Last Part of December

Started off with a real treat. The Mission President, his wife and the A.P.s decided to have a District Zone Leaders Conference here in Arusha. The Pres. needed to set apart a new Elders Quorum Pres. so that may have influenced that decision. At any rate that was a real treat for us.

They arrived late on Thursday so we only got to talk to them by phone. Then on Friday they had meetings all day at the church. But that evening we had them (the Pres. and Sister B.) over for dinner. Sister R. had fixed sweet & sour chicken wings and boy were they good. We were afraid the Pres. was going to make himself sick from eating so much. Then she finished us off with raspberry short cake. 

The next day Pres. & Sister B. came to the church to wrap up a few things before heading back to Nairobi. They brought some Christmas hats that played a song and danced to the music. So we all had to try them on. Sorry we didn’t get any movies of that.

Then we had another baptism. This time a couple of men who have been looking at the church for a long time. The older man has spent the past year comparing our church to the Bible and now feels this is the true church. We think he will be a very strong member. The younger one is another “Mr. Question”. He has had a lot of questions that we have tried to answer for him. We hope he will stay strong. We always worry when they ask philosophical question. We know that the testimony is the thing that will keep them strong, not reason.

Then on Sunday we had a lot to do. We needed to make some changes in the Elders Quorum Counselors and the confirmations from the baptism the day before. The family of the sister that lives in Moshi and attends church here was in town. It’s always nice to have strong families visit. Then after church everyone wanted photos with them.

Monday was our typical D-Day. We had the Elders over for supper, FHE and we watched the Church Christmas Devotional. That was really good. Even put us in the Christmas sprit.

Then early Tuesday we got up to Skype with our family at their annual Christmas get together. We were 5:30 AM and they were 7:30 PM the night before. That both put us more in the Christmas spirit and also made us a little homesick.

For our Christmas gift to the branch we have been having pictures framed for the past 2 trips to Nairobi. So this week we washed down all the walls at the church and had our friend Joseph (the one who mounted the white boards for us) 

come to the church and drill holes and put in plugs and self tapping screws. The walls here in Africa are solid cement so if you want to hang something you have to drill a hole.

Then on Friday we did our Service Project. The Elders were in charge and they found a hospital down in the center of town that agreed to let us come and give some kind of service. We ended up doing cleanup work around the yard.

I think Elder R. picked up about 1,000 bottle caps.

Saturday the branch had planned a Christmas Party. The turn out was really good and we had a great time. They had asked all the organizations and/or families to “present” something. We started off by having everyone play games. We did the bean game. You know the one where you get so many beans if you have black shoes, you lose so many for each color you have on, etc. That worked pretty well. Then we tried to do the game where you read a story and members shout out a line when their organization is mentioned. Sister R. read the history of the branch since we came here. That did not work at all. Problem of language and culture differences. Then we taught some dances and that always works well. 

Then they had the presentations. They were really good. 

The Obuya family sang a song:

Bro. Elias had some of his Maasai friends come and they sang and danced some traditional songs. That was really something to watch. 

Then the Primary did a couple of songs. 

The Elders Quorum sang a song (at least Bro. Chinunda and Moses did). 

That’s interesting because Moses is not an Elder yet. 

Then a couple of boys did a karate demonstration.

Pres. Spear gave a talk. Elder Chimbetete gave a talk. 

Then they had the meal that the sisters had been preparing (which took them since Thursday to make). They purchased the food items on Thursday, then on Friday they prepared everything. Then Sat. morning early they started cooking. They cook in the garage at the church on open wood fires. The smoke was so bad you could not even breath in there. 

Then they put the food in 5 gallon buckets. They had 2 kinds of rice, a dish with meat and vegetables (which was really good), potatoes, cucumbers, spaghetti, cabbage with carrots and onions, watermelon, pineapple, fish heads and a soda. Some of the sisters had brought their dishes from home so we had good plates but no silverware. We ate with our fingers. And that is pretty standard here. But the meal was really good. 

And Sister R. tried to carry a bucket the way the locals do. She did pretty well.

Then we ran the Elders around to get time on their SIMM cards so they could call home. They are allowed to do that once a year at Christmas time. Sister R. had purchased a pair of socks for each Elder and had stuffed one with traditional Christmas stuff like an apple, candy, a pen, a white board marker etc. She snuck those to the American Elder and told him to put them out sometime in the night so the others would wake up to a visit from Santa. Something we don’t think any of them had ever had before. (We got the report the next day that they really had fun with that).

