Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Crazy, hectic, growing experiences!
Wow! I haven’t written since October 26. That tells you how crazy it has been. The last few weeks have probably been as busy as I can ever remember being—rivaling even putting on two weddings within 4 weeks of Christmas. That one is hard to beat, but this comes close.
I will try to pick up in October and hope I’m not repeating anything I wrote before. A member of the Dist Presidency said at conference that we members need to remain faithful, no matter whether we are living through the “clash, famine, or poverty.” I nearly wept. They have such hard lives.
SPECIAL CONFERENCE:
We were able to attend a special meeting October 29 with five general authorities and their wives. Elder Nelson, Elder Rasband, Elder Cook, Bishop Edgeley, Elder Watson. President Jackson, President of the Uganda Mission and of course, our president, President Broadbent. Only branch presidencies could attend the Priesthood Meeting on Saturday because the Church brought in branch presidencies from five countries to attend. Neal and I attended Nairobi Stake Conference Sunday, when Elder & Sister Nelson spoke again.
A special meeting was held at the request of Wendy Nelson for the women. I was so grateful to attend and to especially hear her talk, which gave me new insight I had not had previously. I enjoyed all of the talks, but was especially touched by hers.
I typed the whole Women’s Conference up for all the sisters, but I wanted to record here the main thrust I got from Sister Nelson. She told us we covenanted with the Lord before we left the pre-earth life to do certain things, and it is our responsibility here to prayerfully seek the Lord to know what those certain things were and to make sure we fulfill them during our sojourn here on the earth. I’m still mulling that over in my mind.
Elder Nelson said, “My expertise is WHOLE heart transplants. I encourage you all to practice the same. “ He also said, “We don’t do anything about the poverty here. We teach the gospel, and the people will pull themselves out of poverty.” $60,000 to bring leaders from 5 countries to be trained because it is so important. One elder in our mission received a package of candy from home that cost his parents $189. What are we thinking?
TANZANIA
We left the conference and traveled across the border into Tanzania. THAT WAS AN EXPERIENCE. We thought we had made all the arrangements necessary to make the crossing. We had sent in our passports early to the office to get our Visas and planned to leave EARLY Monday morning. Imagine our chagrin to find Monday morning that we had to have a certificate showing we had insurance on the car, we had to have several different kinds of documentation proving that we were legitimate travelers, we had to have a first aid kit in the car and a fire extinguisher (neither of which we had in Nairobi). So, we had to go shopping Monday morning when the store opened, and then had to wait around until all the paperwork was arranged. We finally left about noon.
We were nervous about making the right turn to head to Tanzania because the traffic is so bad and the turn is not marked. We were also VERY nervous about the border crossing, just because it is so chaotic at the borders. Thankfully, James in the office, had a laminated instruction sheet of the 8 different buildings and desks we needed to stop at to get all of our documentation stamped and ready to make the crossing.
The place was so busy with trucks and vendors and animals and soooo many people—buses and you name it. Everywhere we went, we were accosted by Masai women with their long-holed earlobes filled with beads, and necklaces that were so heavy and full that they stretched their necks. They are very aggressive with different ideas of personal space than we have. I don’t like being in situations like that when they push into you to try to get you to buy, and they are so competitive with each other.
We liked Tanzania (what we saw) because it seemed so much cleaner than we are used to. More than that, we loved all the Masai people on the roads. We could be in the most remote, desolate areas, and there would be a little tiny toddler walking along by itself, or several costumed women in their bright colors. Of course, the men were the most beautiful. The Masai in the area we traveled wore bright red blankets with purple mantles across their shoulders. Many carried spears or canes. These people aren’t actors…they are the actual villagers. We could see their bomas off the roadsides—not for public tourists.
We arrived at the R.’s apartment in Arusha after making our way through town. Every time we came to a stop light….a real stop light. We don’t even have stop signs where we serve. Anyway, when we stopped at the light, teen boys and young men ran at us with squirt bottles and cloths to wash our windshield—even though we had had it washed at the last light…they were not happy when we didn’t want to pay them again for what we had just had a block before.
Arusha is much more modern (although still pretty rough) than where we serve. People are dressed better, and we saw real outdoor cafes and modern buildings. The R’s live in a highrise flat (I think there are 80 steps they climb when the power fails). It is a small apartment with 2 bedrooms, but a very, very tiny one man kitchen and small adjoining dining/living room. We LOVED our visit with the R’s. They are from Idaho Falls and know many people that we love there including G.M., who taught me so much about doing plays and roadshows when we lived there. They even knew of the M. twins and of our son-in-law.
The R’s are so talented. He was an electronics/video expert in his former life. She built treehouses and a fantastic castle (2 stories) in her basement for her grandkids. We saw pictures of it. It is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE. They taught for the big regional dance festivals for several years, so they are quite the dancers. They have ideas just flowing out of their brains. She and I just bonded like crazy. We understood each other and could fill in ideas for one another. We just loved them. We went to Ngorogoro Animal Park. It must have been an off-season, because we didn’t see many animals and were sorely disappointed in the whole thing. We did it in one day, leaving early in the morning and finishing late. We were glad we did it that way because it was so much cheaper, and we really would have felt badly if we had paid more.
We enjoyed going to their Swahili class with them and just traveling around their area. Neal was really anxious to see Mt. Kilamanjaro, but as usual (they tell us) the top is not seen. We did get good views of Mt. Miro, and it is an impressive mountain as well.
Sister R. taught us a music game: Savey tu pase la ri la ra la re, Savey tu, pase, la ri, la ra la re. You pass bottle caps as you sing. It was so fun. We played it with the elders who came from FHE. We shopped a little bit at their cultural center, but I don’t think we bought much.
We returned home through Amboseli Animal Park, where we saw probably 200 elephants. They live in a marsh there, and you can drive over a dugway through the swamp that puts you almost within touching them. Neal really likes the elephants, so that was a treat for him. Again, we were swamped with Masai women selling their wares when we stepped out at the Park gate to use the restroom.
We returned to Nairobi through traffic you cannot believe—particularly in the construction area. The wind was blowing dust, and cars were cutting each other off everywhere. The matatu drivers are very, very aggressive and follow NO rules! It is pretty terrifying. That was one of our worst driving experiences, and it was partly our fault, because we were in rush hour (we know better) and it was getting dark. We were squeezed between two buses (they look like rusted tin cans because they’ve been battered so much). One of them pushed into us and scrunched our side and took off the mirror. We were so glad to get to the flat. We stayed at the “nest” in Nairobi that night, and returned home the next day.
P. had told me his wife (who is a wonderful seamstress) would like to make the costumes for the December activities. I’m such a control freak, it was very difficult for me to let her take that assignment because it is so important to the success of the activity. I agreed finally, and she said she would have them done (150 of them) by Thanksgiving, when we return.
We got home in time for General Conference showing in each of our branches. They get tapes of the event about 6 weeks after it actually happens. It was lovely to sit and listen to the talks.
SOME THOUGHTS
The members explained that in a polygamous home, a child does not exist until the father “recognizes” him or her. That has really caused me some thought. What a different concept to have the gospel when we know that we are CHILDREN OF GOD from before conception, and that we are some of the “noble and great ones”.
A laborer here working in the fields with a hoe makes 100 ksh a day--$1. June, July, August and September are the hungry months when they wait for harvest in October. Our guard here at the compound makes 65 ksh a day.
CRAB THEORY: If you get a can and collect crabs in the bottom, you will find that as one tries to climb out, the others will pull him back so that he can never get ahead. We struggle in our area with the Crab Theory.
