Pictures 10-28-08

These are the Primary Children in Kyambeke getting ready for their program.


Francis is on the left and Joseph on the right. I don't remember the name of the fat Mzunga in the middle.


On one stretch of the Mombassa Highway coming into Nairobi there is a atretch of trees just filled with storks. Not sure if you can make out the nest in the middle of this group but there were several young storks in it and the group seems to be gathered around watching the mother tend her young. Okay I have a question. Who do you think delivers baby storks? They sure are big ugly birds.

Weekly update 10-28-08

I know this update is a little late but we had some major connectivity problems yesterday. We can get on line tonight though so here goes. After 15 months of these I wonder what we can send each week that is not just a lot of the same. This was a pretty good week though. Because of the funeral in Kilili on Tuesday I let my companion spend the day in the flat with her primary lesson material work that she gets ready each month and I took the Assistants to Kyambeke for baptismal interviews. Jacinta from up at Ilima came down and did great as did Francis and Joseph from Kyambeke. Martin also from Kyambeke showed up a little late and I think got a little flustered so will try again in a few weeks. Because some of them live in situations where they speak nothing but Kikamba I think their understanding of the English words is very tough even though they read it very well. I constantly have to remind myself to slow down when talking with people that we aren't around that much. It strikes me as a little unfair to demand that these people must understand the English language in order to be baptized but then it would really create problems to try and provide materials in all the different dialects and provide church services in the same different languages so we just keep doing the best we can and encourage them. I really have a tender spot in my heart for those natives in my age group that really want to join the church but suffer from the same hardening of the brain cells that all us senior citizens have. The young people learn Swahili and English in the schools but even that does not guarantee that they understand all the words they learn to read.

We attended our final Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting at Kyambeke and it was just as great as the other two. They even had the primary children act as choristers for each song to include the ones that the rest of the congregation joined with them on. What brave little troopers and they did their parts so well. After the block meetings we held the baptisms for Francis and Joseph. Michael, the young man we baptized 3 weeks ago, provided the talk for the service and did a very impressive job. He has also accepted a call as second councilor in the YM Presidency and really has the young men fired up. They restructured all the auxiliary organizations and the branch is really responding well. Two weeks ago they had 156 people in attendance for Sacrament Meeting and this week it was 167. The church records show them with 181 members which is a pretty impressive percentage of attendance. There are quite a few non-members in that count. There are several of those who just don't understand English well enough but continue to faithfully show up each week. There are also several other investigators of which we are teaching several and others who just want to check out the church and we soon hope to be able to teach. Michael had two of his brothers with him and a neighbor. Not sure where the request to split the branch is at in the system but the little stone cut out with no hands does seem to be gaining a little momentum there in the Kulungu Hills.

We have some 20 or so people from Ilima and Kyambeke in Nairobi this week working on their passports for travel to the temple scheduled for February. I am starting to be a little concerned about the Kilili folks as their passports aren't back yet and their trip is only 4 weeks away now but Victor tells me they should be coming right away. The folks in Kyambeke have gotten enough moisture to sprout their maize so they are putting the beans in the ground. Ilima is a little short yet and there has been no rain in Kilili. We have had a bunch of moisture here in Nairobi so things are very green here now. The people up country are just now saying it is time to start raining there so I hope it does.

May God bless everyone for another week.
Elder & Sister Bishop

Pictures 10-24-08

A picture of us planting trees at the Kyambeke Chapel. The Elders' started these seedlings and now that the rainy season is coming they are transplanting them around the perimeter of the church grounds at 1 meter intervals. They wanted us to plant these two so they can show them to our grandsons when they come here on their missions.

This is Sister Bishop's most advanced keyboard student. Her name is Greta and she has played in the Ilima Branch services several times now.

This is a picture of some of the Ilima Primary Members before their Sacrament Meeting Program last week. In the right side you can see Greta playing some prelude music with the keyboard on her lap (she is the one with the stocking cap). The young lady on the bottom right is Jacinta who passed her baptismal interview this last Tuesday and will be baptized soon. She is 18 years old and has a cute little 3 month old daughter. Her husband is a member but not very active right now as he works in Nairobi and doesn't get home some weekends.

