ONE LAST THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Today was a special day for me. Just another busy day doing missionary work, meeting with our two wonderful young missionaries who are my assistants, having our Tuesday morning devotional with the two couples who serve in the office and who head our humantarian project work here.

What made it special was remembering about six years ago today. For sure, there will be lots of news stories etc. in America to remind you of six years ago. Here in Congo, in our cocoon, there were no special stories or reminders. But thinking about this day made it very special.

Where were you six years ago today? Remember what you were doing? It's one of those questions now that goes along with, "Where were you when JFK was assassinated?" (if you happen to be 50 plus years old).

Steve Gibson, a great associate for many years in the BYU Entrepreneurship Program, and I had taken a late plane on September 10th to Honolulu, where we were going to work with the BYU-Hawaii Entrepreneurship program people for several days. We'd gotten to bed about 11 pm Hawaii time (about 3 am Utah time). At 3:45 Honolulu time in the morning, the phone roused me from a deep slumber. It was Steve, with a tone of urgency in his voice -- "Meet me in the lobby in 20 minutes!!" "Why?", I mumbled. "Turn on your TV and see what's happening!!", was his terse reply.

The images were too incredible to imagine. As soon as the picture flickered to life, I saw the first of the two World Trade Towers collapse. Having spent many days in those buildings, and eaten dinner several times in the Top of the World Restaurant on the 107th floor, it was too incredible to think that the first tower had collapsed in a gigantic cloud of dust, and the other was blazing in the last minutes of its agony. I watched spellbound and shocked, to see the destruction and then the second tower collapse in slow motion, like a planned demolition. Only it wasn't, and there were thousands of people trapped in those buildings. Our rooms were at the top of a tall Waikiki hotel, and Steve correctly felt that we should get out of there as soon as possible.

Eventually we headed up to BYU-Hawaii, where President Shumway led a very silent and somber studentbody assembly, to give them a message of assurance, that our Heavenly Father's plan for his children was a one of happiness. Steve and I called Bette and Marsha, and wondered how we would get home, as we heard of the shutdown of the commercial aviation system.

In those days following 9-11, there was an incredible outpouring of patriotism for this land that all of us love, deep down in our hearts. We felt righteous indignation at terrorists who would turn our greatest asset, our freedom, into our greatest liability. I remember driving by Deer Creek Reservoir, close to Provo, and thinking how easy it would be for a terrorist to put some awful toxin in our water.

For a time, we all had an intense, and visible love for America. Remember all the flags, the memorial moments at public events like sporting events, singing "God Bless America" in the 7th inning stretch of the World Series, the stickers on everything that proclaimed our love for America? And there was a strong feeling of association with God. The phrase on the coin of "In God We Trust" was suddenly a feeling, a passion, and not just a target of the ACLU.

As someone born elsewhere who became an American citizen, I felt a particular love for a country who would be willing to welcome so many people from other lands to partake in its freedom, its opportunities, and its promise to "give me your tired, your poor, your heavy laden....".

Fast forward six years to today. I hope you have a special feeling for this land. It's not perfect, but it sure beats anything else. How long did it take us to set aside or loosen our grip on the intense patriotism that we felt? Viewing America from afar on this day, I love her with all my heart. I am proud to be an American (and also a Canadian). I'm grateful for a country that will give so much of its resources and its people to defend freedom on foreign soil. It's been almost 200 years since Americans fought on their own soil to defend their own country. How many times since then has this great country been willing to fight on someone else's soil for the rights of peoples of that country? And then to extend fortunes of reconstruction funds to help rebuild those whom we fought? And name one country that has given a 10th, or a 40th, of the aid that America has given freely to other countries.

We see a lot of countries here, trying to do good and help the people of Africa. The other day, someone asked, "How many foreign countries give aid to the United States?" We were hard pressed to think of an answer.

