Weekly Update 6-15-08

It is 6:00 Monday morning and sense I had a rather restless night I am going to jot down a few of my thoughts before our work day begins. We got together for a Father's Day Feast with 4 of the other couples after attending church in Kilili yesterday. Because the majority of cows here are descendants of the Zebu cattle they don't tend to do much marbling in their meat which makes it a little tougher than what I have devoured for so many years. This means whenever I gorge myself as I did yesterday that my 60 year old stomach then spends most of the night digesting the meat for me. It was so good though.

We were able to get another sister cleared for baptism yesterday while in Kilili. All of our baptisms have been referrals of sorts since our schedule does not allow us to spend anytime looking for investigators. Many of them have been coming to church for several years and have just struggled to understand the questions for baptism in English. This sisters name was Beatrice and she is a 29 year old widow with 4 children. She had been through the interview process several times before and was devastated when unable to answer the questions to the satisfaction of those conducting the interview. We took her through the discussions again, reviewed the pamphlets with her, made some reading assignments in True to the Faith and then spent time reading in Book of Mormon Stories. We relied heavily on the 3 young men waiting for mission calls to assist us in all this. Just to make sure we had all the help we could get we also fasted for her yesterday. She did great and will be baptized next Sunday. She wanted her 10 year old daughter Mumbua to be baptized with her but her english is still pretty shaky so rather than have her discouraged with a failed interview is going to assist us in working with her to prepare for her own baptism. That should really help both of them to discuss the gospel topics in english. Because of Mumbua's requirement to attend school we can only meet with her during the 3 vacation months (April, August & December) and the Sundays we attend at Kilili.

We got the word from the Johannesburg Temple this week that they will accommodate all our Kilili group at the temple in December and promised to get us a January date to support the folks from the other 2 branches shortly. So now it is just working on documents which is no sure thing. One young man we have been working with finally got his ID card this week which is the first step towards a passport. The ID card application fee is only 150 shillings but by the time he finally got it he had paid another 750 in bribes. We have one dear sister that has been waiting since last Aug. and still no card yet. Unfortunately many of the officials once they suppose they have a little authority think they have the right to demand extra favors. There is much lip service given to fighting graft and corruption here but there are also a lot of deaths that result from offended neighbors wielding sharp pangas. (There was an item in the paper this week of a community that hacked up 4 of their neighbors and then buried them alive because they suspected them of witchcraft.) So I appreciate the frustration of people who struggle to ensure there is sufficient food to eat each day, who just continue on with life according to tribal traditions and avoid getting hung up in government bureaucracy. Unfortunately that does not meet the requirements for a passport and they can't leave home without it.

Not many more new things to report on this week so I will close with a few musings that over came me as I sat in Priesthood Meeting yesterday and heard the sweet little Primary Children singing outside "I am a Child of God" in their cute little African accents. Pres. Mckay had it right when he taught that the home and family are one of our greatest joys. I appreciate what a rare privilege it is to work with him (Heavenly Father) in this joint venture as an earthly father and develop this special relationship with spirit brothers and sisters. To expand that a little more the appreciation I have for family and friends for all they have done to help me along here on planet earth is significant. Yes I should have tried a little harder myself at times and been a little less gruff and more outgoing but that is water under the bridge. It is true that as we try to live like our Father in Heaven wants we certainly gain a love and appreciation for our fellow beings.

Thanks to all and God Bless.
Elder & Sister Bishop