Adventures in Africa
with mike and pam headlee

Kananga Revisited

KANANGA DISTRICT CONFERENCE REPORT

18 – 19 September 2010

We arrived in Kananga, just after noon, and were greeted by President Kawaya even before registering with the local DGM (immigration).   Following a brief stay in “the VIP lounge” while waiting for our bags to be retrieved, we got into 2 taxis.  Both were vintage Toyotas of the 1988-92 variety.  The trunks of both vehicles were vertical due to the number of bags we were carrying. On our 15 minute drive from the airport to our hotel we stopped at one of the markets to buy pineapples which would supplement the survival-type diet we experience when traveling to these distant outreaches of humanity.  We quickly settled into our accommodations and headed out to the Kananga District chapel to meet with its leadership.  Elder Watson and I first met with President Kawaya for 60 minutes in order to learn about his family, his personal challenges, his personal goals and the goals and vision he has for the district/stake.  We also discussed prior district leaders, and his recommendations for future meeting houses (chapels), and the planning of temple excursions.

Following the meeting with President Kawaya we met with the entire district leadership team. (All 6 were present) We discussed the challenges that come with the rapid growth of the Church and their most urgent needs for larger buildings and water.  We discussed the involvement of all the members in missionary work; the thriving young adult and institute program and its influence in increasing the desire of many to serve full-time missions.  Unity and love among the district presidency was evident. Leaders throughout the district are showing their love, and expressing their appreciation to the members as a result of the conscious efforts of the district presidency to do the same.

Sister Jolene Watson instructs the district auxiliary leaders and greets them following their meeting.

We discussed the arrival of full-time missionaries in Kananga for the coming month and their continued preparations for becoming a “Stake of Zion.”  They were very happy to report that the prayers of the saints have been answered as a passport office has just opened in Kananga and that the procedure for procuring passports has been greatly simplified for the members living in the Kasai Provinces.  We shared with them the significant progress they have made in the ordaining and recording of ordinations of new members.  This is increasingly important as they continue to baptize in excess of 60 people per month, (104 for the month of August.)

There are currently 7 families who have been making preparations to attend the temple for more than 2 years.  With local passport services now, they are hoping to attend the temple before March 2011.

Our 90 minute meeting came too quickly to an end.  Appreciation was again expressed for the 3 new rentals that have been provided for the growing branches in the district. There are currently 8 branches in the district, which will expand to 10 or 11 before the end of the year.

Friday morning, after a “not so good” night’s sleep due to the lack of electricity and the equatorial heat, we began what was to become, an extraordinary day.   At the district office interviews with prospective missionaries began at 9:00 am.  Their smiles and enthusiasm, with the prospect of serving full-time missions, was infectious.   10 interviews soon turned into 15.   What was scheduled to take until 1:00 pm, went on until 3:00 pm and, in the end, 21 missionary candidates were interviewed and their dossiers prepared for submission.  There is very little doubt in my mind that the church has a very bright future in Kananga as these young people continue to develop and serve.

During the time of missionary interviews, Elder and Sister Watson and Sister Headlee made numerous home visits.  They visited the home of President Kawaya where Elder Watson was asked to offer a blessing on their home.  A visit to the home of the former District President would also yield a special blessing for their family and their home.  They also visited the home of one of our returned missionaries, Elder Mutenda, whose younger brother is now serving in the Kinshasa Mission.

Their final home visit was to the home of a less active family.  The entourage was well received and their visits much appreciated.

Following the home visits we set out on a tour of Kananga and a visit to each of the branch meetinghouses.  We also visited a site in the center of town for a potential stake center.

We first visited the new Nganza Branch building.  The branch presidency and other priesthood leaders met us and toured the building and property with us.  This facility has been in use for less than 6 months.  Due to the rapid growth of this branch and the reasonable proximity to its members this building can no longer meet the rapidly growing need of its members.  A search for land on which to build an LDS Chapel is now second in priority only to the construction of a stake center.

We next visited the Katoka 1 building.  This facility is beyond inadequate.  Just 200 meters down the street is a beautiful parcel of land that is owned by the Church.  The construction of a chapel for the 3 branches meeting here is currently the district’s 1^st priority.

We next visited with a group of 44 prospective latter-day saints who had travel for 6 days, 320 km, from the city of LUANGO, in order to attend the conference with hopes of being baptized before returning home.  They represent a group of 217 (and growing) faithful who meet together regularly.  Elder Watson spoke words of encouragement to them and praised them for their diligence and courage.  He also expressed the love of our Heavenly Father as well as the love of President Monson.

