Farewell to Elders Addington, Hoiland and Schmid

We said goodbye this week to 3 of our Elders.  We had a "farewell" dinner on Monday, then took them last night for a late night flight.  They will be missed, but we also know their families will be so excited to have them home again.  They have served well.

Here they are with their "game faces" on.  Funny Elders!  This was before transfers on Thursday.  In the pictures below, we have our new Elders.

They look so sharp in their suit coats.  We don't usually see them wearing them.

Good bye Elders.  Well Done!

Missing Guards

Every once in awhile, our guard is MIA and Sister Whitesides has to get out and open the gate.  Today was pouring rain, but we needed to get to District Meeting.  The guards were no where to be seen.  Good thing that we just received a package from home.  The box came in handy, since we don't own an umbrella.

Welcome Elder Leavitt and Transfers

Elder Leavitt has arrived safely - but not in Yaounde'.  He got off the plane in Douala instead of Yaounde' and called the Gailey's after looking for a couple of hours for someone to pick him up.

Meanwhile, Whitesides and Elders Addington and McGrath were waiting at the Yaounde' airport.  We received a phone call from Elder Gailey that went something like this:

Elder Gailey:  Where are you?  Elder Leavitt has been looking for you for 2 hours.

Sister Whitesides:  We are right here at the airport.  I'm not sure how we missed him.  We have been here for 1 hour.

Elder Gailey:  He said he is going to go out and wait in the front of the airport.

Sister Whitesides:  We don't see him.  We are all spread out, searching in both directions.  Are you sure he is in Yaounde'?

Elder Gailey:  Well, I didn't think to ask him if he was.  I'll try calling the man back whose phone Elder Leavitt used.

Elder Gailey:  He's here in Douala.  We'll go pick him up.

Where is Elder Leavitt?

We picked up our new transferring Elders yesterday.  Elder Leavitt came up with them.  We are always happy to see them arrive.  They come on the bus to us from Douala, which is a 4 hour bus ride.  We welcomed Elder Graham, Elder Gelinas and Elder Leavitt as well.

Filling Gaz Tanks

The Ekounou Elders needed 2 of their tanks filled, so we take them in our car.  It was pouring rain.  The man who sells the propane recognizes us and brought the tanks to us, even though we motioned for him to wait for the rain to stop.  You can see Elders Rambeloson and Elder Davis taking shelter under the back of the van.  When we got back to their apartment, they had to carry the heavy tanks up three floors.  Elder Rambeloson asked if we could move them to an apartment with an elevator.  Funny Elders!

Plumber Visit

We had to have the plumber come over to fix a leaky toilet.  He came again to change all the floats in the tank, because they were sticking.  The third time he came, he came to replace our sink, which had a crack in it.  This time, we had to go with him to buy the new sink, because he had no way to carry it.  We went to this place (see below), but he wasn't sure the sink would match, so we went back to our apartment to get the old sink to bring it back and compare.  Of course, we had to stop by his house to pick up his tools, so that he could take off the old sink. This reminds me of a Sesame Street book I used to read to my children.  Anyway, 5 hours later, we have a new shiny sink.  New because I had President Bala tell the plumber we didn't want a "used" one, even though it would be more expensive.  They couldn't understand that, but I do.  Did I mention, that he spoke little English?  Simple things are not easy here.

Pamplemousse

We found the biggest, pinkest grapefruit yesterday.  It is yummy!  Can you believe how big it is?

They are sitting on dinner plates!

Elder and Sister Bybee Visit

Elder and Sister Bybee, the Public Affairs couple from Kinshasa, came to visit.  We were their "taxi" for the 3 days they were here.  They met with many interesting people, including this woman.  She runs her own business and helps women and children.  She took us to visit her village, Minka.  It took most of one day. 

All the village people came over and listened to Elder Bybee tell them about our Church.  I thought  how much our young Elders would have loved visiting and teaching these people about our Church.  It is just too far away for them to come here.  One day, though!