Sierra Leone missionaries being reassigned

The Church announced on Friday, August 1, 2014 that all missionaries in the Sierra Leone and Liberia missions were in the process of being reassigned to other missions as a precautionary measure due to the Ebola virus that is spreading in those countries. Their top priority is the safety of the missionaries. We will be notified where Elder Lehr is being reassigned to when the transfer actually happens.  President Ostler said that this would be several days from now or longer.  There are a total of 274 missionaries being transferred from these two missions plus 3 missionaries in the Ghana MTC who were headed out to the field this next week.  So it will take some time to relocate them.  In the meantime they are abiding by strict rules to minimize their risk of being infected.

Elder Christian Lehr has loved serving with the missionaries in the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission these past 10 months.  He has made some lasting friendships. He has loved serving and getting to know the people of "Salone." They are a wonderful and humble people.  It will be hard for him to leave.  We hope that he and many of the other missionaries will be able to return to Sierra Leone soon to complete their full-time mission.  In the meantime they will be able to touch the lives of people in other areas of the world.  Elder Lehr said the following in one of his emails when he first got transferred to Kissy: "Earlier I thought that this was probably either the hardest mission in the world or one of them but now I have been humbled. I cannot say that this is the hardest because I have not experienced any other mission. Every mission has their trials and hardships. This one is just very physically demanding while others might be more spiritually demanding. All in all this is the Lord's work and it does not matter the fact that I served here. What matters is that I served and I served with all my heart might mind and strength."

We will continue to fast and pray for the people of West Africa, for the mission presidents and for the missionaries who have been serving there. May the Lord bless them and help them to be strong and of a good courage.

(posted by Mom)