A Very Fast Trip

The day after we got home from Mission Presidents' Seminar Brent decided that we needed to have a Zone Leader Council, which we had thought we would skip because of our 19-day travel schedule this month. But he felt the need to go ahead with it.  So, I hurried and arranged for the lunch and Brent got the training ready and we held a monthly Zone Leader Council.  This is a tremendous group of young missionaries. Their job is to discuss mission issues, consider objectives, and receive training and then take the messages and decisions back to their zones. They are serious about this responsibility, take copious notes, and are just wonderful.

Walking the hall at the Adonis Hotel does
bring to mind a cruise ship.

 The day after that we headed out on our fastest trip ever to the outlying cities.  We had to cross the river and spend the night in Brazzaville because of the flight schedule.  Brent told the office staff that he was taking me on a little "overnight, romantic get-away." Crossing the river, staying overnight in a hotel, meeting with the Brazzaville stake president, eating camping meals, and reading and answering the 60+ emails from missionaries that come every week, is not my idea of a vacation!  But it was a nice thought.

Then Friday we headed out for Cameroon. We were gone for four days, took six flights, and visited three cities in two countries. Brent did priesthood leadership training in each city and interviewed 24 missionaries . We  held short zone conferences and dinner in each of the three zones. We have 20 North Americans, three Malagasies, and one Congolese there, plus our three fabulous couples.

While Brent interviewed missionaries I shared our Central African Republic and Elder Holland visits and talked about things we learned at the seminar. These were the only missionaries in our mission who missed the visit of Elder Holland. They were understandably sad not to have been there.
Distance, finances and national boundaries make it impossible for them to ever get to Kinshasa. The North Americans only serve in these three cities but are very accepting of this situation. .

I love to see the elders heading back to their sectors. They're really awesome!

It rained on and off for most of the trip, but it was a blessing to me that it didn't rain on any of our six flights.  When we got to Pointe Noire, the Wheatley's told us that it had rained heavily all the day before and there had been many areas flooded. As if life isn't hard enough, this is what  happened when hard rain hit this weekend and there was flooding.

 

So sad to see these people who already have so little suffer even more because of flooding. It will take them a lot of time to re-establish their homes.

We arrived home  the day before Thanksgiving just in time to get ready for dinner with our couples. We just love these folks and it was great to share Thanksgiving with good friends.

Later we talked to our children on Skype. They had it set up at Emily's home so that each family could greet us as they arrived and made last minute preparations.  It was really fun to almost feel like we were there.  When dinner was ready they asked Brent to ask the blessing, which he did in FRENCH.  Then they said goodbye and went on with their celebration.  We also had a chance to visit separately with some of the families at different times  We're so grateful for this good family of ours.

Late in the evening Brent turned on the television and to our surprise there was a football game. This was the first football game that Brent has seen in more than three years. He completely enjoyed it, even though the power went out right in the middle of the best play of the game.

We feel grateful for our bounteous blessings from our loving Heavenly Father.

We were also thankful for a great holiday with good food, friends, family and football. 

It's just what Thanksgiving should be.