Moms

Hello Everyone!

I am so grateful to be emailing this week! I just finished talking with my family and man oh man, they are so awesome! I have really been blessed in the Parental, Aunt and Grandparent unit! This week went by pretty quick, we were able to drive and show the Child's around Freetown and Kissy. We also had some solid lessons and a good time.

The Childs are a new senior couple who came to the mission, they will be taking over our job. President Harper told us that it does not need to happen soon, but over time they will be taking over completely and we will be full time proselyting elders! I am actually pretty excited about that, the office work is fun but I will be excited to be proselyting full time. 

It was a pretty good time with Elder and Sister Child. They are from Utah and were pretty surprised and could not believe the way people live here. They were taking lots of pictures and really enjoying the scenery! One nice thing that they did was Sister Child made us some cookies!! A few days before she had asked what were some things missionaries missed or would want, I said cookies and she decided to make some and bring them to all the missionaries that we saw! All of the missionaries really enjoyed it. 

One cool story one of the people we are teaching told us an amazing story that I would like to share! 

Her name is Agnes Mattia, she was born in Sierra Leone but moved to Guinea and married a man there. She had a boy child with him and went back to Sierra Leone while her husband flew to Morocco to find a better life. Turns out that he could not get money to send her by plane and so she walked all the way! She told us that she went from Sierra Leone to Guinea to Mali to Algeria then to Morocco! It took her 2 months but she did it! As she went to Morocco, she got pregnant again and then her husband left/abandoned her! She ended up creating a business and having her girl child and leaving her in Morocco. She walked back to Sierra Leone and got enough money to send her son to France. She did not know if he was going to be on the street or what. Just sent him not knowing the outcome! He is know living in France with some people and trying to come back to see his mom! Just a crazy story that makes me so grateful for moms. They will go to any height to have a better life for their kids. Such an awesome and humbling story. 

Agnes

Well we really did have a good week and I cant wait to do it again!
-Elder Morgan

We received the following email from Elder and Sister Child. It was so nice to hear from them!

Hi Bishop and Sister Morgan, my name is Dee Child and my wife (Bonnie) and I just started serving in Sierra Leone as senior missionaries, arriving late last Saturday night.  Bonnie and I had the privilege yesterday of spending part of the day with your son, Elder Morgan.  He and his companion and a driver took us around to visit some of the missionary apartments in Freetown and we were so impressed with his happy personality, his clean and wholesome missionary look, his use of Krio, his knowledge of the roads and areas around here, his great social skills with us, and his desire to be a great missionary.  I am sure you are so proud of him!  They are taking us out tomorrow again to visit some other apartments and Bonnie made some peanut butter cookies to surprise them.  We think the way to get to the hearts of great young missionaries is through their stomachs! 

As you know, President and Sister Harper arrived just a few weeks ago to serve as Mission President and Wife. They are WONDERFUL people and will be great leaders for the mission and are dedicated to supporting the missionaries.

Bonnie and I have 5 children – 2 sons and 3 daughters.  Our sons served missions in different parts of Russia in the late 90’s and we were so nervous at first about them going to such a scary country.  They came back more mature, stronger, happier, and better equipped to take on their future journeys in life.

Thanks for sharing your son with the people of Sierra Leone and for preparing him so well.  We will look after him for you!