Kevan Kingsley Clawson's Blog, page 25

Misc

Bags that women are now making, and selling to aid in supporting their families– a legacy that will carry on due to Sister Wright

Typical well and water tank we are installing in various missionary apartments. If they have occasional water, we install a water tank to capture the water whenever it runs. If they have no water we try to dig a well for them.

Typical well dug at a missionary apartment

Typical solar system installed for the missionaries when they have NO power: one 100 watt solar panel, lights and switches, and a few plugs to charge things with.

We started with one battery, but found it wasn’t enough, so we have been installing additional batteries. They usually have about 4 hours of light/power a day they can use.

Easter in Mwembila Ward

Easter in Mwembia

We went to church at the new Mwembila Ward today just to see how many new people would come. Priesthood was first:

When they asked all those who were here for the first time to stand, over 20 stood. People kept coming in… Then they had the break and half the room (the Aaronic priesthood age) left for class while the Elders and High Priests stayed. But by the time the class was over the room was full again! And we had the largest room!

During Sunday school the Investigator Class took over the RS room—and was packed.

We tried to count new people and there had to be over 30 visiting for the first time. The chapel was full (as usual, half were just the children!).

Interesting thing happened. When serving the sacrament to a large room of people, they only used TWO deacons! Not sure if they just had two bread trays…but it took about 40 minutes just to do the sacrament!

There was a great feeling there, and everyone was very helpful. When we arrived they had someone on every corner directing people where to go; and spent a lot of time during classes explaining things about the church and the building, so people would feel comfortable.

It has been an impressive two days. Think about it—of all the people who came for the first time, more than 20 were MEN. Where in the world would you see that? The only thing holding the work back here is finding and/or building places for people to meet.

Mwembila Open House

Mwembla Open House

Saturday was the Open House for Mwembila Ward. After about 18 months of work their new building is finally open and ready for use. I had suggested to the Stake President to have an open house and invite all of the neighbors to come and see the building, and invite them to come to church, and, of course, to take the missionary discussions!

I had given them a brief outline of what an open house consisted of (they had never done one before), and met with them a couple of times to go over plans and make suggestions.

One simply never knows what will happen at one of these events—will it be successful, will no one come, will something go wrong?

A choir was outside to sing in preparation for the dignitaries to arrive

Terri standing in front of the church where the dignitaries sat while waiting for the ribbon cutting ceremony

The table set-up for missionaries to give out pamphlets and take referrals

Terri sitting by the kitchen door where we kept all of our materials, water, food, etc.

The Stake President, Justin, takes the dignitaries on a tour of the building

Several people spoke, then they gave them something to eat and drink

These are some of the rooms set-up to teach people about the church organization

The gift bags given to the dignitaries prior to leaving

They had a guest book they could write in to tell us how they felt about their tour

The Relief Society room, with some of the things they had on display

 

The missionaries begin taking referrals

A sister missionary teaching a small group of people while on tour of the building

The referral table was mobbed for hours–even after we ‘officially’ closed!

People came into the chapel to watch church videos after going on the tour of the building

The referral table continues to be mobbed

This is how all the rooms looked all afternoon! Mobbed by people listening to the teachers about the specific part they represented–in this case, the Temple and genealogy

The Primary room full of children–all waiting for the opportunity to come and be taught on Sunday!

A ‘mini class’ held next to the baptismal font–teaching about the need for baptism

Scenes of the church and surrounding neighborhood

be Taking my suggestions as a starting point, they expanded the open house to make it two parts: the first part, from 10 to 11, was to invite local dignitaries for a grand opening and ribbon cutting (the mayor or governor, etc., would do the ribbon cutting). Then they wouldgiven a special tour of the building. It worked out well. They had about 20 dignitaries that came and toured the building. After the tour, they had some drinks and cupcakes for them. We also made up gift baskets for them containing a hard cover Book of Mormon, numerous pamphlets about the Church, and a bottle of water.

Then, from noon to 5pm the building was open to the public. Prior to the next opening the Stake President met with about 30 missionaries (from two Zones) and gave them instructions and directions. Then they all took their places and they opened the gates…

As the people came in the gate, a missionary would greet them (usually per family) and take them on a personal tour. Each room had a member or missionary in the room to tell about the organization of the Church. For example, the Primary room would have someone talk about Primary, the Relief Society would have sisters there talking about RS and had some crafts they had done (including Sister Wright’s plastic bags!); etc., for Priesthood, YM, YW, Aaronic Priesthood, and, of course, a room about the Temple and Genealogy.. After the tour they would stop at a table where two missionaries sat to take referrals to teach them the gospel, and hand out pamphlets and Book of Mormons.

