Growth of the Church: A New Stake is Created

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening to everyone!

I had a pretty solid and busy week as usual. The two high lights from the week were having dinner with President Martinez and having an exchange!

There is a new stake being created in Sierra Leone, this new one will make it 6 total stakes. Although it is not much, there is some crazy growth out here! To oversee that event President Martinez and Elder Kaku came. President Martinez is in the Area Presidency for West Africa and Elder Kaku is an Area 70 in Ghana. They arrived on Thursday and we were invited to have dinner with them. Before I go any further, the West Africa Area Presidency is led by President Nash, who is a no nonsense kind of guy. That guy does not mess around! We got to the President's apartment and waited till they arrived. When they arrived President Martinez went around and shook everyone's hand and stared them down as He talked a bit. When He got to me I was nervous! It felt like he was staring into my soul!! But I just smiled and made some small conversation and it was all good. 

(Parental Note: A "Stake" is an organizational unit in the Church. Our congregations are called "Wards". Several Wards make up a Stake.)

Leadership from the Mission and the Newly Created Stake

We then had some dinner and got to talking about their conversion stories. They both shared some powerful experiences and the love they have for the Gospel! It was a really good night and fun to be with them. 

On Friday, we did an exchange with our District Leader! He is training a new missionary, Elder Luamanu, so he came here and Elder Dilebo went to their area. Elder Luamanu was a total stud! He is from Samoa and had the opportunity to play Rugby for his country's national team but decided to serve a mission. He is a powerful missionary with a really strong testimony. The only bad part was that almost all of our appointments had cancelled on us! That never happens here, and so we saw some members and less active people. It was a good exchange!

Elder Luamanu and I

We also had a Zone Conference this last week. It was a good one, pretty heavy but good. President and Sister Harper are really trying to fix up some loose ends in the mission, the Area Presidency has also made some new rules to keep. It is a good change and will really help the mission out, now it is just getting all the missionaries on board! These new changes really help me to understand the the Lord leads and guides this work. He is very aware of us! Love you guys!

-Elder Morgan

Flooding due to all the rain

Elder Dilebo and I Making Cookies!