Pooling Our Efforts....June 2, 2014

The Baptism of Darcyne

Last Saturday Darcyne and her children were baptized into the Church.  Darcyne had been looking for truth and light in her life and accidentally walked into our church one Sunday, thinking she was going to another church.  The missionaries saw her and talked with her, and over the months she gained a testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  She was so grateful for the knowledge that through Christ her sins could be forgiven.  She loved how the missionaries taught her about families being ordained of God, and she loved the purpose and meaning she finally had in her life.

After the baptism she invited all the missionaries, Elder Bailey and I and many friends and neighbors over for a dinner she had prepared.  It was wonderful.  We are so thankful for the missionary efforts of Elder Garland, Elder Etherington, and Elder Johnston.  It was a wonderful day in Pointe Noire. 

Elder Bailey, Elder Etherington, Elder Johnston, Elder Hatch, Elder Bybee, and Elder Wright at Darcyne's home.

Darcyne and her family with Elder Garland, Elder Johnston, and Elder Etherington

The Baptism of Yves

Elder Wright, Yves, and Elder Garland

We are grateful for the efforts of Elder Wright and Elder Johnston the Pointe Noire Branche missionaries.  They have worked hard teaching Yves, who was baptized this past Saturday and is also very grateful to now be a member of the church.

This is Elder Bybee, Elder Johnston's new companion from Enoch, Utah.  He has been in Pointe Noire since Friday, and here in Africa for two weeks.  He was asked by Frere Fermes to give the talk on the Restoration at Yves baptism.  He did a wonderful job and his French was great!

Elder Johnston instructs Yves on what is going to take place.  Elder Bailey was a witness.

Elder VanAusdal received his new companion Elder Ralison from Madagascar.  He is such a kind and enthusiastic missionary and they both are ready to "pool their efforts" in finding souls to teach.

Washing the Baptismal Clothing

The towels

After the baptisms the clothes are put into a big bucket and brought home to wash.  Because we were late getting home on Saturday,  we put the clothes all around so that they would not mildew.  

The baptism clothes

More clothes and towels

The Elders always send their clothes home too.  

This is my wonderful outdoor laundry room.  

The only down part of our washer and dryer is that the cycles are all in French.  But I have found two that work for us.   One is for 29 minutes in cold water, and the other is 1 hour in hot.   Between having no electricity at least once everyday, and the one hour to wash extra dirty clothes, somedays, it takes all day to get everything washed and ready to go!

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Everyone here in Pointe Noire works so hard to do their part.  Without the "efforts" of each individual, and the collective strengths of the companionships, the work would not go forward.  We are grateful to the Branche Presidents, the Missionaries, the Members and each other for all the efforts  to "Hasten the Work of Salvation," in bringing souls to Christ.

Until Next Week.......

Unto the Lord ~ May 26, 2014

UNTO THE LORD ~ Our work in the Branches

Alma 37:36

Many times, when things are hard, or we have had a day that has taken everything we have, Elder Bailey and I think about the expression..."Unto the Lord".  Somehow, this gives us the courage to keep going, the faith to keep trying, and the joy in the journey.  We have, over the many years that we have been in the service of the Lord, learned that everything we do is really because of our love for our Savior Jesus Christ and our gratitude for what He has done for us that we could never do for our ourselves.  Thus....our blog title for this week.....Unto the Lord!

These two beautiful "Sisters in the Gosple", Natacha and Pauline, are my friends.  We needed to be at the Pointe Noire Branche at 2:00 on this past Saturday, May 24, 2014 to be a part of a huge celebration for the Relief Society.  We had been at the Mpaka/Aeroport Branche watching Conference and they asked if they could get a ride.  I love these dear sisters even though we can't carry on a conversation that has more words than a 3 year old vocabulary ( on my part) we get along fine.  When we arrived at the church, no one was there, so we sat along side the road and ate some cookies....because we were starving!

Natacha, Pauline, and Soeur Bailey

Varnish, Ketsia, Eloise, and Soeur Bailey

For my part on the program I had a quartet that sang "Daughters In His Kingdom" in English.  They wanted to sing it in French and when we couldn't find the written words we just decided to do it in English.   We had Elder Hatch translate the words into French and passed them out for all the Sisters to read.  What would a quartet be without "matching outfits?"

Part of the Celebration consisted of a "Relief Society Choir.  We sang: "If You Could Hie to Kolob", and "Holy Temples on Mount Zion".  They were both in French and Elder Bailey said they sounded beautiful!

Elder Bailey was the piano player for the night.  He learned of his part when he came!

President Sombo, President Cook and Sister Sombo.  We had a dinner on Friday night for all of the Branche Presidents and their wives.  President Sombo is the President of the Pointe Noire Branche.

UNTO THE LORD ~ Our Work with the Elders

     Elder Wright, Elder Rakotonindriana, Elder Twenenboah, Elder Garland, Elder Ndayiezye, Elder Johnston

Back row:  Elder Etherington and Elder Hatch

These are the Elders of Pointe Noire as of last Friday.  President and Sister Cook came in for one day to have a Zone Conference.  Transfers were today so this was the last time some of these Elders will be together.

President Cook instructing the missionaries!

Elder VanAusdal and Elder Garland practicing teaching from the the Book of Mormon with just using the pictures.

Elder Tweneboah is from Ghana and speaks beautiful English.  He has been here for a week and is studying so hard to learn French.  Elder Johnston is his teaching companion who is also teaching using the pictures from the Book of Mormon.

Elder Hatch and Elder Ndayiezye

Group Picture!  Yep, these are the ones the Lord has put His trust in to find those He has prepared!

