Tuesday we headed out, just a week after getting home from Johannesburg, on our "outland adventure." The trip across the Congo River only takes about 10 minutes, but getting the "formalities" done takes us a total of about three hours. We just sit in the car in the "beach" area by the river and watch things being loaded and unloaded, while Thierry and a facilitator go and get all the "formalities" done. I don't know how we'd do it without them.
We took our assistants, Elder Twikala and Elder Bukasa, with us to Brazzaville.
Elder Bukasa on the right) had never been in a boat or on water before. He was even more nervous than I was. He sat right by me with his eyes as big as saucers, clutching his back pack and trying not to look terrified. He was very brave and I think that he was pretty grateful when we docked in Brazzaville.
The Congo side of the River and the Brazzaville side of the river.
These are two of the boats that we passed on the way across the river. Things could be worse.
We could have been on one of these boats. We sailed past them and counted our blessings!
Our crossing took an hour longer than usual and made us late for our first scheduled Zone Conference. When we arrived at the conference all 24 missionaries had been quietly waiting in the chapel for over an hour. Nobody was troubled by it. We all took a deep breath and moved right into our six-hour zone conference/Christmas party/lunch. We had a great time with the elders and sisters there. They listened to our teaching and we had fun with our little Christmas party.
Brazzaville Zone
Immediately afterward we left to catch our plane to the next stop, which was in....DOUALA, CAMEROON
We arrived in Douala at about 10:00 pm. After a 12-hour day, we were ready for a nights rest. The Douala airport is probably the craziest in all of Africa, according to Renlunds. It's a reasonable facility, but once you get out of it, you are surrounded with people trying to take your bags for you, sell you things, change money and in any way possible get you to pay them. You have to literally push them away to get free and carry your own bags. This time we had arranged for a shuttle to the hotel where we were staying. Usually the Nuttalls, our senior couple are there to pick us up and we stay with them. This time, since it was so late and the Renlunds were coming to join us, we planned to stay in a hotel and use the hotel shuttle. It unfortunately wasn't there yet when we arrived.We called the hotel and then waited for about half an hour in the "outside- the-airport-madness" to get our ride to the Hotel Bano Palace. It's the hotel that the airlines got for us when the plane was hit by lightening and we were stranded the last time that we were in Douala. It's a very nice place. We were so happy to see it and we happily crashed for the night.
The next day we spent at the Nuttalls' home. Brent did four new missionary interviews and held meetings with priesthood leaders and branch members. I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get 100 lbs of missionary things that they'd left behind at transfer time into our suitcases. It's been the practice to leave things in Douala and then get them when it was time to go home. Our new plan has missionaries leaving from their last city of assignment, so it was our desire to help all these elders get their "stuff" before they go home. We went from five moderately-filled suitcases to eight very full-to-the-limit suitcases that we had to haul to our next city. Being a beast of burden was not something that we knew would be in our job description, but it sure is with the "human-mule-train" system of transport used in Africa. Sister Nuttall spent most of the day fixing meals and refreshments for us and the parade of people who came through their house to see us. That evening we were joined by the Renlunds, who had flown in from South Africa to join us on our mission tour. On our mission tour in Sept. there was not time to go and see the elders in the outlying areas. Elder Renlund felt badly that they had missed their chance to be with a general authority and so he made room in his schedule to make this trip. They did it just to show the elders in these three cities that they were loved and to bring them the thanks from the apostles and the First Presidency. It was such a wonderful example of how caring and our Area Presidency is.
Douala Zone
We held another five-hour zone conference in Douala the next day. It's so fun to be with these good elders. They're all North Americans and they live and work in conditions that they've never seen before their missions and do it with a smile on their faces. We taught them and then we had a little Christmas party, as we did at each zone conference. We had wrapped enough ties for all the elders. (Thanks to Tempe Stake) The first one chosen got to pick a package. The next one could chose a package or steal the first elder's tie or the President's tie and so on. Elder Renlund headed for the corner to protect his tie. We all had a good laugh. It was lots of fun as the elders took each other's ties and Brent's tie. We also had a little goody bag for each elder.
