A Labor of Love for Baby Ryan

April 10, 2012 was a wonderful day for us.  We got a call from our kids, Corinne and Klint, saying that they were on the way to hospital for what they hoped was the birth of little baby Ryan.  They didn't feel very sure that this was really the day. Corinne had  been to the hospital many times during this pregnancy and was pretty convinced this was just another trip there.  So, we waited anxiously.

 About an hour later we got a skype call and were greeted by this beautiful little boy and his Mom and Dad. It was so wonderful to actually get to see them. Since he was born in the middle of the night in Arizona, we actually got to be the first to see him.

 

Ryan Karl's name is a special one since it's the name of his Uncle Ryan and his great-grandpa. All three of their boys have family names and that makes the name even more special.  It's fun too that Corinne used cars made for her boys by their great-grandpa  for the theme in decorating  little Ryan Karl's nursery. She put up the cars, truck and helicopter and then used the brown color scheme for the room, which also contains the cradle and changing table made by great -grandpa . 

  
Not being able to resist being a part of this wonderful event, we decided that there just had to be a little quilt to go in baby Ryan's room. So, we went to work to make it happen. We were determined to get a quilt  made and make it a surprise for the whole family. It was indeed a challenge. I wasn't able to get any fabric that would go with the car theme. They have beautiful bright-colored, printed cotton fabrics here in the Congo, but nothing suitable for a baby quilt and nothing BROWN.
So, with the help of my good friend in Utah, Beth Ann, the process of getting a quilt made began.  She went to work to help me get fabric chosen and delivered to the Congo. This great friend went to fabric stores and took pictures of fabrics. She emailed the pictures to me so I could see what was available and chose the combinations I liked.  She made a few trips, sent lots of sample pictures and then went back and bought the ones that I had chosen. She even made the extra effort to be the first person in the store the day of the purchase, since that gave her a big discount on the fabric. Thanks BA!

 

 About that time a new couple was coming to the mission. Beth Ann's sister, who lived near our couple, delivered the fabric to them. Thanks Claudia!   BA even gave me daily Fed X- like tracking emails of the fabric's movement.

Our new couple packed the material into their already full luggage and brought it to us, giving up precious packing space was a real sacrifice. Thanks Elder and Sister B.!
The next job was designing a quilt that would go with the room. So, I got pictures of the cars, without Corinne knowing why, and designed patterns and appliqued cars and trucks that match the vehicles made by great-grandpa.Then it was time to figure out the layout, and the fabrics and colors for the sashing.

   

 The next thing I had to do was to explain quilts to our African staff member, Pascal.  The whole concept of a quilt was unfamiliar to him.  I needed him to get the frames for my project. I had brought clamps from home, but needed the frames. So, I told Pascal that I was making a blanket for our new grandson and needed some boards to help me make it. I told him that I was cutting material into small pieces and then sewing those pieces back together in patterns. Then I'd put some more material inside and backing material on the other side. I'd sew it all back together again. I couldn't believe how silly it sounded as I was explaining it. I knew that Pascal was wondering why I didn't just buy a piece of material  to wrap around him. I tried to explain that it was an American tradition and he just wasn't sure about it at all. But he knew that I really wanted those good boards and somehow that would make it so I could make a special blanket for my new grandson.  Pascal went to the furniture maker who does all our missionary furniture and the next day we had  four great 2x4's all stained and varnished.  They're made of hardwood and are the sturdiest, fattest, heaviest, hardest to pierce quilt frames I've ever seen. Thanks Pascal!  The clamps that I brought from home were much too small to fit around these big boards and I was distraught. Brent said that he thought there were some industrial strength clamps at the office.  It was late at night, but he went right down and found some. Voila! We were back in business. Add four folding chairs for stands and I was ready to go. Thanks Brent!

 

 Conference weekend was the perfect time to enjoy general conference and quilt furiously. Brent took over some household tasks to help out. Thanks again! We even had to move the quilt aside for a zone leader council. It was pretty scary, but we moved the quilt to the office, where there was barely room for it, and the quilting went on.

  

Finally, on the very day that baby Ryan was born, I finished the quilt. Now the only task was getting it to Arizona and to that cute little baby.There's no mail here. A friend said that she'd take it to France the next week and mail it from there. I wasn't too sure about that.  We could take it to S. Africa when we went to the mission presidents' seminar and mail it from there, but that was a little unnerving too. 

    

Then we met some doctors from the US who were working on a short-term humanitarian project in  Kinshasa.  One of them offered to hand carry the quilt to Utah and give it to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Linsey so they could mail it.  Later he actually decided to mail  it himself.  So, we left it in his care and headed to our conference in South Africa, with his promise that it would be sent as soon as he got home. And it was!  They even gift-wrapped it for us. Thanks Doctor and Sister D.!  

Stacy set up the surprise opening of the package.  She arranged for us to be on skype when Corinne and Klint opened their package. Thanks Stacy! 

