Human Dominoes

Every six weeks we go through a process that I call "Human dominoes." Others call it transfers.

It starts with a list of new missionaries who will arrive to begin their mission. Next we get a list of missionaries who are returning home after their missions. This time there were 7 departing and 14 arriving missionaries.

Now the fun begins. Brent spends about two days locked in his office playing human dominoes, as he studies applications and stares at the missionary board. For a few days cards are turned crooked to show that there might be a move. I slide food and tranquilizers under the door and Brent works feverishly moving picture here and there and then there and here until it all "feels right." Then he has the office employees and the assistants look at it to see what in their opinions, won't work and they move a few more pictures around.

Meanwhile the office secretary, Sister Hatch, is making up transfer letters, packets of documents and information for those coming and going and little piles of things like pillows, blankets and washing buckets, ect. for the new missionaries. The financial secretary, Elder Hatch, is bundling packets of money for the new missionaries and the staff is getting airline tickets,etc. etc. The office is a madhouse.

Meanwhile, Jackie and I are making food for all those hungry missionaries.

Each departing missionary leaves a whole in a companionship. It would be simple to fix that if we had even numbers-7 came and 7 went. Never happens! And it really wouldn't be that easy either because it could end up that a missionary who needed a companion and the new elder is his brother or cousin, or best buddy from his ward, or rival for a girl back home. And also the numbers don't ever match. Then you factor in that you need 14 good trainers. What a puzzle!

So, next you take a missionary from another area and put him with the lone missionary.

Oh now the dominoes effect begins! Now you have a new whole mess!

So, you take one of the new missionaries and put them there. Then you begin to work on other companionships.

You decide on a good missionary to act as trainer. Now you have a lone missionary in a new spot. It's starting to get complicated now. You can't make him a trainer, he's going home next transfer. So, you begin to look for a companion for him. Sounds easy, but it can't be anybody he's already served with, is related to or can't get along with. He can't serve with a previous companion, nor can he go to work in a place where he's already served or to an apartment where he's lived before, or where his family members live or where his girlfriend lives or works (maybe even as a missionary.) Then you remember that he's a Zone Leader and it wouldn't be a good idea to put him as a Senior companion again for just one transfer, so the dominoes really begin to fall. As you can see it's a crazy game to play as we look for the one spot in the whole mission that will work for him. And after that you repeat the same game about 30 times as you find places for all the new missionaries and unscramble the mess that's made in the rest of the mission. With American missionaries and sisters, who are fewer in number, it's even more complicated. Last transfer one American elder moved to the other bedroom in the same apartment to be with his new companion. It couldn't be helped. He was very good natured about it.

At last the week of the transfer comes. All the letters go out telling them where they're going and there's much rejoicing and also a little weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. They all start packing and we start making plans to pick them all up, have them sent from outlying areas, and shuffling everybody around to find a place for the 7 going home to stay for a day or two until the next plane goes to wherever they live.

On the first day of transfers we have all the returning missionaries bring their bags for weight checks. Pictures are taken and then they have departure interviews, a lunch and testimony meeting at our house. Then they're off to the employment center for two days of post-mission employment workshops, which is a new thing we're trying to help them begin to think of what to do with their lives after their missions in this land of 90% unemployment and much poverty.

The second day of transfers we have the new group with the glazed-over-eyes and totally confused looks on their faces for breakfast, their orientation workshop, interviews and lunch.

Then we send them off to the four corners of the mission. Our departing phrases are

"Work hard! Be happy!! We'll pray for you."

This game of human dominoes is exhilarating and exhausting and... starts again in a month.

Dinner at the Ngua Home

We are rarely invited to dinner at anybody's home, so we were excited when Bishop Ngua of the Kasavubu Ward invited all the missionary couples to Sunday dinner. We made plans to follow him home after church, since there are few addresses here and finding anyplace is totally impossible without a guide. So, after church a the Staggs, Hatches and the son of Bishop Ngua all piles into our car. The teenage son was in our car to help us find the house just in case we got separated from Bishop Ngua and the rest of the family, who were in the car in front of us.

It was quite a trip. Here when people tell you it's not far to wherever you're going, it could be a two minute drive, but it's just as likely to be a 10 minute one. This trip was the latter, or longer and it was quite a drive.

We left the church.

Then we headed down a pretty major road that we'd all traveled before.

Suddenly Bishop Ngua turned on a smaller, dirt road that we would have totally missed without his guidance. We didn't even see that there was a street there. It led us off-road, under a bridge and down through a dry river bed .

From there we went on a small dirt path which was clearly not often used by cars. We thought that it would have been a river bed when it's been raining and the water is high.

