Visa

Funny story, the first day I was here I went with Dad on an errand to pick up their new Visas. They were denied. Mom and Dad had asked for 1 year Visas to save money but they were denied. They need to apply for 3 month Visas. So right now I am legal but they are not so much.

Appels

There are all these stands around that say Appels 50. When I say “all these” I mean hundreds…all over! The first day I saw them I thought they were fresh apple stands. Actually Appels in French is call. What they are selling are phone calls. You can go and use their cell phone and call someone. They have this as there are not phone lines to most of their phones. But I am not sure who they are calling as most people use these Appels to call…are they just calling other Appels?

Mom and Dad’s French

Dad, doing pretty good – he can converse enough to do his job. He is very cute when he doesn’t know what the French word is so he says the American word with a French accent. It is so funny. He also knows enough to switch around what we normally say. For example, the sentence, "The concrete is busted." He said to our neighbor, "It's busted the concrete." He pronounced concrete with a french lilt at the end. This may not sound funny but I was halirous. Mom, doing great! She studies a lot. She is so great to have her flash cards out any down time that she gets. She can understand a whole bunch! She can converse very well with limited words.

Day 6

I woke up and went for the walk/run. We took a new route that sent us walking though the closest thing to the African jungle that I have seen. It was a very fun walk. I even did a few pushups with dad. After breakfast Dad and I went to run more errands. We got to go to the grand marche’. If I thought it was crowed on Wednesday, today was Packed…Packed…Packed! Body to body! We bought a souvenir for the rest of my family. Then we went to pick up the copies. I know these sound like quick errands, however, this took us almost 2 hours due to the crazy traffic and roads. Then we went to the church for a baptism. It was supposed to start at 1:00. We started at 1:50. For those of you who know my Dad…he was going crazy, but in a patient missionary way. The baptism was beautiful. Again, I couldn’t understand a word of it but the spirit speaks all languages. Side Note: Africans don’t really shower or bathe here, they “bucket baths”. They are not used to going all the way under the water. In our Church we believe in baptism by immersion. We had 2 people getting baptized today. The first was a gentleman who at least 6’4”. The Elder who got into the font with him is named Elder Oulai. He is so cute! He is about 4’6” or shorter. See photos. So put together, Cute Elder Oulai and all of his 4 ½ feet with the new bother who is very tall AND a man who quite possibly has never gone under water. Elder Oulai gave it 3 tries and could never get all of him underwater completely. Then we called in a designated hitter aka, a taller Elder. We finally got the job done. Then it was time for the Sister to be baptized. She was the whitest African I ever saw. She thought that you had to go under repeatedly. I kept telling her “une, une.” Mom said she almost passed out. She went under the first time. When she got up she there was so much emotion mixed with the spirit she was positively glowing. After the baptism Mom taught a Visiting Teaching lesson while Dad and I went to go get gasoil for the other Elder’s apartment. Every Saturday the Elders teach English for free at the church. This is a great idea as people love it. Members and Non-Members alike attend. Today there was over 50 people. What a great idea! Right now we are at a beautiful ocean side fancy restaurant. Mom and I ordered a fun crab appetizer.

Marche'

I have a bit of time to talk about the Marche’ (MAR-shay). Marche’ is market. They use that term for what I would consider a 711 type of store, an outdoor swap meet/Tijuana type store, and a grocery type store. The outdoor swap meet type store is like Tijuana, but without tourists. There is only one tourist here right now, that’s me. We drove by an outdoor Marche’ and there were so many people out and about that I was worried that we were going to run them over. That is just part of the everyday life. There are no crosswalks or pavement markings so cars and people just wander through the streets. As the people here speak French, there are some French patisseries or bakeries. There is a lot of bread sold here, mostly French bread and croissants. They don’t have preservatives so bread is only good one day but there are people selling them everywhere. For lunch we stopped at one of these that were very good. We shared a yummy veggie pizza and each got a dessert. It was very tasty. I hope to visit there again. In this store they also had diet sprite. That was a fun thing that Mom hadn’t noticed before and she was properly excited. Another Marche’ that we went to was a Craft Marche’. This was more like Tijuana. Now Craft Marche’ sounds a lot flashier than what the reality was, not to say it wasn’t fun. There were a lot of wood carvings, paintings and jewelry. Most of the paintings were beautiful. They are done locally by the people selling them. There was not one magnet to be found. Here are some photos of 2 paintings that Mom commissioned, the blue one is from the same guy.

