Last Part of April

When we were in Dar Es Salaam the week of the 13th we were asked by a couple from America to help them with the measles vaccination campaign for Tanzania in Arusha. The church donates money and assists in campaigns all over the world to get people vaccinated against various diseases. The campaign was planned for the week of April 23 to 28. 

There are couples called to go to various countries all over the world to help organize members to help with the campaigns. There has never been anyone here in Arusha that could help with that. So they wanted us to work with the government and medical people here. They gave us badges for the members here and told us they would try to get us some flyers announcing the campaign. So we spent several days going around with Bro. Kibanda to all the government health people and some medical facilities to see what was planned here in Arusha. What we found was that they were not very well organized. They had no flyers and really no way to get the word out to the people about the campaign. They told us they would call us to come to a meeting they were planning for Friday or Saturday. But as it turned out they forgot to call us. We received the flyers (the ones shown above) that the couple in Dar had printed and called several places to see if they needed any. One official came up to the church to get some and was really impressed with what we had. Then we organized the members to go out and hand out flyers and tell as many people as they could about the campaign.

We received the DVDs of April Conference at the Zone Conference in Dar. So the Branch planned to show the conference session on the 21st & 22nd. We had really good attendance. We had a lot of investigators as well as members. We had the English version playing in the Relief Society room and the Swahili in the chapel. We think this might have been the first time all sessions were shown and by the end of each day there were not a lot of people left. And just to spice things up the power went out on Sunday morning. So we had to scramble around to get the generator hooked up and running. But it all turned out well and the spirit was great.

The next day we were up early and headed for Nairobi. Several of the couples had planned a trip to a park called “Masai Mara”. It is the top part of the Serengeti (the one that has the big migration of wildebeests). We arrived in Nairobi about noon and had many things we needed to do. So we ran all over town to get them done. Then we met with several people at the Mission Office for church business. That evening was the weekly Family Home Evening for the couples that live in the “nest”. We really enjoyed that.

The next morning we took off for the Masai Mara. And we do mean “took off”. Because it is way out in the bush. The best way to get there is to fly. What an experience!!! It was a small 10 passenger plane. And as much as Sister R. likes to fly, it was great. Although we had to land in the rain.

We stayed in tents but not like any tent we have stayed in before. They had a shower, hot running water, a flush toilet, 2 sinks and wooden floors.

And hot water bottles, which Sister R. really loved. It was rather chilly there and the hot water bottles at night were really nice.

They have 3 safari drives each day. So we were able to go on one the first day, 3 the second day and 2 the last day. We saw all kinds of animals.

It’s amazing how the animals just totally ignore us.

We really had a great time. The best part is the time spent with the other couples. It really gives us a boost.

It was quite rainy and the rivers were running really high. We got stuck a couple of times.

But nothing like these guys.

When we got back to Nairobi we had a ton of things that we needed to do. We ended up staying over an extra day to get them all done.

Then back to Arusha just in time for our weekly Institute/Seminary class.

On Monday we had the Elders and Sisters over for FHE as usual and with that we had a bit of a birthday party for one of the Sister missionaries. And we played the candy bar game.

We are so happy to have Sister missionaries here. They are really adding a lot to our branch and the teaching here. They have a whole bunch of investigators and are really doing a great job. The spirit here with the missionaries is so good right now. We are praying that there won’t be any transfers next week as we feel we have such a strong group here now. We just want to keep it going.

First Part of April

Another baptism:

WE HAVE SISTER MISSIONARIES IN ARUSHA!!! 

What a great addition. They are making history. They are the first Sister Missionaries in Tanzania. We were told some time ago that it might happen. And we are glad to welcome them here. They were supposed to arrive on April 4th and we had been getting their apartment ready for that date. But on the 3rd we got a call telling us that they were on the bus and headed for Arusha. We alerted the apartment manager that they would be here early and he really had to scramble to get thing ready. The Elders got a call about 12:30 and they learned the Sisters would arrive about 1:00. We were afraid they might already be at the bus stop waiting for us. As we headed down to the bus stop the bus passed right in front of us. So we followed it down and pulled in just as they were unloading. Amazing how many times thing happen like that. Makes you wonder if the Lord is watching over the work here. (Like we didn’t already know that.) So we gathered up the Sisters and headed back to our apartment. They have an apartment 2 floors down from us. The manager and several workers were scrambling to get the apartment ready so we had the Sister stay with us for the afternoon. We also took them shopping for food and things to get them setup.

