One More African Flight. Oh Matadi!!

Because of my unreasonable fear of flying and it's accompanying anxiety, I am always terrified at the idea of visiting Matadi. But we needed to make one more trip there. I had managed to only make three, while Brent had made four during our mission. But I just couldn't leave Africa without visiting this little branch again.  So, Saturday we flew to Matadi.
It's only a one-hour flight, but it's in a 17-seat prop plane.  Not my idea of a good time!! I just close my eyes and pray for the whole time.  This trip was no different, but we made it without incident.

 We take off from a little air strip in the center of Kinshasa and land on a dirt air strip on the top of a mountain.  And to add to the excitement, they have to shoo goats off the landing strip in order to land. The plane flies to three different cities. Fortunately, we get off at the first stop. Two more take offs and landings would be out of the question.

We stay in the ViVi Palace. Note that many of the names of the hotels we stay in have "Palace" in them, it's interesting that palatial is not a descriptor that I'd use for them. They are, however, the best in town and everybody tries very hard to make things comfortable and nice for us. There are a few challenges in this hotel that always make it interesting. First the rooms that we get are always on at least the third floor of one building.  The restaurant is on the fourth floor of the other. There are no elevators. (Note the heavy breathing that accompanies this description.)  It's quite a hike up and down to go anyplace and that doesn't take into account carrying suitcases to and from your room.

 
There's also a lovely little terrace restaurant that we have enjoyed. This time of year it was cool and beautiful to sit out there. Upon arrival we decided to get a quick lunch there before they came to take Brent to the church for interviews and meeting. Now, quick lunch isn't in the culture of an African meal. After looking at the menu we opted for french fries and orange soda.  It was the only thing that we knew would take less than 45 minutes to prepare. Brent spent the rest of the day interviewing people for priesthood advancements and callings.  I curled up on the bed in our two room "suite" and blogged all afternoon. At dinner time we hiked to the restaurant and found that not much on the menu looked really great and opted for Chinese food.  Maybe Chinese food in Africa wasn't the best idea ever. So dinner was rather light.

Sunday the branch president's counselor came and picked us up for church in a taxi.  He was there all weekend to pick us up and show us around. They were all very proud to show us their new rented church building. It was beautiful. It's probably the nicest of any of the rented buildings we've seen in Africa. It was designed, but never used, as a hotel. So, it has many nice rooms for classes and a very large chapel.

 They were so thrilled about the building and for good reason. It's beautiful and very well kept. In their previous building they didn't have enough room for all the people in sacrament meeting. Many sat out on the porch where little could be heard and seen.  What an improvement this is for them. The Branch President asked Brent if he would see the General Authorities when we went home and if so, if he would thank them for getting this beautiful chapel for them.

They always seem to really make big stands in chapels here. I think that they see how big they are in the conference center and think that's how they should be. Space is large and high, seats are over-sized and quite comfortable.  This building and its stand are no exception. It's also a problem that they often make the pulpit too high. This one was so high that I couldn't see over it when I went to talk. The Priest came and brought me the stool they use when they bless the sacrament. It was embarrassing, but not as strange as it would have been had I only been a voice coming from behind the pulpit.
 I visited all the auxiliaries and especially enjoyed the Primary children. Though we had no words in common, since most only spoke Lingala, we could communicate with gestures and songs and it was fun to visit them.

The investigators' class was too big for the room that they had planned to be in, so they  had to move to another room.  That room was still too small. We had more than 25 people in the investigators' class. Since the church moved to this new location, there has been great interest from the neighborhood. Isn't having too many investigators to fit in the room a great problem to have?! Look at the smile on Elder Ngalamulume's face!  A happy missionary.

Sacrament was also filled to the brim with 177 people in attendance.  There will likely be a split in this branch in the not too distant future. The church is growing everywhere in Africa. Now that they have a building big enough to hold people, they will come. They had a confirmation and 7 men sustained and ordained as elders.

The Second counselor, in the Matadi branch, President Buana and us.

    This young lady was interviewed to serve a mission. Brent hand carried her documents as far as Kinshasa. This will be his last potential missionary interview.  She's a sweet girl and will be a real asset to missionary work. There will soon be two missionaries from Matadi, a brother and sister.                                                                                                        

  No more African flights. We've traveled over 82,000 miles on this mission and have made over 100 flights.  With somebody who's afraid of flying,
the fact that I could do that amount of air travel is  another evidence of the Lord's patience and love and has been a true mission miracle.