Sunday we only had Sac. Meeting. We had tried to get the “The Real Story of Christmas” translated and given as the program. It didn’t work all that well. They mostly had members read from the scriptures of the story. There are only 2 Christmas songs in the swahili song book. Sister R. found a few of the songs online and tried to break up the words so they would fit the music. That sort of worked. But we sang the songs and there was a good spirit so I guess that’s what counts. 

We had a couple from americans visit and when I introduced myself the brother said, “Hey, we went to high school together”. It was Verlyn Harris. 

We had a good visit with them. 

Then we took the Elders to our flat for our planned day together. We also invited Patience Rwiza (the previous branch president) as he had no place else to go. That’s him in the photo above with the Harrises. He has been in the process of selling all his furniture to move to Dar to find a job. We had a great dinner. Then the Elders had prepared a devotional which we all participated in. Then we sent the Elders home about 5:00. It was a great day. We didn’t even feel all that homesick. 

The rest of the week was pretty much our normal routine. We are preparing to teach several classes starting in the new year. So we spent a lot of time deciding just what to teach. We decided to start a music class again. Hopefully this time members will come more regularly. Then we want to teach a self reliance class and a class on how to teach the gospel in a classroom setting.

Here’s our Christmas Decor this year.

Not much be we enjoyed it.

Then we closed out the year with the Elders. We had a great evening together.

The view from our flat. 

First Part of December

Wow, what a month. Let’s see if we can fill you in on some of it.

Started off with another baptism. This sister has been looking into the church for over a year. Her husband didn’t want her to join at first but now he has given permission and she is ready. She will be very strong. She is a school teacher at (according to the headmaster) the largest private boarding school in Tanzania.

On Sunday we went to visit the school where she works. The guard didn’t think he wanted to let us in. But he finally agreed and had us sign in and fill out a paper we had to take to have the headmaster sign when we met with him. Then a young man took us to meet the headmaster. We walked a long way to get to his house. Past all kinds of buildings, classrooms etc. After seeing all that we think it might just be the biggest in Tanzania. It is a very upscale school and we think has about 500 to 600 students. They are on break right now until the first of the year.

Then on the 7th we headed for Kitale, which is the northern most part of the mission. Elder and Sister Beecher, that visited us in early Nov., had invited us to come to Kitale to help them with a Youth Conference for the Seminary System. We stayed over in Nairobi that night. Again we were able to eat at KFC. What a treat. Then the next morning we headed out for Kitale. The first part of the road there is the same one we went on to get to Lake Nakuru last Sept. Then on past Nakuru.  A beautiful drive even though the road past Nakuru was pretty bad. The pavement has been squished out to the sides by hot weather and big trucks so it was like water skiing in a truck. If you got too close to the sides of the rut it would grab the tire and almost throw you off the road.

On the way there we crossed the equator.

Then because it’s on the way, we decided to stop at Eldoret and visit Elder & Sister Babcock.

They treated us to dinner. We spent about 2 hours with them.

Then on to Kitale. We arrived in pretty good time and spent some time visiting that evening with the Beechers.

Elder Rydalch had been asked to help with the Mission DVD. That is a DVD of all the Elders and activities that went on during the year. So he stayed up late every night working on that. It was to be a Christmas present to all the Elders and Couples so he really had to push to get it done by the time we returned to Nairobi.

The next day we spent helping Elder & Sister Beecher setup for the conference on Sat. There were several members there at the church to help and we finished in good time. Then we spent the rest of the day going to all the branches in the area. There are 5 branches there. 

The Kitale Branch where the conference was held. 

The Sikhendu Branch.

Met some of the members there.

The Misikhu Branch.

The Mautuma Branch where we would attend church.

Across from the church was another church. Not sure what denomination but they really like to bang on drums.

And the Naitiri Branch

When we got back from that Prince and Linda Omandi were at the Beechers home waiting for us. He is over the Seminary, Institute and YSA for the whole region. We had a good evening with them.

Dec. 10 was the Youth Conference. What a great day. Elder & Sister Beecher had planned out a really good program. Lots of activities. We taught dance & took photos. Then they had a testimony meeting. Very spiritual.

