Pictures 2-25-08

This is a picture of the baptismal candidates Sunday plus 4 of the people that did the baptizing. Leah, one of the twins is hiding on the back row second from right. We were very fortunate to participate in this event. President cornered us today and said we baptized more than the rest of the mission combined for the week. It was a long time coming for some as they had been attending for two years. We hope we have the Presidents trained to not let any more children of record slip through the cracks as they ranged in ages from 10 to 14.

Weekly Update 2-24-08

Well I have access to the computer and internet this morning so will dash off this weekly report before the day begins. Yesterday was a long but rewarding experience with our departure for up-country at 6:45 and our return at 6:30 last evening. When you subtract the 6 hour road trip that does mean we only spent 6 hours on site but that is 2 more hours than we normaly are there. Besides attending their Sunday Services we werre able to participate in the baptism of 14 new members. Nine were from Kymbeke and 5 from Ilima. We held a joint baptismal service at Kymbeke which meant 4 extra kms of walking for the Ilima folks. One member father baptized his wife and 15 year old daughter. There were 6 other young people from member families from 10 to 14 years of age who finally were able to satisfy the english requirement that is imposed if they are not baptized at age 8. One sister was a rebaptism because there was no record of her previous one and we could not get sufficient information to regenerate a record of the event. The other 5 were from 4 families with no previous members and there are still some additional parents and children from those who we are actively working with. The 2 weeks we lost to violence kind of derailed us with school back in session and harvest upon us now but the window of opportunity for working with the adults is back with us dependant when the next rainy season hits. The schools have another month break in April so that we can work more with the young people through the week. Because the folks in the Kilunga Hills are subsistence farmers they are very fortunate to have two growing seasons. Although much of Kenya enjoys the 80 to 50 degree temperature range each day there is a lot of it that does not get sufficient rain to support both seasons as they do there. Because so much of the crops in the north were destroyed or disrupted with the violence, the price of maize and beans (the food staples here) has gone up and I thought that would be a plus for the folks we are working with but they assure me that all of their crops are for personal consumption. Things like mangos and papya are considered snacks or treats as they have no way to preserve them beyond their season and didn't think the previous missionaries efforts to help them dry them for longer term storage was beneficial as they lacked the nutrients to really be considered a basic food item. The pre-missionaries that stayed with us found it rather funny that we would serve fresh mango or pineapple as part of a meal when it is considered more fluff by them but they did like Elder Bishop's fresh mango shakes. I have the luxury of a few slices stored in the freezer which they don't even consider since ther is no electricity hence no freezers.

The Kofi Anan led mediation talks seem to be progressing some days and with the visit of Sec. of State Rice and encouragement from the UK are suppose to yield some solutions this week. The opposition has declared if that doesn't happen by weeks end that they are taking the peaceful protests back to the streets. Those are the same peaceful protests that killed and displaced so many people in January. Be glad that America has progressed to the point that we just have to put up with campaign rhetoric for two years and the military arm is controlled so that only lawful orders must be obtained.

We continue to have some successes in the keyboarding and English classes but because of the understandable distractions of sustaining life we have many students at varying stages of progression and it makes it tough to prepare for and support the classes. We are working on some changes that will hopefully sustain their progression but allow us to shift our time and focus to temple prep with a hoped for trip while school is out in December. There are so many families that are so ready for that event in their lives and it certainly should strengthen each branch. We think we have solutions to assist in getting documents for international travel (Kenya to South Africa) but need to start at the basics such as generating birth certificates and ID numbers (comparable to social security numbers).

We just got a call from Brett and family so I think our phone is really working this time. If anyone else feels so inclined Mondays and most Saturdays are the only days we are not on the road by 6:45am which is 8:45pm the previous day MST. The APO box with its' 1lb restriction is definitely the best mail route and several of the other couples have even started having stuff sent to our box. The 1+ hour required to check it is sometimes a bother but 3 of us have boxes there (Pocock was a Navy Chaplain and Demars is retired ARNG) and we can pick up mail from all 3 boxes when we go so share the duty. The other couples are very supportive of the time we spend away from Nairobi and we get frequent invites to dinner when we arrive back late from up country. The 6+ hour road trip continues to be our biggest challenge but General Motors does a pretty good job of putting our truck back together when we take it in for service each 5,000 kms, which occurs about every 30 days. Dear sweet Sister Bishop is doing a great job of critzising my driving less which reduces our stress but I know her tounge is probably getting very calloused from biting it. One of the chores today is to get our side mirror fixed as a bus in Molango decided to occupy the same spot our Isuzu was in yesterday. I was rather steamed and demanded his name and insurance information but realized I did not want to spend the time hunting down the police station etc. plus the lesson in Sunday School had just been on forgiving our enemies and those who despitely use us.

