Yikes! It's Casper!

So, this is how little kids react to our white faces. This little boy sat through the entire Sacrament meeting just like this. I finally got out my camera, turned off the flash and took this picture. He looks like he's seeing a ghost. I guess to him we might just look like one, especially Brent with his white hair. But we keep trying to be friendly! Not much else we can do.

Weekend with Elder Soares

After arriving home from our 12 day trip out of the country, we had three days to get ready for Elder Soares' visit. Elder Soares is a member of the Seventy who serves as first counselor in our South East Africa area presidency. He's from Brazil, where he worked for the church as head of Temporal affairs. He also served as a mission president in Portugal. His visit couldn't have been more helpful. His counsel & encouragement were invaluable. His past service as a mission president and director of temporal affairs made him the perfect person to look at many things that needed addressing here. We also enjoyed his company very much. What a nice man.

The only disappointment was that his wife couldn't be with him because of the illness of their 17 year old daughter. We missed having her with us.

Mission Tour 2011

This visit was our 2011 mission tour and it was for just four days. Because of the short stay, it was impossible for him to tour the whole mission, but we did bring all the missionaries to Kinshasa, except the 24 who we'd just seen in the Republic of Congo and Cameroon. That in itself was a major undertaking.

His mission tour had been planned for November, but because of the presidential election in November, we thought it would be better to do it another time. So, on short notice, he rearranged his schedule and came last weekend. We were worried about the shortness of the stay because things move slowly in the Congo, but we were able to pack the weekend with great things and it turned out well.

He arrived on Friday afternoon and we spent several hours talking about the mission, our concerns and needs. He was especially kind to ask how we were doing personally and we were happy to reply that "all is well."

That night we hosted dinner in our home for the 5 stake presidents in Kinshasa, one from Brazzaville, two area seventies, the executive secretary to one of the area authorities (whose arrival was a surprise)and their wives. There were 20 of us. It was an important chance for Elder Soares and us to get acquainted with them. Working with the stakes is important to the success of a mission.

Sautrday we held a combined conference for three of the zones. Brent and I each spoke and then Elder Soares took the last 3 hours to teach and train. He reinforced some things that we had discussed the day before and was a wonderful second voice to our missionaries to confirm what we've been working on. I was worried about feeding all 70 people, but lunch turned out just fine. We served a simple meal with hoagies, bananas, cabbage salad, sodas and cookies. The senior sisters and I had been baking all week to provide the 280 cookies needed for both conferences. But I think that they were a hit. The missionaries were really excited to see each other and were attentive during the meetings. It was most interesting when they asked questions that Elder Soares always turned to Brent to answer them and then he would reinforce what Brent said. It was a good conference.

We had a nice, quiet evening with just the three of us for dinner and more discussions about our needs and concerns, mostly we talked about the 11 mission branches and the challenges of doing business in the Congo. Elder Soares said that coming here had helped him to learn a great many things. This is a unique society and only by visiting can you begin to know what it's like, so we're always glad to have people visit. He talked to us about some innovations that are coming which they hope will help our people. We were very excited to hear about them and anxious to implement them.

Sunday morning we attended a block of meetings in the stake center. Elder Soares asked Brent, and the two area seventies to speak and then he was the main speaker. I was relieved that I didn't have to talk. It was in the original schedule, but I got deleted for the sake of time. I was very glad. Brent described my state of French when he said that I was just taking the training wheels off. I speak well enough not to want to be tied to reading a paper and yet can't quite stand on my own. It's awkward!

Right after church we had lunch for another 70 missionaries who attended our second combined conference. This one was for the three remaining zones. Elder Soares also did meetings with the district and zone leaders, and the assistants,and interviews with a few missionaries. Elder Bukasa was one Elder Soares interviewed. Elder Bukasa had hernia surgery three days before the conference, but he was not to be denied his chance to be taught by a general authority. He came and sat through the whole four hours of conference. I was so happy that Elder Soares chose to interview him personally.

Immediately after zone conference we had a fireside for the young single adults of the five Kinshasa stakes. All afternoon we saw and heard them arriving outside of the Seminary and Institute building, which is next to the stake center. They were streaming into the stake center next door chatting and laughing just as the young adults in Tempe Arizona Stake always did. It was fun to feel that delightful, youthful exuberance again. They came by foot, by taxi and in transports from all over the vast city of Kinshasa.

