One step forward...

September 16-23, 2012

 

This has been a week of tremendous hard work, but oh, how it’s been worth it! We were given the challenge to give a list of our PEF students with their loan numbers and bank account numbers to the bank by Monday. We thought someone magically had all this information. Little did we know we would have to pray, dig and then just roll up our sleeves and search and by Friday, we were able to get the requested list to the bank.

After finding out on Monday that our finance department, part of Temporal Affairs, could only give us a list for 3 months, I found myself in prayer wondering just how this could be done. On Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning, many impressions came as to how we could accomplish this task. Upon arriving at the office, I did another search of my computer and it’s like Sister Stagg was speaking from Oregon. She and Elder Stagg had prepared a list hidden deep within a folder or two that was fairly current up to June. But with another impression I knew where to look to find the rest (in individual student files). It’s been so satisfying to complete this task, but I know we’re nowhere close to the end of this situation. The bank here in Kinshasa has not been making the automatic transfers allowing PEF to record payments made by the students. Therefore when students go online to look at the status of their file, they can only see that they have not been given credit for money that’s very hard for them to come by. Many of them have lost confidence and quit paying. We’ve got to regain that confidence and go through every student file and record every payment we have record of. But most important of all we’re praying the bank, with this needed information, can do a better job in making the transfers and making it easier for us to record the transfers to the proper student so we can recognize who has been repaying their loans. This has been a problem preventing us, our area PEF in South Africa and even SLC from knowing if and how well our DR Congo students are performing on their loans. It has been going on for over a year.

We’ll keep you posted on our success.

But needless to say our week has not been without adventure. Hal adds: I must emphasize just how hard Laraine has worked on this project and how bull nosed she is until she gets something done. I tried to pursue an easier approach asking South Africa to provide information we could use in spreadsheet format but they couldn’t give us something that was transferable to the bank without all the work and effort that Laraine put in. I am grateful for her.

We had invited all the couples and our mission president and his wife to dinner on Friday. I fixed lasagna and Laberta Call’s famous filled cupcakes. The other couples filled in with salads, garlic bread and a drink and we had a wonderful time just catching up and enjoying each other’s company. (By the way Sister Jameson is thinking of preparing these same cupcakes for Elder Holland and all those traveling with him to Kinshasa in October. I’m much complimented and Laberta, you should be too!) Many stayed quite late (late for us is 9:00 p.m.) and we still had dishes to do and water to fill in buckets and any other container we could find because our water was going to be turned off all day Saturday.

All was well; we even got up early enough on Saturday to wash hair and wash one load of clothes just in the nick of time before all closed down. But what surprised us is not only did our water shut off, so did our clothes dryer. We must have a short because it blew a fuse. Oh, well, we weren’t expecting to have all these conveniences anyway! We hope to have it fixed this next week.

Saturday Elder and Sister Billings invited us to go to the cloth marché. If I were to describe it, it’s located on the beach of the Congo River. It’s about a block long and probably no more than 10 or 12 feet wide with vendors on both sides selling cloth (6 yards long and about 42 inches wide for between $10 to $20 a piece). It was beautiful, but I was so overwhelmed with so many choices and Elder Robinson only had a $50 bill. We were told not to show big bills because it destroys your bargaining power and may also give others ideas. We were cautioned not to take a purse or backpack into this very crowded, very long Marché (many pickpockets). We came out empty handed, but didn’t lose any money either. We did buy some soft baguettes just outside and were happy for our purchase.

We continued on our adventure with the Billings and went to the site of a new church that Elder Billings’ construction students will be building. We had about 5 or 6 of his students meet us there and they were so happy and excited to show us the work they had been doing. They had been digging a trench to put in a new block wall that will surround the complex. It was so hot and we found out many of these young men work without shoes. When we got there they had changed their clothes, looked very nice and gave us a wonderful tour. One of the students, Sister Billings told us about, I believe his name is Constantine. During graduation from the Construction Class last year, Elder and Sister Billings took a lot of pictures. Constantine brought his wife and his new little baby son and they took a picture of this cute little family. A week or two later Elder Billings was asked if he would go to the hospital to administer to Constantine’s little son. He was very sick. Elder Billings said he would after he finished teaching class. A half hour later, they received word that the baby had died of dysentery and Elder Billings was not needed. Sister Billings realized they had a picture of that little baby with his parents and printed it and framed it and gave Constantine the picture. He received it with many tears. They, of course, had nothing to remember him by.

 

Thiss is the building site where we met the construction students.

 

 

Sister Billings talked with our bishop, Aimé, and asked what would be appropriate. They wanted to go to the funeral. He replied that first, people in this tribe do not have funerals for their first born sons, only for their other children. Second, many people with their superstitions believe that being friends with white people could bring on death in their families, so it would not be appropriate for them to go to the grave side services. They were also told that many times the mother had to pay the father’s family for the loss of this child.

There are many customs here we still do not understand.

As we met with this construction crew, it was 2-3:00 p.m. and none of them had eaten. Sister Billings and I went back to the truck and picked up the baguettes we had purchased at the cloth marché and Elder Billings gave them each 500 francs which equals about 50 cents. They were so hungry and so happy, you would have thought he had given them $50. The students looked at us and said, “You are like our parents, and we your children.” They were so gracious and loving! What a great afternoon!

Hal adds: The supervisor/engineer of the group, a church member but not one in Elder Billing’s class, kept emphasizing to me just what a morale booster is was to have us come to the worksite of these young people. He was amazed at how much our visit inflated them both spiritually and physically. They all expressed their appreciation and loved talking with us and showing what they are doing. It will be another three weeks before they start the chapel and it will take two years to build. We talked about the great opportunity it is for them to work on the church building, and they expressed hope that some of them might be given the opportunity to work on the new temple when it is started. It really was a great experience to see what a little effort on our part meant to them. Elder and Sister Billings really are doing an amazing work in the construction program.

