Oh What a Weekend at Likasi District Conference

That a wonderful weekend we have had!

It was fantastic!!

We just returned from our weekend adventure to Likasi for District Conference.

Actually, on Friday we started the weekend with a bang! Literally! We woke up in the night with a tremendous bang in the house. We had been having trouble with the water and had thought it might be the hot water heater, which is located in a room above the hall outside our bedroom. The big bang was the water heater. We went into the hall about 3 am to find a lake in the hall and water cascading down the bathroom door and flooding everywhere. We hurriedly turned off the water and the power to the water heater and finally the gushing water stopped. So, we mopped for about an hour and then went back to bed to try to rest for our Sat. journey down the bumpy Liskasi Road. On the way out the door, we called Justin, the mission handyman, and he promised to work on it while we were gone. They called us in Likasi and said it was fixed, but when we got home, there was NO WATER at all. Back to bidons (pronounced Bee-dones). They say there is a problem in all of Lubumbshi and it's not our house this time. The water will probably come back by tomorrow. Many days it feels like we are camping . We have always liked camping, but we have discovered that we do not like camping AT HOME that much!! We have only had about 7 days with both water and power all day since we arrived in Lubumbashi.

Back to the weekend.

So, off we went, with a back seat full of supplies--clothes, bedding, food, flashlights, scriptures and talks, etc. etc. Not knowing what we would find in an African guest house, we had prepared for anything.

All went well for the first part of the trip. We arrived at the toll station--NO PROBLEM!. Then we got to the first group of police. It was the same ones who had stopped us last week. They stopped us again. But to our great joy, they just wanted to tell us how much they were enjoying reading the Books of Mormon we had left them last time. We chatted about it and were on our way--NO PROBLEM!

This is normally a busy village, but NO PROBLEMS.

But this time there was a huge mob of people, mostly young men, who were blocking the road. Literally a minute before we came upon them we remembered to lock the car doors. They tried to block our passage and began beating on the truck and trying to get in and pushing it back and forth. We were nervous that they were going to get in the back of the truck, and then what would we do? They were yelling at us to give them money. We just moved ahead slowly and we finally got through them. We later learned that this is quite unusual. Monga said that sometimes, when someone is hurt by a passing car, they take out their anger on the next car that comes along. Maybe that’s what happened. We hope not to experience that again.

At this entrance to the city of Likasi there are always police--NO PROBLEM! They have always been very kind to us and just waved us on when they see that we were missionaries.

You can barely see the police in the yellow shirts on the right stopping some unlucky car.

Well, we were that unlucky car on Saturday--BIG PROBLEM! This time the police hassled us because they couldn’t see our proof of insurance. You have to have five documents, two stickers, red caution triangles and a fire extinguisher in your car at all times. They said we could just pay and leave but Brent protested and refused to pay them. He's getting pretty assertive. Finally, a police commander came along, out of nowhere, in civilian clothes and found that our insurance decal had been put in backwards and could not be seen on the windshield. He chided the police for giving us a hard time and sent us on our way. Sunday, on our way out of town, these same police stopped us again, only this time it was to ask us how our stay in Likasi went. We told them we’d see them again on our next trip. We know that the Lord blessed us to arrive there safely. We desperately needed His help. It was important that we get to Likasi in many ways. We are so grateful for the prayers that are being said for our safety. We felt like we were watched over and well protected by the Lord in a very real way twice on this trip to Likasi.

We hurried directly to chapel and the interviews that we had set with our missionaries.

Brent interviewed all six of them and then we had a meeting to talk about apartment issues. They have only had water off and on for the last three weeks and they had windows broken out by a relative of the landlord last week. Apartments are always an issue. We also talked about their missionary work in general in Likasi. They are hard working and devoted missionaries.

Then it was on to Priesthood and auxiliary training meetings where we both presided and spoke. (Is this what we signed up for?) After those meetings Brent met with the District President and the Branch Presidents. Then there was the adult session where we both spoke again. Finally, very weary, we went to our Guest House for the night. We were very curious to see what it would be like. But it was very reasonable.

This was a clean, neat little concrete box.

Laminate floors make a big difference in how a concrete box feels.

This was the tiny bathroom and a very interesting sink.

I like it.

The only thing missing was HOT water. NO PROBLEM! Well, ,actually, Brent said sleeping in the bed was like sleeping on the kitchen table, and the lighting was a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling in each roomi But it was OK. We felt good about staying there. It was so much better than we had anticipated.

We had no time to eat all day with meetings scheduled tightly, so our REI food tasted wonderful! Just add hot water and you're set. You just have to remember to bring drinkable water and your cute little hot water pot. It heats water to boiling in less than a minute.