We traveled onward to visit the new Ndesha Branch meetinghouse.   It has been wonderfully renovated and has created a great deal of attention for the Church.  Now, only 6 months old, this facility is filled to capacity (even overflowing) every Sunday.  The branch leadership is proposing that a wall be removed inside the building in order to expand the area for sacrament meeting from 130 to 200.   Due to increased new converts our originally projected need was grossly underestimated.  This branch will soon be divided and the need for a larger facility (chapel) will only be delayed for another 12-18 months.

We then traveled on further out of the city of Kananga, toward the airport, to visit the new home of the Kananga 2 Branch.  This is a wonderful meeting facility.  The building and grounds were lovely and clean.  The building and walls have received a fresh coat of paint, are exemplary, and drawing positive attention to the church.  A beautiful outdoor baptismal font has also been constructed on the site.

Citing the report from our last visit : “Moving this branch from the existing district building to this new location has had wonderful results.  Average sacrament attendance has increased from the mid 90’s to more than 165 in less than 3 months.  (These saints are now 5-6 km closer to their meeting house.)   The building is large and will accommodate up to 225 before overcrowding becomes a concern 6-8 months from now. (Kananga Conference Report March 2010)  We are now reporting that the anticipated overcrowding is now a reality and the branch’s division will soon be proposed.

Next we visited the new missionary apartment.  It is a large 5 bedroom home in what is the safest commune of the city.  It is home to the Mayor (next door) and many other community leaders and government officials.  It is just a 3 minute walk from the new home of the Kananga 2 Branch.  During our visit furnishings for the apartment were procured by Pascal Lomboto of the mission staff.  We plan to send full-time to Kananga by October 10th of this year. We could easily house up to 10 missionaries at this location.

Saturday morning was filled with temple recommend interviews for members who have been planning their temple excursion for more than 2 years. At 11:00 we met with the district’s current missionary force.  The branch missionaries of the Kananga District are doing an exemplary job teaching the friends and referrals of the members in the Kananga.  They often do their work with the most meager of supplies and missionary support materials.  We have begun holding training meetings with the branch missionaries (not unlike an abbreviated zone conference) during each visit.  On this visit these wonderful missionaries were privileged to hear from Elder F. Michael Watson of the Seventy.

We have several returned missionaries who have been able to stay in Kananga and are holding missionary training meetings each week with our prospective missionaries.  The productivity of their work has yielded significant results.  Through the first 8 months of 2010 the Kananga District has enjoyed more than 450 convert baptisms.  There are currently 20 full-time missionaries serving from Kananga and that number will double to more than 40 by the end of January 2011.

Saturday afternoon’s leadership sessions of the conference were well attended.  278 of the district’s faithful priesthood holders met in the Priesthood Leadership session and attendance at the sister’s Auxiliary Leadership session was more than 75.   Elder Watson taught about “councils”    Talks during the session with the auxiliary leaders included “supporting our leaders,” “the integration of new members,” and “how to implement the personal progress program with the Young Women.”

When the groups were joined together for the adult session the building was filled beyond its capacity. Chairs and benches were arranged on the porch areas outside the chapel in order to accommodate the overflow of more than 100 saints.

Sunday was a glorious day for a district conference.  Upon our arrival at the conference venue we were greeted by a district primary chorus singing a medley of primary children’s songs.Before the regular session, Elder & Sister Watson greeted a group of more than 150 new converts. (photo left)  The room was filled to overflowing, (standing room only) with beautiful, smiling new converts desiring to be taught.  The spirit was strong and our hearts were full.  The feelings of love, fellowship and gratitude for the restored gospel were freely exchanged.  What a wonderful preparation for what was to be a memorable conclusion to this district conference.

It was a truly wonderful day for the Latter-day Saints in Kananga. We so wanted to stay and enjoy the fellowship and spirit of the occasion, shaking the hands of some of the 2257 conference attendees, (photo left) and enjoying the exuberance and attention of the hundreds of curious and smiling children who added to the family atmosphere of this great conference. Of necessity however, we quickly exited the conference and headed for the airport.

