Elder Bednar's Visit - Before and After

Elder Bednar is the youngest in age of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a great occasion for an apostle to visit and he was scheduled to meet with the Kinshasa Missionaries Monday November 4th. There was a lot to do to get the meetings scheduled but much was needed to be done to spiff-up the buildings and grounds.

Crispin is responsible for cleaning the S&I building where we work, so for several days before the apostle's arrival he was putting in the hours. Mark and I were given the task of making sure that the refrigerator was clean so it could be used for the food that would be served at a luncheon just before the meeting with the missionaries.

Some of the local leadership had traveled to Lumbumbashi - a Southeast city where Elder Bednar was also visiting before coming here. Word was sent to the local leaders telling them to do more than a surface clean. SO we had armies of workers in our building re-staining doors, painting walls, replacing tile in some rooms, just about anything you could think of was attended to.

The wall around this property which will also be used for the Kinshasa Temple sometime in the near future was less than inviting with the rivulets of black mold making it look well like the Congo. The Thursday before the Apostle's visit they started painting the outside of the wall. We almost missed the driveway because we didn't recognize that it was the same place where we work. When we left the office on Friday nothing had been done on the interior of the same wall but Monday when we arrived it too had been painted and they were painting the eves of the S&I building.

 

President and Sister Cook asked the Senior Missionaries to help with the luncheon for Elder Bednar his wife and four or six other authorities that were with him. Sister Cook prepared all of food and we helped her set the tables and serve the food. It was a wonderful experience for us to help and we also had an opportunity to greet and shake hands with the authorities. 

 

The group of visitors went to the chapel next door to our office to meet and teach the missionaries. We were able to join them there and to listen to the message from Elder Bednar.

After Elder Bednar left, the Missionaries sang the hymn "Called to Serve" en Français for President and Sister Cook, our mission president and his wife.

We have had days of rain and more rain. Mark was able to photograph a double rainbow when we were taking a walk around 5:30 PM. The storms stir up the air and it is possible to see the sky and the clouds accompanying the storm which made quite a spectacular sunset.

I wanted to share the birthday song sung in French and Lingala by some in our office and others in the S & I group with Hermes leading when we celebrated my birthday. Lingala is a tribal language that most of these men and women learn in their homes. Sometimes they speak using  French, Lingala and English in the same sentence.

Elder Bednar and his wife, President Cook and his wife as well as two security people and one videographer flew to Gabon to dedicate the country for missionary work. Recently the Church was granted official status to function within their boundaries. President Cook described that as a most sacred occasion with twelve people attending in an arboretum under a tree that is 150 years old and massive. Torrential rains fell the night before and into the morning but cleared somewhat. As they gathered for the dedication Elder Bednar explained to the Botanist and the gardener that he is a special witness of Jesus Christ to all the earth, here to dedicate the country for the preaching of His Gospel. The men remained reverently in proximity to witness the event. As he began the prayer, sunlight shined on him and the air was filled with butterflies. The Church will be assigning missionaries to work in that country in the immediate future.

President and Sister Cook returned to Kinshasa with Elder Michael Moody and his wife who are serving in Gabon but needed to leave the country in order to renew their visas. They were here in Kinshasa for a week and they were able to attend our Kinshasa Stake Conference last Sunday before leaving to return to Gabon on Wednesday. 

Elder Michael Moody and his wife are serving in Gabon. The Moodys spend three years serving in Tahiti as Temple President and Matron at the same time Matt and Sue Smith were serving there as Mission President. They send their love to you Sue, and to your family.

Mardeau is a sister that works in the office next to ours as a secretary. She speaks English as well as French and Lingala. She was at Conference with her family, two little girls and one son the oldest. Her husband was called to be the Stake Young Men's President. He has served seven years on the High Council.

President and Sister Cook leave for South Africa tonight so we had a gathering of all the Senior Missionaries at our apartment Friday before they departed. It was fun to share dinner and conversation with these wonderful people.

