Last Part of August

Nothing terribly exciting during the first week of the last half of August. We had a really good lesson and activity with the YSA group on Sat. But that’s pretty normal now that we have been teaching them for several months. We have been working on helping them memorize the 10 Commandments and the books of the Book of Mormon. We got an idea from the Beechers that served up in Kitale, Kenya about how to remember the 10 Commandments. They actually got it from Elder & Sister Byrd. That’s one of the neat things about serving a mission as a couple, we get chances to share ideas. It’s pretty good but some of the members here have a hard time with the wording because it is in English.

#1  One God.

#2  Zoo---Sign over the zoo with graven images of animals on it.
              No graven images

#3  Tree has leaves with veins in them --
              Take the Name of the Lord In Vain.  

#4  Door of the Church--Sabbath Day -
               Keep it Holy.

#5  Hive -- you have a queen bee and a drone in a hive --
               Honor thy Father and Mother.  

#6  Sticks -- you kill snakes with sticks...
               Thou shalt not kill.

#7  Heaven, you can't get into heaven if you commit adultery.

#8  Steel gate.  Thou shalt not steal.

#9  Sign -- You should not put a sign in your yard lying about your neighbor
              -- bear false witness against your neighbor.

#10 Tent…a tent covers you... Thou shalt not covet.

Then we have them see who can draw out the Plan of Salvation the quickest. We really have a good time with them.

The highlight of this half month was our opportunity to teach dance at a Youth Conference in the Kilungu Hills area. Our reputation for teaching dance is going all over the mission. Elder & Sister Hall called and asked if we could work it out to come to the Youth Conference planned in the area they serve in. We checked our calendar and it looked like it would work for us. We traveled to Nairobi on the 22nd and did a bunch of stuff at the Mission Center that we needed to get done. That evening we ate together with some of the other couples and visited about our various assignments. We always get so many good ideas from the other couples.

The next day we traveled with Elder & Sister Hall to the area they serve in. That area is about 2.5 to 3 hours away from Nairobi. They travel that distance every day to help the 4 Branches in that area. We thought the conference would be at one of the churches there. But we found that the conference was being held at a resort in the area. When Elder Hall pulled off the road and started up through the city we thought, “Wow, this is a very poor area, wonder what kind of facility the youth would meet in”. 

Then we pulled up in front of this building and when we went in we could hardly believe that such a nice place would be situated in such a poor area.

We entered the meeting hall where all the youth were meeting and we were very surprised to see over 200 youth gathered there.

As we found out later, this area was the first to have a Branch of the church in Kenya. And there are many very strong members of the church there.

After some games, a talk by Prince Omondi and other activities they all started moving out and over to a school near by. That is where they were staying. The conference was a 3 day, 2 night event and all the youth were staying at the school. They had lunch in a fairly large room and we were told that would be where we would teach dance. They divided the group into 4 smaller groups and were planning to rotate through 4 different activities.

We really had a good time with the youth teaching dance. We worried about whether they would participate. But they really got into it.

In fact, they had such a good time that many of them kept sneaking back into the next session. Even the cooks were dancing. The students from the school would come over and look through the windows to see what we were doing. When we have taught dance at other venues the adults usually don’t get into it. But at this conference they really did. We all had a great time.

They then had a contest to see which Branch could make the highest most sturdy tower out of the same materials provided for each group.

They had a lot of fun with that.

It was a great youth conference. The local leaders had really done a good job of organizing it.

We were having such a good time and hated to leave. But the drive back to Nairobi is not much fun at night. As it turned out we didn’t leave until about 6:00, so it was dark for most of the drive back. Elder Hall is a good driver but we still had a few times we were not sure if we would make it. The trucks on that road are crazy. It’s the main road from Nairobi to Mombasa and the trucks are always in a hurry and take a lot of chances when passing. So if you don’t give the right of way to them they will run right over you. But we made it back and were able to settle in for the night.

The next day we did some shopping. We had made arrangements to teach dance to the YSA of the Nairobi area again. So we met with them at 3:00 and taught some couple dances for about 2 hours.

That evening we ate with the Halls and Pugmires.

Next day we headed back to Arusha so we could teach our Missionary and Institute classes.

The next highlight was a visit from the Mission President and his wife. They were holding a Zone Leader’s Conference here in Arusha. So the Zone Leaders from Dar came and they were to have meetings with the Zone Leaders here and A.P.s.

We had invited the President and his wife to dinner on Wed. evening. We spent an enjoyable evening with them and talked about all the changes that have come to the Arusha Branch over the past year.

On Thursday we had scheduled interviews for Temple Recommends for some members with the Mission Pres.

After that we went to the Maasai Cafe for dinner with all the missionaries and the Pres. and his wife.

And to close out a GREAT month, we received word that all but 2 of the passports are in for the members going to the Temple. That is an answer to prayer. The process of getting passports has been a very complicated process. We fill out all the paperwork here in Arusha, but the passports are only issued in Dar Es Salaam. Because we had so much trouble with the system here in Arusha we worried that if we let them handle the sending of the paperwork to Dar it might take several months. We sent the paperwork by FedEx to Dar because the member who helps missionaries and others get passports there has been able to get them processed in 5 days. Then he had to have an operation and was out of commission for 2 weeks. We were wondering if we would ever get the passports back from Dar. And to make things worse, we found out the immigration department is in the process of converting to computerized processing of the paperwork. So we had asked the members to have a special fast and prayers that things would work out. And they have. Now we can proceed with the plans and get the other paperwork into South Africa to finalize the plans for our trip.

