Weekly Update 4-16-08

I know it has just been a few days since my last update but yesterday was a pretty good day. The Assistants traveled with us to Ilima and we were able to baptize 3 more of our investigators along with 5 eight year old children of record. We stopped and visited at Kyambeke also and 4 of our investigators there were cleared to be baptized on Easter Sunday next week. Two of them were young mothers who have been really working on their English skills and we were very concerned that it wasn't sufficient to pass the test but they did great and they are very excited about their pending baptism as are we. That will leave us with only a couple of investigators at those 2 branches but we scheduled the Assistants to go to Kilili with us on the 30th and have a baptism scheduled for that day for those there who they approve.

It does feel great to have a large degree of peace return to this land although there is still some ethnic violence continuing in the Mt. Elgon area to the north of us. The military is deploying troops there in an effort to diminish the raids and retaliation between the tribes there. There is still some major posturing among the local politicians and parliament on the power sharing deal between the President and the new Prime Minister but on the whole things are definitely much calmer. The sad part is that the economy is really going to struggle to get back to where it was last December and it is the average citizen who is going to feel the effects of that struggle. The tourist industry is probably suffering the most as all the major safari camps have dwindled to almost nothing.

Life is pretty stable for us as we find that our consistent visits with the branches of the Kalunga Hills seems to yield the best results. Sis. Bishop has finished up the 'New Beginnings' with the Young Women and has the primaries working on this years Sacrament program. The branches have scheduled their Relief Society Birthday Parties over the next couple of weeks and want us to bring guests with us to witness what they have done. We are hoping to be able to encourage some of the couples based in Nairobi to travel with us to those events as they have practiced some dances and songs that they would like to showcase. I should get the year end audits finished this week then we are planning on kicking off Temple Prep in April. Previous couples have worked on these classes with no results but we are hoping by focusing on document preparation (passports, visas, etc.) and family history up front that we can get a little better results with a trip to the Johannesburg Temple during the school break in December. One of the branches is developing a little insurrection of sorts as some of the members feel like their president is not allowing them to get what they think is their slice of the welfare pie. He has asked me to teach an appropriate Sunday School Lesson of my choosing to counter that. We did have a career work shop there last week and I am hoping that we can get the drive for self sufficiency to counter the feelings being exhibited.

The weather is a little warmer with the highs in the upper 80s and lows in the lower 60s but they tell us that it is a harbinger of the onset of the long rainy season. We are hoping that the wet seasons impact on our travels will be minimal as long as we can keep our 4 wheel drive on the road. Elder Embakazie, one of the Assistants who is a native from South Africa, commented, as we were negotiating the final climb to Ilima yesterday, what a super lady my companion was to endure those roads on a regular basis and I definitely agree with him. Her children would definitely be impressed to see the adjustments she has has made to compensate for the rigors of our assignment. Well I hope that Easter is memorable for all our friends and loved ones on the other side of the world. He does live and is concerned for all of us.

Elder & Sister Bishop