The senior missionaries make us welcome

We have completed three weeks in the Congo. We met the Mission President the night we arrived. He was doing his maiden "airport" pickup. He had with him three couples along with his wife. The next day President and Sister Cook got on a plane to visit some of the far-flung parts of his mission followed by a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa for a meeting of all the mission presidents serving in the Africa Southeast Area. They returned Sunday or Monday and invited the senior missionaries to dinner, something he said they like to do the day after a couple arrives but they were unable to do because of their own very hectic schedule. This dinner was marvelous, chicken, oven roasted potatoes, coleslaw, petite peas and onions, with chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.

Mark described the first four days in Kinshasa as follows:

"President Cook and wife and the couples took turns hosting us to wonderful meals. Wednesday, President Cook and his wife picked us up at our "doorstep" and took us to their apartment. We told the mission president about son Michael coming from Arizona see us before we left and going to our setting apart, and giving the prayer. He was very happy for us. They fed us dinner, and it was really good. It turns out that President Cook was on a mission with me in Paris in 1969-71. He actually arrived in 1970. One apartment that he stayed in was in Nogent-sur-Marne in Paris. It was a chapel on the ground floor, and missionary quarters on the second/third floor. I lived in it just prior to him being there. He mentioned that there was a Dutchman and his family living there on the third floor, who was a Church Physical Facilities employee assigned to oversee chapel construction on the grounds.

It all came back to me then that my companion and I lived on the third floor there, and that when the Dutch family arrived, we were displaced to the second floor. One of the things that came from that was that the apartment, which was always chilly became very comfortable, because the man knew how to maintain the furnaces, a great boon to us. I told Pres. Cook that the Dutchman told us that his wife wanted us to come to dinner the week after they arrived, and what did we want to eat? I said "Pot au feu" (pot roast). He replied that he didn't know what that was, but they would find out and serve it to us. They did, and it was excellent. Well it turns out that the dinner that Sis. Cook prepared for us was also an excellent pot au feu with tender beef roast, moist delicious potatoes, and really well-cooked carrots all in a sweet gravy.
 
It was most interesting to talk about those old days and mutual friends, particularly Bruce Brown. We also had Belgian bread and butter, with jam and honey, fresh salad with Knorr Greek dressing and chilled bottled water. For dessert, they served a chocolate sheet cake with Neapolitan ice cream." 

On other nights, the Moons served Mexican enchiladas, the Bybees served a delicious roasted chicken meal with baked sweet potatoes, and a green salad with tomatoes. For dessert, Sister Bybee had made a wonderful plantain pudding. The Smiths 1 treated us to a wonderful mac and cheese dinner (the cheeses were the best Europe has to offer), stewed tomatoes and green peas. On Monday for FHE the Gates had a dessert evening and served a wonderful rice and raisin pudding for all the couples. 

Our own efforts at cooking have a long way to go. We are still trying to find ingredients we like to use like baking soda, which I thought would be easy. A previous missionary here said that cream of tartar was not available, but we found it at ShopRite and now I need to know what to do with it. Each of the couples has taken us shopping for food to favorite places, including produce stands by the road.

ShopRite grocery. Across the road from our office.

I want to make Mark's favorite cake, one that his Sister Nancy made for the family, chocolate with boiled frosting. Haven't found cocoa yet and a boxed cake costs around $12 US. Will keep looking. It is common for a store to have an item you like but the next time you go, they don't have it. We did find plain yoghurt yesterday, a container of less than 6 oz. for $2.25 - yikes. Hope we can use it as a start to make our own. We bought a thermometer for that purpose. Time will tell. 
 
We have been able to buy peanut butter on sale for about $1 for 400 g, about 14 oz. We had to make three dozen cookies for the Zone Conference earlier this week and they turned out okay. We used peanut butter and oatmeal. The Bybees gave us a carton of Quaker Oats and we were sure we could buy some, so we used all we had. We went shopping yesterday and could not find oats.

Our first Missionary Zone Conference was Tuesday in the Seminary and Institute building. Our PEF Self-Reliance Office is in the same building, across the hall. Elder Carl B. Cook, a Seventy, a General Authority of the Church, presided and taught the missionaries. He speaks only English so it was good for me to hear the training in both languages and Mark was able to serve as a translator for Sister Cook. The training centered around the concept of asking questions and referred us missionaries to Preach My Gospel. They served the missionaries lunch with the cookies for dessert. Many of the African missionaries declined the cookies; they are not too fond of sweets. Mark just reminded me that they drank a very sweet soda pop, go figure.

Wednesday, I was asked by the missionary Zone Leader to participate in a discussion two sisters were teaching because the investigator was a single male. He realized that I couldn't speak French, but he was desperate. The night before we had been asked at dinner by Elder Cook to recount our best day in the mission. I couldn't come up with an answer, because the best day was the next day when I got to participate in teaching the principles of tithing and offerings to an investigator. Ça c'est cool!