One day as we returned from the office, just outside of our compound there is a big tree with vinelike aerial roots supporting it. A lighthearted young man was using one as a swing to the enjoyment of onlookers including Mark and me.

 

Love you and wish you a happy Thanksgiving. We are so grateful for all of you and your prayers in our behalf.

E & M

Weather Report and such

We all (maybe we older folk) repeat a saying about the weather, “Red in the morning, Sailor take warning; red at night, Sailor’s delight.” We had a substantial rainstorm this past week and at 6:00 PM (18:00) there was a beautiful red sunset, the sky was ablaze with color.

Around 9:00 PM (21:00) the rains, thunder and lightning started and every bit of dirt in the air came down but this time there was enough water to wash the air clean. It rained off and on all night. We went to the Chapel Saturday to watch the first two sessions of General Conference

and the streets were wet and only a few sprinkles were falling. As we drove along we could see why they have an “army” of street sweepers with brooms. Most of the streets are dirt or sand and when it rains like that those roads wash down to the paved roads and the street sweepers are spaced about one block (Provo block) apart and spend their day sweeping dirt. I didn’t understand why they would do that day after day (except Sunday), why every day? It will be interesting to see what progress they make today (Monday) on moving all that sand from the road to the shoulder so it can be washed back into the road next time it rains.

Sweeper in safety vest alongside a transport

So back to my original question, since we are in the Southern Hemisphere, should the saying go like this; Red in the morning, Sailor’s get going; Red at night, Sailor’s plight! We had rain again Sunday night so things look “clean” even the air. I put clean in quotes because there are so many levels of clean.  We can see the Congo River through a window from in our apartment and the air isn’t clear enough to see any details, hard to separate the water from the land but Saturday you could see the land and it was green with trees and the water was still gray with clumps of something floating along but you could distinguish the difference between the two. 

 Monday we left our apartment at 7:00 to attend a devotional for all Church employees held in the SI building where our PEF office is. Traffic is about the same, taxis driving sideways, transports changing lanes from right to left and back again right in front of our truck, the best one was when one flipped a U-turn right in front of us and went the opposite direction on a divided road. You have to have at least two sets of eyes to keep track of all directions including up and down.

Monday is usually a busy day, well all days are busy but because so many employees gather for the devotional, they bring students from their wards and stakes to the office to get started on their paperwork for PEF loans. We left the office about 16:00 with Frère Mutombo and Kalongi Dieumerci Tshitundu to participate in the Mutombo’s Family Home Evening. When you get off the one or two main roads you don’t have many roads that are paved or the pavement has been maintained but after you get through the juggernaut close to the office we were on a fairly nice road. It wound around nice walled properties, trees and went up in elevation. It even felt cooler. The elevation was something like going along 3700 North to the West up the hill. We passed a property that had a beautiful wrought iron fence around it that followed the curve in the road for quite a distance; Mark said that the fence looked like ones that the Church puts around Temples. Didier said that the “Church Officials” visited this property as part of their information-gathering preliminary work for the temple here. Then he said that this was the Presidential Palace and was where the father of the current “President” was assassinated some years ago. 

We turned off this winding paved road onto a rocky, potholed, lane that in places looked like steps to go down. In my mind I saw images of cars in movies being driven down stairs to escape the police. Then there was a sharp drop and I thought, how will we ever get back up this hill? We turned off this lane into a narrower lane and the home was the first gate on the left. It was a very humble home with the water source out in the yard against the wall enclosure. They had a little garden with Manioc or cassava growing. We went into their living room; the family was gathered, which included a young man unknown to us and three sisters of Sister Mutombo and three little ones, two children of Frère Didier and a niece. 

That was one of the best FHE's I have ever participated in. It was in French but I did understand enough to know that it was a lesson on faith and that faith requires that we ask in prayer and Heavenly Father listens and answers our prayers. President Mutombo is 34 years old and serves in the Stake Presidency as the second counselor. He and his wife traveled to South Africa with their first child, a girl, to be sealed. They now have a son, Dave, that is around one. They are preparing to return to the temple with about eighteen family members to do endowments and sealings for many of their brothers and sisters.

