Christmas Celebration and Piles of Dirt

We flew from Gabon to Pointe Noire. There Brent planned to have a priesthood leadership training and I did an auxiliary training. We also had  a zone conference and Christmas party with the eight American missionaries and the couple who are assigned there.   It's always an uplifting time when we're with them.  They work hard and have a lot of fun doing it. We had a great experience with these elders and the Wheatleys.  They are all hard working, kind and devoted to teaching and loving the people in Pointe Noire. We love them dearly!

The house in construction and the gate to Wheatley's home.

 The Wheatleys live on what is unquestionably the worst street that any senior couple has ever lived on.  It' a rough dirt road with many ruts and hills and lots of construction going on that make it difficult to navigate. Next door a man is building a new house and it's always a bit of a challenge to pass it and get into the driveway of the Wheatleys' house. Just as we were finishing our meeting we heard a huge truck that was making beeping back-up sounds in front of their home. Then we heard the sound of dirt sliding out of the truck and we all ran out to see what was happening. 

We arrived just in time to see the truck dumping the last of the sand and rocks in the middle of the road, making it impossible to get the Wheatleys' car out of their yard. When they saw us the driver hurried and  drove away.

 

Stunned,we stood for a minute wondering what the plan had been for the Wheatleys to use the road. Then we realized that they had the only car in the neighborhood and nobody else cared about a pile of sand and rocks blocking the road. They'd just walk around it. 

We began to wonder how we'd get to the planned training or even get to the airport the next morning. But the elders, without much hesitation, shed their ties, went around the neighborhood borrowing shovels and went to work. They shoveled sand and rock feverishly. They laughed, sang and threw a little sand on each other and within half an hour a small path began to emerge on the side of the road.

 Elder Wheatley wasn't very sure that it was going to work to drive on that little space and thought maybe we should move more sand and not just push the remaining  sand and rocks out of the way with the truck, forging a path as we went.   But Brent, a real lover of a driving challenge, jumped into the truck and off he went. The first try without 4-wheel drive didn't succeed, so he backed up, put it in 4-wheel drive and went right over the remaining sand and rock and was soon past the blockage.  

With a mighty cheer the elders "high-shoveled" each other.  We were all thrilled with the way another African obstacle had been surmounted. 

           These missionaries are awesome!

        Love, love, love 'em!