Part 3

Part Three

 

From there, things got crazy again.  Plans to get us on a plane came and then fell through. I think I packed like 5 times. We soon discovered that the hotel had a cafeteria where they had the closest thing we had seen to a hamburger and fries, so naturally every elder went down all at once and ordered one or two....... or three:)  Over all we stayed in the Lungi Airport hotel for three days and on the dawn of the third day when the first light was in the sky we looked to the east (only Cadence will understand that last sentence;).  On the third day we actually all checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport. Upon arrival at the airport we were greeted by two very nice and big guards who then checked us for weapons I think, and then doused our hands in chlorine. We then were allowed to proceed to the actual airport. Now the airport looked more like a biological weapons war zone than an airport. It was covered with plastic and there were people walking around in hazmat suits. We took our bags and made our way to the front door and were greeted by a mountain of paperwork and multiple temperature checks. After informing them about every little aspect about my last five months, we were allowed to enter the building. Upon entrance we found more paperwork and more temperature checks. We were all admitted to pass through.  They then took our bags and put them on the plane. We however went to go wait for the plane to be prepared for us. When the plane was almost prepared the crew members came out to the waiting area and kinda gave us the info on how this was going to go down. They told us they were from International SOS and that before we were permitted to board we would be going through a health check where they once again asked us a bunch of questions and checked our temperature. We were all given the green light and we boarded the plane. When we were on the plane we were served the best tasting airplane food ever! 

The ride to Portugal took us over the Sahara Desert, something I thought I would never see in my life. We landed in Portugal at night and they took us to a separate terminal from the rest of the airport. After customs we were greeted by the missionaries for Portugal and by a senior couple who took us all back to a room and gave us some water and crackers then they told us that there have been some changes in our assignments.  We were all shocked.  It was then that I knew that I was not going back to West Africa anytime soon.  They gave us all our assignments, we were being sent all over the United States, and me, I was assigned to Atlanta.  They told us we would be leaving tomorrow morning and that we would be spending the night in a hotel, so we went to the hotel and spent the night in Portugal, another thing I thought I would never do.

This is where I'm going to end the adventure today.

Elder Gebauer

Part 2

We pulled up and saw a surprising sight, all 180 elders and sisters all in one place. The first thing I noticed was the AP’s. They were tired, looked like they hadn’t more than a few hours of sleep in the last 3 days. Elder Stanford was wearing basketball shorts, white shirt, flip flops and looked like a mountain man who was dressed by a three year old. I mentioned to him that he looked tired. He simply smiled like he always did and replied “Elder Gebauer, you don’t know the half of it”. He then told me to take my district and to go weigh our bags because we were only allowed to bring 44lb in a big bag and 20lb in a smaller one and that was it, nothing more. So I put my bag on the scale and it came in at 55lb. I had to drop 11lb. So we got to work just like everyone else taking everything out of our bags and sorting through it to see what we could leave behind (remember at this point we still thought that we would be going to Ghana another third world country so deodorant and things were still worth more than gold). You should have seen the mission home, just abandoned stuff everywhere, mountains or shirts, piles of ties, towering stacks of mission reference books and PMG’s. I still don’t know what happened to everything but I would hope that it went to membership and people that need it.

From there things started to get crazy.  Plans would be made for us to leave and then they would change and we would be staying for days and then they would change again. This went on and on for a matter of hours. There came a point were we just didn’t even listen anymore. We were all just too tired, depressed and sick of plans. We were finally organized into a large mass so president could address us, he had a plan. All American elders were to go to a hotel next to the airport and would be flying out the next day. African sisters and elders were not able to leave the country at this point because of passport restrictions. All the elders and sisters said their heartfelt goodbyes and that was the first time I saw an African elder cry. Such a sight nearly brought me to tears but being so incredibly manly I withheld this overwhelming urge to sweat from my eyeballs. All the American elders collected their things and got into the vehicles and off we went.

When we arrived at the hotel we were all in awe at this place. It was an actual building with its cheap flooring and crappy bathrooms. It was the greatest thing we had seen in months. That was until we saw the girl working the front desk. We couldn’t believe our eyes. It was an actual white girl in the flesh!!!! If you could just image this poor girl, all she sees is 80 American elders walk through the front door and just staring dumbfounded. From there we all got checked in and went to our rooms.   I was in a group of missionaries that I had never met. There were 5 of us and there was one bed. I volunteered to sleep in the chair. We soon discovered that the hotel had hot showers. If anything could brighten the mood in that hotel it was hot showers though they didn’t have much for water pressure and the water was brown. It didn’t matter, it was hot and not out of a bucket.               