 

 

After we left the construction site, the Billings took us back by the Congo River and what they call the rapids.  Because of the rapids, large ships cannot come up to the ports of Kinshasa and Brazzaville.  Here are a couple of photos that really don't do justice.

 

As we get away from the main boulevard, we do see some of the poverty that exists here.  Here is a photo of a cemetery close to the construction site.

Also, we crossed a small stream.  This photo shows just how filthy it was...and to think that the children play in and around it.  We don't know how the water is used.

Here are some pictures of homes along the Congo river.  It is amazing what some of the people live in.

 

We talked about funerals and we passed a funeral caravan but have been told not to take pictures.  But we also passed a big open area with about four big tents with groups of people under the open tents.  They were separated by quite a distance.  We don't know if they were by a church or who provided the arrangements, but in each tent was a wedding party.  I got a photo of just the last tent.

 

When we got home, I was finally able to get a picture of one of our beautiful friends.

 

 

Hal adds: It seems much easier to write and tell everyone about things as we experience them for the first time, probably because we have so much apprehension until we become more comfortable with them. Well this week it seems that there haven’t been as many firsts, but we won’t say that we are comfortable either. We continue to learn much.

Here is a random photo of a pousse pousse that we took early this week.  We continue to be amazed at just how much they can pile on such a small cart.

 

Three things of significance to us have to do with three people we work side by side with in our building. The first had to do with Didier Mutombo who is executive secretary to Elder Alfred Kyungu who is Area Director (ASE-West) for CES and an Area Seventy. Didier is so fun to work around and is one we ask to help us if we don’t something about logistics, shopping, or just about anything. He is always so happy. One time he came into our office and said, “I am here. I am King of the Congo.” Another time he said, “I am the star.” So now, we sometimes greet him, “Bonjour, King of the Congo or Bonjour Star.” Anyway, we were talking to him about being the “Star” and he asked if he had shared a link in the Liahona about him. We said he had not and he explained that when the General Primary President was in Kinshasa, she asked the priesthood leaders if any of them had an experience they would share about the impact primary had on them. Didier was the first to respond. He said he didn’t know at the time that what he said would end up in the Liahona. He was surprised when he was reading it and found that he was a “star” in a church magazine. He brought us a link which was to the Church News, but he said it was in both. We want to share what happened. This comes from the Church News published May 21, 2011 entitled “Primary: Good teachers are vital” by Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, Sister Jean A. Stevens and Sister Cheryl A. Esplin, primary general presidency. It says, “During a recent auxiliary training meeting in Kinshasa, DR Congo, leaders were asked to share an experience they had in Primary that had a great influence on their lives. Didier Mutombo, a 31-year-old priesthood leader who joined the Church in 1987, was quick to respond. ‘Primary lessons changed my life,’ he said. He spoke of one particular lesson that helped him learn a simple gospel principle. During that lesson, the Primary president talked about the 2,000 stripling warriors and then they sang the song about the‘Army of Helaman.’ As Bother Mutombo sang the song as a child, he was filled with a desire to serve a mission. From 1999 to 2001, Brother Mutombo was called as a full-time missionary in West Africa. When he returned, he married a woman who had attended the same Primary class. He has never forgotten that wonderful day in Primary where he was taught to study, pray and be ready to serve the Lord. ‘I have continued to nourish that firm willingness to go on the Lord’s errand since that day,’ he said. In essence, an experience Brother Mutombo had as a child in Primary set him on a path that led him to make covenants in the temple.” What a great experience it was for us to hear him tell his story and then read it in the Church News.

The second happened as we arrived at the S&I building another morning this week. President Jean-Pierre Haboko, S&I coordinator for the Ngaleama and Mont Ngafula stakes and also stake president of the Ngaleama stake spoke up stopping us as we passed his office which is the first office inside the door. He said, you must say “Bonjour au chef de village.” At first we didn’t know what he meant because chef de village is mayor of the town. Well, he went on to explain that his office is the first office in the building therefore he is mayor of the building. We apologized for not greeting him and now we will joke with him calling him “chef.” Anyway, he came out and we were talking to him. I have an agreement with him that when he comes in our office he speaks French but when I come in his office we speak English. In the hall this day, he was speaking English to both of us. As we were ready to leave, I made comment that we would love to talk another time and hear about how he came to know the Church. He said he would love to, but then said to be brief he would tell us a little. Well, it was a little longer than brief, but an amazing and spiritual experience for us. We had been at the door of his office and Laraine asked if a photo on the wall was his wife. He said yes and got his iPad to show us photos of his wife and large family. He and his wife have ten children. As he told his story as best I remember it, he said that he was raised Catholic as was his wife. They would go to church but he asked himself if there wasn’t something more. They were living in Lubumbashi where he was attending the university studying to become a lawyer or magistrate. He said he had actually stopped going to the Catholic Church even though his wife took the children. He hadn’t gone for a year and a half and had actually attended several churches looking for more. It was at that time that he came in contact with the missionaries. They immediately started talking about Lehi and the Book of Mormon. They opened the book and read from promise from Moroni but his mind was still trying to remember where he knew the name Lehi from. He related that he had been given the Book of Mormon years before and that he had actually read First Nephi but didn’t get much out of it and had let the book go. But Voila 1^st Nephi is about Lehi. Thus he remembered the name. He said that he had a dream during this time. He was in a big crowd of people. A man named Moroni was in the middle handing out letters. And he heard him say, “I have a letter for Jean-Pierre Haboko.” President Haboko asked himself why this man would have a letter for him, but he kept yelling “I have this letter for Jean-Pierre Haboko.” He woke up and didn’t understand the dream. That week with the missionaries, they challenged him with Moroni’s promise, and he said it hit him exactly what the dream meant. It was not a letter as we think of letters, but it was the Book of Mormon. Moroni had the Book of Mormon for him. They had the missionaries complete the lessons and they were baptized in a very short time, it almost seems like he said after a week. That in itself is an amazing story but he went on. He said they had two children and they were expecting their third in what I remember as couple of weeks. Anyway, when his wife gave birth, the baby was still born. He said many could say that this was a sign that they had made a mistake. That bad things happen when you make mistakes is a big part of African culture. Anyway he bore testimony that they didn’t ever feel that way and now they have been blessed with a big family. Again we must say that we were blessed with a spiritual experience as we talked with another one of the great people here. He completed his degree in law but chose not to become a lawyer or magistrate but to work for the Church in CES and is very happy.