Everything about this 4 day weekend in Kananga was memorable, from the spirit we felt while visiting with the saints, the welcome we felt from the people of Kananga, the diligence of Kananga’s leadership, and the lengths to which these wonderful people will go in order to meet with their fellow “saints.”  The joy we feel in serving these faithful souls far outweighs the discomforts of the nights without electricity and air conditioning, the consumption of MRE’s, and the annoyance of pesky insects.

It has been 2 ½ years since the last General Authority visit to Kananga when Elder & Sister Parmley visited this remarkable “center of strength.”  At that time attendance at the district conference was 657.

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30 Juin

DRC’s Independence day is 30 June. We celebrated by driving to the center of the downtown area where a new park was recently completed. We enjoyed a relaxing day with our friends … not too hot and no traffic! GREAT DAY!

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Singing Basketball Star

This weekend we had a special visitor for dinner… Thurl Bailey.  He was here with the NGO he works with called Tifie. 

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June… our 12th month in DR Congo!

We are coming up on our one year anniversary here in DR Congo. The time has just flown by. As we approach the 1st of July there will be some big changes for our second year… at that time our mission will be split. President Gary Packer and his wife, Paula will be taking the helm of the newly-created DRC Lubumbashi mission. It will include some of our most remote spots in the south and eastern parts of DR Congo, including the country of Burundi.  Mbuji Mayi, Luputa, Mwene Ditu, Likasi, Kolwezi and Lubumbashi will no longer be in our stewardship. It fills us with relief and sadness at the same time!  We have come to love the people in the Kasai and Katanga areas of the DRC.  We made one final trip to Lubumbashi to say goodbye to our 58 elders and sisters there.  Goodbyes are especially hard here since we may never pass through some of these areas again and we truly have come to love the people here. Here are our photos of this last trip….

Did I mention that we also have a “special” zone now in Lubumbashi?????  It is called the Tired Zone!  It seems that some of our elders and sisters have worked way too hard.

The wonderful Assistants to the President, Elders Nkong and Kabengele…now assisting President Packer.

It was wonderful to visit the city of Likasi one last time as we attended the District Conference. We were happy to see two of the sisters that had just finished their missions 2 weeks earlier and returned to their homes in Likasi.

We also were happy to meet the parents and families of some of our missionaries still serving.

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Au Revoir

The theme for this trip to Pointe Noire and Cameroon is “Au Revoir” ! We came to say goodbye to 2 of our senior couples who have served so diligently for the past 18 months. We crossed the river to Brazzaville on Sunday morning and then went immediately to the airport where we got a flight to Pointe Noire. We were able to get to sacrament meeting in time to hear the Baxters give their farewell talks. They returned with mixed emotions…happy to see family and friends and sad to leave many dear Congolese friends behind.  Elder and Sister Baxter worked with both branches in Pointe Noire helping the leadership, teaching English, teaching hygiene classes and assisting the young missionary elders. They did all of this without speaking French!  We will surely miss them.

We left the next day for Douala, Cameroon. Here we received two new American missionaries, Elder Buck and Elder Nash. The next day we had a zone conference and delivered Elder and Sister Willis and Elder Wigginton to the airport as they also finished their missions. The Willis’ worked in the two Douala branches to assist in many church activities, teaching with the elders and helping many of the members. They were very close to the American elders and will be missed by all!

We had the delight of spending some time with our new Yaounde Couple…the Thompsons from Alberta, Canada. They have been here just 2 weeks. Now they  will be stewards over both Yaounde and Douala which will keep them very busy.

While in Douala we visited the newly-renovated Bonaberi apartment of the elders. It is big enough to hold branch sacrament meeting in…until they exceed 80 members or so. The elders here worked really hard cleaning and painting and fixing and the result was spectacular!

Unfortunately it is a two-day trip home for us… one leg to Brazzaville and then first thing Tuesday morning we will cross back over the river to Kinshasa. We are often at the mercy of plane, boat and bus schedules.

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Elaine Dalton Visit

We were delighted to have a special visitor from Salt Lake…Elaine Dalton, the church YW general president. She and her husband came with the Renlunds for a weekend visit. They did Stake training, focus groups, visited some YW homes and a Young Adult fireside. The first day she arrived we had a dinner for all the stake YW presidents and their husbands. (23 in all).

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Mission Tour

A mission tour is when we do a round of zone conferences accompanied by a General Authority, in most cases a member of the Area Presidency.  We recently had a mission tour with Elder and Sister Renlund.  We started out crossing the Congo River to attend a stake conference in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. We did leadership training  for Priesthood leadership and auxiliaries, attended and spoke at the adult conference session on Saturday and then attended conference in a large parliament building on Sunday. After conference we toured the Brazzaville ward buildings all afternoon.

