Holiday Festivities

We wish all of our friends and family a Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.  This has been an amazing year for us and it will be very difficult for us to leave our wonderful Nigerian family.  It is hard to believe that we have been here over 14 months and we do feel very much at home.

We just had all of our missionaries (191 of them) here for the annual Christmas two-day event.  Day one was food and games... mostly football (soccer).  Our mission president and most of the missionaries would have been happy with football and nothing else that day, they love it!  But we did have an obstacle course, dodgeball, musical chairs, ping pong, etc.  In the afternoon, we had what may loosely be referred to as a talent show.  Day two was a nativity play, training and more food.  The nativity play was amazing... very African and, thanks to the mission mother, very well rehearsed.  The colors and costumes were bright and made with African fabrics.  There was a crier inviting everyone to watch who was banging a gong.  There was singing and dancing... wonderful!  It really made us feel the spirit of Christmas.  The actors presented their parts very well and took the play seriously.  It was very well received.  Even though this is a religious country, we were surprised how little referral there was to Christmas.  There were not a lot of lights and even in church, there was not a Christmas program.  So we were happy that we were able to see an African nativity play.

With love,

Elder and Sister Brown

Pictures from the day of the Pageant and the Christmas Pageant

The feast the missionaries ate before leaving for their areas of proselyting.  The plates were piled high with food - pasta, rice and beans, chicken, slaw, fruit, fried plantain and cake for dessert.