On Sunday we attended the Mautuma Branch for church. Sister R. & B. helped with the primary. They acted out the nativity. 

Some really strong members there. The brother that gave the lesson in S.S. made us feel almost like back home. 

They even teach in english (which was nice for a change). They had about 85 attend Sacrament Meeting that day and they were sitting on laps and on the floor with every chair in the building stuffed into the chapel room. 

The next day we went to Mt. Elgon Park with the Beechers.

Saw lots of baboons, 

waterbuck 

and several colobus monkeys. They are really hard to photograph as they hide from any human trying to see them.

We saw several run across the road as we moved along but we couldn’t get a camera up quickly enough to film them. As soon as they saw us in the road they would climb up into the trees and jump from one to the other. So in just a couple of minutes they would be 90 to 100 yards away.

Beautiful park with lots of dense vegetation. Walked to a couple of really interesting caves and waterfalls. 

Found this really interesting tree. We think the branch around Sisters Rydalch & Beecher is a parasite but not sure. Both ends are grown into the tree like a branch would grow.

Beautiful view of the valley from Elephant flats, but no elephants. 

Sister R. had decided she wanted to go to Kisumu so we loaded up and headed there. Kisumu is on Lake Victoria up almost to the top of the lake. We arrived late afternoon, met Elder & Sister Jorgensen and toured the chapel there. They live on the ground floor and the church is up on the next 2 levels. 

Went downtown to do some shopping and went to the water front to see if we could see some hippos. Didn’t see any but saw some beautiful views. 

This is the local car wash right out in the lake.

Then spent the evening with the Jorgensens visiting and getting better acquainted. 

The next morning we headed back to Nairobi. The normal road back to the main highway is being worked on so Elder Jogensen told us a way to cut across to the main highway. We got lost several times but finally made it. The road was really bad in some areas. Like you could drop into a pot hole and no one would find you for days. Several cars off to the side with their oil pan torn off.

The next day we finished up some business at the Mission Center, did some shopping, picked up Elder Smedley (the one that broke his leg) and headed for home (Arusha). Again a beautiful and relaxing drive once you get out of Nairobi. We only made one wrong turn this time and it was easy to get back onto the correct road.

Just writing about all this makes us tired. Sometimes we wonder how we will fill our day when there seems like nothing to do. But then when we get to the end of the day we wonder where all the time went. We have so many goals we want to achieve and sometimes feel real panic that we won’t be able get them all done. Especially now with all the year end stuff and a new computer system. Training the Branch Presidency on all this is a real challenge. But with the Lord’s help and “pole pole” (that’s swahili for slowly, slowly or step by step) we will get at least some of it done.

Last Part of November

It’s amazing how hard the devil tries to stop the work here. One of the Elders here was not feeling well and his phone was not working. So he made it out to the street to find someone with a phone he could use to call us. On his way back in he fainted and fell and broke his leg. We thought it was just a sprain but we took him to the hospital to check on his sickness and in the process they x-rayed his leg and found a broken bone. So we spent most of the day there with him in the hospital. Then we have had to take him everywhere to try to do missionary work. It was also the week of transfers and because we had 2 Elders go home that left only 2 here to keep appointments. We have a really good Branch Missionary so he tried to fill in and go with the other Elder. 

But he also hurt his little toe on one foot (I think it’s broken) and was having a hard time going with him. They walk everywhere they go here in Arusha and the walking is on very rough roads or trails and up and down as we are at the foot of Mt. Meru and there are a lot of ravines from runoffs. But we would take the Elders to the church and then while we were doing our things Elder S. would have investigators come to the church and he would teach there with one of the members. And the branch missionary would go out with the other Elder. So the work did go on.

And in the process of finding crutches (Can you believe they didn’t have any at the hospital?) we met 3 very nice ladies that are interested in meeting with the missionaries. So there is always a reason for things that happen.

Sundays are quite an interesting day here in Arusha. We meet with the branch leadership for PEC meeting and do some training. 

Then the meetings for the day are; Priesthood & R.S. first, S.S. second and Sacrament Meeting last. And of course Primary goes on for the first 2 hours. Sometimes Sister R. will be asked to take care of Primary when none of the leadership show up. That’s pretty hard when you don’t speak the language. We try really hard to follow what is being taught in the lessons, but we still do not understand enough swahili to tell. Sometimes if they have a question about something they will try to explain the question to us in their broken British English accent and we will try to understand and answer. Sometimes they ask us to read a part of the manual and then explain. We can barely read the words let alone understand what they mean. Sometimes they seem to really be having a good discussion and afterward we will ask what was discussed. And quite often it is not even close to the lesson subject. But the spirit is always really good in Sacrament Meeting.