When the count was made, there were 822 in attendance. It was another very special meeting. It was especially fun for us to see many of the missionaries that had served with us in Lubumbashi and Burundi & have now returned home. They'll always be dear to us and it was special to see so many of them. We even got to meet the fiancee of one of them. Her name is Rachael. It's cute that our elder was one of our missionaries who wanted me to take him home to marry our granddaughter, Rachel. He was very pleased to introduce us to HIS Rachel. Most of these good returned missionaries have found somebody to marry. Almost none are married because they're struggling to raise the dowry before they can marry. The dowry will likely delay temple marriage for all of them. It's a tradition of the fathers that is falling upon the heads of the children and is very sad. The missionaries in this generation tell us that they will NOT ask the dowry of their children. We hope that they will honor this pledge and not be pressured by parents and extended family to pay this terrible bride price, as this generation is forced to do. We pray that these young people will be true to that commitment to abandon this cultural burden for the children of the future.

At the end of the day we had dinner here for our three senior couples, Elder Soares and us. It was a nice way to end the day and easy to do because of the unselfish, kind nature of all the couples. They make doing anything easy as they pitch in to help. It was a pleasant evening at the end of a long weekend.

Monday morning we had our last meeting with Elder Soares before his 9:00 am flight. Elder Soares usually meets with office staff since full-time young elders serve in offices. We have no young missionaries in our office. We almost thought it would be OK to cancel this meeting, but just felt the impression that it should be held. So, we met with the office couple and our two full-time paid employees. It turned out to be one of our most productive meetings we held all weekend. The staff presented some problems that we've had in coordinating with Temporal Affairs and in working with missionaries from all over the Congo who come to our mission for 3 weeks before the MTC. It's a huge challenge to us. Elder Soares had strong opinions on these things and immediatley called and set up meetings for Tues when he was back in the office to facilitate changes that he, and we, felt were needed. It was just a tremendous blessing that we held that meeting. Some important adjustments are going to be made that will help us to better serve the mission. We're learning so much and still have much more to learn. One important thing we're learning is to be more courageous in following our impressions and making changes that feel right to us.

It turned out to be a great weekend. When all was said and done, we'd served over 163 meals, given five talks, and planned and carried out transportation for 120 missionaries. It was a very busy weekend, but as always we were blessed far more than our efforts merited. The advice and help given to us and our missionaries would have been cheap at twice the price.

Twelve Days Out of a Suitcase-Part 3

Douala was our last stop on our tour of the outlying cities. Here we have a great couple, the Nuttalls, who supervise the missionaries and give branch support. We don't know what we'd do without these folks. They serve alone in their cities. We have the utmost respect for their courage and faith to serve in this way. The work could progress even better if we had twice this many couples like the six in our mission. The Nuttalls have had an interesting life as they've lived in South America, China, and France during his working career. Now they add Cameroon to their list of places they've called home. Their French is extremely helpful, although Sister Nuttall says that sometimes she throws in a little Spanish or Chinese by mistake and totally confuses everybody.

Douala Zone

Our first priority on our visits is to be with our missionaries. We had a great zone conference and trainer meeting, breakfast question and answer session with them, visited their apartments and Brent went to teaching appointments with the zone leader and his companion.

These are great elders who work hard and are obedient and faithful. We just love these young men, Elders Spens (who's been here one transfer), Waite, Lamm, Kalenga, Pistor, Buck and our two new Elders, Nash and Addington. They serve valiantly, but still love a chance to be a little silly and we had fun being with them. Brent interviewed the new elders and when he did the others all asked if they too could have interviews. So, he interviewed everybody.

We've started a mission memory project that we're excited about. We're having every missionary and others who are a part of our mission experience sign squares of fabric, made for us by Sister Livingstone ( the wife of a past mission president.) Then I'll make it into a quilt that we can sit under and reminisce as we rock in our rockers someday. It's been fun having everybody sign the "petit morceau de tissu" as we go around the mission. The American elders knew right away what this was all about. The Africans couldn't figure out why I'd cut up fabric, into little pieces and the sew them back together to make to a big piece, stuff it with heavy, hot batting, and sew it to another piece of fabric, instead of just laying under the original piece of fabric. The construction of a quilt does sound silly when you try to explain it, but it will become a treasure to us. I think our elders and friends are happy to be part of our quilt memory.

Our mission quilt in progress

Brent did another branch division in Douala. The church is growing and since these are mission branches, Brent is responsible for them as a Stake President would be in a stake.

Bonapriso Branch meeting house

He does all the priesthood training, interviewing and calls as well as all other functions that a stake president would do. This time it was just a branch divided, so it took less interviewing and time to make this happen. But it's still always a big project. The Bonaberi group was changed into a branch and the Bonapriso Branch stayed in tact with just some leadership changes. One special things was that our assistant from Lubumbashi, Elder Nkong, (on the left in the picture of Bonapriso Branch presidency) was set apart by Brent as second counselor in the Branch Presidency. It's really special to see our returned missionaries fortifying their branches and wards.

