Cottage Meetings and Power

Elder Fox loves to take pictures of the animal crossings in the road. This was on the road from El Doret.

Also, while the roads are improving here, you can see why we are grateful to have a truck.Wednesday we went to Nyalenda to have a Cottage meeting. We had about 12 people there with 5or so investigators. The people are so nice; it’s always a joy to be with them. We spoke on obedience and tithing. The missionaries gave a lesson to some of the women afterwards.

When we got home Wednesday night, we had no power. It had actually gone off in the afternoon. We checked to see if the neighbors had power. They did… and the guards said someone had turned off our power. So Elder Clark called. Indeed, they had turned it off for non-payment of the bill. The Nairobi office is supposed to pay the bill. However the guard next door had given our guard a bill a few days ago. But due to the different way of writing the dates: 07/12/09—we thought it was an old bill from July. Especially since it had the landlord’s name on it. Alas, it was a Dec. 7^th bill. And it was now 6pm. Too late to do anything about it. So we had a candle light dinner of grill cheese sandwiches and carrot salad and played 5 Crowns till bedtime.

First thing, we needed to go to the power company, but first thing, Tom needed to talk to someone else… and get some receipts from someone else… and be back at the church to meet with the Branch President and someone else…. So at 10:30, when the missionaries were going out to do service, I asked if they could serve me and go and pay this bill. They did, plus the reconnect fee. They called about 11:30. In addition to the reconnect fee, we needed to pay another 4750 shillings (over $50) for deposit before they’d turn it back on. We checked with Nairobi. Could they pay it? Yes, but it would take a few days before Kisumu knew it was paid. So we went to the power company (learned where it was first.) and stood in line and paid the bill, then sat in line to have it reconnected. They promised it would be connected before the end of the day.

That afternoon we went to Manyatta to have a cottage meeting. This was the first time we’d been to Joyce’s house. She’s a widow who supports her family making charcoal balls out of charcoal dust and clay. She sells a basket full for 50 shillings. That will last a person about 3 days of fuel. There we had over 15 people, again, some not yet members. Some of the neighbors don’t speak much English, so it’s hard to know what they understood. We spoke on following the prophets and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Afterwards, Fred wanted to show us his house, so we walked a little bit to his house. We saw his goats which he wants to raise for milk. The problem is he needs a better grade of goat; the local ones hardly produce more than the kid will drink.

This is Fred and his daughter, friends and grandchildren.

Here is Elder Fox visiting with members with the goats in the background.

We took some pictures. When Elder Bywater showed the pictures to the little children, they all crowded around to see. Good thing the camera was on a string. Each wanted to grab it and look. Finally, this little 3 year old, pushed the other kids away and handed the camera back to Elder Bywater. It was so cute to see!

Elder Bywater is the only blond head in the group. These are two new converts-- teenagers. Don't they have great smiles?

***

We got home after 6pm. Still no power. We’d missed a call from the connect man. We called him back. Where do you live? I’ll come soon. I’m cooking hamburger stroganoff with the now-thawed hamburger meat by candlelight. I decide the sour cream has gone bad… and I’m having a really hard time counting my blessings and feeling happy about all this. Finally, after dark, after dinner is cooked and ready to eat, after about 6 phone calls about where we are located and Elder Fox standing out waiting for them-- they arrive, find the meter, and turn the power back on.

We find a flurry of emails similar (but not as bad) as the voice mails we got back in 1998 when we returned from the Temple: “Trailer #8 is on fire!” “Come quick! Your trailer’s on fire!!” “Hurry, we think it may start another trailer on fire!” “The fire department is here. It’s bad!” “They’re getting it under control.” “Well, come out when you can. The fire’s out.” Maybe it was a good thing we were out of contact. By the time we were back in contact, the 6-10 emails had gone from “AKK, tenant problem!” to “Okay, it’s pretty much resolved.”