Weekly Update 5-12-08

Well now this was a pretty good week. Two of the young men in Kilili got their mission calls. Stephen is going to Durban South Africa July 24th and Julius is going to the same mission but not until Sep. 4th. They were very excited when we delivered their calls to them last Tuesday. Kennedy's papers were still in Salt Lake and we haven't received anything yet so assume it will be at least another week although we do go there for Church this Sunday if they should happen to show up here before then. Because of the couples conference we stayed in Nairobi this weekend which shortened our Sunday activities as there was no 6 hour trip wrapped around church attendance. We did get together at President and Sister Taylor's home for a Mother's Day Dinner before receiving instruction from them yesterday. All the other couples left for the Tanzania Safari today but some of the Sisters were a little down as they hadn't received their Mother's Day calls from the other side of the world yet. That is probably what really made this week special because we received calls from all 7 of our children. We were planning on calling our own mothers last evening but found that our pre-paid phone card had expired so will give them a jingle before we go to bed this evening.

They didn't get our vehicle fixed until Friday. They initially thought it was some bad fuel but as they were doing their road check last Wednesday found that it was still cutting out like we had reported. Turns out that a fuel line had become kinked. They replaced the clutch, pressure plate and through-out bearing and completed the 30,000 service while it was in the shop which should put us in pretty good shape until the end of the month. We will have logged another 5,000kms by then so will need serviced again and probably new tires.

The Stutz took over our spare bedroom last Thursday as they came to town for the conference then left on the Safari this morning. Although it limits our access to the computer when someone is in the spare bedroom it is great to have company and we borrowed their 4 wheel drive to get us up the hill to Ilima on Friday.

With all the couples here in Nairobi over the weekend we got together to visit the Elephant Orphanage on Saturday and then did our traditional Saturday Evening Meal on the Town.

We continue to make progress on securing documents for our Temple Bound Members and will complete lesson 6 in the Temple Prep Course this week. The next lesson is to be given after they visit the temple so we will spend the next couple of weeks preparing their own family group sheets and those for any ancestors they plan on doing the work for while there.

They have had a slight hiccup in their rainy season but nothing is dry enough that it appears critical yet. Sure can get tough sometime when they are so critically dependant on Mother Nature to ensure meals for the next few months.

Sure glad our children called as that made what would have otherwise been a rather lack luster Mother's Day for my companion rather special. We did stop at the Langatta Women's Prison Nursery last Wednesday and got a Jade Plant to replace the Poinsetta which had given up the ghost and then bought a few red roses from a street hawker on our way home from dinner on Saturday.

We love you all.
Elder and Sister Bishop