We were supposed to go to Douala, Cameroon the next morning, but an unexpected strike there forced us to call it off so we headed back to Kinshasa instead.

On Wednesday we returned to Brazzaville to conduct a zone conference with all the missionaries. Our Pointe Noire missionaries took the short 45 minute flight to join us in Brazzaville. We returned back across the river that same afternoon.

We had a day of R&R and then conducted Kinshasa zone conferences Friday and Saturday.

Renlunds left for Johannesburg and we prepared for a quick 2 night visit in Pointe Noire. We flew up Monday and returned Wednesday, making our 3^rd river crossing in 10 days!  We enjoyed spending time with the Baxters, who leave in just 2 weeks.

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Hair

One thing we see a lot of here in Africa is amazing hairstyles. Sometimes it is hard to know if it is a wig or real hair!  African women claim they don’t have very good hair and so they love to embellish what they have with hair extensions or wigs or both!  When they braid their hair it is often done with intricate and complicated patterns.

Here is a funny story. We recently visited Kananga. President Headlee had over 16 interviews to do for young men and young women who wanted to serve missions. I took their pictures for their applications. We had 3 young girls in their 20’s who needed their photos.  After the first one was finished the next girl wanted to borrow the first girl’s wig for the photo. Then when it was time for the 3^rd girl’s picture she also wanted to borrow the same wig! …So all three girls wore the same wig for their photo. See them below without wigs/with them/and as they appeared the next day:

Let’s take a hair tour of the Congo….

Sometimes women and girls simply have no hair at all. These beautiful African women can get away with that!

Many many women wear a fabric headpiece to match their dress….

A scarf can be a fashion statement….or not!

I have seen some pretty creative hair nets….perhaps a style we could bring to the States…!

Women here spend a lot of time getting their hair done. Braiding is a fine art. And sometimes not!  Braids can be close to the head…

…or reaching out to outer space!

Sometimes hair extensions can help add bulk and length..

Everyone has their own style…and here the styles are endless!  No two are ever alike…unless they want to be…

It is interesting to see that even little baby girls have hair extensions. They also put lots of colorful beads and trinkets in their hair.

Have a great hair day!

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AP’s…Assistants to the President

These are the assistants to the President. They are an important part of the running of the mission. Elder Benababu and Elder Mbambu are the liason between the mission president and the missionaries. They are our “eyes” in the field and help to train and supervise the missionaries.  They are amazing young men. They know a little English so I can communicate with them fairly well. Besides being model missionaries… they have the best smiles in the whole mission!!!

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Central DRC… Mbuji Mayi, Mwene Ditu and Luputa

Pam writes(in italics): This is probably the most talked-about place to go in the mission. It is spoken of with real feeling and amazement that such an interesting place exists as a stronghold of so many good members and yet also being so remote. Most people describe the hardships of visits there and quickly follow with a pronouncement of how wonderful the people are…making the trip well worth it! Well I am here now to report about our adventure in going there.

The first step is to get to the closest airport… that would be Mbuji Mayi. This area is about half-way between Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. Trips have to be well-planned because the airlines only fly in and out certain days of the week. This trip was a whole week for us.

I am not sure who started figuring out the logistics of how, when and with what to bring for this adventure, but I am grateful for their good information. You see…you cannot just go to Luputa. You have to prepare and pack for this adventure with specific things. It is much like going camping.

We arrived in Mbuji Mayi and spent the night. We hired a car from Catholic Charities and it comes with a driver who knows very well what he is doing. We soon saw that this is the ONLY way to do this trip. Another thank you  to whoever found Omer and the Land Cruiser from Catholic Charities!

Luputa is 4 to 5 hours away. We purchased 4 cases of water for our needs the day before then we loaded up the car and started on our way. Just before leaving town we were stopped by a policeman who wanted to see our “papers”… not a common thing for this town. It turns out he just wanted a bribe, so $5 later we were on our way.

The road was macadam with very good healthy potholes. They were often enough that we probably only averaged about 35-40 mph. Omer was pretty skilled at avoiding them…although I wondered on occasion if we might tip over when we rode half on the pavement and half on the shoulder. As we drove along we could see that this was really beautiful countryside…. rolling green hills (a little like NY, but with palm trees).

