This is what church is like

This Sunday we attended the Harbel Branch. It's a 90-minute drive from our house. We got there about 20 minutes early. Already about 1/2 of the congregation were there and they were singing. There was no accompanying music,  it was only their voices. They do this every week.

This Sunday they had all youth speakers. They spoke on serious subjects like reaching out to others and having faith. The talks were remarkable. Each one spoke with only minimal notes. Each one used scriptures and gospel analogies. They were all very doctrine-oriented talks. They all showed that the youth had a very good grasp of gospel principles.

This is Elders quorum. The lesson was on a Liahona article about sharing the gospel. The instructor was truly just a facilitator. There was much audience participation. All of the comments seem to be very insightful.

Most members of The church here have only been converts of a few years. Yet all seem to have a very good grasp of gospel Doctrine and concepts. Maybe it's because the scriptures and the church magazines maybe the only printed materials they have in their homes. Also, there's not many other distractions. Most don't have TV or internet.

The general attitude among the church members and even the population in general is one of much spirituality. They live in a world without many worldly distractions. There is no artificial self-sufficiency or excessive entertainment and recreation that distracts a person from looking at their spiritual life. When you live a day-to-day existence you realize you're dependence upon god.

Another interesting thing about church is that it's hard for us to hear. Even though they speak English it's not American english. Notice all the fans in the picture. They're all pretty noisy.


 About 50 ft from the chapel is the generator that supplies the building's electricity. It too is pretty noisy. With the combination of all these things as well as a microphone system that's pretty poor quality,  understanding what is said is a challenge. Luckily we get  about 50% of the words and from there we can figure out what they're saying. However, it takes effort and we're kind of tired when we're done with the meetings.


For a minute on Saturday night we thought we were in Hawaii. The weather wasn't too bad and the restaurant had this view.

We had dinner with Elder and Sister Blanchard who are the mission office couple. They live inside of our complex.

Our project at Bokollah school is going well. The white building is the new one we built for them. Behind the building is a restroom and behind us is a well that we got working


Our project at Zappia school is also started. They're putting a roof on an unfinished two-story building as part of the project.

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