Having the 2 counselors from the Young Women's General Presidency in Salt Lake City come to visit girls in Nigeria is not a regular
occurrence. It is a pretty big deal. One of the things they requested to do while in Lagos was go and visit in the homes of some of the young women. The time was very limited because we couldn't be out on the street before 10 a.m. The last Saturday morning of each month is Environmental Day and any travel is restricted from 5 - 10 a.m. We needed to be back by noon so we could have a nice lunch together before they started the Leadership Training at 1:30. That was followed by a Fireside at 3:30 p.m. These meetings involved both the Lagos and Lagos West Stakes. Since I know several of the young women, I got to help set up those visits. Saturday morning we went first to the Martin residence where we visited with their niece, I.D., that lives with them. I went with Sister Igolo, the YW Pres., to pick up Sandra Ekuma and take her over to the Martins so that there would be more than 1 very shy 13 year old for them to talk to. Good thing we did. I have been helping Sandra (above, standing) with her Personal Progress. She has almost finished all of her Faith value experiences and she is showing them her notebook that she has written the life stories of several family members for the Faith value project. They even signed off one of her experiences. Those in the above photo are: Sandra, her mother, Theresa, Sister Cook, Sister Dibb & Sister Igolo, Ikeja Ward YW Pres.
The second home we went to was the Kalu home. This is a 3 generation, all women, home. In the background is Rose Kalu, S. Dibb, Queen (Mama Kalu's niece), Anita Kalu (Mama Kalu's granddaughter), & Sister Cook.
Mary Kalu, S. Cook, S. Igolo, Mama (Priscilla) Kalu, & S. Dibb. Sister Kalu has 3 of her daughters living with her: Mary, Patricia & Rose. Patricia serves as 1st counselor to S. Igolo. They are all really neat women, and we have enjoyed getting to know them at church and young adult activities.
This is Kevwe Ekpagah. We have been working on Personal Progress since last September. She came over after lunch and met the leaders. They looked over her journal and loved it so much that they had me photo copy some of it.
This is a young women leader from one of the wards. They made this purple batik fabric as a young women activity. They had the torch and "young women" wax stamps made. Then after they applied the wax to the white fabric, they dyed it. Sounds like a fun activity to me & Sister Cook and Sister Dibb loved it. After 3 days in Nigeria, they flew to Ghana where they spent most of this past week. Elder and Sister Cardon from the area presidency accompanied them on the trip, along with a church security person. Anytime they moved around in the car, a second van followed to make sure they got where they needed to be without fail. Kurt was the second driver last Saturday, so now he can add that to his list of job titles.
You may ask, who's Samantha? Samantha is just a very cute little girl that belongs to the Ukandu's. Sister Ukandu was baptized shortly after we arrived in Nigeria. Her husband is the Elder's Quorum President and is a returned missionary. They met while riding on a bus, traveling to Ghana, and are a cute family. She is the marketing manager at the Mouka Foam Factory where we purchased our bed.
Here are Roy and Maxwell sporting their nice tote bags that all of the Primary children received for Samantha's birthdeay.
Samantha's birthday party was during Sharing Time in Primary. All of the children wore party hats. This is certainly not how we do it in Idaho, but I'm sure it was a big treat for many of these children.
Me, with Sister Ukandu, & her friend or nanny holding Samantha