We passed through lots of little villages with thatch roofs. Goats were constantly crossing the road as well as mama hens and their chicks.  My guess is that we passed no less than 500 goats scampering along or in front of us. Omer must have a soft heart…he beeped the horn for every person and creature we passed as a warning to get out of the way…even a mouse! This area has very few cars so we saw hundreds of people walking along the roadside continually. Most were carrying loads on their heads or on their bikes.

We saw very few other cars on the roads, but we did see lots of trucks filled with goods being transported and then crammed with people on top. This is hitchhiking at its finest!

One interesting thing we observed after leaving the city of Mbuji Mayi is that people started taking pride in what their cities and villages and homes looked like. The garbage was absent. It was all dirt, but nevertheless it was swept clean and no litter was seen.

We entered the village of Luputa to find a mixture of old Belgian buildings and African mud homes.

One of the hardest things to see here in Congo is the ruin that has set in after 40 years of neglect.  When you see buildings crumbling that once were beautiful you wish you could just see a glimpse of what it was like in 1940 or 1950.

It is easy to imagine. The basic infrastructure here is mostly ruins …no municpal water or power, streets that have not been maintained for decades and on and on. There is an important role that government plays and when it stops functioning for its people, then decay sets in. It was obvious that years ago this was a lovely little city. But now the roads had gone to ruin. Driving them is a major chore.

The people were all so friendly in this area. We seem to always be the center of attention. It isn’t very easy to blend in here.

Mike (not italics):  The Luputa Branch was organized in 1996.  The first branch division took place in 2002.  The Luputa District was organized in 2006 with 4 branches.  Today the district consists of 7 branches, 3 of which are currently in the process of being divided.  There will soon be 10 branches, 7 which meet the criteria to become wards in a stake.  As of December 31, 2009 there were 1603 members in the district.  At their current rate of growth they should reach the necessary threshold of 1900 members during the 4^th quarter of 2010 or the 1^st quarter of 2011.  By then there could be as many as 12 units of the church in Luputa.  There will be an immediate need for at least 3 chapels to be built in the new stake as soon as it is created.  There will be a minimum of 3 wards to meet in each building as soon as they are available.

As soon as we arrived in Luputa we went to the offices of the district authorities to register our visit, accompanied by the district presidency.  We next visited the home of the chief of the region to pay our respects and be welcomed.  Then on to the monastery to unpack, relax and prepare to return to the chapel to interview prospective missionaries.

Returning to the chapel at 3:00pm I began interviewing prospective missionary candidates.  This went on until after 8:00 pm, 16 in all.  The missionary spirit in this district is very evident. They are led by a “missionary minded” district president right from the mold of Samuel Smith.

Saturday morning I met with the Luputa District Presidency and reviewed with them what they considered as their most notable successes as well as the challenges they currently face as a district.  We also explored their current district goals which include the organization of a stake in Luputa in the very near future.

They function very well as a presidency, led by an organized & very capable district president.

The presidency reaffirmed their success with branch missionary baptisms and the number of young people who have prepared for and who are serving full time missions.  They are also very encouraged with the self sufficiency of their members as well as their increasing tithing faithfulness.

Their greatest challenge is obtaining suitable and adequate facilities for their rapidly growing congregations.  They are also having great challenges getting to the temple due to the difficulty and cost associated with the obtaining of passports.  They are a patient and humble group of saints.

They are currently focusing on increasing sacrament meeting attendance, encouraging family and individual scripture study, and encouraging more families to hold a regular family home evening.

The Saturday afternoon priesthood leadership meeting was very well attended as was the evening’s adult session which filled the chapel and the adjacent porches to overflowing.

The district choir sang for 20 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting which created a wonderful atmosphere prior to the commencement of the conference session.

Sunday morning’s district conference was a real treat.  We arrived at the district building at 9:30 to an already crowded to capacity chapel.

Attendance at Sunday’s general session was 1713.  The district member ship filled the entire front yard which was covered with a makeshift tent for protection from the elements.  Additional overflow was located next door in the building occupied by President Binene’s private school.

There is not currently a building in Luputa large enough to accommodate our conferences.

Sunday afternoon following a 30 minute debrief with the district presidency we held a special meeting for returned, prospective, and branch missionaries.  There were 65 in attendance.  It was like holding an all-zone conference in Kinshasa.

