Last the Best of All the Game

I suspect that this will be the last entry of our mission. We leave tomorrow, February 1, 2011. It's been a most amazing, challenging and wonderful experience. We're grateful that the Lord had a better plan than we had. I'm sure Young Adult Outreach in Lyon, France would have been great, but this mission has been an experience beyond anything we could have ever imagined. We have done so many unique things and met so many amazing and inspirational people. We have seen the gospel come into and bless so many lives. We've seen faithful saints who sacrifice all for the restored gospel.

We had never personally had our own missionary experience of seeing someone through the process of conversion. We have thought several times that we were going to be able to teach somebody, but it's never worked out. It was a bit sad to go home without a single baptism of our own.

There was the man in Lubumbashi who worked at the security company and talked to us each time we went to pay our bill. He made several appointments with us, but never kept them.

Then there's Hermes, who worked at Leo, the phone company, and who's been coming to church. He is planning to be baptized after having the lessons with the elders, but not before we leave.

Next, we met and talkedwith the dentist when I lost a crown. That was scary, but we thought it would have good results.

She was interested in what we had to say and took literature, a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD and a Book of Mormon and said after the holidays she and her husband would meet with us. But after the holidays she never answered her phone. Then just this week, we tried again, she answered and accepted the missionaries. Then she invited us to come to her home for a goodbye visit. So, we went on Saturday. She's just wonderful. Her husband is in the Burundi Senate and very impressive. Their children are beautiful and very poised. They're all well educated and a fine family. We sat on their patio, drank juice and ate snacks and had a great visit. They even presented us with a beautiful Burundian table linen set. They weren't able to come to church this week because of a family funeral, but promised to come and to see the elders. We're thrilled and hope to hear that they've come into the the church someday. What a great family!

Corinne, Celeste and Maman..........................One son is missing in this picture

But we can now say that it's never too late in your mission to teach the gospel. With one week to go we had a wonderful experience. We finally got our chance to teach and be involved in a baptism. Sister Rose, who has a daughter and a son who joined the church earlier and who was baptized last week along with another son and two more daughters, asked us to go and talk to her husband.

They are a very strong family of 13 and we believe all of them will, in time, join the church. She seemed to feel that some old people coming would make a difference. They live in one of the nicest African homes we've been in and in quite a nice area.

Once you get off a couple of main roads, dirt roads are all you find, but this one was nice and the homes were large and well kept.

When we arrived the zone leaders were there teaching the new-member lessons. It was so fun to walk into the yard and see them doing their job. The family was gathered on the porch and on the ground listening and reading the scriptures together.

Miriam, a beautiful young adult daughter, was braiding a little girl's hair. She told us she was doing her work. I guess she's a hairdresser and this is just about all a hairdresser would do in Africa. It was fun to watch her work. In the hour that we were there she braided the little girl's hair while the little girl sat perfectly still, without making any fussing at all.

We talked to Minos and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the truthfulness of the gospel and to come to church again on Sunday. We felt the spirit as we talked to him.

The next day the elders called and excitedly told us that Minos wanted to be baptized and he wanted Brent to do it. He said that he'd had a dream that he was baptized and Brent was the one that was baptizing him. The big problem was that he needed special clearance from the mission president and the area presidency. We told Minos that it might not be able to happen. It would be almost a miracle if the paperwork got done in a week.

He said he would still be baptized, but he believed that God wanted it to happen the way that he had dreamed it. So, Brent sent the paperwork off to President Packer on Saturday and we prayed that Minos would be right and we would get this little end-of-mission miracle. Sunday morning at 6 am an email was waiting on our computer. It gave Brent permission to teach all the lessons to Minos this week and baptize him on Sunday. There was great rejoicing in our little chapel that Sunday!! Brent went with the Zone Leaders as they taught Minos every night last week.

Sunday he baptized Frere Minos and two more of his sons.

Francy and Juma

What a great thing to see this good family united in the church

( Well, three more to go, but it will happen.)

Brent also had a privilege of baptizing Jean Claude. He's a sweet young man who was baptize in 2004 in Kenya. He was at church the first day and has never missed a Sunday although he walks 45 min. to get there. He's working at the missionary home doing yard work.

He's cutting the grass with a golf club like tool.

That and a machete are his only tools. But he works hard and is glad for work.

