We have arrived - Arusha, Tanzania

The trip to Arusha was quite an experience. As we left town we were diverted to the side of the road due to construction and I mean THE SIDE OF THE ROAD! A couple of times we thought we might tip over. Then in a few miles we were back on the road. Not a great road but not bad. The countryside was just as I (Rich) had expected for Africa. Rather dry and lots of flat topped trees. But beautiful country to say the least. 

The border crossing was quite an experience. We were sent to all sorts of buildings and asked to fill out all sorts of paper work.

After a few miles we were in a sort of hilly area and all along the road were these very large plants and flowers. We finally decided they looked like enormous morning glory. 

The view of Mount Kilimanjaro was obscured by clouds, which we are told is usually the case. 

But the view of Mount Meru was quite nice. Arusha is on the other side from this view.

Along the way, out in an area that we could not see any buildings of any kind for as far as we could see in all directions we stopped near this beautiful Masai woman walking along the road.

We arrived in Arusha mid afternoon on Saturday, checked into our hotel and went to meet the Elders for dinner. (there are 2 sets here in Arusha).

The next morning we attended church. Getting to the church was like backroad 4 wheeling in the mountains. The roads off the main roads are not maintained at all. There are deep ruts on the sides and in many places they are very muddy. And people walking along the road everywhere. We had no idea that vehicles and humans could occupy the same space on a very narrow, rough road and not hit each other. Then to pass another vehicle was terrifying to say the least.

This is entrance to the church yard.

The church

But the spirit at the meetings was wonderful. These are truly strong members of the church. They all walk to church and some of them from several miles away. The meeting house was packed. Chairs were so close we could not even wiggle. We tried to make a count based on the sacrament trays (which had to be filled a second time) and we came up with about 85. There are about 14 young people hear in Arusha on a humanitarian service type thing from the Provo, Utah area. Not affiliated with the church but all members. It was great to be with the saints here and feel of their love for the Gospel.

The next day we spent running all over town with the Nevin’s to get our phone, banking system and post office box set up. and to check on our flat (which will not be ready by June 1st as we had planned). So we will be in another flat until ours is ready and then we will move again. We are really getting tired of living out of suitcases. 

Then on Tuesday the Nevin’s left to go back to Nairobi. We were feeling pretty terrified at that point. We went up to the church for a Swahili lesson at 10:00 and after that we attended a discussion with 2 of the missionaries and a couple of investigators. That was quite an experience. It was all in Swahili and we actually could tell what they were teaching about. Then we were able to bear our testimonies in english. We hope they felt the spirit and will continue to study. Then we spent the afternoon wandering around town trying to find the place we ate at last Saturday. We never did find it so we just went back to our hotel and ate there.

In the morning we will try to get moved from the hotel to our apartment building. Not into our flat but at least into the building.

We have arrived - Nairobi, Kenya

We left SLC late due to a problem with the airplane. Someone put their sun glasses down the latrine. So we arrived late in Chicago and the flight from there was clear over in another area of the airport. Our flight schedule said depart at 5:10 PM but our tickets said 4:35 PM so we ran like crazy, caught the tram, ran like crazy to the gate (and that’s not easy with all the carry on we were taking) only to find that the flight really was 5:10 PM. But even so we barely made it.

Then the long flight to London (about 7.5 hours). But was not as bad as we had anticipated. The seats were quite comfortable. We did a lot of getting up and moving around.

We had a 3 hour layover in London so we relaxed a bit there. Then off to Nairobi pretty much on time (about 8 hours this time).

We landed in Nairobi about 9:00 PM but our luggage did not. We were trying to get to the assistance desk to see what we needed to do about that when Pres. Broadbent snuck around security and found us. He was very helpful. They said our luggage was in London and would arrive the next evening. They would deliver about midnight. We waited up until about 1:30 in the morning and decided to go to bed and hope they would wake us when it came. We slept very little and our luggage never showed up. We were REALLY stressed at this point. We prayed a lot and wondered what we would do without our clothes and medications for 18 months. Finally we got word that they did have our luggage and would deliver about 11:00 AM (which in Africa time was 1:30 PM).

We spent the first night at Pres. & Sister Broadbent’s flat. It is really nice and they were so good to us.

The next day they took us to Mission Home where we got acquainted with some of the couples and members who work there. 

Then Elder & Sister Nevin took us to “The Nest” (the 6 missionary couple’s apartments). We were lucky enough to have a flat all to ourselves. We had no clothes so we just survived for the next couple of days.

We went to the Mission Home several times and picked up supplies and stuff for Arusha.

We ate out a couple of times with Pres. & Sister Broadbent and the Nevin’s, 

and Sister Nevin fixed us dinner 2 evenings.  She was so busy and behind at the office, that we actually ate her dinner at the Tuttles flat Thursday evening and then they let us Skype on their computer to get in touch with family. What a lot of neat people we’ve met here! 

