DR Congo day #7

The Branch Presidents ties hanging on his door

This morning we interviewed Elder and Sister Moody (live on Carterville Road in Orem, Sharon Stake). They are nearing the end of their mission so they have some great perspective. We'll use their interview to incorporate in our new humanitarian missionary training. Both of them had touching stories and testimonies, but one thing that will stick with me was something Elder Moody said. The question was, "How do you define success as a humanitarian missionary?" He responded by talking about the Church's focus on self-reliance but he said that success for him ultimately came down to "people rising above their circumstances" and not necessarily if they are self-reliant as we might think in our American mindset. I've had these same thoughts and feelings the more I have interacted with people outside of our prosperous and opportunity rich society. Surely the Lord will hold us more responsible for the 10 talents he has given us and will want to see that we have doubled them temporally and spiritually. And to those born into poverty, it might be compared to being given 2 talents (coins) and if they double their talents just like we did the Lord will be just as happy for them.

After a few more interviews we packed up and said goodbye to the wonderful people that helped us. Our female translator, Elise, who lives in Kinshasa loaded a goat in one of the Landcruisers. Without asking us she bought the goat in Luputa with the plan of having it travel 5 hours with us and then to have it slaughtered near our motel in Mbuji Mayai and then carried onto the plane in wrapped pieces. All our mouths dropped as she told us her plans and she looked at us like, "What's the big deal? Isn't this normal?" We rolled along with it not wanting to offend her and chalked it up to another great African experience. Luckily, we had room in one of the Landcruisers that hauled our luggage to tie the goat up and lay it on the floor. You can't be too concerned about animal feelings in a society like this. They are here for one reason only, to provide food. I've realized on this trip that pets are a luxury for more prosperous societies.

On our drive we rolled over hill after hill providing stunning vistas of a jungle / savanna mixed landscape. We almost got ran off the road by a large truck and Peter and I joked around about how many angels must have been sent to protect us on this trip.

It is always amazing to see how many people cling onto any vehicle to catch a ride. The large trucks are loaded with supplies picked up in villages and will be sold in markets. People pay the driver a little bit of money which allows them to sit on top of the load, hang onto the sides or back, all while going 50 miles an hour on very bumpy roads. It's not uncommon to see a woman sitting on top of this precarious load nursing a baby... The idea of seat belts is still VERY far away.

President Binene, the District President rode with us from Luputa to Mwene Ditu, a larger city about 2 hours away. He was taking a day off of work (He's a nurse in the Luputa medical clinic) to do some priesthood training with 2 new branch presidents. We do so much of our church service at night after work, but they can't because they don't have electricity so travel and activities all need to be squeezed into day light hours. When he returns home this afternoon he will climb on one of these trucks and get back to Luputa. In our conversations with him we learned that he was an electrician in a bigger city but when he was 19 years old a group of rebel forces chased anyone from this part of the country out of their cities. He became a refugee in his own country and was forced to move back to the area of his ancestors, which was Luputa. He was an electrician and was forced to move to an area without electricity. There goes his job training... He said he followed President Hinckley's counsel to continue with education and switch occupations if needed. This is when he decided to become a nurse.

He and his wife have been sealed in the South Africa Temple, but believe it or not they are the only family in their entire district of 1,700 members who have been able to go to the temple. Even though 40% of his district members have temple recommends none of them have been able to enjoy the blessings of the temple. Think about not having the counselors in our stake presidency, all the bishops and Relief Society presidents not having gone to the temple. They need to earn a sacrificial offering like they do with missions in order to qualify for financial help from the Church. Once they do the "Temple Patron Fund" will provide their whole family with one trip to the nearest temple. This is harder to accomplish in some areas of the world and Luputa is one of those areas. The amount they need to contribute per person in DR Congo is $200. Within the next 6 months they will have 2 more families go to the temple and be sealed. The two families have dad's that managed 2 of our humanitarian projects in Luputa. One being our clean water project and the other a food project. I love to provide employment in the clean water initiative to members as much as possible because of results like this.

We ended up getting through all the police road blocks without too much trouble and now we're in a city with over a million people in it. We're staying at the nicest hotel possible and it seems luxurious compared to what we had in Luputa, but Motel 6 puts it to shame. Still no running water even in their nicest hotel. I'm going to take the longest shower when I get home...

Love you,

Matt