When Elder and Sister R. came here to help us with the Sem Super Activity (we absolutely could not have done it without them) We will be eternally grateful to them for traveling here to help us. We took them around to all 5 of our branches. They have a very difficult mission because they have to learn to speak Swahili. It is very hard for them. He said after going on our roads (and they weren’t muddy at the time), “I thought we really had a hard mission until I came up here and saw what the Beechers are doing. My mission isn’t hard at all. I will never complain.” At the Thanksgiving Conference, one of the couples, who had visited us said, “Beechers live on national Geographic roads day in and day out. We have it soft.” Another Elder said, “If you are not havin’ fun, you are not livin’ the gospel.”
The H’s came home from the Hills where they serve. They were very late. They said there were 51 cars on the off ramp waiting for the President to go through.” The couples were talking about staying at Hunter’s Lodge. They said that when they arrived, the proprietors said, “We need to warn you, we are short on water.” The couple said, “That’s okay, we’ll just have a quick shower.” The proprietor said, “That really won’t be possible, because you see, we have NO water.” They got one bucket for the night and 2 for the morning. They recommended everyone go see it, but not to stay there.
If you get a ticket and there is no receipt or if it is written in a steno book, be concerned.
Getting Genealogy Information:
We asked our pre-missionary class to take some pedigree charts and blank family group sheets to their oldest relatives. One of our star class members V.K. (see earlier blog), returned to class to tell us his grandmother (a polygamous wife), was very upset with him because she told him, “You must not ask about these people who have gone before. If you do so, they will come back to haunt us.”
A DEATH & BURIAL
A married sister who lives far from here, died of toxemia this week. She leaves 5 other young children and the new baby. When she married her husband (both are active in the Church. She was the R.S. President in her branch), he did not pay dowry for her. Her father has been angry about this ever since. He demanded that he be able to have her body to bury in a rented plot near his home in our area.
Her husband owns some land where he and his wife lived together, and he wanted her body to be interred near his children. The husband and father had a huge fight about it. The father colluded with a matatu driver to take the body/casket on top of the matatu and steal it so he could bury his daughter near him. He said that traditionally that is his right because the husband did not pay dowry for her at the wedding.
ADOPTION:
Some African friends are trying to adopt a baby. They are thrilled that this week they were able to find one. It is a little girl. They went to an orphanage and picked her from 6 babies under the age of 6 months. The law here states that a child cannot be adopted until it is 6 months old. This baby is 4 months old. She is in an orphanage in our area. The orphanage will move the baby to another orphanage within 3 kilometers of Nairobi where our friends live. That way the wife can visit the baby every day if she wishes until the baby turns 6 months and will be free to be adopted.
PATRIARCHAL BLESSINGS
President BB asked Neal to give blessings to 3 more Ethiopian elders. When they come on their missions, they do not go through the MTC. Therefore, they arrive without having received their blessings. We had a marvelous spiritual experience working with those sweet, humble young men. We have a special place in our hearts for Ethiopian and Madagascan elders. They just are so innocent and so open. It was really a blessing to us to be able to participate in that experience. President said that one of them (now an assistant) said when he first arrived, “I will do what Heavenly Father wants me to do, and I will become what heavenly Father wants me to become.” This same elder and his companion did not like being behind a computer as the Assistants. They asked if they could be assigned an area while they were serving as Assistants. They went into a city and 4 weeks later had 18 baptisms. That branch now has 50 people attending.
We have 9,000 eligible young men in S.E. Africa. Of them only 10% or 900 have been ordained. In our mission we have 676 total potential Aaronic Priesthood holders. Only 10% have been ordained.
When we went to Eldoret to decorate on Friday and put on the Super Saturday, we also met with 8 people for Patriarchal Blessings. To get into the new church building there, you must drive down a road for about ¼ block. They are paving it. They do so by laying a thick bed of sharp rocks firmly packed together. You cannot drive on them because it would puncture your tires. We had to take a terrible, cavernous muddy road clear around the back of the Church property. The road wound through an old colonial cemetery. We got out and read the headstones. It was so interesting. We found an Elbert, and one headstone that said the man went to sleep here.
Everywhere we go, kids surround us. We thought we were in an isolated place there in the cemetery, and that we could just peacefully look around. Uhuh!. We must have had 20 people surrounding us before we left. Some of the little kids (8-9 yr olds) reached up to touch my hand and my clothes. They were in rags and barefooted of course. But, there were adults in the crowd as well. They wanted money. We finally left.
We drove beyond the cemetery and came to the outer edge of the Church compound. Some workmen laborers were hauling dirt from one end of the compound (outside the fence) to the other, one wheelbarrow full at a time. Two of them approached our car, rubbing their stomachs and lifting their hands in a gesture of wanting money. Muzungus mean money. They also showed us 4 cobra eggs they said they had found near the fence. They looked like bird eggs to me. What do we know?
They were very persistent and followed us all the way along the fence almost demanding that we give them money, until we went into the gate. When we returned later in the day, they were still there and had washed the car. We had the Br. Pres with us (thankfully)at that time. We explained that we were staying at a hotel that provided free carwash to us, and we had not asked them to do so. They were angry and demanded that we pay. Br. Pres told us not to do so.
The next day when we returned again to do more patriarchal blessings, they were back and just as demanding as before. Again, the branch president came to our rescue. He told them that they were inappropriate and extorting money. He didn’t use those words, but that was what happened.
COUPLES’ CONFERENCE
We had talked a month ago with the H’s in the nest to see if we could stay with them during the couples’ conference. We were concerned because we knew we had to stay a bit longer than just the conference time. They graciously invited us to do so. Every couple in the nest (6 apartments) had visitors. Just before we arrived, we found out that Elder H was having Kidney Stone problems or some kind of problem. They weren’t sure just what. As it turned out, he did have to have a stone blasted while we were there. Poor man! I sympathized greatly with him.
We had some assignments with the conference. I was in charge of the program for Thanksgiving afternoon and evening, and we both were asked to serve on a panel discussing ways to strengthen the branches. We had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings. We had lovely food and wonderful company at the BB’s house. We asked each individual to respond to 7 questions with 2 words each. 1. Describe yourself. (driven, organized) 2. Describe your spouse. (spiritually obedient, kind) 3. Name 2 pet peeves. (people who crowd in line & claustrophobic situations) 4. Name 2 goals you had in the past that you have accomplished. (publicly perform “Rhapsody in Blue” & Master’s degree 5. Name 2 things on your bucket list. (See all grandkids in temple, Phd) 6. Name two things that bring you great joy. (gospel & family). We interspersed this activity with caroling. It went well we think.
The comment that brought tears to our eyes was given by E. S. He and his wife just arrived here in the mission. They live in a beautiful—gorgeous valley in Wyoming. They serve in one of the physically most difficult areas in the mission—desert—poverty—snakes—poor housing for them—and he is just one of the most humble men I’ve ever met. He humbly commented: “We feel so blessed to serve where we serve. We feel we have left the lone and dreary world and come to the Garden of Eden.” We couldn’t believe him. They hate crowds and never want to come to Nairobi again.
The next day we had a spiritual conference with all the couples. The panel was really enlightening. One of the panelist said the members tell them, “It is easier to come late to Church because we don’t know how to do the things they will ask us to do, like give talks or teach a class. We don’t bring our scriptures because we will get called on to give an extemporaneous talk.” That was insightful.
