What a wonderful Christmas!

December 30, 2012

We hope you had a Merry Christmas, and we wish you a very Happy New Year.  It is difficult to think that we are at the end of 2012.  It has been very eventful and a year that has changed our lives in so many ways.  It has been difficult getting into the festive spirit of the holiday season partly because the weather here is not the snow and cold that has typically accompanied Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s for us.  However much of the reason is because we have become acquainted with and love people who celebrate much more simply because they don’t have so much of what we take for granted.  They celebrate with family being the primary focus, with modest meals, and simple gifts.  In Kinshasa, we saw very few Christmas decorations.  However, as I went back I found they had even put up a Christmas tree in the park in front of our apartment.

Here in Johannesburg we have seen a few more but still not to the extent of the lights, hustle, bustle, and decorations in stores and homes back home.  We find that this has been good and not a bad thing.

I was able to make a quick trip back to Kinshasa last weekend to fetch our "stuff."  

This is Kinshasa and the Congo River from the plane as I arrived.

I left Friday morning and got back Sunday night.  International travel in Africa takes a whole day even though the actual flight is only about 4 hours.  Therefore, all day Friday was travel up to Kinshasa and all day Sunday was spent in returning to Johannesburg.  Therefore, I only had Saturday to do all the packing, settle things at the mission office, and visit with those involved with PEF to try and settle some of the issues still open.  It was a good visit but at the same time very difficult to see people that we have grown to love and very possibly won't see again.  I was definitely kept busy trying to get everything done that needed to be done, but I really couldn't spend more time there because I wanted to be back for Christmas with Laraine.

Elder van Gass went with me to give me a traveling companion.  He actually has responsibilities for all of Africa and needed to visit the Congo to explain his services.  He went with a carry on bag so that he could check two of my bags on the way back.  That way I would have the ability to check two bags for me and two bags for him giving me four bags.  I definitely needed them all.  I tried to bring back some of the spices we brought over with us from the states and some food items that we had recently purchased.  That almost proved to be a mistake because at customs in Kinshasa they were questioning if I had unallowed items.  Finally, a supervisor came and asked me what I had.  She finally said if I would pay a fee, she could let me go.  I was happy to pay the fee so I could continue with what I had packed.

The planes were late and I arrived back in Johannesburg at the apartment at 10 PM.  Even though it was late, we stayed up unpacking just because it seemed like an early Christmas to have our "stuff" again.

Monday was Christmas Eve and we were invited by President Wrench of the temple presidency and his wife to spend the day with them and their family.  We sat in the back yard next to the swimming pool because the weather was so warm. 

In the early afternoon, the sisters went inside and made homemade tortilla shells which were going to be used for the Christmas Eve dinner.  Laraine was tickled to learn how to do it because you can’t buy good shells here. 

About 4 PM we headed to their daughter’s home where we joined their family and some friends for a Christmas Eve celebration.  The Wrench family is a special family and every year invites those who can't be with family for the holidays.  The children were swimming in the pool when we arrived.  

When they finished, they put on a little Nativity program to a reading which was really fun and helped us focus on what we are really celebrating. 

After the program, we ate a wonderful dinner using the tortilla shells.

We visited while we ate and enjoyed visiting with the full time missionaries serving in the area.

Then we gathered while gifts were exchanged.  The temple presidency made sure each missionary couple received a simple gift also.  

It was a great day.  Christmas was a little more casual.  We didn’t get up at the traditional 6 AM.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then opened the Christmas gifts we received.  There are so many wonderful people who have tried to welcome us. One missionary couple even gave us a small tree to brighten our apartment for the season,   

We actually had more Christmas here than we would have had in Kinshasa.  We definitely needed President Uchtdorf’s message from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional as he told us how important it is to be good receivers of gifts, because we were the receivers and not the givers this year.

Later we had been invited to a progressive Christmas dinner with the missionaries in our building who serve in the area office.  Salad was in the first apartment.  Main course of chicken, rice, vegetables, and relish tray was in the second apartment, and dessert was in a third apartment.  It was very nice but what we looked forward to the most was visiting with our children and grandchildren.  With the 9 hour difference, we were just about through with our day as they were just getting started, but how we appreciate technology that allows us to talk with and see family so that we experience Christmas with them rather than feel so separated from them.  We feel so blessed to have such a great family.  We want them to know how much we love them and appreciate their love, prayers, and support.

We are becoming better acquainted with the temple and are able to serve where asked.  This week a group from Kenya came for their own temple work and to be sealed as families.  They come from a small village and spoke mostly Swahili.  In fact, there was one of the sisters who spoke but couldn’t read Swahili.  We have headsets for the endowment sessions but in initiatory, at the veil, and in the sealing, it was harder to make it that special experience that we want them to have.  The first day they are there doing their own temple work.  Then they go to the family history library and are helped to get family names ready to bring back to the temple so they can do baptisms for the dead, and other ordinances including sealings.  What a great experience it was for us. I helped in initiatory and then was able to officiate in the endowment session for them.  Elder and Sister Hall, a missionary couple serving in Kenya, came with them.  They expressed appreciation and said that things had gone very well for the group.

