Dinner with the Carlos family.  Elder Asiedu, Sister Carlos, Brother Carlos, Sister Lauritzen and Elder McDonald.  Brother Carlos was showing us potential apartments for elders in Waterloo and his wife made us dinner.  It was chicken and fresh herring on rice served family style.  It was cooked over charcoal in a corner of their small front porch.  Sister Carlos did not eat with us.  It's their custom to put guests first and there was limited space around the plate of food.  There were five spoons around the dish and we all sat in a circle on benches in a little room.  There was no light in the room except what came through the window and door.  It took a little courage to dig in, but we bravely did.  It was good.  Elder McDonald explained to Sister Lauritzen beforehand that when you are eating family style and you get a mouthful of small fish bones it's best to just swallow it.  Brother Carlos told us stories as we ate.  We laughed and had a fun time.

 The NP fuel truck finally arrives at the mission home five days late.  We have been bringing diesel in five gallon containers to keep our generator working.  We burn about 400 imperial gallons per month.

 They put the fuel truck hose over the fence and we climb a ladder to the 500 imperial gallon storage tank.

The man on top of the fuel tank is shivering out of control in the rain.  I was wet but comfortable.  Our compound guard, Hassan, in his tan uniform, was helping us.  We measure the amount of fuel with a stick.  They do the same thing with the fuel truck.  There are no meters on the trucks in Sierra Leone.

 Sister Lauritzen and her baseball team waiting at the Grafton soccer field for the start of the Freetown East District re-forestation project on the All-Africa Service Day, 18 Aug 2012.

 Elder Jones, Elder Nwosu, Elder Lauritzen and a cute little girl that wanted to be in the picture too.  The group planted almost 3,000 cashew and moringa trees on a neighboring hillside that had been deforested by people using the trees to make charcoal for cooking.

This is a staged picture.  We were looking for apartments for missionaries in Waterloo when we found this little guy using two sticks to roll a tire up and down the road.  We asked him to demonstrate it for us for this picture.  He was an expert.

 Siaka is our groundskeeper at the mission office.  He cut the bananas from the trees behind the office and put them in a bag.  They will rest in our office utility room until they ripen.  Yum!

The birthday boy on his 63rd.  We went out to eat at the Crown Xpress restaurant and had a pepperoni pizza and a philadelphia sandwich.  They were delicious and totally like home ... a nice surprise.  Marlene had a present wrapped up in a bandanna for me.  It was nuts, salsa and candy.  We watched a movie and had ice cream and chocolate chip cookies.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Marlene asked if I ever thought I'd celebrate a birthday in Africa.  I truly never thought I would, but here we are.

Elder and Sister Lauritzen having our lunch break under the banana trees behind the mission office.  (Sister Roggia took the picture)

Elder Essel from Ghana and Elder Taylor from Star Valley returning home with honor.  Had a farewell testimony meeting with them in the mission home last night.  These are two great young men with strong testimonies.  Elder Essel was originally assigned to Liberia and when he was first dropped off  there it was pouring rain and he had no rain gear. He said he just decided to be happy in whatever service the Lord asked him to do ... words to live by.  Elder Taylor is taking home pictures of himself with the kids to show the girls back home so they can see he is sensitive AND strong.  The children loved Elder Taylor.

 Emmanuel Momoh, Elder Lauritzen and Elder Ameworlor in Choithram's Memorial Hospital.  Elder Ameworlor was sick and his roommate, Emmanuel, was interested in the gospel.  Emmanuel is from Koidu Town in Kono District.  He is a metallurgist at a diamond mine.  He says he gets xrayed every day when he leaves work to check for diamonds.  He was in the hospital for an infected accidental machete wound in his leg.  It's pronounced ma-chets.  Emmanuel was very interested in the gospel.  Gave him a B of M and tracts.  

 Elder Lauritzen and Sahr Doe.  Sahr is the Physical Facilities Director for Sierra Leone.  He had just been to the U.S. Embassy trying to get a visa so he was dressed in his best.

Look at those shoes!  I told him if he only had a magic carpet he'd be all set.  

August 1st was moving day for the six Kissy elders.  The rain was pouring down and we had to make the several-mile trip six times to get all of their stuff to the new apartment.  This is what the road looked like.  During the rainy season this kind of weather is an almost daily occurrence.