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.