So you THINK you know what’s going on?

So many times in this mission we’ve been faced with an uncertain situation. “Come to my house.” Where? What is expected of us? What will happen there? Sometimes it’s a phone conversation where you don’t exactly hear what’s going on and you agree. Again… a bit of uncertainty. Sometimes, even when you feel pretty confident you know what’s going on and what’s expected… it turns out you don’t.

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It used to stress me out. But the Lord promises help. And he has.

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“For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.” (Doctrine and Covenants Section 100:6) “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” (Doctrine and Covenants Section 84:85)

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I can’t think of a time on our mission, when, after a moment or two, we didn’t figure out what to say or what to do. The Spirit guided us. We’ve been so blessed! These words of the Savior are true!

It’s Not Just Black and White

I love the skin color of the African people. It’s a beautiful, glowing brown from the color of dusk to mahogany to a shady beach. It makes the smiles brighter and the eyes more alive. It has this wrinkle free texture that makes people look the same age from 16 to 45.

I have pondered the scriptures, knowing that the Lord made us all and loves us all. I am reminded that to the Lord all things are spiritual. So when he talks of sinners who become “a dark and lothesome people”, he is not talking of the physical appearance, but of the spiritual appearance. In the same way, when people become “white and delightsome”, I believe it is a spiritual change, not necessarily a physical one.

I went out one morning and saw these leaves on the Mango tree. The leaves are actually the same dark green color. What makes the difference? The light shining through them. I think the dark leaves are the natural man. And the illuminated leaves are what happen when we let the light of Christ shine in our lives.

In people of all colors I have seen the gospel shine in their lives making them “delightsome.” And I have seen the Spirit of the Lord depart from them making them indeed look unhappy and angry-- “dark and lothesome”—regardless of the color of their skin.

Crazy Busy!

We have been crazy busy this week. A quick recap. Monday—Who knows. I went fast with laundry, prep for the Seminary activity, and visiting with Pres O, visiting some sisters and trying to set up a sister in a business.

For the seminary activity we invited students from Busia and from Sondu-Nyabondo. On Saturday we learned that the branches were supposed to pay for the transport. AGG. So we had to call the branch presidents and cajole them into spending their precious budget on that. Our theme was “The Armor of God” Earlier we’d made Shields of faith, Helmets of Salvation, Swords of the Sprit, loins girt about with truth, breastplate of Righteousness, and footies of paper for feet shod with the gospel of peace. Monday E. Fox lay on some cardboard and we traced a warrior and made all these parts for him. And we made signs explaining some of these things.

We continued Tuesday refining the program. We started with scripture mastery, and then had a speaker. Then the video of the Armor of God. Then we planned for them to break into groups and do skits. They were like: You go to boarding school and are busy and don’t have time to read the scriptures. How can the armor of God help you? Or you find a wallet and need money for school fees, how can the armor of God help you? Then we had lunch of sandwiches, bananas, and soda. After came games: About 15 min each: volleyball, “How do you love your neighbor?” and learning the Hokey Pokey, the Chicken Dance, and the Bunny Hop. Lastly we scheduled photos and a testimony meeting. So we worked on who would do what. While we were supposed to have someone else do institute… they called and E. Fox ended up teaching it.

We needed to pack and leave early Wednesday AM. We had a circuitous route. We went to see Bro. H. who has not been to church in months, then Ericah. Then we went to the hospital at Mbale to drop off training material for the neonatal training. Finally we visited Jane in Kakamega—an investigator. We had the missionaries with us to visit with all these people as well. We continued on to Kitale to visit with the Beechers. We got there about 6pm. We ate quickly and then the missionaries came over for their weekly night with the Beechers. They’d planned a video. Er. Power went out. So they had some games.

Thursday the Beechers and we went to Mt. Elgon. It was a lovely drive! Very relaxing and peaceful. We saw Columbus Monkeys and other monkeys and baboons. We saw waterbucks and impala.

I loved the peaceful landscape. We saw a great cave and a poacher… who did in an impala as we watched… from a distance. E Fox and Beecher went to check and found some snares and actually photographed the poacher and turned him in.

In the afternoon we drove to Eldoret and visited with Pres. Kogo and then went to dinner with Pres and Sis. B and the E/S Scott from S. Africa. We spent the night at the Noble. It is a new conference center with lodging and quite nice.

