Friday, November 16, 2012

The Polished Turd

Jarren described the "new chapel" that they are meeting in here in Bo.  This is what he had to say about it:
"Well we have moved out of our building that we were in. I don't think I had ever shown you pictures of it before. It was a dumpy concrete shack that nobody took care of but the branch president. The new one we are in is a polished turd. Craftsmanship does in no wise exist in Sierra Leone. I don't know why but they never make any attempts to at least try to make things look good. Don't get me wrong, the building is nice, but in some ways the workers were just "half-butting" things. For one, the underground pipe from the well pump to the baptismal font is broken. All they did to fix it was put a rock over it. Also the pipe leading up from the well has a very large fracture in it. They never cleaned up the mess they made. The frame on the font doors is not painted so it rusts. And many more things always go wrong because "this is Africa"."

Dispite the things they do without and the polished turd for a building the gosel is growing leaps and bounds in Sierra Leone.  This past week Jarren gave me an up date on the mission news:

1) By December 2 Kenema will be a district.
2) The Bo East zone will split into the Bo East Zone and the Kenema zone
3) by next transfer we will be getting sisters in the Bo East zone and Kenema
4) Sometime in 2013 before President Roggia is released the mission will split into the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission and the Liberia Monrovia Mission
5) By December 2...the first ever Stake in Sierra Leone will be created in Freetown...Elder Jeffery R. Holland will be coming to organize it.
Wow!  The work is really moving forward in a big way.  I am so grateful that Jarren has the opportunity to be a part of something so great.  I know that his mission has added so many blessings to his life and to know that he is a part of this great work.
Knell