When missionaries return from other countries, one of their most intense feelings is that initial re-entry into the United States. I look at my passport now, and think about the stamps of all the other countries where we have been, and wish there was a stamp somewhere of the times when we re-entered the U.S., so I could remember that moment of "coming home". Entering the U.S. is so easy for us -- the agent swipes your passport, looks at your picture and the monitor, and says, "Welcome home." You should see what we go through to leave or enter countries over here.

Appreciate her. Love her. Work on making her better. Be a righteous people, so our Heavenly Father will keep His promise that, as long as there are righteous people in this land, He will preserve it. Take good care of her until we can come home.

Love to all -- Don and Marsha

TRANSPORTATION IN THE CONGO

We have been fascinated by the various means of transportation in Africa, and thought you would be interested in a blog on what we have seen so far. It's all very basic, but it works, and people seem to be very content with their system.

The most basic means of transportation is "the head". You see the most amazing loads being carried on people's heads. Here a graceful African "maman" strides down the road with three baskets stacked on her head. Because there are three, she's using a hand to steady them. With only one container, she wouldn't need a hand. And often there will be a cloth tied around her back and shoulders, with a little baby bouncing along behind her. Yet, they will give you the biggest smile and wave if you wave at them. And most of them wear only flip-flops or very elementary feet covering as they walk for miles. On our last trip up to Cameroon, we had four stuff bags loaded with 50 pounds each of materials for the church. No problem -- the porter carries one in his hand, and one on his head. As a veteran of three back surgeries, I could only wince.

The next step up from walking and people power is the lowly bicycle, but not as we use them.
Bicycles are sometimes used for riding, but mostly as a two-wheeled means of transporting large loads by foot. Here, probably 15 miles away from any meaningful inhabitation, a man pushes his bike, loaded with sacks of maize (corn) probably totaling 300 - 400 pounds.

Once you get past the bicycle, there is one other two-wheeled conveyance. It's a cart called a "pousse-pousse", meaning "push-push" in English. We see them all over Kinshasa, delivering all types of stuff, and will do a special on the "pousse-pousse" in one of our next posts. So let's explore four-wheeled transportation.


I couldn't begin to estimate how many people were on this small truck, with its cargo as well. But I suspect that somehow they are all glad that they are riding instead of walking. When we first saw something like this, it boggled our mind. Now it's an everyday occurrence and we don't even pay attention. Think something like this would draw interest driving down the main street in your home town??





A rural scene, with a small station wagon like vehicle with about 8 people and lots of cargo inside, and another 5 - 6 people perched precariously outside, hanging onto whatever they can. Plus note all the people walking down the side of the road ahead of the car.








A great scene typical of close to large urban cities -- a road with almost no pavement, and a big truck coming from the provinces, loaded with bags of cargo and lots of people on top. During our trip to Luputa, we saw a truck like this, lying on its side, about 50 feet off the roadbed and 15 feet down a hill. We cringed, and wondered how many people were riding on top of it when it careened off the road.





Big giant diesel trucks are the lifeline of rural Africa, carrying cargo and people between towns. In this one, there must be 25 people up on top of the bags of "manioc" -- the root crop that is the staple of the African diet. The leaves are boiled and eaten somewhat like spinach. The root is pounded into a whitish/brown powder and then cooked and shaped into balls about 5 - 6 inches in diameter. The balls are then cut into slices and served with various sauces and little pieces of meat. Our first introduction to "fufu" -- the cooked manioc flour, came with a topping of tomato sauce with dried fish and goat.


More about the minivan "combies" in Kinshasa in a minute. This one is in Mbuji-Mayi. No space goes unused, including open doorways. Our good friends have a picture of a combie with a passenger standing on the back bumper hitch, hanging onto the rain drip rail as the combie speeds down the road. You pray that there are no accidents.

