Hello Family and Friends:
All week I try to think of things I can write about and then when Sunday night rolls around, I can’t remember a thing I thought I wanted to write about.
The fellow from Green River arrived Saturday night and came to Magadi today, so I no longer the only Mzumgu at the plant now. Hope he knows what he is in for. He should be able to add a lot to the financial area of the plant. It is another are that needs help.
Rainy season started again!!!! and new bugs coming to visit. Went to the Nairobi on Thursday and the roads were flooded going up but had cleared off a little by the time we came back. Then going to Stake meetings on Saturday and Sunday there was rain but no flooding. Last year when I was coming home in April the roads were really bad and I almost didn’t make it to the airport.
So, I’ll end the suspense, I’m not the new Stake President. L. Whitney Clayton one of the Presidency of the Seventy and Paul Koelliker of the first Quorum of the Seventy conducted the interviews. I was the first one after the existing Stake Presidency. I came from the greatest distance and was there first. Africans give whole new meaning to “Mormon Standard Time”. They were a little surprised to see a mzumgu walk in and when I told them I was only going to be here another few months, the interview ended pretty fast. They told me to be sure the counselors in the branch presidency know how to conduct branch business and help them understand what is done well in the US. And to learn what the Kenyans do well and take that back to the US. Elder Clayton asked if this was the first time I had worked overseas. When I said yes, he made the comment that this is about as remote as it gets. (I hear they will be looking for a new Stake President in Green River soon.)
Stake conferences here are very uplifting. There were a number of things said today that maybe I should have heard years ago. Maybe they were discussed but I wasn’t listening. Elder Koelliker talked about when he was called by President Hinckley. He, and the other 11 men called that day, were in a room with President Hinckley. They were told they looked like an ordinary bunch of men. President Hinckley told them he could go out and get 100 other men that would be just as good as they were. He told them they were no better; but they had been called by the Lord. They were no better than anyone else, they were just called. President Hinckley told them they were ordinary men that had been called to extraordinary things. He went on to say there were many men that could have been the new Stake President but that the Lord wanted Bother Obdevo.
President Ondevo’s wife was asked to bear her testimony. She got up, and as she was standing there the new President got up and stood by her. She read what she said from a program she had written on. When the new President started to speak, he said that was the first time she had talked in a church meeting. She is extremely shy and not well educated.
There was also a portion of a talk that had a theme fathers are leaders in the home, not bosses. In many cultures in Africa the women do all the work at home and many times they work outside the home too. So emphasis is placed on making sure men view themselves as equals in the marriage relationship and not the “boss”.
One last thing said by the departing Stake President, in 1998 when he got home from his mission there were 12 units of the church in Kenya, now there are 36. Elder Koelliker said in the last few weeks there have been three new Stakes created in East Africa and two more are planned shortly. He said that Africa is growing very fast. One other indication of that is there are 32 missionaries serving from the Nairobi stake. Anyway conference was great.
And, about work; there are still struggles but it’ll turn around. A new year starts in April and we have money targeted for those areas of greatest problems. It should improve greatly by mid-year (I hope).
Hope you all have a good week. Write occasionally.
Love
Paul/dad
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