Weekly Update 12-11-07

Our report is a little late this week because we have had 3 prospective missionaries with us since last Sunday and when we have had a few minutes for other things the internet server was down. We brought the elders home from our visit to the Kilili Branch on Sunday. They are great young men and it has been fun to assist them with their medical, dental and passport work. They thought it was great to have more than one item on the menu for a meal (we kind of take that for granted don't we). They weren't too sure about the ice cream after they found how cold it was (these guys don't have electricity in their village so a fridge is unheard of) but I think Grandpa Ice Cream has them liking it now. It was their first time ever to a dentist and they only had 7 cavities between the 3 of them but the dentist did give a strong lecture on brushing their teeth after she spent the time giving them their first cleaning ever. In Africa prospective missionaries have to have their passports before they can send their paperwork to Salt Lake as that turns into a considerable challenge sometimes. We are hoping to have all the preliminary stuff done by next Wednesday (one of them has to come back for 2 more cavities to be filled) and then are just waiting on the government to make a determination on travel authorizations. The branch has just over 200 members and these 3 will make 4 missionaries currently serving from their unit. There is a young woman currently serving at Temple Square from their village. Those of you who subscribe to the Church News and still have the October Conference edition will find a picture of Sister Faith Joseph with her companion from Brazil in that issue.The Super Activity for the young people from Ilima didn't come off all that well as their bus got stuck as they were leaving the hills and then traffic jams really slowed them down so they were unable to spend more than just a few hours here in Nairobi. They had already requested that we not worry about assisting them with their noon meal as even the name pizza had some of them concerned and they weren't sure they wanted to try it.We were able to teach the first discussion to 9 young people in Kyambeke last week and are expecting good results from that experience. I am in the process of getting a generator so that we can make use of some of the published media material in our work there. We have a TV and DVD player in our flat that we will haul with us and I located an old VCR player in the mission storage that appears to be functional as many of the available materials are somewhat dated. We do have a CD player in our truck that sees a lot of use during our 25 to 30 hours of travel each week. We are continuing our discussions with the 6 people in Ilima and have another 1st scheduled with a man in Kyambeke that is neighbor to a fellow that has just returned to activity.We finally got the new beds all set up for the dispensary in Kyambeke and are helping them reactivate their electrical support system and build up a lab of sorts. We spent a couple of hours at the Catholic hospital in Kikoko last week and identified quite a few items that we can hopefully get the LDS charities folk to assist with. That hospital provides support to some 80,000 plus people and it is amazing to see what little they have available to do it with. The mortality rate among both mothers and children is not very good.Well the sun is coming up and we have a bunch of items that need attention before nightfall so will sign off for now. Thanks for all the pictures we have received via the internet lately they are really appreciated