Picking up the Baton

The  assignments that were left vacant by the first group of couples in our mission, were filled by great new couples and even a few new assignments were added.   We're so grateful that they felt the influence of the spirit prompting them to serve.  We're also grateful that they were willing to change plans they'd made and be the answer to our prayers as they agreed to serve in the DR Congo.  We know that it was not an easy move to come here and each couple had to "step out into the darkness" with great faith to accept their calls.
Republic of Congo was the first place where that change happened. Pointe Noire is a long way from Clinton, Utah, but answering the call from a prophet the Wheatleys came.
They spoke no French and had no idea of what lay ahead but with faith and courage they tackled the call as member/missionary leadership missionaries for the eight missionaries and three branches in Pointe Noire.  It doesn't matter what needs to be done, the Wheatleys are right there to take care of things and people. One visit there were baptisms scheduled and there was no water in the church.  Without a hesitation Elder Wheatley jumped into the hole that contained the well and began handing buckets up to waiting elders and members. They've survived water and power problems, finding and moving to a new apartment and two break-ins and like energizer bunnies they just keep going.

   

The next to come were the Smiths. They are our new office couple and are well prepared with talents and skills that are blessing the mission.  Newlyweds of about 4 years, they planned a mission in the US and without the need of a language. Surprise! They came to Kinshasa.  But they have dived right in, learned to navigate the crazy world we live in, and are doing just great.  Elder Smith has a background as an IRS auditor and is just want we need in the finances of the mission. Sister Smith worked as an office manager and has also never met a person that didn't become her friend. And there was never a project that they didn't tackle with love and service.

A new project was started as a pilot program in the Kinshasa mission. It's a little like PEF, but for construction.  Young returned missionaries are taught construction skills by our wonderful Elder Billings and his sweet companion, Sister Billings. He spent his career teaching construction at Salt Lake Community College and received a special call to teach this program. Sister Billings aids with documentation of the program and compilation of teaching materials.  The young men in this program love the Billings and so do we. I think that the Lord also sent them here because Sister Billings has expertise in Family History. She wasn't called here as a Family History trainer, but has offered her skills to help the people do Family History and prepare for a temple in Kinshasa. 

Many of our beloved missionaries from the Lubumbashi and Kinshasa missions have already been in this program.  Their big smiles show the satisfaction they feel to be making progress toward happier, more productive lives.  What a blessing the Billings are to these young men.

       

Joining us as our humanitarian couple are the Moons.  This is a second marriage for both of them and they have spent almost half their married life serving as missionaries. They served in Kiev, Ukraine; Pennsylvania and now in Kinshasa.  They came off the plane with bright smiles and willing hearts.  They seem to be fearless as they tackled their new assignment.  They jumped in their truck after a few days in Kinshasa and headed right out to all the crazy parts of this city. They are already looking at going to some of our other cities to start projects there.  They are a wonderful, faithful pair who will continue the great humanitarian work in our mission areas.




 A week after the Moons arrived the Robinsons, our new PEF couple, came.  They too have served another mission.  However, I don't think that their first mission on Temple Square in Salt Lake City exactly prepared them for Kinshasa.  But what good sports they are!  Coming from Star Valley, Wyoming didn't give them much of a  heads up for the Congo either. But working in banking all his life and speaking French certainly do qualify him to run the labyrinth of the financial system required for PEF.  Sister Robinson is using her considerable skills to  contribute to the success of PEF and is also a Family History expert and enthusiast.  She's ready and willing to help Sister Billings teach  our people in the Congo to prepare for the work in the temple, which is coming someday soon. The Lord certainly does know whom to send to move His work forward.
On the same plane in September two couples left the MTC and flew off to the Cameroon to serve in our two cities there.  The Gaileys are serving in Douala and the Whitesides in Yaoundé.They have already forged a great relationship communicating during their preparation and their MTC stay and trip to Cameroon. Since they're only four hours apart, they will have chances to see each other more than they will have to see the rest of the couples.

Gaileys had planned on a mission in the US and were quite surprised when their call came to the Kinshasa mission to serve in Douala, Cameroon. They had planned to come in January, but felt the need to move their report time up after they received their call.  What they didn't know was how hard we were praying for that and trying to figure out how to ask them to do it.   Heavenly Father certainly did bless us through their change of heart.  They're making the hard adjustments to a new language, crazy traffic, venturing out in a city on their own, and learning the customs and life style of Africa.  But they are determined to do what the Lord has called them to do.  They're already relating to and loving their elders. This will be a great experience for all of them.         

 Whitesides served a previous mission in Cambodia, so life in a developing nation isn't new to them.                                   

However, French and Africa are. They seem to readily handle the challenges and opportunities of this          

new mission call. It will not take long for them to integrate themselves into the world in Yaoundé and they will be a great asset to our missionaries and branches there, as well as great fun to visit.     

