The Last of the Zone Conference for this Round

After coming back from our trip to the outlying cities we went right into the five zone conferences in Kinshasa. It was a great time with the missionaries.  It's one of the great joys of a mission to see our missionaries trying to do what's right and growing stronger. We look in the faces of these young people, especially those who are about to leave us and we've know for awhile, and we see great hope for the future of the church. 

It's like having 140 kids. Sometimes they make us crazy.   "President, can you do ..." "President, can you give me ...."  "President, my companion did..."  "President, I need money for..." "President I want ..." 

"President, it's not fair that..." It makes you a little crazy sometimes!

But then we get a letter like this one from a great young elder, who's given me permission to post his letter.

"Dear President, 

    I love the challenges that our mission has! It's a great place.  We are finding so many new great people! We are trying to see all of our recent converts twice a week and this place is BUZY!  We need more hours in the day to get it done, but because I don't have enough faith to slow the sun, I  will just organise the hours I do have a little more.  Stay safe and have a little fun!"  

Then you just have to love 'em!

Papa Kabila's Home

Papa Kabila's Home

January 16th is a holiday in the Congo. It celebrates the death of Laurent Kabila, past president of the Congo and the father of the current President. He was the last in a long line of Presidents of the Congo who were deposed or  killed while in office.  KasaVubu, Patrice Lumumba, Mobutu all met quite terrible ends.  Each year on the anniversary of Kabila's  death they allow people to view his home, which has been left just as is was the day he was killed.  Since our entertainment is sparse, we had Aime take us to the "marble palace."  Aime is an

attorney,who is also a magistrate, but currently has no job in the courts. He works on contract part-time for the mission as our driver when we're nervous about getting lost or in trouble.
We waited outside the house by the huge cement statue of a lion. When the guards finally opened the gates, we were allowed to walk single file down the long driveway to the house. They had a display of pictures of Papa Kabila during his short term as president.  Then we went into the grand salon where he was killed. It has been left just as it was on the day of his murder. They have his clothes and even the blood and bullets haven't been removed from the chair where he was killed.  He was working with one of his advisers, who rather suddenly got up and left the room. Just as he did armed military entered and shot Kabila. The adviser had been in on the plot to kill him. No one lives in the house now, but Kabila's wife stays there when she visits from Lubumbashi.. Just down the hill from this house is the house of the current president's brother. It's huge and guarded with military too.

We asked somebody what Kabila's brother did for a living to have such a big, beautiful home. He gave us a funny look and said, "He's the brother of the President."  I guess it's nice work if you can get it!

It was a good outing and history lesson and an interesting way to spend a day together. 

Zone Conferences zone conferences and more Zone Conferences!

We had just come back to Kinshasa, said a quick hello and good-bye to our missionaries who were coming on their mission and going home, when it was time to be traveling again.  The Evansons, Public Affairs missioanries from Lubumbashi came to stay with us for one night.  Then we headed out and they stayed in our apartment and used our car while we were gone.  They served as Mission President in Ivory Coast and then as Temple President in Canada.  After that they decided that they had been called twice but had not ever offered to serve the Lord, so they put in their papers and ended up in Burundi, in our old apartment. Then they moved to Lubumbashi and live in an apartment that we arranged for the mission above the Enos store owned by Sister Kieu, our dear friend in Lububmashi.  There are so many connections when you live in Africa.  The Evansons are the kind of heroes we meet here very often.

Tuesday we headed out, just a week after getting home from Johannesburg, on our "outland adventure."  The trip across the Congo River only takes about 10 minutes, but getting the "formalities" done takes us a total of about three hours.  We just sit in the car in the "beach" area by the river and watch things being loaded and unloaded, while Thierry and a facilitator go and get all the "formalities" done.  I don't know how we'd do it without them. 

 

This time  we crossed the Congo on one of those tiny, very old boats packed with people. The boat was made  for seven and they had about 20 people and all their luggage on it. They just kept loading and loading people. Brent finally started telling them "no more." We were pretty nervous. The boat began to list to the side as we started out, so they made several thin passengers trade places with some of the larger ones so the boat was better balanced.  I was so relieved that they didn't ask me to trade places with some skinny guy.  How embarrassing!
We took our assistants, Elder Twikala and Elder Bukasa, with us to Brazzaville.
 Elder Bukasa on the right) had never been in a boat or on water before.  He was even more nervous than I was.  He sat right by me with his eyes as big as saucers, clutching his back pack and trying not to look terrified. He was very brave and I think that he was pretty grateful when we docked in Brazzaville. 

The Congo side of the River and the Brazzaville side of the river. 

These are two of the boats that we passed on the way across the river. Things could be worse. 

We could have been on one of these boats.  We sailed past them and counted our blessings!

 

BRAZZAVILLE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Our crossing took an hour longer than usual and made us late for our  first scheduled Zone Conference. When we arrived at the conference all 24 missionaries had been quietly waiting  in the chapel  for over an hour. Nobody was troubled by it. We all took a deep breath and moved right into our six-hour zone conference/Christmas party/lunch. We had a great time with the elders and sisters there.  They listened to our teaching and we had fun with our little Christmas party.

