On the Road in Lubumbashi

Once a month on Thursday morning we visit the missionaries' apartments.

We deliver supplies and support money. We check their apartments for cleanliness, find out their needs and just give them our love and support.

We travel around the city from about 7am-12pm. This is p-day for the elders,

so we can find them at home. It's always an interesting day

The roads in Lubumbashi are very unique and often a challenge,

especially when it has rained.

The main streets are two lanes (where people drive like there are four lanes) and everywhere there are people walking, riding and transporting things on bikes or pulling and pushing chariots. Animals are not used to transport things, people do the jobs themselves.

Most people travel by foot or, if they have the money, by transport (minivans which have the interior stripped and benches welded into them). They put up to 22 people in them. They are packed and they are everywhere.

Carrying a lot of people is a fine art in the Congo. You put as many in your vehicle as you can. If you carry things, then people ride on top of the things in your truck.

We are often surprised at what we see coming down the roads.

You would not guess from looking at these streets that Lubumbashi is a city of 2 million people.

The streets are mostly lined with tiny shops, open markets, and vendors by the side of the road.

They are selling gas in gallon jugs, baskets, food, animals, and charcoal.

There's furniture, and clothing and about anything they can find to sell.

After you leave the major streets and get into the neighborhood, the streets are almost all either very broken, pothole filled asphalt or dirt. These are streets in the city.

It's different there than in the US. Here the closer you live to town the better the neighborhood.

and the more services and roads you have.

As you go further out from town, you have all dirt streets.

Until finally there are only foot paths.

Then there are no streets at all.

It's always an adventure on our Thursday drives. We are really glad that we have a four wheel drive vehicle and a guardian who washes our car whenever we come home.

The African Sky

The rainy season began in October and goes through April. We have rain almost every day. Mostly it just rains in little cloud bursts for a few minutes a few times a day, but it can also rain hard, Arizona-like rain all day long. It makes for a muddy mess, and life is so much harder for the people when it rains.

But it also brings the most beautiful skies that we have ever seen.

Every day, everywhere we go, we want to take pictures of the sky.

Whether they are white and fluffy or dark and threating, they are amazing

When we drive out in the bush, the sky looks like it fills the world and only leaves a little room for the people who live there.

It makes me think of Moses, who said,"Now for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed."

When we drive in the city the sky is a stark contrast to the brown of the roads and walkways.

It makes the drabness of the world here look brighter and more beautiful.

Just driving up our street can be magnificent. This picture was taken when we were just going home, which is on the left just beyond the maze of pot holes.

Living in Arizona, with its endless blue sky, has made me appreciate the beauty of clouds.

When I was a little girl, I used to like to lie on the grass and find things in the clouds. Now I just look at them with wonder.

On the way home from Likasi yesterday there were rainbows all over the sky. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

The skies of the Congo are something we will always remember.

Mission Tour-Days 6-10

The last part of our mission tour was spent in Lubumbashi. First, we held a zone conference for the elders here. It was our last zone conference with just one zone.

The weekend after this zone conference we had transfers. Since our numbers are growing, we created another zone. We assume that there will be more zones by the time of the mission division.

This was also the last zone conference for our Zone Leader, Elder Olinga. He finished his mission and headed back to Cameroon two days after the zone conference. What a nice experience it was for him to spend his last days on his mission with a General Authority.

He was counseled by Brent to make the most of his last transfer and assignment here and he really did. He and his companion went to open the new city of Kipushi by teaching there two days a week. The people there had been begging for missionaries and when they came they had groups of people ready to be taught. Two weeks after their first visit, they had 18 baptisms in one day. These people had been coming to church in the small branch and just waiting for baptism. It was a great way to end Elder Olinga's mission. We love him and will miss him, but expect him to be a great leader in the church in Cameroon.

Two other missionaries, Elders Yangoie and Mukenge, who both started their missions in September with us, also left to serve in Kinshasa. Parting is not "sweet sorrow" as Shakespeare said, it stinks!