Well it is time the good sister and I do a walk as we only have two days we can get that kind of exercise each week. Thanks for the concern and support. I will get a few more pictures up before the day is out. Thanks Bethany for keeping the Blog Site up. We just found BJ's family's new one and that was sure fun. We had kept checking the old one and just figured they were keeping busy enough that there were no updates. I recomend them to those who aren't doing them and am sure glad for this one as I probably would not be keeping any other kind of journal of our mission here. I am looking forward to having this put into a book sometime shortly after June 2009. God Bless

Pictures 2-20-08

A few critters along side the road as we came home the other day.

We found this little guy in one of the buckets in our laundry porch the other morning.

This is what happens when I leave my companion unattended at RS Enrichment activities. It is good that I remembered what color of dress she was wearing that day or I might of brought the wrong companion back to Nairobi with me. The sisters had a blast dressing her up. Just like they had their own little Barbie Doll.

This is what happens when you send Elder Bishop out for a bunch of bananas with out giving him real good guidance.

Some times when we come through Molongo on our way home this school is just letting out and there are kids of all sizes in their blue uniforms everywhere.

This is a recent picture of all the couples in Nairobi now. Three of the couples are newer than us but because they are only here for 18 months they will leave before we do. It should be noted however since we have experienced our bump day that Elder and Sister Kenyan who just arrived from Carefree, AZ and were assigned to Dar Salam in Tanzania will still be here when we leave even though they are only here for 18 months also. It is truly amazing how fast time flies when we keep so busy.

Weekly Update 2-19-08

Just a little late this week. The Stutz stayed until Friday and I went to Kilili to pick up the 3 prospective missionaries on Saturday so they could get their Patriarchal Blessings on Sunday. They have been working on a couple of shortfalls for their mission applications since then. They had their final interview with President Taylor on Monday but still needed to get yellow fever shots and police clearances. They accomplished that yesterday while we were up country and now we are just waiting on a pass port for one of them. Hopefully they can shake that loose soon and we can bring the balance of their packets back with us next Tuesday. The bottom line to all our visitors is the limited access to our computer and internet.

We did get our land line working again last Thursday and it is still operating today so maybe it is fixed this time. The Assistants accompanied us to Kyambeke and Ilima last Sunday to conduct baptismal interviews and we now have 14 baptisms scheduled for this coming Sunday. I was able to begin working with a few unbaptized kids (ages 10 to 15) from Kilili while their last Saturday so we still have an investigator pool of 22 that are all fairly solid. We plan on scheduling more interviews in 4 weeks and then again 4 weeks after that which should pretty well drain our pool. This is a real treat for us as we have no young Elders or Sisters assigned to our area as the other proselyting couples do so the teaching falls to us. We have been talking up temple prep with all 3 branches and hope to get that initiated within the next 30 days with a target date of December. We really see some of the folks getting enthused about it and it should really boost everything else they are doing if we can help them meet that goal. Other couples tell us that our biggest challenge is just getting all the documents approved to allow them to travel to Johannesburg.

We did go out to dinner at Lord Earls on the 14th and we received a package in our APO Box from San Francisco the previous day so that was our Valentines. The malt balls and cherry chocolates were great but we really got excited about the fair dinkum zip lock bag that came with them. What they sell here is not the quality we are used to and the few we packed stuff in for our travel here or getting pretty sad looking.

The roads continue to be our biggest obstacle as far as enjoying our mission. They just seem to get worse each time we travel them and my style of driving is to just get over them as soon as possible. We do see some attempts to fix them and keep hoping that we will be able to enjoy the fruits of their efforts before our time is up. There is a lone caterpillar and operator working the roads in the hills and it is making a world of difference but I cant help but think that the next rainy season will just erode all his good efforts.

Well must run as our funds were a week late getting transferred in and with all the company Sister Bishops cupboards could use a little shopping attention. I will try and get a few pictures sent before the day is out. We sure do appreciate the notes and pictures that keep showing up in our inbox and thank all those who take a few minutes to remember us. We are definitely enjoying a little warmer weather than what we see in the photos we get. May God bless you all.

Weekly Update 2-11-08

We have had visitors since last Thursday which makes it a little tough to do much online as the spare bedroom is the only location where we get good enough conection with our service to support internet activity. The Stutz from up in Kitale are in town for some inservice training for CES missionaries. They are off to that now and will be back here Wednesday evening. Their assignment has had them pretty close to the violence in Eldoret so they are glad to be otherwise involved for a week. Things seem to get just a little quieter each day and there wern't too many deaths attributed to violence this last week. They claim to be making progress with the peace talks and are speculating that significant announcements will be made this week.