They could then go into the Chapel to watch church videos. Terri was running the videos off of her computer. The room was almost full the whole time!

My guesstimate is that there were at least 2,000 that came, and we received about 500 referrals from people who want the missionaries to come and teach them the Gospel.

Even if only 10% get baptized, that would be 50 new members of the church here!

It was fabulous, the missionaries did a wonderful, professional job (even though this was their first time doing this!). And all of this is just prep for the next big open house: a new Stake Center in Kisanga!

Pre-Transfer mania

Terri and I have been very busy. Since we are the only senior missionaries who can drive now, both of us are constantly taking people places. Terri is now a bonafide ‘Congo Taxi Driver’ as she goes out on her own, even at night, to take missionaries various places. For example, often meetings held at the mission home last till dark and we drive the missionaries home. Terri will go one direction, and I will go the other direction. But she comes by her skill naturally—her father was a truck driver!

Often we begin at 530 am to take missionaries to the airport, and, like last night, received a call about a sick sister missionary, so we were out till about 8 pm making sure she was okay. One never knows day to day how long your day will be, especially since Terri is ‘on call’ 24/7.

Terri is busy prepping for the next transfer, that begins in one week (didn’t we just do this?). We have 18 new missionaries coming, then another 50+ that are transferring around the mission various places, and Terri has been assigned to figure it all out! She has created computer programs to help her keep track, then prints out a daily ‘chore’ list for us to use (who picks up or drops off, etc.). Lots of moving parts and pieces that she has to be on top of so no missionary gets lost or left behind.

However, all of our work on apartments has finally paid off! With all the new missionaries coming, we don’t have to spend much time prepping apartments—they are already set and ready for new missionaries to arrive. We still have work to do before the NEXT transfer, when another 18-20 new missionaries arrive…but we are having furniture and beds made so that they will have a place to lay their heads when they arrive.

We have also started working on solar and water projects again. Several of the new apartments had poor water and/or poor or no power (you take what you can find!); so we have installed more water tanks to hold water (when the water comes on it automatically fills the tank so they have water when they need it); and solar panels so they have emergency lighting and power.

We had another new couple arrive this week: the Van Waggoners. They stayed a couple of days then traveled up to Bujumbura with the Neeleys and the Cahoons (who will be leaving shortly).

This weekend we will be helping with an Open House at a new church building in Mwembila—a suburb of Lubumbashi. I approached the Stake President about having an Open House when the building opens, and they had never heard of it before. So I have been giving them some guidance and support, and they have really taken it to another level! They are having TWO open houses: one in the morning for dignitaries (the Governor is supposed to come and cut the ribbon…). I am making gift baskets for them which include a Book of Mormon and pamphlets, etc.. Then in the afternoon the building will be open to the general public. We will have about 30 missionaries there to aid with the crowds. Should be interesting!

The most important part of the new building?

The new chapel

The bathrooms and classroom buildings

Front/side entry where people will enter the chapel

The chapel

There is a center courtyard, with the baptism font at the other end, open air

Typical classroom

two large water tanks for storage. They will be installed on high platforms in the future to give some water pressure even when there is no power

It has a generator– hey, it’s the Congo…no power, remember?

The chapel and one set of classrooms

two bathrooms

They have a small kitchen off the Chapel area

Typical room for les enfants

Relief Society room

Priesthood room

Bishop’s office

Clerks office

One of the legacies left behind by sister Wright are the ‘bag ladies’. Sister Wright has taught many sisters how to crochet bags and other items out of plastic bags. They have been able to turn this into small cottage industries and earn money from it.

The president had a slow leak in his tire, so I was off to the local repair shop. I am always amazed what these men can do with NO tools!

They had an old compressor to fill the tires, but the hose kept breaking and the end of the hose that would be used to attach to the tire to fill with air- simply wasn’t there! So in order to fill the tire they had to remove the inside of the tire inlet , then put the rubber hose in the OUTSIDE of the inlet, holding it tight so the air would not escape. Then, when the tire was full of air, they had to put their finger over the tire inlet, and somehow quickly screw in the pressure valve before the air came out again…

It took them 1 1/2 hours to fix the tire, and charged me $5

Well that’s it for now. Will take pics of the Open House to show you.