We spent last week with these couples and had a wonderful get-acquainted visit.  It was so fun to learn about them, share some training time and have a few laughs together. They were so kind and helpful to us.  We are grateful that they are with us and look forward to a wonderful next nine months with them in our mission. 

In January yet another couple will come to Kinshasa to be directors of Public Affairs.  There is always great need for senior couples to keep the work moving forward all over the world in all kinds of assignments. We're thankfully that these couples have responded to the request of the Prophet and serve in our mission. 

Our new crew has taken the baton and starts their service together.  They will all still be serving when we leave and others take our place.  Isn't it wonderful how the seniors of the church can be a part of all of this great work if they're only willing to put aside things at home and say "yes" to the Prophet's urging to serve.  

We are very blessed to know so many wonderful mission couples. The memories and friendships forged here in Africa are a great treasure that we'll keep forever.   

Changing of the Senior Guard

For nearly the first year of our first mission we were in the unique situation of being the only senior couple within 1,000 miles of our assignment in Lubumbashi, DR Congo.  It was good that we like each other because we only had each other.  Then with the division of the mission we had the Frogleys and the Packers with us. It was wonderful to share those 7 months with others. We were grateful for their company and love them. 

Now, one of the most different and wonderful things that we have on this mission is our work and friendship with other couples. What great people we've been able to know because of our missionary service.  We can't imagine not having known them for a season and hope to see them again.

In the month of August the last of the couples, who were in our mission when we arrived, packed their very full bags and fly off to the US and Canada.  They've all gone home to lives full of children, grandchildren and life in the "real world," but they have left an imprint on our lives and we love them all. We appreciate their devoted service and miss them greatly. We will be bonded forever with these great friends and consider knowing them to be one of the greatest joys of  this mission.

The Gates, in Pointe Noire, were the first to leave us. They worked there without any other couples around, just as we had done in Lubumbashi.  Because of their love for the missionaries and their hard work with the branches, the Pointe Noire area began to really grow and move forward with a joyful and loving spirit.  Even without French the people there were sheparded  by the Gates, as they spoke the language of love, through their bright and happy manner of leadership. They were just plain fun to be with and made serving a great adventure.

The Thompsons lived and worked in Yaoundé, Cameroon.  Their steady, loving leadership helped contribute to many great changes in Youndé. They worked on and accomplished two successful temple trips for the members there. They helped to prepare for the organization of the first District in Cameroon. Their leadership was recognized and they now serve in the Presidency of the Mozambique mission with responsibility to preside  in Angola. Visits to these outlying cities is  a joy to us and  makes the travel worthwhile.  We love our time with the couples and the elders there. It's always something that we look forward to doing. 

The Hatches  were our wonderful office couple, who loved and served with two of the biggest hearts in the world. Not knowing French made no difference as they just loved the people and gave of themselves to the mission and the wards. They organized basketball practices, YA dance lesson, and the first Youth Conference ever held in Kinshasa where over 1,000 youth from the 5 stakes  mingled and enjoyed a Youth Conference experience. And these things were done outside of the 40+ hours a week they spent keeping the mission office running. What a blessing the Hatches were to us.

 Below is the office staff.  Pascal, housing manager, Hatches, Jamesons, and Thierry, our senior office assistant. These titles in no way explain the work that Pascal and Thierry do for the mission and keep us all safe and sane.
Our weekly meetings and daily encounters are a highlight of our work here. Without these guys, I would be on the first plane heading back to the USA.  They're our heroes!

The Binghams were our Humanitarian couple when we arrived in Kinshasa. They  were fearless and undaunted as they traveled around Kinshasa working with site monitors and NGO's to accomplish humanitarian projects that brought clean water, latrines, neo-natal care and medical aid to the people of the Congo.  We loved nothing more than to be able to head out to a project or project closing with them. It made us proud to be members of a church that reaches out to change lives through great humanitarian missionaries and the faithful Saints of the church who contribute money to bring aid to people in such great need. Besides their hard work, they were a delight with their kindly natures and fun sense of humor. Nobody was more fun that the Binghams. They also loved their work.  Sister Bingham used to say "Who wouldn't want to be Santa every day!"

Mr. and Mrs. Santa worked long, hard hours administrating humanitarian services, showing love and encouragement to all of us and to the Congolese people, as they served in the humanitarian "trenches." 

Next,  the Staggs went home. As PEF couple, they made church history by opening the Perpetual Education Fund program in Kinshasa. They started from scratch to find banks, schools and training facilties for the young adults of Kinshasa, who so badly need opportunities to learn and qualify for much needed employment.  Their success was not just measured by the number and success of their students.  It was also shown  in the eyes of young adults who now had hope for a better future and who adored the Staggs.  They worked tirelessly to provide opportunities for their students, teaching them life skills, and plowed through enormous piles of paperwork that are required to administrate PEF.  With their help the PEF students were "livin' large!"  Sister Stagg also taught piano and made a great contribution. To top things off, they were terrific cooks and always had something special to contribute to couples' dinners.

