What we are doing

Sundays are busy days for us. We have a ward council meeting at 9am. Church starts at 10 am (from 10-1) and I usually play at the piano for sacrament meeting—the first of the three meetings. Elder Fox spoke this Sunday. Sunday school (the second hour) was well taught with good discussion. (I think Tom was training someone at that time.) During Relief Society time (third hour), I took a few minutes to talk to the mothers about having their children go to the bathroom before Sacrament, and before going to Primary so they could sit quietly at those times, and also teaching them to respect the building by not throwing trash around or putting dirty fingerprints on the walls.

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We spoke to two people who know people who need wheelchairs. These typically are three wheeled bikes with the pedals on the handlebars. One man has 16 friends who need them. Another has several friends in need of such wheelchairs. LDS Charities provides wheelchairs, and so if they will go through the proper evaluations, they can get a wheelchair provided at no cost. We are assisting that process.

Then I went to Young Women’s class to talk about the seminary program. This home-school program helps youth learn more about the gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Its goal is to deepen their faith and help them to stay strong in an increasingly immoral world. This is a totally new program for them. So we explained how it worked, encouraged them to enroll, and answered questions. So we will see how it goes.

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After church, I met with the primary presidency and we talked about the organization of primary, the new sharing time program, the primary sacrament program. How to divide the 30 children who are attending so they are not all in the same class for 90 minutes, how to use their small budget wisely, how to teach those who don’t know English as they teach about the gospel, and so on. They are good women. Two of them have been part of the church for less than a year. They’ve never seen the primary program, but then they were called to be in charge of it. And they are doing amazingly well. They are learning the songs along with the children.

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Olga is one of these sisters. Tom took the computer to the group afterwards, and showed the videos from Olga’s school. I told her she had international recognition. I had a friend in Israel and some in the USA comment on the blog, so that’s international recognition!

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Tom had a meeting that took him until nearly 6 pm. So it was a long day.

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I begin to think we have the Garden of Eden here. Mangos grow on 4-5 trees, and the primary children have so enjoyed knocking them down and eating them. The older children will pick for the younger ones. They have been eating them green. Then they ripened, and at last they were done. Now, another tree has young guavas on it! And another two trees are pomegranate trees. And we just learned the big tree by the carport is an avocado tree. All this freely given from a loving Heavenly Father. We may not get many of them, but they delight the children! We got a trash can for them to throw the pits into. Now we see a drawback. You put fruit, water, heat together and WOW! Does it smell fermented! Hmmm. Not the ideal smell for a church grounds.

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Today a young man wandered in and we taught him a lesson. A sister came to visit and talk about microloans. We went to Manyatta Slums to teach at Brother D’s house. We visited with his wife and his neighbor Moses. We taught about the purpose of life- Why are we here on earth? What does God expect of us? Fred was also there and insisted we come back to his house for a meal of indigenous food: beans, maize, potatoes in a tasty sauce. I think Tom had 3 helpings! He has also developed soya powder that we used in place of cocoa in the hot milk. Then we took pictures of him and his goats for our goat friend. Speaking of hot, yesterday was 103 in the shade. Today is not so warm, but still, as we sit and visit with people, I can feel the sweat trickle down. So far, the deodorant’s still working!

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When we returned to the Church, Tom started the audit for the branch, I prepped for the Institute class, and then we taught Institute from 5-6:30. Our lesson was on the vision of the tree of Life. Came back had frijitas for dinner, and now are preparing to depart at 7am for Nairobi. I made flour tortillas yesterday. I tried making corn tortillas as well. Corn meal won’t work. Corn flour with soy doesn’t work well. I may have to have someone bring Masa Harina when they come. The poor flat pathetic rounds of corn stuff I created may or may not work for Mexican Chicken Casserole, but they definitely won’t work for real eating. Oh wait. We no one sells canned creamed soups. I wonder how a Knoxx dried soup would taste.

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Someone asked for the tortilla recipe. Here it is:

3 cups flour

6 tbsp butter

1cup warm water

1tsp baking pdr.

1 ½ tsp salt

Mix the dry ingredients. Melt the butter in the water. Pour liquids into the dry ingredients and stir. It should not be sticky (too much water) or crumbly (too little water), Separate into 12-16 balls depending on the size you want the tortillas. Let them rest for 10 minutes. Flatten and roll them out. I used a plaid dish towel to roll them out on. When I could see the plaid through them, they were thin enough. Cook in medium skillet, not oiled, just dry. The recipe says 15-25 seconds. I say, no way. It took several minutes on each side. You want to see it bubble and to get some browned spots on it. When you squeeze it with a grabber to flip it, you don’t want that spot to look doughy. Mine might be too thin or over cooked. But they were mighty tasty!