The Nevin’s took us shopping for food and that was quite and experience. On Thurs. Elder Nevin informed Rich that he was to have his first driving lesson. Talk about stress!! But he actually did quite well. He only fell off the left side of the road a couple of times. Remember, they drive on the wrong side of the road here. The traffic defies description so we won’t even try. The roads are very narrow and no one obeys any traffic lights, signs or yields.

We had a pot luck dinner with all the couples here at “The Nest” Friday evening. That was really great. We’ll miss their company!

In the morning we will load up all our stuff and about 7:00 AM we will head to Arusha with the Nevin’s guiding us.

Last Day at the MTC

Today, Sunday, we had Sacrament meeting at 8:00 AM. Then “Music and the Spoken Word” was shown on large screens in the Lorenzo Snow Auditorium. Then Priesthood Meeting with a few of the young missionaries. They hold many meetings in small groups.

Then in the evening we attended a “Departure Devotional”. Wow, what a neat experience. The spirit was so strong. They had a group of missionaries form Japan sing in their native language and the spirit was so strong you could have cut it with a knife.

Then at 7:00 PM we attended a fireside with all the missionaries currently at the MTC. Again a great meeting. What a site to see over 2,000 missionaries in one place. And you should hear them sing.

I think we are really spiritually ready to head to Kenya tomorrow morning. We leave around 8:00 AM for the airport. Our flight is at 11:15 AM to Chicago, 5:10 PM to London and 10:20 AM on the 24th to Kenya. We should arrive there about 9:00 PM

The MTC

May 16, 2011:

We arrived at the MTC about 10:30 AM. We were met by several young missionaries to help us carry our luggage up to the 3rd floor where our apartment was. It was nice but small.

May 17, 2011:

Today was filled with classes and instructions. We had a devotional in the evening. Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the First Quorum of the Seventy and his wife spoke to us. It was really good.

May18 & 19, 2011:

Both days were filled with classes. We were required to practice teach a volunteer (who played the part of our investigator). That was a bit scary.

May 20, 2011:

Well we finished our training at the MTC today. What a GREAT experience.

The training was pretty intense but we survived.

Here we are in front of the famous world map.

This is our “District” as they call it here. The 2 young people in the photo were our instructors.

This is the whole group:

May 21, 2011:

Today we went to the Provo Temple. We have never been there before. It was great.

Then we just hung out the rest of the day and did a little laundry.

May 15, 2011

Well, here we are the day before we enter the Mission Training Center.

Yesterday we had a GREAT experience! We were able to participate in the baptism of Taylor (12) and Tawnya (9), 2 of our grandchildren. I guess we can count them as our first mission experience.

Rich performed the baptisms and there was a wonderful program. The spirit was very strong.

The missionaries who worked with them are Elder Hennore and Elder Collum.

Leaving our children and grandchildren is one of the hardest things about this mission. But we know it is what we should do and we know the Lord has something there in Tanzania that we are to accomplish. We pray everyday that He will bless and protect our family while we are gone. And we pray that He will touch their hearts and help them understand why we feel we must serve this mission. We hope they will all have a greater desire to “Come unto Christ” and a greater resolve to live their lives closer to the principles of the Gospel.

This past week has been a crazy rush of trying to get everything wrapped up and ready to leave. We have packed several times and even gone to the airport to weigh our luggage to make sure we were not overweight. But I think we are ready.

We will attend church today and participate in the confirmation of Taylor and Tawnya, then in the morning around 6:00 AM our daughter in law, Alison, will take us to Provo to the Mission Training Center and we will be on our way.

May 8, 2011:

We spoke in church today. Then had a great family get together afterwards:

OUR ASSIGNMENT:

Our Mission President has informed us that we will be serving in Arusha, Tanzania.

We have researched a bit about Arusha on the internet and at least we know there is a large modern hospital there that can handle all the tests for Rich that will be required in the next few months.

May 4, 2011

The whole story:

Since April 22nd we have been on a real roller coaster ride. We got a call about 3:30 on the 22nd of April just before leaving for Janna's wedding. We were told that due to Rich's little stay in the hospital and the fact that he is now on coumadin we would be re-assigned to someplace in the U.S. We were really upset with that and asked if there wasn't something that could be done to change that. The brother on the phone said he would check with his supervisor but he didn't think there was. We didn’t hear anything for the next few days so we called the missionary department the following Thursday. They said for sure we were being re-assigned. They said the paperwork had already been sent out.

We were devastated!!! But we were resolved to do whatever the Lord wanted us to do. We went to the temple the next day and came out still feeling like we should be going to Kenya.

Then about 3:30 we got a call from the missionary department and they said “You guys are popular people around here” and you ARE going to Kenya. It took me back a bit but my spirit just jumped.

So we are launched ahead on our preparations to leave on May 16th for the MTC.