Day 5 – The Aeroport Day

We started the day with French Toast with President and Sister Headlee. Soon after, Dad took them to the Airport (trip #1 to the Airport).

We then went to the Maternity Hospital to deliver a few of the blankets. The blankets that have been handmade have not yet arrived here. I had brought 6 that Carrie had given me when I saw here in CA; they were cute, cuddly and fuzzy. I had also brought 8 from my Bishop’s wife in Washington. When I told her where I was going she was so cute to want to send something with me. I told her about the blankets and she picked up some wonderful lightweight ones. We had printed out some letters that talked about our service project. We took our translator with us for this hospital visit. We went and talked to what was the doctor who was also like the hospital administrator. He was so happy. We had brought 12 total blankets and left 2 at home as we only had 12 of the service project letters. The doctor wanted to keep 2 to give to another guy to show what Mom and Dad are doing to get permission for Mom and Dad to pick up the blankets that are being shipped and not have to pay Customs on them. There were 11 Mom’s in the hospital. We then drove back home, got the other 2, went back to the hospital and gave them out to the mothers. These babies were soooooooooo darling. I just wanted to hold all of them. So cute! The Mom’s were so sweet and appreciative!


After the hospital we went to our “Fast Food” McDonalds. In the photo it looks much larger that what it is. More than ½ of the space was for a photo copy place. Lunch was very interesting. Mom got an omelet which was tasty, Dad got spaghetti which was also tasty, and I got the hamburger. The top bun was hard like a big crouton. The bottom was a bit soggy. The meat was ground beef but not in a patty. It was a great experience.


After lunch we did our street meeting. We met 2 of the Elders and passed out some Church brochures. It was very fun. Almost everyone took one. We passed out 100. During this time Dad went to the airport to drop off some paperwork and pick up the new Elders (trip #2 to the airport). The paper work Dad needed to drop off was he is trying to get an airport badge so he can take the Elders all the way to the gate. If you do not have a reservation, you usually cannot go inside. Sometimes with Mom and Dad’s missionary badges they let them go to the first area kind of like a bag check area.

When we ran out of our 100 brochures we called Dad to tell him to pick us up. The Elders plane was late. Dad left the airport and came and picked us up. Then we went back to the airport (trip #3). We were there for another hour waiting for the transfer Elders to arrive. During that time the other Elders that were companions to the Elders that were incoming, passed out another 75 brochures.



Finally, the newly transferred Elders arrived (their plane was 2 ½ hours late). The 3 new Elders were so great! One African and 2 American. They were so energetic and fun. We had all of them (now 5 Elders plus Mom, Dad and I) all get in the truck. We dropped off 2 Elders along the way and they caught a cab the rest of the way. Then we dropped off the other 3 Elders and picked up one who was going home. He was a cutie and a half. I would be honored if any of my girls married such a great man as he. We brought him back almost to the airport and realized that his passport was back in the safe and Mom and Dad’s house. We went back to the house, grabbed the passport and went back to the airport (Trip #4). On our way back to the airport we realized that we left both cell phones at home when we went to pick up the passport. We needed to call the expediter (a person who helps the Elders through customs, etc. They have the passes that Dad is trying to get). We had told the expediter to meet us there at 8:00. At 8:05 he hadn’t shown up. We needed to call him. Dad stayed with the Elder at the airport and Mom and I ran back home to get the phones then back to the airport (trip #5).

We called the expediter and he met them at the airport. We said good bye and good luck to this wonderful “Returning” Missionary.


Side note, when we returned to the airport for trip #4 the cute little shoe cleaner boys that had been there earlier, brought out their brochures from earlier in the day. They were so cute! Here is a photo of Dad letting one clean his shoes. They ask for what is equal to 20 cents. Dad talked him down to 10 cents then ended up paying him the full 20. Nice of you to pry that out Dad! In all seriousness, they are told, NOT to give out any hand outs. That causes them to become dependent on it and that is not what the church teaches.

Finally we returned home at 9:30 pm, had ham and eggs for dinner and went to bed.

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Day 4

I can’t believe it! Day 4 all ready. Today is what is considered P-Day. It is anything but a day off for Mom and Dad.
It started with Dad going out and paying the Elders. We have 2 Elders being transferred tomorrow and one Elder going home.
Right now Mom and Dad preside over 8 Elders. When they first came there were 12. Right now there isn’t enough Young Men going into the field to send more. This is now my time to give my plug to righteous Young Men of the Church that may be reading this blog. YOU ARE NEEDED DESPERATELY! Be strong, Be righteous, and GO ON A MISSION because you are needed here!

