by Provo, and is 18 years old.  We try to be waiting for them when they come out of the airport so they see some white faces.  We remember how scary it was for us when we saw the sea of black faces.

This is the missionaries saying goodby to Elder Andrimamonjy.  We will all miss him.  He was such a cute fun Elder and a great missionary.  His girlfriend from Madagascar is serving in Salt Lake City.

Elder Andrimamonjy and Elder Colindres, from West Valley, walking to a teaching appointment on a typical road in the neighborhoods.

Of course, the main reason all of us are here is to bring people to Christ.  Here are our Elders with the Branch Mission Leader at a baptism next to the font.  The sister was baptized by Hermann, who is now on a mission himself in the Ivory Coast.

It is really hard for the Elders to keep their shoes shined when  they walk in these conditions every day.  They never complain, even when they show up to church soaking wet from a sudden rain storm.
Pres. and Sister Jameson are from Phoenix AZ.  They served for 18 months in the Congo as a couple missionary and then went home for 4 months to get ready to come back as the president of the DR Congo Mission.  They were here for the first 9 months for our mission.  We really loved them from their first visit to our home.  They took us all out to eat for pizza the last day they were in Cameroon.  We were very sad to see them go, but were so happy that they could spend time with their family after 31/2 years in Africa.

Pres. and Sister Cook are our new mission president and his wife.  They are from Providence, by Logan.  We are enjoying getting to know them. 

Our missionaries love to play soccer with the Africans here.  They make a lot of new friends that way and invite them to church.  Many times they come.  It seems like it rains every time they play.  They fields are dirt and turn into mud which makes it even more fun.  They are too intense for us to play with them, so we just watch.

Transfer days are always crazy for us with trips to the bus station, the airport and to the apartments to get them situated.  When we are short an Elder, a local young man is called as a branch missionary and serves full time for 6 weeks.  Bartholemew on the left is a branch missionary.  Elder Gelinas is from Canada.  On the right of me is Elder Leavitt.  He was suppose to go to Yaounde, but got off the plane in Douala before it continued on  to Younde.   He  spent a couple of days with us before we put him on the bus with Elder Graham who is next to him.  He will hear about that for the rest of his mission.  He was a real good sport about it, but had us pretty confused when he called at 10:30 and asked why we weren’t at the airport to pick him up.


Elder Thibault, from Provo, finally caught an unwelcome house guest that would run across the floor while they studied.  He was released to the outside world.  I think.

On Pres. Jameson’s last visit to Cameroon, he was on a really tight schedule, so we had the 10 Elders from Yaounde, along with the senior couple, the Whitesides, ride  the bus to Douala and stay with us and the Elders here.  We had a combined Zone Conference with all of us in our apartment.  There were 24 of us in our living room and Sister Gailey fed them all sloppy joes and chips.

We are so excited that missionaries are now going out from our mission to serve in other countries in Africa.  This is Hermann and Yannick.  We had the privilege of teaching the temple prep classes to help prepare them for their missions.  Hermann is in the Ivory Coast and Yannick is in the Congo.  They will be such strong leaders when they return from their missions.

Our missionaries are always looking for opportunities to serve.  We were on our way back from helping a family move and Elder Zurcher and Elder Garland saw this man with a cart of lumber he was struggling to pull up this road, so they jumped out and helped him up the hill.

Elder Zurcher, from Providence Ut.,carries a load of bananas on his head like the Africans would carry them.


There is not a lot of fun things to do here, so every 6 months we do an excursion with the missionaries to the ocean in Kribi or in Limbe on their p-day.   They need a break from the craziness once in a while too.  They can’t swim, but love to play frisby and football on the beach.


Elders Garland, Graham, Lafleur, and Mupungu coming to the church for teaching appointments.

Every 6 months the Elders have to go to the capital, Yaounde, to renew their visas.  We took Elders Ramgelosoam and Porter on this trip to renew theirs.  We drove up to Mount Febe which over looks the city of Yaounde.  Elder Holland was here just before we came, last year and dedicated  Cameroon for the preaching of the gospel from this rock where we are standing.
Our Elders are still young men and they are a lot of fun.  The people here just love them and feel as bad as we do when they leave the area.

For the missionaries, the best part of us being here is the meals that Sister Gailey prepares for them.   We normally only feed them at Zone Conference, but when ever they come over Sister Gailey pulls out cookies or banana bread to give to them.   They are so cute.  They tell us they love us, and are always telling us how much they appreciate all that we do for them.  It doesn’t seem like we do that much, but they appreciate every thing that we do.  We do repairs on their apartments also and buy supplies for them so they don’t have to do it all in a taxi or on foot.

We sometimes go out teaching with the Elders.  Elder Porter and Elder Prince took us to the Elle family, because they wanted us to teach them how to have a good marriage since we have been married for 37 years.  They act so honored that we would come to their humble home in the background on the left.  Sister Gailey taught Gabrielle how to make chocolate cake in a dutch oven over some coals and they thought it was wonderful.