We traveled down that road for a long time as it wound around through the city. Brent kept saying "Surely there must be an easier way to get to his house." But it didn't seem so. The road went on an on until finally we ended up at a gate where the driver of the Bishop's car stopped.

We were totally surprised when the gates swung open and we saw what a different world was just inside the gates that enclosed his property.

Sister Ngua and her sister were busily making last minute preparation. They must have worked for two days over their charcoal fires to prepare this fabulous meal. They had platters and bowls full of food. There was rice, potatoes, some distinguishable green veggie, pork, beef, fish, chicken and some tiny little birds (we think that they were sparrows.) They had a delicious tomato-based, vegetable-beef sauce to go on the rice or potatoes. There were many choices of beverages and papaya and bananas for dessert. They had enough food there for 30 people, which was probably good since they had 12 children waiting in the kitchen to eat the left overs. Her sister, a doctor and their son-in-law, whose wife and baby who are in Provo at UVSU, were there for dinner too.

Bishop Ngua must do very well as the director of customs in Kinshasa. He told us that they had worked for 10 years to build their home. As they got a little money they would work on something. Then they'd save a little more and do something else.

We enjoyed a real feast and a delightful afternoon of visiting and getting better acquainted.

Rule #1 is Always with us

I've spoken often of Rule #1 (Nothing is Easy in the Congo)

Well, this week Rule #1 was in full effect when I made the mistake of running out of flour. Usually if you see something you buy five of them. You may never see it again. This time I hadn't noticed that I was getting low on flour. How can you be a mission president's wife and not make cookies?

Well, it took five people going to 4 stores (one of them 3 times) and 6 days to get white wheat flour.

1. Brent and I started out on Wednesday to find white wheat flour in the store which we usually find pretty well stocked. NO white wheat flour this time.

2. We headed out the next day to another store, but when we got to our parking lot our car was gone. But that's another story. It's often borrowed by office staff. Stranded! No flour today.

3. Our office couple stopped on their way to work at a store near their house to get flour for us, but without any French and when what they usually buy wasn't there, they bought soy flour by mistake.(at $17 a bag.)

4. So, it was back to the store to return the soy flour. There was no white wheat flour there.

5. Today (Monday) we sent one of our office workers to look for flour.

6. Happy Day. Aimé returned with flour from yet another store!

The question is, how much do we want cookies?

*Brent has missed most of the "flour fun" since this weekend he's been making the 6-hour-each- way-drive through the African bush with a car full of African church leaders, on a curvy, mountain road to Matadi, a city on the border of Angola. He's changing a branch presidency, doing branch training and working wit the four elders who live in Matadi. So, the flour issue is nothing compared to his job.

Oh yes, Rule #1 certainly is running at full steam this week!

Church in Kingabua Ward

A few Sundays ago we decided to attend church at a ward about 20 minutes from our apartment. We like to go to different wards to make contact with the leaders and to see and support our missionaries.

As we drove the short distance from our apartment in the city center to the church, just a short distance away, I couldn't help being amazed by the contrast. The change was stunning. I took pictures to try to capture the different looks of the streets. Sundays are respected days and only a few businesses and stands are open, so things were rather quiet, but the pictures still seemed to capture the feeling as you leave the main street and go out into the city of Kinshasa, which is the home of over 10 million Congolese.

Our apartment building is on the left. We live on the main street of Kinshasa, Blvd. Trente Juin

This main street was totally redone after our first visit here in 2009 and is a very nice stretch of wide, well marked and smooth street, lined with big old buildings, some nice new buildings and buildings in construction. They've recently installed traffic lights. They last for 90 seconds and are making for slow moving traffic. If you hit them wrong, it takes 10-15 minutes to go a mile.

After about a mile the roads change.

The farther you go from the center of town, the more the roads change.

After a couple more minutes it looks like this

By the time you get near the church, this is what you're driving on.

All in a little Sunday drive in Kinshasa

We arrived at the the Kingabua Ward just in time for church.

We found an added bonus when we saw our dear friends from our last mission, the Motshikanas, who live in that ward.

The meetings are held in a two different buildings on a rental property. One is used for Y.M. Sacrament meeting, Primary, Priesthood,, and Sunday School. The other building houses the Relief Society and the Y. W. classes. During Sunday School it holds the investigator class.

There's a baptismal font behind the church buildings. It's well built and a really good size. Sometimes they build them like swimming pools. Then getting water to fill them is a concern. This one is just right. It even has stairs to enter the font.

There's a large yard, which is being used as a garden. Our friend, Frere Motshikana, told us that he works the garden for his family and for the needy.

