General Conference and Another Visit to Batima Village

Hello Everyone,

I am so glad to email today! We had a great week, but definitely the highlight was General Conference! Man, that was so awesome. My Conference experience was a little bit different than most peoples best nonetheless super spiritual and uplifting. But other than that, lets see how my week went!

First off I will talk about General Conference. For those who are not aware of what General Conference is, simply it is when The Prophet and other Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints give us counsel. This happens every 6 months in April and October. 

The Area Presidency said they would not be streaming any sessions of General Conference to any of the church members here. They simply do not come and watch. As missionaries, we were all a little bit down about not being able to watch it. But luckily for Elder Uko and I, a neighboring Bishop allowed His missionaries to use His WiFi to watch it. We were invited to watch! So we all crammed 15 people into a room the size of an office cubicle. We did not have a working speaker and so we all huddled around the computer to hear. It was both spiritual and sweaty! The time difference is 6 or 7 hours ahead and so we started at 4 o'clock and again at 8 o'clock. My favorite talk was given on the Saturday Morning Session by Brook P. Hales. 

This week we had a few adventures that I would like to share. On Saturday we were in a lesson with an older woman and in the middle of talking a snake slithered up my pant leg! All of the sudden, I jumped up and pulled the snake out of my pant leg and just swung it around and threw it. It landed across the street and slithered away. It was probably about 3 feet long.  The funny part about it, was that Elder Uko was more scared than I was. He screamed and ran away. I have found out that all West Africans are terrified of snakes.  A good time for sure! 

We went to go to the Batima Village again, with a ward missionary this time. I am grateful we did that! We got there and all we saw was small mud houses with palm tree leave roofs. We met with the Chief and will be going back again this week. What a great experience!

This week I learned a valuable lesson. With our area we are very busy but I have finally realized that I cannot get everything done. And becoming okay with that. We cannot baptize all of the people in the short amount of time I am here and realized we just have to prepare all the best we can for the next missionaries. We have made a better schedule and it is working really nicely. We are still working just as hard but now just smarter! 

I hope everyone had a great week just as I did.

-Elder Morgan

Parent Notes:

We talked with Eli again this week. He's really doing great and loving the country and people of Sierra Leone. He talks more and more like an African. He has learned Krio really well, and people there comment often at how good he sounds. It's really fun to hear him talk to the people on the street.

They finally received water after about a week of having to go to a local well and draw water to bring back to their compound for cooking, showers, etc. He said it wasn't so bad, but it wasn't very convenient. He's enjoying taking showers again, instead of using a bucket!

He was offered a job as a salesman for a local company. He had to tell them that his full time job right now is to serve the Lord on his mission. But it's good to know he can find work if he decides to never come back home! Eli has many talents and will do very well in life. :)

We keep asking if he's losing weight, but since he doesn't have access to a scale. He called on his way to the store to buy their weekly food, so we know he's eating... He's dying for a hamburger, though! He's feeling good, though, and eats a ton of rice with cassava leaf and an occasional chicken.

No Explanation Needed

Eli and Elder Uko