Weekly Update 10-20-08

Yesterday was the Primary Program at Ilima. What a treat! I spent Sacrament Meeting with a little feller on my lap who finally drifted off to sleep just as the meeting was about to end. He is not two yet and my companion thought maybe he was looking for a piece of candy. I have quit giving them out though as there was actually one boy that would stay home from school on the days he knew we were coming just so he could get a sweet. Don't want something like that to deprive a young Kenyan of an education as many need all the help they can get to improve their lot in life. I have since slipped some to the Branch President or Primary President at times so they can give it out after we leave. There has been some rain in the lower areas and those members tell me their maize is starting to germinate. Hope those further up and over the big hill get the same blessing soon. It started raining in Nairobi as we arrived home and the guards told me this morning that it rained most of the night. Had some more and even thunder this afternoon. Today was pretty low key as Kenya was celebrating Kenyatta Day so wasn't much going on except in the Uhuru Park in our neck of the woods. President Makiti buried his brother today so told us they would still be involved elsewhere tomorrow and wanted us to not visit Kilili. We have a few investigators ready for their baptismal interviews in Kyambeke so I am going to take the Assistants up there to conduct those interviews tomorrow. Since it is just up and back Sis. Bishop is going to stay and work on some projects here tomorrow. Victor tells me we should start to see some of the passports for the temple patrons this week. Justus is still waiting on his birth certificate. We thought we had everything ready to go on it but the folks that issue them have decided they want another 2,000 shillings which appears to me to just be outright graft. I am having to spend a little time on my attitude lately as the system here lacks a lot of order which to my way of thinking is a result of the prevalent me attitude. It is very refreshing to deal with so many of the church members who really buy into the brotherhood of all God's children. There really are a lot of good native people here doing really good things. I just need to remember that when I run into the negative things that come along.

All the rain has brought out some slugs that we hadn't seen in the previous 14 months. Sister Bishop was cleaning the flat for our hosting of FHE this evening when I heard one of those funny noises she makes when unpleasantly startled. I went into the other room to find her staring at a 2 inch long black slug oozing up the dining room wall. Then as the couples were coming tonight they complimented us on our early Halloween decorations on the door. There was a 5 inch long white slug adorning our doorframe. Not sure if either of them could swim or hold their breath very long but I gave them both the opportunity to do both of those activities as I flushed them down the facilities. I did not do it in her bathroom though on the off chance that they can do both and decide to come back and haunt us. I guess there are a few advantages to the hole in the floor latrines up country.

After the post election violence of the first of the year the new coalition government appointed a chief Justice by the name of Waiki to look into the causes and that commission finished their report this week. Be interesting to see where this goes as some are even claiming they will file with the folks in the Hague if nothing is done with the named culprits which are still not being revealed to the public.

Well that is a brief review of our life in Kenya for another week. Congratulations on the winning pinewood derby car Max. Your mother has probably told you how much I personally dreaded that particular Pack Meeting each year so not many of my sons creations made it into the record books for speed.

Elder & Sister Bishop

Weekly Update 10-13-08

Monday evening and I need to get an update out before hitting the rack. Had Elder & Sister Taylor, who are the auditors for the area, come and give some special training today for auditors. Strangely enough most of what I had taught myself for the last 3 times I've done them wasn't too far off the mark. Only one more audit cycle to accomplish and then it is someone else's concern. The branches have done a good job with what they have to work with and are honest in their dealings but all 3 of them are needing new clerks now as we have sent 2 of them on missions and the 3rd is just waiting for his passport and he will send in his mission papers. The one new clerk that has been called is a 16 year old who has only been a member for 4 months. Doesn't quite meet the requirement to be a Melchizdec Priesthood holder but he is very willing and has a good grasp of english.

Wasn't much new in our travels this week except I did have to fill out a traffic accident report today. Last Friday as we were negotiating the traffic on Mombasa Highway a little sedan decided it wanted to take over our lane. I wasn't too keen on the idea but did finally stop when I could see he was rather determined. It knocked a little trim off the left front wheel well on our vehicle but left a rather healthy scratch from the drivers door back before loosening his rear bumper. He was wanting to wait for the police to come and investigate but the construction crew that was working in the area told us both that it wasn't my fault so he agreed we should probably just both see to our own vehicles and left. We scheduled in a trip to the embassy today in the hopes of getting some mail and needing to mail off driver's license extensions to the state of Idaho. When we arrived the other side of town we were reminded that today is Columbus Day. These embassy employees really make out here. They get both US and Kenyan Holidays off. Last Friday was Moi Day. Today was Columbus Day and next Monday is Kenyatta Day. The interesting item this week from the local news was the deportation of Dr. Corsi. He is the author of Obama Nation which I guess is not very flattering of the Democratic Presidential Candidate. He was purportedly in town for a safari and was attempting to launch his book locally while here. He was arrested, taken to immigration for some time and then put on the late night flight out of town. Not much question there who the Kenyans would vote for if given the opportunity.