In a city of more than 8 million people with a very rudimentary bus system, and not too many private vehicles, how do you move people? The answer is the "combie". Every VW bus on the planet that is more than 15 years old, is here in Kinshasa. They take out the seats, and put in a structure of wooden benches so they can crowd in 5 or 6 rows of 4 to 5 people each. In this bus, there were 4 on the front row, and 5 rows (you can't see the last one) of 4 - 5 people each, making close to 30 people. The combies are in deplorable shape -- belching oily smoke and usually lurching to one side. The bodywork has all kinds of dents, and the other day, our friends saw one with the tailights painted on. No wonder you couldn't tell it was stopping!! Each has a sign indicating its destination, and riders use an elaborate set of hand signals to flag a combie over (if there is room). Whenever one that is relatively empty loads up, the scramble of people for seats is something to behold.

This is another "commuter special" headed from a suburb into Kinshasa. For the people who can't afford either a "combie" or a bus, which is usually loaded with three times what we would see in America, there is always the big empty dump truck. At about 15 people deep, and 5 or 6 rows across, this gets 75 to 90 people downtown. One wonders what they will do when the rainy season starts!!

Anyways, hope that gives you an idea about transportation in the Congo. We'd show you pictures of the railroad, except it only runs about one train a week between Kinshasa and the coastal port. When we cross the Congo River to Brazzaville to visit members and missionaries there, we take a "canoe rapide", which is a 30 year old 24 foot waterskiing boat. These usually are loaded with about 15 people, as well as assorted luggage, etc. Taking pictures is prohibited. On our last trip there, the boat stalled out about 150 feet from the other shore. The river was starting to take us at a pretty good speed towards the rapids about 3 miles downstream. But the operator called another boat on his cellphone and we were safely towed to shore. Our visitors from South Africa on this trip were a little wide-eyed, and more than a little leary about the return trip. But all went safely.

Taking pictures at the airport is forbidden for national security reasons, but suffice it to say that there are no jetways, you walk out to your planes, and there is only one "luggage carousel" in each of the national and international buildings. Whenever a large Air France or SN Brussels plane comes in (we use SN Brussels between Kinshasa and Cameroon) with 250 people and about 3 - 4 bags per person, we can wait almost two hours to get our luggage. Lesson learned -- from now on, it's "carryon only" when we're coming into Kinshasa. We haul huge athletic bags full of materials and manuals out to the districts and branches, and then stuff the bags inside of our little carryon cases on the flight back. So we're learning to transport stuff like our wonderful friends. Someone told us that we are at least "50% Congolaise" now.

The local airline prides itself on a fleet of 7 DC9-32 planes. (Production on these halted sometime in the 1970's.) But I trust them a lot more than the fleet of ancient Ilyushyn turboprops from Russia that are used on many flights. On our last flight back from Lubumbashi, I noted that one of the tires on the main landing gear was showing a "lot of cord" instead of a "lot of rubber". So we cross our fingers, arms, legs and eyes. It's so cute -- when the plane lands, all the passengers break out into loud handclapping, whistles and cheers. Wonder if they know something we don't?? Timetables are at best an approximation -- if the plane operates on the day it is listed, it's considered ontime. So we get lots of delays sitting in terminals -- non-airconditioned waiting rooms with white plastic lawn chairs, waiting and reading and remembering when we silently cursed an airline because the plane was going to be an hour late. Oh, how spoiled we were.

So this gives you a basic idea about how Africans get around. Hope you learned something, and you are grateful for everything you have.

Love to all -- Don and Marsha

But, all the smart aleck comments aside for a minute, we love this work and this land, and count it a great blessing to be here for these two years. We feel God's hand trying to urge this country to put the wars and corruption behind it, and move into an era of peace and less-poverty.

