Some people have asked what we do during the day. It is interesting that when I asked that question before we came to the Congo, the mission presidents and their wives, and the Baxters… who we replaced said… “It up to you. You and the Lord. You will decide when you get there and you will be your own person and leave your own mark.” I now know what they mean. Each day we wake up at 6:00 and we go walking from about 6:20 to 7:00. 
We shower and get breakfast and then at 8:00 we usually do whatever needs to be done. Sometimes we get to study the scriptures, but usually there are things to be done for the ward or the elders, so then we read and study in the evenings. We try to study French for an hour, usually in the morning.
Ed often takes off to do repairs and run errands. He usually goes to the well each day, and meets with his interpreter that we have also hired to be the daily monitor on the well job. Ed runs errands that would only take minutes at home, but here they can easily take an hour or two… such as going to the bank. (500 "cfas"=$1 so 10,000 cfas=$20.00. $10,000 is the largest denomination they have, so Ed walks around with piles and piles of money in his briefcase.)
He spends lots of time on getting the elders Visa work in order and applying for the Visas, so we are all legal. We have to keep getting new ones, for all of us, so we can stay in the country. Ed is also the advisor to both branche presidents and spends lots of time training them. (They are in the middle of these photos.)
There are about 180 active people in each branch. He works hard and is trying to get our beautiful chapel into good condition. The temporal affairs offices, who are usually in charge of keeping the chapel clean and in good repair, are so far away in Kinshasa and South Africa that noone has kept things up on a regular basis. Ed is a huge blessing to them.
I have ended up being in charge of service projects,
the English classes, sick elders, baking cookies and treats for the elders, cooking a big dinner for P-day, Coordinating all Distribution center orders (Of which 200 families have orders in to the distribution center on back order for several months), finding and furnishing apartments, training auxiliary leaders, welcome posters for new members, attending investigator and new member lessons with the missionaries,
acting as Ed’s secretary and trying to learn to speak the language. It will be interesting to see what else comes up in the next year.
Our evenings are often busy until 7:00 or 8:00. We usually go home and cook dinner, study a gospel book, watch a conference talk on the computer, sometimes play train game on line, and sometimes get in a Skype phone call to our kids or Dad & Mom. We don’t have a TV, and there are no theatres or video stores, and you can’t download NetFlix or other videos from the Congo. There are no English books or libraries or bookstores with English books … but we do have a Kindle and enjoy reading a little through our electronic books we can download to the computer and then to the Kindle.
We have some ok restaurants in town, one especially good fish restaurant… and some sort of adventurous restaurants that the Elders get us to go to once in awhile.
We love being together every day and every night, and basking in the glory of sharing the gospel with these great people and our Elders. We are blessed to be part of this pioneering of the church.
We shower and get breakfast and then at 8:00 we usually do whatever needs to be done. Sometimes we get to study the scriptures, but usually there are things to be done for the ward or the elders, so then we read and study in the evenings. We try to study French for an hour, usually in the morning.
Ed often takes off to do repairs and run errands. He usually goes to the well each day, and meets with his interpreter that we have also hired to be the daily monitor on the well job. Ed runs errands that would only take minutes at home, but here they can easily take an hour or two… such as going to the bank. (500 "cfas"=$1 so 10,000 cfas=$20.00. $10,000 is the largest denomination they have, so Ed walks around with piles and piles of money in his briefcase.)
He spends lots of time on getting the elders Visa work in order and applying for the Visas, so we are all legal. We have to keep getting new ones, for all of us, so we can stay in the country. Ed is also the advisor to both branche presidents and spends lots of time training them. (They are in the middle of these photos.)
There are about 180 active people in each branch. He works hard and is trying to get our beautiful chapel into good condition. The temporal affairs offices, who are usually in charge of keeping the chapel clean and in good repair, are so far away in Kinshasa and South Africa that noone has kept things up on a regular basis. Ed is a huge blessing to them.
I have ended up being in charge of service projects,
the English classes, sick elders, baking cookies and treats for the elders, cooking a big dinner for P-day, Coordinating all Distribution center orders (Of which 200 families have orders in to the distribution center on back order for several months), finding and furnishing apartments, training auxiliary leaders, welcome posters for new members, attending investigator and new member lessons with the missionaries,
acting as Ed’s secretary and trying to learn to speak the language. It will be interesting to see what else comes up in the next year.
Our evenings are often busy until 7:00 or 8:00. We usually go home and cook dinner, study a gospel book, watch a conference talk on the computer, sometimes play train game on line, and sometimes get in a Skype phone call to our kids or Dad & Mom. We don’t have a TV, and there are no theatres or video stores, and you can’t download NetFlix or other videos from the Congo. There are no English books or libraries or bookstores with English books … but we do have a Kindle and enjoy reading a little through our electronic books we can download to the computer and then to the Kindle.
We have some ok restaurants in town, one especially good fish restaurant… and some sort of adventurous restaurants that the Elders get us to go to once in awhile.
We love being together every day and every night, and basking in the glory of sharing the gospel with these great people and our Elders. We are blessed to be part of this pioneering of the church.
With all that money how much of it does ED pay for a banana?;)
ReplyDeleteIt is so fun to share in your adventure. I especially love all your information and love you send our way. I feel like we are on our smaller adventure being in Texas. Maybe we will get back to SoCal about the same time. Keep up the great work. Love, MJ
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