The father of this family wasn't home, but we were there to do follow up teaching with the Elders because the two little girls were recently baptized. Their mother was baptized some time ago, when she lived in Brazzaville. The little girl on the right is very talkative and told us about how she broke her arm one day (the cast has only been off for a short time), when she was running and fell. The can't straighten her arm all the way now, but didn't complain. Their mother braided their hair and then added ringlets. The two little boys were full of energy and mischievousness - trying to get attention and driving their mom crazy......
November 11, 2012
Dear family,
If you go to missioninthecongo.blogspot.com I think Sister
Wheatley posted a note lamenting the fact that time is running out. She
has had trouble lately adding to her blog, hopefully things will correct
themselves. The power seems to have been
very weak lately. There is a direct relationship between weak current and
weak internet. This has been a quick but interesting week.
Yesterday and today we viewed the DVD's from the October Conference.
We have a copy of the talks in English so we would follow along while
everyone else listened in French. I think they get a different
interpreter for each talk or at least they keep switching them. On one of
President Monson's talks they had a real young voice. It was a struggle
get the feel for that particular talk.
On Monday we tried to get a
"long stay" visa. Currently we have to renew our visa's every
three months. We hoped we could renew it for the rest of our mission.
After going to different agency's and hearing what it would cost we gave
up. The mission president is not satisfied with the results so we might
be trying again.
On Tuesday afternoon we went with
the Elders, to visit some recent converts and a new investigator. Sister
Wheatley doesn't normally go but felt a need to go this day. (She
probably thought that if she went, Elder Wheatley would be more careful
and not get the truck stuck) The first visit was with a young girl.
She and her sister were baptized about three months ago. Her Sister
was still at school so we just taught her. She started into a lengthy
story about breaking her arm shortly after her baptism. She had been causing
problems with her sister and a cousin that was visiting. After causing
problems she took off running and tripped and fractured her arm,
The story seemed to go on and on but
the Elders said they thought it was a way of her confessing her sin and feeling
sorry for what she had done. We next moved on to visit a family the
Elders had taught once before, the husband was not home but his wife was, and
the man’s brother came over. They have a big unfinished home, very
typical to move in as soon as one room is finished and then finish the rest of
the home when money becomes available. We sat on chairs on the patio and had a
good lesson on the Priesthood, at least that's what we gathered. At the
end of the lesson Sister Wheatley asked if she could bear her testimony. Her
French came out very good and we could all feel the spirit. When it was
time to go the lady asked Sister Wheatley to say the closing prayer. Once
again she did very well. After the prayer we felt a connection between
the two ladies. Probably the reason Sister Wheatley felt a need to
accompany the Elders on that afternoon. We had one more stop. A
family that struggles to make it to Church because of finances. Husbund,
wife and four children live in a small wooden house. When we arrive we have to
park some distance from the home and our vehicle can't be seen but the children
all seem to know when we have arrived as they always come running and jump up
on the Elders. Once again we sit on benches out in the open and swat
mosquitoes. The children all cuddled up to Sister Wheatley. This
was her first visit to their home. She was asked to give the opening
prayer. Looking back it was a special day for Sister Wheatley, two
prayers and a testimony in French. More importantly all felt through the
spirit.
Wednesday we went with the Elders on
a service project. We dug up an investigator's yard with shovels so he
can plant a garden. Elder Wheatley is ashamed of how weak he has
become. A couple of hours in the hot sun and he was praying the
Elders would be done in. It is interesting how many of the young Elders
come from homes where they didn't raise a garden. They kept asking
questions about how on plants seeds.
(We are now switching to Sister
Wheatley telling this)Wednesday afternoon we had dinner at the home of a recent
convert, and older gentleman (probably about our age!), who is a physician.
He has his office in the front of his home, on a parcel that is quite
large and has several buildings on it. We have been to his home several times,
but never for a meal. On our blog, there are a couple of pictures of
missionaries bonking heads with him, which is a way of greeting for good
friends. His adult daughter and her son, who is 12, were also baptized
(her husband is dead). His wife doesn't speak French, so the elders
haven't been able to teach her. She speaks a village language, and so it
will be up to Frèrer Felix to teach her. This is often the case – where
either the husband or wife joins but the spouse doesn’t. In that respect
they seem to live different lives. The reason we were invited was to help
celebrate his birthday. I had made cookies for them one time and they
didn’t seem to really like them, I think they were too sweet, so I took potato
salad this time, which they had for dessert and seemed to really like –
anything with eggs and lots of mayo is a sure bet! He told us that in our
honor, we would eat off of his collection of traditional wooden plates, goblets
and utensils, and some of the serving dishes were also from his antique
collection. He has spent years and we are sure, a lot of money, buying
special items from villagers and from his family, some of which he says are
from the 1700s. I will post some pictures on our blog as soon as the power
gets a little better so I can make it work. We had a wonderful meal of
whole fish (the innards removed, but not the bones or heads & tails), saka
saka (a dish that is very time consuming to make – leaves, seasonings, usually
some fish for flavor, the leaves are crushed in a wooden bowl with a long
handled -several feet long-wooden tool, then the mix is cooked for a long
time), manioc, a rice dish, French bread, and chicken in a delicious
sauce. I was worried about what to drink – we can’t drink their water-
but the bottles of water had not been opened before and they were even chilled,
and there was a mint flavoring to add if we wanted to, which was very
good. It was a lovely dinner and Frère Felix’s wife sat by me, which was
fun because I had never met her before and we couldn’t talk, but could motion
about things. It was a lovely evening – we had a prayer & song and
spiritual thought before the meal. He wants to know how to have FHE, so
we had talked about that the week before.
Well, that's all for this week.
A thought we talk about in missionary meetings: People don't care
how much you know until they know how much you care.
Love from the Congo,
Elder & Sœur Wheatley
No comments:
Post a Comment