A great Thanksgiving and Special Conference

November 18 - 25

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  One of my favorite memories as a child was waking up to the wonderful smells of turkey roasting in the oven and steam on the windows from the warmth within and the cold outside.  This Thanksgiving was no different in one respect, we have steam on our windows, but it’s from the wonderful air conditioning inside and the warmth outside.  Hard to believe, but it will be a memory I will keep with me.

This Thanksgiving we recognized the hand of the Lord in many small miracles that occurred even this week. 

On Tuesday we met with our Seminaries and Institute Coordinators (the best in the world) and told them of the many changes that are taking place in the PEF Program.  They were so supportive and wanted to call firesides immediately in their respective stakes to train the PEF students.  We’re going to a manual entry system of reporting the payments of our students which will be more work for me but less confusion with the bank.  We’ll stay with this system until we can clear up the discrepancies we have with many of our student’s accounts.  I took poppy seed bread (cake) and water to sweeten them up, but we found out they were already sweet.  They expressed their support, wondering why we hadn’t gone to this type of system sooner.  One of our more dignified coordinators even expressed his love for us.  I was totally taken off guard and had to keep back a few tears that probably came out in my closing prayer.

After work that evening (close to 5:00 p.m.) we stopped at Mansour’s (where we get our hair cut) to see if we could get an appointment.  The phone number he had on his card was not working.  He not only corrected the number, but told us he had time to cut our hair right then.  Within ½ hour he had cut Hal’s hair and I had a wash and a cut.  He reminded me of Edward Scissorhands.  His scissors were just flying and he’s a master at his art.  He’s Lebonese, speaks French and very little English, but we seem to manage just fine.

Wednesday was busy and we were excited to get home and start preparations for Thanksgiving dinner, but on the way home, a motorcycle police office decided he wanted to have a little fun and pulled us over.  We’re not sure why.  After 15 to 20 minutes of frustration for him because we had called Pres. Thierry at the Mission Home and he was on his way to rescue us, our fine man in blue decided to let us go with a warning that our time would come and he would be watching for us.  It truly was a miracle he let us go.  We count it as a blessing and pray that we will be invisible next time he’s around.

Thursday we went to President and Sister Jameson’s for dinner at 2:00.  Sister Jameson had been working so hard and power had gone out so her attention was dieverted from water she left running and they ended up with a flooded kitchen.  They took it in stride and didn't let it spoil the occasion.

All couples furnished a couple of dishes.  We lacked very little!

 Sister Jameson roasted 7 or 8 whole chickens, giving each of the couples ½ and then sending us home with ½ so we could enjoy leftovers

 President Jameson is a gracious host pouring our water and making sure we had all we wanted.

 We even had pumpkin pie (thanks to Elder and Sister Frandsen who had come from Heber City to assist with the Water Project the Moons (our Humanitarian couple) are working on. 

 We had apple pie and coconut cream pie. All of these are rarities in the Congo.

They are so good to us. We enjoyed getting together and sharing stories and memories of past Thanksgivings and Christmas traditions. It was a great day!

 

Another fun event, on Thursday morning we decided to go with Elder and Sister Smith to Hasson and Freres, a store that’s reported to be as close to Walmart as we’ll get here in Kinshasa.  It’s owned by 2 Jewish brothers and we generally have a hard time going because they close on Friday at 3:00 p.m. through Saturday to honor their Sabbath.  Saturday is generally the day we shop for groceries.  It was a fun experience to see what they have.  As in all stores, everything is very expensive (in fact Kinshasa is reportedly one of the three most expensive cities to live in in the world), but it was fun to see what they have.  They are one of the few stores that sells ham.  Surprising because of their Jewish owners, but we also found out that you pay at the separate departments within the store.  You pay for your dairy products in the dairy department and you pay for your meat in the meat department so maybe the meat is owned by someone else.   

Today, Sunday, we just returned from the special conference presided over by Elder Soares, Area President, to create a new stake, the Binza Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake.  We are so blessed to be here as the church continues to grow.  Because three stakes were meeting together, we were at the church 2 hours early to get a good seat.  We could feel the power of the occasion from the moment we drove up.  Everyone was so happy despite the heavy rains during the night.  We could see that they had prepared every available space with projectors and screens so everyone would be able to see.  They even had chairs in the big room and in the long hallway of the S&I building. 

 They had a big tent and chairs on the basketball court outside.  We asked if it was going to rain and was assured it would not even though it looked threatening.  We have found that members here have much greater faith than we have because it did not rain.

.  Members greeted us with such enthusiasm and shook our hands.  The choir started singing just before 9 am.  Elder Soares and Elder Mabaya, our Area 70, came in just before 10 am.

 

Attending this special conference fortified our testimony of revelation and the power of the Priesthood in growing the kingdom God throughout the world.  Russel Mbaya was called as the stake president of the new stake and Didier Mutombo was called as 2^nd counselor.  We have mentioned that Russel is the Area Director of the Employment Resource Center and Didier is the Executive Secretary for Elder Kyungu, Area 70.  We work very closely with both of them.  We didn’t know the other counselor nor the new stake presidency for the Mont Ngafula stake.  The testimonies of the newly called leaders and the messages given by Elders Soares and Elder Mabaya were so good.  There is no doubt that the Lord prepares whom He calls, and there is no doubt that there is strength and experience in those directing the growth of the church here in DRC.

This is a family that sat just in front of us.  We had a little room on our bench so two of the girls sat with us.  What a special opportunity.

 After the conference,everyone goes outside but it seems that no one wants to leave.  Everyone is happy to be together and enjoy everyones friendship.  

 

We’ll keep this short, but we want you to know how much we love you and appreciate your prayers.  We feel them.