First Part of August

We said we would give more information of the 2 new Elders coming to Arusha. Well, the first one to arrive was a new experience for us. He was coming from Dar Es Salaam and we were told he should arrive about 4:30 or 5:00 in the evening. The day was really full for us so we ended up heading for the bus station a little late. We asked when the bus would arrive and they told us about 4:45 or 5:00. The bus came about 5:45 but no Elder. So then we were getting very nervous. We call the Nolls in Dar and asked if they got him on the bus on time. They said yes, so we asked, “What bus?” The Elders usually come on the Dar Express and that was where we were. They said they couldn’t remember the name of the bus line so they would need to look it up. I think they might have been out running transferring Elders around as well. When they finally found the name, it was a bus line we had never heard of. Then we were in real panic. We didn’t have any idea where the station was. We remembered that down in the middle of town there is a whole square where buses come in but we had only been there once before when the Elder coming from Nairobi ended up having to hire a taxi from the border because his bus broke down. So we headed for that area hoping he would be at the end of the square waiting for us. We went past but no Elder. So we wondered if it was someplace else. Then as we were coming around toward the square again we spotted a young man from the Branch. We rolled down the window and asked if he knew where the Sai-Baba bus station was. He told us it was, “Hapa” (that is here in swahili) and pointed to the square where we were headed. You know, the Lord really watches out for these missionaries. What are the odds of running into a member of the Branch that late in the evening in a town of 2 million people and 85 members of the church. Well, we found a place to park and walked back to the square. We asked where the bus would come in and people directed us to the ticket office. We asked if they had more than one bus and they said they did not and the bus should be arriving soon. We have learned that the terms “I am coming” and “soon” don’t mean much here. By now it was about 7:15 and getting dark. We do not like to be out after dark and especially in a strange place with all kinds of scary looking people like there are at a bus station. After about 20 minutes and still no bus we walked back to the truck and moved closer to the station so we could sit in the truck and wait. Finally about 8:20 the bus went past us on it’s way around to the other side of the square. It had no tail lights and very dim head lights. We think the only reason it made it at all is because there was a Missionary on board. But the Elder was on it and seemed in good spirits. We loaded up his suitcases and headed up to the Elder’s flat. We hate that road even in the daylight. But we survived and were happy to have the Elder here safe and sound. He is from Uganda.

The next day the highlight was that the Sister Missionaries taught Sister R. how to make Ugali.

Ugali is a big thing here in Africa. When we get home we want to cook it up for everyone to taste. We won’t ruin the anticipation by telling you what it tastes like, we will wait and watch your expression when you sample it.

The second Elder came in 2 days later. He was coming by shuttle from Nairobi and we knew for sure where he was coming in at. We met him at the Impala Hotel and took him up to get settled in. He is from Canada.

We finished the last passport application early in the month and got them sent off to Dar. So now we are just waiting for the actual passports to process and get back here to Arusha. Now that we are not going to the immigration office every day we almost feel lost with nothing to do.

We had a Branch baptism this month. Two young girls in the branch turned 8 some time ago and we have been trying to get the branch to plan a baptism for several months. It finally came together on Aug. 4th.

We had encouraged the fathers to do the baptizing but one father was out of town so the father of the older girl did both. They day of the baptism we arrived at the church early to check out all the details. When we checked the baptismal font (which is a big rubber water tank with the top cut off) we realized they had filled it all the way up. It would have been over the head of the younger girl.

This is Jeannine the younger of the 2 with her little sister.

This is Jenipha the older of the 2.

We think this might have been the first time this father had done a baptism. He had a hard time with the wording. Elder R. was asked to be one of the witnesses and he was no help to tell if the wording was correct. So poor Jeannine got dunked before the mistake was caught. By the time the father got it correct she was shivering like crazy. But she was a good sport and we know she felt the spirit of the baptism because the next day at Fast & Testimony meeting her father bore testimony and read something she had written about the event.

The next day during Fast & Testimony meeting Moses showed up.

He is the one we were involved with a lot in teaching. He works in Moshi (a town about an hour away) and has not been able to come to church since early January. We have really worried about him. Being a member only since late Aug. last year, we thought maybe he would loose his testimony with no contact with the church for that long. But he bore his testimony and later in the day he stopped by our apt. with a friend to visit. He is still strong in the Gospel and we are sure he will remain that way. It is so good to see what the Gospel can do for these people. And the Missionaries will be teaching his friend soon.

On Monday we celebrated Sister R’s birthday. 

The Missionaries had gone to the Snake Park that day, and had invited us to go, but we decided we had too much to do so we didn’t go with them. They came that evening and we had a great party.

The next highlight of the month was a visit from Elder & Sister Babcock. 

They serve up in Eldoret, North of Nairobi. One of their daughters came to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and they wanted to come here to pick her up and tour a few game parks. We took them to see the Snake Park and Maasai Museum. 

After we came out of the Maasai Museum Elder R. struck up a conversation with some tour guide school students about the Gospel. He and Elder Babcock spent about an hour talking to them.

On they way back to town we stopped at the Cultural Center and had lunch.

Babcocks stayed several days and picked up their daughter on Sunday. She also stayed with us on Sunday night. We had a great time visiting with them.

On Saturday we had planned a Pioneer Day Celebration with the Branch. Babcocks were a great help with that. We really had a good activity. Sister R. volunteered to chair the event and had planned all kinds of games, activities and food centered around the Pioneers.

We had games and singing for the Primary Children.

Sister R. taught the Young Women how to sew.

The men did the stick pull.

We did some dancing.

Ate some Pioneer food (African style).

Then we showed the video of “The Legacy”.
It turnout to be a really great day!

After that we went out to eat with Elder & Sister Babcock.

Closed out this half month sending one of our fine Elders home to the US. 

Elder Herr has been here only a month and a half but he has really learned the language well and has a great testimony. He is from Arizona and plans to attend BYU this fall. We will miss him but wish him the best.