Our dear friends, the B’s went home after completing their missions. We felt absolutely bereft in having them go. They have been so kind to us and been so supportive. We will dearly miss them.
SEMINARY and INSTITUTE ASSIGNMENTS
On Oct 22, I gave every branch president (8 of them), every teacher (35 of them), and every CES Supervisor (5 of them) a packet of information including a calendar, and a time line for the next 2 months regarding manual distribution, enrollment forms, class rolls, and the Super Saturday Youth Conferences in Kitale and Eldoret. I asked them to return the enrollment forms and the lists of their new teachers for next year in 30 days, on Nov 22, just before we left for Thanksgiving in Nairobi.
We were able to get the materials back in that month from almost all of the units in Kitale. One branch president took a few more days. Eldoret is still working on it, but it should be all in soon. This has been absolutely so hard and so crazy.
We picked up all the manuals for over 400 students in October in Nairobi, and then Neal sorted and organized them for distribution to the branch presidencies the first week in December. We also imputed all the names into the computer to create the rolls for next year so we would know how many manuals each teacher needed. The 2nd Saturday in December we had our first Super Saturday.
Tuesday night before Saturday, I check on the costumes again to make sure they would all be brought for the event in 3 days. I found that they were not done, and I needed to create about 130 more in 3 days. I spent a very tearful and sleepless night. Some of the costumes had sequins sewn on the headbands. This was very time consuming, and I felt overwhelmed (even though these costumes that I threw together were very simple—no sewing machine available). That morning we had a miracle—a huge thing for me. Two months earlier our children had plotted to send us an envelope and small gift for every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That morning we opened the envelope to find 4 tubes of glitter glue. I just cried. The Lord knew 2 months earlier that I would need that glitter glue. It took the place of tediously sewing on strips of sequins, and was so fast! It was miraculous. I felt the Lord to be with me totally.
We drove down to B.Nd and gave her some money to buy 56 meters of cloth to make all the neckerchiefs. 270 ksh each, 14 meters in each color. Then I started tearing and measuring. It was absolutely crazy!
Our Super Saturday, complete with 4 Prophets dressed and carrying banners met the kids at the gate, directed them to registration, sent them on to play an Old Testament picture identification game, then on to the Keynote Address on the theme: “Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The talk was awesome. We sang “Follow the Prophet” and “Armies of Helaman”, then the kids followed their prophet to one of 4 rooms which contained a basket with costumes and props so they could portray: Noah, Moses & the 10 Plagues, Baby Moses, and Joshua and Jericho. Following the skits (15 minutes each), they went to lunch: a loaf of bread each, a banana, and a pop. Then group pictures, and rotation of 4 activities. Elder and Sister R. came to help teach a workshop on dance—Polka and another round dance, Elder and Sister B. came to do the tug o’war, we had the Bunny hop, Chicken Dance, and Hokey Pokey in the Primary room, and sack races out on the lawn. We ended up with a wonderful testimony with only youth participating.
The keynote address was excellent. Our boss spoke of his life in the slums. His father raised him when his mother died leaving a tiny baby and 6 kids. The custom is that when a wife dies, her family determines which of the single women in the family will be given him as a replacement. The children of the deceased wife are then sent away to live with the maternal grandmother for the rest of their growing up years. The father has no responsibility to contribute any more financially to their upbringing or education.
He told how proud he was that his father broke with tradition and determined to raise his children himself without marrying again. He said his father felt education was very important although he wasn’t educated himself. He said his father experienced great persecution for his decision in breaking taboo and was told that they would all die because of it. He said he and his siblings now completely care for their father (who is our age), and that he lives better than he has ever lived in his life. He talked about how hard it was to live in the slums of Nairobi with little food and lots of peer pressure to do bad things. He works as our paid CES supervisor, his brother teaches at the University of George at Atlanta, and he has another brother who is a pastor of the Pentecostal Church.
He told of his struggles with his mom’s death and how God could let that happen. He said all his environment taught him was to be a thug and use drugs. His dad joined the Church, and that changed his life. He served a mission and went to school.
The next Saturday, 3 days ago, we repeated the whole thing in Eldoret. That experience was much harder because we didn’t know the people and didn’t have the opportunity to train the prophets before we got there. That event was a shared experience with another couple. It works better I think when each couple can organize their own activity. We were trying to implement an activity and neither couple had complete ownership of it. It is good to learn new things though, and this whole two weeks has been a huge learning experience.
We returned home just exhausted from Eldoret to prepare our talks for Sunday and our preparation for helping the Primary with a costumed nativity. A member of the Mission Presidency was also speaking. He was so affirming of Neal, saying he felt he was a holy man of God and what a blessing it was for us to have him here to help us with Patriarchal Blessings. The people here in our area do not know what patriarchal blessings are, even after he gave the talk. It was nice to hear him say so many nice things about Neal. I know he is great, but it is nice to hear others say the same of him.
PRIMARY NATIVITY
We went into Primary fully expecting to take the whole time to teach about the birth of Christ and prepare the kids with costumes to put on a nativity next Saturday. We were so thrilled to see M. and S. had already prepared the kids—had rudimentary costumes for them—had taught them the songs and helped them memorize a script. It was WONDERFUL. We couldn’t believe it!
Next Saturday, Christmas Eve, we will join with our 8 elders to put on a branch Christmas Party in Kitale. It will start at 10AM, with outdoor and indoor games going on at the same time: volleyball, sack races, balloon throw, etc, and Jeopardy and other inside games as well. Lunch at noon, and then the children’s nativity, and a program. Then the elders will go caroling to members, return to their flat for supper, and then come to our house for games and gift exchange.
Tomorrow night, Thursday, the 8 elders will come to our house for a Shepherd’s Supper and a movie on the nativity.
Sunday morning, we will have one-hour sacrament meeting, and then they will come to our house for a turkey, candlelit dinner, viewing a mission DVD, and having a devotional.
PATRIARCHAL BLESSINGS
In the middle of all of this we are working on completing 26 patriarchal blessings Pres K. gave us 2 weeks ago. Neal gave 3 of them in Nairobi, 8 of them last weekend squeezed in between the Super Saturday decorating and the actual event. We were going to have 7 more this weekend, but we just can’t do it. We called and postponed them to the weekend after Christmas.
HUMANITARIAN FLOOD RELIEF
We are also working on some flood relief. We distributed food and blankets for 140 people flooded in Kitale yesterday and have another batch to take to Mautuma on Friday. We took the goods to the Chief in the area on the outskirts of Kitale yesterday, and he assigned a man and woman to go with us to distribute them. That was a good thing.
We also had Pres. Ba. go with us. He is a big, tall handsome 30 yr old man with a commanding voice. We were really glad he was with us to speak Swahili and keep the peace. We arrived at the home where we were to give the first batch. It went well at first, but people just flooded the place—there were probably 100 people by the time we got the truck emptied, and at the last 3 women were fighting physically pulling on one of the last blankets.
REPLACEMENTS
We were thrilled to discover the name of our replacements. They live very close to us in Provo. We were able to talk with them and see them on SKYPE. We had heard that we may not have a replacement. We felt really badly about that because we worry about the people and the programs here. They need so much support even though they try so very hard. So we were thrilled to hear that this couple is coming. Unfortunately, we will not have any crossover time here, but hopefully we can meet with them in Utah.
They are coming 2 months after we leave. This will be their 4th mission: Netherlands, Surinam, Vietnam. We told them this will be a piece of cake for them. They seem very nice. They had a few questions, but not many---not like we were when we came, but then they are more seasoned than us.
