Wahoo! Demo On our New Chapel Building...

Demo has started on our new chapel building! I mentioned in our earlier email that the church has rented a 3 story building. The top 2 floors are great the way that they are for a Relief Society Room, a priesthood room, 4 young men and young women's rooms, 3 bishop's & 3 clerk's offices, a library, and 2 kitchens. The first floor has 3 big primary rooms... and.... our new chapel. The chapel area used to be 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, & 4 bedrooms. This is what it looks like as of last Friday...Aug. 19th.

The road to the new building is dirt. We were mortified to arrive at the job in the middle of the week and see that all of our demo'd plaster, block, etc was spread all over the road in the front of the building. When we told the contractor that they would have to clean it all up, the neighbors insisted that this is what they do with "fill" here. They said they like it to keep the dirt down and keep it from being muddy in the rainy season. SOoooo, at least for now we are leaving it like this. WEIRD!


Elder Gates visits the site everyday to make sure "All is Well". He is to notify the church temporal affairs office immediately if there are problems. We are thrilled to announce that we will be dividing our 2 branches into 3 branches in 2 weeks, in preparation for using our new building. We will keep you posted!

At last... we get to move forward with our new chapel renovations!

Our 2 branches have grown out of the church building that we have, and they are ready to split into 4 branches. Over 12 months ago we found a terrific building to use for a temporary chapel for the next few years. We have had several meetings with Temporal Affairs, which is the department of the church that is in charge of all 75 of the buildings in this part of Africa. Due to the fact that the church is growing so fast, sometimes the red tape takes longer than we want it to. We are trying to learn patience. We are thrilled to report that this week the 2 people in charge of our new building came to town and met with the 2 branch presidents, the architect, the contractor and Elder & Sister Gates. Elder Gates... "Ed" will be helping by visiting the job sight every day for 2 months... and hopefully then we will be able to start using this building. This picture is of Ed at the Bid opening, as he opened the sealed bids. His interpretter. Leondra is next to him. This is Elizabeth, who Ed will report to for the next couple of months. Yes... what can I say? This is an excerpt from a letter from our mission president thanking us for our hard work in trying to get the work moving along, to get our members the building they need. "GREAT JOB!!!!!!! This is wonderful news. It appears to me that when done correctly this process can work. Thank you so much, infinitely, Elder Gates for making this happen. I am confident this could not have happened without your guidance and direction." The work should start August 8th and be completed in 60 days. The building is 3 stories. We are gutting out the 2 apartments on the 1st floor to make a chapel area. The other 2 floors (3 apartments) are perfect for all the auxiliaries to have all sizes of meeting rooms. We are thrilled for the Saints of Pointe Noire to have another beautiful facility!