We participated in George's funeral last Saturday. We purchased the casket here in Nairobi and hauled it as far as Kikoko on Thursday. I had them wrap the coffin in black plastic when I picked it up which was well as it rained on us most of the way up country. We negotiated George's release from the morgue on Friday but the family took responsibility for moving him on Saturday so we were able to push our departure back to 8:00 Saturday morning but did not get back to town untill 7:30 that evening. The family had hired a Matatu to take them to Kikoko to pick up the coffin and body which they strapped to the top while they rode inside. Like most of the Matatus here the vehicle was not very mechanically sound as the starter was gone so it had to be pushed to start. We caught up with them negotiating the last steep grade before George's home. As the van had killed on that grade there were some 15 or so volunteers pushing it up the hill. The death experience is shrouded in superstition even among the members here and since it is not good to haul a dead person past another persons home they had blazed a rather substantial trail up the face of their hill so as not to bring bad juju to any of their neighbors. A meal of maize, beans, rice, cooked cabbage, and goat was served at noon then the service began at 2:00. Sister Bishop accompanied a choir on the keyboard for a plethora of hymns for over an hour before the service started. She also played several songs during the course of the service and while the coffin was being escourted to its final resting place just near his home.

We were able to get a good start on Joshua's mission application and should have him ready for his final interview by the end of March provided his passport is approved by then. He sailed through his Dr.s exam but had to have one tooth pulled and is coming back on the 26th for work on 2 more. We sure enjoyed having him here for a few days and he left with a long list of foods that he had tried while here and wanted to tell his friends about when he got back home. We had pizza, mango shakes, and enchilladas while he was here just to name a few that he had never seen before. Because of the funeral last Saturday I had to push the final interview for the 3 young men at Kilili back a week so will go get them Saturday. That will make 10 trips up country in just two weeks which is a new record in travel for us.

We have the assistants scheduled for baptismal interviews at Kyambeke and Ilima this weekend and are hoping to have some success in scheduling a few more baptisms before too long. Well it is 10:50 now and we need to be on the road in less than 8 hours so will sign off for another week. Oh yes we did get the land line working again last Wednesday but if you call please remember that we are 11 hours ahead of the MST (or is it 12 with daylight savings).

Sure got to see some great pictures of some of the grandkids via the computer this last week. Thanks Ian for sharing your secret with us.

Elder and Sister Bishop

Weekly Update 2-3-08

A quick note this morning as this week looks like it will be pretty busy. We continue our current schedule of visits with peaceful conditions in our little corner of the mission in the hills. The only time we feel concerned is when we have to return to Nairobi. On our trips out in the mornings the town is just waking up so there is little to be wary of but on our return we just don't know what has transpired through the day especially if we have forgotten to charge our phone and it has gone silent on us. Most of the Kenyans are fed up with the violence and just want to get back to work as their monetary situations are so fragile. It is the unemployed youth in the slums and the opposing tribes in the Rift Valley that continue to keep things off balance. The Kofi Annan led peace iniative seems to be a ray of hope on the horizon but the lead politicians don't seem to be willing to be moving to any middle ground. Another MP (member of Parliament) was killed last week which is cutting into the oppositions narrow control of that body. Apparently the replacements come from another election and do not stay with the victorious party.

A couple of incidents that we experienced this last week that indicate we are still working on our transition to the culture here. The first was when we stopped at the Kikoko Hospital to check on George Maila (the 1st Councilor at Kyambekke). We received a call Wednesday that he had been admitted there and would we please check on his condition on our way up country. I finally got the duty nurse to understand who I was looking for and she picked up a file and said 'he rest in peace this morning' thinking that he was out of the woods and had finally got some peaceful rest I asked if it would be possible to talk to him this morning. She looked at me for a moment and then asked why I wanted to see the body. The other incident was during Sunday School Class at Ilima yesterday where the lesson was on the creation. Someone in back wanted to know why God had created so many colors of people and the teacher replied that maybe Elder Bishop could explain why God had made some people brown and others colored. Sister Bishop assures me that I was sufficiently evasive in my reply to avoid offending anyone.

Because of the George's death we will be attending another funeral this Saturday and our involvement will probably be a little greater this week. We have already been tasked to locate a casket and have it at the morgue early Saturday. Hopefully there will be a van there to finish getting the deceased to his home where the funeral and burial will be. When I took Anna, his wife, to their home last Thursday the last 1/4 mile was straight up what could best be called a cow trail. Fortunately Sister Bishop was still involved with her keyboarding class so was not along as my co-driver at the time.

I am picking up Joshua, one of our pre-missionaries this morning and will spend the day at the Dr.s with him getting his physical. Tuesday we will leave him with Victor to work on his passport and then spend Wednesday at the dentist. I had already scheduled to bring the 3 young men from Ilima in Saturday so they could get their Patriarchal Blessings Sunday then have their final interviews with Pres. Taylor on Monday. They will then return to Kilili with us Tuesday then just wait for their Mission calls to come. Their whole branch is getting pretty excited. I just need to work around the change of plans created by the funeral but will probably just give them some funds so they can come to Nairobi via a bus or matatu.

We were able to listen to parts of President Hinckley's funeral late Saturday but it came in spurts as the internet is not consistently that great. We are glad that his passing was not prolonged and look forward to the leadership of President Monson. Must be going as the day is rapidly approaching. How about them NY Giants?