Friday was zone conference. As usually it was fantastic. One quote: “Talking doesn’t cook the rice.” The missionary was speaking about how when you come in in the evening you may talk and talk about whose cooking dinner…. But it doesn’t get the job done. We had a great talk on symptoms of stress and how to reduce stress. We also learned about the importance of attitude (see 1 Nephi 17: 1-3, 21-22 to see same situation, different attitudes.) and about how to become converted missionaries.

After zone conference and lunch, we visited with Pres. Kogo while we waited for E. Beecher to give two patriarchal blessings. It’s awesome that we now have someone approved to give patriarchal blessings to those going on missions. Then they visited with Pres. K. I thought no problem. We have time to get home. Then we forgot E Fox’s suit coat and had to go back. Then there was this AWESOME rainstorm with hail and thunder and water so thick you could hardly see. And I began to think I misjudged the time to leave. We did get home after dark. Ugh. The Beechers were faithful and followed us all the way. We finalized plans for Saturday’s activity and crashed.

Saturday we were up really early to do the final set up and get things organized. We needed to buy the food for the lunch before people started arriving. We really had no idea how many people were coming, in spite of asking for numbers. We thought maybe 45 total. We actually had 45 youth plus about 11 legitimate leaders and maybe half a dozen others who showed up. The youth had a great time.

They really enjoyed all the activities! Power came on in time to see the video about the Armor of God. Then they did skits.

It was fun to see them have fun. They had some of the scriptures memorized and a number of the non-members who were enrolled in some of the outlying seminaries had a great grasp of the scriptures. We had some good strong testimonies from the youth. They played volleyball.

They played "How do you love your neighbor."

The Beechers taught the dances, led two of the skit groups, helped with music and were just invaluable! I think they kept us sane that day.

Here is our happy group.

After the activity we were really bushed… although there was a high from a job well done… and a job being over (well done or not.) However, there was a farewell for us later that evening so we went to that. It was heart-warming to hear the kind remarks of the members. They will really miss us. And we will miss them. They are remarkable people. Again we got home after dark. We had to stop and buy more bread as we’d used up all our bread for the extra people at the activity.

Today we had more fond farewells. The Beechers did such a lovely job of sharing the gospel here. They bore their testimonies and gave such perfect comments. In Branch counsel they were right on in their comments. It’s so great to have another witness of how things should go. Branch counsel ran the best I’ve seen it. The branch is moving forward in a good direction. After church we helped people with family group sheets to send to the temple and visited to make final arrangements with those going in April and to keep those going in August on track. Sundays are tiring because often we don’t eat or drink from 8:30 to about 3 or 4. And then tonight, there was a problem with a leaky sink that had to be fixed as water was running over the floor. And the pipe on our shower has moved from a spiffy 90 degrees from the wall to a sagging 45 degrees and continuing south. It will have to be fixed before we leave. We can’t have a new couple arrive to that.

So we are finished with the last major project before we leave. Still have things in the area book to do… and packing… and some updating of branch lists… and visiting… and….the internet is down again and we are back to the wireless modem... and...

Good night. It’s too late to think of these things today.

Grudges

There is a person in the branch who has not been honest in his dealings. The person has been hurtfully revengeful to some of my favorite people and may be casual about keeping sacred covenants. I really had a hard time with this person. When they would stand to pray or teach I would feel resentful—judging them as unworthy to perform those things. I would think: The handbook says....

I had been praying for greater love, greater trust in God and more joy. One day I realized all my feelings—as modest or intense as they were—had absolutely no bearing on that person’s salvation. The person’s salvation was between them and the Lord. My feelings had no influence at all on their judgment. BUT it had EVERYTHING to do with MY salvation.

And you know what? I was blessed to let it go. And I did have more joy as those resentful feeling were gone. And I could laugh at the Lord’s joke on me as the next few Sundays this person both gave prayers and taught lessons!