We are devastated to hear that the airlines has just changed its policy and we can only take 2 bags a piece. We will never make it. They charge $140 for each bag. We are going to be in the poor house I can tell.
I will try to pick up in October and hope I’m not repeating anything I wrote before. A member of the Dist Presidency said at conference that we members need to remain faithful, no matter whether we are living through the “clash, famine, or poverty.” I nearly wept. They have such hard lives.
SPECIAL CONFERENCE:
We were able to attend a special meeting October 29 with five general authorities and their wives. Elder Nelson, Elder Rasband, Elder Cook, Bishop Edgeley, Elder Watson. President Jackson, President of the Uganda Mission and of course, our president, President Broadbent. Only branch presidencies could attend the Priesthood Meeting on Saturday because the Church brought in branch presidencies from five countries to attend. Neal and I attended Nairobi Stake Conference Sunday, when Elder & Sister Nelson spoke again.
A special meeting was held at the request of Wendy Nelson for the women. I was so grateful to attend and to especially hear her talk, which gave me new insight I had not had previously. I enjoyed all of the talks, but was especially touched by hers.
I typed the whole Women’s Conference up for all the sisters, but I wanted to record here the main thrust I got from Sister Nelson. She told us we covenanted with the Lord before we left the pre-earth life to do certain things, and it is our responsibility here to prayerfully seek the Lord to know what those certain things were and to make sure we fulfill them during our sojourn here on the earth. I’m still mulling that over in my mind.
Elder Nelson said, “My expertise is WHOLE heart transplants. I encourage you all to practice the same. “ He also said, “We don’t do anything about the poverty here. We teach the gospel, and the people will pull themselves out of poverty.” $60,000 to bring leaders from 5 countries to be trained because it is so important. One elder in our mission received a package of candy from home that cost his parents $189. What are we thinking?
TANZANIA
We left the conference and traveled across the border into Tanzania. THAT WAS AN EXPERIENCE. We thought we had made all the arrangements necessary to make the crossing. We had sent in our passports early to the office to get our Visas and planned to leave EARLY Monday morning. Imagine our chagrin to find Monday morning that we had to have a certificate showing we had insurance on the car, we had to have several different kinds of documentation proving that we were legitimate travelers, we had to have a first aid kit in the car and a fire extinguisher (neither of which we had in Nairobi). So, we had to go shopping Monday morning when the store opened, and then had to wait around until all the paperwork was arranged. We finally left about noon.
We were nervous about making the right turn to head to Tanzania because the traffic is so bad and the turn is not marked. We were also VERY nervous about the border crossing, just because it is so chaotic at the borders. Thankfully, James in the office, had a laminated instruction sheet of the 8 different buildings and desks we needed to stop at to get all of our documentation stamped and ready to make the crossing.
The place was so busy with trucks and vendors and animals and soooo many people—buses and you name it. Everywhere we went, we were accosted by Masai women with their long-holed earlobes filled with beads, and necklaces that were so heavy and full that they stretched their necks. They are very aggressive with different ideas of personal space than we have. I don’t like being in situations like that when they push into you to try to get you to buy, and they are so competitive with each other.
We liked Tanzania (what we saw) because it seemed so much cleaner than we are used to. More than that, we loved all the Masai people on the roads. We could be in the most remote, desolate areas, and there would be a little tiny toddler walking along by itself, or several costumed women in their bright colors. Of course, the men were the most beautiful. The Masai in the area we traveled wore bright red blankets with purple mantles across their shoulders. Many carried spears or canes. These people aren’t actors…they are the actual villagers. We could see their bomas off the roadsides—not for public tourists.
We arrived at the R.’s apartment in Arusha after making our way through town. Every time we came to a stop light….a real stop light. We don’t even have stop signs where we serve. Anyway, when we stopped at the light, teen boys and young men ran at us with squirt bottles and cloths to wash our windshield—even though we had had it washed at the last light…they were not happy when we didn’t want to pay them again for what we had just had a block before.
Arusha is much more modern (although still pretty rough) than where we serve. People are dressed better, and we saw real outdoor cafes and modern buildings. The R’s live in a highrise flat (I think there are 80 steps they climb when the power fails). It is a small apartment with 2 bedrooms, but a very, very tiny one man kitchen and small adjoining dining/living room. We LOVED our visit with the R’s. They are from Idaho Falls and know many people that we love there including G.M., who taught me so much about doing plays and roadshows when we lived there. They even knew of the M. twins and of our son-in-law.
The R’s are so talented. He was an electronics/video expert in his former life. She built treehouses and a fantastic castle (2 stories) in her basement for her grandkids. We saw pictures of it. It is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE. They taught for the big regional dance festivals for several years, so they are quite the dancers. They have ideas just flowing out of their brains. She and I just bonded like crazy. We understood each other and could fill in ideas for one another. We just loved them. We went to Ngorogoro Animal Park. It must have been an off-season, because we didn’t see many animals and were sorely disappointed in the whole thing. We did it in one day, leaving early in the morning and finishing late. We were glad we did it that way because it was so much cheaper, and we really would have felt badly if we had paid more.
We enjoyed going to their Swahili class with them and just traveling around their area. Neal was really anxious to see Mt. Kilamanjaro, but as usual (they tell us) the top is not seen. We did get good views of Mt. Miro, and it is an impressive mountain as well.
Sister R. taught us a music game: Savey tu pase la ri la ra la re, Savey tu, pase, la ri, la ra la re. You pass bottle caps as you sing. It was so fun. We played it with the elders who came from FHE. We shopped a little bit at their cultural center, but I don’t think we bought much.
We returned home through Amboseli Animal Park, where we saw probably 200 elephants. They live in a marsh there, and you can drive over a dugway through the swamp that puts you almost within touching them. Neal really likes the elephants, so that was a treat for him. Again, we were swamped with Masai women selling their wares when we stepped out at the Park gate to use the restroom.
We returned to Nairobi through traffic you cannot believe—particularly in the construction area. The wind was blowing dust, and cars were cutting each other off everywhere. The matatu drivers are very, very aggressive and follow NO rules! It is pretty terrifying. That was one of our worst driving experiences, and it was partly our fault, because we were in rush hour (we know better) and it was getting dark. We were squeezed between two buses (they look like rusted tin cans because they’ve been battered so much). One of them pushed into us and scrunched our side and took off the mirror. We were so glad to get to the flat. We stayed at the “nest” in Nairobi that night, and returned home the next day.
P. had told me his wife (who is a wonderful seamstress) would like to make the costumes for the December activities. I’m such a control freak, it was very difficult for me to let her take that assignment because it is so important to the success of the activity. I agreed finally, and she said she would have them done (150 of them) by Thanksgiving, when we return.
We got home in time for General Conference showing in each of our branches. They get tapes of the event about 6 weeks after it actually happens. It was lovely to sit and listen to the talks.
SOME THOUGHTS
The members explained that in a polygamous home, a child does not exist until the father “recognizes” him or her. That has really caused me some thought. What a different concept to have the gospel when we know that we are CHILDREN OF GOD from before conception, and that we are some of the “noble and great ones”.
A laborer here working in the fields with a hoe makes 100 ksh a day--$1. June, July, August and September are the hungry months when they wait for harvest in October. Our guard here at the compound makes 65 ksh a day.
CRAB THEORY: If you get a can and collect crabs in the bottom, you will find that as one tries to climb out, the others will pull him back so that he can never get ahead. We struggle in our area with the Crab Theory.
