P-Day

The Elders were going to play basketball and we thought we would go along and try out the "walking" course.  So we stuffed all 12 of us in our 8 passenger van.  I wish we would have had a picture of that.  This is a new place that has just opened in the last few months.  There is even a tennis court, but no net :( We had a nice walk down, but then it was a good workout climbing back.  It circled around and took us about 45 minutes. It was beautiful.  Here are a few pictures.

Sorry Missionary's Moms.  I should have gotten a closer picture.

We had a meeting right after, so we couldn't wear our P-day clothes.  Next time!

Here we are on top of the hill, just finishing our walk.  Good bye Elders.  They will take a taxi home.

Relief Society Birthday Party

Saturday was a culmination of the week of events.  There were about 150 people there - many investigators.  They had asked me to make a cake, so I brought 2.  Very few have ovens, so my 2 cakes had to go a long way. They had skits, songs and dancing.  Afterwards, they fed everyone.  Some of the food looked a little scary. We were grateful for the rice and chicken that we could recognize.  I also like the plantains.

These Sisters acted out the "Good Samaritan".

This little girl sat by us.  She wanted my camera, so I finally took her picture.  I'm not sure she was happy about that!

I loved the African dancing.  The girl in the back left is one of my piano students.   The one in the middle is one of the Relief Society Presidents.  She wants to cook African food for us one day.

Relief Society Birthday - Handball

The Relief Society Sisters planned an activity each day this week.  Monday was an "Open House" to let people know about the Relief Society.  The walls were covered with projects the Sisters had done this year. Wednesday was a talk on the Church's stand on "Violence Against Women".  Today was a "Handball" game.  So, picture water polo on cement.  That was pretty much the jest of it.  I surprised them when they asked if I was going to play and I said yes.  One of the Branch Presidents told me that I needed to wear shorts, but I assured them I would be just fine in my skirt.  Here are some pictures and a little video that Elder Whitesides was able to take.  He would rather have been playing, but they told him he was there to "spectate".

Notice our "pennies" are Helping Hands vests.

Zone Conference - March 2013

"Same, Same, but different", was a saying we used in Cambodia and it applies here in Cameroon.  We had Zone Conference on Friday.  It's a lot the same, but different faces.  President and Soeur Jameson flew in that morning and so we went to pick them up from the airport.  Our 10 Elders were waiting outside our apartment door.

We were taking serious pictures, but then somehow, some got silly.

Here's some of the traffic we drove in on the way back.

Random Pictures

We had to take President and Soeur Jameson to the airport this morning - early.  It was fun to see the "mist" that was everywhere.

Look at this girl carrying a propane tank on her head.  Try balancing that on your head.

Here I am buying my vegetables for the week.  Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, green peppers and onions.  All for $6.  We stopped closer to home and bought 2 pineapples for $2 each.  I take everything home and soak them in Javel (clorox).  

"Day of the Women"

Even some of the little girls had a dress.

I wish I could have gotten closer.

Today was the "National Day of the Woman".  All the women buy the same material and they all make their own style of dress.  I saw a parade on the t.v. when we were visiting the dentist's office with one of our Elders, so I think they all meet and march in a parade.  We saw them at several gatherings.  I tried to get some
discreet shots.








 

This is one of my piano students.  Their dresses were made of pink or blue.  

Here is Elder Davis with his companion, Elder Rakotoarisoa.  Elder Rako just had his wisdom teeth out.  That was the reason we were out on the street and saw all these women.  We were picking him up to take him home to rest.

Celebration Dinner

A couple of our Elders called and wanted to buy steaks to celebrate their 1 year mark.  They wanted us to cook them, but we had a better idea.  Let's all go out and have steak.  Of course, we had to invite all 10 of them.  We found a reason to celebrate for most of us, which included our 38 year anniversary!!  We enjoyed celebrating it with our 10 "sons" and they were most grateful.  

I'll try to explain a funny thing that happened.  I wanted to take my leftover steak home, so I tried to tell the waiter that I wanted to "take it away".  The waiter didn't understand, so I asked Elder McGrath to tell him in French.  Sure enough, the waiter picked up my plate and started to pile other plates on top of it.  Elder Davis, who was watching the whole time said, "That's not coming back".  Elder McGrath said, "Oh, I just thought you wanted him to 'take it away'.  I didn't know you wanted to take it home."  So, even our English gets misinterpreted.   I now know to say, "S'il vous plaît permettez-moi de profiter de cette maison."  That should get me my leftovers.  

Missionary Pamphlets

We have been waiting and waiting for 2 orders of Missionary Pamphlets.  We placed one in November and one in January.  Our missionaries have been completely out.  I keep quoting "Nothing Can Stop the Work From Progressing", but if our Elders have no pamphlets, it slows them down.  When they asked us on Saturday, if we had received them, I said, "No, I'm not sure how to get our orders here, but the Lord does."  So, I added that plea in our prayers and sent an email on Monday to have them look for our missing orders.  They came today!!  What a blessing.  The work will go on - well, we knew it would.