It was such a fun project and I love nothing more than a good project.

Now the little quilt is finally in it's home.

It was indeed a labor of love from a lot of wonderful people. We love you, baby Ryan. 

Thanks everybody!

Round and Round We Go

It seems as if we're starting to fall into a pattern here on our mission.  It makes for less interesting journaling, but it also feels good to be in some kind of rhythm. Things just seem to go in one continual round.  Life goes on a 6 week cycle that revolves around transfers.  Week one is for taking care of business and making sure that things and schedules are in place after the transfer and for our next trip. Then there is a week or more of travel to our outlying cities for visits, interviews, zone conferences or whatever requires our being there. Next we spend a week with our five zones in Kinshasa doing the things that we did in our travels. Throw in a little company and a couple of dozen meetings with missionaries, stakes, districts and zones and life gets a bit wild.  Then there's  company that comes. We have visitors  from the area office and  general authorities coming for stake conferences, mission tours, training, and other services that they do for the church here in Kinshasa. Two weeks ago we had the IT team from Johannesburg here for week installing new computers. It was our old friend, Graham and his side-kick Mathew.  They worked all week with our IT guy, Konde. We're grateful for the support we get from the area office. They help us in many ways as they visit and lend their expertise. Plus,we have a lot of fun with them.

Matthew and Graham with us at our home.

   

  Then we're on the road again traveling to someplace where there's a special missionary need or branch business.  Zone leader council is held the next week and staff meetings and meetings with the assistants are every week. Throw in having to deal with a few "dumb things" done by missionaries who are still trying to get into the missionary world and Brent's famous phrase, "Now, you know that you can't do that anymore!"  There are always a few challenges with physical facilities and our 11 mission branches.  It's a complex and busy life. Finally there's the week of preparation for and then the craziness of transfers. Making the transfer is a huge job.  It takes much prayer, thought and research to get all 150 of them in the right place every 6 weeks.There are always surprises.  Last minute switches are the rule, not the exception. This time we found out upon the arrival of our new missionaries that one of them has brother in the mission (they don't have any name in common, so we didn't know.) It turned out that he had been assigned to be in the same apartment with his brother.  What's the chance of that?  With 150 missionaries in 25 apartments in six cities and three countries who would guess that they'd be assigned as roommates?  Crazy! 
Transfers are  a three-day process full of welcoming, interviewing, training, feeding and moving new missionaries. This time we had only two African elders and 8 Americans coming. The Americans go directly to their assigned cities, so we had lots of help from the Nuttalls and Wheatleys, who work in Cameroon and Republic of Congo with the branches and missionaries there. 

New African missionaries assigned to Kinshasa

 New Yaoundé Missionarie

Sadly, we also say goodbye to seven in Kinshasa who are going home. After exit interviews, dinner and a testimony meeting, we send them off to the employment center to help them get headed in a good direction and start trying to think of possibilities for their life after their mission. We pray for a bright future for them, and worry about how difficult life will be for them when they return home.  

Seven leaving from Kinshasa

Our nine American missionaries are headed home with many plans for the future. 

Seven Elders leaving from Cameroon

Two elders leaving from  Pointe Noire

 We're grateful to have served with all these faithful missionaries and wish them all the Blessings of Heaven promised to those who faithfully serve the Lord.  They return with Honor!  
We love them dearly!

After that the merry-go-round starts all over again.  One round it's zone conferences and the next it's individual interviews with missionaries, but it just keeps on going round and round.  There are many other things mixed in, but we're getting to really plan on this cycle. 
Pictures of each zone are an important part of the history for our missionaries, since few have cameras and can take their own pictures. We give each missionary a few pictures as a remembrance of their mission.

Brazzaville Zone

Pointe Noire Zone

Yaoundé Zone

Douala Zone

Kimbanseke Zone

Kinshasa Zone

Masina Zone

Mont Ngafula Zone

Ngaliema Zone

 Zone conferences include training, teaching, role playing, speaking to and singing with the missionaries.  

All these meetings are held in French and the missionaries are very kind to listen to and figure out what I'm saying as I speak. They seem to understand and I'm so grateful for the gift that the Lord has given me to be able to communicate, even though it's far from perfect.  They all love to hear Brent speak with his wonderful French.  His language skill is a great blessing!                             

 

        Conferences also means prepare and serve about 175 meals and washing hundreds of dishes.

 

                        It includes transporting and photographing and making zone pictures for all of  them. 

                                          

 

But we love being with them. It's the best part of the calling!

We have five days until we're on the road again.  Round and Round we go!