Bonaberi and Bonapriso Branches in Douala, Camersoon

Marius Nkong and his fiancee, Sonja

On Monday, after 12 days of visits, meetings and fun with missionaries, reorganizations, visits to church apartments and buildings and a great deal of wonderful time spent with our great couples, we headed back to Kinshasa. For the first time we flew straight there on Air Belgium instead of flying back to Brazzaville. staying overnight and crossing the Congo at the beach. Wow was it easy! We think this will be our new plan. It's worth the little extra that it costs. After all that time traveling a quick trip directly home was very welcome, especially when we only had three days to prepare for the visit or Elder Soares, a member of the 70. Life just keeps on coming at us n the Congo.

Twelve Days out of a Suitcase -Part 2

I started this post a week ago, but life got in the way. So, here I am getting back to Sept. 10.

the delay speaks much about how the last three weeks have been BUSY. But that's for another post. For now...

From Pointe Noire we flew to Douala and spent the afternoon there since the only plane to Yaounde leaves at 10:00pm. We were welcomed by the Nuttals, our great couple in Douala. Brent met with the Branch President for most of the afternoon and then we were off to Yaounde on the 10 pm flight. We ended up flying with a Cameroonian basketball team. They towered over Brent. The shortest one was inches taller than Brent and the tallest must have been 7 feet tall.

Every one of them had to duck to walk down the isle. They must have had a hard time crammed into those little seats.

The Camair-co airlines that we take to Younde is best we've seen in all of Africa. We fly in a new wide-body, comfortable airplane and are almost sad it's only a 25 minute flight. This plane stops in Yaounde and then continues on to Paris. We're always tempted! But we surmount the temptation and get off in Yaounde.

The Thompsons assist the missionaries and the four branches in Yaounde. They also pampered us with wonderful meals, good company and even a little sight seeing.

The first day was occupied with zone conference and new missionary training again. Our new missionaries didn't get visas in time to be there, but they came in a couple of days later and we were able to be with them before we left Yaounde. It was so great to greet them as they began their missions.

Old elders being a little crazy when they get the chance.

New missioanries fresh from the US, jet lagged, culture shocked, but read to go!

Brent also went out teaching with the Elders Tingey and Hansen. I loved seeing him walk away with them down a little dirt road.

They also took a taxi to one appointment and they had a flat tire. The driver jumped out and changed the tire on the spot like a NASCAR driver. Time is money and other fares were waiting. Just another adventure in Africa.

Younde has four mission branches, so there is always a need for training. Brent spent part of the next day with priesthood leadership training while I talked with Sister Thompson about a new primary training kit and mission security plans. Then we went to a Casino. That's a Casino market. It's a French food chain and they have many things that we can't get. The big find was crackers and pretzels. It's hard to imagine being so excited about soda crackers that you haul them home in your suit case. But sometimes a person just needs crackers.

We had a few minutes in the afternoon so we went to see a piece of land that belongs to the church. It has been fenced and there's a family living there to protect it. It' a long way from where there are branches now, and like many other pieces of land in Africa, nothing is being built there in the foreseeable future.

The Thompsons invited us to drive through town. Yaounde seems to be a little more progressive and to have a little higher standards of living. It's also very green and lush.

The US embassy and a new building in construction

The big modern stadium and Best Buy appliances (no relation to the US version)

THE NIGERIA TEMPLE TRIP

While in Yaounde the Thompson shared pictures and the story of their trip to the Nigerian temple with branch members. It was an amazing journey. I'm including a few pictures of the trip that these saints made. They rode 7 hours on a bus from Yaounde to Douala.

Then they spent the night sitting or lying on the floor of a ferry boat to travel to Nigeria.

From there it was another 4-hour bus trip to the temple, where they stayed in the patron housing available to members traveling long distances to the temple. It took great effort, time and finances to make this trip. It also took a lot of faith and love.

But it was worth it. Personal covenants were made, couples were married and families were sealed.

Another group followed two weeks later, but this time the Thompsons were asked to stay behind. Having them along was too much of a security risk. A couple of sisters brought her wedding dresses to wear for their sealings and it was shared by several others.

What a wonderful work the Thompson have done to help families to attend the temple and enjoy the blessings of eternal families.

Later in the day we visited the missionary apartments and found them to be the nicest in our mission. They even have a washing machine, microwave and couch. Those are things that aren't in apartments in the Congo.

Missionary apartments

We ended our drive at the spot where the land of Cameroon was dedicated by Elder Holland two years ago. It's a big flat rock just off the highway with a beautiful view of the land. Elder Holland gave a wonderful dedicatory prayer there and made special promises to this land. He spoke of the missionaries who were and would serve here and the special call they had to serve these people. It was very touching to us as we serve with the people and the missionaries of this land. It made us know that the Lord is aware of the work we're doing and has had this plan long before we were sent to do it.

Site of the dedication of Cameroon for the preaching of the gospel

Then it was time to get back on a plane and head on to destination #3- Douala.