Brazzaville Zone

Immediately afterward we left to catch our plane to the next stop, which was in....
DOUALA, CAMEROON
We arrived in Douala at about 10:00 pm. After a 12-hour day, we were ready for a nights rest.  The Douala airport is probably the craziest in all of Africa, according to Renlunds. It's a reasonable facility, but once you get out of it, you are surrounded with people trying to take your bags for you, sell you things, change money and in any way possible get you to pay them. You have to literally push them away to get free and carry your own bags.  This time we had arranged for a shuttle to the hotel where we were staying. Usually the Nuttalls, our senior couple are there to pick us up and we stay with them.  This time, since it was so late and the Renlunds were coming to join us, we planned to stay in a hotel and use the hotel shuttle. It unfortunately wasn't there yet when we arrived.We called the hotel and then waited for about half an hour in the "outside- the-airport-madness" to get our ride to the Hotel Bano Palace. It's the hotel that the airlines got for us when the plane was hit by lightening and we were stranded the last time that we were in Douala.    It's a very nice place.  We were so happy to see it and we happily crashed for the night.

                   

The next day we spent at the Nuttalls' home. Brent did four new missionary interviews and held meetings with priesthood leaders and branch members. I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get 100 lbs of missionary things that they'd left behind at transfer time into our suitcases.  It's been the practice to leave things in Douala and then get them when it was  time to go home. Our new plan has missionaries leaving from their last city of assignment, so it was our desire to help all these elders get their "stuff" before they go home.  We went from five moderately-filled suitcases to eight very full-to-the-limit suitcases that we had to haul to our next city.  Being a beast of burden was not something that we knew would be in our job description, but it sure is with the "human-mule-train" system of transport used in Africa. Sister Nuttall spent most of the day fixing meals and refreshments for us and the parade of people who came through their house to see us. That evening we were joined by the Renlunds, who had flown in from South Africa to join us on our mission tour. On our mission tour in Sept. there was not time to go and see the elders in the outlying areas. Elder Renlund felt badly that they had missed their chance to be with a general authority and so he made room in his schedule to make this trip. They did it just to show the elders in these three cities that they were loved and to bring them the thanks from the apostles and the First Presidency. It was such a wonderful example of how caring and  our Area Presidency is. 

Douala Zone  

We held another five-hour zone conference in Douala the next day. It's so fun to be with these good elders. They're all North Americans and they live and work in conditions that they've never seen before their missions and do it with a smile on their faces.  We taught them and then we had a little Christmas party, as we did at each zone conference. We had wrapped enough ties for all the elders. (Thanks to Tempe Stake) The first one chosen got to pick a package. The next one could chose a package or steal the first elder's tie or the President's tie and so on.    Elder Renlund headed for the corner to protect his tie. We all had a good laugh.  It was lots of fun as the elders took each other's ties and Brent's tie.  We also had a little goody bag for each elder. 

YOUANDE, CAMEROON

After zone conference we packed up again and headed to Yaoundé.  We got there in time for a late dinner with the Thompsons in a nice restaurant and again crashed so we could stay awake in church on Sunday.  

We attended church in Yaoundé where we four visitors were the speakers in the sacrament meeting. We were told on Saturday night when we arrived that we would be doing it.  It's a lot harder to do a surprise talk in French than it is in English, but we all made it through it without any complete disasters. After church we went directly to Thompsons' home for our Yaoundé Zone conference/party/dinner.  I sometimes wonder if these couples hate to see us coming because it means lots of cooking for them, but they do it without complaint and are wonderful and hospitable to us. 

 

Yaoundé Zone

A new missionary, Elder Graham, had just arrived to start his mission a few days before we got to Yaoundé. He had flown into Douala, spent the night and then had been put all alone on an unairconditoned, old African bus to make the five-hour trip to Yaoundé.  We were all a little anxious about it since he was still a bit culturally shocked, jet lagged and had only MTC French to help him.  He arrived in Yaoundé with a big smile on his face and two referrals in his pocket. That's the kind of wonderful North American Elders we have in our mission. They're the greatest!

       

Pointe Noire Zone

POINTE NOIRE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Monday morning bright and early we flew from Youandé back to Douala where we had a few hours lay over. Then it was on to Pointe Noire, Congo for the last of our Zone Conferences. In Pointe Noire we had to split the Zone Conference into two parts since we didn't have enough time either day for the whole thing. So, we did two hours of conference and dinner the first night. Then we took the Renlunds to a hotel and we stayed with the new couple, the Wheatleys, to do training until about midnight. They've only been in Africa for a month and are still trying to learn the ropes, so it was good to meet with them and talk about their assignment. They come with willing hearts, no French, and a great desire to do what the Lord is asking of them.  The second half of Zone Conference was held at 7:00 am the next day.  We had another great conference with another wonderful group of missionaries, 6 American missionaries and two Africans. We got to meet another new, enthusiastic young missionary, Elder McGrath.  He arrived just a few weeks before our arrival and is doing great. We had to finish our meetings by 9:00 to catch the plane to Brazzaville so that we could cross the river before it closed for the day. 