Mom and Dad are kinda like Jr. Mission Presidents/Bishops. It is so far for the Mission Presidents to come here if needed. As we are in a very different country, they are needed more often than say a state side mission. For example, Mom and Dad need to be prepared if for some reason they need to evacuate quickly. And Mom and Dad need to also be prepared enough to help the Elders evacuate quickly. I am not meaning just if there was a natural disaster, but if there was an uprising. Think of Egypt today and think Liberia when Grandma and Grandpa were serving. If you are parents of these cute Elders that are severing here, rest assured they are in good hands with my Mom and Dad.

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This brings me to a question that a lot of state side people have asked, “Is it safe?” Yes. Keep in mind a couple of things. #1 Poverty is amuck. There are hungry people here that cannot find work and their “yard sale” is not being successful. Think if you will of Aladdin and Jean Valjean (from Les Mis). Both of these wonderful, strong, good, courageous men that were just trying to survive and help others survive. Yes, you might get robbed here. But you might get robbed in New York City. For crying out loud, the only time I have ever been robbed in Provo, UT. #2 Driving with my Dad is the scariest thing I do. That is when I feel the most scared for my life. Here are 2 photos taken from the drivers seat. Look how close they are. For REAL!

Back to our day: as Elders are leaving, Mom had to do a cleaning check. I know how these Elders feel. Elders…you have 6 Gates kids that know what you are going through. Mom called when we were about 15 minutes away. I told Mom and Dad that I bet right now they are yelling, “Quick Soeur Gates is almost here!” I joked with them when I got there and Mom was in the room checking their work, “I bet you all were going crazy when we called.” They all just laughed, but no one said No.
After paying the Elders and Mom doing her clean check, we ran a couple of errands. We went and picked up a painting that Mom had commissioned. The blue one with the ladies is one that Mom saw and loved. The other two are ones that she asked him to paint.

After our errands, Dad dropped Mom and me off at the house and Dad went to go pick up the Mission President. As one of the Elders is going home President Headlee needed to do a farewell interview. Mom and Dad met with the President and his wife while I took a little nap (I’m still a bit jet lagged and Mom and Dad wear me out!)
The Elders all come over for dinner and games or a movie every P-Day. Mom cooks an American dinner for them. We had pork chops, rice and American Jello. I am not a huge Jello fan but the Elders were. This was one of the items that I had brought from America.



We had Tiffany’s chocolate chip cookies for dessert and a lemon cake. The lemon cake came from a box mix that was bought here in Pointe Noire for about $7. Food is pretty expensive here except for the loaf of fresh bread which is about 20 cents.
We had a great time chatting with the Elders at dinner. After dinner we played gestures. The cutest was to see the African elders play with these American words. They were so darling and very funny. The photos don’t do it justice.
At the end of P-Day we were so exhausted! Mom had been cooking and Dad with his errands. We watched a MASH and fell asleep.