While we are talking about those we work with in the S&I program, we need to tell you about Christian Mavinga, Institute coordinator for the Masima and Kinshasa stakes and bishop of the Limité ward. He is from DR Congo and wanted to be a heart surgeon. The universities are not good here in Kinshasa for medicine so he went to Moscow Russia to study at the university there. He had so learn Russian and was completing his studies when he met the missionaries there. He too recognized that what he was being taught was right and he was baptized there. He finished his studies and came back to Kinshasa but found that hospitals here are just not equipped properly and not up to the standards that would allow him to do what he wanted to do. He was at church when they made the announcement that the church had a CES opening in Seminaries and Institutes. He prayed about it and felt he should make application which he did. Obviously, he was accepted and we love him. As you can see, we have some pretty amazing and powerful people in leadership positions here.

 

Here is a photo of President Haboko, Bishop Mavinga  Elder Kyungu, and Didier.

 

One of the most important events of this week is the birthday of our youngest grandson, Nixson! Nixson, we’re so proud of you and love you so much!

We express our love and thanks to all,

Training, Banks, and a busy week!

Week of September 8-15

This has been a very busy but good week for us.  Both of us wrote something thinking the other wouldn’t have time.  Therefore, we will include a little from each of us.  

 

First of all, we told you that we were going to join some of the other couples for a night out for ice cream.  Last Saturday evening we joined President and Sister Jameson, Elder and Sister Smith, and Elder and Sister Moon at Nice Cream.  One of the other couples told us that if you google things to do in Kinshasa, Nice Cream comes up as a place to go.  Well, it was a very busy place on this night.  There really is no place to sit down so you wait outside until everyone arrives, you go in and order, and then you come outside to eat your ice cream.  It was very good ice cream and very enjoyable with the other couples.

 

 

               Laraine writes:  Last Sunday, we had our first Sunday School class taught by a very handsome Congolese, Bob Dolongo.  He’s about 38 and looks like a recently returned missionary.  He’s never been in an English speaking country and is self-taught and speaks better than many Americans.  While he was serving his mission in the DRC he lost both his father and mother and 3 siblings.  This seems to be more common than I realize.  We have not met very many older people.  The average life expectancy is 54 here.  (I’ve probably mentioned that before!)  He’s a very accomplished teacher and it’s wonderful to hear the gospel preached by a Congolese and really understand how great their understanding is and how strong their testimonies are.  I’ve felt it when they speak French, but to hear it is incredible.

               We also had a lot of people set apart in ward positions since we’re a new ward.  A young man who frequents the PEF Office, Roger, was set apart as a counselor in the Young Mens Organization.  We found out after church he’s only 17.  He comes in our office to use the computers.  He wants to serve a mission and then come home and get a PEF loan.  We’re realizing more and more that getting a PEF loan is a huge step for these young people and gives them such hope!

Hal writes:  We indicated that Thembinkosi Howard Mkhize our PEF Area Coordinator from South Africa was coming to teach us and help us work through some of the problems we have found in the PEF records and files.  We knew some of the issues because Elder and Sister Stagg left us notes and we had found copies of emails trying to work thru PEF and Thembinkosi, the finance department, and the banks.  Many things happened this week which hopefully moves us in the right direction.

Laraine writes:  Going back to Thembinkosi, I just want to tell you, he too is about 38 and a young man full of life, energy and joy.  He joined the church in his later youth as he watched a good friend who was doing a lot of things wrong and then he joined the church and Thembinkosi saw such a change in his life.  He wondered about a church that could make that much of a difference.  He investigated and has been a member since the late 1990's.  He’s a tremendous force for good in South Africa.  When he started as Area Coordinator, PEF was only in 4 countries in Africa.  Now it’s in 11.  While he was here he received word that the 3rd black stake president had been called in South Africa out of 11 stakes.  He was very excited!

This is Thembinkosi (left) and Thomas (right) as they had dinner with us.  They had taken their ties off to be more comfortable.

 

 



Hal writes:  We are working to resolve a banking issue that has been going on since last October.  PEF encourages students to open a bank account and set up an automatic transfer to pay back their loans. PEF gives them an incentive to set up an automatic payment, but the bank we work with has had trouble and has not made transfers from student accounts to the PEF account so that we can track and apply a student’s progress.  Also, since the church is growing and expanding into new areas of DR-Congo, the church has been looking for a banking relationship which has the right footprint and the ability to accommodate the different needs of the Church and PEF.  Therefore, we had a meeting scheduled with Banque Commerciale Du Congo which is a bigger bank than Ecobank that we have our PEF accounts with now.  I didn’t know what to expect since our only experience directly with the bank thus far is cashing checks and we have already told you about that.  But the meeting was a very good meeting as our finance department tried to present the needs of the church and we explained what we are doing with PEF.  We listened to how they could accommodate our needs and discussed timing and ways we could make things work.  Some things sounded very good but some of their services come at a cost.  We were able to present out needs and the bank is going to give us a more concrete proposal, but it will be the finance department that will have to analyze cost/benefit to see where this might lead. 