Good Bye Busia

This last Sunday was our last chance to go and visit the saints in Busia. It was a bitter-sweet day. The branch is growing. (picture of a baptism earlier in the year.) There were about 60 people there. They are godly people trying to do what is right. We enjoyed the testimony meeting. Elder Fox taught the Elders Quorum and I taught Relief Society. The sisters participated and seemed to grasp the gospel principles. Those who have attended the temple have deepened their faith and are leading the branch. They are starting a new Temple Preparation Class so others can ready themselves to go to the temple. (One member brings all his family in this pickup.) After the regular block of meetings, they met to wish us farewell. Oh. They were so grateful for all we had done. They reminded us of how small they were when we first came and how they struggled. They told how we’d uplifted them and taught them and blessed their lives. They only imagined and dreamed of going to the temple… and now they’ve done it. Some spoke of the struggle to go on a mission, of almost giving up, but through our encouragement, they made it. . Two are going, and two more are working to go—knowing it IS possible. This is Glory whose going to the NY, NY South mission. And Robinson (in the vest) with other current and future missionaries. President Odero recommended families name babies after us—and introduced Tom Freeman Imende, named after Elder and Sister Freeman who served about 12 years ago in Nairobi and blessed their lives when they were new converts. They sang: God be With You ‘Til We Meet Again. (This is Pres Odero and his family and Pres and Sis. Broadbent.) It was rewarding. As we drove to Busia, we were looking at all the things we were leaving unfinished and still struggling. And we wondered…. Have we really done much since we’ve been here? So it was nice to hear we’d made a difference. ***(pretend the astrisks are paragraph breaks. For some reason blogger won't let me put in paragraphs today.) - It was also important for us to remember this was really gratitude to the Lord. One said, “you were heaven-sent to bless us.” That is really where the praise and gratitude should go. We were just His messengers sent to act as He would act… which we did MUCH less perfectly than He would have. But we’ve learned and grown. We, too, have gained love, faith, trust in God, understanding of gospel and administrative principles, and maybe even some patience. ***(pg) - Still, it was very nice to have so many people say “Thank You!”

T.I.A.

My friend Lorraine introduced me to this term. It means This Is Africa… which means don’t expect things to go as you think they will. Yesterday was a TIA day. Fabulous… but not as I had planned. _ We were to take our last visit to the Nyabondo saints who live about 50 km south of us. Dennis and Bethsada had invited us to their house… for what? A bit unclear. Kenneth and his family makes bricks. We’d often driven by brick making operations, so I asked if we could spend just a little time seeing how bricks are made. Sure he said, it will take 10 minutes. Then we planned on teaching a short teacher training lesson for the seminary and institute teacher and then a little longer lesson on Doctrine and Covenants 50 to both show the teachers teaching methods and enlighten all the others who would be there. Our time frame: Leave at 10. Arrive shortly after 11 at Dennis’ house. Leave at one. Do bricks and stuff until 2. Teach until 3, be home about 4:30. We left a little late. Orange was reconnecting the phone line outside our gate. HURRAY!!! INTERNET!!!! It had poured rain the night before. Normally I have some concerns about going on the dirt roads when it's rained a lot, but I trusted they would have dried out, and they had. And we arrived at Dennis and Bethsada’s house about 11:20. We visited with Dennis as Bethsada cooked. And we had quiet, contemplative time while we waited. Sitting and doing nothing is not easy for me. Fortunately we had scriptures and could read. We ate lunch of rice, meat stew, cabbage, avocados, pineapple and bananas. We spent some time visiting with several girls from a nearby school. They are starting to take seminary classes with Bro. Dennis during the week. Sweet girls. A little before 1:30 we drove to Kenneth’s house—where the gathering would be. Here's a photo of Dennis, his wife, and several of the students.

We picked up Kenneth and drove to the brick making place. But first we stopped in front of the primary school to admire their stand of trees. Then we walked past other new tree plantings the saints in Nyabondo are doing for a community project and went to the secondary school. This area tends to be boggy in wet weather. When they plant blue gum trees, they draw the moisture from the soil and keep it dryer. Ingenious. We visited the secondary school principal and talked with him about Kenya and America and how lovely his school was. Then we walked by where people were building with bricks and mud mortar. We saw where the brick mud was stomped and then pulled from the top soil. We saw the fired bricks and the “kiln” made of the mud bricks to be fired. 3500 bricks make the kiln with a space for two holes for fire to be built.

Then the whole thing is mudded over to keep the heat and smoke in. The smoke eventually exits through small holes in the sides and top that it finds, but a well built fire will last for 3 days—enough to bake the bricks. We returned to Kenneth’s and he had us plant a tree so he could remember us.

The Women gave a demonstration on how the walls of mud homes are sealed with a mixture of dirt and cow dung.

And we also saw a demonstration of the brick making.

Leonard was fast, efficient, and turned out perfect looking bricks. Here he is pressing out the finished brick.

Then we had the father of the clan, Stephen, take us on a tour of the shamba. It is large and well cared for. By now, it’s about 3pm.