Since we got here we've been searching all over Africa, actually all over the world, for his records. They are not to be found, so we were instructed to rebaptize him and he asked Brent to do it. Like many Africans who have not had much experience being in water, he was terrified and shaking when he climbed into the pool. But it was a sweetest moment to see him rebaptized and officially a member of the church. It was very tender to watch the two of them embrace in a joyful moment immediately after his baptism when he was FINALLY official!

This brings our total baptisms since October to 60-Total member 68 plus 12 missionaries and we love every one of them. Our average Sacrament meeting attendance is 185%

Those involved in January 29, 2011 baptisms and those attending the baptism.

There's nothing better than going home wet!!

We are so blessed! What a way to end your mission!

PS. Today we went to visit and say goodbye to our dear African missionary sons.

We love them dearly and will miss them. We have shared a bit of Camelot

(a precious unique moment in time that will probably not happen again.)

This is the sight that will be forever in our minds.

You've Just Gotta Love 'Em

We decided that we needed to get something for our missionaries to wear as rain protection. It has been raining every afternoon. It's not a light, friendly rain. It's a soaked-to-the-skin downpours. So, we asked the zone leaders to find something that they could carry in their backpacks and that would protect them from getting soaked. Umbrellas just weren't enough. They wanted rain coats. They could find what they wanted and get it cheaply at the market. So, we told the zone leaders to get something for each elder. So, here they are dressed for the rain.

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They're the best! You just gotta love 'em! How we will miss our 8 young missionary, sons!

Another Great First- The Full Block of Meetings Begins

Sundays in Burundi are just the best days. This week we had another historic one. As a branch we were now authorized to hold a full block of meetings. Sunday we held the first Relief Society, Primary, Priesthood meeting and Sunday School in the history of Burundi. It was just wonderful!

Each organization needed a little shadow leadership on the part of the missionaries, but the great new members did it! Imagine being in a block of meetings with almost nobody, including those conducting, who had ever been in any of those meetings . That's how it was, but it worked.

We held Relief Society, Primary and Priesthood first. In Africa there's always a problem with people being late, really late. Sometimes people are a half hour to an hour late, so they always do Sacrament meeting last. But this Sunday NOBODY was late. I think that they were all just excited to have a full program and they were all there on time and ready to go.

Sister Magnifique was magnificent as she conducted Relief Society, having never been to one before. Wow! It was awesome. She's such a gracious young sister and very much the picture of an African Relief Society woman as she stood before the group in her beautiful African dress and headware with her little baby boy wrapped on her back.

I attended Relief Society and then went in to help with Primary. I had been asked to teach the Relief Society lesson. It was pretty frightening to give a lesson in French. It's one thing to give a talk where you can just say what you've carefully prepared and written down that it is to do a Relief Society lesson. There you have to ask questions, have a discussion. You're not etirely in charge of where the lesson goes and you don't know exactly what will be said. YIKES! There were only about four sisters of the 17 who speak enough French to understand the the lesson well, so my dear friend, Veronique Malabi, translated into Swahili as I gave the lesson in French. It worked well and I think we all felt the spirit as we talked about the history of Relief Society and how the first meeting of pioneer sisters in the time of Joseph Smith was just like our little meeting of the pioneer sisters of the Bujumbura Branch. We talked about the programs of Relief Society and how they can bless our lives as we serve each other and our friends and neighbors. We talked about what a great honor it is to be a part of this wonderful world-wide sisterhood of women who have charity born of faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. I introduced them to the motto-

CHARITY NEVER FAILETH or CHARITE NE PERIT JAMAIS

Then I gave each sister a laminated book mark with "Charite ne perit jamais" and the date of the first meeting of Relief Society in Burundi as a remembrance of their being part of this historic day. I could tell they loved meeting together and Relief Society will be a great blessing to them.

Lastly, we had Sacrament meeting. It consisted of open song and prayer, announcements, the Sacrament, eight confirmations, one 10 minute talk, and the closing song and prayer. Not much time for anything when you had 8 confirmations, but that's not such a bad problem to have.

It was just another great Sabbath Day in the history of the church in Burundi.

The Creation of the Bujumbura Branch

Today was another great Sabbath in Burundi. We're so happy with the growth of the church here and the fulfilling of our dreams and prayers for Burundi. Ninety-four people were in church last week as the Bujumbura Branch was created under the direction of President Packer.