Day 3

I was able to wake up early enough to go on the “walk”. Now our Mom and Dad have been very healthy for as long as I remember going on almost daily walks. Dad no longer “walks” he runs! He says that when he comes home he wants to run a marathon. Mitzi, he said that you are going to send him a training schedule. They do their walk/run on the beach. This was a beautiful beach. It wasn’t as aqua colored as the Caribbean beaches, but still bluer than So. Cal. The waves were beautiful and long. As we are almost on the Equator, the waves come straight in, unlike CA where they come in at an angle. I had to jump in as it was too beautiful to pass up. The water was so warm! It was after I got in and we were walking back to the car that Mom told me a story of a member family that their older son went to the beach one day and never returned. They don’t know if it was from drowning or being attacked on the beach. See Mom's post for photos and video. After the beach we went home and showered for the day. Today was pay day or soutien. Dad goes to the bank and then gives the Elders their money. More about this later as we haven’t delivered the money yet. Today was our shopping or Marche’ day. We went to 2 stores that were like grocery stores; don’t picture an Albertsons in Northwood more like a grocery store you would find in the heart of Santa Ana. We bought some pork chops to make for the Elders. Mom cooks for the Elders every p-day which is tomorrow. Why we went to 2 stores is one had better meat products and one was cheaper for the everyday type things. After the grocery stores we went to pick up the mail and it was very exciting because there was a piece of paper in the mailbox that said that we had a package! Carrie had sent 2 packages together on the same day and it said “Box 1 of 2 and box 2 of 2” Well box 1 of 1 arrived about a month ago. Box 2 came today! It was very exiting! When they pick up the box they have to pay a handling fee and a customs fee. The handling fee is kind of like a rental or service charge for accepting the box, kinda like you are paying mailboxes ect. The customs fee is supposed to be a fee that the government takes for importing the goods to the Congo. The first couple of boxes Mom and Dad received the guy wrote it down in his ledger. The last couple he just smiles and says, “The minimum” and he doesn’t write it down. Wonder where that goes? Next came the GRAND MARCHE! Boy oh boy was it GRAND. There was TONS and TONS of aisles. It was somewhat Pikes Market, somewhat swap meet, somewhat garage sale, somewhat Goodwill clearance but all on an Africa level. It had close aisles and aisles of fish, ell, veggies, and chicken right on the counter. It was all good at the beginning. After about 30 minutes, I was getting sick and needed some fresh air. We walked out and I went to go take a breath of fresh air, only to find a HUGE pile of garbage. More on the garbage later…. Have you ever wondered where the items go that are never sold at Goodwill? Wonder no further, they have a happy home here in Africa. There are so many (beaucoup) people selling these type of things. Dad isn’t sure how they get here or who is the middle man is but that is where they get a lot of their clothes. It is funny to see what we are used to being on girls on these manly boys. At our FHE from the first night, the little boy who was Denim’s age, had purple tights with pink flowers. The 12 year old boy we taught yesterday had an LA gear v-neck shirt with gap overalls. The Grand Marche’ had many aisles of this type of clothing. They also have a lot of hair places. Their hair is a big deal as there are so many beauty salons called coiffure. When I say so many, we are talking like how many doughnut shops are in Times Square, New York. We bought me a pair of sunglasses, Dillon a Congo soccer shirt, 2 fun clips for my hair, chicken (poulet), and ground beef. The chicken and beef were bought inside a butchers shop. It was so clean compared to the outside aisles. After the grand marchet’ we went to a visiting teaching meeting at one of the Relief Society councilors home. It is so cute to see Mom teaching what Visiting Teaching is. You know the saying, you need to walk before you run, well, the church here is learning to stand before they can walk…they are far from running. That is why Mom and Dad are here. They are teaching these sweet people the basics of the church. They never had primary till Mom got it started. She was so happy to see the church curriculum arrive with the primary sharing time outlines. We just got home. Tonight’s dinner is BBQ chicken. I offered to help Mom but she told me to go work on the blog. We just got home again. We were all set to have a nice relaxing night at home, anyone who can believe that, stand on their head. As I was finishing up this post, Dad said, the sunset looks like it will be a good one, let’s go to the beach to watch the sunset. Although they said it wasn’t that great of a sunset it was still a pretty picture!