  

Dieumerci asked if we could get back to familiar territory (he wanted to linger longer because his girlfriend is Jennie, one of the three sisters) and I asked him to see if I had the turns correct. He asked which direction do you turn at the top of the lane, I said left. He laughed and said the he would go with us to get us back. I must have been wrong. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be, but we were glad to have Dieumerci with us. We dropped him at a place where he could get transportation to his part of town and continued on a familiar road to our apartment. We got there at 19:00. The drive was in the dark and the hardest part was trying to dodge pedestrians stepping right in front of you. Whew! These forays underscore the reasons why Senior Missionary Couples drive trucks

Trucks for Moons, Sneddons, Smiths, and Gates

 We have a “New” truck, the one that was “totaled” the day we arrived. It is a blue Izusu not quite as big as the Toyota truck we were driving. They spent $8,000 to repair it, but the door on the driver’s side isn’t tight and produces a wind-tunnel sound when your speed gets above 30 miles per hour. We changed trucks on Friday and drove home. Saturday we worked all day on P’day things and then Sunday we tried to start it so we could go to church and the battery was unresponsive. The Moons gave us a ride and Elder Smith "1" got jumper cables so we were able to get to the office on Monday. Getting a battery replacement was a task that took all one day but it is still not right so tomorrow Mark has to spend another day finding out what is wrong with it. I guess he will go with someone that is responsible for the upkeep of the fleet.

We'll say goodbye today from the 10th floor of our building, where we took a rooftop view of the city.

The railroad yards where commuters come in and go out twice a day.

The courtyard of St. Joseph's school, our next door neighbor

 

Lots of light from the setting sun at 5:00 p.m. in Kinshasa

Kitchen Explosion Plus

You've heard of bulging cans. Beware. Tomato paste is sold in three-ounce cans here. I like them because many recipes call for just a few tablespoons of paste, and what do you do with the rest of the can? We were making baked beans from local dry beans, all the work was done, we just needed to add a little tomato to the mix. I picked up a little can and attached the can opener, squeezed the handle sending the blade into the can, and... we had a kitchen explosion.

The red contents glazed my face, pasted my hair, moved on to the white curtain, and onto the ten-foot ceiling. We opened another can of tomato paste, not a bulging one, and got the beans into the oven. Just a half hour of work standing on the kitchen counter to clean the ceiling, take down the curtains and get them into the washer. Just in time to eat a pretty good dinner.

Our dining table is a slab of joined wood, an equatorial tree species called Kambala. The big trees are harvested in the jungle and floated down the Congo river to Kinshasa and offloaded at a river port near us. The immensely heavy timber is then trucked to market.

Since we arrived, the table has shown three problems. The base rocks on the floor, the slab rocks on the base, and the surface was uneven. In addition, the finish was gone, and every sweating drink cup or spill of milk left a stain. Mark has a loan recipient in our program who is a carpenter and exotic wood specialist. He came and looked at the table and gave us a price to rehabilitate it. On the appointed day, he came with two helpers and rebuilt and refinished our table in six hours using only hand tools.

 

They removed the slab from the base, split it into two planks, and planed the parts. They removed old mortise and tenon joints with wood chisels and carved new ones. They glued, rejoined, and clamped the parts together. They scraped and sanded the surface laboriously in the hot sun on our balcony.

They refinished with two coats of primer and two sandings, followed by two coats of varnish. They planed the base and delivered a level, stable table that will be easier to keep clean.

After the workers left, a storm rolled in off the Congo River. The clouds were dark and brooding. The river itself took on a black color, and the wind howled and whistled at our fifth-floor perch.

But, we are grateful for the rain. This is rainy season, but we haven't seen much yet. It cleans the air and bring lots of green growth to everything. We are back to another week of work. On Sunday we will see General Conference broadcasted from DVDs in our chapel. A week later, we will see Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve, and Bishop Gérard Caussé of the Presiding Bishopric visit here. We look forward to the instruction.

