August in Nigeria

Dear all,

Life in the Nigeria Lagos Mission has been very busy.  With the arrival of our new mission president Penny and I have been kept hopping.  We have more work assigned to us, particularly Penny.  It seems that everything the president wants done he has Penny do it.  He relies on her for everything.  In fact he thinks, and rightly so, that Penny can do anything and everything.  As for me, the president has delegated much more authorization to make decisions and to be responsible to see that many of the mission functions really happen as they should.  I am happy he expresses such confidence in me and does not micromanage me, but it is a bit uncomfortable making some of the decisions I do.  Our mission is growing faster than we comfortably can accommodate the new missionaries.  Soon we will have over 200 missionaries.  We love the work and feel we are making a big difference.  The African people are really tuned into religion.  There are churches everywhere.  Most are very small storefront type churches; but there are many very large church buildings as well.  The pictures that you will see are a reflection of the religious spirit that is here.  Many of the businesses have names of religious significance, as well as names or slogans on their trucks.  We remain safe, but we have to be vigilant and monitor the safety directives.  Two of our missionaries were attacked in their apartment and beat up quite badly; just because they were Mormon.  This being said, for the most part, all missionaries are safe and receive no harm.  We are now in the rainy season and it rains almost every day for a few hours.  We enjoy the rain, but it makes it very difficult to navigate the mud and very large pot holes in the streets.

We send our love to all of you.  We so appreciate the prayers and encouragement for our well-being.  May the Lord bless all of you.

Our love to you all.

Elder and Sister Brown

This month's post includes pictures of signs found in Nigeria.

His Grace Hotel and Suites, Ibadan, Nigeria

Godliness Feed Mills, Ibadan, Nigeria

Picture of Christ on the back of a truck

Grass to Grace - on the back of a bus

House not for sale, beware of 419.  This is painted on many houses.

Don't urinate sign - see this all over Nigeria

God is Good motor company

Sign on back of pick up truck

Large outdoor billboard

Toilet, bath, urinary - at the beach 

Everyone's favorite clothing shop 

Government sign 

Let us go to a church, but which one?  What a conglomeration of signs!

A wedding in Lagos

We were privileged to attend the wedding of a young lady whose parents are members of the church congregation we attend in Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria. The groom is the son of the most high King and Queen from the central west part of Nigeria.  The groom and parents are Muslim and the bride and her parents are Mormon.  The wedding was held in two main parts: first part was a traditional African wedding held in the back yard of the bride's parents home in Igebu-Ode.  The parents, Dr. and Sister Hassan, are very wealthy.  He is an eye surgeon and has a worldwide reputation of excellence.  The groom's parents are also very wealthy.  They are royalty of the highest order.  He bears the title of King of Kings.  The second part of the wedding was a church wedding held at a Mormon church in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigera.  After the church wedding, a reception was held at a very large hall.  There were an estimated 2000 people at the reception.  A full several course sit down dinner was served, and the hall was beautifully decorated.  We had a wonderful time, and we were treated graciously by all.  This was the most elaborate and expensive wedding reception we have ever attended - the estimated to cost was $500,000. Wow!  This was such contrast to the extreme poverty that is all around us.  We must say this that Dr. and Sister Hassan are very liberal with their money.  They are one of the leading humanitarian families in Africa. He donates thousands of hours of free eye care service from his eye clinics, and he donates money for many other charities.  He and his wife seem to be a great example of what you do with wealth.  

Simply wonderful, humble people.

Traditional wedding under the tent in the back yard of the bride's parents home

The bride, Feyi Hassan

Dowry gifts were being handed out: fruits, vegetables and money 

A few lesser kings gathered together

Bride and Groom

Bride and Groom 

Home of the bride's parents in Egebu-Ode, Nigeria 

Senior missionaries with the Bride's mother and our Mission President

High King in dark suit leading the procession to the reception hall

The High King, father of the groom

The High Queen, mother of the groom

Village drummers

Reception hall in Lagos, two days later (following LDS Church wedding)

African ladies at the reception 

Wedding dinner

Dinner: cow gut, shrimp, chicken, rice, slaw and unidentified 

Bride and groom after church wedding at the reception dinner

Mother and Father of the bride, Dr. and Sister Hassan

Three generations - baby, Mom and Grandmother

May in Nigeria

It has been a long time since we have written for our blog.  Sorry!  Much has transpired.  We are getting in a lot of new missionaries that continue to swell our mission. This requires opening up new areas, and creating new church branches or congregations.  We are certainly feeling the effects of the church announced age reduction for missionary service.  In the next 3 months we will have 27 missionaries going home, and 54 new missionaries arriving.  This really requires a lot of effort to accommodate this type of expansion.

All seems to be going well; we are save, happy and well fed.  Elwood has eaten some African dishes such as: pounded yam, large rubbery snails, cow gut and a greasy, leafy concoction.  If this was all we could eat, for sure we would lose weight and save a lot of money on food costs.