When Elder and Sister R. came here to help us with the Sem Super Activity (we absolutely could not have done it without them) We will be eternally grateful to them for traveling here to help us. We took them around to all 5 of our branches. They have a very difficult mission because they have to learn to speak Swahili. It is very hard for them. He said after going on our roads (and they weren’t muddy at the time), “I thought we really had a hard mission until I came up here and saw what the Beechers are doing. My mission isn’t hard at all. I will never complain.” At the Thanksgiving Conference, one of the couples, who had visited us said, “Beechers live on national Geographic roads day in and day out. We have it soft.” Another Elder said, “If you are not havin’ fun, you are not livin’ the gospel.”
The H’s came home from the Hills where they serve. They were very late. They said there were 51 cars on the off ramp waiting for the President to go through.” The couples were talking about staying at Hunter’s Lodge. They said that when they arrived, the proprietors said, “We need to warn you, we are short on water.” The couple said, “That’s okay, we’ll just have a quick shower.” The proprietor said, “That really won’t be possible, because you see, we have NO water.” They got one bucket for the night and 2 for the morning. They recommended everyone go see it, but not to stay there.
If you get a ticket and there is no receipt or if it is written in a steno book, be concerned.
Getting Genealogy Information:
We asked our pre-missionary class to take some pedigree charts and blank family group sheets to their oldest relatives. One of our star class members V.K. (see earlier blog), returned to class to tell us his grandmother (a polygamous wife), was very upset with him because she told him, “You must not ask about these people who have gone before. If you do so, they will come back to haunt us.”
A DEATH & BURIAL
A married sister who lives far from here, died of toxemia this week. She leaves 5 other young children and the new baby. When she married her husband (both are active in the Church. She was the R.S. President in her branch), he did not pay dowry for her. Her father has been angry about this ever since. He demanded that he be able to have her body to bury in a rented plot near his home in our area.
Her husband owns some land where he and his wife lived together, and he wanted her body to be interred near his children. The husband and father had a huge fight about it. The father colluded with a matatu driver to take the body/casket on top of the matatu and steal it so he could bury his daughter near him. He said that traditionally that is his right because the husband did not pay dowry for her at the wedding.
ADOPTION:
Some African friends are trying to adopt a baby. They are thrilled that this week they were able to find one. It is a little girl. They went to an orphanage and picked her from 6 babies under the age of 6 months. The law here states that a child cannot be adopted until it is 6 months old. This baby is 4 months old. She is in an orphanage in our area. The orphanage will move the baby to another orphanage within 3 kilometers of Nairobi where our friends live. That way the wife can visit the baby every day if she wishes until the baby turns 6 months and will be free to be adopted.
PATRIARCHAL BLESSINGS
President BB asked Neal to give blessings to 3 more Ethiopian elders. When they come on their missions, they do not go through the MTC. Therefore, they arrive without having received their blessings. We had a marvelous spiritual experience working with those sweet, humble young men. We have a special place in our hearts for Ethiopian and Madagascan elders. They just are so innocent and so open. It was really a blessing to us to be able to participate in that experience. President said that one of them (now an assistant) said when he first arrived, “I will do what Heavenly Father wants me to do, and I will become what heavenly Father wants me to become.” This same elder and his companion did not like being behind a computer as the Assistants. They asked if they could be assigned an area while they were serving as Assistants. They went into a city and 4 weeks later had 18 baptisms. That branch now has 50 people attending.
We have 9,000 eligible young men in S.E. Africa. Of them only 10% or 900 have been ordained. In our mission we have 676 total potential Aaronic Priesthood holders. Only 10% have been ordained.
When we went to Eldoret to decorate on Friday and put on the Super Saturday, we also met with 8 people for Patriarchal Blessings. To get into the new church building there, you must drive down a road for about ¼ block. They are paving it. They do so by laying a thick bed of sharp rocks firmly packed together. You cannot drive on them because it would puncture your tires. We had to take a terrible, cavernous muddy road clear around the back of the Church property. The road wound through an old colonial cemetery. We got out and read the headstones. It was so interesting. We found an Elbert, and one headstone that said the man went to sleep here.
Everywhere we go, kids surround us. We thought we were in an isolated place there in the cemetery, and that we could just peacefully look around. Uhuh!. We must have had 20 people surrounding us before we left. Some of the little kids (8-9 yr olds) reached up to touch my hand and my clothes. They were in rags and barefooted of course. But, there were adults in the crowd as well. They wanted money. We finally left.
We drove beyond the cemetery and came to the outer edge of the Church compound. Some workmen laborers were hauling dirt from one end of the compound (outside the fence) to the other, one wheelbarrow full at a time. Two of them approached our car, rubbing their stomachs and lifting their hands in a gesture of wanting money. Muzungus mean money. They also showed us 4 cobra eggs they said they had found near the fence. They looked like bird eggs to me. What do we know?
They were very persistent and followed us all the way along the fence almost demanding that we give them money, until we went into the gate. When we returned later in the day, they were still there and had washed the car. We had the Br. Pres with us (thankfully)at that time. We explained that we were staying at a hotel that provided free carwash to us, and we had not asked them to do so. They were angry and demanded that we pay. Br. Pres told us not to do so.
The next day when we returned again to do more patriarchal blessings, they were back and just as demanding as before. Again, the branch president came to our rescue. He told them that they were inappropriate and extorting money. He didn’t use those words, but that was what happened.
COUPLES’ CONFERENCE
We had talked a month ago with the H’s in the nest to see if we could stay with them during the couples’ conference. We were concerned because we knew we had to stay a bit longer than just the conference time. They graciously invited us to do so. Every couple in the nest (6 apartments) had visitors. Just before we arrived, we found out that Elder H was having Kidney Stone problems or some kind of problem. They weren’t sure just what. As it turned out, he did have to have a stone blasted while we were there. Poor man! I sympathized greatly with him.
We had some assignments with the conference. I was in charge of the program for Thanksgiving afternoon and evening, and we both were asked to serve on a panel discussing ways to strengthen the branches. We had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings. We had lovely food and wonderful company at the BB’s house. We asked each individual to respond to 7 questions with 2 words each. 1. Describe yourself. (driven, organized) 2. Describe your spouse. (spiritually obedient, kind) 3. Name 2 pet peeves. (people who crowd in line & claustrophobic situations) 4. Name 2 goals you had in the past that you have accomplished. (publicly perform “Rhapsody in Blue” & Master’s degree 5. Name 2 things on your bucket list. (See all grandkids in temple, Phd) 6. Name two things that bring you great joy. (gospel & family). We interspersed this activity with caroling. It went well we think.
The comment that brought tears to our eyes was given by E. S. He and his wife just arrived here in the mission. They live in a beautiful—gorgeous valley in Wyoming. They serve in one of the physically most difficult areas in the mission—desert—poverty—snakes—poor housing for them—and he is just one of the most humble men I’ve ever met. He humbly commented: “We feel so blessed to serve where we serve. We feel we have left the lone and dreary world and come to the Garden of Eden.” We couldn’t believe him. They hate crowds and never want to come to Nairobi again.
The next day we had a spiritual conference with all the couples. The panel was really enlightening. One of the panelist said the members tell them, “It is easier to come late to Church because we don’t know how to do the things they will ask us to do, like give talks or teach a class. We don’t bring our scriptures because we will get called on to give an extemporaneous talk.” That was insightful.
Our dear friends, the B’s went home after completing their missions. We felt absolutely bereft in having them go. They have been so kind to us and been so supportive. We will dearly miss them.
