Our President Arrives

    This week has been one very busy week.  We have not had a moment to send too many pictures to let you know how things are going, we apologize for that.  It takes two hours to upload one picture between 7:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M.  here in Pointe Noire.   You are probably saying to yourself, well why don't you just upload after or before that.  Good question!  This week we have had no power for three days.  So we have to run the generator which is about a 6 ft by 4 ft "monster" that sounds like a Catapiller bulldozer.  So we try not to run it after 6:00 or before 7:00 so we can be "nice" neighbors.

   
     So between President coming on Wednesday, and no power, we have not had a window to get things going.   But, hallelujah, the power is "ON" and it is 7:25 p.m. so we have lightning fast internet.  Things couldn't be better!

     We laugh hard every day about our new "normal" here in the Congo.  Our new normal is that NOTHING is normal, and as long as we remember that everyday that we get out of bed,  everything is great.  We are enjoying our mission so much, and we can hardly believe that we have been out for almost 1 month!!  YEAH!

     On Wednesday we picked up President & Sister Cook at 8:10 a.m.  Everything went great!  We took them back to our apartment where they would be staying for the next day and 1/2.  He had every minute scheduled for the next 10 hours with interviews with baptismal candidates, meeting with the Branch Presidents, teaching with the Elders, looking at property to build a new church, and getting to know us.  What a kind wonderful man he his.  They are from Providence, Utah where he was a Podiatrist.  He served his mission to France 44 years earlier which is where he learned his French.  Sister Cook does not speak French, but she has such a bubbly personality, and everyone loves her.

   We spent much of Monday and Tuesday getting the house ready for our guests.  We also spent time going to the store to get food.  I wish it was like going to Macey's and picking up the items on your list and going home.  But it is not!   I am still trying to figure out what things are in French.  I needed to buy some sugar........plain old regular sugar!!!  How hard can that be.   Well I saw "sucre", which I knew meant sugar and bought it and took it home.  Well it was sugar cubes!  ARGGGGG!    We just blended them in the blender and they worked great.

     We are sending some pictures of the house, so you can see how blessed we are.  We love it and it is so safe and peaceful.

This is our living room                                   

Our front walkway

Our kitchen

     We also have a spare bedroom to house our guests for anyone who might be thinking of coming to visit!!  With everything that was going on this week, we forgot to get a picture with President and Sister Cook.   But they will be coming in 2 weeks again, so we will get one then.  

    And lastly, this picture below is of Prudence and her little son, Nephi.  She was being interviewed by President as a candidate for baptism.  Because of mistakes in her past she had to have a special interview with the President.  She is so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and her understanding of our Savior and His Atonement.  She knows that she can be washed clean and pure because of His great love, and His part in the Plan of Salvation.  We love her so much and she will be baptized on February 15.  This is what it is all about!!!

Prudence and Nephi