We attended our first Primary Program for 2008 this last Sunday in Kilili. The kids did great. I love to hear them sing and listen to their recitations. Some of them even threw in some rather demonstrative visual hand signals to emphasize their parts. The Branch President thanked Sister Bishop for her special support of their efforts. She will spend hours each month to ensure that each Branch Primary has all the lesson support materials as there is no electricity or copiers for them to accomplish it on their own.

It is hard to believe that it is snowing already in parts of Utah and Idaho. The weather here is just really great each day with some of them boardering on rather warm. A few more signs of rain this week as we drove through a lot of wet spots on Sunday but it is still very dry in the critical areas. Sure hope they get a bunch soon but they aren't too concerned yet as it is still a little early.

Well the bed is beckoning. I can't believe how much time I sleep now but I force myself to hit the hay early so that I will be alert as possible as we travel each day.

Weekly Update 10-6-08

It's Monday evening and we just finished watching the last session of conference for FHE. Because of the time difference the morning sessions start at 7:00 pm here. We tried watching the Saturday Morning session on Saturday evening and because it was a live feed it kept cutting in and out so that there was a lot that was hard to follow. We then watched the Saturday afternoon session after we got home from church at Kyambeke yesterday and because someone (stateside) had recorded it then the Lukes just accessed it using a program called slingbox so that worked well. We then watched the Sunday morning session right after that using the live feed and was able to have a reasonable connection so got to see and hear most of it. Rather than try to stay up from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am we just used the slingbox and watched the last session this evening accessing someone else's recording. Church at Kyambeke was great. All the pre-missionaries bore their testimonies as well as Michael, the 2 week convert. We had taught a 1st discussion to another investigator there (Martin Kioko) and he showed up for the block meetings and promised he would be back for a discussion on the Plan of Salvation this Thursday. One of our other investigators said he was ready to be baptized now and another asked for a priesthood blessing to help him overcome his craving for cigarettes.

Charles did get all his passport work done and we think we have resolution on all the medical examinations. He had an impacted wisdom tooth so the dentist took it out Tuesday as well as filling 4 cavities. Parliament declared Wednesday a holiday (last day of Ramadan) so I had to get Victor to help us shuffle him to appointments on Thursday and Friday then put him on a bus for home that afternoon. He stayed in Sultan Haumad that night and caught a matatu home Saturday morning. We will know Wednesday if he passed with the Dr. or not. With the surprise holiday and other requirements he did not get back to the lab to have his TB test read until 48 hrs. late and the tech there did not like the reading he got so they took some more blood. I guess 4 cavities is not too bad as that was his first dentist visit in his 20 years of life.

When we had the vehicle serviced a week ago the gas gauge was not working when we got it back so I had to take it to the office early this morning to have them check it out. They need it until tomorrow so we are driving a loaner for now and will trade back on Wednesday. It does get a little un-nerving driving up country and not knowing the true status of the fuel level. Our cell phone also went out on us last week. It started resetting every time we tried to call with it last Tuesday so we came back to Nairobi and traded for one that had worked well when last used but it also had developed a problem. I reported that to James and he graciously made a trip from Athi River on the holiday to buy a new phone and bring it to us. Because it is new it has a lot of "bells and whistles" that will never be used as long as we have it but it is very reassuring to know we can make contact with someone if problems develop while we are traveling.

We received our absentee ballots last week so took them to the embassy today to be mailed back to the Ada County Registrar. Sure seems to be a lot of turmoil back home right now with bank problems and the presidential campaign. Also had to make several deposits for the branches at a Nairobi Bank. No services like that available in their communities. Also got the final paperwork on the new branch request to President Taylor. Had a fair amount of rain here in Nairobi on Saturday and saw patches of it all the way to Nunguni on Sunday so it look like it is coming. I have been hauling some seed and fertilizer to several of the branches so they can start planting when they are sure the rainy season is here. They tell me that should happen maybe by the 15th. Hope it is a good season as the last was light enough that the Welfare Program has been helping out a little to tide them over to the next harvest. Well I need to quit rambling and get to bed so I will be alert for the drive again tomorrow.

Elder & Sister Bishop