 

This is Tommy Mulhemedy our area finance director who we have worked closely with not only with the banks but with handling PEF finances.

 

 

Thembinkosi flew in Monday.  I am glad we didn’t have to pick him up at the airport.  Even he says that the Kinshasa airport is the worst in Africa.  As we have worked with regional PEF we have found that there are certain policy issues that needed to be covered with priesthood leaders.  Therefore, we had scheduled a meeting with all stake presidents at 4:30 pm to train and get their support.  We had to pick Thembinkosi up at the hotel after our banking meeting and get him to the S&I building which we barely made.  I didn’t realize that our meeting would be with not only the stake presidents but also Elder L. Jean Claude Mabaya, newly sustained Area Seventy from DR-Congo.  We were impressed by the way Thembinkosi respected Elder Mabaya’s position as the presiding authority and had him conduct the meeting even though we had called the meeting.  It was a very powerful meeting as we discussed the mission of PEF, the need to administer it in an orderly way following the guidelines, but at the same time we felt the love and concern these leaders have for all members as we listened while they expressed the great need to help not only the young people who fit into the parameters of PEF but all members to break the bonds of poverty and improve their lives.  We think that is why priesthood leaders and institute directors have been asking for exceptions for many falling outside the parameters of PEF.  They expressed that PEF is really the only program they have available right now to help, and they realize that they have used the exceptions as a means to help more people.   It made us realize how much the church does, but at the same time it brought into focus just how grand the need is here in Africa.  We were very humbled and honored to be part of that meeting.

Tuesday, we met again with finance to talk about procedures that can be implemented to avoid some of the accounting problems we are having.

Wednesday, we met with Institute coordinators to explain and train in policy as had been discussed with stake presidents and implement some procedures decided on with finance to help avoid some of the issues PEF has faced.  Another great thing about Wednesday was that 23 new PEF loans for DR-Congo were approved in Salt Lake.  We had 23 of the 52 loans from Africa Southeast that were approved.  Yes, the work goes forward.

Thursday was a day spent with Thembinkosi teaching us things that we hadn’t had time to even get into yet.  We are grateful that we have volunteers that we have asked to follow up on some of these items, and they have been willing to do them.  Thursday evening we invited Thembinkosi and Thomas who works in the area finance department in South Africa and had flown to Kinshasa with him to dinner.  We had had Thembinkosi to dinner on Tuesday and felt badly that Thomas had been left in the hotel alone.  It is always great leaning about how these people came to join the church.

Friday, we were on our own again.  We had a meeting with Ecobank to find out their progress on our transfer issues.  We also wanted to find out if they can better accommodate our procedures making our accounting for payments easier.  Laraine didn’t want to go because she didn’t feel she gets much out of these meetings.  The banker was coming to the finance department at 2:00 pm.  I tried to go alone even though I don’t like to be in Congolese traffic alone, but the bank officer got stuck in traffic and rescheduled for 4:30.  Therefore, we closed the PEF center at normal time, and both of us attended the meeting.  It was a good meeting.  The bank promised some things especially if we can provide some information early Monday, so we are going to be busy Monday.  We finished the meeting about 6:00 pm, came home and ate quickly so Laraine could do some wash because our Saturday was already scheduled.

Laraine writes:  Saturday Elder Robinson and I went to our office with Sister Billings and were able to assist her as she gave a presentation on family history to our stake presidencies.  It was fun to see their excitement in putting their families into New Family Search and have grandparents come up.  They all seem very excited about preparing themselves and their ancestors for the temple in Kinshasa. 

Hal writes:  Laraine is going to be such a help in preparing members for the new temple here.  She is so good at helping people get into New Family Search and PAF and allowing them to have hands on success.  She adds so much to what Sister Billlings has started.  We are so impressed with how willing these leaders are to attend so many meetings each week.  We ourselves met with stake presidents twice this week.  It was a great time and Laraine interacts so well even though there is a language issue, not only with those attending but with them signed on and using French programs. It was a great meeting.  I was the weak link there.  Laraine worked with our stake president, President Ilunga, and found he was born in 1974.  Also Thomas, who had dinner with us Thursday evening was born in 1974.  She noted many great people were born in 1974 emphasizing that our Ryan was born September 13, 1974.  We wish him a very happy birthday.

 

The International Francophonie Organization (OIF) is holding its14th summit on 13-14 October in Kinshasa.  The government has been doing much to clean up the city to make a good impression.  We have been told that things look so much better now than they did just months ago.  Some question if it will stay this good after the conference.  One thing we see constantly is the sweeping of the streets but now with great big truck sweepers but with brooms.  We just can't see that you can keep a city clean only witth brooms.

 

 

Speaking of brooms, every morning when we leave we greet a man who cleans the parking area of the USAID building (where we live).  He uses a broom which is the branch of a tree tied to a stick to sweep the leaves every day.  Sometimes it is a short stick and he is stooping over sweeping the whole area.  We can't believe he can stay stooped over for so long.  Sometimes he uses a longer broom.  We found these two leaning against the tree and couldn't help but take a picture.  We wish we could get his picture.  He has the greatest smile and is always so kind to us.