Add a little French Bread and a morsel of chocolate--Voila! Dinner.

Sunday Brent's meetings started at 8:00. We got there at 7:30 and there were young men waiting for interviews outside the locked gates. They were eager to move their mission papers along. He did six missionary interviews. There were five young men and one sister. They don't go on missions here until they are older. Most of our missionaries are in their early to mid-twenties. They have been branch mission leaders, young men's presidents, ward clerks, young women counselors and all had graduated from Seminary and Institute. They were awesome. Each one contributed something toward the payment of their visas and passports. It was not a lot of money, but they gave what they had. It was a humbling and wonderful experience to meet with these wonderful young people.

Then we had a meeting for new converts. The district president and Brent both spoke to them. There were about 25 people there. Only three of them were women. Here in the Congo men join the church more quickly than women. Sometimes the men feel like the church is good for them, but not needed for their wives and children. It's something that we are working hard to correct. Many of the new converts are young adult men. But they are strong in testimony and excited about the gospel.

Next we had the general session, where we both spoke again. Wow! It's exhausting trying to give talks in a foreign language. And even more exhausting is having your talk in a foreign language translated into another foreign language. Some of the people don't speak French because they have not gone to school, so all the meetings were translated into Swahili by several wonderful young men. This was one of our translators.

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After the general meeting Brent went off to do other interviews. He did fiour patriarchal blessing interviews, two temple interviews, one polygamy interview, and a couple of other things. It was kind of a surprise to have all these interviews. He had only known that he would interview our 6 current missionaries. Always surprises!

I went out to be with the people and the missionaries. I love the children in Africa. They are very well behaved, somewhat reserved, and calm and very, very reverent.

They sit quietly, without toys or even cheerios for the entire meeting. Only an occasional baby is taken out. I don't quite know how they do it. But the children are beautiful, and I enjoy them very much.

I took my camera. Wow! Everybody wants their picture taken. Some wanted pictures with me. A real challenge since I hate having pictures taken. I ended up taking 64 pictures, mostly of women, young people and children. Here are some of my favorites. You can't help but love these gentle, wonderful people.

African children take care of their sibilings

from a very young age. They often carry them

on their backs like Mothers do.

Love the hair on this cutie!

This little boy followed the young men who came

for interviews into the building. I don't think he was a memember,

but he was so cute I had to take his picture.

The little boy on the right had all four front teeth missing.

I tried to get him to show them in the picture, but no luck.

They were smiling though. For some reason Africans think

that you should not smile in pictures.

Two new memebers of the church.

Get out a camera and kids come running. It's hard to get a picture with just one person.

During the last session of conference, Pres. Shimbi had leaned over and asked Brent what my name was. I had been called the President's wife or Soeur Jameson all weekend. Brent wrote it on a piece of paper, but Pres. Shimbi never called me by my name. We also found out early in the day that at 6:30 that morning President Shimbi's wife had given birth to a little girl, their 9th child (African's have big families). He had spent the whole day in District conference while his wife and new baby daughter were at the hospital 7km away.So, at the end of the day we encouraged him to get on his way to be with them. It was then that he told us why he wanted my name written down. The Shimbis were going to name their daughter, Lorraine, in honor of the District conference we had spent together on the day of her birth. I was stunned and thrilled to think that there will be a little Lorraine Shimbi running around in Likasi, Congo.

While waiting for Brent to finish interviews one of the elders wanted to take his picture standing by the truck. Having a vehicle is unusual in the Congo. At this conference of hundreds of people, ours was the only car in the parking lot. So, I suggested that we open it up and take his picture in the driver's seat. As I took the pictures I looked over my shoulder and every elder was in line behind me wanting his turn for a picture in the truck. What fun young men!

On our way out of town we took the missionaries home and checked out their apartment. Here we are, doing something I would never let anybody do at home. But this is Africa and people do it all the time. The missionaries couldn't figure out why Soeur Jameson was a nervous wreck about it.

They were anxious to have us come and we were eager to see what things were like . They had many broken windows, no water and a gate that wouldn't lock. We have some work to do. NO PROBLEM. They were also glad to show us their home . We bypassed Elder Diazola's room to look at the kitchen and he called out "Soeur, President, don't you want to see my room?" It was so cute. He's one who came with us from Kinshasa and we just love him. We love each missionary. Working with these young men is a joy!

We traveled home after a great weekend--tired, but having had an amazing experience. We were on our way for an uneventful two-hour trip home, safe and sound. What a blessing it is to be with the people of the Congo, and how blessed and protected we felt this trip. Next weekend we're off to meet with a group near the Zambian border. Never a dull moment in the Congo!

Now if we can just get the water back on in Lubumbashi!! NO PROBLEM!