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We began our meeting after the opening song and prayer. I love the singing here! Rich, beautiful voices with their melodic harmonizing! I will miss that! First, the Seminary gave a lesson. (Last time we’d asked both seminary and Institute if we could come and watch their lessons. I guess it set a pattern.) One of the youth gave a fine lesson on Keeping the Sabbath Day holy—from the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). Then the Institute teacher gave a great lesson on Missionary work. I loved how both of them took us repeatedly into the scriptures to find answers. They invited discussion and class participation. Then it was my turn for the lesson on how to discern the spirit of the Lord from other spirit from D&C 5. Then Elder Fox taught about keeping the doctrine pure by teaching from the scriptures and the church publications. By now it’s close to 5 pm. Closing song and prayer and we’re done… right? No.

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Now we get to hear a word of thanks from Elder and Sister Fox and then from the patriarch of the family, Stephen. Stephen’s talk was so sweet. He spoke of the day we first came to his home and went out to the brick field to meet him. He told we introduced the Book of Mormon and he could not understand it. Then we came a second time and talked about the Plan of Salvation. He went through the plan in detail—from our pre-earth life, to the creation and the fall of man, to our life on earth, the atonement of the Savior, death, spirit world, resurrection, final judgment and degrees of glory one can inherit. This additional knowledge made such an impression on him that he converted and has spent the last year seeking more knowledge and guidance. He said, “We wanted to rush things, but that does not lead to good results. We need to be patient and wait and in the Lord’s time things will come about.” This was so sweet as that is what we’ve been telling them, and to hear it repeated back meant they understood it.

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Then we went outside and took pictures . This is Stephen's wife, children, and grandees.

And all the attendees at the meeting.

Then the Seminary group and other groups gave us gifts. Avocados and baskets from the women. Bananas from Stephen (they are all wrapped up. Doesn't it look like a large cocoon?)

We got banana leaf purses and a soapstone dish. Elder Fox has a banana leaf belt hanging around his neck here. This is Kenneth giving the dish.

It was so moving. They were giving us from their heart and their limited resources. We also got a book with thank-you’s written in from many of the members and investigators. We took a picture of all our gifts when we returned home. We are so touched.

Then we went back to the compound so Kenneth could show us the kitchen where food was prepared. Then into the home to visit and eat. We talked about grain storage methods we’d learned and about drying foods like onions, tomatoes, mangoes, etc so that they could preserve them against the lean times. Often they grow them, sell them when there is a glut, and then go hungry with little between seasons. They were very interested in the idea of drying foods to preserve them.

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As we were finished and ready to go, Zedok spoke. He talked about how he’d been in the hospital in February of last year and met Stephen, a member from Kisumu who was in the next bed over. He was so impressed with the people who came to visit him and their reverent manner, that he asked and Stephen gave him a church magazine. He studied it, learned of Kenneth’s group of people and came and learned more. He talked about how his life changed. He stopped smoking and drinking and saved 2,400 shillings a month. He now had money to send his boys to school. He said he was “the man” and never sat with his family, had no relationship with his children and they feared him. But he repented and now the family sits at meals together and discusses and reads scriptures. He is friends with his boys and they talk to him about things. He is so grateful for the changes. His health is better. Since that time he has not gone back to smoking or whiskey. When he has a desire, he prays. I was touched anew about how the gospel really does change lives in so many ways. Not just the person converted, but those around them feel the influence.

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There was such a sweet spirit, it was hard to leave. At 6:30 we got into the truck. It got dark at 7pm and the phrase: “play now, pay later” came to mind. We drove slower than normal and ended up home after 8pm. There was much rumbling and lightening along the way, but no rain. Good thing. Our laundry was still on the line from the morning. After all, we expected to be home in plenty of time to bring it in.

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It was an exhilarating, exhausting day and in every way typified the saying: TIA.

Four Projects, Four Days.

We have been focusing on several things as our days wind down. We have three things to do with our departure:

1. clean up, sort, organize.

2. pack

3. complete the turnover packet for our followers—the couple who follows us.

We have several activities yet with our missionary work:

1. visit people one last time.

2. regular training and teaching

3. prepare for the seminary activity.

We have been poking at each one all week.