We have had many interesting experiences -- our mission president has request that we visit some of the far away congregations of the church to give support to the leaders.  We have visited two congregations so far and this weekend we will visit more.  The people are so welcoming and happy to see us.  Many are quite poor, but they have a positive attitude and you would never know about their limited circumstances without visiting their homes.  When they come to church they are dressed well, particularly the women and the children.  When they sing, they sing with their full heart and soul.  We are amazed they seem to know every song in the hymn book.  We really love these people!

We took a day off and went into another world.  The Chevron Oil Co. sponsors an artist bazaar sending invitations to selected groups to attend.  The Chevron complex is huge.  The Chevron employees have all they need to live well and be comfortable.  What a contrast to the area around them.  Near Chevron, we found a Domino's Pizza restaurant and a Cold Stone ice cream parlor - both were yummy!

Back to the real world -- Elwood has been busy finding apartments for missionaries, negotiating lease agreements and getting the necessary apartment repairs completed.  We are both working to purchase and distribute necessary supplies to the missionaries.  We search outdoor markets for everything from mosquito nets to phones to washing tubs for clothing.  Penny has her hands full of developing and organizing training for the missionaries.  She has strengthened the missionaries ability to focus on the work.  We had our first meeting under the new Church instructions to missions.  In the past every month all missions around the world held a Zone Leaders Council Meeting; now every month we hold a "Mission Leaders Council Meeting."  The difference is under the new format, Sister missionaries are part of the leadership, not just the Elder missionaries.  With the age being reduced to 19 for sister missionaries, more and more sister missionaries are entering the missionary service, and their voice is essential.  Penny sets a great example for these young sister missionaries.

This is probably enough for one blog entry.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.  We love you.
Elwood and Penny

Typical site, men riding on a truck

Full view of men on the back of a truck 

Two lanes of traffic become 4 lanes during congestion

Many signs have a religious name

Church members 

Elwood's first African breakfast: Boiled yam, spicy eggs and chicken leg

Church members in Ile-lfe 

Church members in Ile-lfe

Little girl at church 

Penny and members of the church 

All brothers 

Elwood and a member

Members of the church 

Penny with a little girl 

A wonderful church family

Mother and daughters

6 months out!

This past week has been quite busy but eventful.  We held two zone conferences in Ibadan and at the stake center in our mission office compound.  Penny and I had major responsibilities for the logistics and the training.  The Ibadan conference consisted of four zones (56 missionaries) from the most distant part of our mission.  Unfortunately, we did not make hotel reservations thinking the huge hotel where we wanted to stay would have plenty of rooms, but we were wrong.  We drove around with the mission president in the dark for over an hour trying to find a safe, secure hotel.  We finally found the one where we had stayed before called “His Grace Hotel and Suites”.  We were just happy that the toilet flushed, there was a sheet on the bed (one that is) and that there was water (unfortunately cold) to shower.  The second zone conference consisted of eight zones (110 missionaries).   This conference proved to be a difficult one, not just because lunch arrived an hour and a half late, but because the former mission president and his wife wanted to participate.  He was released five months ago for medical reasons.  It turned out to be very disruptive because of a number of issues.

We also attended a tribal wedding and two days later the western version of the wedding for the same couple.  It was very elaborate, unusual and educational.  We will share more of this experience in our next installment.

We are in the process of trying to find mosquito nets for the missionaries to use over their beds.  We have had no problems in the past, but now cannot find the type we need.  This is a necessity because the missionaries sleep with their windows open and mosquitos carrying malaria are a severe problem, even with all of us taking anti-malaria medication daily.

Our last excitement was visiting a “Johnny Rockets” restaurant on Victoria Island, which is the wealthy part of Lagos that we rarely see.  It was just like the ones in the USA…art deco 50’s style.  The food was great, but very expensive as is all western food here.  (If we could live on pounded yams and rice from local markets we would be set, but for a variety of reasons that is not possible.)  A milkshake was approximately $12 and a hamburger was $15…nothing special, just a regular hamburger.  When we arrived at the parking lot, the attendant asked where Elder Brown was as he remembered him from a previous visit.   He asked about the Mormon Church and was delighted when Elwood told him that the missionaries would come to his home to teach his family.

The mission is progressing, we are having more baptisms and the missionaries are becoming more spiritual and working harder.    We love the work.

The start of the Ikotun shopping area.  Notice the slight incline.  The yellow taxi buses have a hard time getting up this grade - they burn rubber.

Ikotun shopping area

Fresh fish for sale

Open area of Ikotun shopping area

This is the dwelling under the "rock" where people hid and lived during the tribal wars of the 1830's.

This is Elwood taking a short cut to the top by hiking through a slit in the rock. 

Sign indicating where the church is 

Penny and Elwood and the Adebayo children while at church. 

Both sister Brown's.  This lady came up to us at church and said she too was a Sister Brown, so we took her picture. 

Children at Ijebu-Ode District Conference (church meeting)

Members of the church

Brothers and sisters dressed in the same fabric  

A young church family