On Wednesday which is a national holiday, Boxing Day, we took the opportunity to visit the Pilanesberg National Park with Elder and Sister Howes.  What wonderful friends they have become.  We left early so that we could be at the park when the animals would be out and visible.  We were not disappointed.  We got some good pictures but realize that the point and shoot camera we brought doesn’t do justice to the scenes that we saw.  

Elder Howes actually copied some of his pictures onto a CD for us, and these are some of his pictures of a hippo that put on quite a show for us.

  We will definitely be able to experience more of what most people feel the typical Africa is while we are here in South Africa.  We will count it as a blessing rather than saying that we are spoiled by being here.

We hope each of you has fond memories of 2012 and we wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.  We send our love to all.

An Unanticipated Transfer!

December 16, 2012

Monday the 3rd, we were able to get together and celebrate Sister Jameson's birthday.  It was a fun time together and we really enjoyed the refreshments and decorations.

It seems that after that get together it became an eventful and full couple of weeks.  Probably the biggest news is that this posting comes from Johannesburg South Africa and not from Kinshasa.  Something unanticipated came up where medical concerns and wanting to make sure proper doctors and medicine were available, our mission president in collaboration with area officials decided that we should be flown to Johannesburg.  We appreciate just how concerned our leaders are for our well-being.  We also appreciate the miracles that happened allowing us to fly out much quicker than at first anticipated.  

We arrived here last Sunday evening and immediately received medical help we needed.

As we left quickly and anticipated returning, we left with very little in our bags.  During this week the doctor, mission president, and area president made the determination that we should not immediately return.  They communicated what was happening with the missionary department, and we have been transferred from the DR Congo Kinshasa Mission as PEF missionaries to be temple missionaries in the Johannesburg Temple.   We have found that it is difficult to leave an assignment and people that we have grown to love.  We even asked why but in visiting with Elder Renlund as he extended the new call, he said that we maybe won’t immediately know and understand the bigger picture as the Savior knows.  However, he wanted us to know that it was an apostolic call coming through Elder Russell M. Nelson, the apostle over missionary assignments.   

We were given the opportunity to visit with President and Sister Armstrong, temple president and matron, whom we serve under.  We appreciated when they said that they prayed us here.  They had lost some senior missionaries and didn't know how they were going to keep everything covered, and they made me feel good as they explained the need for French speaking ordinance workers to accommodate and help all the members coming from French speaking Africa including the DR Congo.  We were assigned an apartment in Duke’s Court and given some time to move in.  It didn't take long because we don’t have much here.  

We have something just across the street that we have not seen in quite awhile...a mall with grocery store and other shops.

They were anxious to know how quickly we could start thinking it would be this coming week.  We told them that we would like to help as needed.  They let us know that yesterday they had MTC missionaries coming through and could use the help.  Therefore, we were set apart and had our first day at the temple yesterday.  We were able to work at the veil, name issue, and even acted as witness couple during a session.  We think it was to let us experience a session so we will be prepared to officiate quickly.  It became very obvious to us just how important it is that we as temple workers be prepared to make the temple visit the best and most meaningful experience possible for those who because of distance and costs possibly may not be back for a long time.

We are so impressed with the temple missionaries with whom we will serve.  They have had experience in temple presidencies, MTC presidency, stake presidencies, and we don’t know what all.  We feel so loved and wanted even being the simple folks we are.  They also reinforced that we were prayed here.  We have lots to learn and are anxious to be pulling our part of the load.

We don’t want to compare our mission experiences but there is definitely power and peace in the temple.  We had just hoped that we would be able to attend once before returning but are grateful for the opportunity that is being given us.  I am grateful that French will continue to be part of my challenge but in a different way.  An immediate concern is that we only brought clothing for one season and only a couple of long sleeve shirts and no jackets.  It will work out.

We will keep you posted as we learn more and grow into this new assignment.  We appreciate all your prayers.  They were needed and felt.

We count our blessings!

Nov 26-Dec 2, 2012

This week has been a very full week but again we count our blessings to be here.  We appreciate that we stay busy and would have it no other way, but we hate to feel that we leave so many things undone as we leave the PEF Center each day.  

The big event of this week was our first regional correlation council meeting with Elder Mabaya.  Our invitation said the meeting would be starting at 9:30 am but asked us to come at 11:30 and take 8 minutes to report on PEF.  We also had been asked to help with another Family History training session at 10:00 so we just figured that we would leave early.  Eight minutes is not a long time so we knew we needed to be to the point and maybe even have a handout to leave.  We don’t have a printer at the apartment so my first thought was to prepare at the office.  I should have known better.  I tried one morning but found quickly it was easier just to do it from home.   It shouldn’t take that much time to prepare, but when you are presenting before a general authority, stake presidents, and our mission president in French, you want it to be right both written and verbally especially since I am still pretty new getting back into the French.  Therefore most of my evenings were taken in getting a two page handout ready and making some notes to help me stay within the time limit.  I spent quite a bit of time just talking to myself out loud to be comfortable in what I might say.  I let one of our volunteers read the handout, and I’m glad I did.  He suggested changes that let me know that too often I use direct translations which may be understood but not proper.

