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.