Birthday Week Plus

We want to share with you some of our experiences with birthday celebrations. For our birthdays, (Oct 5th and 7th) we prepared and served a real luncheon for our office workers and others who have offices in the same building. They sang "Happy Birthday" in three languages, English, French and Lingala. The singers's names are Mardeau and Hermès and Christian. They made the birthday quite unique and one we do not want to forget. Birthdays are for forgetting when you are over thirty, but this one we want to remember.

One young man in our office asked me if I would teach him how to make rice, because he had purchased a small serving at Shoprite grocery store across the street from our office and he thought it was very expensive. We decided to make the rice-cooking lesson part of the birthday party. We served rice and beans and a poke cake. The young men liked the cake, but I think the older brethren were not too sure about the Jello-soaked cake. Just like missionaries, the young men are hungry and will eat almost anything.

The Relief Society Presidency asked the senior missionary sisters to assist them in showing how to "beautify" their houses with inexpensive projects. The bishop asked the members to focus on the temple and make temple attendance a priority for all members. The idea we came up with was to frame pictures of the Johannesburg, South Africa Temple. As with many R.S. projects, those on the "committee" do a lot of learning. We were sure that this project could not be done in the time allotted so we decided that most of the "prep" would have to be done beforehand. So we had a late night session sewing and cutting with the help of Elder Moon, Sister Moon and Sister Bybee. Elder Smith offered moral support and refreshments – popcorn and licorice.

Wednesday we gathered with the sisters about 3:00 p.m. As always, the numbers increased as time passed. I don't fault these sisters; it is not easy to travel to the chapel, and many have to walk. A transport costs 500 -1,000 CF ($.50 - $1.00 U.S.). It doesn't seem too much, but for some $.50 is more than they can afford. Sister Bybee made a really easy cake and put it in the oven and then we started the "temple project". The sisters worked hard to get their pictures finished and we were able to get home before our 6:00 PM curfew. We were exhausted. I think many appreciated the activity. There is so much talk about the temple that is in process for Kinshasa. There are rumors that they are close to releasing an architect's sketch of what the temple will look like. In other temple districts where a temple is under construction, they have given a copy of the sketch to every member in the temple district. We look forward to seeing it. A brother in our ward is working for the Facilities Management group and said the sketch is coming. Good news.

Sunday we were relaxing after a bit of food, can't call it dinner, when Mark said, "Elaine, look outside!" The fountains in front of our compound are working. This time they have colored lights flashing, changing to the music that we can hear through our walls and windows.

 

Another week comes to a close. We miss all of you so much, but we do enjoy our experience with saints and sinners here.