Weekly Update 7-14-08

It's Sunday evening here but tomorrow looks to be a little hectic so I am going to get an update off now. We brought Onesmus and Justus (the 2 pre-missionaries from Kyambeke) back with us again today as they still have quite a bit of dental work that needs done. The assistants are in Mombasa for the weekend so we will spend a little time ferrying our boys around before we turn them over to the assistants tomorrow evening. We also need to spend some time with Edward chasing some medicine for his wife tomorrow and getting her back to the hospital for a check-up. We will fill in the extra minutes making deposits for the branches and picking up supplies at the service center. It is so prohibitive for these folks from up country to try and make matatu connections especially as Jane is still wheel chair bound that we have to bend the rules a little to help them with our transport capabilities. We try to keep the President apprised of what we are doing to ease our guilt complex some. Once you help convert them you tend to get close enough that it is near impossible to ignore the special challenges they have. I am trying to avoid another trip in the slum though as that just plain wasn't much fun. Just going to the discount chemist in down town Nairobi is enough fun. There were about 15 pharmacists lined up on the other side of this big counter with huge iron bars and all the natives swarming to get their prescriptions filled. Jane's meds cost almost as much as her 6 week stay in the hospital. The only meal provided by the hospital is breakfast and it is up to the relatives to get some grub there to cover the other meals. Riding the elevator to the 8th floor was another special thrill. We were in the front of the line when the doors opened but then the folks just swarmed and we just barely made it on. It was posted for a max capacity of 21 but there were at least 40 occupants and another rather stout lady tried to squeeze in but the doors couldn't close so the others encouraged her to get off. She backed up two steps then just threw herself at the throng so she wedged in far enough to allow the doors to close. By this time my companion was packed somewhere in the middle of the group with a rather panicked look on her face and I was just crammed in the other area trying not to become too familiar with all the folks crushed in their. When we had to go back up Sis. Bishop opted to stay in the car and I just hobbled up the stairs.

I took 6 of the 47 white shirts everyone had sent over with the folks to Kyambeke today for some of the men and they were very appreciative. I have a list of 10 young men in that branch that also need shirts but because we were packed for the trip with our pre-missionaries I will have to take them another time. The roads are so dusty up there right now that we have to keep anything that needs to stay clean in the cab with us as the shell is not dust tight.

We were introduced to another new investigator today and are scheduled to teach she and her husband next Thursday. These folks just keep showing up with some very special people that they have prepared to be taught. We have given up on the government approving our purchase of an aerial map in the immediate future and are just trying to prepare the info that Salt Lake requires to consider making another branch using field expedient methods. Hope it all comes together positively as there seems to be a real potential to just keep adding to the membership there if we can reduce the time required to walk to the existing chapels.

I do have to admit that the nights are feeling a little cool here now but I did print off pictures of our grandkids playing in the snow to show anyone that complains about how cool it is so that they can see what real cold is like. Well I need to sign off so the boys can come in our computer room here and go to bed.

Elder & Sister Bishop