Following our missionary meeting we visited the home President Binene.  His home is conveniently located within a ten minute walk from the current district center as well as the site the church has purchased for the construction of the Luputa District Center.  Dallin Oakes is the name of his youngest son.

Currently physical facilities.

There is a rental currently in Mwene Ditu approximately 40K from Luputa and a second rental 65K from Luputa that houses the Ngandajika branch.

In Luputa there is one rental which houses the Luputa, Kabusanga and Mukukuyi branches.  This also serves as the district center and is a very good facility.  A second building, owned by the church, houses the Katshisungu & Tshibiayi branches.

The Luputa branch building has a maximum capacity of 225.  The Luputa branch’s average sacrament meeting attendance of 299 necessitates its division now.  Following the creation of the Luputa 2 branch there will be 4 branches sharing the same facility until a new rental can be secured for the Luputa 1 & Luputa 2 branches.  The other two branches currently sharing the building with the Luputa branch also have sacrament meeting attendance which exceed the maximum capacity of the facility, Kabusanga 230 and Mukukuyi 250.  We will be requesting the Mukukuyi branch division as soon as a facility can be found for the 2 Luputa branches to move to.  There will still be 3 branches meeting in the current district office facility until the division of the Kabusanga branch can be organized and submitted then it will be back to 4.

The other two branches in Luputa  are meeting in a church owned building.  We will need to secure a new rental for these two branches as soon as approval to build a new chapel on the site is received.

We arrived at the monastery where we would stay the next 2 days.

It was a long line of rooms with a sitting room/dining room in the middle. No electricity unless you pay $5/hr for the fuel for the generator.

The 2 bathrooms are shared…along with the 2 shower rooms. Those were a little bit difficult…I can’t exactly describe the smell or the state of cleanliness…but believe me that some things are better left unsaid!  Our room had 2 twin beds pushed together with mosquito nets on each. It was moderately hot & humid, but not oppressive. A fan would have been nice.

Mike had interviews all that afternoon…16 new missionary interviews in all. While he did that I went out to the Luputa water project to see it and to get water. Read about the Church’s water project here: http://mormonchurch.org/147/church-helps-bring-water-to-african-communities

It is 15 kilometers there, but took about 45 minutes to get there. Along the road the same trail of walking people continued and the goats never stopped dashing along either. We saw 3 watering spots…out of 16. Each had a type of cement sink with 2 spigots.  The water came out fast and it was clean!  This is a great blessing f thousands of people in this area.

When I was told that there were lots of children in Luputa, I had no idea what that really meant. There are thousands of children here and everywhere we drove the children ran to the side of the road and yelled “Mutoka, mutoka!!!” (white person) We felt like movie stars everywhere we went. Because of the water project the Americans, especially church members are well received by the people here. Within seconds of approaching the wells I was surrounded by 60 to 80 children…all wanting to shake my hand.

After heading back to the church I had to wait another 2 hours for the interviews to be finished then we headed back to the monastery. We came prepared for this camping experience. We had brought our freeze-dried backpackers meals with us and loads of other stuff. It took a large suitcase to hold it all… oilcloth, flashlights, electric teapot, sheets, towels dishes, easily prepared food for breakfasts & lunches, knives, cutting boards and, of course a pitcher for the “bucket shower.” The dinners were all really pretty good…and kept us from having to seek for local food, which might not have been safe or palatable. Once it was dark we paid for electricity for 3 hours and could then watch a movie on our laptop.

I am not sure how to describe my short night of sleep. Bed nets are not my favorite thing, especially in the heat. You kind of feel like you are being smothered. But that wasn’t all…I kept feeling jabbed by something sharp. As it turned out there was a spring that was in the mattress that came right through into me. I did bring a sheet to go over the sheet they provided and was supposed to protect us from…things. But in the process of investigating the metal protrusion I got a good look at the mattress…bad idea. Better to not see what you are sleeping on! I am sure it was at least 40 years old. They, of course, just put their sheet on top with no other protection. I was itching all night.  I wasn’t sure if the mosquitoes were finding their way through the holes in the net or if the bugs in the mattress were finding a way through the sheets…so I was hot and sweaty and itchy and sleepless. I should have thought about taking an Ambien.

