New President and Eldoret

On Tuesday President and Sister B—the new mission president and his wife—came to visit us in Kisumu. We were blessed to have them stay with us and we so enjoyed them! Our mission will grow and continue to be a fantastic place with their leadership. They came in time to sit in on our Institute class. They even brought Tom an early birthday cake.

On Wednesday he had some meetings and we did a little tour of the town. We had bragged about our fast internet, but alas, pride goeth before a fall—and the phone line, and thus the internet went out in the afternoon! Boo hoo! We couldn’t wait for the phone people, we had a cottage meeting in Nyalenda at 4 with some of our favorite people: Marcelus and Willikistar. They had about 14 people there, mostly friends and neighbors and we had a good lesson. They insisted on feeding us a delicious dinner. They are so gracious! It was a little bit of a tight schedule as Pres B. was supposed to do an interview at 6pm. We were on African time and it was closer to 6:30 before they connected. Sister B and I got dropped off at our house to visit.

Thursday morning we celebrated Tom’s BD with omelets and singing and our few gifts. We waited for the phone people and got our internet back up before 10am. Hurray! Then we walked to the Gloria market and Tom got a longer computer line so we can have 1 modem and computer in office and living room. We had fun wandering through the market and I got a few vegetables.We left at 2 to drive to Eldoret for Zone conference.

We planned on staying at the Sr. Missionaries house that now had 2 sets of elders there. We had learned that one was staying in the master bedroom with bath that had been secured and reserved for couples, and asked them to vacate for us. We got there, and they were still firmly ensconced in the room. I had hoped to rest a bit after arriving, but couldn’t. We had set up this bedroom with things we’d need last time—TP, soap, we’d had it cleaned, and now it was less than clean and used. I’m afraid I felt my refuge had been violated and for some reason felt a bit fragile about it. While I’m comfortable around many missionaries in suits, when they are in casual clothing it seems more like a college dorm, so I usually give them their freedom and stay mostly in the bedroom. But I could not. So we braved the traffic going to Nakumatt and out to dinner and in the end we got it straightened out. I felt better after the place was cleaner and Tom fixed the toilet so it worked again.

It’s cold in Eldoret. Tom would call it pleasant. I consider it “dang cold.” I’m not saying I got chilblains but I will say my sweater was on all day and leggings would have been comfortable.But the spirit was warm! We had a great zone conference! The missionaries are fantastic. They are hard working, insightful, spiritual, and trying to improve. I think we have about 35 missionaries in the two zones that meet here for conference so there is an outpouring of the spirit. One branch president said, “Don’t the grounds of the church look lovely today? They are flowered with missionaries.” Pres and Sis. B did a great job teaching as did the others. It was a rich day.

This is our zone. Fine looking missionaries, no?

In the afternoon we met with the public affairs missionaries to learn more about the purpose and ways of doing publicity for Kisumu and Busia. We dined both Thurs and Fri at Mama Mias. Burp.I’m hoping the cold used up more calories to account for the rich chocolate mousse we had for dessert.

Saturday we left about 8:30 to head back to Kisumu to laundry and the dozens of phone calls. I have been working on quilts and Sunday they announced the class that will be teaching quilt making. They are simple strip quilting but are fun. I bought a bag of scraps for about $2.60 and should be able to make many small quilts from it. This is the first quilt I made.

We got the Duty to God award book for Young Men and the instruction DVD. I’m so excited about it. Our Young Men’s program can benefit from direction. That is perhaps our next area of focus. We have fine young men, but little training.

Power went out about 8am this morning, so I can’t send this until it comes back on. (Came on about 4.) Also, I'm using higher resolutions pictures. Let me know if your computer has a problem loading them. Also, another new post follows.