SEMINARY and INSTITUTE ASSIGNMENTS
On Oct 22, I gave every branch president (8 of them), every teacher (35 of them), and every CES Supervisor (5 of them) a packet of information including a calendar, and a time line for the next 2 months regarding manual distribution, enrollment forms, class rolls, and the Super Saturday Youth Conferences in Kitale and Eldoret. I asked them to return the enrollment forms and the lists of their new teachers for next year in 30 days, on Nov 22, just before we left for Thanksgiving in Nairobi.
We were able to get the materials back in that month from almost all of the units in Kitale. One branch president took a few more days. Eldoret is still working on it, but it should be all in soon. This has been absolutely so hard and so crazy.
We picked up all the manuals for over 400 students in October in Nairobi, and then Neal sorted and organized them for distribution to the branch presidencies the first week in December. We also imputed all the names into the computer to create the rolls for next year so we would know how many manuals each teacher needed. The 2nd Saturday in December we had our first Super Saturday.
Tuesday night before Saturday, I check on the costumes again to make sure they would all be brought for the event in 3 days. I found that they were not done, and I needed to create about 130 more in 3 days. I spent a very tearful and sleepless night. Some of the costumes had sequins sewn on the headbands. This was very time consuming, and I felt overwhelmed (even though these costumes that I threw together were very simple—no sewing machine available). That morning we had a miracle—a huge thing for me. Two months earlier our children had plotted to send us an envelope and small gift for every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That morning we opened the envelope to find 4 tubes of glitter glue. I just cried. The Lord knew 2 months earlier that I would need that glitter glue. It took the place of tediously sewing on strips of sequins, and was so fast! It was miraculous. I felt the Lord to be with me totally.
We drove down to B.Nd and gave her some money to buy 56 meters of cloth to make all the neckerchiefs. 270 ksh each, 14 meters in each color. Then I started tearing and measuring. It was absolutely crazy!
Our Super Saturday, complete with 4 Prophets dressed and carrying banners met the kids at the gate, directed them to registration, sent them on to play an Old Testament picture identification game, then on to the Keynote Address on the theme: “Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The talk was awesome. We sang “Follow the Prophet” and “Armies of Helaman”, then the kids followed their prophet to one of 4 rooms which contained a basket with costumes and props so they could portray: Noah, Moses & the 10 Plagues, Baby Moses, and Joshua and Jericho. Following the skits (15 minutes each), they went to lunch: a loaf of bread each, a banana, and a pop. Then group pictures, and rotation of 4 activities. Elder and Sister R. came to help teach a workshop on dance—Polka and another round dance, Elder and Sister B. came to do the tug o’war, we had the Bunny hop, Chicken Dance, and Hokey Pokey in the Primary room, and sack races out on the lawn. We ended up with a wonderful testimony with only youth participating.
The keynote address was excellent. Our boss spoke of his life in the slums. His father raised him when his mother died leaving a tiny baby and 6 kids. The custom is that when a wife dies, her family determines which of the single women in the family will be given him as a replacement. The children of the deceased wife are then sent away to live with the maternal grandmother for the rest of their growing up years. The father has no responsibility to contribute any more financially to their upbringing or education.
He told how proud he was that his father broke with tradition and determined to raise his children himself without marrying again. He said his father felt education was very important although he wasn’t educated himself. He said his father experienced great persecution for his decision in breaking taboo and was told that they would all die because of it. He said he and his siblings now completely care for their father (who is our age), and that he lives better than he has ever lived in his life. He talked about how hard it was to live in the slums of Nairobi with little food and lots of peer pressure to do bad things. He works as our paid CES supervisor, his brother teaches at the University of George at Atlanta, and he has another brother who is a pastor of the Pentecostal Church.
He told of his struggles with his mom’s death and how God could let that happen. He said all his environment taught him was to be a thug and use drugs. His dad joined the Church, and that changed his life. He served a mission and went to school.
The next Saturday, 3 days ago, we repeated the whole thing in Eldoret. That experience was much harder because we didn’t know the people and didn’t have the opportunity to train the prophets before we got there. That event was a shared experience with another couple. It works better I think when each couple can organize their own activity. We were trying to implement an activity and neither couple had complete ownership of it. It is good to learn new things though, and this whole two weeks has been a huge learning experience.
We returned home just exhausted from Eldoret to prepare our talks for Sunday and our preparation for helping the Primary with a costumed nativity. A member of the Mission Presidency was also speaking. He was so affirming of Neal, saying he felt he was a holy man of God and what a blessing it was for us to have him here to help us with Patriarchal Blessings. The people here in our area do not know what patriarchal blessings are, even after he gave the talk. It was nice to hear him say so many nice things about Neal. I know he is great, but it is nice to hear others say the same of him.
PRIMARY NATIVITY
We went into Primary fully expecting to take the whole time to teach about the birth of Christ and prepare the kids with costumes to put on a nativity next Saturday. We were so thrilled to see M. and S. had already prepared the kids—had rudimentary costumes for them—had taught them the songs and helped them memorize a script. It was WONDERFUL. We couldn’t believe it!
Next Saturday, Christmas Eve, we will join with our 8 elders to put on a branch Christmas Party in Kitale. It will start at 10AM, with outdoor and indoor games going on at the same time: volleyball, sack races, balloon throw, etc, and Jeopardy and other inside games as well. Lunch at noon, and then the children’s nativity, and a program. Then the elders will go caroling to members, return to their flat for supper, and then come to our house for games and gift exchange.
Tomorrow night, Thursday, the 8 elders will come to our house for a Shepherd’s Supper and a movie on the nativity.
Sunday morning, we will have one-hour sacrament meeting, and then they will come to our house for a turkey, candlelit dinner, viewing a mission DVD, and having a devotional.
PATRIARCHAL BLESSINGS
In the middle of all of this we are working on completing 26 patriarchal blessings Pres K. gave us 2 weeks ago. Neal gave 3 of them in Nairobi, 8 of them last weekend squeezed in between the Super Saturday decorating and the actual event. We were going to have 7 more this weekend, but we just can’t do it. We called and postponed them to the weekend after Christmas.
HUMANITARIAN FLOOD RELIEF
We are also working on some flood relief. We distributed food and blankets for 140 people flooded in Kitale yesterday and have another batch to take to Mautuma on Friday. We took the goods to the Chief in the area on the outskirts of Kitale yesterday, and he assigned a man and woman to go with us to distribute them. That was a good thing.
We also had Pres. Ba. go with us. He is a big, tall handsome 30 yr old man with a commanding voice. We were really glad he was with us to speak Swahili and keep the peace. We arrived at the home where we were to give the first batch. It went well at first, but people just flooded the place—there were probably 100 people by the time we got the truck emptied, and at the last 3 women were fighting physically pulling on one of the last blankets.
REPLACEMENTS
We were thrilled to discover the name of our replacements. They live very close to us in Provo. We were able to talk with them and see them on SKYPE. We had heard that we may not have a replacement. We felt really badly about that because we worry about the people and the programs here. They need so much support even though they try so very hard. So we were thrilled to hear that this couple is coming. Unfortunately, we will not have any crossover time here, but hopefully we can meet with them in Utah.
They are coming 2 months after we leave. This will be their 4th mission: Netherlands, Surinam, Vietnam. We told them this will be a piece of cake for them. They seem very nice. They had a few questions, but not many---not like we were when we came, but then they are more seasoned than us.