OUR TRIP TO LUPUTA -- Part I

Part of our responsibilities here are to supervise congregations of the church in the smaller cities of the Congo. Four of these congregations are located in a city called Luputa, smack dab in the middle of the country, where we will go every six months for a conference of the church members i the Luputa District. To get there, you fly 600 miles, then rent a jungle vehicle from Catholic Charities and drive about 100 miles down very primitive roads. There's no water or electricity once you get to Luputa, so we will rely on freeze dried foods, buying about 20 large bottles of water for the six day trip. Two days to get there, two for the conference, and then two to get back. Here's the start of the packing -- hot water pot (white pot at top), freeze dried foods, toilet paper, some peanut butter and granola bars, etc. We can buy fresh fruits, as long as we wash them in the bottled water. As it turned out, we were treated to several native African meals along the way -- large steamed planteen bananas with goat in a tomato sauce and a meal of fufu -- kind of like poi, with goat and dried fish. We just went on faith that it was sufficiently well prepared to kill any germs.

Luputa isn't easy to get to, but the trip is so worthwhile. The people there are so pure and humble -- it is a city literally 50 miles away from anywhere else, and hasn't been overly spoiled by the advance of modern civilization. When the Belgians left the Congo in 1960, they had several stores and facilities in Luputa, but as in most of the Congo, the country has gone backwards in the last 45 years due to many factors. Roads that used to be decent have deteriorated, electrical distribution systems have been looted for the copper wiring, etc. The people in Luputa are less worldly, but far more spiritual and receptive to the teachings of Jesus Christ. So come along for the trip......

We are going to travel with Elder K. Tusey Kola, a leader in our church from Kinshasa who was appointed to a position of worldwide leadership last April in the General Conference of the church in Salt Lake. He is the first such leader from the Congo, and a man of great faith. He and his wife and their 12 children live in a very humble home on the east side of Kinshasa, most of the time without electricity. Like nearly all people in the Congo, he has no car, so to receive his emails from church leaders in Salt Lake City or Johannesburg, he takes "combies" -- old VW busses crowded with 25 people in them for 90 minutes to get to our office. So, to read his emails is a 5 or 6 hour journey, and very expensive as well. Here he is with Pres. Binene, the president of the district who leads our four congregations in Luputa. Both of these men are wonderful humble, but very accomplished leaders. I would match their leadership capabilities against anybody in the church in the United States. Both of them are first generation members of the church, new converts within the last 18 years, who have grown in the church as it has expanded in the Congo.


Here's a part of the chapel complex in Mbuji-Mayi. It is a jewel in its neighborhood -- white and clean within its gated walls, compared to the dirt and filth of the surrounding nighborhood. Many classrooms are in a separate building at the right, and the baptismal font is outside. The members have worked hard to plan a nice lawn that will grow together.

After buying diesel fuel for our rented truck ($ 12.50 a gallon or just under $ 400 for the fillup) and buying some bread from a local bakery, we were off!! We navigated 70 miles through little villages and homes along the roadside to a city called Mwene-Ditu, where we would stay the night. There are 50 members who moved here last year. They meet each week but haven't been organized as a branch yet, and so are only a group and haven't had the sacrament for over a year (I called the leaders in Johannesburg and immediately received approval for that). Our plan was to meet with them at 5 pm on Thursday night for a one hour meeting, but our plane to Mbuji-Mayi was very late and we didn't get there until 8 pm -- three hours late. I felt very badly as we had really wanted to meet with them, and I feared they would have walked home in the dark to put their children to bed. When we pulled into the enclosed courtyard of where we would stay, about 35 of them were there, sitting in the dark and quietly waiting. We immediately took most of the bread we brought and gave it to them for their children, and asked the hotel proprietor to turn on a light. We had a meeting with them with Elder Kola and I both talking, and then gathered in a circle under the little light to sing several hymns together. Then they quietly walked home in the dark to their little homes.
Saturday and Sunday, about 15 of them took public transportation the 35 miles to Luputa to attend District Conference there. How humbled we were to think of their faith, to wait three hours in the dark for us. How many North Americans would wait in the dark for three hours, not knowing how late their guest speakers might be?



Our room in Mwene-Ditu had the basics, but not much more. In the bathroom, two buckets of water -- one for flush with, and one to wash with. We ordered electricity long enough to heat some water for the REI freeze-dried meals, and the Kolas and Omer dined with us in our room. With a little bread, and dried fruit for dessert, it wasn't gourmet, but it satisfied.

