Thoughts for the New Year

NEW YEAR’S THOUGHTS January 24, 2012
I haven’t written for a long time. My notes are cold, but I think I’d better get down what I can remember before it is forever lost. New Year’s Day, we went to Sikhendu to Church. The attendance was very poor and the meeting didn’t start until 10:35. We had three people besides ourselves and P. and the Br. Pres. They were a bit bleary eyed.

P. said he stayed up until late to “polish my shoes and get the dust of 2011 off them for they new year!” He and the others all complained that the Pentecostal Church people beat drums all night with loud singing and shouts of “Repent, repent, repent.” They said they couldn’t get any sleep and felt a bit miserable .

Just some tidbits:
* We drove down a narrow alley to take some materials—manuals to J. N. in Misikhu. Once we got down by his place, the alley narrowed, and it was difficult to turn around. We were immediately (as always) surrounded by probably 50 children and many adults. That made it even more difficult to turn around in the constricted area. Neal was concentrating on backing up, and the passenger side wheels slid in the mud into a pretty deep trench. He kind of gunned the truck to pull us out of the trench, when I noticed right in front of us was a tiny kid stark naked. To avoid the child, we got stuck even tighter. Finally, he was able to pull out while avoiding our 50 kids and one naked little boy!

*We took Pres K. home in Eldoret and got stuck again. Neal tried to pull us out and we slid into a cement wall covered with brush. Our front bumper looks slightly (well, more than slightly) askew!

*One of the members said in our discussion prior to her blessing, while speaking of the Millenium, “Just imagine, sitting down with a lion.” It was just funny, because many of these people can really relate to that image.

*When Neal has shown the picture of the baptismal font in the temple during his discussion with the patriarchal blessing candidates, one said, the font was supported by rhinos and the other said it was supported by antelope! They don’t relate to the term, oxen.

*The elders were discussing working in Chulu. It is a very hard, dry, poor area. It is a very difficult place to serve. They said, “In Chulu, women are always carrying water or firewood. It gets much heavier if you just stand and talk with them, but if you help them carry water, they will walk and talk with you, and that blesses you both!”

*Young elder speaking of the gospel helping him learn English: “When I went to high school, I felt my head was bursting. I couldn’t even find the restroom. In that time, I received much bullying. It was not a good time for me. I nearly gave up, and then I found the Church.

*PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL: One young pre-missionary came for a blessing and said in his prayer, “Thank you that I be faithful to be worthy of this blessing from you. Since I was young, I didn’t know I could have this blessing.”

*Almost every married woman who has come for a blessing without a husband with her is alone in life. It is shocking how many men leave their wives to fend for themselves without any means of support to raise the children.

BLESSINGS
We are swamped with blessings now people know we are leaving. We’ve had to turn some away. That makes us sad. We just can’t keep up with them and finish before we go home. Neal is averaging 6 a week. We had 6 last Tuesday, 8 on Sunday, and have 6 more this Sunday. It is a wonderful blessing for us. We love the people we visit with and are so grateful to be involved in their blessings. Time is marching on though. We have a week and a half left. We arrive home on a Wednesday and report Thursday to the Stake President and speak that weekend. So, it should be a busy week at home