We are devastated to hear that the airlines has just changed its policy and we can only take 2 bags a piece. We will never make it. They charge $140 for each bag. We are going to be in the poor house I can tell.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
October 15, 2011, Saturday
An enduring memory:
I just finished typing the patriarchal blessings for two of our young men trying desperately to get their mission calls in. I am absolutely amazed at the opposition they face in every aspect of their young lives—particularly is this true when they try to prepare for a mission. Yesterday, we met with them for Neal to pronounce their patriarchal blessings. It was an experience I think I shall never forget.
First let me give you a little history. These boys live in a branch that is torn apart with many, many challenges, probably more than any other branch in the nine we have close association with. V.K. has been a member of the Church since about May of 2010. He spends part of his time with his parents in Nairobi and part here with his grandfather and several of the grandfather’s wives and families. His maternal aunt lives in the vicinity (I’m not sure where).
V. K. has a really strong testimony (it has had to be with all of the challenges he has faced). He really knows the gospel and is like a sponge, absorbing all we can give him. He takes our every assignment (in our missionary prep class) with great seriousness and completes all we ask him to do. He and B.M. (discussed later) go out several days a week to serve with the full-time missionaries. The Church is their lives in a very real sense. V. K. is the only member in his family. He faces opposition from both generations regarding his participation in the Church.
V.K. has been preparing for his mission almost since the day he was baptized. In that time, members from his branch have tried to dissuade him, his aunt has yelled at him and practically kicked him out of her house. His aunt and mom have done everything they could to stop him from serving a mission and his father (fathers have great power here) has told him he does not want him to serve and wants him to attend college instead.
Both of these boys have been trying since January to either earn enough money to get their passports/medicals/shots/police clearances—to say nothing of their clothes and suitcases (they haven’t done those things yet). They finally got the paperwork done, but it also required transport costs to get them to Eldoret and back for three trips. It has just been so frustrating to them. It would have discouraged any normal kid, but these boys a resilient…I admire them so much.
(We actually have 10 kids with the same challenges in our prep class, but unfortunately some of them don’t have their ID’s so they can’t even try to get their passports yet. And some struggle with testimony and other issues. We have 5 who are actually on the cusp of putting in their papers including these two).
B.M. is a big young man, who comes from a large family of boys. He is the 4th son of a polygamous father (no longer in the Church). Dad died last year. He follows two older brothers, who served missions, one of whom has been a br. Pres and is now no longer in the Church because of polygamy. B. M. wants so badly to serve a mission. He spoke almost no English when he began our class. His difficulty is compounded by a significant stuttering problem and slow thought processing.
Since he has been in class, one of his older brothers, a counselor in the Br Pres, has been tutoring him at night on assignment, by using the Bk of Mormon, and B.M. is speaking English much, much, much better. He is really quite amazing himself! He is one of the most humble, sweet, and kind young men I have ever met. He is just very obedient and gentle. So teachable.
We have found in class that when he has had time to think through a direct question, he gives PROFOUND answers…not just the run of the mill comment. He lives to serve as a branch missionary. Money is a huge problem here for all of the young men. Even to buy a birth certificate at about $1.25 is beyond them. Almost all of them have many days when they don’t eat because they just don’t have the money.
(speaking of that…as we drove along the road from their Church building yesterday, we saw tons of people (all ages) out along the highway gathering ants and putting them in their mouths and cups to eat.)
So, giving you that background, I return to the patriarchal blessings yesterday. When we arrived about five minutes early, both boys were waiting at the building (actually, B.M. had jumped the fence 45 earlier and was waiting in one of the downstairs classrooms) V. K. was sitting on the Church porch just shaking because he was so cold and had been there waiting 30 minutes for us.
This meeting place is a large 2-story cement structure. There are bars on all of the openings in it, but glass in very few of the rooms. It is like a huge, dirty, crumbling barn. There are big holes in the walls and ceiling. The flooring (cement) is broken and the walls are dirty and cracked. It would be a lovely haunted house.
It sits surrounded by maize fields and mud homes joined together (like a strip mall, but mud houses) on three sides. Birds fly through it all the time, and nest up in the open beams. The cement stairs leading up to the main meeting rooms are very steep and difficult to climb.
As we went into the choice of rooms for the blessing, I thought again as I often do, “how can we do this here? It is so dirty.” But, the boys began immediately to sweep it out (they are trained from mission prep, which we hold there every Monday morning). Because there is so much mud surrounding the building, the floors always need to be swept before meetings…and huge piles of mud are then pushed out and over the banisters onto the ground beneath.
Once swept, we pulled up the chairs and Neal began to talk with them about what patriarchal blessings are. This is new, virgin thought for them. As always, they just hunger for whatever we may offer. He didn’t get very far, when we heard a huge banging and drumming and yelling right underneath the building. This is usual on a Sunday, but not so much on weekdays.
The young men explained that a funeral was being held right under the window. We looked down, and sure enough, in front of one of the lines of row houses, the people had put up a torn cloth fly and put white plastic chairs under it. One of the attendees was playing a very large cylindrical drum. The other participants were yelping. It reminded us of an Indian Dance celebration in the U.S. because of the yelling and drumming. It was really loud.
We sent the boys on a foraging trip to see which room in the building would be the most quiet, but none worked because there is no glass in the windows. The sound stopped as they continued their worship service. So, having no other choice, we started taping for the blessing. We got about ½ through V.K.’s blessing, when they started yelling and drumming again. Neal just spoke louder.
The same experience occurred when we did B.M.’s blessing. It was just surreal. Dogs were barking, people were drumming, singing, and yelling, and in the middle, we heard a huge bang (like maybe someone had dropped a fridge off the banister from the floor where we were sitting). And there we are in that big barn of a place. Neal is giving this such spiritual blessing to this sweet young man, who is trying so hard and wants so much the blessings of the spirit. He was blessed with the statement that he will bless many with his “soft assurance” and I just thought, “It is such a contrast. They have so much to strive against. But, they have so much to offer. It is an honor to be among some of these faithful spirits.”
So, that is an experience which will remain deeply embedded in my mind. One of those cameo African memories.
We have been trying to follow our Miss Pres counsel to have food and water. We take his counsel very seriously.
A blessing for the sick:
Neal and I went with the branch president to give a blessing day before yesterday. She is a young woman—probably late 30s and pretty. She had dressed up for us coming. Her husband, a big handsome man, led us to their home. She is less-active and had been so for about 5 years and has entreated her family to follow her. She asked for this blessing, however. She has been sick for a month or two. She has been to the doctor and had blood tests and been given meds, but doesn’t get well. The blood tests indicate she has Malaria, Typhoid, and Bacillus? Malaria is caused by mosquitoes, typhoid from bad water, and they said Bacillus (I’m not sure that is what they called it) is from bad milk, fish, chickens, or other food. Anyway, she has been very sick. We had a good visit with them. They would be such a blessing if they would come back. They have four children.
Back to Church:
When I went to Church in S. for the first time since the surgery, at the break, the sisters gathered around to ask what was wrong. I explained kidney stones. They knew exactly what that was. I asked, “What happens here when you get kidney stones.” Without skipping a single beat, the all said in chorus, “You die! There is no way we can have surgery for that.”
When a young sister has a new baby, it is a custom for all the ladies to go and invite the new mother and child to come to Church. That occurred in our branch Saturday. The girl came with her mom and baby to Church. The baby is under a month old. I think the new mom is about 17. The Primary kids were out on the lawn playing with the baby in the grass. I didn’t know the sister had had the baby. so I went over to see what they had in the blanket. It is a really cute baby, and the mom had dressed it in a cute outfit.
