Fred-n-Tracy Together

  Email January 14,2025 Dear Friends and Family,     Happy New Year 2025!  Here in Sierra Leone this is still a common greeting even though it is January 13th. They say, "Season's Greeting" or "compliments of the Season." Then they will say "Tell God Tenky." Meaing tell God thank you.     Elder Thacker and I are very grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission.  Each day we learn more about our Savior, ourselves, and love the people here in a deeper way.  We tend to be writing emails and posting on facebook less often because life just feels normal.  We are very busy in the work and wonder how we will get it all done.  Sounds like life at home doesn't it.    We work a lot with the Young Single Adults.  They have grabbed a piece of our hearts.  West Africa has a program designed to teach skill training so they can hopefully learn a skill so they can become self-reliant.  One night is an institute, one night is...

  Email December 29, 2024 Dear Friends and Family,     I hope that this Holiday season finds each of you well and feeling the Christmas spirit of love and giving.  We appreciate each of you as well and the emails that you send our way.  Elder Thacker and I are finding Christmas feelings are not the same here in SL.  Things are just so different.  We are not complaining, just simply writing to share our experience.  The weather is hot, with the days being around 85-90 degrees and the evenings are not much less.  There are no Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and very little music.  There is no Christmas shopping. We actually are enjoying the simplicity of the season and spending it together in our own little SL world.  We are told that there are celebrations with Christmas foods and that the children go around from house to house and they recieve small treats.  It sounds a little like Halloween to me, but we will see....

  Email December 3, 2024 Dear Friends and Family,    Well it has been another week or so in Sierra Leone Africa.  Time seems to go by so quickly, and just like at home there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done.      With this past week being Thanksgiving, we prepared a Thanksgiving meal for our Elders in our area.  We are getting good at making normal american dishes with the food resources that are here.  Most dishes don't have the exact ingredients, but thank goodness for google and good food substitute suggestions. I won't bore you with the listed food items, but I will say Elder Thacker pulled off 6 roasted whole chickens, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Not too bad!  And I learned that you can actually make pudding from scratch and that it doesn't have to come out of a box. Either I have been in SL too long, or it truly was the best chocolate dessert ever! HAHA!! Of course the elders ...

Hello!  Today I am just touching base.  I find very little time to add posts, but I still feel it is important to write on occasion for those that are viewing this blog.   We are doing well and enjoying this holiday season.  It does not feel like Christmas since there are no festive lights or decorations and it is hot weather, not the cold I am accustomed to.  I will add some pictures of a few of our Christmas moments so that I can remember it later.  There is a gentlemen and member named Sahr Doe in Freetown.  Every year he puts on Christmas parties for the senior couples.  It was a Christmas I will always remember.   Also, Colton was our Christmas present this year!  It has been a joy to spend time with him! Sister Thacker, Colton Thacker, Br. Turay, and President Fabba Party at Sahr Doe's Sahr Doe leading the band Festive decorations at Sahr Doe's compound

  Missionary memories We love spending time helping the missionaries as they work hard each day and week.    Feeding the missionaries has been a fun way for us to give back to all of the faithful members that have fed our boys as they have served around the world.  Thank you to each of you that loved and cared for our sons in Argentina and the Dominican Republic.    Elder Thacker and I recognize that boys and men appreciate life when their stomachs are full.  Here in Sierra Leone, food can be slim picking and not many choices for the elders.  They also have to prepare all of their meals.  Some have to learn quickly how to cook to survive. :)  Senior Couples have a few more perks than the Jr. missionaries so we choose to feed them often.  It is so fun to see their faces light up with a variety of food and also foods they haven't been able to eat since they left home.  I do always feel badly that I do not know how to cook other c...

  Sunday's are a delight Sunday November 24, 2024    This Sunday we made history!  I will include in this post a history of how and when the church was established here in our area of Sierra Leone, but I will briefly write the history for ease of catching up. Here in the Kono district, in 2016 members of the church received permission to open a home group.  It began with 11 members I believe was the count.  Yesterday, Kono held their first Area Conference.  The area consists of 2 branches and 3 home groups.  On a side note, you need to have 3-4 branches to form a District, so we are not as of yet a District.  There are 451 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on record in this area.  Yesterday at the conference we had just short of 500 attending the conference.  It was a beautiful sight to see the growth of the church and the excitement of the members to see that a District, will hopefully be coming in the near...