A December We’ll Remember

As 2023 draws to a close, it is hard to understand how so much can happen in a month and yet how it can fly by so quickly!

As the elections wound down, new missionaries began arriving in the Mission again. We received 35 new elders and sisters from the Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Cameroon, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and the United States (including Hawaii). Numerous airport runs, training meetings, meal preparations, and interviewing kept us busy and up late. We’re so happy to have all of these young men and young women here. 

Incoming new missionaries:

12 missionaries also returned home, and we were sad to see these seasoned elders who have become friends leave. We will miss them!

Returning Missionaries:

December Zone Conferences focused on the theme “Raising the Bar.” With the New Year approaching, Nancy taught about high-jumping and pole-vaulting and why we need to set goals. She also taught the missionaries about Pres. Oaks’ talk, “Good, Better, Best,” and how we can use our time in the best way. She’s such a great teacher. The missionaries always love her lessons. I followed with training the missionaries on raising both our level of conversion to the Savior, as well as our skills in goal setting, planning, and teaching, so we can effectively help others understand the gospel plan. Here are our zone groups. We especially enjoy having our zone conference near Harbel, where we hold it outdoors.

Following a week of zone conferences, a Christmas party was held with each half of the mission, including a devotional, lunch and then games. The theme was “Wise Men Still Seek Him.” It was full of music, testimony, laughter and fun. We attended many baptisms on December 23rd (and there were many baptisms throughout the mission because of the efforts of our diligent missionaries). It was exciting to see the joy of those who were improving their lives and committed to following Christ. Christmas Eve day the six stakes of Monrovia held a multi-stake Christmas choir festival. The stake choirs wore their costumes and sang all sorts of Christmas songs and other tunes. It was exciting and fun. I don’t think I’ve ever seen fireworks lit off in a church building before. (Yikes!) Christmas itself was busy with a dozen elders who we had over for brunch, Christmas games, and watching “The Shepherd” by Dallas Jenkins. We then prepared food and had dinner with the Blanchards and office staff. It was a nice day capped off by talking to our children and grandchildren in the evening. Happy 37^th B-day to Tyler on Christmas day!

The day after Christmas, as we were having a celebration for missionaries that have completed their service, we learned of a massive explosion in Totota, where we have two branches. A fuel tanker was trying to pass another truck and overturned. As is common in Liberia, this kind of event attracted hundreds of people. Many saw an opportunity to take “free fuel” and began hammering on the tank with crow bars and screw drivers. Some young men climbed on the truck and broke it open and lowered children inside to scoop out the gasoline. Others came running with their containers to get their share. They just didn’t understand the danger. Tragically, the 9,000 gallons of gasoline ignited and exploded, incinerating many. We believe the spark was caused by a police officer who was trying to stop the looting with a tazer. I also heard someone was stealing the truck battery or those hammering on the tank could have also created a spark. The explosion was caught on film (click) — viewer discretion advised. I won’t show other photos because they are just too graphic, but you can imagine. Some places there are only ashes and skeletal remains.

The blast was horrific. Currently 58 are confirmed dead and 21 still unaccounted for. Many children were around the tanker and parents were trying to pull them away. Those in line for fuel or inside the tanker were gone instantly. 83 people went to the hospitals (or what we call hospitals here). Dozens of others just wandered home, even though critically burned over much of their bodies, so the death toll continues to climb each day. The Liberian Red Cross helped to bury the unidentifiable in a mass grave at city hall, right next to our church building. We were grateful our young missionaries who live only a 50 meters away weren’t in the area. Their plans changed shortly before the tanker crashed, so they were some distance from the blast. I am always amazed at these miracles where our missionaries are protected.

I charged Elder Blanchard from the mission office and Emmanuel Tarpeh who leads Church Self-Reliance in Liberia to spearhead getting humanitarian aid through the Church Area Office. They have been visiting hospitals to see what medical supplies are needed, and they are working with other disaster relief people in the area, what few there are. We’ve arranged for funds to buy food and all sorts of medical supplies to help the community and those in greatest need. Elder and Sister Dustin have been amazing, going around with the branch presidents from village to village and hut to hut to see who is in need. They’ve also been driving the injured to/from the city for help.

While this was going on, we picked up missionaries in multiple airport runs this last week. On the last pickup, a drunk airport employee pretended to walk into one of our trucks as we were pulling in to load the luggage. He was trying to extort money from one of our missionaries and grabbed him by the collar. Our mission driver, Morris, immediately jumped in to protect our elder and it created a scene, drawing a crowd that lasted 20 minutes.  Liberians are very passionate! The police wanted to take us all to the station to sort it out, but in the end, they saw the perpetrator was drunk and our elder’s shirt was a little ripped and let us go. We made it home very late. After a short night’s sleep, we trained this new set of missionaries at the office and conducted interviews. What a great set of young men!  As we pulled into home this evening and reflected on the week, it felt like Christmas was many months ago, not just five days.

This week marks our halfway point in Liberia. What a challenging privilege this is! We have never been more grateful for the gospel and the church organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There really is no other organization on the earth like it. Everything that we see that is good in this world seems to come from correct principles of the restored gospel. We’re looking forward to the second half of this amazing calling!