Email for the Week and pictures
Dear Friends and Family,
Added to our blog if you are interested: https://
I can't speak for Elder Thacker, but for me at the end of the week my perspective of things has shifted. It's like my eyes are being opened and instead of just poverty, filth, and crazy picture worthy happenings, it seems that I am recognizing the beauty around me. I see the beautiful palm trees and banana trees surrounded by red clay packed roads. Those two colors are striking together. I see the bright colors on all of the people and see them as beautiful people. Elder Thacker and I both have commented on how beautiful bright yellow looks on their black skin. I stand in awe with the heavy loads that children and women carry on their heads. I also see how the little children have chores and help in their families. This week we were out very early. We saw a little child like 3 years old sweeping her front porch with her mother. I can see that the people in most villages keep their homes and dirt around their homes clean and swept and they are always doing laundry. I think back to being at home when my laundry baskets get too full. I remember thinking it is an endless job, but in comparison to here laundry machines are time savers. The. Laundry here goes on all day and is always out drying on the lines. Every load of laundry is done by washboards, which they call bricking. I complain that I have to wash the collars of Fred's shirts by hand before putting them in the washing machine.
I am grateful for these experiences and that my eyes are beginning to open! In the past weeks I was just looking at my life, and wondering how it would be possible to live in these very different circumstances.
Fred and I do a lot of traveling right now. Our mission president wants us to live in an area that is about 6 hours away from the mission home. There is a much shorter road to travel to get there, but right now in the rainy season it is unpassable! Ok, in truth, Fred would like to try, but is trying to be obedient. This home 6 hours away is not quite ready for us to move in, so for now we live in a temporary one near the mission home. We visit far reaching branches during the first days of the week, then travel to our permanent area on the weekends.
We are enjoying seeing this beautiful country, but our favorite is meeting and interacting with valiant members of the gospel. There are villages very far from the market areas. They are so far that it is not possible to put missionaries in them right now. (We are searching for places to change this.) We find home groups that are meeting on their own accord with the approval of the stake president. It amazes me that they are so valiant and strong in their testimony that they sacrifice their time and talents to teach and gather more members. These home groups we have found have many investigators eager waiting for missionaries to teach and baptize them. Fred and I spend 1 day a week right now driving missionaries to these distant places so they can start teaching the many who are waiting.
I often wondered how the spirit guides our missionaries. What a choice experience it has been to see this first hand. Fred and I pray together in the morning and ask for direction. Then we just watch with amazement how our days are filled and choice experiences fall in our path. One day, we set out to find a branch. The map showed 45 kilometers. All of this was on a dirt road. We had to drive in 4x4 the entire way and crossed over 2 rivers and washed out roads. We drove for quite some time and both decided that there was no way we could get missionaries here, and we doubted our information was correct that there could be a branch that far out. We had just decided to turn around when a few people asked us for a ride. We continued for a while longer taking the group to where they needed to go. When we dropped them off we said to each other "let's go just a bit further, then we will abort and report to the President that this branch doesn't exist." Moments later, I look and see a gentleman in a white dress shirt and tie. He appears to be wearing his temple garments. We stopped and to our surprise and wonder, he was the branch President, and the building is a newly built church with a true steeple, chapel, keyboard for music, an indoor baptismal font, individual rooms for primary, priesthood etc. I know that sounds strange, but for Sierra Leone it is not normal to have such a fine church house. This President leads a group of 80 plus members and investigators and it is growing. They have not seen any missionaries in their church and teaching since 2018! They were emotional and humbled that we found them that day! I see now how the Lord put the group in our path to give them a ride, and then the Branch President was out doing his ministering that day, that hour, and that location so we could find him and the church. The Lord is in charge of his work, and he is leading Fred and I in paths that are not our own.
I will attach a few pictures and conclude this lengthy email.
Picture 1: Members of one of the branches we found.
Picture 2: Special time with a newborn, when the Lord knew I was longing to be with my newest grandson.
Picture 3: Playing with the village children. Fred and I taught them to play "I have a dog and he won't bite you." They loved to pick Fred to run around. He had to get tricky because they were so fast.
Picture 4: The branch was so excited that we found them that the Chief's wife and daughter gave me a gift of some food....a live chicken!"
We love you all and appreciate so much your support. Elder and Sister Thacker
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