Airport

Returning With Honor

On May 10th Elder Lancaster left his mission for medical reasons. He served an honorable mission and was greatly admired by his president and fellow missionaries. 

Life in Sierra Leone

Hey,

Well another week done. We are now on week 6 of this transfer. On Sunday they will tell us the transfer news about if I will be transferred anywhere. This coming Saturday we have a baptism. We will be baptizing a boy named Alusine Lahai and a girl named Tiange Bundu. Alusine has asked me to baptize him so it will be really cool if I am transferred to have been able to do that before I go. Victor that I spoke about last week has officially gone back to Freetown so we don't get to see him anymore I really hope those Elders in Freetown are able to find him and get him baptized he is such a good guy. Another thing that has been happening with us is that we are having this fuel crisis right now here in Sierra Leone. At first all the bike riders were telling us that there is no fuel but then we found out that really the fuel stations have fuel and they are just holding it for a strike or something. The president of the country has decided that he wants fuel to be sold by liter instead of gallon now and so its creating all of these problems. All the bikes now charge 2 thousand Leones to go anywhere close and then more then that if its far. Which 2 thousand Leones is less then 50 cents but to us here that is a lot of money ha ha. But things are going well here. We are coming up on the rainy season which is good and bad. I really don't like the rainy season because it makes you all depressed and your always soaked but the good thing is that we actually have electricity and water in the rainy season so that's the plus side. Right now our well at our house is completely dry so we pay these kids to go fetch water for us from another well down the street. Oh another thing that I forgot to mention last week is that there are 2 sisters here in Sierra Leone that have received there mission calls to this mission. One is from here in Bo and one is from Freetown. I heard that president is going to send them to Liberia. I don't know if there is more then just those two coming but before October there will be 12. The 2 that have there calls come next transfer so things are happening quick. But thank you so much for the thoughts and prayers I love you all. Love
                              

Elder Lancaster

Easter

Hello,

Well another week. This week was crazy we had quite a few activities so it went quick. We had an Easter program on Saturday that was really good. And of course church was full for Easter Sunday a lot of less actives came ha ha. The people we are teaching are doing well. We started teaching this guy named Victor a little while back. And he told us when we started teaching him that he was going to be going back to Freetown really soon but that he was interested in the church. So we kept visiting him and then just planned on giving him as a referral to the Elders in Freetown. When we first started teaching him he told us how he doesn't feel god loves us because of all the bad things that are happening in the world. It was around the same time the earthquake happened in Japan and the war in Ivory Coast and Libya and stuff. He said if god loves us why does he make us suffer so bad. And he said that he had prayed to God before when his life was really hard and he didn't have any food to eat or any shoes to wear and God never answered his prayers. Well of course we did our best following the spirit and helping him understand. But he was just never convinced we would get kind of frustrated after his lessons because he just had his mind made up about God and just really felt that he didn't love us. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and been continuing to meet with us. Well, the last lesson we had with him this week he told us Elders thank you so much for everything you have done for me. He said I now know that God really does love me. That's why he had Joseph Smith Restore the church and that's why he has given us the Book of Mormon so that even though through these hard times we still have something to hold on to that will carry us through. It was so awesome to see the change in him. You could tell the spirit has really been working with him and he is doing well. He is now fully ready for baptism he will be going to Freetown this week and those Elders are going to be pretty excited to receive a referral who is converted and ready to be baptized. On Saturday we will be having a fireside for recent converts where my companion and I will speak and then we will have some recent converts bare testimonies then we are going to watch the testament it should be a really good program. So that's it for this week. This next coming Wednesday the 27th is Sierra Leone's 50th Anniversary for there independence. We have been told that we will be coming in early that day because on independence you can practically do anything you want so we will be inside doing our weekly planning that day. Well thanks for everything I love you all.

                                                                Love Seth

Baptism

Well, another week. We had a baptism on Saturday where we baptized a brother and sister. Madi and Johnathan. They have been coming to church for a long time with there grandfather but have never been baptized. They are 15 and 17. It was a really nice baptism. We don't have very many people that are progressing right now but we are still working with them. We are trying to find some more people to teach because our teaching pool is getting low. The branch president has asked us to organize a fireside for all the recent converts and thing we are going to base it on the Book Of Mormon and probably show the movie The Testaments. But that wont be for another week. This Saturday us missionaries will be doing a Easter Program for all of Bo it will be a really nice program. My District is combining with another district and we will be singing some songs. Our next baptism probably isn't going to be until next month. So that's just a quick update on us here thanks for everything.

Elder Lancaster

Interviews With Mission President

Elder Lancaster and a few other elders waiting for their turn to interview with the Mission President last week.

Super P-Day

Well, another week. Not to much exciting happened this week. The boys that we baptized last week received the priesthood this Sunday it was really awesome to see how excited they were and to see them learn about there responsibilities in the church. We don't have many investigators that are progressing right now but that's how some weeks are. Yesterday we had our super p day and we went out to this place called friendship club that is like a.... Well, I don't know what you would call it. But it had a pool and a tennis court and stuff it was pretty fun. Of course we couldn't swim but we played tennis and football and just had fun. We will be having a baptism on Saturday. Its these 2 kids whose grandfather is a member they are about 14 and 16 So that should be good. We also had what we call zone dessert where the zone all goes to the Sewa Rd apartment every other Sunday and one district makes a dessert for everyone. We made rice crispy treats and chocolate chip cookies it was pretty good. We started teaching this really rich woman her husband is chief executive of a NGO here in sierra leone called help salone. We went to there house and the husband offered us some alcohol with ice. I nearly accepted because it had been so long since I have seen ice haha jk.  The husband hasn't sat down with us yet but I'm hoping that next time we go there he will join us. But not to much of an update here. Everything is going alright. Thanks for the love and concern. 
                            

Elder Lancaster