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.