Elders Hoiland, Rambelosoam, Porter, Addington, Lafleur, and Prince were our very first missionaries.  Elder Schmid and Lavering are not in the picture, but these 8 missionaries helped us adjust to life in Africa. We would not have survived with out them.  We have had 22 different Elders that we have served with in Douala.  We are constantly amazed at what noble young men they are and how dedicated they are to serving the Lord.  Their white shirts become much less white as time goes on.  They are often wringing wet with sweat and have mud on their pants and shoes.  They eat things that we won’t and brag about it.  They never complain and are so obedient that we never worry about what they are doing.  They are doing a great work here and bringing many of our brothers and sisters into the gospel and saving their souls.  We are so proud to serve with them.

Random Sites in Douala

All these 50 gallon drums are loaded on a three wheeled motorcycle that is like a mini truck.  I think I count 25 of them.

Dozens of eggs being delivered to marked.  They are transported in the sun and then put on a shelf at the store without refrigeration.

These will be our hamburger tomorrow.  They drive them down the streets and they eat grass and weeds in the fields along the road.  With all the foliage, you would think they would be fat, but they are always really skinny.  The one is eating from a dumpster.  I’m not sure how he got on top of it.


People still carry all kinds of things on their heads and their children on  their backs.  Their balance is amazing.

Children getting water from the neighborhood well with a rope and a bucket.

This is one of the roads we drive on.  The main roads are paved, but the side roads are mostly dirt when you get out of the city.

People walk around with all kinds of things on their heads for sale.  They try to sell what they can, to get food for the day.  They do work very hard every day, although not very productive.

Two ladies carrying dinner on their heads.

A mototaxi with a large compressor tied on the back of it.  It’s amazing what they transport on the back of a motorcycle.

This is one of the favorite washing holes for the mototaxis.  We are always amazed that they spend a lot of time washing them just to turn around and drive on the muddy roads when they are finished.

This is one of the main means of transportation in the cities.  They pile 5 or 6 people to a row on benches without backs in a small van.  One guy rides in back and jumps off and collects money and adds new riders to the van.  They transport their good from the villages to the city on the top of the vans.  Our favorite is live goats tied on top.

Sometimes when it rains it really rains.  The roads turn into rivers.  This was taken from our truck as we drove down the main road from our apartment.

This is what we drive in a lot of the time.  The motorcycles obey no rules.  They weave in and out of traffic and even go the wrong way down the street. We think they are a lot like ants.  It’s especially crazy at night, because most of their lights have been broken out from crashing.

This is the airport in Douala from the outside.  We go there every few weeks to pick up missionaries that are transferring or the mission president or others that are coming to visit.

This is a typical neighborhood in Douala.

This is an outdoor furniture store where they make and sell wicker furniture.   Most of the shops are just out in the open.  They cover things with tarps when it rains.

Another typical home in Douala.  The lady is doing laundry and hanging it out to dry.

Goodbye to Pres. and Sister Jameson June 4, 2013

President and Sister Jameson came to Douala for their final visit on June 4th and 5th before their release on July 1st.  It was a very tender visit.  We had all grown to love them so much.  The Elders bought these Cameroon soccer shirts and had signed their names on them for the Jamesons to take home to remember them.

Sister Jameson had been having every missionary that had served with them, sign little squares of material during their entire mission.  She had sewn them into this quilt to take home with them.

The Elders got together and decided to all wear red ties as a sign of their love for the Jamesons.  Sister Jameson just happened to have on a red blouse.  It meant a lot to them.

These are our 8 missionaries who were serving in Douala at the time.  From the top, left to right:  Elders, Gelinas, Colindres, Morin, Graham, Garland, Andriamamonjy, Thibault, Zurcher, Us, and Pres. and Sister Jameson

For our last Zone Conference, Pres. and Sister Jameson took us all out for pizza after the conference.  It was fun to relax with them and hear more about them.  The Elders loved to ask them questions and they shared a lot of personal things about their lives and gave advice to the missionaries.


Sisters are not allowed to hug the Elders.  Sister Jameson made an exception since they were leaving and  this would be the last time she would see many of these young men in this life time.  Here she hugs Elder Colindres.

Pres. Jameson hugs Elder Thubault and Sister Jameson hugs Elder Garland.



President Jameson hugs Elder Zurcher for the last time.  Pres. and Sister Jameson had such a huge impact on the lives of the people here in Africa.  They served 11/2 years in Lumbumbashi as a couple and went home for a few months to prepare to come back as the mission president in Kinshasa for 2 more years. They sacrificed so much.   They were so dedicated, gave so much and were wonderful teachers.  We learned so much from them.  They appreciated what we did so much that we were honored to serve them and with them. We miss them a lot, and continue to stay in contact with them through email.  We have committed to visit them at their home in Arizona sometime after we get home.