We arrived at 10:00 am only to find that the Family History training meeting had been rescheduled for next Saturday.  There were some young adults at the church to play basketball.  I left my suit coat inside, and went outside to watch for a minute.  Bad idea! There were only 3 there so I asked if I could shoot a couple.  We didn’t ever play any type of game but just shooting around in high humidity and temperature in the high 80s, I was sweating profusely when I decided it was time to quit.  I’m glad there were a few minutes before we were invited into the council meeting.

The way Elder Mabaya introduced us and invited our report seemed to change my approach.  I tried to make a little joke about how we come from a much colder climate, that it is hot here but that I seemed to even find it hotter in the meeting.  It didn’t go over too well and didn’t help me relax.  We were able to report that there are now 284 approved applicants in the DR Congo with around 240 loans outstanding.  I hope we were able to explain what is happening and express our needs and concerns.  I know I made lots of mistakes in my French which discourages me sometimes, but I appreciate the opportunities we have here.  I left analyzing our presentation.  It was only today at church when our mission president said I did a “great” job was I able to leave it alone.

Being in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving and does not have the same commercial emphasis on Christmas gives us opportunity to reflect on what is important and how it will change our holiday season.  Thanksgiving arrived without the normal anticipation and was gone after a simple get together with other couple missionaries, and the season of Christmas doesn’t arrive the day following Thanksgiving like it does back home.  However, the season allows us to realize just how blessed we are being around people who don’t have much.  They are teaching us so much about what is really important and what really counts.

We recognize that the Christmas season is a time we fill our homes with decorations, food, presents, friends, and family.  However, decorations, food, presents, and family won’t take their normal place in our home this year.  We will celebrate with a whole new batch of friends in a very different way, and we are excited for it.  We know we will miss family and friends back home, but we are appreciating our many blessings.

We have been called to serve in a part of the world that we would have never imagined.  We are seeing the church grow as we would never have understood.  We are in and around children of our Father in Heaven who accept their circumstances and push forward in great faith knowing that He is in charge and that His plan of happiness makes us all better.  We are starting to understand that we are so accustomed to and can’t seem to be without so many conveniences that are unavailable to people in other parts of the world.

We take for granted electricity, air conditioning, clean water, high speed internet, and one or more cars in the garage ready to get us quickly between appointments.  We take for granted a free country where we have a voice in government, where laws protect us, and where we have opportunities to be and do whatever we can dream.  We have been placed in circumstances to see people who don’t have electricity that they can count on let alone a backup generator to provide electricity when the power is out.  We see so many that cook outside on charcoal.   Sister Jameson told us of a time when President Thierry, a stake president, brought his son to the mission office.  She was trying to entertain this little boy in their apartment by letting him color a picture while waiting.  He was coloring in such a hurry that he wasn’t staying within the lines.  She told him to slow down so he could do a better job.  He said he had to hurry before the electricity went off.  He lives where the power is not consistent.  We count our blessings and appreciate living where we do.

This week has shown us what we can expect during the hot rainy season.  We are starting to see severe storms much more often, and we are told that they will get worse during this month.  We had one storm this week during the night that I was awakened and then couldn’t get back to sleep as I could even see the lightning flashes through my closed eyelids, and the thunder was so loud that I just had to lay there for quite a while.  In some ways it is really quite beautiful to watch the storms come in.  

I have wondered if the Congolese have some way to project exactly when the rain will commence. Friday night was one of those times when we beat the storm home, and I decided to watch everything though our window.  I was amazed at how many people were on the street even when the lightning seemed so close.  They didn’t seem panicked so I figured that they had some internal radar telling just how much time they had.  But then it started to rain and quickly turned into a gusher. I wish you could see the lightning but it didn't show in the picture.  It is difficult to see across the Congo River because of the heavy rain falling.

 People were still on the street.  Many were running to whatever shelter they could find.  It became obvious that most all of these people don’t have their own cars.  They are dependent on transports.  The transports have a stop just outside our building but it seems that during storms there are fewer transports since drivers don’t like to drive in the gushers, maybe like us not wanting to drive in the snow.  When a transport would pull up twenty people would run towards it just hoping to get a seat or even a space.  They would try to cram into an already full transport so the driver would pull off with people hanging on and running after it, all the while getting soaked.  I can’t imagine how many people were crammed into each of those transports.

It is amazing just how fast things go back to normal after a storm.  It is hard to see the person on the grass cutting with a scythe not a lawn mower.

Storms bring mud which dries quickly causing dirt and dust on the roads.  We are still amazed that there are so many sweepers using brooms and wheelbarrows to clean the roads.

Yesterday, I was sweeping our little balcony and thought I would show Casey that there are weights and a bench so he wouldn't miss his workouts by serving a mission.

 It is pretty hot and humid so I'm sure you can work up a sweat.

As we count our blessings, I thought I would show the grill that was left for us.  We haven't used it yet.

We really do count our blessings.  We have a great apartment.  We not only have a vehicle but one with air conditioning.  We have internet although very slow.  We have all we need, and we have each other.

We send our love to each of you.  We feel your prayers.