Program for construction and Fun with Missionary Couples

Program for Construction

 Here in Kinshasa the church is doing a new pilot program for developing nations. It's the first one of its kind and is probably the last big thing done by Bishop Burton before he was released. He was very anxious about the lack of employment in the Congo and this was the idea that they came up with to help that problem. PEF is in Kinshasa, and is wonderful. Our missionary couple, Staggs, have really worked to get it started here in the Congo. It's a good  program and many are benefiting from it. But it's very hard to get a job even after you go to school. There are fewer jobs than people looking for work, even for those who are trained. So another alternative will be a great blessing too. This new program is addressing the problem in a completely different direction.
They will teach young RM's and other qualifying members construction and management skills. Then these people will work as apprentices in the construction of new church buildings. They'll start small with little walls and baptismal fonts and move on to the construction of 11 new, desperately needed, chapels in Kinshasa, Likasi, Lububmashi, Kananga, and Luputa. So everybody benefits.  After learning these skills, the young men will hopefully be well qualified to move into the private sector to start their own businesses or work for others.  It's a great idea and we're praying for it to work. There is such a tremendous need. We hope that the combination of these two approaches will be a help to build a better future for this younger generation.

The church has brought two couples here to work on this project.

The first couple is the VanHauvermat, Eric and Chantel. They come from just outside of Geneva, Switzerland.  He speaks a little English, and Chantal speaks almost NO English.  They also brought Chantal's 80-year-old mother, Janene. Can you imagine moving to the Congo at that age? She's amazing and wonderful. She's been called to teach young women in the ward. They love her and she's doing a great job! (There's a picture below of little Janene with big   Elder Bingham.)


We love this family and although he's an employee of the church, to us they  feel like another senior couple.                  

The other couple is the Billings, who come from Utah. He taught construction management during his career and is an able and willing teacher in the program. He says that he's never loved teaching more than he does with this group of students. We're happy to have these two great couples in our midst.

Fun with Couples

Having other couples  is one of the greatest blessings of our current mission. We love working with them and we love playing together. It's our only form of recreation and having a dinner together or making a little outing is our best idea (actually only) idea for a good p-day.  Dinner together is always fun and we've even found several outings to do that have been good breaks for us. Humanitarian projects make for a great Saturday outing. We just have fun being together. It's a dimension of missions that it very special. We're grateful for all of these good mission couples, who will be special friends forever.
Just about anything we do together is fun.

  

      Working in the kitchen for Sisters' conference         Craft shopping with the ladies on Thierry's B-day

              Many Nice Cream visits                                 At the horse Show with couples in Johannesburg

   

                 Chatting in two languages                                          Humanitarian outings with Binghams

 

                        Lunch at the Art School                              Long and short of it. Elder B and Janene

  

                  Humanitarian Turn over ceremonies in Kimbanseke and St. Joseph's Hospital

  

        Primate Park Outing in Yaoundé                               Callahans, Jamesons at Nutalls' home in Douala
Missionary couples are the greatest.  We're so happy to have them.This ten months has been a lot more sociable than our first 10 months alone in Lubumbashi. We love knowing these fabulous mission couples, those in Kinshasa, those in the outlying areas, and those who we just meet passing through our mission who work in the area office and travel all over Africa as Doctors, attorneys, accountants, humanitarian workers,   auditors, etc.  If you have a skill it can be used in Africa. If you don't think you have any skills, you'll discover them and be taught new ones.
We just have FUN!  Last night we got an email invitation from the Binghams to come with them at 10:30 today for a SURPRISE!
We were so curious that we made sure to be available. It turned out that we picked up Sister Smith and the Staggs along the way. When you're invited, you go!    As we drove it became clear that we were headed toward the Kinshasa stake center and then we knew what the SURPRISE was.  The big outing was to a new grocery store that just opened today. Now in the 'real world' a trip to the grocery store wouldn't be a reason for such great glee, but here we were almost giddy with the idea of seeing a real, modern, fully stocked store. And it didn't disappoint!  There was even a B2GOF offer on Laughing Cow cheese and the cow was there to advertise.

 

We'd watched the sign go up and were excited to see when and if it would ever open.  And it did!!  It was full of a lot of expatriates who were wide-eyed and thrilled to see this wonderful place.  It's called Shop Rite. It comes from South Africa and it's AWESOME!!! It's huge, and has isles and isles of stuff--All kinds of good stuff. It's like....... a..........a WAL-MART!  I would never have been this happy to see a Wal-Mart at home, but here, "It's heaven!"
(That's a direct quote from Sister Stagg.)

 We had a great little outing.  Our couples are so much fun, even  a trip to the grocery store becomes a party with these great folks.

PS. The cow became our best friend and was everywhere with us. It was just a little frightening. :)  He was just way too clown-like for my taste!

More makeover!

We got our blinds today and it looks so open and light in the apartment. We love the new look. The new senior couple is very pleased to have inherited the curtains, which were enough to do their whole apartment.  We're all happy about how it worked out. 

  
We also got new blinds and repainted in the kitchen. . It's pretty white now, but it will be nice when we add some accents. I just love a little home remodeling and so I was very happy when they told us it was time for a little updating.