An enduring memory:
I just finished typing the patriarchal blessings for two of our young men trying desperately to get their mission calls in. I am absolutely amazed at the opposition they face in every aspect of their young lives—particularly is this true when they try to prepare for a mission. Yesterday, we met with them for Neal to pronounce their patriarchal blessings. It was an experience I think I shall never forget.
First let me give you a little history. These boys live in a branch that is torn apart with many, many challenges, probably more than any other branch in the nine we have close association with. V.K. has been a member of the Church since about May of 2010. He spends part of his time with his parents in Nairobi and part here with his grandfather and several of the grandfather’s wives and families. His maternal aunt lives in the vicinity (I’m not sure where).
V. K. has a really strong testimony (it has had to be with all of the challenges he has faced). He really knows the gospel and is like a sponge, absorbing all we can give him. He takes our every assignment (in our missionary prep class) with great seriousness and completes all we ask him to do. He and B.M. (discussed later) go out several days a week to serve with the full-time missionaries. The Church is their lives in a very real sense. V. K. is the only member in his family. He faces opposition from both generations regarding his participation in the Church.
V.K. has been preparing for his mission almost since the day he was baptized. In that time, members from his branch have tried to dissuade him, his aunt has yelled at him and practically kicked him out of her house. His aunt and mom have done everything they could to stop him from serving a mission and his father (fathers have great power here) has told him he does not want him to serve and wants him to attend college instead.
Both of these boys have been trying since January to either earn enough money to get their passports/medicals/shots/police clearances—to say nothing of their clothes and suitcases (they haven’t done those things yet). They finally got the paperwork done, but it also required transport costs to get them to Eldoret and back for three trips. It has just been so frustrating to them. It would have discouraged any normal kid, but these boys a resilient…I admire them so much.
(We actually have 10 kids with the same challenges in our prep class, but unfortunately some of them don’t have their ID’s so they can’t even try to get their passports yet. And some struggle with testimony and other issues. We have 5 who are actually on the cusp of putting in their papers including these two).
B.M. is a big young man, who comes from a large family of boys. He is the 4th son of a polygamous father (no longer in the Church). Dad died last year. He follows two older brothers, who served missions, one of whom has been a br. Pres and is now no longer in the Church because of polygamy. B. M. wants so badly to serve a mission. He spoke almost no English when he began our class. His difficulty is compounded by a significant stuttering problem and slow thought processing.
Since he has been in class, one of his older brothers, a counselor in the Br Pres, has been tutoring him at night on assignment, by using the Bk of Mormon, and B.M. is speaking English much, much, much better. He is really quite amazing himself! He is one of the most humble, sweet, and kind young men I have ever met. He is just very obedient and gentle. So teachable.
We have found in class that when he has had time to think through a direct question, he gives PROFOUND answers…not just the run of the mill comment. He lives to serve as a branch missionary. Money is a huge problem here for all of the young men. Even to buy a birth certificate at about $1.25 is beyond them. Almost all of them have many days when they don’t eat because they just don’t have the money.
(speaking of that…as we drove along the road from their Church building yesterday, we saw tons of people (all ages) out along the highway gathering ants and putting them in their mouths and cups to eat.)
So, giving you that background, I return to the patriarchal blessings yesterday. When we arrived about five minutes early, both boys were waiting at the building (actually, B.M. had jumped the fence 45 earlier and was waiting in one of the downstairs classrooms) V. K. was sitting on the Church porch just shaking because he was so cold and had been there waiting 30 minutes for us.
This meeting place is a large 2-story cement structure. There are bars on all of the openings in it, but glass in very few of the rooms. It is like a huge, dirty, crumbling barn. There are big holes in the walls and ceiling. The flooring (cement) is broken and the walls are dirty and cracked. It would be a lovely haunted house.
It sits surrounded by maize fields and mud homes joined together (like a strip mall, but mud houses) on three sides. Birds fly through it all the time, and nest up in the open beams. The cement stairs leading up to the main meeting rooms are very steep and difficult to climb.
As we went into the choice of rooms for the blessing, I thought again as I often do, “how can we do this here? It is so dirty.” But, the boys began immediately to sweep it out (they are trained from mission prep, which we hold there every Monday morning). Because there is so much mud surrounding the building, the floors always need to be swept before meetings…and huge piles of mud are then pushed out and over the banisters onto the ground beneath.
Once swept, we pulled up the chairs and Neal began to talk with them about what patriarchal blessings are. This is new, virgin thought for them. As always, they just hunger for whatever we may offer. He didn’t get very far, when we heard a huge banging and drumming and yelling right underneath the building. This is usual on a Sunday, but not so much on weekdays.
The young men explained that a funeral was being held right under the window. We looked down, and sure enough, in front of one of the lines of row houses, the people had put up a torn cloth fly and put white plastic chairs under it. One of the attendees was playing a very large cylindrical drum. The other participants were yelping. It reminded us of an Indian Dance celebration in the U.S. because of the yelling and drumming. It was really loud.
We sent the boys on a foraging trip to see which room in the building would be the most quiet, but none worked because there is no glass in the windows. The sound stopped as they continued their worship service. So, having no other choice, we started taping for the blessing. We got about ½ through V.K.’s blessing, when they started yelling and drumming again. Neal just spoke louder.
The same experience occurred when we did B.M.’s blessing. It was just surreal. Dogs were barking, people were drumming, singing, and yelling, and in the middle, we heard a huge bang (like maybe someone had dropped a fridge off the banister from the floor where we were sitting). And there we are in that big barn of a place. Neal is giving this such spiritual blessing to this sweet young man, who is trying so hard and wants so much the blessings of the spirit. He was blessed with the statement that he will bless many with his “soft assurance” and I just thought, “It is such a contrast. They have so much to strive against. But, they have so much to offer. It is an honor to be among some of these faithful spirits.”
So, that is an experience which will remain deeply embedded in my mind. One of those cameo African memories.
We have been trying to follow our Miss Pres counsel to have food and water. We take his counsel very seriously.
A blessing for the sick:
Neal and I went with the branch president to give a blessing day before yesterday. She is a young woman—probably late 30s and pretty. She had dressed up for us coming. Her husband, a big handsome man, led us to their home. She is less-active and had been so for about 5 years and has entreated her family to follow her. She asked for this blessing, however. She has been sick for a month or two. She has been to the doctor and had blood tests and been given meds, but doesn’t get well. The blood tests indicate she has Malaria, Typhoid, and Bacillus? Malaria is caused by mosquitoes, typhoid from bad water, and they said Bacillus (I’m not sure that is what they called it) is from bad milk, fish, chickens, or other food. Anyway, she has been very sick. We had a good visit with them. They would be such a blessing if they would come back. They have four children.
Back to Church:
When I went to Church in S. for the first time since the surgery, at the break, the sisters gathered around to ask what was wrong. I explained kidney stones. They knew exactly what that was. I asked, “What happens here when you get kidney stones.” Without skipping a single beat, the all said in chorus, “You die! There is no way we can have surgery for that.”
When a young sister has a new baby, it is a custom for all the ladies to go and invite the new mother and child to come to Church. That occurred in our branch Saturday. The girl came with her mom and baby to Church. The baby is under a month old. I think the new mom is about 17. The Primary kids were out on the lawn playing with the baby in the grass. I didn’t know the sister had had the baby. so I went over to see what they had in the blanket. It is a really cute baby, and the mom had dressed it in a cute outfit.
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