We are traveling in a rented Toyota jungle truck together with the Kolas and our great driver, Omer. There is a bench seat in front, with two rows of benches down the side. Because we are carrying about 100 pounds of supplies for the church congregations at Luputa (which will save about $ 750 in shipping costs), we just had the bench on the left hand side. We bounced around like pinballs in the back as we careened down the road (see the following picture for some of the sections of the road).

Last post we showcased the potholes in the roads in Kinshasa -- out in central Congo, in the dirt roads, the holes are a little larger. These were two - three feet deep. On a dry road, not too much of a problem, but when we come back in February or March of next year in the rainy season, this promises to be a very interesting and challenging trip.









The lifeline in Africa are huge diesel trucks. They carry food between communities, and serve as the busses, as people ride on the top of the load. Unfortunately there are no methods to monitor the weight of the trucks, and they load everything on that they can, as it creates more revenue. The overloaded trucks create huge ruts when the roads are wet. And sometimes they're too heavy for the bridges. No problem here -- just lay planks over the broken steel decking -- and hope that it hopes. So you hold your breath, and creep across the broken section. But we met huge trucks that will cross here -- and were glad we were in our smaller vehicle.


In Luputa we stay in a Catholic monastery, as the only hotel in town has only 4 rooms and no water or electricity. Here's our luxurious room. Truly the necessities -- bed, concrete floor, one light bulb and two chairs. Those mosquito nets come in handy, but a couple of mosquitoes still got inside the nets and we had big red welts in the morning. We paid more for the diesel generator for electricity ($ 15 a night for two hours) than we did for the room -- a bargain at only $ 10 a night. For a bath, we ordered a plastic bucket of hot water one night. Surprising how good you can feel after a cat wash in your room, on the bare concrete floor.



Luputa has sent some wonderful young men on missions. Friday afternoon, Pres. Binene told me that on Saturday morning, I would be interviewing 7 young men who wish to serve church missions. When I started on Saturday, he said that there were now 10. By the time I had finished on Saturday morning, I had interviewed 17, all of whom had great desires to serve and were really prepared. Here's Marsha with four young missionaries from Luputa who have returned from serving in Kinshasa during the last year.

We will start building a new building in Luputa next year, but for now, the biggest chapel here is a former store from Belgian colonial days. It only holds about 250 people inside, so the brethren built a shade structure out of bamboo poles and those great blue tarps. Sunday morning there were 250 inside and 650 outside - 900 people out of the District's 1,080 members attended. We moved the podium and the portable generator powered microphone into the doorway so those both inside and outside could see those who spoke. A great meeting, and there was a wonderful spirit present.

One of the things you always do is to meet the officials of the city or territory. The man in the middle of the group is the territorial governor whom we met on Friday, who came to our church meeting on Sunday. The guy behind Marsha and him is his guard, complete with his AK-47. Thank heavens it wasn't necessary.

See Part II for the rest of the trip's story.

OUR TRIP TO LUPUTA -- Part II

Well, this picture is "out of order" -- it should be on Monday, but it shows how you eat lunch in the middle of Africa. Pull over to the side of the road, have Marsha open the suitecase commissary and it's time for sandwiches. Here are Elder and Sister Kola, along with Omer. The big sack is 30 kilos of corn which Omer purchased to take back to his family. Later this afternoon, he stopped to look at the biggest catfish I have ever seen -- about 3 feet long, and bargained whether he could purchase it. Fortunately no deal was struck -- we weren't keen about sharing the back of the truck with a smelly dead catfish!!

So back to the District Conference in Luputa on Saturday and Sunday. We had three meetings on Saturday -- Marsha and Sister Kola taught the female leaders for the church organizations for the children, young women and the ladies, while Elder Kola and I taught the men in leadership positions. Then we had a meeting for all the adults. Sunday, there was a two hour meeting for all members and their families.

