Fred-n-Tracy Together

Email for week March 2, 2025 Dear Friends and family,     Once again it is Sunday evening and I am wondering what things I should share with you.  Each week that goes by seems to be a common and normal life, yet Elder Thacker and I always find something new that we marvel over, or grow in our testimony of the Savior.     I find myself thinking a lot about water.  Here in Sierra Leone, we are now in the dry season.  What this means is there are never any drops of rain and they seem to burn everything from garbage to the dry vegetation.  These are not prescribed burns, just at will they light fires and many times they get out of control.  There are no fire fighters either.  It is very sad when we see someone's age old palm oil orchard, or cashew, or potato leaf gardens burn. It's devastating really.     With the dry season also comes the lack of water.  Many wells run dry as they are shallow and used excessively. It is commo...

  Email for week February 24, 2025 Dear Friends and Family,      Another week has passed.  This week was eventful so while I am trying to catch up on my journal, I thought I should send an email as well.  We are learning so much about the gospel, ourselves, and ways to improve by the people of SL that I am beginning to worry that if it is not put down in writing I will not remember and maintain the growth when we return home.    Thank you for your emails and support.    Many may ask what do you do as a Senior Couple?  Of course there are different types of missions senior couples can be called to serve, but for Elder Thacker and I we were called to a (Member Leader Support - MLS) mission.  This is mostly to live in assigned areas to strengthen the branch/or ward leaders.  Our mission President uses us for transfers and other Jr. missionary needs.  Transportation in SL is challenging.  Most transport is done on mo...

Email for Week February 19, 2025 Dear Friends and family,    I hope each of you are doing well.  I especially think of our Idaho and Utah friends that are suffering through the lengthy winter.  We are in the complete opposite weather situation here in SL.  While it is hot, I'm not sure I want to suffer the cold weather anymore.  I have become soft. :)    Elder Thacker and I are doing well.  We love serving a mission and we love that the Lord called us to Sierra Leone.  The people are so kind and friendly, the church is growing, and the adventures are fun.  We laugh a lot at the crazy things we see.  Most of the time, we make a post on facebook to share some of the interesting things we see.  One thing is for sure, we both will never be the same.  We will look at material things much differently.    Just this week we had an experience with hospitals, but this time it was with one of our family members in the ...

  Email for week February 2, 2025 Dear Friends and Family,      I hope you are all doing well and that you are tolerating the cold.  I suspect there have been some pretty cold temperatures.  In Sierra Leone we are certainly in the dry hot season.  Elder Thacker often says,  "when the rainy season ends it's like a faucet.  When it turns off, you don't see any more rain, not even a drop.     Life here is always interesting.  We both find ourselves marveling over the resilience of the people.  They are resourceful. They are compassionate and very friendly.  I find that I always have why and how questions.  For example, how am I going to retain all that I have learned about simplicity in life?     Each day it seems there is something new to learn or experience.  This past Sunday as Elder Thacker and I were meeting with a branch president and his counselor, the counselor opened a tithing envel...

  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 ...

  Emails November 25, 2024 Dear Friends and Family,     I hope you all are well.  Most of you are settling into cold weather and possibly snow.  I'm sorry about that as I sit in heat wishing the A/C could push out more cool air.    Elder Thacker and I still continue to have fun adventurous days, but it does feel like Sierra Leone is  our home away from home.  We continue to be blown away by what we see and how an entire country lives so far behind the rest of the world.  I find myself enjoying the simplicity of life here and wondering if I really need all that I have at home.   I have learned that malaria is real and is not selective on who it choses.  Most Sierra Leones will contract it many times in their life, that is if they live through it.  There are a few ways the malaria parasite affects the body.  1.  The brain,  2. The muscle and joints, and 3. Nausea and stomach. We have a dear Branch President wh...

Email October 28, 2024 Dear Friends and family,     Elder Thacker and I are alive and well in Sierra Leone.  With each passing day, week, and month we still marvel at all we are learning.  We are humbled by our experiences.  Many times we will encounter experiences that make us sit in silence as we individually try to formulate how to put it into words the ways in which it affected us.      We often feel directed to post on Facebook, yet neither of us are comfortable with it. We do not wish to make our mission experiences about us or what good others might think we are doing.  We are only instruments in the Lord's work that get the chance to have beautiful experiences.    In our area in which we are serving  the missionaries, branch leadership, and members are working hard to grow the church.  Each week the home groups and branches grow in leaps and bounds.  The home groups have outgrown their places to meet in....