YOUANDE, CAMEROON
After zone conference we packed up again and headed to Yaoundé. We got there in time for a late dinner with the Thompsons in a nice restaurant and again crashed so we could stay awake in church on Sunday.
We attended church in Yaoundé where we four visitors were the speakers in the sacrament meeting. We were told on Saturday night when we arrived that we would be doing it. It's a lot harder to do a surprise talk in French than it is in English, but we all made it through it without any complete disasters. After church we went directly to Thompsons' home for our Yaoundé Zone conference/party/dinner. I sometimes wonder if these couples hate to see us coming because it means lots of cooking for them, but they do it without complaint and are wonderful and hospitable to us.
Yaoundé Zone
A new missionary, Elder Graham, had just arrived to start his mission a few days before we got to Yaoundé. He had flown into Douala, spent the night and then had been put all alone on an unairconditoned, old African bus to make the five-hour trip to Yaoundé. We were all a little anxious about it since he was still a bit culturally shocked, jet lagged and had only MTC French to help him. He arrived in Yaoundé with a big smile on his face and two referrals in his pocket. That's the kind of wonderful North American Elders we have in our mission. They're the greatest!
Pointe Noire Zone
POINTE NOIRE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Monday morning bright and early we flew from Youandé back to Douala where we had a few hours lay over. Then it was on to Pointe Noire, Congo for the last of our Zone Conferences. In Pointe Noire we had to split the Zone Conference into two parts since we didn't have enough time either day for the whole thing. So, we did two hours of conference and dinner the first night. Then we took the Renlunds to a hotel and we stayed with the new couple, the Wheatleys, to do training until about midnight. They've only been in Africa for a month and are still trying to learn the ropes, so it was good to meet with them and talk about their assignment. They come with willing hearts, no French, and a great desire to do what the Lord is asking of them. The second half of Zone Conference was held at 7:00 am the next day. We had another great conference with another wonderful group of missionaries, 6 American missionaries and two Africans. We got to meet another new, enthusiastic young missionary, Elder McGrath. He arrived just a few weeks before our arrival and is doing great. We had to finish our meetings by 9:00 to catch the plane to Brazzaville so that we could cross the river before it closed for the day.
Finally, on Tuesday morning we flew back to Brazzaville and crossed the Congo River again. This time we had rented a boat because Elder Renlund had to be back in Kinshasa for a meeting and that was the best way to try and get him there on time. We can't do that all the time because of the expense. But, it was wonderful!! We had a big boat with just seven of us on it. I'm sure on a normal crossing they would put 50 people on it. It was clean and open and gave us person space galore. It was just a delight. It was pretty nice Crossing the Congo in style.
We got home at 3:00 and at 5:30 I had to have a dinner prepared for six people, Renlunds, Elder Kola, an Area Seventy and his wife and us. Brent and Elder Renlund had meetings straight through until then. We had a nice, quiet dinner in our home and enjoyed it very much.
The next morning we sent the Renlunds with one of our staff to the airport so that we could start preparing for our next round of Zone Conferences which started the next day. We had two more conferences (for about 20 each time). Only three more zone conferences to go next week and we will have seen and fed all our 140 missionaries, been in four countries, done nine zone conferences, taken five plane trips and two boat trips, given 10 or 12 talks (all times 2) and then we'll................. No, we will not rest. We'll just start on the next project-a new African senior couple coming on Monday to spend four days with us for training. We plan to rest .....when we get back to Arizona.
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing your amazing experiences in Africa. The young missionaries and the intrepid couples who serve there will never forget their time there. It is the time of Africa...
I'm exhausted just reading about it! What a blessing to be sustained through all of that mad travelling. And, I don't believe, for ONE SECOND, that you'll rest once you get back to AZ. ;)
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