Sunday in Freetown

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Even though I felt like a sleepwalker all day Saturday, I managed to stay awake till 10 PM, eating a good meal in the adjoining restaurant.  I awoke at 4 AM, a bit better than last night.  I fell asleep about the time it gets light, perhaps 6:30 or 7.  Jim woke me up at 9 AM so that we could get our breakfast and get ready for church.  They have meetings here locally at 9 and 11, so we could easily make the second one.

 

It is always interesting to go to church in Africa.  The building has a large meeting area and it was fairly full by the time the meeting started, so they must have had at least 100 or more people there.  This area here has a Stake so this was a Ward as opposed to a Branch.

This building is set up on a hill above a very busy street where motor and car taxis congregate.  I am sure it is not as noisy during the 9 AM meeting as it is during this one, but they keep the windows open and the fans going so the street sounds drift up to the  building.  They also had an informal soccer game going on at a flat area across the street.  They now have ambulances so we heard those too occasionally.  The 9 AM Ward that was still in the building also caused some noise as they congregated in the hallways and during changes in classes.  Because of the cacophony of sounds and the African accent we had a hard time understanding what was being said.  The Bishop or whoever was conducting at the beginning of the meeting told them that they were being too noisy (the meeting had just started), and they were, incredibly so. 

Above is the building that they use for church meetings.  It is wider than what is shown here.  The vehicle that the mission gave to us to drive is parked in front but it has a burnt out clutch.  The building on the below is the Church office.

The difficulty in hearing what was being said and my jetlag caused me to drift off occasionally and I even started dreaming!  Jim does this all the time but I am not in the habit of falling asleep in Church.

We are always impressed that no matter who speaks, they never seem to even have a note with them—just their scriptures.  The scriptures are never marked as to the place—they just thumb through them till they reach the one that they want.  They are incredibly knowledgeable about the scriptures and could speak forever on almost any religious topic.

During the Gospel Doctrine class that was taught by a Sister, the Sunday School President conducted.  I think he probably talked more than the teacher though.  No one seemed to mind that he let the class go on 30 minutes over. He also set apart one lady who had recently been called as a Sunday school teacher, right in front of the class.  This is supposed to be done by a member of the Bishopric and is usually done in his office with perhaps a spouse attending, but usually no one else.  He also had a new Sunday school teacher share a quick testimony.   By the time Relief Society started they had about 10 minutes to give the lesson.  I left at the end of R.S. when they began asking the sisters about their Visiting Teaching.  This I understand is necessary, since it is not like they are able to afford all the technology we have or are able to drive to meet more often, so they take care of other business when they are already together. 

It is apparent that these people still need some direction.  During the Ebola crises they continued to baptize a great number of people, so what we have is a lot of new untrained leaders and members.  But the spirit that exudes from the people here is always wonderful, no matter if they don’t understand everything.  That will come later.

We came back to our hotel for lunch, and later headed to the mission home for dinner.  Carley’s could not make it because they live in Grafton.  This is why the mission gave us a car to rent so that we could get around without the Carley’s, who are a bit further away from the mission offices and our hotel.  We are about 5 minutes away. 

This is the front of our hotel.  It has a gravel parking lot.  We were glad it looked better inside than out.  The building on the right is the mission home, which is to the right of the church building and church offices.  The mission home used to be elsewhere and it was a bother getting to the offices every day.  They were happy when this property was finally developed from a former building on this site.  We were surprised it turned out so well because the other building was not good.  We had dinner here Sunday evening with the mission president and three other couples.

I’ve noticed how much more my surgical foot swells while in open shoes or sandals.  With travel and heat it is swelling even more.  While at church it got so fat that I thought I could stick a pin in it and it might pop…

Celebrating the birthday of Sister Clawson, with her husband; the Whitley’s are the young ones on the left and he used to be a missionary here 2007-2009.  They are heading to Uganda to do a startup company that sounded a bit like Uber.  The Miner’s are in the middle and are the office couple.  The other couple is here on their first mission and are doing MLS.  They are heading to live in Kenema soon and have been here about 2 weeks.  What was their name?  I have forgotten, but it was not a common one.  MLS means they train members on self-reliance, language training and mentor on how to properly run the organization of the church, or something like that.  There is another couple already in Bo, doing the same thing.  There are too many members too quickly, so there is work to do. The Clawson’s have lived all over Africa working with Reach the Children.  He says he met us when we served in Kenya.

Till tomorrow.  Love, from Freetown