Farewell to the Wright’s

We have had a wild couple of weeks, with little time to breath. This week was Leadership Conference where all the Zone Leaders and district leaders come to Lubumbashi for training. We all had to teach for four hours one of the days (Terri taught health and I taught about apartments and ordering materials and safety). Since Emanuel was sick (he normally is with me on teaching days), both Terri and I had to teach the full four hours in French—without help. Wow!

We went out to dinner with some visitors (Elder and Sister Bybee) who serve in Kinshasa and write articles for the Church in a blog–and were looking for news. We all had the opportunity to tease President McMullin (how often do you get to rib your boss?). We have been to this Indian restaurant a number of times, and our order always gets ‘lost in translation’. On previous attempts the blame has fallen on Terri, as she tries to help ‘re-explain’ to the waiters so they will get it right–and they never do! So after months of ribbing, Terri refuses to even try to order anything! Finally, the President decided he had to step-in and fix things–so he ordered that night.

To everyone’s surprise, everything came out perfectly…until about a half hour later when they began bringing out more and more ‘naan’ bread! We ordered twenty, but ended up with forty! So after all the praise we gave the President for finally getting it right…we all had the chance to turn on him and tease him for getting it so wrong!

We also had a combined missionary dinner and farewell dinner as the Wright’s would be leaving the next day.

One of the things all senior sisters want to do is to try to carry a young child on their backs, like the natives do. Before she left Sister Wright decided she just couldn’t leave without trying it. So here she is with ‘Joseph Smith’ on her back! (the woman that cleans the Mission home and office named her most recent child Joseph Smith… and that was before she and her family joined the Church!)

Elder Wright saying goodbye to all the missionaries

The missionaries singing to the Wright’s just before leaving for the airport.

The morning we took them to the airport, all the Elders stood in two lines in front of the office and sang “God be with you till we meet again.” We were all crying!

With Terri and I the only ones who drive now (with the Eastman’s gone and the Wright’s gone), we are always busy running back and forth to the airport and/or the bus station.

The McMullin’s and the two senior sisters have gone to Kolwezi for a District Conference and Zone Conference—leaving Terri and I “home alone”! It is weird being here without anyone around, after all of the hectic days with missionaries and conferences.

We are also helping with the area’s first ‘open house’. They have two new churches opening here in Lubumbashi: Mwembila and the new stake center, Kisanga. I suggested to Justin (the Stake President over Mwembila) that they ought to have an open house for all of their neighbors. Everyone has been watching this new building go up for over a year now, and I’m sure they all want to see inside! It will be a week from Saturday. They plan to invite local dignitaries to a ribbon cutting, then have an open house for everyone. I think it will be great—but it is a lot of work!

Well, I think we have a quite weekend, our first for a long time. Maybe we can catch-up on some sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Likasi visit

This week we traveled to Likasi to deliver furniture to an apartment and saw the progress on one of two new chapels being built there.

On the way back we saw this great taxi service–it took a licking and kept on ticking! (Prizes for anyone who can remember what ad that was from?)

Sisters here spend a lot of time on their hair! Weaving someone’s hair is a fine art!

Here are some pics of the new chapel and classrooms being built in Likasi. Elder and Sister Atkinson are serving in the Congo, and are living in Likasi to aid in training LDS return missionaries in construction trades. They teach and practice at the jobsite.

You will notice all of the bricks being stored. They are made here on site. They have to make about 70,000. They can make about 300 a day. Then it takes about one month for them to ‘set’ so that they can be used to build the buildings.

The first building constructed was done for ‘practice’ and was being used as a classroom. They when the construction project geared-up they stole the building for storage and so they then built a make-shift building next door for their classes.

I have no idea how long it will take to build. The Atkinsons are supposed to end their classes sometime in July. The Mwembila building in Lubumbashi, which was supposed to be completed last year, still isn’t open… so who knows?

La Mutation

What a crazy week. It was transfer week, and we had over 100 missionaries moving from one place to another! We had some missionaries going home, 15 new missionaries coming, and the rest were just normal transfers from one part of the mission to another. It had to be one of the largest “mutations” we have seen since coming to the Congo…and all the ‘dominoes’ had to fall the right way for it to come off!

And to cap it off, President McMullin put Terri in charge of all the transfers! She was ‘General Terri’ for two weeks as she not only had to map-out the move of each missionary (each missionary had specific travel plans: for example, to go from Luputa to Lubumbashi they have to take two transports, stay overnight, take a plane, stay overnight, then take another transport to their new area). Once each missionary’s specific travel was planned, money had to be sent, tickets purchased, schedules developed to provide rides to and from airports, to and from apartments, to and from bus stations, etc. She also had to make sure no missionary was left alone, or misplaced, or sent to the wrong area, etc. (we have seen Elders scheduled to live in apartments with sister missionaries!).