During the Sunday meeting, there were about 250 children in attendance. They were amazingly reverent. After the meeting -- it was another story. Mass chaos!! Everyone wanted to shake hands about 3 times with a hearty "Bonjour", or reach out and hug us. Here's Marsha in the middle of a mob. I think that some of them enjoyed shaking hands to see if our skin felt different than theirs. Most crowded around, but a couple of little babies shrieked in fear whenever they came close to us.


Monday morning, it was up early for a two hour trip from Luputa to Ngandajika. It had rained during the night for 2 to 3 hours, so the roads turned to mud and we slithered down the trail. Not tropical here -- high African highlands with vistas where you can see for 20 miles in many directions. An amazing country.


Here's a typical African village -- abode brick houses about 12 by 12 or 16 by 16, with thatched roofs. The women cook outside using charcoal to cook their meals. Everyone has a great smile and a big wave as we drive by.






In Ngandajika, we met with 50 incredibly faithful members who have moved here during the last couple of years. About 30 of them rode their bikes 35 miles to Luputa for the Sunday morning meeting, then rode back in the afternoon. We gave them approval to have the Sacrament in their weekly meetings here (as in Mwene-Ditu), while we apply for approval of a branch in each of these cities. The fellow in the green in the front row is the territorial governor. We met with him when we first arrived, and several minutes before the meeting began at 10 am, he showed up. Several members gave great talks, and Elder Kola and I both talked about the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness, and how it can guide our lives in today's world as a second testimony of Jesus Christ, together with the Bible.

After the meeting, the territorial governor came up and we shared a nice chat. Then he asked, "Where could I get a copy of the Book of Mormon?" Darn -- we had left about 25 copies with the district in Luputa, but didn't have any with us now. But I had my leatherbound edition -- so now the territorial governor has a Triple Combination with the name of Donald Livingstone on the cover. He said he will be a friend of the church and help us do anything we need -- will come in handy when we build a chapel in a couple of years.

Once a Grandma, always a Grandma. Marsha will hold any baby, anywhere, anytime. Here she is getting a love from a little six month old son of a sister in Mbuji-Mayi on Tuesday morning (this picture is a little out of order as well, but I can't seem to correct its placment, so pardon my technical ineptitude). Since our plane back to Kinshasa turned out to be five hours late (not an uncommon experience), she got in a lot of baby holding. What a great companion -- it's easy for me to say "I LOVE my companion!!" She always smiles, does whatever is needed, and when we get lemons (like late planes) , she's great at making lemonade.

Here Marsha is with some of the ladies who came to a Monday afternoon meeting for all the members in the Mbuyi-Mayi branch. 200 came on a Monday afternoon at 4:30 -- great dedication of these wonderful African Saints.










We were so amazed and grateful for the faithful example of these wonderful church members. They have such a great spirit about them, and are so greatful for anything and everything that you do for them. While they may be "young in the Gospel" as far as their years of membership are concerned (many of them have just been members for two to five years), they have so loving hearts. And they are happy with their circumstances in life, even though they have so little in comparison with us. When we take a picture with the digital camera, and then immediately show them what the picture looks like, they clap their hands with joy and crowd around to see what they look like. And then immediately want to pose for another picture.

Where else would people be willing to wait for three hours or more in the dark for someone to show up? Where else would people ride bikes for 35 miles each way -- taking three or four hours in each direction, to attend a meeting? Surely there are other places in the world where people make sacrifices. But in North America, we are so privileged and spoiled to have what we have. And we take it for granted.

Over the next two months, we will visit three other "districts" of the church here, along with smaller congregations scattered over the Congo, Republic of Congo and Cameroon. What a joy to serve these people.

Love to all -- Don and Marsha

P.S. It's 4 am on Sunday morning and I just finished listening to the BYU-UCLA football game on the internet. Rats -- we lost, but the game was a good game. You gotta have time for a few diversions in life, don't you?? Off to bed -- bye for now.

