Our second exciting news is regarding our town of
Dolisie. This town was a 4 hour drive
north of Pointe Noire. About 3 years
ago, we heard that there were members of the church living in Dolisie, without a
group or a branch. One weekend we
decided to “brave” the drive. We had
been warned that it was a dangerous drive through the largest rain forest in
Africa. However, Ed felt that we would
be safe, and it ended up being one of the highlights of our mission. For about the last 8 months that we were in
Pointe Noire, we made the trip monthly.
We fell in love with these good people.
The father of the main family was in a bishopric in the capital city and
then he was transferred to Dolisie where he teaches school. This cute family had been praying for 8 years
that the church would come to them. We
were able to take them the sacrament, and after they left they were given
permission to continue having Sacrament Meeting on a weekly basis.
This was taken at the first sacrament meeting ever held in Dolisie.
This was the group at our last sacrament meeting before finishing up our Pointe Noire mission.
However, a weekly sacrament meeting is all that they were allowed to
do. No auxiliaries, no baptisms, no
priesthood ordinations, etc. Because the
church is growing so fast in Africa, instructions are that we can only develop
the church near the centers of strength.
This is to prevent little groups of people starting their own version of
the church, if they are not close enough to a stake, to have regular visits from a stake or
district representative.
In response to letters from these strong member transplants,
four mission presidents had told the saints in Dolisie that they would
visit. For various reasons, it never
happened. These people have kept praying
and waiting for the church to come, so their 5 children can be raised with the
gospel. We have teased our mission
president on a regular basis that it was time for him to go visit the saints in
Dolisie.
Our mission is being split in July. The Congo River will divide us from Pointe
Noire and Dolisie. Our mission
president is extremely busy getting ready for the split. However, two weeks ago he told us he was
going to fly over to Pointe Noire and drive to Dolisie for church… so he could
recommend that they become a group, as soon as the new mission is ready to
expand to new areas… which will probably be soon. We literally wept!
It was a very quick trip for them and he didn’t get to enjoy
what a nice city it was. However, he
felt the spirit of these good people and they felt validated that the mission
president would take time to visit them.
When they returned and reported to us, President Cook teased Ed and
said… “Oh my! You wouldn’t believe the
excitement when I told them Elder Gates had sent us. They acted like Elder Gates was the greatest
man alive. I was surprised they hadn’t
painted your name on the sign that said ‘Church of Jesus Christ & Elder
Gates!’ ” This was not said
disrespectfully, but as a statement that they were thrilled that we had not
forgotten them.
These are the members of Dolisie that the president met with and the investigators, just waiting to be baptized, when the church comes to Dolisie.
We will keep praying for the church to establish a group and
send missionaries to Dolisie… but in the meantime… this was a big step closer
to it happening. President Cook is a
great man and we appreciate him taking the time to make Dolisie a
priority!
Why don't they send you there in June when you are done there? You could get them going until November!
ReplyDeleteThis is so great! I love this for these people!
ReplyDelete