3/15/2015 - Apartment Repairs, Meetinghouse Work, Lost Wife

This week we got our apartment fixed up a bit and had some good experiences.

 

We had FHE with the Su family, four missionaries, and six friends that they invited.  There was a good discussion, many questions and a lot of testifying.

Tuesday was crazy.  I found a leak in one of our water heaters on Monday so Tuesday morning I met Romeo so he could help me buy and install a new one.  While we were out, we shopped for a new air conditioner as well.  I wanted to replace the window air conditioner that had failed.  It would have been so simple: slide out the old and slide in the new.  But nobody sells window air conditioners here anymore.  We checked about 7 stores before I just bought a “split” air conditioner that was on sale and arranged for professional installation.

While I was gone the landlord's painter, Orlando, showed up and started work inside our living room.  Fortunately, the insurance sales lady was late because I had forgotten our appointment.  So, the painter was painting, Romeo and I were installing the water heater, the air conditioner installer was installing.  Just as we finished with the water heater, the insurance lady showed up.  Just after she left, one of the water heater hoses that I didn’t replace burst and started spraying water.  So when the air conditioner was done and the painter quit for the day we went shopping for a replacement hose and other supplies.

The Painter Working on our Walls

I found a new-to-me, out-of-the-way plumbing store recently that doesn’t have traffic or parking problems.  And the prices are great.  And this time we met the owner, Zanguim Bernard, who says he is a less active branch member!  He is also a plumber and does air conditioners.  I’ve been searching for months for a church member who is a plumber.

I got tired of waiting for approval from the Douala Branch presidency, so when they didn’t show up for a meeting to install the branch sign I just did it without them.  We finally have a sign so people can find the meetinghouse.

After Installing the Plaque

Only 4 students showed up for our teacher training class but we had a good lesson and everyone got extra cupcakes to take home.  In the middle of class the clouds outside suddenly started a torrential downpour for about 10 minutes.  Then they switched to a light sprinkle.  Nobody showed up for our Strengthening Marriage class, possible due to fear of the rain.

The entire Douala Branch was invited to help move furniture, clean, and organize the meetinghouse on Saturday.  Only 3 people and the missionaries showed up, so the Elders did most of the work.  We were very productive and finally got the place in reasonable shape.  Now we need electricity.

That afternoon the Relief Societies from both branches met to plan the RS birthday celebration.  The meeting was scheduled for 1 pm but the first sister, a RS president, arrived at 2:30.  They finally started about 3:30 and the group kept arriving until about 6 pm.  I guess planning the celebration is half of the fun, so you might as well stretch it out.

We had to leave but I needed to talk to some people so Sister Coleman decided to start walking home to stretch her legs.  After a few minutes I drove home expecting to pick her up on the way.  For some reason, I drove by searching without seeing her or her seeing me.  She had misplaced her phone so I couldn't call her and it was getting dark.  I got really worried and started driving around looking for her.  Finally, I went home again and found her there after a twenty-minute walk.  We won't do that again.

We taught the last temple preparation class in Bonaberi and hope that they will organize a temple trip before we leave, but it doesn’t look likely.

We were finally able to audit the Douala Branch finances, although with no electricity, no computer, no internet, and no records, since they were all lost in the move.  We did the best we could just piecing things together using bank records and memories.  This is Africa.

Women doing laundry in buckets

Notice the tires keeping the roof in place

Elders Legerski and Mwehu

Marthe's cute hair

Yes, he is urinating in the gutter.  A common sight.