Don's First Blog -- Pictures and Commentary -- 8-4-07

Marsha's done the first two blogs and it's my turn, on our day off. Since there are some of you who are not members of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the LDS Church, or Mormons as we are called), I'm dividing this post into three sections:

1. Life in the Congo -- interesting things about the five countries where we are serving are mission.

2. Events Since the Last Blog -- things of interest that have happened since our last posting.

3. Spiritual and Other Observations -- things that have impressed us as we serve with the missionaries, members and the people of the Congo.

So, here goes:
Here's the building where our apartment and the mission office are located. It's probably one of the nicest in Kinshasa, with a septic system, a separate power generator for when the power goes offs (which is often), and is behind a gate with its own security force who let you in and out. The bottom three floors are offices for Vodacom, one of the big cell phone companies here which was started by a local entrepreneur. Our office is on the other side -- a very small office. Floors 4 to 11 are apartments. Our apartment is on the fourth floor on the left hand side of the picture and is half of the floor. It has about 2,000 sq. ft. and is quite well suited for our needs and the guests that come to stay with us for church or other business.

Unfortunately, our building is also a symbol of what can frustrate others. Vodacom is a very powerful company, and when there is civil unrest, our building is often a target for others. Also, there are some foreigners who live here and from time to time, they have been targets of protestors as well. Last March, there was a large battle when the government tried to disarm the private army of a person who had lost in the presidential contest in the recent free elections (the first free elections in 40 years). The exterior of the building is white tiles, about 1" by 1", like in a shower floor, but the rest of the building is 100% concrete, or cinder block for the interior walls. It made a good target, besides the private army was located just a block away. About 200 people were killed in the fighting for three days, before his army was disarmed and he fled the country. Because he is a member of the Senate and has political immunity, there is word that he may soon return. Fortunately there has been no violence since that time, and there is a great spirit of optimism now. Even the traffic police, who used to try to shake down foreigners for bribes, are being nice. More about that later.

Our apartment took some terrific damage -- all the windows were shot out, and a couple of RPG's hit close to the windows and left their marks. We can see the many places in the walls and woodwork where patches have been made to attempt to cover up the bullet holes.

Here are some of bullet holes in the windows on the ground floor, which still have not been replaced, and the reflection of some tourist taking pictures of them. Hmm -- someone else with white hair -- a rare sighting in the Congo. Most of the people call me "papa" which is either a sign of respect of derision.

Living here -- Some Interesting Things

If you turn your computer on its side, you'll see that I didn't rotate this picture 90 degrees before it got inserted. Two interesting things about this picture:

1. There are some bounteous fruits and vegetables available here.

2. You have to wash them in "bleach water" before you eat them. Just a long squirt of bleach into the dishpan of water from our filtration system, and you rinse them off!! So guys, you can impress your wife twice -- once by doing the dishes, and secondly by doing the fruits and vegetables purchased at the streetside market.

If you think about it, there aren't a lot of hairdressers or barbers here -- they aren't needed with the men. And the women wear some of the most colorful and flambouyant wigs you've ever seen, since their hair gets ready dry and breaks off if they wash it too often. So Marsha and I learned how to cut each other's hair (and I learned how to color her hair before we left, thanks to Patti Budge!!). Here are the results on the floor of last Monday night's haircuts in the dustpan. I took too much off of Marsha's hair, but she's being a good sport and saying, "I kind of like it shorter, now."


Driving in the Congo

It's fun and terrifying at the same time. When the Belgians left, they left a superb infrastructure, but it has decayed for the last 45 years. All of the roads have some terrific potholes in them -- look at this beauty in the top left hand of the picture, which is about 40 feet long and at least 2/3's the width of the road. Driving around and/or into and out of these presents a challenge when there is a lot of traffic, or at night, because there are no street lights that work, except in front of the presidential home. This pothole is about 10 inches deep, and if you hit it at a good speed, you'll break the seal on your tire. Another element of driving are the pedestrians, who jaywalk at every opportunity. It's particularly trying at night, because there are no lights, visibility is poor because of all the smoke and haze, and they are very difficult to see because of their dark clothing and skin. The motto here is, "It's not if you have an accident, but when."

