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