The Trapani's in Liberia

The man in the middle is the assistant Minister for education in the country. It was a big deal to get a meeting with him. We ended up making plans for a partnership to improve many of Liberia's worst schools.  The man on the right is brother Moses Slamie. He is in a stake presidency in one of the five stakes in the country. He set up the meeting. Elder Christofferson came into the country for a one-day visit. It was a big thing here. It has been 6 years since the last visit from an apostle. He started off having a meeting with the missionaries. The missionaries came in from all around the country. This is all 160 of them. We met in the local stake center. It's a nice new building. Notice all the fans on the ceiling. No Air conditioning.  The missionaries all got here early so they would be ready when he came. They are an interesting group of people. Most of the African missionaries are from Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Currently there are four from Tonga a...

 A lot of the motorcycles here have umbrellas.  It's for the sun and more importantly for when they drive in the rainy season. They never go more than 20 mph so I guess they don't blow away. The motorcycles are taxis. They can take three or four people squished on to the seat. To take a motorcycle cost more than to take a taxi because the motorcycles can weave in and out of traffic and get you there faster We visited the compound of an NGO who would like to do projects for us. This seems to be a tradition where they will hang signs welcoming us. This is the management team for the NGO called Surido. The man standing next to me is the owner and is partially blind. In the past missionaries like us usually did smaller projects and then directly employed contractors to complete them. Now we have a mandate to do larger projects so we need to work through implementation companies that can handle larger projects. Part of our priorities is to work to improve the public schools. We wen...

This is the Dolo branch building.  It is the fourth Branch we've been asked to attend on a rotating basis. The front part is a screened-in patio and the rear part is the chapel The chapel is located in a town with no electricity and no running water. There is no generator for the building so there are no lights, no air conditioner, no fans and no bathroom. There is also no podium or any microphone for the speaker. They just stand up front. Even though things are kind of primitive it was a good meeting. Cheryl and I were asked to bear our testimonies. The two speakers gave wonderful talks. The first one was on following Jesus Christ and the second talk was on using your time wisely to have a productive life. Both talks were very doctrinally sound and well delivered. These are the two missionaries assigned to the branch. Elder Kongolo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Elder Kerns from Eastern Oregon. They teach about six missionary discussions a day. We spent most of the ...

We attended church today in the Cotton Tree and then the Margibi branches. They both meet in the same building. Here is a link of a sample of what librarian English sounds like  Liberian English  .  Yes, she is speaking english. She was answering a question in Sunday school class. At best we can understand enough words out of each sentence to piece together it's meaning. We are told that we will get used to it. They don't get very many visitors here that look like us. The little children are always real curious. Here is the chapel. He got a little toasty inside. No fans or air conditioning. The 9:00 meeting was okay but the 11:30 meeting was pretty sweaty. It was a Sunday fast and testimony meeting. The testimonies were wonderful. Even though these people live in a different economic and cultural world their testimonies of the savior, the prophet and the church are very clear concise and powerful. The building on the left is the church building. The first floor is the cha...