First Youth Conference EVER!

Last week Brent had to do special case interviews on Saturday, so I went to help with the first Youth Conference EVER held in Kinshasa. It was conceived by the Hatches, our office couple, and all the couples went to help. We had support from the youth leadership in the three stakes, and it was great for them to see what could be done. We all felt like it was an enormous success and, more literally, it was enormous!

We arrived at the Kinshasa stake center very early in the morning and set up for registration.

There were names tags with numbers on them to separate the youth into groups. About the time that the conference was to start youth began to arrive.

Since this activity was held in Africa, we didn't expect many to be there at exactly 9:00. To complicate the normally existing problem of late arrivals, Kinshasa traffic is often, and unpredictably, one big traffic jam. No matter what you do to arrive on time it's often just impossible. Sometimes it takes a half hour to get to the stake center and on other days it can take 2 hours. This day Brent tried for two hours to join us after his appointments and never could make it. He finally got rerouted back into town and just gave up.

There are always surprises when Americans work on projects in Africa. A big surprise this time was that the safety pins we used for the name tags were new to the African kids and they had no idea how to fasten them. So, we had to help them learn how to pin something on with a safety pin. After they got the idea, they really liked having them pinned on and many kept their safety pin. Some young people even collected and wore a few of them.

We thought at first that we were going to have about 100 youth, a bit of a disappointing turn out. However, the numbers started to grow as several transports filled with kids who had come together from the stakes located far from the Kinshasa stake center arrived. (Three of the five stakes were invited to this conference.) All morning the kids kept arriving. As it got later the groups got bigger. Youth just kept coming and coming by the bus full. By lunch time, we had 800 young men and women. We gave up trying to assign them numbers and just told them to go to a class and enjoy themselves.

The youth rotated in six different groups through classes with instructors, a rotation of games and one for singing.

They seemed to enjoy them all, but especially loved the games, which were lead by two young American US embassy interns, Andrew and John. They've been here since we arrived and have been fun to involve in activities with the wards and stakes. They leave this week as they finish their internships. We will miss them.

A group of sisters, led by Jackie, who helps in the mission home, worked all day preparing food for the kids. They had peanuts and cookies for a morning and an afternoon snack. But as the numbers mounted we realized that we didn't have enough. NO problem. We just eliminated the afternoon snack. They ate all the cookies and peanuts for the morning snack. Nobody seemed bothered by this. There's not an option to run to the store here, so we just made due and it was OK.

The sisters had planned a drink and a large hoagie sandwich for each person. They spent all day cutting tomatoes, sausages, and cabbage and assembling the sandwiches. When the numbers increased , the sandwiches were quickly cut in half and more drinks were borrowed from the CES building, which is on the same property as the stake center, and lunch was served.

Not a person complained as they waited in a line of 800 for their 1/2 sandwich and drink. They visited and seemed to enjoy the time to just hang out, like teenagers all over the world do.

About 80% of them got rounded up for a group photo. What an amazing time for all of us.

The last event was a meeting where one of the stake presidents and our Area Seventy, Elder Kola, spoke. The youth gathered chairs from the CES building and every classroom and filled the chapel, and cultural hall for the closing meeting.

After the meeting was finished a "dance " was planned. We were thinking American again and found out that a "dance" was a performance event in Africa. Several groups got on stage and danced. After a few groups it started to be obvious that "dancing" might not work too well, especially with 800 youth. So, the party came to an end.

It was an enormously successful event and 800 youth had a great time mingling and seeing the strength of the young members of the church in their city.

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This weekend the other two stakes held this activity. We missed it because we were flying off to Matadi, a city about an hours flight from Kinshasa. We flew on a tiny 15 seater prop plane, landing on a dirt airstrip and wondering how in the world we ended up here. But again the conference was a great success. There were 600 in attendance this weekend.

More Fun More Learning

More kids enjoying being together and seeing how strong their numbers are.

That's a total of 1,400 LDS youth enjoying themselves and feeling the spirit together. No matter where you are in the world, could anything be better? I think not!

Do It Their Way

The longer that we're in Africa, the more we see how many things are just different here, and it's OK. We have to make sure that the purity of the gospel and the church is kept, but we don't have to do many little things in the way that they're done in other places.

People here are looking for happiness and truth, just like people are at home. They embrace the gospel and become gospel scholars. But sometimes we try to make the CHURCH in Africa into the CHURCH in America and that's something that doesn't always work out well, no matter how good the idea seems. He's a great example. Throughout the parts of Africa where we've been the plastic chair is king in all circumstances. It's used widely and serves well, although it's not just the look we're used to.