The Evansons served only a short time in our mission,but their service was quite remarkable and a huge blessing. Having served as a mission president in Ivory Coast, then in a temple presidency and, later, as  temple president, the Evansons decided that they had been called to serve the Lord, but had never volunteered. So they put in mission papers and went to Burundi, where they lived in the apartment that we had vacated at the end of our first mission, and served as Public Affairs missionaries Then they were transferred to Lubumbashi. About that time,  the Thompsons in Yaoundé went home and no couple was available to serve there. This caused our Douala couple to also work with Yaoundé, a four hours drive away. Huge challenge! Elder Evanson had the impression that they were needed to fill the gap in Cameroon and with the approval of the Area Presidency and  the Lubumbashi mission,  they moved again toYaoundé. They were an answer to our prayers as they filled in until we could get another couple for that part of the mission. They're a prefect example of the spirit of senior missionaries who "go and do" whatever  the Lord wants them to do. 

The last of our couples to leave were the Nuttalls. They served in Douala, Cameroon, supporting 8 missionaries and two branches.

The Nuttalls have lived all over the world and didn't skip a beat as they adapted to Cameroon and began their service. Sister Nuttall even drove, something that none of the rest of us sisters have been brave enough to do.  Elder Nuttall was tireless in resolving problems with branch facilities and moving the work forward. Sister Nuttall never met a person that she didn't take under her wing and love and nurture. What a great combination. What a blessing they were to the developing church in Douala.  

We have come to love each of these missionary couples and it's been hard to imagine how life in our mission could go on without them. But they have all served with commitment and love and deserve to go home to loved ones and new adventures.  They are wonderful friends and fellow servants in the Lord's work.  We miss their gifts and talents and we miss them personally.  The work will roll forward as Joseph Smith promised and nothing will stop it until it fills the whole earth.  We will move forward in the Kinshasa mission. But a part of our hearts has returned to North America with these wonderful friends and we won't ever forget them.  We've shared something that only those who have been in missions like ours will ever understand.  We will miss sharing our mission days with them. They have occupied such a great place in our lives and will be a part of us forever. 

Now we know what other missionary couples meant when they said that knowing and mingling with other couples is one of the great blessing of serving a mission.    We love them too.  These friends put a smile on our faces, even on the hardest of days.We worked hard together and we had lots of  fun times too.   Every time we were with them was a happy, special occasion. Other great missionaries have come to serve with us and we're grateful that they have. All of them will "outlive" us in the mission.  I'm sure when it's our turn to leave it will be just as hard to say good-bye.  We will always remember and express thanks to all these missionaries as we served the Lord together in the DRC Kinshasa Mission. 

Refugees in South Africa

Dinners together

The Primate park in Yaoundé with Thompsons

Zone Conferences together in Pointe Noire

A little P-day with Evansons

Nice Cream in Kinshasa

Everything is better when you share it with friends!

Carter's quilt-A Labor of Love

 One of the things that I like to do for each grandchild is to make a quilt. So, when little Carter was going to join our family, I started to work on a quilt. I was determined to get one made and to get it to Arizona somehow.   In Africa that's two or three times the job that it is at home. You can't buy quilt fabric, batting or even quilting thread, clamps, tacks or pins, so it has to all be imported. Since mailing isn't an option, it takes a bit of work and a lot of good friends to get the supplies to make a quilt.  So, my good friend, Beth Ann, who lives in S.L.C., and I went to work looking for fabric. I wanted it to be an African quilt,so we looked for African animals. We found a cute fabric on-line with animal panels on it.We ordered it and had it sent to her house. When it arrived, BA mailed it to one of the sisters who was serving in S. Africa, who had offered to help. Then when Sister Martineau came to Kinshasa, she brought it and I went to work creating the quilt.

   

The batting for the quilt was another story.  On our first mission I carried it to Africa on the plane in a pillow case. We had our suitcases full and we were allowed a "pillow." So we wrapped a couple of bats tightly, put them in a pillow case and hand carried it to Africa.  I never found the things that I needed to make a quilt on that mission, and not having much room to take it when we went to Burundi, I left the batting in Lubumbashi. After we came to the Congo the second time, we went to mission president's seminary in S. Africa. Sister Packer, with whom I had left the batting, brought it to me in her suitcase and I hauled it back to Kinshasa.  In the Kinshasa world, it's quite a project and takes many helpers to get the things you need to make a quilt. One of the Senior Elders made quilt frames for me. I brought clamps, pins and tacks from the US. It was hard to explain to our Congolese friends why I was going to cut up material, sew it back together again, then attach it to cotton and more materiel and then sew it all together again. It did sound kind of crazy when I tried to explain it, but they liked it when it was done. With the help of many wonderful friends I got all the things I needed and made the quilt. It has real African fabric on the back that I bought on a trip to the infamous commerce street. 