Morning came when the bare bulb overhead turned on with the roar of the generator. We had one hour of power for getting ready. Quickly we heated water in the electric teapot and filled the bucket with warm water for the shower. Armed with towel, plastic chair to put clothes on, soap, shampoo, etc., flip flops and the bucket & pitcher I headed to the public bathroom. It was best not to breathe through your nose in that place. I was hoping one bucket would be enough, and it was. The pitcher is a must. I’m not that good at rinsing my hair with handfuls of water. It was certainly better than no shower at all. I hurried to blow dry my hair and finish getting ready before the power went off.

Saturday training sessions for all the auxiliaries was my first assignment. They were supposed to have 3 or 4 talks in addition to mine. Seven minutes after we started they were done with their portion. I had 83 minutes of time to train! There were about 50 women in attendance. Concurrently Mike did the priesthood training. We then had the adult meeting and both spoke there. It was well attended with about 250 people.

We headed back for a repeat of the dinner and evening. This time we knew what to expect…I threw a towel over the bed for more protection from the spring and whatever else was under me. We watched “Walk the Line” on battery power until 1am. Afterward I wondered if everyone else in the monastery enjoyed the Johnny Cash music! We survived the night.

Sunday brought the District Conference. As we got out at the church it seemed as if there were a thousand children surrounding us. They all wanted to touch the Mutokos…We had a great conference. I gave my talk in Tshiluba, the local dialect. It was longer than I wanted and a challenge to pronounce…I was pretty nervous. I compared it to how I felt just before plunging into space at the Victoria Falls Gorge!  We had a wonderful missionary meeting after the conference consisting of all the ward missionaries from the district, including the 16 who were submitting their papers. There were 65 in attendance.

We visited the district president’s home and then headed for Mwene Ditu. Before leaving we were able to find room in the vehicle for giving 7 people from there who attended the conference a ride…9 climbed in!  The others would be walking that same distance the next day…it would take us 1 hr 15 minutes in our vehicle and they would walk it in 5-6 hours. We hoped to avoid any storms. They would have cost us another 2 or 3 hours in delays getting through the mud. 5 minutes after we got into our hotel room in Mwene Ditu the heavens opened up for an hour giving about 2 inches of rain!

We enjoyed the hotel immensely. It was right out of the 40’s or 50’s. Very clean with a beautiful bathroom, but no running water! That is a thing of the past for rural DRC. They also had a generator on in the evening so we had power. The rains brought a wonderful breeze and we enjoyed the coolest evening since arriving in the Congo 7 ½ months ago!  It was like a breath of spring.

The next morning we met with the branch president of Mwene Ditu and toured the rented building used as a chapel after doing the “formalities” in the municipal building. It was the nicest rented building we have seen in our mission.

By mid-day we were on our way back to Mbuji Mayi…to the KayBe Deluxe Hotel.

After staying in the monastery this hotel really lives up to its name. At first glance it seemed a little shabby, but that was 3 weeks ago when we didn’t have as much hotel experience. This place actually has air conditioning and a swimming pool. We were given the heads-up to ask for room #4 and indeed it was the best room because it actually was 2 rooms…a bedroom and then a living room. It also has a mini refrigerator. The water seemed to only be turned on from 7 to 7:30 am…but this stay we had it during the day, too. Since Mike does branch business during the day I spend a lot of time here. I am glad to have my laptop with me. They have a restaurant, but it wasn’t wonderful. We at least know to trust the chicken and frites. There is an internet café right next door and that is a blessing to Mike as he gets about 40 emails a day and it is discouraging to come home to hundreds of emails to answer.

The longer we have stayed in Mbuji Mayi, the more comfortable we have become. I have had a chance to go to the local Marché with the branch president’s wife and that was a lot of fun. The blessing of having water and electricity cannot be overstated. The hotel has it, but most people don’t. The 3 branches here now will turn to 4 by years end and this will soon become a district. Missionaries will be sent here possibly within a year from now. It has huge potential for church growth. The people are wonderful and they make it a pleasure to serve here.

Mike has spent a lot of time working with the leaders here in Mbuji Mayi, in Mwene Ditu and Luputa as he has helped to train and to assess their needs. The hours and hours of interviews has brought the number of new Melchizadeck priesthood holders to about 40 with about that many more to interview and ordain in the future. We are taking home with us almost 20 new missionary recommendation applications for processing. We will be submitting applications to the church to split at least 5 of the branches in this area. There is not one church-built building and that is the next challenge. We only will be able to continue to work with this area for another 4 ½ months as it will then be in the new Lubumbashi mission under President Gary Packer.

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