100 Days in Liberia

Can you believe it!!

  It's been 100 days since our family and friends wished us good luck and sent us on our way to Liberia.

We've now been in Liberia for parts of 5 different months now!!

 

We arrived at the Robert's Airport on August 28, 2013.  Tired and scared to 

death.  But, since then we have learned much…..

We've learned that there are only two seasons in Liberia -  the 'Rainy Season' and  the 'Dry Season'.

Here I am learning about the Rainy Season by stepping in mud up to my ankles as we made our way into church.  We are now in the Dry Season which started on October 15 and is very hot and humid. 

We've learned you can go to church in the humblest of circumstances, like in our Logan Town Branch, and still feel the spirit.  

We've learned that Liberian children don't need fancy toys to play with.  They can make cars they pull around on a string, from an empty oil can for the body and 4 small cans for the wheels. 

We've learned that any patch of dirt can be a football (soccer) pitch and that you don't even need shoes to play or a ball with air in it.

We learned that we love the children and….

the missionaries.

(Elders Skouson and Pentreath - the AP's)

We've learned that Liberian missionaries are true 'Warriors' - serving under hard conditions.  We greatly admire their dedication and examples.

We've learned that we love the ocean no matter what country we're in.

We've learned that we like to eat barracuda.  It's one ugly fish, but it sure tastes good. 

No, Elder Miles and Elder Berrett did NOT catch the fish. They bought it from a 'fish market' on the side of the road.  Quite the experience but because...

we've learned that you never pay the full asking price, they were able to make a fair deal.  

 

We've learned that there's a girl who works at Monroe Chicken whose name is the same as mine, just spelled a little differently. (Monroe Chicken is a fast food restaurant similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken.)

We've learned there's no fresh milk here.  It comes in a box that you can store on a shelf.  And that if it's cold, it's not too bad. 

We've learned that you can't trust the butcher at Harbel's when he tells you, "Yes, those are hamburger patties."  We have no idea what it 'really' was except it was NOT hamburger!

We've learned that you don't have to have a 'real' Christmas tree for Christmas.

(Got this idea from Elder Ngobi's Christmas tie.)

We've learned that we're not missing the snow for Christmas.

We've learned that we like being missionary companions.

We've learned all this and a lot more.  But probably the biggest things we've learned is we better enjoy this time and work hard because it's going by so quickly.