Elder Mukenge and Elder Yangoie

We do miss our elders when they leave us. Both of these elders have families who are not in the church. They are strong, wonderful examples to their non-member families and their families are very supportive of their service.

On the weekend we accompanied Renlunds to the Lubumbashi Stake Conference. It is a very strong stake and they had a great conference.

These are the stake leaders

RS Pres , Jamesons, Renlunds, and the Stake Presidency

We are get to know people because we live in this stake and are feeling like they are starting to be our friends. Sister Renlund and I did an Auxiliary training while Brent and Elder Renlund did priesthood leadership. Then we had the Sat. adult session, a session for new members, and the Sunday general session.

There was, as usual, a fabulous choir. The people here sing with great gusto and we love to hear and see them sing. They often wear choir outfits and look as good as they sound.

Little usher and the Stake President's kids

Just loved the hair

When the week was over we had given at least seven talks each, traveled by crazy plane and wild car over 700 km (about 435 miles)and met with hundreds of wonderful members and elders. It was a busy, challenging week, but a great experience to share this special time with the Renlunds. Their hearts are with the people of the Congo and I think that they learned many things that will bring support to the people and the church here.

Then the Renlunds flew off to Johannesburg and we went back to the business of our mission. It was a wonderful week and we will always remember what a great time we had with the Renlunds exploring the Congo. We hated to see Day 11 come!

Mission Tour-Days 4-5

This is the community of Kisanga.

The market in Kisanga is fascinating. It runs for about half a mile on either side of the road. It's always packed with people and goods of all kinds, including live goats and chickens, furniture, clothing, food and almost anything else you would want to buy.

We took the Renlunds to land that the church owns in Kisanga, on which they plan to build a chapel. We are hoping to get it on the schedule soon. We really need it badly.

The road to the church site is really just a food path and we almost got stuck, even using four-wheel drive. Imagine having to ask a General Authority to help you push your car out of the mud!

On the road to the church we saw a group of children using a termite mound for a slippery slide. When they saw us they all came running to see the strange white people.

This lady was taking an old treadle sewing machine home. The"road" is seen behind her.

This area is really growing quickly and the church is also growing by leaps and bounds.

We went to a rented building where they just finished the construction and moved in a few weeks ago. We have already out grown the building. It was big enough to hold 120 people for Sacrament Meeting. They are now having about 160-180 in attendance each week.

While we were there we met a young member who were working in the yard. His name was Moroni. He hailed some children who were walking home from school. The youngest one (in the standard checked kindergarten apron) was his brother, Nephi. The children are so wonderful!

We also visited one of our nice, new missionary apartment.

and then one of our worst missionary apartments.

We now only have two apartments that are not up to the standard that we are trying to establish. We are trying to get all our elders into housing with water on the property, power most of the time, toilets that flush, at least a place for a bucker shower in the house, and good security. Something other than cement floors in the main room is a plus too.

We also visited the new place that we hope will be the mission home and office here in Lububashi. The two story building is still under construction, but we and the Renlunds agree that it would be a good place. We hope it works out.

We were grateful for the Renlunds interest and vision for Lubumbashi. We believe that great things are going to start happening that will bless the lives of the missionaries and members.

The Cattle Drive

There are so many interesting things here that we don't ever see at home. People make their living in ways that have long since disappeared from the US. On three different trips to Likasi we saw men herding their cattle to market. On one of those trips we gave a ride home to a member from Likasi who had been visiting Lubumbashi for meetings. As we were driving through the bush we came upon a small herd of cattle being driven down the road. The man with us told us that these men walk and herd their cattle 700km (about 435 miles) to market in Lubumbashi.

We had to go very slowly through the herd to continue on our trip. The herdsman asked us for water and we were sad that we had none to give them. I can't imagine what a difficult trip that must be. In the rainy season they would be rained on daily and in the dry season they would walk the whole way in a suffocating cloud of dust.

One trip we saw the herdsman on our way to Likasi. We were in Likasi for two days and when we returned home, we saw them again, still walking toward Lubumbashi. People here have to work extraordinarily hard just to survive.