Email from Elder P, 24th Sept 2012

Lots of teaching as usual this week, and the weather out there seems to be clearing up! (Reaching the end of the rainy season maybe?)


"Well, this week has admittedly been pretty difficult! I’ve been really unwell with a blood problem (not going to say much more than that, BUT it's gradually getting better - which is great, because if it does deteriorate (which it doesn't look like it will now) I'll have to go under the knife in a dirty horrible hospital out here =S =P) which has meant that I’ve been told to be immobile and had to stay at the apartment on Friday and Saturday as a result of the issue"

He then gave us a little list of ideas for Christmas presents! (We asked, since it often takes two months for things to reach him!!) but this was near the top of the list:


"Nice shampoo..?! I haven't washed my hair for 4 months and you can buy shampoo out here, but it's really expensive, sooo I'd never treat myself to it, so again, of course not a need, but would be a nice treat..?! =)"

Other news this week:

"Yesterday it was Elder Kouao's b'day and so I bought him a fudge brownie 'betty crocker' mix for lots of money (he's definitely worth it, the guy's one of my life long heroes!) and we cooked it in the gas oven in a broken frying pan (no handle) and subsequently burnt half and din't cook the other half (centre =P) - oopsie! Raw brownie mix is wonderful as well though, so oh well!!" 

He's still out there!! - Recent updates!

So sorry for the big gap again, Elder Pentreath is still out there in Liberia being a missionary- my updating has gone out the window while we moved house and had no internet. All back now, and will keep it up every week.

So, Ed has been up to a lot over the last month!! There are also some photos taken by the mission president's wife - it is great to actually see him! Although bear in mind that she doesn't actually see him teaching people and helping the people out there, just when they are having training and meeting together as missionaries. Anyway, here are some quotes and updated from him!

- His ‘trainer’ (Elder Esiaba, the missionary who was teaching him how to be a missionary) went on to Sierra Leone as planned- they spend one year in Liberia and a second year in Sierra Leone- so Ed was wondering what would happen next and who his next companion would be… and it turned out that Ed was asked to be a trainer of a brand new missionary! We were amazed about that, and he sounded quite bowled over too!

- His new companion (second missionary in the pair!) is Elder Myaka, here’s what he said about him: "Elder Myaka is from Durban, South Africa and he joined the church two years ago and is the only member of the church in his family. He's from the Zulu tribe (I'm going to try and learn loads!!) and his first name has lots of clicks in it!! =)”

- Week of 3^rd September: “This week we've been working our smelly socks off and the results are cominggg!! We're always late for curfew though and so apparently we actually need to work less. So weird, I've never been so driven to just work work work; I don't know where my energy comes from, but yesterday being fast Sunday I don't think I felt hungry at all when I broke my fast because we're just focused on working I guess!” (In our church we fast once a month, usually the first Sunday of each month. Fasting is where you miss two consecutive meals and water. It’s for two reasons- you give the money you would have spent on food that day to the church, who give it to people in the area who need it. Also when you’re not eating or focussing on yourself you try to focus on more important, spiritual things. We usually say more prayers too.)

- "Wooo today was the baptisms of Emmanuel, Archie and Daniel, 3 of my favourite people so far and I got to baptise them, which was so nice. Funniest part of today was right at the end when we decided to head over to the barracks before heading back to the apartment. To get to them you have to jump over 'the wee-river' (previously mentioned in other e-mails), which when the tide's out isn't a problem, but when it's in, becomes quite difficult. So today we caught it coming in and so I had to time it perfectly running towards the sea where the river’s a bit thinner as the waves pull back into the sea; jump over the stream/river and then cut back up along and away from it as the next wave tries to catch me. Unfortunately, for Elder Myaka he decided to take a long run up and try and clear it straight - which would have been impossible had the side he was jumping from not been slightly elevated a few feet. So with plenty of Liberians egging him on and me already on the other side, wishing that I had my camera, he ran, placed his foot perfectly on the egde of the bank and went straight into the river. The bank was made of sand of course which crumpled as soon as he stepped on it so it basically looked like he hadn't jumped at all, but had just ran straight into the river; knee deep in wee. =P Bless the poor lad"

- Week of 10^th September: "Another fun thing which happened today was that Elder Myaka and I pulled down a palm tree! With about 10 other guys, cheered and jeered on by the community - particularly because I'm a white man who's working (they think that white men can't walk, can't work, can't really do anything =P) - their perceptions soon changed when I took control and got us all pulling together so that it came down faster. =D Such a sweet experience! Meant that we had to sacrifice a lesson actually, but personally I think that it was worth it! Ironically we discovered that we were pulling with 2 of the people we are teaching about the church, and got a new one from what we were doing! It was so nice, after pulling it down they all came up to us, shook our hands and everyone gathered in a circle and said a prayer to thank the Lord for our strength so that we could pull it down =) Bit of a crazy prayer really…! (Wow, these people sound so religious- miles away from westernised people, I suppose!)

- “We are teaching a great lady called Sheba at the moment and, I still don't know how, I managed to tell her last lesson that I have a car named Sheba =P Hahah bless her she was more impressed that I have a car than that it's named after her =P”

- “The church is true and the book is blue and the Lord's work is going forth in Liberia and it's so great to be a part of it!”

Keep writing to him everyone! The last I heard was that he hadn't received any letters for over a month- post seems crazy out there and totally sporadic but he has got a couple of packages from family. But I think eventually post arrives too!