Kribi with Romeo and Irene

Our good friends, Romeo and Irene Dim have been asking us to go to Kribi with them for a few months now.  We finally found a couple of days when we could break away and we left on Friday morning and returned home on Saturday evening.  They think that we have done a few things to help them and they insisted on paying for everything.  In reality, we should have been paying for them because whenever we get in a bind, we call them and they drop everything to come and help us.

We drove across this bridge where the river comes into the ocean.  We stopped at a little village where the fishermen bring in their fish to sell at a marked and restaurant that is right on the ocean.  Here they are unloading their boats and mending their nets.


This is their boats tied up to the market along the coast where their fish are displayed to sell.

This shows the fish laid  out for the people who live nearby, and the restaurant, to pick out what they want to eat or cook.  There are several types of fish, crabs, and shrimp.  They use nets and bring in whatever gets caught in their nets.

We picked out our fish and they take it to a little work area where the gut it, clean it, put spices in and on the outside of it and then put it on the little wood grill and cook it.  This area was about 6 feet away from our table and we watched the whole process.  Jan wished that she hadn’t watched before she was going to eat.

This is our friends, Romeo and Irene, with the finished product on the plate.  We had fish soup, three large fish that you pick off the bones, plantains and fries with pop to drink.



This is the Fedelie Hotel where we stayed.  It was across the street from the ocean.  We were guests of Romeo and Irene and it was a weekend so many of the hotels were booked.  Romeo took Jan in to look at the room to make sure it was ok.  It seemed clean and was much better than most Africans live in every day.  I hurried and told them it would be fine.


This is the bathroom in our hotel room.  We were grateful that the room had air conditioning.  We slept well after a long day driving and walking along the beach.  Romeo had us fill up the bucket first thing in case the water was off later in the day.


Kribi is the most beautiful place that we have seen in Africa.  The city was smaller and less crowded than Douala and the ocean was very beautiful.  We walked along the beach and walked in the water.  We always wear our missionary badges and wear our church clothes when we are doing anything except exercising.


This is Irene and Romeo.  They have been a member of the church about a year and a half.  We are helping to prepare them to go to the temple in Johannesburg in a few months.  We hope to be able to go with them and their 4 children.  That would be the highlight  of our mission.

There were these huge rocks in the ocean without a mountain any where in sight.  We all wondered how God was able to set them there.

Jan, Romeo, and Irene sitting on the beach under a huge tree whose roots are exposed from the ocean eroding the beach away around the tree.

This is a point on the beach where the president of Cameroon has a vacation home.  It has military guards guarding it around the clock.

While we were walking along the beach at 9:00 in the morning, there were many fishing boats that returned from fishing all night out on the ocean.  The boats are all hand made out of thick planks and weigh a ton.  They fish with nets and bring in what they catch to sell across the street.  They go out every night rain or shine.

They walk the boats up the beach by turning them end for end until they get up out of the tide and close to the road.

These are the fish that they caught after fishing all night.  There are two of them per boat to work the nets.

The last 20 feet of the beach, they turn the boats strait and everyone comes to help push them up the last part of the beach.  Jan and I jumped in to help and they clapped for us,when we got the boat up to the road.  With 20 people pushing it was still very hard work to move  the boats.  For all those who came from the village to help put the boats away they gave them a couple of small fish for their food for the day.  They would help several boats and go home with enough food for the family for the day.

This is a little church that we passed on the road.  It looked like it would only hold 10 people, but Romeo told us they would put chairs outside for the overflow crowd.

In Kribi, there are rivers that flow into the ocean.  We went to this spot where there are some waterfalls.  It was very beautiful.  There were shops where we bought some souvenirs.  Romeo bought us a hand carved pineapple with coasters inside.  We told him we would think of him and Irene whenever we have a Coke at home back in Utah.  They really want to come and see us in Utah.  We hope they can.  We told them if they can get the airfare we would take care of everything else and show them a lot of neat things like all the temples and conference center in SLC.

The Falls

A village across the river from Kribi.  People live like they have lived for hundreds of years.


Jan and I with our very very good friends Romeo and Irene.  Irene had just bought that hat to wear at Romeo’s brothers wedding in a couple of weeks.  I told her she was like the Britts with her new hat for the wedding.

These young men were bathing and washing their clothes by the falls.  We were glad to see that they still had on their under wear.  That’s not always the case.

We hiked up a little trail to get closer to the falls and we found this lady washing dishes and brushing her teeth in the water.  We weren’t sure if she would like us taking her picture, but she smiled when I said “Bonjour Madame”.

On road from the falls, as we were leaving, we passed this man and woman on a mototaxi with this huge fish strapped on the back.  We assume that they were taking it home to cook for their family. We worry a lot about food not being refridgerated he in Africa.  The milk, eggs, fish, and most everything else, are just left out in the open.  So far, we have only had minor stomach problems from the food.

This is a mud house that we passed on the way to the falls.  Many of the older homes are completely like the bottom half of this house.  It is made with poles, sticks and mud.   Notice the windows, or lack of.