We are sooooo excited about having Sisters here. One has been out for about 15 months (the short one) but does not speak Swahili. The other (the one on the right) is another story of the hand of the Lord in the work here. 

She is a new missionary and from Nairobi, Kenya. She speaks Swahili very well. When she received her call her Stake President questioned it and thought maybe there had been a mistake. So he called to make sure. He was told there was no mistake. And they all wondered why she would be called to serve in her home mission. Well, we know the answer now. The mission President had felt there should be Sisters in Tanzania for some time. And when he received the inspiration to call Sister to serve here it was a verification of the spirit to realize that the Sister called to her own mission would be serving in Tanzania where very few Sisters in the branch and a lot of investigators do not speak English. She will be a real blessing to the Branch and the missionary work here.

Back in January we had issued a challenge to all the members to commit to read the scriptures every day for 100 days. 

There were a lot who signed up to do that. We planned a celebration for the end of the 100 days for April 8th. Sister R. spent 2 full days popping popcorn and making cookies to hand out. 

We had a special program for Sac. Meeting. Sister R. wrote up a story form narration with scripture references and songs mingled in here and there. We talked with Bro. Kibanda about it and he said the members would just fall asleep so he wanted to have the members read the scriptures and sing the songs. The program was pretty good but the scripture reading went very long. And many of the songs we wanted to sing, they do not know. So when he translated the whole thing he put in songs that the members know. Like “How Firm A Foundation” for “I Think When I Read That Sweet Story of Old”. Sort of lost the spirit of Easter. But that’s okay. They are learning that you can do something besides have talks every week.

Then after Sac. Meeting we held our celebration meeting. We had planned to show the video of “The Testaments” and have popcorn. Again the leadership felt if you handed out popcorn during the show they would not pay attention. So we rearranged to have the popcorn and a cookie handed out after. They have the habit of commenting about every talk after the speaker is done and we were very insistent that that not be done with this presentation. We wanted everyone to go away with the spirit of the movie. It turned out really well. Even thought the movie is in English, most, if not all, were able to understand the story and get the spirit of it. We had a short explanation of the story before so they could relate to it. We even had several ask if they could get a copy of the movie. That seems odd to us as many of them do not even have power to their homes let alone a DVD player and TV.

Then after the meetings the 1st Counselor (the Maasai) wanted us to go with him to see his grandmother. 

He doesn’t have a birth certificate and really has no idea when he was born. So he wanted to see if his grandmother could narrow it down for him. His family are all so gracious and nice. We really enjoy meeting them. She lives near the hospital where we took the young man that we hit on his motorcycle.

His grandfather is about 100 years old and doesn’t see well at all and doesn’t remember much. He lives in a little room off next to everyone else and just sits in the doorway all day. 

He kept asking who his grandson was. He didn’t remember him at all. His grandmother is about 80 but in really good health. After a lot of talk, that we didn’t understand at all (we think part of it was in Maasai and part in Swahili), they decided he was born in 1980. No idea what day or month. Birth dates are really interesting here. Even if they have a birth certificate it usually gives a different name than what they go by.

We had another Zone Conf. in Dar Es Salaam on the 13th. So we traveled there again. This time we took a wrong turn and ended up clear over to the coast in the wrong town before we realized we were on the wrong road. So we got to Dar very late (after dark). It was raining and the traffic was terrible. But the next couple of days made up for it all.

It is always a great spiritual lift to attend these conferences. Elder Raymond who served with us here in Arusha is now one of the Assistants to the President. He gave a really good talk. He is really a fine missionary.

That evening we enjoyed dinner out with the Pres. and Sister B. The next day we headed home all charged up and ready to face our challenges with increased vigor.