OUR FIRST HOME VISIT

 

OUR FIRST HOME VISIT

 

November 17 after one week in Kisumu we visited two

homes. George, the branch clerk and Mike, a counselor

inthe Elder's Quorum took us visiting.

The first visit was to Ruth.
She lives about 12 km from our home.

We crossed a river just off the main road.

The bridge in the picture is not the one we crossed.
The tracks you see is the road we were on coming down off the bridge.

These women here were doing their laundry in the

river and laying the clothes over the bushes and rocks to dry.

The edge of the bridge we were on had dirt sloughed away

and it appeared to not be wide eonough for the truch

to cross without dropping off the hill.

Anyway, we made it across and then we made

it across the huge rocks and deep holes!

This is a nice area of the "road" we were on.

A neighbor teen ager came to meet us on the road and

then show the way into where we

were to stop and park the truck at a neighbor's compound

then walk the rest of the way with him as a "guide".

 

This is her home.

 

This is Ruth.

She is a very sweet woman and was so happy that we

would visit her. She has been a member of the

church for many years but doesn't come to many

meeting because of the transport problems (momey).

 

She does some corcheting and she had a large amount of land.

She also has a school (two buildings) with about

180 students!! 

 This is inside her home. I dound that most people

cover their furniture with cloths and they make it

very lovely and clean looking.

 

 

This is Ruth's sister who lives with her and the child is an

orphan they have taken it.

 

 

This turkey was a great speciman of a Thanksgiving feast!!

 

These are the buildings for some of the animals.

She had chickens, rabbits, goats.

 

 

These two buildings are the school. She has young students from

the neighboring compounds to attend and some of the

teachers just volunteer to teach. Children begin school

at about age 3. Education is VERY important here!!

The school on the left is made of metal and the one on the right

is made of mud.

 

The metal school has two rooms and this is inside one

of them, Notice there are no chairs, books, or

chalk/white boards. Also the floor is dirt and not at all even!!

There was no school on Saturday but she wanted us to come back

when school children are there so we can see them in school.

 

This is the front of the mud building.

Near this side the wall is sinking into the ground because the

ground is somewhat swampy. 

 

This is looking to the inside. Here the walls have

been smoothed withmud over the blobs of mud to make the

inside of the walls.

 

This is part of Ruth's shamba (garden or farm).

It is "plowed" using a hand shovel!

That is a big area to dig!! She had a nice

dress on while we were there but she said

that after we left she would put on her work dress

and work in the shamba. 

 

We then drove 4 or 5 km to another family.

We drove a ways then we had to park the truck in a

neighbors compound then walkt he rest of the way.

We didn't take many pictures there,  but we

did see this laundry out to dry as we walked.

 

The area we walked through. 

Maize and beans in their shamba.

The shorter plants are white beans that are

shelled and dried for dried white beans. 

A home we passed on the way.

Made of mud and a thatched roof. Somewhat later

I found that these roofs last only about a year then

have to be replaced. 

Another home hiding away among the trees.

We had a very enjoyable day.

 

When we finished our visits we hurried home to change

our clothes and headed to Busia for our visit there.

Mission calls in Kisumu

 MISSION CALLS IN KISUMA

 

When we came from Nairobi to Kisumu we brought

with us two mission calls for young members of the

branch. The afternoon we arrived President Okila

came to greet us and welcome (karibu) us to Kisumu.

 

We gave him the calls and he said

"Christina is here now. Let's go give it to her!"

So up we went to the church.

 This is Christine and President Okila after she

opened her call.

"You are called to serve in the Ghana Accra Mission" 

 

These are members of the Institute Class

that were there to see Christine open her call.

They were all very happy for her.

 

Brian lives out of town about 60 km in Nyabondo

and came to church  on Sunday to receive his "envelope".

He opened his call during Sacrament Meeting,

"Brian you are called to serve in Zimbabwe Harare Mission!"

 

 

A month later a call came for Lorine.

It came by pouch from Nairobi and she was in Nairobo

She traveled more than 8 hours by bus the next day

to receive her "envelope". President Okila could

not be there so she came to our apartment to receive it.

Her friend and Branch Ckerk arrived to greet her

just after she opened her call.

"Lorine, you are called to serve in Sierre Lionne."

 

These are great opportunities for these young people to

serve the Lord and their testimonies will strengthened and

they will learn the administration of the Church and be

able to return and help the branch here at home!

KENYA ARRIVAL

ARRIVAL IN KENYA

We left flew out of the Salt Lake Airport to Chicago

then on to London.

Here is the plane ready to load in England for Kenya.

Three couples met us at the airport in Nairobi and took

us to their flats where they cared for us while we were in Nairobi.

Elder and SIster Moon stayed with Elder and Sister Kellems.

On Wednesday morning we were all taken to the Mission office

and church compound for instruction and

mission orientation by Sister Olsen the office sister.

We walked to the government office

with Dikens for fingerprinting and registration.

We received the temporary papers to be residences of Kenya.

For lunch we went to a nice restaurant near the office with

the office couple, the host couples and new couples.

On Thursday evening all the couples in Nairobi

had dinner together at the mission home. 

Each couple told about themselves to get acquainted. 

On Friday morning we

met with President and Sister Broadbent at the

mission home for interviews and blessings.

President and Sister Broadbent are very great people

and we loved them from the beginning!

Elder and Sister Kellems then drove us to Kisumu in our truck.

We each took a turn driving to

acquaint us with the roads and trying yo get

used to driving on the left side of the road.

We drove to Eldoret and spent the night with

Elder and Sister Babcock. Kellems' stayed in a hotel.

 Saturday morning we came on to Kisumu.

Here we are opening the front door of our new home.

 Elder and Sister Kellems took us shopping and then we were

going to go out to eat but the restaurant we were going to

was closed for a private party so we came

back to our home and fixed spaghetti and a cabbage salad.

While we were eating there was a very heavy rainstorm!!
We were sio glad we were not at the outdoor restaurant!!

Mary is our day security guard.

She is very nice and has just started this job.

She is here every day from 6 am to 6 pm.

MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER

A week at the Missionary Training Center

Here we area at THE world map.

We are going to Kenya!!

We will be serving in Kisumu by Lake Victoria

in western Kenya.

Here are the three couples who are going to the

Kenya Nairobi Mission.

Elder and Sister Gotcher and

Elder and Sister Knecht will be serving

in Tanzania.

Our setting apart for the

Kenya Nairobi Mission

 

We were set apart by President Bitton on

October 28 and we entered the MTC the next day.

Our children who lived in the area came for the event

and the sons and sons in law assisted as well as

Bishop Kennedy and Brother Kearns and

Presidents Eckersley and Larsen.

 

We received our call on May 23.