 

This is a photo of a beetle that we find even on our balcony.

 

 

               Thank you for your prayers and your support!!

Random thoughts and another great week!

8 Septembre 2012

This week I thought I’d give you some of my random observations along with our fun experiences.

            Last Sunday our ward was split.  We will now be attending the Gombe 1^st Ward at 8:00 a.m.  Our new bishop is Aime Ngoy.  He’s a wonderful man who has been a magistrate and judge, but because he wouldn’t take an assignment on the east side of the DR Congo (because of its danger), he is now employed as a driver for the Church.  The Mission President likes it when Aime drives because if they’re stopped by the police, Aime shows his magistrate’s certificate and the police let them go.  Aime’s wife runs a small boutique, which means she sells about anything.  Aime supplies our eggs.  We buy a flat of 30 at a time for $6.00.

            There was a choir at church that almost rivaled the Tabernacle Choir.  The men wore matching blue ties and the women wore matching blue scarves.  They all wore white shirts and dark skirts and pants.  But best of all their voices were wonderful. 

(Observation – Often there is no one to play the organ or piano in church, so the chorister will stand and sing the first line, he or she stops and that’s our signal to start.  They have no inhibitions to sing solo and sing out and sing strong.  We could take many lessons from them)

            I had a lot of fun with a little girl (maybe 2 years old) in Relief Society.  I played the finger walking game with her and she would giggle and giggle.  She kept many of us entertained.  (I was having a hard time concentrating on the lesson anyway.  It was all in French.  I’ve got to try harder to listen and learn.)  This little toddler and I became friends and she felt comfortable enough to lean on my leg and then she touched my leg.  She looked up at me in surprise as she pulled my nylon away from my leg.  She knew I was different because I had white skin, but I wonder what she thought of skin that pulls away from itself.  She very sweetly put her cheek on my leg.  I’m sure she’s never come in contact with nylons before.

            Monday was the first day of school in Kinshasa.  We’ve been told that school goes from 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m.  There are two sessions each day.  Our apartment is right next to St. Ann’s Catholic School for boys.  (Observation – they must be looking for ways to make money to support the school.  Since we’ve been here, they have rented what I would call a dance hall on their property to bands of all sorts who once a weekend play all night until 6:00 a.m. in the morning.  Those nights we don’t get very much sleep.) 

 

 

            The boys at St. Ann’s wear uniforms (white shirts, black pants and ties) and line up outside every morning at 7:30 a.m. just as we are leaving our apartment.  Our apartment is on the 4^th floor and the kitchen not only overlooks the roof where Elder Robinson runs, but it also overlooks the Catholic School.  (Observation – there is one albino, very tall and thin.  So far he seems to have very few friends.  We asked Didier at work about albinos.  He said they are relatively uncommon and looked at as different or not normal.  This young albino has already won our hearts and we don’t even know him.)

            Monday afternoon, we were desperate for paper for the P.E.F. office.  We had to go to the store!  We found the paper store, called The Pop Shop, but everybody else found the store as well.  We couldn’t have picked a worse day to have to go to a paper supply store than the first day of school.  We parked on a side street on an uphill sidewalk and were happy to find even that.  When you go in a paper store here, you look at the supplies that are all behind the employees.  You pick what you want, they hold it for you and you go pay and then come back and pick up what you ordered.  (No chance for shoplifting!)

 

 

            Monday evening, we got together for Family Home Evening in Pres. and Sister Jameson apartment with the other senior couples.  Pres. Jameson had invited a guest to speak to us, truly a legend here in Africa.  His name is Datar.  He is from Liberia, but came into contact with the Church in Nigeria where he was going to school.  He spoke English with a strong accent and I didn’t understand everything he told us, but what I did understand was miraculous.

            During a military coup in Liberia his father and cousin were executed.  Datar was baptized in 1988, married in 1989 and the same year he was called to be counselor to the Mission President in Liberia.  Civil war broke out and the mission president and his wife and other Caucasian couples were evacuated to Sierra Leone.  He remained to take care of the young missionaries.  He was told to move into the mission home, but he and his new wife didn’t feel comfortable.  They would go there during the day, but return to their home at night.  One night they felt a strong impression to go to the mission home.  That night their home was bombed and everyone thought Datar and his wife, Angelie, were killed.  They had immediately evacuated to Sierra Leone also and Datar’s family held a funeral for them.  When things settled down, they returned and his brothers and sisters had a hard time believing he was alive.  They insisted on seeing Angelie before they would believe it was really him.

            Another time in Liberia he was randomly picked up on the street and taken to the river and lined up with many other men.  He had watched other men go through the same ritual.  They were lined up, shot, and their bodies fell into the river.  As he was lined up, a man came along in some sort of transport and called his name and pulled him out of the line-up.  None of the soldiers who lined the men up seemed to mind.  He was taken away and let go.  To this day he doesn’t know who the man who rescued him was or why he helped him.

            He came to the DR Congo in 1996 and civil war broke out here in 1997 and the missionaries had to be evacuated.  But he talked more personally about the civil war that broke out when the president of the DR Congo was assassinated in 2001.  The military went to many houses, killing any foreigners they found.  Once again the mission president and Caucasian couples fled to Ghana.  In order to get into Ghana, they had to have visas, which they didn’t have.  Datar contacted an official who was a friend of Datar’s in the Ghana Embassy.  He came quickly, and extended visas to these couples, and they were able to get out safely.  Once again Datar stayed to take care of things here in the DR Congo.