Day 2

Day 2 was amazing! I slept in a bit while Dad and Mom went for their daily run. I will go tomorrow and update you on that with day 3. Breakfast consisted of yogurt and granola for me, Mom had yogurt, granola and milk. Dad had a chocolate rice krispy treat. Mom offers to make Dad breakfast every morning but he usually says, “You go ahead and eat whatever.” The pineapple and mango juice is pretty good flavor, just weak. All of the OJ that Mom and Dad have tried are very airplane type OJ. After breakfast I went out with Dad while Mom stayed home to do some book work. The first stop for Dad and I was the Elders house to pay the rent. It was great to see Dad working it. They pay 3 months in advanced here. Dad put down some money and asked if he had any questions. The owner looked a bit confused and told him that wasn’t enough. (Keep in mind one of the Elders was doing the translating). Dad laughed and thought that he was very funny and put the rest of the money down on the table. Shakily the owner laughed too. Then the owner asked about what we will call the electric bill, here they call it currant’. Dad with his serious face told the Elder to tell him he isn’t going to pay for it because it is so weak. (see side note for more info) The Elder paled and started hesitantly translating. Dad then dramatically placed the extra money down. I started laughing as I knew this was just Dad. Then the Elder and owner started shakily laughing too as they realized that Dad was just je drague (teasing) them. But Dad did say, “I want to know how come I need to pay for something that doesn’t work?” No answer was offered. Side info: Most places have currant’ but it is weak and or unreliable. This is just something that they are used to. The missionaries and the church have a generator to use as back up. This specific house that we were paying the rent, they always use their generator as the currant’ just isn’t enough. Next we were off to the chapel. It is a beautiful building. It seats 140 but there is over 200 that attend each week. We dropped off the curriculum for the year. It was comforting to see that same cute boy on the front of the primary book that is on the front of my book. Next we drove by the well. The well house was supposed to be finished today but no work has started. Dad called the interpreter to have him see what is going on, we still have not got an answer. After that we drove by the new church building. This is an actual apartment type building that they are going to remodel to use as a church temporally. Their long term goal is to buy some property to build another actual chapel. Our next stop was at the airport to pick up my passport (I feel much better having it in my hands). Also at the airport was the BYOS (Bring your own spoon). There is a soft serve ice-cream guy with a portable ice-cream machine. It was so good. It hit the spot big time. The reason why you bring your own spoon is they don’t provide spoons. It is crazy as it is served in a plastic cup. I asked Dad what people do that don’t BYOS. He said they just squeeze it out. That is just crazy. You would not be able to get every last drop. When it is 90 degrees with 95% humidity, you NEED every last drop. After ice-cream we went home for lunch; most of the time Mom and Dad don’t stop for lunch. I was honored that they did for me as I was getting hungry. We had yummy ham sandwiches on fresh French bread that Dad and I had bought. After lunch Dad and I were back out for our rendezvous (their word for teaching appointment). Our first stop was teaching a 72 year old man with a lot of kids. His wife had passed away years ago and the wife’s family “gave” him her younger sister. The Elders taught this man and then asked him to be baptized. He set a date! Whoo Hoo! His house was very humble. To call where he lived the “projects” would be way too kind. First of all the “projects” are government subsidized. There is no help from the government as there is barely a government. Secondly, calling these the “projects” would imply that they were nicer than what they were. Let’s just keep it as, it was a VERY humble house. Here are a few photos of the family. This one of Dad, behind him is their “bathroom”. Funny side note: the little boy in this photo was stark naked the entire time. When I asked if I could take a photo, then the Dad told him to go and get pants on. Our next stop was to each a 12 year old new member. His Dad has been a member for a little while. This boy was very sweet. The Dad was very honored to have Dad and I there. His house was kind of neat as while humble, the yard was beautiful. The photo shows that he swept the dirt and everything. It was so cute to see the pride that he had with what he had been given. This was also a fun stop because the Elders taught from the picture book of Mormon stories so I was able to follow along. It was kinda cool because in the first stop they asked if I wanted to share anything. I talked a bit about how we are given a road map to help raise our family, our scriptures. On this lesson I was thinking about what I would talk about if they asked me and I looked at this cute 12 year old boy and thought immediately of Nephi’s Courage. Sure enough, what lesson did the Elders share, Nephi going to get the brass plates! Our next stop was at a new Sisters home. This was fun as we got to go inside. Wow…talk about humble. She had a sheet for a door. The steps leading up to her house were tires. Side Info…Unfinished houses: There are a few different kinds of houses. #1 Humble….no windows…most have no doors. They are made of wood or homemade cinderblocks with cement. Some have tin siding and roofs. The closest thing that I can use to describe it would be pioneer log cabin homes. #2 Humble but working on it…these are very much like #1 except they have a bit bigger lot or yard. They build this little shack/cabin on there and live there while they build a bigger, nicer home. However, I have yet to see one of these but Dad does tell me that they exist. #3 Homes like Mom and Dads. Nice homes with tile floors and very fancy gates around that lock. I am amazed at how many fancy touches are inside. There is crown mold in every room. Lastly #4 People from #1 or #2 trying to make a home like #3. They buy the land and start building. They build the frame out the cinderblocks. Then they cover it in cement. They add beautiful arches and pillars and columns. Then they are done for a while. The next things to be put in are windows. Windows are very expensive here so that there are tons of these homes that look like they are going to be big beautiful homes, but work has just stopped as they can’t afford the windows. Our next stop was to the hospital. Words are not enough for what I want to share. Everything you see on the movies and TV is so true. It resembled old army barracks. The room we went to was about 8 feet by 15 feet. There were 3 twin beds in this room. One bed had 4 little babies, another had 3 toddlers and the last one had 2 young kids. We were there to see Reine (pronounced Ren). She is a darling 9 ½ year old girl. She was in there for malaria. She has had it before. When she had it before, they drew blood to test it and it was a dirty needle; she now has Aids. She was such sweetheart! She had the cutest dimple when she smiled. Dad and the Elders gave her a blessing. Mom brought her a DVD to keep and the Elders let her borrow the Picture Book of Mormon stories. Her Dad then said she couldn’t read because she has missed so much school from being sick. You know that Mom was on that! She is going to teach her how to read. After the hospital we went to dinner at a local pizza restaurant. It was very yummy. They knew Dad and Mom as they go at least once a week. Then we went home and I fell asleep while watching MASH with Mom and Dad.