The second highlight of this month was our Thanksgiving celebration. The mission president planned a get together for the senior couples. So we took off on Tuesday the 22nd for Nairobi. We needed to do some things in Nairobi so we went a day early. That turned out to be a really neat thing. We were assigned to stay at the mission president’s home. 

Here is the rec. center next to the president's home.

Before and after - when we arrived in Nairobi in May and this trip:

And down their street:

The new missionaries were arriving that day so we got to eat with them and sit in on their introductions. That was really something. They were all from Africa somewhere and really interesting backgrounds. There were also 2 Sister Missionaries in the group.

Then the next day we mustered up our courage and drove ourselves to the mission office and then around town to do the things we needed to get done. Driving in Nairobi is like stock car racing only more vehicles involved. If you want to get anywhere you just have to nose your way into the traffic from a cross road. They have stoplights on a few of the round-a-bouts but that doesn’t work when you have 3 lanes coming in from 4 or 5 side streets and the drivers pass on both sides and crowd in in front of you with the back of their car blocking the lane to the side of you. Then they stack up into 4 or 5 lanes from each incoming street. So the cars back up and when your light turns green you can’t move anyway.

But we got around pretty good. The highlight of the day was that we were able to find the KFC restaurant. It was like going home for an hour.

Then on Thursday all the couples met at the President’s home for Thanksgiving dinner and visiting. 

Sister R. prepared a center piece for the table:

This is the before and after of the spread:

We had a great turkey dinner and then Sister Beecher had planned some activities to help us get to know each other better. One of them was that we would stand up as a couple and tell TWO WORDS TO DESCRIBE YOU, TWO WORDS TO DESCRIBE YOUR SPOUSE, TWO PET PEEVES, TWO GOALS  YOU’VE MADE & ACHIEVED, TWO THINGS ON YOUR BUCKET LIST (Things you still want to do before you die!) and TWO THINGS THAT BRING YOU JOY. Then at the end we had a gift exchange. The one where you can pick a new gift or take someone else’s. That was a lot of fun.

Then the next day was a couples conference at the mission office. Wow, what a boost. Packed full of good presentations, spiritual thoughts and talks by several of the couples and great talks by the mission president and his wife. They also had a display table of some of the things couples are doing in their area.

Then the trip to get to the president’s home. We were stuck in a traffic jam for about an hour and a half. The only movement was when someone gave up and turned around to go the other way on the road. Then it took another 45 minutes to get to his home. We found out later that the president of the country was going through town so all traffic was stopped. Even without that when you leave the mission office anytime after 4:00 PM you will be in traffic jams for at lease a half hour. Normal trip to his home is about 15 minutes. That evening the couples had sort of planned to all go out to eat. But after the traffic jam and all we all decided to stay at home. We were lucky as we had turkey leftovers at the president’s home. There was also another couple staying there and we had a good time visiting with them.

Next morning we met the other couples at “The Nest” and all went shopping at a place that has several stores with souvenir items at really good prices. Sister R. just had a ball.

Then we headed for home. What a difference in the scenery now as compared to what we saw the last time we went to Nairobi. There has been a fair amount of rain and everything has turned green.

This is August:

This was this trip:

After the traffic in Nairobi we are always glad to be headed back to Arusha. The drive is very peaceful.

That evening we met the 2 new Elders and took all the Elders down town to find an ATM so they could draw out some money. 

Then it was back to our normal routine. The most exciting thing was that after the 2nd X-rays for Elder S., it was decided that he needed to go to Nairobi for the final fixes.

After our couples conference we have decided on a whole bunch of things we want to start here in Arusha. We decided that we should just pick a time to have music classes, self reliance classes, missionary preparation classes and how to teach classes. Then if no one comes we will just spend the time preparing our Institute/Seminary and Temple class lessons. 

We have had several members move out of our little branch and last Sunday it looked pretty sparse at church. But the members that come all the time are really strong. And with what they face to be active and come we feel honored and humbled to be able to serve with them.