Monday we worked hard to get the last of the “armor of God” prepared. E. Fox had cut out the Shield of faith, the breastplates of righteousness, and the swords of the spirit. I was having a hard time figuring out how to make the shoes of the Gospel of peace or the helmet of salvation. I finally took light cardboard and shaped a shoe top. Sister B. came up with a brilliant helmet of salvation—small dust bins covered with aluminum foil. They had strips of plastic for the sides, so part of the strips she just covered the strips making a grillwork for the face part. Monday we bought fabric for the “loins girt about with truth.” And we got fabric and cut it for arm bands for the different groups—yellow, blue, green. (no symbolism to the colors… just ones that looked nice.) They are now labeled and prepared to go. We got the Armor of God video clip and the speakers lined up. E. Fox is still working on the scripture mastery activity. We think we’ve decided on a lunch menu.

On Monday we took one of the young elders to the Woolen mill to check out suit material and to the tailors. E. fox finally dropped off his last fabric to have made into pants. The last one got a hole in it as the tailor was ironing it and one of the charcoal pieces dropped onto the finished pants. I got some crochet hooks for making necklaces.

In the afternoon we had a chance to visit with the branch president. He expressed gratitude for our service. He said, you’ve been my parents—encouraging and correcting as needed. And sometimes I’ve acted like the child. But I really appreciate you and I’ve grown a great deal. He is a good man. The branch is moving forward. The leadership is becoming aware of those not attending and focus is turning to them.

Tuesday my goal was to stay home and get stuff done on the turnover packet. I introduced each of the Kisumu members and identified relationships. I also started on the phone contact list. We have people in the phone like Elizabeth, Morrice, Electric Isaiah, Didikis, and so on. I thought it might be helpful to know who they were. Actually, if I would just put the last names into the phone so they could be cross referenced with the branch list that would help on some. In the evening we taught our last institute class. We have really enjoyed that. I think those in the class will see that it continues.

Wednesday we wandered through the house getting rid of stuff and organizing it. We have a file cabinet we’ve gone through about 3 times now. Each time we find things to take, things to toss, and things to leave. I think we’re done with it now. Part of the problem was Tom organized according to his thoughts, then I’d organize according to mine… then together. I made a list of things we’ve purchased since we came to Kenya for customs.

Wednesday evening we went to Elizabeth and Isaac’s house for a cottage meeting. I forget how far back into Nyalenda it is. We took boda-bodas to Solwe stage. Got there a little late, didn’t bring the right video we’d promised, and waited for more to show up. But still, it was good. The video was the Book of Mormon Stories instead of the John Tanner Story. So we watched “How we got the Book of Mormon” and several other chapters while we waited. Then E. Fox did a masterful job building on the things taught on that video. By the time we were done it was pretty dark. They walked us back to the stage stop, and we decided to take a piki-piki home. It’s a motorcycle… and they have headlights. It was a first time for us. Kinda fun. And we arrived safe. And it wasn’t much more than a boda boda for two.

Thursday Glory came to get her immunizations and we then sat with her and went over her missionary packet and talked about the USA. She’s going to the New York, NY south mission which includes Bermuda Island interestingly enough. We picked her up and took her to the Public Health place a little after ten. I thought, by noon we’d be done… Sigh. TIA. We returned her to the stage to return to Busia closer to 3. I got my last haircut here. Then we went to pick up the missionaries to go and visit Joan and George. Again, we parked the truck and walked back in a ways. Joan had not been present at church for over 2 months. I think she was a lost sheep. She’d wandered from church, but still was reading the Book of Mormon. E. Fox had her read the parable in Luke 15 about the lost sheep and the joy that was felt upon its return. In the evening we packed a suitcase of things we won’t need until we get home. Then we couldn’t find the scale—BAH!—to know if it is under 50 lbs. or not.

Today we will go to Sondu or the Nyabondo saints for the last time. We will visit a home where we’d been invited numerous times… but not gone. We will teach a lesson and do a little Seminary and Institute teacher training. We will also visit their brick making operation.

So, I suppose there are more than 4 projects. And technically more than 4 days. But mid next week we go to north and return just in time for the Seminary Activity. Then we clean and pack and head to Nairobi for exit interview and farewell.

All these activities have been made more interesting by lack of high speed internet and occasionally by lack of power. We've been having AWESOME thunderstorms. They tumble in with booms and crashes. Sometimes the rumblings seem non-stop. Alas, frequently then the power does stop-- anywhere from an hour or so up to half a day. If it stops at night, it will eventually come back on, but often stops again the next day-- presumably when they do a more secure fix. On the good side, we've had plenty of water!