Elder Gates' Gift of Tongues

Elder Gates gets to give "special interviews" for baptism, and sometimes he really bonds with the investigators. This week one of them, Lionel, asked Ed to baptize him. For those of you who know Ed well, you know what he is like with names... annnnnnnnd He has been too busy to focus much on learning French. But the baptism had to be in French. This is what he had to memorize.... "Elenga Danieland Lionel Vitrand"..... Ayant Recu l'autorite de Jesus Christ, Je baptise au nom du Pere, et du Fils, et du Saint Esprit. amen I was so very, very, very proud of him. He practiced and practiced until he had it perfect!!! Great Job Elder Gates!!!!

How we spent Christmas Eve & Christmas Day in the Congo

Christmas in the Congo was very different. There was very little in the way of decorations... and few people had trees. Most of the shops and stands were open. But there was a cheerful spirit about everyone that helped us to feel the Christmas spirit. One branch had their Christmas party on Christmas eve, and the other had it on Christmas night. I was asked to help the Relief Society with the dinner for Christmas night. Ed decided as a special service project for our family Christmas Service gifts. He helped make sure that the sisters in our branch, who were called to be the Relief Society Presidency last Sunday, were able to provide dinner for over 200 people the following Saturday, which was Christmas day. We dedicated our Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day, to helping them to their food, prepare it and transport it to the church, because they don't have cars. They would have had to haul it out to taxis on the main roads (over 3/4 mile) because the taxi's don't go through the big puddles into the neighborhoods. Ed had 17 people plus the food, when he finally drove them to the church.

These are a few photos of what our 2 days went like. This first picture is Ed pulling a bus out of deep puddle.
This is the traffic Ed was stuck in for 3 hours, trying to get to the butcher to buy the chicken.

This is Ed changing his flat tire.
This is the butcher chopping our chicken.
And this is the chicken that we took home to cook (in the oven) for the party.

This is cooking chicken African Style. By the way, Ed baptized this Sister about 3 months ago. She is now the Secretary of our Relief Society.

We had a fun slumber party with the elders and exchanged white elephants.


Sister Headlee, our mission president's wife had African ties made for all the Elders. Ed got first pick when Sister Headlee was here... and then we wrapped the others and did another white elephant exchange with the ties.
We woke up to Christmas Casserole for breakfast (our family's traditional Christmas breakfast)... and then we headed off for a 9:00 am WHITE CHRISTMAS...THE BEST KIND OF ALL!

We hope you all had a Joyeux Noel!

New Members in Pointe Noire

We love our new members! This is a sweet lady that Ed had the opportunity to give a "special" interview before her baptism. This means that there has been a transgression in her past that requires the the Stake President or District President to interview them to make sure they are prepared to make the baptism covenant. (Dad is the acting representative of the Mission President, who is also the District President.) After the interview, the missionaries asked her who she would like to baptize her. She said "Him" and pointed to Dad. He had to memorize the prayer in French, and did a good job.

This is us at one of her followup lessons after she was baptized. She is a wonderful woman and we are very proud of her. Her home is humble, but very clean... and their yard is spotless, with raked dirt.
These are some of the people that we have seen baptized since we have been here. I make a poster with each of their pictures, so the ward members can get to know them. We hang it up at the ward.
These are photos of our first 4 baptisms. We have them posted on our glass patio door. It is fun to see how strong some of them are. One of the 3 brothers, Tecle spoke at sacrament meeting today and did a great job, after only being a member for a month!

Happy 65th Birthday Ed!

Happy Birthday! We had a great day with baptisms and a "party" with the Elders. We had a few minutes between baptisms and English classes, so we loaded them all up in our truck and went to the Airport where the soft serve is great! Ed took the first photo, intending to switch me places for a second photo, but a guy came running up and told us we would be in trouble with the police because we aren't allowed to take photos of a public building. Sorry, Ed... you aren't in your birthday photo. At home, black bottom cupcakes are Ed's favorite dessert. However, since there are no cupcake tins or papers, we opted for a black bottom cake. It tasted great!
I gave Ed a big electric flat grill for him to use to cook breakfast for the elders weekly (with a 220 plug, so it will stay here.) Mitzi sent us a new desktop photo which we love!
However, the most "exciting" gift was from the elders... new shorts and slippers! He now wears the shorts to relax in at night and to walk in the mornings.
Happy Birthday, honey! I am so glad Heavenly Father sent you to our house to live!!!!

Finding Hope in Africa

(from Lani)

When I was asked to give a talk in church about "Finding Hope through the Atonement," I asked mom and dad if they could share a good Africa story of hope with me. They gave gave me one that fit perfectly in my talk. I thought I would post it here; hopefully, that is OK with mom. Thanks for your help mom.

Stories about Hope and Africa
August 20, 2010
(by Kriss Gates)

When we were called on our mission to serve as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Republic of Congo in Africa, we read all the articles we could find on the church in Africa. We were amazed at the reports of how quickly the church was growing. One report said that there were 20,000 members in our mission area. 10,000 of them joined last year. Other reports were just as positive.

Soon after reading these reports, Ed and I were discussing what would make the gospel grow so quickly. In our ward in Irvine, we only have a few baptisms a year. I had recently been released from serving as the Relief Society President (women's organization) of our ward (congregation), and in my narrow mindedness and my Orange County, California mentality, “I wonder if the reason the Africans are joining the church in throngs is because the people are very poor and they are just joining so they can collect welfare.” Then, I wondered if it they were joining in groups because it was the “in-thing” to do. I kept trying to think of why else the gospel was growing so rampantly in Africa.

