* C'est la Vie: On the Road Again

March came in like a Lion! We started on the road, or I should say river again.. Brent had 50 personal interviews to do before finishing this round and it required two trips to do them. First we crossed the Congo River. It's always an adventure.

From the beach we headed through Brazzaville directly to the stake center.

We spent a day in Brazzaville holding interviews and talking with the missionaries there. It's such a

great experience for us to be with our missionaries. Brazzaville has 24 missionaries and no senior couple to shepherd them. We feel like the work could go on much more successfully if we had a French-speaking couple to help them. They do well, but really feel a little isolated across the river from the rest of the mission, as do our American missionaries in Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. Right now those Americans have couples to help them. In five months, without replacements, they'll all be alone.

Brazzaville Stake Center

Some of our great young elders.

This is the hotel where we stay and it's the nicest one in our mission. It's almost like a little vacation to be able to stay in this hotel for a night and eat in a good restaurant just around the corner.

The next morning we headed to the beautiful Brazzaville airport and our flight to Pointe Noire to interview and be with the missionaries there.
This airport was just built last year and it's so wonderful. It's coming along slowly, but it's nice and clean and we're happy to go to this airport. What a contrast from "the Beach."

"Prochainement" (seen above and to the left) means coming soon. Lots of things are coming soon, and have been since we got here in July, but this airport is still just wonderful. It's the nicest one in our mission. We'll still take it with or without the duty free shop and the snack bar.

There's even a jet way to the plane that is visible on the picture above. I love not having to walk hauling all our luggage down a million stairs to the tarmac and then up another half million to the plane.

Modern is good! So, we were off to Pointe Noire.

The American missionaries who come to our mission are a special group. I just have to think that they're the best of the best! We enjoyed a little visiting time with them, having interviews and dinner together and held a zone conference .Elder and Sister Wheatley are the couple in charge of things in Pointe Noire. They just came in December, speak no French and have adapted like fish to water. They're doing such an excellent job in a totally different world than their home in Clinton, Utah. We're so grateful them. Their life is pretty challenging right now, but they just keep going! What heroes! We're trying to get them into a new house, but they're a little hard to find. The one they're in now had no power about half of the three days that we were there. They never have enough electricity to run their washer and dryer so they're doing wash by HAND. That's something I've never had to do in my Africa experience. Their water doesn't work when the power is out and their back door is sandbagged in case it rains. While we were there a rubber hose under their sink broke and they had a flood. But they just keep going and doing so well. We love and honor them for making things work.