            More recently he talked about Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Glenn Pace visiting the DR Congo during a period of civil unrest.  They along with others were down by the Congo River and took a picture of Brazzaville across the river.  As soon as they did, the military surrounded them, took them into custody and took their passports along with other things.  They detained them for over an hour and nothing could be resolved.  Many more hours went by and then Datar was called.  He seems to know the right people in the right places and made a call to their commander who ordered them to be released.

            He’s a very unassuming man, with an infectious laugh and such great faith, who kept reminding us “If you stand for God, He will stand for you.”  I wish I could have understood more of his stories, but I think that gives you a gist of this great man.  Many of these experiences are written in a book by Glenn Pace called Safe Journey.  Sister Billings looked on line for this book and found out its on sale at Barnes and Noble for $.99 if anyone’s interested.

            (Observation – Monday night while driving home at 9:00 p.m. it was very hard to see the people walking and crossing the street because of their dark skin.  Maybe that’s another reason we’re supposed to be home by 6:00 every evening, not just that we might get hurt, but also so that we don’t hurt anybody else.)

            Tuesday we got to the office and Crispin, the man who takes care of the building and washes our truck (every other day it seems) wanted to mop our floor in the P.E.F. office and asked if we would step out for 15 minutes.  Elder Robinson and I saw a lady who sells bananas not far from our office and thought this might be a good time to get some.  We ended up finding another woman selling baguettes for $.20 a piece.  What a find!  Bananas and baguettes!

As we drove to work this week, we realized there’s a school on our road.  We soon found out its possible for 2 lanes to turn into 4 lanes in a hurry, and we were pretty much stuck in traffic.  

 

 

 

 (Observation - I’ve figured out that we are leasing a 4-wheel truck not just for the ruts in the roads that are pretty deep, but many vehicles drive up on what we would call sidewalks (dirt where people walk) to get around another car.  Whatever people think is possible to do in a car, they do it and there seems to be no restriction, at least for the natives.)

 

 

These are just a few radom photos while we were drving!

Pedestrians and pouse pouse carts push their way through traffic any place and any time.

 

 

 

 

            (Observation – When we wake up in the mornings, we can hear people shouting on the street – that was pretty unnerving the first couple of weeks here.  But we also hear what sounds like a carriage with horses clip clopping down the road.  It’s a beautiful vision, but the reality is it is people, usually young men selling a service, i.e. shoe shining, selling tissues in small packages, pop, etc.  They have two pieces of wood connected in such a way that they can click them and let you know they have something to sell.)

 

This was a man leading several blind persons each with a hand on a shoulder.

 

            (Observation – There is a very fine dirt here that seems to get on everything, even in the apartment.  I think that’s why Crispin washes our truck so often.  There are beautiful palm trees and other tropical plants along the main boulevard (called Trente Juin, which means the 30^th of June, the day the Congolese achieved Independence from Belgium in 1960).  Everything looks dirty most of the time, but this week it rained, and I was amazed at how beautiful and clean everything looked!)

 

            Wednesday started out to be a normal day at the office, until Elder Robinson invited me to go to a bank to get a check cashed.  Now that was an experience!  The bank we visited had a private gate.  We were in a courtyard with no signage for a bank.  We walked into a door with one small room.  About 5 people were sitting at tables counting francs, lots of francs (but 500 francs is only worth 50 cents).  There was one man sitting behind a wall where you took your check.  You had to sign it, date it twice, write down all the personal information you could think of (address, phone #, etc.), show official identification, driver’s license or passport, and then sit in a steel chair until you found out if the VIP teller would cash it.  (Observation - If a check is written from one bank, another bank will not cash it, which makes Elder Robinson’s job a lot harder.)  Last time Elder Robinson came to this bank to cash a check, he was with Elder Stagg and they were ushered out of this room to another where they had to wait 2 hours to get a check cashed.  Sister Jameson always says, “Everything’s hard in the Congo.”  (Observation by Elder Robinson:  We deal in US dollars more than we deal in francs.  Even the checks I cash are in US dollars.  Tuesday I took two checks to cash to Ecobank.  That is when I found out they would not cash a check not drawn on them even though the church has an account with them.  We then were told that they didn’t have any dollars so we had to travel to another bank to cash my one check.)

            We had our first experience getting our hair cut in the Congo at the La Bella salon.  A young Congolese man cut Elder Robinson’s hair shorter than I’ve ever seen it, but he’s still as handsome as ever.  Rami, a Lebanese young man cut my hair, but a young Congolese man washed and gave me the first head message I’ve ever had at a beauty salon.  Rami had his own ideas about how to cut my hair and it’s still quite long.  I hope I can make it another month for another haircut!

 

            Thursday we had a beautiful family come in to meet us at the office.  They have been transferred here by the Church to work in Finance.  Brother Grana is from Spain and his wife, Nilsa, is from Portugal.  Their two daughters, Martha and Anna, were born in England.  Their assignment here in the DR Congo is for 2 years.  I admire their courage.  I would find it quite challenging to bring a young family here, but we’re all looking forward to getting better acquainted with them.

            Friday we had the wonderful opportunity to have dinner at Elder and Sister Moon’s.  We enjoyed the food and the company very much.  It’s fascinating to hear all that this Humanitarian couple is involved in.  They showed us pictures of their visit to a village.  The people, especially the children, followed them almost in parade form.  They met a wonderful woman, a member of the Church from Zimbabwe who married a man from the DR Congo.  They live in a remote village and she’s trying to run a school with no glass in the windows, very rustic benches, and a hole for a latrine that they move from time to time, leaving the old hole open with human sewage.  The conditions in which the people live in these villages are so hard to see.  I keep remembering President Henry D. Eyring in a P.E.F. video quoting the scripture, “If ye are not one, ye are not mine,” and reminding us that our Heavenly Father doesn’t want one group of his children to have so much and another group to have so little.  The people in this village were pleading for a well that would provide them with clean water.  Some local people have taken it upon themselves to drill wells, but they do it without adequate knowledge, even lining the pipes in one case with tar.  Friday the Moons were down at the port very close to our apartment to see if they could get a cargo container containing wheel chairs freed from the government red tape that has held it there for months and in the hands of the Church.  They have invited trainers who are coming from all over the world to disperse these wheel chairs to the people who need them and fit them for their particular size and needs.  The Moons had been fasting that they could accomplish this, and they seemed to be able to meet the right people in the right positions that day with the promise that this container will be released next Tuesday.  They know it’s an answer to their prayers.  The Moons have a difficult and a fascinating calling!

