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.