UNTO THE LORD ~ TRANSFERS

Transfers happen every 6 weeks and that was today, Monday, 26 May, 2014.  All of the missionaries wait to see if they will stay here, get transferred to another country, or who their new companions will be.  Sometimes they just have to trust in the Lord that what has happened is His will.  

Elder Garland, Elder Hatch, Elder Johnston, Elder Rako, and Elder Tweneboah read what there transfers will be.

Elder Rakotonindriana reacting to his new call as District Leader.

Elder VanAusdal, Elder Ndayiezeye and Elder Etherington read about their transfers.

Elder Etherington and Elder Garland who was his trainer, give a tender goodbye hug, as they now will have new companions.

Elder Garland and Elder Hatch will now be companions and the Zone Leaders of the Pointe Noire missionaries.

Elder Johnston will have a new companion that will arrive on Friday named Elder Bybee.

Elder Wright will be the Senior Companion to Elder Etherington.  They are assigned to the Mpaka Branche.

Elder Rakotonindriana and Elder Tweneboah are now companions and also assigned to Mpaka.  Elder Rako will be his "Father".... in missionary terms.

Elder VanAusdal will be the Senior Companion to  Elder Ralison who arrives on Tuesday.

And Elder Ndayiezeye will be leaving us to return back to Kinshasa.  He will be the new trainer for Elder Randriatsarafara from Madagascar.

UNTO THE LORD... our everyday experiences!

These are the Young Men and Missionaries that Elder Bailey plays basketball with every Monday morning.  He purchased a "real" basketball for all of them to use from the Sports Store we found in the city.  

Mondays are Preparation Days, and haircutting days for the missionaries.  Sister Bailey cut four missionaries hair yesterday and Elder Bailey's.

Elder VanAusdal, Elder Johnston, Elder Wright, and Elder Hatch with their new haircuts.

These are our faithful,  weary to the bone, valiant, Zone Leaders at the General Conference we showed last Sunday in the Mpaka/Aeroport Branches.  They work so hard in their calling.   Everything they do is motivated by their love of the Lord and what He has done for them. We sure do love and appreciate them.  

We know that when everything that we do is "Unto the Lord", we are on our way to being truly converted to the Gosple of Jesus Christ.   We are so grateful for our "Missionary Experiences" here in Pointe Noire, and the opportunity to serve our Savior, Jesus Christ and hopefully one day become like Him!

Until next week.....

Saved by Water ~ May 19, 2014

The Saving factor of Water

Water is a powerful source throughout the world, but here is Pointe Noire it is life-saving.  Everyday you see people selling it in little bags along the roads.  You see it used to sustain the crops that yield food to eat and incomes for homes and families.  You see the bottles of filtered water sold in little markets everywhere for those who have a few more cifa's.  But mostly you see the water being "drawn" from "wells" throughout every sector to be used to sustain life.   

Water not only "saves" us physically, but also spiritually through the ordinance of Baptism.  As we are immersed in the waters of baptism, it represents the end of our old life of sin and a commitment to live a new life as a disciple of Christ. It is an essential ordinance of salvation and Jesus taught that we must be baptized by immersion for the forgiveness of our sins.    So we are saved by water!

We have two churches that our "Saints" meet in here in Pointe Noire.  This past Saturday was a big day where 6 people were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  To get the Aéroport/Mpaka church ready, we just turn on the water and it flows directly into the font.  But, to get the Pointe Noire font ready, we have to fill it by buckets.  

Elders Johnston and Wright have great attitudes about filling the font, but this past Saturday, the Zone Leader, Elder Garland and Elder Etherington his companion, plus Elder Bailey, decided to come and help.  Elder Bailey had a great idea, of bringing our "coveted" hose and hooking it up to the spout and having that help fill the font.

It was a brilliant idea, except for one factor, we had no power, and therefore no pump to get the water to the spout.  So we resorted to "Plan B", which is to "lower the buckets into the well-water, and one by one, pour it into the font.  

It started out pretty easy as the "well" was full of water.  We just put our buckets in and poured it into the font.

And so the process begins..........

Elder Bailey dipped, while Elder Garland poured

Elder Etherington takes his turn

Ketsia, who leads the singing at the baptisms, came early and she volunteered to help

The ties came off and they got down to serious business.  

As the well-water diminished, it became a "labor of love" to reach down and pull the full bucket of water up.  Elder Garland was up to the task.

After about 40 minutes the font was almost ready to be baptized in.

Elder Wright, Elder Johnston, Claude and Ulrich prepare for the ordinance.  The ward mission leader, Fermes Ngakali, went over everything to make sure we had all information about each candidate correct.

One last check...

You cannot take pictures of the actual ordinance, but this is Elder Wright giving instructions to Claude before he begins.

Elder Johnston and Ulrich

Claude and Elder Wright

At the Aéroport/Mpaka building, Cedric was baptized by Elder Etherington

This is 'Lovely' with her family

This is "Lisa" and her neighbors.  She was baptized by her uncle Frére Ndinga.

 Wall of Fame 

Elder Etherington celebrated his birthday on May 6, and was grateful for the gift of his pillowcase.

This is our new missionary, Elder Tweneboah from Ghana.  Elder Hatch and Elder Rakotonindriana will be his "trainers" for two weeks until transfers.

Elder VanAusdal is waiting patiently for his turn to call his mother on Mother's Day.

Sister Bailey is leading the "Children's Choir" in "I Am A Child Of God."   They knew every word and loved to sing.  All of their parents were in meetings, so this kept them from running through the church.  Music and love are the universal languages!

This week we have seen how water "saves" us, both physically and spiritually.  We are so grateful to be here on our mission where we are surrounded by wonderful Elders and Saints who are all trying to do their best to keep their covenants they made at the "Waters of Baptism".

Until Next Week.....