A great time to be in the DR Congo

October 26 – November 4, 2012

 

October 29-November 4, 2012

We want to take just a minute and share a few photos that we didn't have last week as we talked about the visit of Elder Holland and the different meetings that were held.  We talked to Elder and Sister Moon who attended a meeting in a different stake that the one we attended.  They said there are 4,100 members in that stake and there were 3,900 in attendance at the Sunday meeting, and that was not the meeting attended by Elder Holland.  Can you believe what happens here in DR Congo.

This is Elder and Sister Moon, Elder and Sister Smith (on left), and us with a member couple.

Laraine told about the Women's Conference that impacted her so greatly.

This is a photo of Martha and Anna, children of Eduardo and Nilsa.  They came from England.  Eduardo is from Spain and Nilsa is from Portugal.  He came to work in finance at Temporal Affairs.  The two girls attend an international school.

 

I also wanted to add a couple of pictures showing both the Elders and Sisters at our missionary conferenced.

We mentioned how well the church grounds were manicured and prepared for Elder Holland's visit but we didn't show a photo.  This just gives a small idea of all the work the went into preparing for his visit.

 

Every week is different, but every week is a lot the same.  We continue to stay very busy and in most cases more than a little stressed.  There is so much to do, and nothing is easy.  But we are sure happy to be here and count our blessings that we have been called to serve in such a special place where so much as it relates to the Church is happening right now.

This week we had more students than normal come in to have interviews and get funding of loans.  It seems that every time a series of the Planning for Success workshops are completed, we experience a rush of students, and Bishop Mavinga  just finished his Planning for workshops.  The students need to get tuition and fees paid so they can start their classes.  However, it seems that they always wait till the last minute to come in and ask for funding of their loans.   Since we have to forward all the paperwork to South Africa to get approval to make any payments, it takes at least a week to ten days.   Even though they are told to give us plenty of time, we always have issues to work through, and in some cases, they miss the first few days of class because there is nothing we can do

Thursday, we picked up some receipts from finance that students have to have so they can prove the schools have been paid  so they can start with their classes.  We also picked up some checks that needed to be cashed so that we can go and pay some schools directly, something only done in the Congo.  Therefore, we knew that I would need to make one of those dreaded trips to the bank on Friday for cashing checks. 

We needed to go to a beautician school with one of our students to pay tuition and materials even before going to the bank.  That proved to be an interesting experience.  We went in and asked a man in the office how much we needed to pay.  He started to tell us and gave us some figures, but then directed us to visit with someone higher up.  I don’t know their positions.  This next man went on to tell us that the prices had increased and that we would have to pay more.  He went on trying to justify the increased costs.  We had to explain to him that our program is not a program where the church is paying but a program where the student is given a loan allowing them to repay over time.  I explained that the student had to research each school and the costs and make application for the loan and that this student had been approved for $915 and that was all the money we had.  I even turned to the student and asked if there was a different school that would be less expensive.  The man quickly jumped in and tried to explain their fees versus this other school.  There was a lot of discussion, but when it became obvious that we didn’t have the $1,300 that he was asking and that we were going to leave, he started backtracking and made some concessions explaining what he could do for the $915.  We still had to ask the student if she was comfortable with what he was saying.  We could tell she really wanted to attend this school which is a little more expensive that the other so we paid the $915 and she signed the registration papers.  It let me know why I typically don’t go to the school to make payments because I fear that when they see white skin and hear church, they see money and will possibly try to charge more.

After going to the school, we went to the bank to cash the checks.  It took me 2 ½ hours just to cash checks.  I don’t think they know what customer service is here, and when you add in traffic and parking problems, maybe you can see why I don’t enjoy going.  After cashing the checks, we had one more stop to make.  I needed to go with our volunteer to buy his books for starting school next week.  I could tell he was excited about this so even though it was late, we went.  It too was a very different experience from buying books at BYU bookstore but good to get acquainted with.  By this time, Laraine was starting to worry that the police had stopped us and taken us to jail but we finally got back to the office just before 5:00.  By then both of us were tired, and we just wanted to go home.

Another great experience this week was that President and Sister Jameson invited the couples to their apartment to share some of their experiences with Elder Holland.  They shared some of the special experiences and feelings they had with him while here in Kinshasa, but mostly they shared concerning the opportunity they had to be with an apostle of the Lord as a new country, The Central African Republic, is dedicated to the preaching of the restored gospel.  President and Sister Jamison had done some of the groundwork to allow them to fly to Bangui in the Central African Republic, meet with members of the church there, and then go up to a point overlooking the city and country and dedicate that country to preaching the gospel and open it to missionary work.  We were told that things started just a couple of years ago with 7 members meeting together in homes on their own.  Without missionaries, the church has grown to two branches and 70 members. 

