August 1 - August 6 - FHE & Final Preparations for Elder Bednar's Visit

August 1 - Yesterday at church Simon had asked if we would come to Family Home Evening this afternoon with his family and some others. So we drove into the neighborhood near the Nyashi 2 chapel. Simon uses a wheelchair. His legs don't work well. He and the two full-time missionaries for that ward met us and led us to Simon's house. Two ward missionaries also came, along with a man and his wife and Simon's wife and 4 children. The home is very humble, but clean--as clean as it can be with a hard packed dirt floor.

The children participated with song, prayer, and a recitation. Elder Oulai told a story about a young boy who was asked to carry a large cross. On his journey he stopped several times to have some of the end cut off so it wouldn't be so heavy. As he arrived near the destination there was a deep ravine. The cross could have been placed across the ravine so he could have walked across. However, because he cut some of it off, the cross was not long enough to span the ravine. Even though the way may seem too hard we need to persevere and "carry our cross" so we will be strong at the end of our journey to complete the task.

Elder Peterson had been asked to share in the lesson. He told the story of Lehi leaving Jerusalem and Nephi and his brothers building a boat to carry them to the promised land. He had the picture of the family in the boat. We left the picture with them along with copies for each family of The Family - a Proclamation to the World. We gave Articles of Faith cards to each child.

The mother of the family had prepared food for us. There were bowls of sweet potatoes in a oil based sauce, a bowl of rice, and bowls of cooked peanuts. Each of us had a spoon and used it to get our portions from the large bowls.

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My bruised and swollen arm from the fall on July 24

August 2 - This afternoon Emmanuel drove me to the Senway Hospital. One of the sisters in our ward had a baby cesarean 2 weeks ago and the Relief Society was taking food to her today. It was planned last Sunday that I would meet them there and bring some fruit. Just before time to leave the office a man came to fix the printer, other men came to hook up WiFi Internet into our homes. So Elder Peterson needed to stay and oversee that. It was good that Emmanuel took me because he knew where the hospital was and could ask where the maternity section was.

The hospital consists of several one story buildings. Sylvie, the one who had the baby came outside in the courtyard area to visit with the Relief Society sisters.  I greeted them all, gave Sylvie the food, and then Emmanuel explained that I couldn't stay longer to visit. I needed to get back to the office to prepare a report for the President. Families have to provide all food for those at the hospital. There is no cafeteria.

August 3 - Changes and requests are coming in from the area presidency regarding Elder Bednar's visit, We will wait until Friday and Saturday to assemble what is needed for each day. Elder and Sister Barlow have been a huge help to me in the office this week. I turned the key indicator report over to Elder Barlow. Sister Barlow was working on the pictures from zone conferences, lightening them a bit so the missionaries could be seen better.

August 4 -This morning Elder  Barlow started teaching a French class at 8:30 a.m. It is for one-half hour each day, Monday - Friday. He will help us on our pronunciation. We are starting with the alphabet and the "tasks" that are presented through the Church's Senior Missionary language class.

Sister Barlow is redoing the transfer board. Many missionaries have changed their last name to another one of their names for their missionary name badge. So we need a transfer board that has only that name so President Shumard can learn them easier (and all the rest of us too). It also has the date they entered the mission field and their release date. She made a template in Publisher so when new missionaries come it will be easy to make theirs look like the rest.

August 5 -  Dr. and Sister Peterson thought the new transfer board was such a good idea that Sister Barlow, along with Elder Barlow's help made a second set for them so they can recognize the missionaries better. Both sets were completed and laminated today. The APs helped Brother Barlow change out the pictures on the board the President had in his office.

August 6 - Had a big day of doing laundry and other chores around the house.