A Wonderful Weekend-Saturday's Events

Our Saturday was filled with meetings.  The General Authorities really are amazing. They never waste a minute of time when they come to visit.  They want to be with the members showed their love and support and filled their time here with meetings and great instruction.



All of the priesthood leadership of our mission were invited to a four-hour meeting Saturday morning at the Seminary and Institute building on the property where the temple will be built someday.






They had made the huge efforts and gone to great expense to help the branch presidents, District Presidencies, Bishops and Stake Presidencies come. It meant getting passports and visas and flying our leaders from Cameroon and Pointe Noire. There were 14 invited and 13 came. Only Pres. Langue from Bangui didn't come. He has had health problems and he wanted to save his strength for the visit that the brethren were to make to Bangui. These men where thrilled to be in the presence of an Apostle and the two 70's and to be with all the other, more than 100 priesthood leaders. 

 

It was, for many, the first time they'd been out of their country, or on a plane. They didn't even have suitcases to put their things in to make the trip.This was certainly the first time that they had seen this kind of a body of priesthood leaders or an Apostle.   They were very thrilled to be there. All the brethren were eager to learn and Elder Holland said that they had never had better questions asked by priesthood leaders in any place in the church.  They were thoughtful, and pertinent questions that would be asked by those who minister well.

Brent said that when they entered the room the priesthood leaders were all seated quietly by countries and stakes and they all stood to silently greet Elder Holland.  Our little band of 13 branch and district presidents was on the two front rows and they waved at Brent as he got on the stand like a child would wave to a parent.  It was most touching to him and he felt a great love for these sweet, devoted leaders. They're so eager to learn and to help the church grow and serve their people. We just love them.

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Meanwhile, the wives of the General Authorities were holding a meeting in the adjoining stake center. There we over 1,500 sisters in attendance.  When we arrived the chapel, cultural hall, and most of the rooms and halls were filled  to overflowing with sisters waiting to hear the words of the wives of the church leaders. 

On of the most tender moments was when we were entering the chapel and we saw a sister who was crawling on her hands and knees, because of little use of her legs, to get down the long hill from the street to the building, which can be seen in the first picture above.  She had crawled past the S&I building on the grass, but when she got past it, there was only asphalt to crawl on. We all watched with great emotion as she made her way toward us.  Finally, Brother Milne, who was the security man assigned to the sisters, went over, picked her up, carried her to the chapel and placed her on the first row. After the meeting, he organized a group of men to place her in a chair and carry her to the top of the hill where she could wait to catch a transport bus to get home. Later, I was asked by the general authorities to investigate and arrange for a wheel chair for this devoted lady.  It was a real sign of the brethren's concern and love for each member. 

 

Don't they just look magnificent in their bright, beautiful Congolese dresses.
The Congolese women love to dress up in their finest for special occasions. They have matching shoes,purses and  and jewelry. Sometimes they even have hair to match their dress. No matter their economic circumstances, they dress in their very best for church. These ladies were looking good and were pleased to have their pictures taken.
This is a beautiful family of women who we know and love in Kinshasa. The Egombe twin sisters, on either side of the picture are two of our RM's.  Their mother is on  middle-left and their younger sister on the middle-right.  What a beautiful family of righteous women.

Sisters Renlund and Clayton, the wives of the 2 Seventies and five Stake Relief Society Presidents gave wonderful messages about the role of the Holy Ghost in our lives.  It was a great day for sisters in Kinshasa. 

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Then we met with the visitors in a room in the building for a quick lunch before heading out to other meetings. For me, this was a challenge. I was asked to fix a meal that could be eaten at the chapel and only take a few minutes time--sort of a little picnic lunch. Since there are no cooking facilities and nobody to help prepare an American meal and since I was in the meetings until the moment of lunch, it was a bit tricky, but all went well and we were soon off for the  next round of meetings. 

Elder Holland, the Renlunds and the Kyungus (an area authority) met with us and our missionaries from Kinshasa, Brazzaville and Matadi. Only our missionaries in Cameroon and Pointe Noire were not able to come. The expense of visas, and flights and the restrictions on young North Americans coming to DR Congo made their attendance impossible. We really missed them and are looking forward to our visit this month to share this experience with them. 

As we arrived in the room our 114 missionaries and all of our couples were sitting perfectly  reverently waiting for Elder Holland. When he arrived they spontaneously stood in respect for an Apostle and they were attentively fixed on his words throughout the meeting.  Before the meeting began Elder Holland invited the missionaries to come row by row to greet and shake hands with us and each of the visiting Church leaders and their wives.  It was a good meeting. Elder Holland was warm and relaxed as he taught our young missionaries.  Elder Renlund told the story of the creation of dynamite's and related it to the gospel and the church and how they need each other to truly bring power into our lives. Brent and I each took a minute to share our testimonies and it was a great time for our mission.    

When we left, Sister Fanantenantsoa began to play "God, Be With You" on the keyboard  and as we walked down the hall we could hear the missionaries as they spontaneously joined in singing. Sister Smith, one of our senior missionaries, described it perfectly when she said, "It was intended to be postlude instrumental music... but, as the last of the Church leaders filed out, the sound of soft voices 

began to be heard from the back of the room (Congolese just have to sing.. it's in their DNA!)

and it began to swell until every voice in the room was singing with a volume that we knew was being carried to the ears and hearts of those who were leaving as we sang through our tears.It was a powerful and sweet demonstration of love."  We did hear it as we walked away and it was a very tender moment.

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At the same time there was a meeting for young single adults held in the Stake Center with Elder and Sister Clayton. It ended just as our meeting did and scores of young adults poured from the building. It was attended by more than 1,500. We love the spirit of young adults and these were no different.  There was lots of friendly chatter, but also a spirit of joy and reverence that is hard to explain. What a great Saturday of meetings it was!

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When we dropped the General Authorities off at their hotel about 5:00, it had been a full day. We had enjoyed our time throughout the busy day. We were pleasantly surprised when Elder Holland extended an invitation to us to join them for dinner at the hotel that evening.  He and Elder Renlund assured us that it would be fine if we felt too tired or had too much to do to return.  Hah! Does one turn down a dinner invitation from an Apostle? We returned that evening and  had a wonderful meal with them and enjoyed the chance to just be in their company. Everybody had a good story and we laughed and laughed. 

What a  full, uplifting, wonderful day it was!