Each day every missionary and couple was given our marching orders as to where to go and what to do (go pick-up missionaries at the airport, and then go to the bus station, move missionaries here or there, etc.). Amazingly, everything went smoothly and (to the best of our knowledge) no missionary was lost…

The only real glitch was when the airlines lost the bags of about 8 elders coming from Mbuji Mayi to Lubumbashi. The problem came as several Elders had to turn around and fly out, or travel out to areas outside Lubumbashi—without their luggage. Plans had to be changed, but at least two elders had to travel to their area without their luggage as their tickets could not be changed. We then arranged to have the luggage sent later in the week, when it finally arrived.

On top of all that chaos, we all participated in two days of new missionary training. The new missionaries have a series of tasks when they arrive at the mission home: pictures taken, passports checked, email accounts started, medical exam, interview with President McMullin, etc. They also have a full day of being taught by various people about the mission: how to use their phone to get money from M-Pesa (how they get their monthly allotment), what to do when they are sick, how to order supplies, etc. Each day 30 missionaries (the 15 new missionaries and their new training companions) came to the Mission Home for training and then returned to their area, or to Golf (our dormitory).

We were all worn-out by the end of the week. And, of course, we still had to do our normal mission jobs! Emanuel and I opened two more apartments (one actually has running water IN the house, and good electricity!), and will open two more next week. Sister Anthony is learning the financial side of the mission (she is taking over from Brother Wright, who is leaving in two weeks). I won’t say she is over her head (she does a good job), but she is up to her neck! There is a lot to learn and little time to learn it.

Just as when the Eastman’s left, we all have to pick-up extra work when the Wrights leave.

We will have several new senior couples coming to the mission, but most will be assigned to other things (not office staff). The Neely’s came last week and were shipped-off to Bujumbura to help in the transition of the Cahoons, who are leaving soon. The Davis’s come in April to do humanitarian work, and there is a local couple being sent to Bujumbura (at which time the Neely’s will return and work on a special assignment to aid people here to prepare to go to the Temple –there will soon be a temple in the Congo (in Kinshasa)).

Due to the influx of couples, we had to find and lease another ‘compound’ near the mission home. We decided to lease a house and two apartments (the same place the Wright’s live now, just the whole complex). It will give us flexibility as couples come and go from the mission. The owners are moving to Canada, so the house will be available. The other apartment opens-up in September.

In two weeks is Mission Counsel, where all the Zone Leaders in the Mission come for training. The Wrights leave us, and there is lots of travel. We keep thinking we will have a short break where things will slow down, but no such luck! Terri still has the 24/7 job of mission medical, and we are often called out late at night or on weekends for sick missionaries.

The work is hard, but fulfilling, and the time goes very fast. The Congo is a great place for a mission: the need is great and there are so many ways to make a difference in the lives of the people you are serving.

Next week we try to get back to normal. We have two apartments to open and move elders into, and then one more the next week. We have to fix-up the home and apartment in the new couples complex, we have a new apartment opening in Mbuji Mayi the first of April, and we are starting 4 water projects (installing wells or water tanks in apartments for the missionaries) and 2-3 solar projects (so the missionaries will have light and power).

And so it goes!

Katuba Stake Conference

There was a Stake Conference here we attended since Justin, who works in our office, is the Stake President!

So, this is Stake Conference in the Congo; almost full 45 min before it even starts!

 

Do I stand out in a crowd?

The local Stake Choir

Terri in her new missionary clothes!

Little man in business suit… and friend

Some of our local missionaries– happy and excited because this week is transfers

Emanuel’s house comes along

My friend and co-worker Emanuel has been working hard on his house. He may soon even have electricity! He has re-dug his well three times, but still has no water–he has to bring bidons to the office to fill them with water for his wife to use. But his house is coming along fine: he has his addition done with a new living room and porch (so now he has a real bedroom and kitchen). He has started to plaster the brick walls, etc., and has a great garden.

Before picture of his house: just two rooms

The addition going up

The after picture with the living room and porch added

His corn stand

Perciany loves to eat sugar cane!

The Lubumbashi Floods

The rainy season is not at an end yet! We had a couple of days of downpours that has been causing flooding. We are fortunate to drive trucks so we have no problem driving around the floods. Here are some pictures of the area:

This is the bridge we have to cross to get to the Mission Home and our apartment.

This is the road to one of the  new apartments for sister missionary apartments we were moving the into.