A couple of days later we had the opportunity to attend a homecoming for one of the elders who had just returned from serving in the city where we had been called to serve - Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo. This elder stood up and looked across the well groomed affluent congregation in Newport Beach, California. He started his talk by telling us that the bishop had asked him to speak on “Hope”. And then he shared a story with all of us about a night that he and his companion visited the home of a woman in Pointe Noire.

In a country that is ridden with poverty, alcoholism, wars, broken homes, abuse in the home and general despair, I discovered something wonderful! Let me give you just one example. One of the sisters that we had the opportunity to teach worked hard from early in the morning until late in the day. She had several children and she was the primary provider for the family. Wednesday nights were our regular night to teach her. When we arrived one evening and entered her very humble home, with a dirt floor, she was sitting on her “sofa” with her head in her hands. (Her sofa was really just some springs with a piece of fabric on it.) She looked up at us and said… “Oh, elders. I am so sorry. I am just too, too tired to have a lesson tonight. I am just not up to it.”

The elders said she looked exhausted so they said… “Can we just sing a Hymn to you, and we will be on our way?” She nodded and the 2 young men, who had been transformed in one short year from being high school socialites and athletes into stalwart men of God, started to sing in French all the verses of “Come, Come Ye Saints."

Perhaps their tune and accents were less than perfect, but their hearts were full of love and compassion for this sweet sister.

When they were done singing she lifted her head up out of her hands and smiled a big smile. “Thank You, Elders, I needed that. Now I am ready for the lesson.” These fine young men had brought the Gospel into this home and with it, the power that the Gospel brings of HOPE.

I sat in the chapel that day and felt my testimony grow by leaps and bounds as my spirit was humbled and my heart burst with happiness. I knew then why the African people were joining by the thousands. It isn’t a “social thing” or a “welfare thing”. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ in it’s purest form. The marvelous byproduct of believing in and loving Jesus Christ is HOPE!

Family Home Evening

In this country of despair the church offers support and education, but especially the knowledge that life is wonderful and well worth living as our families learn about Jesus Christ and how much he and our Father in Heaven love them.

In the 6 weeks since we arrived here in Pointe Noire, we have had the opportunity to see the happiness in these great people’s lives. We have sat in homes where the fathers shared their testimonies with their wives and children at Family Home Evenings. We have been with investigators as they were taught by the young elders and watched as they flipped through their well-read and very highlighted scriptures and glowed as they asked questions.

We have seen branches with over 150 children, teenagers, young married couples, and families fill up a small chapel… with only 2 cars in the parking lot. We realized that they had either walked to church (long distances) or used their precious funds for bus rides to get to church… and they were thrilled to be there.

We have seen HOPE glow in their faces as they welcomed us into their meetings.

The heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ is HOPE in everything that is now and all that is forever.

Teaching Charline

Probably the highlight of the week was going to Charline’s home with the elders to teach her the last lesson before she would be baptized on Saturday. She is a darling 16 year-old girl. She was very friendly to me at our first activity. The next week on Sunday, I teased her about wearing pants and told her she should wear a skirt to church. Our interpreter, one of our elders said “Sister Gates, she is an investigator.” I had him tell her that she could be an example to the other girls in young women to wear a dress. (The Mission President’s wife told me that I need to encourage the women and girls to wear dresses.) Anyway, she took it very well and has worn a dress each time. She was baptized on Saturday Aug 7.

I wrote her a type-written letter, and had an elder translate it into French. Then I read it to her before she was baptized. We gave her a little CTR ring that we had brought with us and she was thrilled with it. We shall see what the future brings for her. When I see where she lives and what her situation is, I don’t know if she will have the strength to really be the church leader that she has the potential to be. She hadn’t been to Young Women’s previously. When I asked why, she said she couldn’t go because she wasn’t baptized yet. Hopefully, she will now get the blessings of attending Young Women.

Oh… how blessed we are to have born in America… and how blessed we are to be able to have had this experience and look at the world through “African eyes”, for the rest of our lives. Love to all of you! WE have to get busy… we only have 17 months left, and there is soooo much to do!

Our first baptisms!

Friday 7/17/10:
We had our first baptism service on 7/17/10 and baptized 3 new members. As I watched Elder Tingey baptize one of the Africans, with 2 other African Elders as witnesses, I was touched by the spirit of what we are really doing over here. It was wonderful. We have baptisms twice a month.

We had another baptism two weeks later, Aug 7 and we had 15 new baptisms of which two were 8 year old children. It was great. Ed was a witness and a cute girl that I helped to teach was baptized.

Surprise!

Just two hours before Elder and Sister Gates spoke at their mission farewell they received a call from their Stake President informing them that their mission assignment had changed from Greece to...
the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa Mission

Entering the MTC on June 28

The mission includes the following countries:

• Democratic Republic of Congo
• The Congo
• Gabon
• Camerron
• Central African Republic

Languages:  Many different languages, but each of the countries list French as a shared language.

Other Notes:

1. A portion of the mission was recently split off because of the success in the growth of the Church.
2. Some districts in the interior have had attendance at district conference in the thousands.
3. Several members who live in areas without an organized congregation walk up to 200 miles for two weeks to attend Church meetings and gather additional Church literature and scriptures to share with fellow family and friends.
4. Several groups and dependent branches also function throughout the country.
5. Much of this growth occurs without missionaries permanently assigned to these areas.
6. We read that the Democratic Republic of Congo has over 20,000 members of the Church, with 10,000 of them having been baptized in the past year.