 

This is a picture showing women doing laudry in a stream.

 

 

            Today, Saturday, we went shopping and tonight we’re going to “Nice Cream” with the other couples for a get-together.  We’ll tell you more next week.  This letter is getting way too long.

 

            Our love!!

 

Are we feeling comfortable yet?

September 1, 2012—

               We have now been in DR-Congo Kinshasa for another week.  Do we feel any more comfortable?  Do we feel like we know what we are doing?  Maybe a little but not really.  This week seemed to be a little bit more like typical weeks will be.  Last Sunday, we went to church as usual.  Our block starts with priesthood/relief society first, then Sunday school, and ends with sacrament meeting.  The Elders quorum has more members and meets in the bigger classroom.  The other senior missionaries and I attend the High Priests quorum.  I enjoy the meetings and am impressed with the quality of instruction. I actually enjoy attending the regular Sunday school class because I can focus on French the whole time. I still find there are some whom I understand so much better than others.  The accents and way of talking can differ with different people.  I just hope that it will get better and better over time.  Sister Robinson and the other senior couples attend a Sunday school class just for them.  They take turns teaching the lesson which they teach in English.  So far, I am the only one not to attend because I want the French more.  Sister Robinson will be teaching the class tomorrow and is finalizing the lesson.  By the way, in sacrament meeting they announced that this week they will be making three wards out of two wards.  Since our ward is one that will be broken up, we are anxious to attend sacrament meeting tomorrow just to see and feel how the church continues to grow here.  The boundaries will actually split the senior couples into two different wards, but our mission president, President Jameson, is suggesting that we continue to attend the same ward since our memberships aren’t here anyway.

               Monday started as normal with a devotional at the S&I (Seminaries and Institute) building.  This devotional is held every Monday at 8:00 am for church employees in S&I, construction, finance, and temporal affairs.  It lasts just less than an hour, but what a wonderful way to start each week.  I love the way the hymns are sung not just in this meeting but in all the meetings.  The spirit is so strong and we get a feel for the members as they present a spiritual thought (talk).  We then open the PEF Center which is in the same building.  The posted hours for the Center are 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, but so far we are there by 8:00 and it is closer to 4:30 or a little past before we get everyone pushed out.  We have two wonderful young volunteers who help us and keep the Center open when we have other meetings or appointments.  Boris Kabeya and Dieumerci Kalonji have just been amazing to help us.  I love some of the names like Dieumerci meaning thank God.  I can now say Kabeya and Kalonji but most African names still just fly over my head.  Laraine does so much better than I. 

 

Laraine is at her desk keeping everything going. The bottom picture shows Kebeya and Kalonji helping  participants.  They are the two nearest the back wall on both sides of the table.

 

 

 

 

 

              Every Monday, we have a meeting with Tommy Muhemedy, the Area Finance Manager, to go over the funding of PEF loans, payments, and our budget in running the Center.  I am grateful that Tommy goes by Tommy which is easier than President Muhemedy (he is 1^st counselor in the Kinshasa Stake).  This meeting is so helpful because we need to understand the process of handling the PEF loans and finances, but also because banking in DR-Congo is not like anything I have seen before.  I went to the bank to cash a check Monday so we would have cash to take to one school to pay a student’s tuition at a school that doesn’t have a bank account to wire funds into.  They wanted my Congolese driver’s license or passport to cash the check.  I only had a temporary driver’s license and they wouldn’t accept that.  Our mission president has told us not to carry our original passport but only a color copy of the passport and visa.  They didn’t want to accept that.  I didn’t know what I was going to do.  Luckily, I was told that because I had made a photo copy of my passport that they could keep, they would let me cash the check this one time only.  I was grateful when my permanent driver’s license came through on Friday. 

 

 

 

              There were only two tellers (cashiers) and they have a chair for you to sit down while they help you.  I had to sign the back of the check once to endorse it and a second time to acknowledge the receipt of the cash.  The teller had to manually fill out several forms, run them through the machine, stamp them and I don’t know what all.  It took me over 30 minutes to cash a single check.  With driving and traffic, I was probably close to 1 ½ hours just to go to the bank.

               Also Monday, I met with Russel Mbaya (again one of the easier names, and yes I spelled Russel right), Area Director (Africa Southeast-West) for Employment Resource Center to talk over two schools that needed to be approved for PEF and to make sure participants had done the proper research into schools and jobs before submitting an application for a PEF loan.  Pitshou Banguminga Kamalandua is the assistant director and a great one to work with too but gives you an idea of the names we deal with.  I’m glad we just call him “peet shoe.”

               Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked mostly from at the Center going through files, learning programs and procedures, working with students, sending lots of emails, and trying to learn what we are doing.  Laraine actually went with Sister Billings on Wednesday to make a presentation to the Mont Ngafula stake family history coordinator and the area FH coordinator.  They took Kalonji with them to translate and had to travel to the Mont Ngafula stake center which is quite a drive in itself.  They didn’t get back till 5:00 pm so I kept the Center open till they got back.  I don’t think there were any participants there making loan applications, but because most of our students can’t afford computers and some don’t have electricity in their homes, they come and use our PEF computers for their school/studies.   We let them use the computers if no one is there to complete a PEF application.  When we leave after 4:30, the traffic is worse in getting back to our apartment so we still got home just before 6:00.

               Thursday, Laraine and Sister Billings had another Family History meeting with the Director of the Family History Center and his assistant.  Sister Billings had been trying to get priesthood leaders more involved in Family History because she loves family history and she has time when her husband is teaching and working with the construction students.  Laraine is hoping she will be able to help Sister Billings as the members here prepare for the new temple.  The family history center director stopped by our office and you can just feel his excitement as we talk about the temple and helping members be ready to take their families, living and dead, to the temple.  I think we mentioned that they told us where the temple is going to be located.  It is on the large property the Church already owns, one which the Kinshasa Stake Center and the S&I building (where our center is located) sit.  There is a big area, at least by Congolese standards, that is vacant and large enough for a small temple. 

 

The Kinshasa Stake Center is over my right shoulder.  The S&I Building is on the right side of the photo.  The PEF Center is in that building.  The temple will be somewhere where I am standing.

 

 

 

             Brother Bonnet, when he was here, went over the property and laid out where the temple can sit, where patron lodging can be located, and how they might add onto the S&I building for a distribution center.  As we talked to our mission president, we know that he is trying to make the case to also have an MTC.  Right now, the process to obtain a visa to go to the MTC in Ghana is cumbersome, costly, and time consuming.

               Thursday, I had my first experience of visiting the Director/Owner of one of the schools a participant want to attend to straighten out a financial problem in paying for the student.  I took Kabeya along to make sure we could find our way and to keep me out of trouble.  The student is now attending school with the help of PEF, but she was the first missionary or the first sister missionary from the DR-Congo.  She is pretty amazing and now trying to get the training in computer data entry to improve her life.  We thought Kabeya could get us close and then she could get us to the school.  Well, it didn’t work out that way.  We got close, but the student has to take the transport (like a taxi but fairly inexpesive) to a drop off and then walk.  She cuts through some blocks where there aren’t roads so going where she thought we could go only got us to a dead end.  We had to call the Owner to get directions and even waited on a corner for him to come and show us the last little way.  I wish I had taken a camera to show the area, the school, and to have a picture of the student.

 

               These are not pictures of that day, but these are pictures of the Transports that stop just off the Place in front of our building.  I took the pictures from our apartment.  I hope they give an idea of just what transportation is for so many here in Kinshasa.  The Transports are vans where all seats behind the driver have been taken out and replaced with 4 rows of boards (they look like 2X6s) so they can seat more people.  If you look closely in the van with the back door open, you can see the board seats.   Each row will hold 4 people but sometimes you will see people hanging out the door.

 

 

In this picture, you can see someone hanging out the door of the Transport pulling away.  I think he is actually a coconductor.  The drivers usually have someone with them to handle money, to let him know when to stop to let people on or pick people up, and to help force way through traffic.  I must say that you have to watch out for Transports because they don't obey any traffic rules.  They just want to get where they need to go as fast as they can.  They will make left hand turns from the far right lane and across on coming traffic when the left turn light is red.  I can understand why so many of them look like they have been through the a war.

               Friday was a good day.  I even took time to tell Kabeya about our great Star Valley.  I even pulled up the Star Valley Chamber web site hoping it would show some beautiful pictures but didn’t get too much.  I have found people from the Congo have no idea where Wyoming is.  Farming as we do it is totally foreign to them.  I even tried to bring up pictures of baling equipment and bales of hay for Kabeya.  I don’t think he got the picture.

               Today, we went shopping at City Market by ourselves.  It is always good to get the first time alone over so that we feel more comfortable.  We went early to be there when it opened at 8:00 am which was good.  Parking wasn’t a problem and there weren’t all the people there trying to beg or sell something.  Now we are home taking care of wash, cleaning, and our email and blog. 

 

               I have been facinated looking out our window watching what goes on down below.  It is interestly to see what I might call the two different economies here. You have the main business district of Kinshasa representing those who have jobs which goes down Trente Juin (the name of the main boulevard in the city named "30 June" for their independence day).

 

 

              We told you that 85-90% of the people are unemployed, but they make up part of what I might call the street economy.  This is all that goes on along the streets.  People sell whatever they can to make something to subsist on.  They sell bread, fruit, sodas, tissues, shoe shines, phone cards, or even beg.  They don't call it employment because they aren't emlployed but will sell things they can grow, make or buy cheap enough that they can resell on the street to make some money.  This is how most live day to day.  And most carry their product on their head.  In the photos above, you can see some just on the side of the Transports carrying soda or something on their heads.  The picture below is just across the street where you see one who has just laid his goods on the ground and others who actually have unbrellas to give shelter from the sun.

 

 

             As you leave the business district, you find more just along the roads sometimes even getting together forming a marché.

 

 

 

              One more thing I have done today is exercise.  I must admit that during the week, I haven't had time to exercise so I tried to day.  And I wanted to show you the the great track that we have close at hand.  It is actually the roof of our building that extends out back of us from the floor below us and is about as boring as running around a small gym.  Laraine took my picture from our kitchen window as I jogged.  I must admit that it is getting hotter especially during the day.  I worked up a sweat.  That is the Congo River in the background.

 

 

               We will continue to keep you posted.  We hope all is well for everyone there. We are doing great and so happy to be here. It is great to see the church grow and feel the strength of the members and leaders here.