  

Finally, on Tuesday morning we flew back to Brazzaville and crossed the Congo River again. This time we had  rented a boat because Elder Renlund had to be back in Kinshasa for a meeting and that was the best way to try and get him there on time. We can't do that all the time because of the expense.  But,  it was wonderful!! We had a big boat with just seven of us on it.  I'm sure on a normal crossing they would put 50 people on it. It was clean and open and gave us person space galore. It was just a delight. It was pretty nice Crossing the Congo in style.

We got home at 3:00 and at 5:30 I had to have a dinner prepared for six people, Renlunds, Elder Kola, an Area Seventy and his wife and us.  Brent and Elder Renlund had meetings straight through until then.  We had a nice, quiet dinner in our home and enjoyed it very much.

The next morning we sent the Renlunds with one of our staff to the airport so that we could start preparing for our next round of Zone Conferences which started the next day. We had two more conferences (for about 20 each time). Only three more zone conferences to go next week and we will have seen and fed all our 140 missionaries, been in four countries, done nine zone conferences, taken five plane trips and two boat trips, given 10 or 12 talks (all times 2) and then we'll................. No, we will not rest. We'll just start on the next project-a new African senior couple coming on Monday to spend four days with us for training. We plan to rest .....when we get back to Arizona. 

Voortrekker Monument

With an extra day in Johannesburg we decided to go to Pretoria and see the Voortrekker Monument.  Pretoria is really the city where most of the centers of government are located. It doesn't seem as big or busy as Johannesburg, but is an important political center in South Africa. It's only about 45 minutes drive from Johannesburg.

 The history of South Africa is quite interesting. There were three groups of people who lived in and influenced the settling of this land. The first groups were the native tribes, Zulus, Basotho, Pedi, Xhosa and Ndebe.  Then a group of Dutch settlers arrived in the Cape Town area. They migrated North in an overland trek at almost the same time as the American Mormon westward migration. The two treks had much in common and it was interesting to see the monument to this migration of the Afrikaners, as they came to be called.  They still maintain much of their culture and their own language and you hear Afrikaans often in South Africa.  Signs are written in both English and Afrikaans.

There's an enormous monument to the Voortrekkers, as the group is called.  The monument can be seen for miles as you leave Johannesburg and head toward Pretoria and offers a great view of Pretoria.

The monument was constructed to honor the great strength of these pioneers and their contribution to the building of the nation. It's massive size and location atop a mountain gives it a massive and imposing  appearance.

 

 

 One interesting thing inside the monument is a tomb on the bottom level of the three story monument. It's symbolic of those who lost their lives during the trek.  On the annivesary of the Great Battle of Blood River, on Dec. 17th at noon each year, a shaft of light comes through a hole in the ceiling of the monument, goes down through three stories of the building and rests on an  inscription on the tomb that say "We are for Africa" in the Africanns language.  This time of year the beam is off to the left of the tomb.

                   

 There are also walls full of engraved relief around the center level showing the events of the trek and the history of the Afrikaners experience. It reminded us so much of the story of the Mormon pioneers. Their style of clothing, their mode of travel, their faith that they were doing what God wanted them to do, their struggles and losses were so much like our ancestors. We felt a real kinship with these pioneers.  The pictures could have been pictures of any of our ancestors as they crossed the American plains at just about this same time.

  

  
After spending time in the Monuments we stopped by the snack bar as waited for the others to finish their visit.  When they arrived the Hatches felt badly that they'd taken longer than we had.  They went into the snack bar and come out with MAGNUM ICE CREAM BARS for us all to apologize for making us wait. We felt badly that they were uncomfortable with our waiting but were thrilled to have Magnum bars. We've all fallen in love with them while in Johannesburg and know that it will be a long time before we see them again. So, naturally, we ate dessert first that day.
                
After dessert we walked down a little path to a replica of a Zulu hut. There was a picnic table there and we enjoyed our little picnic in this beautiful place.  It was our last outing in South Africa and was a great ending.

  

  

Church in Johannesburg

When we got home from South Africa there were so many things to do to catch up that blogging was put aside. However, I'm now going to do a couple more blogs about our South Africa stay.  The last delay in our coming home to Kinshasa was caused by yet another potential "hot spot" in the road back to  "normalcy" in the Congo. So we stayed a couple of extra days.

We attended church in a ward near the temple that is mostly composed of Congolese. It was really fun to be there and made us feel like we were back in the Congo as we saw the beautiful Congolese dresses, hear French spoken, heard singing with voices that reach to the angels, and felt the spirit of this group of fairly recent and relatively poor transplants to South Africa.  

They meet in the first chapel constructed in South Africa in the 1980's.  At that time apartheid was still in effect and by law only whites were allowed to worship in the church.  They say that black believers used to sit outside the windows and listen to the meetings. Now this ward has no white members, except the American missionary area couples assigned to attend this ward.

It was really fun to attend in this historic, old building with these good saints.