As of yesterday, we have now been in Kenya for one month. The past two weeks have been quite busy. Elder Gerald Caussé, one of the apostles of the Church has been here, along with his wife, Valerie. A large portion of our area is French speaking, and when Elder Caussé was the Presiding Bishop of the Church, he visited Africa many times. Elder and Sister Duncan (from the presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy) and Elder and Sister Douglas (of the Presiding Bishopric) were here as well. We keep hearing that Kenya is the best kept secret in the Church. We already know that we will miss the Kenyan people when it is time for us to return home. We were busy all day and into the evening on Sunday, as we were interviewing church members and getting their permissions to use their images in the story we would be contributing to and getting published to the Church Newsroom. There was a big marathon that began and ended in our neighborhood on Sunday. We stayed at a hotel at the airport so we would not have to worry about being able to get out of our apartment complex and make it to the Nairobi Stake Center in Buruburu on time. The article that came from Elder Caussé’s visit was mostly written by someone else and edited by us with just a few paragraphs written by Elder Thomas. We will link it here.
Our Church Newsroom stories are published on the Africa English site. Our first story was about the church providing thousands of fruit trees to Kenya for planting on Mazingira Day. Here is the link to that one:
https://news-africa.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/planting-trees-in-kenya-to-make-a-difference
September 20th was a national holiday, and the employees at the area office were not going to be working. We took the opportunity to join with several other senior couples and do some hiking. The Oloolua hike promised a waterfall, bamboo forest and caves. We saw all of those things, but they were not quite what our imaginations thought they would be. However, it was great to get out into nature. We actually miss working in our yard at home and soaking up some Vitamin D. A highlight of the day was a large group of youth that we met on the trail. They were singing and having a great time. People are so friendly here once you say ‘habari’ or hello to them first.
On our hike we ran into a large group of men from a church celebrating their Christian faith by having a barbecue of several goats — some on a grill and others on an open fire. Elder Thomas was given a sample of the goat cooked on the grill. One taste was enough. We were invited to join them, but decided we had other things to do.
Speaking of goats, we see them frequently being herded along the side of the road. One of our senior missionaries is a rancher from Idaho, and he told us that sheep and goats are cross bred in Kenya, so they are both sheep and goats.
Last Saturday we were able to visit Rays of Hope for the first time. Senior missionaries have been paying visits to this orphanage and free tuition school a couple of times a month for years. The missionaries prepare a lesson or activity to do with the children (about 200 of them) and then serve them lunch. When we pulled up to the the site, we were greeted by the children, many who were happy to see us and gave us hugs. Some of the children were shy, having never seen some of us (mzungu–white people) before. The little ones didn’t really understand or speak English. The theme for the day was music, and each couple was invited to teach the kids a song. It was a challenge, as there was an employee who felt the need to repeat the words to the song, getting half of them incorrect. The older children were upstairs. They did speak English, and we were able to have a discussion with them. You will hear this a lot from us, but the children in this country are irresistibly adorable!
Elder Thomas got to dish up the bean hash for the children. They are given a scoop for each member of their family that they can take home, as long as they have a container to put it in. We save our ice cream and yogurt containers to donate to them for this purpose.
There is a dormitory for boys over the age of 14 who are too old to be in the general population of the orphanage that is associated with the school. We got to see where they sleep and were so impressed at how neat and tidy everything was.
Driving down a bumpy dusty road on the way to Rays of Hope, we kept noticing these advertisements on practically every pole we drove by.
The boda boda photo for this edition was taken by a fellow missionary.
And here’s a photo of boda boda drivers in training:
We are preparing for an offsite planning meeting for our communications team in Mombasa (on the coast of the Indian Ocean). The theme we came up with to address a new communications director and team rallying around him was: Enlightened, United and Empowered to bring to pass the work of the Lord. We supported this theme with Alma 26:3, “…And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.”
We do feel we are instruments in the hands of God in making a difference for those we touch while on this mission. Sometimes we can’t believe we are actually here.
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