           

This is where the story will end for this week. I will continue next week.

Your African missionary

Elder Gebauer

Pictures of Randall in Atlanta Georia shortly after arriving.

Part 1

Well the last three weeks have been interesting to say the least.  For all who don't know, I am now serving in the Atlanta Georgia Mission where I will be staying for the rest of my 2 years.

 

Here is my account on how this all happened. - Part 1

  

You will have to forgive me, I don't remember dates. 

This all started one day, I think it was on Thursday 7/31. Elder Maranca and I had just gone into town to get some things the district needed.  We were about half way up our mountain when we got a call from the zone leaders (Elder Losee, my trainer, and Elder Woodhead). I picked up the phone and Elder Losee told me to get back to the apartment and to call everyone in the district and have them all in the apartment in the next 20 min.  They didn't tell us anything other than that. So we all got back to the apartment.  We knew it had something to do with Ebola but we didn't know just how serious things had gotten.

 

So the first thing we did was clean the apartment.  We didn't know how long we would be in there and I did not want to live in filth 24/7.  So everything was clean then we realized we had no food, mainly because we had just finished cleaning and were hungry.  Due to the terms of the quarantine, we where not permitted to go outside the compound or to have anyone come in so we call some of our friends on the outside and slid a bunch of money and a shopping list under the door and off they went to get us food.  When they were shopping we went outside to the front of the compound and being boys had an aggressive soccer game.  Then we kicked the ball over the fence and that was the end of that.  Not too long after, our shopping heroes returned with a mountain of food.  We told them that they can keep half for their efforts.  Man, you should of seen the looks on their faces.

 

We then spent 4 days with 6 elders in the apartment together 24/7.  At one point we ran out of water so we all had a huge bon fire and did a rain dance and low and behold it rained and we collected all the water we could.  At this point we still didn't know how long we would be there.  On the 4th day of the quarantine in the morning we received a call from the mission president, and he repeated the three words that struck us all speechless "THE MISSION IS CLOSED."  He then expressed his feeling on the matter, which were grievous to say the least and gave us all our reassignments. Elder Hamilton and I were assigned to the Ghana Accra West Mission and would be leaving the next day to the mission home.  He told us that we could not tell anyone we were leaving and not to say goodbye. That night I didn't sleep well.  Those words just repeated in my head all night, THE MISSION IS CLOSED. The next day we all packed and got in a transport to the mission home.

 

This is where the story will end for this week.  I will continue next week.

 

As for Atlanta:

 

I am enjoying my time in a first world country. I will admit it has been a shock coming all the way back to the US.  It doesn't even feel like I'm that far from my family just in comparison to where I was.

But that's my update for this week. I will continue and expand on everything next week.

 

Elder Gebauer

Some Pictures From Africa

I have over 500 pictures on the SD card, these are just someI wanted to share as soon as I could:)

Good Morning from the United States

In the library emailing. It’s quiet and boring in here and it smells clean, I don't like it. I miss that feeling that your computer could shut down at any second :)


No bicycles, driving a brand new Toyota corolla. I haven't seen a road in 5 months :)


Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


I got on my missionary portal and they already changed my flag. I want them to change it back :(


I lost 20lb in Africa I’m a stick:( I’m like 140lb now. But I get to go back to the gym now so I’ll see what I can do. It all shows in my face :)


Yeah West Africa did a number on me, but it was still the best time of my life :)


I love you guys. Expect my letter this week.
Your African missionary,

Elder Gebauer

Atlanta, Georgia

Yes, Randall is back having been reassigned to Atlanta Georgia. He called early Thursday morning to tell us where he was at and that he is OK. He’ll be sending a letter detailing what he went through and an SD card with pictures. For a good account of what the missionaries went through here are a few links while we wait for Randall’s.


http://eldercodybeckett.blogspot.com/2014/08/evacuation-from-sierra-leone-i-want-to.html


http://elderstrain.blogspot.com/2014/08/wow-journey-back-to-united-states.html

Missionaries Serving in Two African Nations are Reassigned

SALT LAKE CITY —  1 AUGUST 2014

Due to the outbreak of illness related to the Ebola virus, as a precautionary measure, all missionaries serving in the African nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia are in the process of being transferred out of these countries and reassigned to other missions. Ensuring the health and safety of our missionaries is our top priority. In recent weeks measures have been taken to reduce risk to missionaries, including asking them to remain in their apartments. To date, there are no reports of illness among the missionaries. Families are being notified as the missionaries arrive in their new assignments. This is a very challenging situation for the missionaries, members and citizens of these countries, and like other organizations, we are taking every practical step to reduce risk.