 

Then came the project of getting the quilt to Arizona.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do that, but one of our dear Senior couples, the Binghams, packed it into their already stuffed suitcase, took it home to California with them and then mailed it to Stacy. 

It was worth all the effort to see the smiles on the faces of Mommy and big brothers

 when baby Carter's quilt arrived just days before his birth.

Now all the little Allen boys have their own "blankies." It was a labor of love on the part of many people who helped to get a quilt for Carter. Thanks go to all who made it possible!

And to Think that I Saw It.....

Dr. Seuss  wrote a book called And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street.  It's about a little boy who, in true Seuss style sees imagines all kinds of unusual bizarre things that he sees on Mulberry Street . So Mulberry Street has nothing over Boulevard Trente Juin (30th of June), the street on which we live.  This week they began to construct a huge sign.

First the huge pieces were delivered.

 Next 14  men started working on it.   

These 14 guys worked for most of the week getting piece after piece in place.

Some were working. Some were supervising and many were standing around with confused looks on their faces.  But finally it was finished.  Now how would they get it upright and in the post hole that they had dug?

Several days later this little, old, red crane arrived and did the job.

 

The sign is in place. It has nothing in it, but it is in place. 

We're waiting to see what it's going to say.

Now the question is  HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO MULBERRY STREET?

Many things in the Congo have become so common place that we don't even notice them. And so it was with the pictures of the hoisting of the sign.  Not until I started looking at the pictures to choose the ones to  post, did I see what was in the background of these pictures.  So, here it is. In almost every picture there is something uniquely Congolese. If one looks closely at the backgrounds you can see "Mulberry Street." There are amazing things that are everyday occurances in the Congo, but are by no means ordinary.

The taxi-bus money taker and a policeman are hanging out of this taxi-bus, which is very common. The bus is so crammed that they can't get inside. There are probably 20 people inside that bus.

  Two young boys are pulling and pushing a chariot full of ???????

 A truck full of workers are on their way to a job site.

 

 A lady is headed home with some wooden treasure. 

A mom with her baby wrapped on her back is going to start her day selling bread as a street vendor. 

One should always keep one's eyes open in the Congo. It's Mulberry street every day.

Ward Division-Sept. 2012-Aime's Call

The church continues to grow in Kinshasa. Today the Kintambo and KasaVubu Wards were divided into three wards, creating the Gombe Ward, which is our home ward.  Aimé Ngoy, our driver who is an attorney and a judge, was just sustained today as bishop of this new ward all the couples attend.  He told Brent three weeks ago of his new calling and has sought his counsel in ward organization several times since then. He also asked Brent to stand in while he was ordained and set apart today.  When he arose to give his remarks in the meeting he became somewhat emotional, which is highly unusual for Africans, and his wife came and stood by him and put her arm on his shoulder while he made very tender comments about his feelings for the gospel.  He joined the church at age 15. He couldn't afford transport money to go to church so he walked one hour each way every week.  He said the members didn't give him money for transport to attend church but they did give him their love and that’s what kept him coming back.  It was better than transport money to be loved and cared about.  He turned down a rare academic scholarship (he’s very bright) to go on a mission when he turned 19 and said he has never regretted it.  He also turned down a judicial position in Eastern Congo, where the war continues to rage, because it would have meant he would have had to leave his wife and young child and the ability to attend church and he refused to do that.  So he continues to  work part-time for the mission for very little money and his wife sells eggs to keep their family afloat.  They are in their early thirties and are absolutely faithful as evidenced by the fact that they scrimped and saved to be sealed in the temple as soon as they could after their civil wedding.

 In June the church standardized the marriage policy and now requires couples who want to be baptized to have a registered or civil marriage, not just a tribal marriage.  Aime researched matters and gave us excellent advice on how to do this.   He discovered that a marriage could be registered for $10 if the family agrees to let the couple do it. (This approval is required no matter the age of the couple.)  But when the couples went to register their marriages, they found the officials charging $20-$50 for registration, with the extra amount going directly into these official's pockets. So, Aime went, on his own, to many community offices until he found a marriage officer who would do it for $15 (the cost of the registration and $5 for his time and effort to do the work and deliver the registration to the government offices.)  Now Aime and many of the ward leaders are helping these couples to register their marriages and be baptized. Aime has actually volunteered to take the paper work to the marriage officers for the couples who live far from this community.  He is a fine young man who has made many sacrifices because of his faith and testimony. He will make a wonderful bishop. Aime is another example of the people we love and learn from here in Africa.