Training the Auxiliaries.

After being here for just a couple of weeks, I realized that the church has grown here so fast, that the members have never been trained on what the auxiliaries purposes are and how to achieve them. One of Branch’s Relief Societies often had no teacher, or presidency member attend on Sunday, and there were just a handful of women attending. They had no concept of the magic and the depth of Relief Society. They have never heard of visiting teaching. Then, I realized that in that same branch’s Primary, there was no “instruction”. There are over 40 active children, that were all squashed into a smallish classroom and “babysat” for 2 hours… usually by the Branch President’s wife (who is the chorister) or a counselor in the branch presidency. Sometimes the kids just entertained themselves for 2 hours. It was chaos. I didn’t know how I could help, but I knew I needed to. We were instructed in the Missionary Training Center that we shouldn’t just go in and tell the members in our mission that they were doing things wrong, so I was shy about pushing “my way of doing things” into the Congo. I prayed about it and knew that the first step was to get new Presidencies of each called. I begged the branch president to pray about releasing his less active Presidents of the 2 organizations. He was afraid of offending them. However, 4 weeks ago my prayers were answered and a new Presidency was called for Relief Society. I made up notebooks for each member of the Presidency, with dividers. I included copies of the Relief Society section of the handbook for each of them. They were thrilled. I have met with them weekly and I am humbled by what has happened. We have poured over the new handbook and they have soaked up the spirit that comes with doing things correctly. We now have 4 teachers and the lessons are beautiful. There is a sweet spirit in the room every Sunday. I helped them plan and put on their first “Activity.” They hadn’t seen the General Relief Society Broadcast from October, so we decided the activity would be to view 1 hour of it on the big screen. They were so cute as they said they couldn’t afford anything for refreshments but plain buns and a homemade drink from a plant. They call it BeeSap. I used this as an opportunity to teach them about a budget. We prepared a budget for the year, for each activity and the items they needed, and submitted it to the bishop. We had $30 to spend on the activity and I showed them how we could afford fresh fruit (which they rarely have) and cake with frosting and lemonade with Sprite. I did the shopping and baked the cake and provided some of my precious Crystal Lite from America. We gave out invitations to all the women as they left Sacrament Meeting, the week before. We had our activity last Saturday afternoon, in the chapel. Our theme was “My Sisters… My Friends.” While we were waiting for 30 minutes for more women to show up (African Time is later than Mormon Time or Polynesian Time), we planned a fun “getting to know you” activity. Then we showed the film, ending with the Prophet, President Monson, speaking to the women of the church ("Charity Never Faileth"). When it was over we met in the Relief Society Room for visiting and refreshments. I can’t express in words how special the day was. The women stayed afterward and visited with each other for a good 45 minutes. That night at home I glowed, because I knew, with the help of the Lord and the Handbook, I had done something to make a difference. Two weeks ago, a new Primary presidency was called. Again, I followed the same pattern of meeting and studying the Primary portion of the new handbook. I taught them about Junior and Senior primary and Sharing time. I explained that the stacks of Primary manuals were to be used in “classes” (having Primary classes was a new idea to them). For the first week, I made timelines, rotation charts, and classroom signs. On that first Sunday, I asked the Elders to serve as teachers and to lead sharing time, to show the members how it should work. The Elders were darling. Last week was rougher, because I told them they needed to learn to do it on their own. The branch president hadn’t called any teachers, but the Presidency pulled through, and got three substitutes. Two of the substitutes didn’t show up, but overall, it went ok. I am excited to see how today goes, because they called three new primary teachers last week. I am still in charge of the “Break” in between. (Did you know the new handbook has a 10 minute break for primary? The Junior Primary break is first and then Senior Primary. We go to the restroom, then we go outside and do the Hokey Pokey (they don’t understand the English words but they get the moves and love the “backside in.”) We let them stretch, and then we go sit on the front steps and get drinks. Then, the children reverently return to class for the second hour. It was brilliantly executed by following the Handbook… and the presidency and the children were great! Once the other branch saw and heard what was going on, they got jealous and wanted to know when I can train them to do the same things. We have had one meeting with the Primary Presidency and today they are calling teachers. Our goal is to start next week, with splitting Junior and Senior and having Sharing Time. I will start training the 2nd Relief Society in another week. “Line upon line, precept on precept.” We are taking baby steps and loving it!