Post Script.... to "Every Missionary's Dream"....

Note the Book of Mormon in the forefront of this picture.

This week Dad & I have been studying Chapter 9 (How Do I Find People to Teach?) in Preach My Gospel. It talks about the fact that the Lord prepares people with experiences to help them have softened hearts for when the right time comes to be personally introduced to the gospel. We are excited to realize that perhaps our "Street Experience" was just that.

We are in the process of remodeling a good size building about 2 miles away from the place where we had our opportunity to give out so many books and pamphlets... and it will be the new chapel in Pointe Noire. Perhaps, we softened hundreds of hearts that day, and we will see the fruits of it when we open that area with a chapel!

This is the neighborhood ice cream man who wanted more information on what he had received.

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Bargain shopping

I have spent days and shopping for the stuff for the new apartments. Thanks to staging the beach houses with Christel and Caren, I have had lots of experience. It is a different experience than shopping in the fancy shops of Newport and Laguna Beach... but I did learn from the best.



I have learned to bargain with the shopkeepers. I was very excited to find a clothes tree for Dad and I, and stackers for our bathroom and closets. In fact, they have worked out so well, and I had got them down in price so much, we bought each companionship a stack of 4 baskets, a clothes tree and a little office table that we are using as a table between their 2 beds for scriptures, alarm clock, etc. The Elders are thrilled with any little "luxury" and they like having a place for all their small things and books, other than in a big pile at the bottom of their closet or on the floor of their rooms. (They didn't have any drawers, etc.)

These photos are of the place that we bought our sofa set for the boys, and I am going to have them make us sofas once we know where we are going to be permanently. As you can see, my options for fabric are exciting, most are velour... and I would hate to choose bright purple if our new apartment is bright orange!

Fabric options for sofas

The shop, the carpenters and the treddle sewing machine that they make sofas on.

“Real estate agent” missionaries

July 20 (Ongoing Process for Now)

We are bursting out of the seams at our chapel. We need a new building. The mission president asked Ed and I to spearhead the search. We walked all the areas within the parameters. 99% of the buildings were awful! If a place was decent, and nobody was around to ask about the building, we would leave a note we printed up.
The only one that I found that was for rent was an old school building. I tried to convince people that my husband could make any "dump" wonderful. Ed was horrified I would even consider it.

After looking, for days and days, we had the branch presidents make an announcement during their Sacrament Meetings that we were looking for a chapel site within certain parameters. We were praying and looking for a miracle.

That week we got a call from one of the members who had a friend with an apartment house who is leaving for an extended time and said he would like to rent the entire building to one group, so he didn’t need to worry about it while he was gone. Dad & the Zone Leader went right over and called the Branch President to see how he felt about it. It was very exciting. We now are just waiting for the approval from temporal affairs from the area. Hopefully they will get someone here this week, so we won’t lose it.

We also had to find 2 new homes for the elders. President Headlee, the mission president, said that he wanted them to live closer to their sectors. Their sectors are in extremely humble surroundings, which make it somewhat difficult to find a house that is up to my standards. I insisted that we were going to find something, within the budget, nice enough that the elders wouldn’t dread going home too at night. President Headlee also wanted a generator for when the power goes off. Not only would a generator allow electricity to see, but it would also run the pump so they could have water.

There is no Craig’s List or want ads, but they do occasionally write homes for rent on a neighborhood blackboard.
We found one house on the second day of looking. But we spent several more days driving through the sectors and looking for the second one. Each morning we would pray. I kept singing the primary song combined with the scripture “I will go, I will do, the things the Lord commands… For we know the Lord giveth no commandments save he shall prepare a way for them.” We finally found a black board that had several homes listed on it. Most of them were like 50,000 CEFAS ($100 per month). I knew they would be dives. One of them said 200,000 CEFAS ($400 per month). Our budget was 300,000 to 400,000 Cefas.

We finally found a found a brand-new, 3-bedroom home with a big wall around it right in the middle of a very humble area, and the neighborhood dumps. This house didn’t have a generator, but when we went to see it, it was perfect. The owners agreed to put in a generator (an extra 150,000 CEFAS for the first 2 years) and to put screens all around the house, (to keep the mosquitoes out). It won’t be finished for a couple more weeks, but it should be great.

We have moved all the elders out of the apartment behind us and into their own home. The other four moved in with us, until their home is finished. It actually isn’t bad having them here. They bring a special spirit into our home. They faithfully sing songs before their study time, and in the evening when they get home to end their days. We hear them through their closed doors, and it touches us deeply.

Our New Home

Our home is very nice by African standards. We are very happy with it. It is safe and secure with a big concrete wall around it and a locked gated entrance to the driveway.

It is 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, dining room, living room and kitchen. It has a pretty yard, nice clean tile, very few bugs, indoor plumbing, hot water, a nice white tiled bathroom, a dining room, a living room with interesting sofas, and a cute kitchen. We also have our own laundry room, which is huge. Our bedroom is big and has a desk in it.


Our home is great, but very expensive. We pay for our own rent now. (Before we came, they used to prorate it throughout the couples in the mission, but the president has decided that wasn't fair to the couples whose homes were very inferior to ours. We have to pay a gardener $130 a month and we think the rent is about $2,300 a month. It is much bigger than we need, so we are going to look for a nice little apartment, if there is one.

This is the Elders apartment (the other side of our duplex).
Our home is safe and secure with a big concrete wall around it and a locked gated entrance to the driveway. We have our own laundry room, which is huge.

We are still getting used to all the smells... some are beautiful... some are not. Dad and I say that the thing we are most thankful for at home, that we haven't appreciated in the past, is our trash collection system in the United States. WOW! Huge, huge perk in life!