The branch presidency was called with Malabi Kyubi Wa Kyubi as president, Hutungimana Johnson as First Counselor and Suguru Simon as Second Counselor.

Frere Johnson, Pres. Malabi and Frere Simon

The branch Presidency with their wives and Frere Simon's son, all of whom have been baptized.

The first Relief Society President of the Bujumbura branch, Mininahazwe Magnifique, was called and sustained today. She's a beautiful, strong, young sister, who will be a great blessing to the branch. She's only been a member of the church for a few weeks and will have a lot to learn, but will do a wonderful job. She speaks French, Swahili and Kirundi too. That will help bring unity to the sisters who speak no common language. Now the Priesthood and the sisters are organized and can work together to strengthen this new little branch. This is a very good thing.

Soeur Magnifique and her son, Welcam ..........Jean Pierre, Magnigique andtheir son,Welcam

After our meeting we had our bi-weekly baptisms. There were eight people baptized, bringing our branch numbers from our original 8 to 64. We fill each of our 80 chairs in the chapel now and are going to buy some more this week. There's been standing room only for the last couple of weeks. The best part of this was that many of those baptized were members of families who had members already in the church. Now we are seeing wives and husbands, children and parents united in the church. This is another of our goals for the church in Burundi and a great blessing.

This week's baptisms

Frere Thomas, who was one of the men who left his employment as a minister to join the church after reading the Book of Mormon. Today, a month after his baptism, he baptized his wife and two of his children.

Nanas was baptized a few weeks ago. Then her brother, Menos, was baptized. Today her mother and two other sisters followed them into the waters of baptism. It was a great day. Other members of the family were there and are taking the missionary lessons. We're praying that this big, wonderful family will all be members one day.

Today Methode was among those baptized today. This is one of the most tender stories of them all. Frere Benamwa Methode was in a refugee camp in Northeastern Congo when he saw the name of the church on the back of a wheelchair. He felt such an impression from the spirit that this was the name of the true church of God that he went home and began to search on the internet to find it. He finally made contact with a sister in the family history center in SLC, with whom he still communicates. Somehow he got a Book of Mormon and began meeting with others to read it. He's one of the leaders of the group in Uvira, Congo, about an hour away. For years he wrote pleading for the church to come to the Congo and teach and baptize them. Finally when the church came to Burundi, we had only permission to teach and baptize here in Bujumbura. He said he was not willing to wait anymore until the church goes to Uvira, so he moved his family here, studied with the missionaries and today, he was finally baptized. He was grinning from ear to ear as he climbed into the pool. After his baptism he told us that as he was surrounded by the water he felt a feeling of comfort and peace that he didn't want to leave. He felt like he was being held in the arms of the Lord. He is awesome!! His wife, two children and another family member were here to see his baptism. He had planned to wait for them to be baptized together, but just couldn't wait any longer. So, they will continue to study. We wish so much that we could see his whole family in the church before we leave. We love Methode!!

Also baptized today was Anicet Irokozi, one of my favorite friends. He's 12 years old and appeared all alone at our first meeting. He has only missed one meeting since we came here. We've never seen his mother or father at church, but the elders say that they are supportive of his membership. He walks about 45 minutes each week to get to church and is usually the first person there. He loves to distribute and collect the hymn books. Now he will have the Aaronic Priesthood and will thrive in using it. He speaks almost no French or Swhaili, only Kirundi, but he never misses a thing. He memorized his part in French for the Christmas program by himself. We have no idea how he did it. He has a smile that would melt your heart. Now he's bringing his little sister, Mireille and a friend. Today was Anicet's day. I'm not sure who was happier, he or Elder Kizimbou, who baptized him. They are fast friends and today they were both glowing.

What an exceptional week it's been. It's amazing that we only have two more Sundays here. It will be wonderful to go home and be with our loved ones, but a piece of our hearts will stay in Africa with our loved ones here.

Do You Understand the Words that are Coming out of My Mouth?