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.

Profitez, Profitez

It is the end (or is it the beginning) of another week here in Kinshasa. It is getting hotter but little rain. And miracle of miracles, we actually saw a truck that lays down asphalt. We know because the route we travel is called Justice Blvd. and that is the road that is being resurfaced. Talk about a traffic jam, it took us an additional 20 to 30 minutes to get from the compound to the PEF office each of the last three days. (As we drove to church this morning we were able to go the same distance in less than 15 minutes)  At times like this all the drivers "profiter" which means in essence "hesitaters wait and the bold move ahead". Again cars and trucks end up pointed in every direction. In the clip above, you see them using the sidewalk to move ahead. The most fun is when the car in front of you decides to make a U-turn, which can mean a 10-point turn and blocking all lanes from moving; there is no way to profitez, so you wait. When Frère Didier, our director, goes with Mark he makes sure that there are no hesitations, continually telling Mark, "profitez, profitez (in French it means take advantage - even two inches between vehicles is an opportunity to "profitez").

We enjoy working with the members seeking help from the PEF fund. Many want to learn English, a skill that can mean the difference between getting a job and getting a good job. Boris Kabeya works in our office as a paid volunteer, helping Lingala speakers as well as French speakers fill out the application. 

Bonanza for Boris - four sisters come in at once to apply for loans

He is also a great help for Elder and Soeur Smith. He has been applying for work and the fact that he speaks English has helped him get a job with USAID. He just completed a background check and will probably be starting soon. We will miss his help and his smile that reveals his great dimples. Boris learned English while serving a mission in Zambia. The other paid volunteer in our office is Dieumerci Kalongi Tshitundu. He served his mission in South Africa and had many American companions thus his English is really good. He is taking classes here, but plans to go the US to finish his studies. He wanted to go to BYU Idaho but it proved to have too many roadblocks so has applied to Snow College, Ephraim Utah. To study in the States, a student is required to have a sponsor who is willing and able to put out $22,000 to help.

We are always impressed with the beautiful South England scenery Tim and Patcee Powers post on their missionary blog, so we pondered what is it that would give you a sense of what we see as we travel around this city. There seem to be an abundance of structures under construction and de-construction, so we want to share with you some of these structures and the fences that are around the construction sites. 

It looks like squatters took up residence here.

A new couple arrived on Tuesday, Elder and Sister Sneddon from Providence, Utah near Logan. Elder Sneddon was a professor in Lincoln, Nebraska his whole career and recently moved back to Utah so Sister Sneddon could live around the mountains again. She was born in Provo and lived in the Pleasant View area (her ancestral home is now part of BYU). Her maiden name is Baird and I worked with her brother Wilf Baird at Provo High and Timpview High. As always, a small world in the Church.

They are adjusting to restrictions imposed on the missionaries but the food and water are always a challenge. We are getting comfortable with the filtered water, the bleaching of all fresh vegetables and fruits and wiping down all containers. Mark packed his Kangen water ionization system and has attached it to the filtering system provided by the Church, which has made our water safe and good tasting. The humidity and dusty air clogs the pores of the skin and affects the hair in bizarre ways. We have started using the ionization discharge water, called “beauty water”, to wash our faces and hair. It has worked wonders - now the hair behaves somewhat.

A glass of good water on the balcony looking at the Congo River

The three filters in the back with the Kangen machine attached.

The Senior Missionary couples have FHE (Family Home Evening) together once a month and Mark agreed to make crepes for the dessert. Sister Smith 1 will provide the sweet fillings. Mark is getting rather professional about the process.

We made roasted peanuts this week from raw peanuts purchased in the distributor market (very inexpensive.) We removed debris, then washed and roasted them in the oven. Delicious.

Another cooking breakthrough occurred when we found cream of tartar in the supermarket. Using our new food processor, and combining good lemons and cornstarch, sugar, and egg whites, we managed a lemon meringue pie.