So, this is what we recently found in one of the church buildings. Somebody thought that the American folding chair was what they needed here in the Congo.

Enough said!

St. Joseph's Well, Dance Night and PEF with Kinshasa Couples' Klan

Last weekend we spent a great Friday night and Saturday morning with the couples in Kinshasa. It was like a fabulous P-day! There are three WONDERFUL American couples with whom we work! You couldn't ask for a kinder, better, more devoted, more fun to be with group of people than this group. Each couple is doing a great job in their assignment and have given us and each other tremendous love and support. We feel such friendship and unity here. It's a great blessing to serve with and learn from them.

The Hatches (left), our office couple are from New Mexico. They keep things running smoothly and efficiently as they work with the office staff. But, they go way beyond that by showing love and concern to everybody. They're doing so many good things with members. Elder Hatch wanted to start something worthwhile with the young men. He was encouraged by Elder Renlund to begin implementing and building the young men through the Duty to God award program. On Friday evenings the Hatches lead out in having a dance class for the young adults. Last Friday they invited us to go along with all the other couples. Elder Bingham drove us for about an hour into the city to get to the building. He's fearless in his driving and his comments are worth the trip! It's amazing that you drive through miles and miles of typical African neighborhoods.

Then suddenly we come upon a beautiful Mormon church.

It's wonderful to have such a place for the members to gather.

The young people there had a great time learning line dancing and even a little waltzing, taught by Andrew, a young man who's here on an internship for the US Embassy. It was so good to see our youth in that good setting instead of out on the streets of the city that we'd just driven through. Without a word of French, the Hatches directed things beautifully. It was an amazing sight to behold. We even got into the dancing and had a great time.

The Binghams (on the other side of us in the picture) are from California and are humanitarian country directors here. They have all kinds of projects going. They're as courageous as they come as they drive out across this vast city, looking for places to do projects and supervising the projects that have been started. They're working on wells, wheel chairs, club foot repair, and neo-natal resuscitation projects and probably a lot more. Both of these couples do their jobs WITHOUT French, which is totally amazing to us. It speaks well for the language of love that they do speak very well.

Saturday morning all the couples were invited by the Binghams to a well "turn-over ceremony." The church had built a well and water tower for St. Joseph's hospital.

Pictured is water tower and those who had worked for the church on the project.

This ceremony is done to help the people understand that now the gift we've given them is "turned-over" to them. The group will now be expected to maintain it. It's a finalization of the church's work and helps the recipients to feel that they now have responsibility for the project's use and repair. I've heard about these ceremonies, but now we have had a chance to be at one. Sister Bingham says that they have the best job in the church. They just "give things away every day." In actuality, they work very, very hard to chose, petition for approval, organize, supervise and see to conclusion some of the most important work done by the church. It opens many doors as we show people of the world the love and concern that we in the church have for them. The turn-over ceremony was well organized, ran smoothly and was so interesting to attend.

Before the ceremony a group of young boys were preparing for their part, which was some traditional African singing and dancing. Sisters Bingham and Hatch got invited to join them in a little dancing before the show started.

At the beginning of the program the young people wowed us with their singing and dancing.

After the dancing, there was a speech by the Monsignor, who then blessed the well and water tower and sprinkled them with holy water.

Then there were more speeches by hospital administrators, project managers, and a church representative. Next, many people from the hospital, community and church joined in the ribbon cutting and took a drink of the fresh water as the tap was unveiled and the first water flowed. TV cameras were rolling and the event was on national television twice in the next couple of days.

A meal was then served-rolls, peanuts,salami and as always, Fanta.

The traditional dancers returned for the finale. It was fire dancing! Quite an ending!

We were so happy that the Binghams invited us to join them at this wonderful celebration.

The last couple (on the far right in the picture) is the Staggs. They are starting the PEF program here to aid young adults in getting an education that will help them to find employment. They're located in the new CES building and there's a great deal happening to help our young adults. The new young adult center (complete with ping pong tables) will be a great place for the young people to mingle. The Staggs are doing a great job of starting a new PEF program that can be life changing here in the Congo, as it provides training for employment for young members of the church. Since they live in a society that has an estimated 90% unemployment, getting a job is the major concern of every returned missionary with whom we've visited. They're all counting on PEF to help them find a better life.

We sure love these folks, as well as our couples in the Republic of Congo and Cameroon, and see the good works that they do every day. "There is work enough to do e're the sun goes down" for every skill cultivated by every person who's willing to give the Lord some time. These folks are a blessing and a great example to us and we love them dearly.