Craig and Sandy Monson Events: 26 October 2015

Hi All,

This week we continued teaching, feeding and taking Joren on errands. Her son was in the Primary program and all of us were very proud of how well he did. She has had an occasion where she has run out of food. I can’t imagine how difficult this would be for a young mother. Our apartment is like a feeding center as well as a teaching center for her.

We also visited with one of our African members who’s looking for a job, Joseph. He reports that he did purchasing and payroll for a company in Africa. Right now he is doing car detailing and he is not getting enough hours. The ward mission leader gave us a lead on some part-time soccer referring and coaching which we are hoping to get a response for. I also talked to the Store Manager here at Walmart and they are looking for help and would like to interview him. Hopefully something good can happen.

Norbert left for Texas because he has job possibilities there and his current job was going to lay him off. He is a real humble young man who has been through the Temple. His wife and children were killed by tribal warfare. We hope things can turn around for him.

John M consumes a great deal of our time. He claims to have recovered from his addiction and we’ve gone through all sorts of hassles with him in getting a place to live (the cheapest apartment complex we could find wouldn’t take him based on the background check they did). He was about to be homeless—the Bishop, as well as us, told him he’d have to stay at the shelter because the church wouldn’t pay anymore. Miraculously (?) some family members came up with some money to help. We are not being cynical. We are learning about all the difficulties a person can get into who has an addiction. Without support, John would certainly be homeless. We are hoping for progress—he tells us he is determined to get a place to live and a job and turn his life around. We hope for this and are trying to help him.

We (using the term loosely, Sandy did most of the talking) taught the Gospel Essentials Class to our African Investigators. Sandy did a wonderful job. I enjoy watching her patiently explain things and put tender emotion into her teachings. In the closing prayer, the member saying the prayer said some kindly things about Sandy’s teaching and prayed that I would learn better French. Sandy is the star of this mission; I am the supporting cast.

We actually enjoyed doing apartment inspections again this week. Though it is a lot of miles and time, we enjoy being with the young missionaries and seeing the magnificent countryside. For instance, one apartment is located on “Around the Pound Road”. To get to it, you drive along a magnificent, rural countryside. It will be interesting to do inspections when there is four feet of snow. After a day of inspecting we met up with another senior couple, the Seamons, for a late lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed being with them and listening to their mission stories.

Here is a picture of a lobster we caught at the store and turned him into a lobster roll (He was $5).

This picture was taken of houses by the coast. If you look at the houses you can see many of them have a “Widows Walk” which is a walkway on the roof of the house overlooking the sea.