He told of a counselor in the branch presidency who lived across the river in DR Congo but far from the church except in Bangui.  Every Sunday, he would paddle a small dugout canoe with his young family across the river, attend church and then paddle back.  We can only imagine how difficult that would be.  With his family, he decided that the church was more important than his home and the security of his job.  He moved his family across the river without a job knowing that the Lord would bless them.  He was able to find good a job even though not as good as the one he left, and he and his family are serving and growing the church in Bangui. 

He told of the branch president who had a stroke while conducting a meeting.  He was taken to the hospital and eventually to a hospital in France.  He continues to serve and do a great work even though he still doesn’t have complete use of one side.  He is a lawyer and even practiced law in Washington D.C., but wanted to go home and has done much to help open the country. 

President Jameson told of another leader who recently lost a child and has had difficulty in coming to grips with the loss.  He said Elder Holland knew nothing of it, but in the dedicatory prayer mentioned that the angels of those who had passed on were there celebrating this grand occasion.  Hearing those words has helped this leader reconcile his sorrow and loss. 

President and Sister Jameson expressed how grateful they are for the opportunities that have been theirs while serving in Africa.  They were originally called to serve in Lubumbashi on the other side of DR Congo.  When they arrived, they were set apart a second time and given keys,  I don't know what to say he was set apart as except as an assistant mission president to watch over that part the mission.  They said they prayed that the mission could be divided and a Lubumbashi Mission be created.  I don’t know the timing, but the mission was divided and they were called to be over the Kinshasa Mission not the Lubumbashi Mission.  While there, they prayed that the country of Burundi could be opened for missionary work, and they saw that happen the last time Elder Holland was here.  Now in the Kinshasa Mission, they have been praying that the Central African Republic and Gabon could be opened to missionary work.  We told you in a previous email that they came back from Gabon after meeting with country leaders with the church being given legal status, but it has not been dedicated yet.  He said the next step is to get a branch organized.  He also explained something that we didn’t even think about.  He said to organize a ward, you have to go through the meets and bounds process of approvals from the church, but a branch falls under the responsibility of the mission and can happen quicker and easier.  I still don’t know just what that means, but it appears that he wants to get it done.  Can you imagine the tremendous experience of having just one of those things happening in your life, and President and Sister Jameson have had two countries dedicated to missionary work during their time here.  And we are blessed to be here at such a marvelous time.  We count our blessings.

 

On Saturday, we had the priviledge of helping train three bishoprics in their responsibilities over family history in their wards.  It still amazes me that these busy leaders will come on a Saturday morning to learn about family history and preparing the people here for a temple  There were supposed to be 15 in attendance, but I thought that after one person came late, there were 16 of us there.  The member of the Stake Presidency wasn't there but sent someone to represent him, and I must say that he was in the last training that we attended.  It was held in our office because we have more room, but the power had gone off during the night and we didn't have the key to reset fuses that allowed us to have air conditioning.  It was very warm but no one complained.

 

Sister Billings had prepared a power point which she sent back to Salt Lake City so it could be translated and used in future presentations, but it was actually an assistant in the family history library who made the presentation.  Then bishoprics were shown how to register for new family search and given hands on experience with their own families.  It was a powerful meeting as we could feel how excited they are.

 

Here is a photo of some working on the computers.

 This is Laraine helping the counselor in our bishopric at my desk.

This is our Bishop working with Sister Billings.  We have told you about him before.  He is an amazing man.

 

We took a couple of pictures as we traveled this week.  We have told you about those who walk between the cars selling things.  Laraine took these pictures of those selling soda (pop) just to show how much they carry on thier heads.  In the bottom photo, you can see the bottles that he is holding in his hand.  The plastic sacks on their heads are full of those bottles.

We have also talked about how many are also on the streets begging for money.  This is a photo of a man without legs just below the knees.  He is there everyday, rain or shine, with knee pads like those used in cement work, approaching cars for money.  We didn't get a picture of his legs.

Laraine took this picture of the Iranian embassy because it is on the corner where we turn everytime we go to Temporal Affairs office.

 

We are doing well.  We hardly know what day of the week it is and for sure we don’t know what day of the month it is.  We were wishing our grandson, Dallin, and Kay a happy birthday on Wednesday last week thinking it was the 30^th.  We did know their birthday was the 30th and did figure out that we had the wrong day before it happened.  We hope Kay forgives us.  We were able to Skype with Dallin which made it easier to be so far away.  We want you to know that we are going into summer here and even have lilacs blossoming (at least we call them lilacs).  It is definitely humid and hot.  We are grateful for air conditioning when we have it.  We hope all is going well for each of you.  We send our love.