When we arrived, the Relief Society President/teacher was the only sister in Relief Society. She was wiping down chairs. Since there was no glass in the window, she was removing the dust and dirt accumulated during the week. She finished cleaning and then announced the opening song, that I would give the opening prayer and she would give the lesson. She acted as if there was a whole room full of sisters. She gave a wonderful lesson (part in French and part in Lingala) and by the time the meeting was over there was a whole room full of about 25 sisters. There is no schedule for African women. They come when they're ready and if it's just as the closing prayer is said, "Pas de problème!"

During Sunday School, we attended the investigators' class to support our missionaries. There were about 20 people who filled that room too. They participated and you could tell they were serious about learning the gospel. It was really exciting to be with the enthusiastic new members and "friends of the church."

During the Sacrament meeting there were 7 confirmations. Four of them were from a wonderful little family-mother, father, and the two of their 7 children. The other children were all too young for baptism. We've put a lot of emphasis on teaching families. It was a joy to share in the fruits of our good elders' hard work and teaching as we watched this little family being confirmed.

We had a wonderful day in the Kingabua Ward. These are the paydays for missionaries as we see the church growing, improving and bringing the gospel to the people of Africa. It's well worth a trip down any road you have to take to get there.

A TEMPLE IN KINSHASA, What a Glorious Day!

We listened to conference today Oct. 2, 2011 and President Monson made an announcement that our family and thousands of Africans have been praying for.

A TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT IN KINSHASA!

It's a glorious day! We couldn't believe our ears and then we couldn't control our tears. We're so grateful to the Lord for this miraculous blessing!

More comments on the announcement of the temple.

We are so excited!! And shocked that the announcement was made at this time. We have prayed for this to happen for two years, but right now, we were sure that it wouldn’t because of the coming November elections in DR Congo. Last election all the couples were evacuated to S. Africa and we have plane tickets “just in case.” Violence often accompanies elections in Africa and things are always a little unpredictable. So we thought that the brethren would just observe until at least April. We have no idea what happened, but for some reason the inspiration came and the brethren were courageous enough to move on it despite the current circumstances. We assume that it was a very strong inspiration that would make them move on it now. We couldn't be happier.

It’s been interesting that most of the Congolese are very restrained in their emotional reaction to the announcement. They’re such emotional people that we expected singing and dancing in the churches on Sunday when many of them heard about it for the first time. No Congolese that I know of was listening to KSL, which is the only way we can get it. It was only in English. But a big group of church employees were together here in Kinsahsa for a party that they’d been trying to get scheduled since Jan. The senior couples called one or two of them and I guess there was some cheering. There have been a lot of tears of joy. They said in Lubumbashi there was a wedding party where they stopped the music in the middle of the party and announced that a temple would be coming to Congo. After the announcement most of the people just slowly left. Monga said they all went home to contemplate the great announcement and “ to give thanks to God for this blessing.” I think that there is more reverent gratitude than outright rejoicing and jubilation. For me, I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s hard to go back to business as usual. It’s one of those things that makes you feel like the world should be a different place tomorrow when you wake up. Like when you have a great loss or a new grand-baby. I keep wondering how things are just going on as usual.

Brent had a very strong impression before we came to the Congo this time that we needed to impress the missionaries with the importance of teaching and converting FAMILIES, not just individuals. It’s most common here to convert a man and then someday he’ll bring his family along, maybe! So, I made a bookmark for each elder to remind them of this goal. It says:

"When we teach the gospel to families, we put them on the road to the temple."

When we did it I was a bit uncomfortable with such a strong emphasis on going to the temple. It made me a little sad. Although I know that it's the correct goal, it's one that’s pretty much out of reach for the 19,000 who will be serviced by this new temple. But since it was the right goal and Brent had received a pretty clear message about it, we went with it. As we gave out bookmarks to the 14 new elders this week, I realize how powerful that inspiration was. A book mark is just a small thing, but it was a clear indication that the Lord is ready for a temple to come to the Congo. Now we have to get the people ready. Those who join the church today will be able to go to the temple by the time it’s finished. So, that goal is even more profound. The message we're to teach is that families are the eternal unit of the church and as missionaries we need to teach families so that they can come unto Christ together and become eternal family units. Now we're praying that things will go smoothly in the planning, that there will not be major setbacks and obstacles and that there will be a groundbreaking while we’re still here and that maybe we can come back to Kinshasa for the dedication after our mission.

This is truly the Lord's time for the people of the Congo to receive the gospel and it's fullness. We're so blessed to be here at this time to share this amazing church history being unfolded.