Language is one of the greatest challenges we have in this mission. There are so many languages spoken that it's a major difficulty. In the Lubumbashi area they speak Swahili (of the Congolese variety) not Kiswahili, which is the Swahili the Kitabu Cha Mormoni (Book of Mormon) is translated into. In the North of our mission they speak Thsiluba. In Burundi the language is Kirundi. Neither The Book of Mormon nor any other church materials are yet translated into either of these languages. All of the countries also have French as an official language. In DRC there are five official languages, Swahili, Tshiluba, Kikongo, Lingala and French. In Burundi there are two, French and Kirundi, but many of our members speak Swahili and not Kirundi. Some only speak English and Swahili, not French, because they were sent to neighboring English-speaking countries during the war. Only about 70% of the people speak French. Many of our elders and others speak many languages-French, Swahili, Tshiluba, Lingala, Kikongo, some English and Kirundi and a tribal language or two. So, why is learning one new language, French, such a challenge for me?

Brent speaks French so well that people say he speaks better French than they do, and it's true.

Every Sunday in church as the meeting is translated from French to Kirundi we hear many language all bringing the same message. It's quite an amazing experience.

Bujumbura is Beautiful

Nature certainly smiles on this little country. Here's the scene from our veranda the other day.

Here's the scene from the kitchen window...........View of the city from the East Mountains

Scenes at Lake Tanganyika.

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Drive along the river ...........................................Hills covered with Village houses

Our Favorite tree

Notice the white van on the left for perspective on the size of this perfectly shaped tree.

The beauty of this land is a stark contrast to its difficult challenges and turbulent history.

If men could live and work together in peace and harmony, this land could be a paradise.

Progress - Appolonie's sisters are baptized

Each week we have the privilege of seeing men, preparing, blessing and passing the sacrament. None of them have been in the church longer than three months. Vianey (17) and Thomas (Vianey's uncle and a former pastor) prepared the sacrament together, under the tutelage of Elder Tshituka . It's a touching experience to see them as they perform their tasks with a feeling of true understanding of the sacred nature of what they're doing. Fathers & sons, uncles & nephews, all of them newly ordained priests, preparing and distributing these emblems together with tenderness and reverence that is unique and wonderful. Their attitude is so touching that it brings tears almost every Sunday and makes this experience even more meaningful.

Today we had our first baptisms of 2011. The pool is repaired at Sun Safri Hotel so we held them there. It's nicer and much more private, but it's also quite a distance from the church and we have been instructed not to transport members in our truck any more. Our good Brother Willes, who works for the American Embassy and lives at Sun Safari, arranged for the bus from the hotel to pick up our members. We filled a bus with supporters & our trucks with elders. Usually they would have all walked the several miles to the baptism, so this was a real treat.

Emery has three cousins who were baptized earlier. With his baptism, the priesthood is now available in their family.

Izadore heard about the church from Prosper, one of our earlier converts. It would have been perfect had Prosper been the person to baptize him. Sadly, Prosper is recovering from a serious knife wound received as he tried to stop two men in his neighbored who were having a confrontation. He is lucky to be alive but will take some time to recover.

Odette and Dieudonne are such a cute young couple. They have an adorable eight-month-old son. It's a somewhat unique and very special to see a family come into the church together.

Annie and Nanas (both dressed in white) have already been baptized. Now Menos joins them in the church. Their mother (in orange), who is not a member yet, was so cute. She ran to her son and joyously embarrassed him after his baptism. Such sweet demonstrations of public affection and support aren't common in this culture. It was very meaningful. It takes time here to get a whole family to be baptized. Usually the man joins first, then eventually, he brings his wife and children. I used to be very troubled by it, but I have come to think that it's the way men protect their family. They come and then if it works well, they invite their family. In this case it was the daughter, Nanas, who made the first step, after being invited by Annie. We believe that someday this family will all be in the church.

Each person is shown with Thaddee, who did all the baptisms. He was baptized on November 21, 2010. You could feel all the members pulling for him to do well as he performed these sacred ordinances for the first time. He did a wonderful job. It's truly a blessing to see those who are new to the church stepping in to give service and doing the work of the group. The more they can do without us, the better it is. It's much like teaching your children to be self-sufficient and strong in preparation for the time when they leave your home. All the missionaries will leave someday and the members need to be bonded and strong without us, both spiritually and as a functioning unit of the church. That's our goal.

This brings our number of members to 51. We began three months ago with 8 official members. Weekly we see them growing not only in numbers but in strength and unity. It's awesome!