Here's another section of road that we drove on last Saturday. The payment is completely gone from the other side of the road, and the strip down the middle is only about 2 feet wide, with a good stretch of payment missing on our side. You get to be very good judging the width of the space between your tires, and whether you can straddle a pothole, or go through it, or if no one is coming, you just take their side of the road. Beyond the other side of the road is a concrete culvert about 3 feet deep that will carry off the rain water when the rainy season starts in mid-September. Then it's really fun to drive, because you have to judge how deep the pothole is. Needless to say, with all the mud, no one is going to wash their cars during this period. But it rains nearly every day, so Mother Nature does it for you.

Notice the fronts of the Mercedes and VW bus diving into this pothole. I drove through this intersection last night in the dark. There are a bunch of streets that intersect here, and there were at least 4 lanes of traffic in each direction on a two lane road -- most of them were driving in the dirt alongside the road until they had to squeeze down to get around the two trees on the left. There were cars on each side with about 6 inches of clearance between us, fighting to squeeze down from 4 or 5 abreast to just two. And all of these cars have old age right of way -- they have many dents and dings, and don't mind picking up another.

This picture is in Douala, Cameroon, a city of about 1.5 million people about 700 miles north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cameroon is much more prosperous -- note the conditions of the road, and while most people don't have cars, taxis are abundant and relatively cheap. Still, note the traffic which takes whatever side of the road. The taxis are three abreadst here, and notice the big semitrailer truck clearly on our side of the road. That's because he is king of the hill and goes wherever he wants to!!!

Your Heart Just Breaks...

This picture is of a valley as you enter Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon. There are some very nice sections of town, but here you see a village of perhaps 1,000 people in their shanties on each side of the swamp, which is infested with mosquitos. Once malaria season really goes going, there will be many casualties among the very young children in this area. Almost no one has shoes in situations like this, and they are reduced to begging or working for incredibly low incomes in day-t0-day jobs, trying to eake out an existence.

We drive by this area 3 or 4 times a week. When we first arrived, there was one story of what used to be a multi-story building still standing. Day by day, people break it down using hand tools, and put the chunks by the side of the road where they will be hauled away to be used in some other building. We often see women and children sitting by the side of the road with hammers and steel tools, splitting large rocks into smaller and smaller pieces until it resembles gravel. There must be a high degree of honesty here, because their piles are just by the side of the road and they seem to not be disturbed during the evening.

Events Since the Last Posting -- It's been pretty routine. We finished our first tour of the mission, which stretches for almost 2,000 miles, visiting the missionaries and the congregations of the church. Marsha has spoken up to four times on a Sunday, and her French is getting better by the day. When she occasionally stumbles on a pronounciation or struggles to find a work, the members all softly speak the word -- they love her and her efforts to speak their language. My French still isn't what I would like it to be, but it gets better each day.

We love the civility of the people here. Many nights about 5 pm, we leave the office to spend an hour walking with two other senior couples here in Kinshasa along a street that runs alongside the Congo River. It is the street with most of the embassies of foreign countries, and so isn't heavily traveled. Each embassy has several Congolese guards in front of the gates, and we love to greet them with a jaunty "Bonjour". They answer back and ask how we are doing and love to kid us a little. Marsha kids them back and has made great friends with many of them. Even the soldiers that guard the entrance to the presidential compound are her friends, and ask questions as we pass.

We are accustomed to the many facets of living in the Congo. People here put up with conditions and challenges that would drive many of us to distraction in the States, and yet they are patient and for the most part, very soft spoken. When you are in a meeting and someone asks a question, before the person conducting the meeting starts to answer, he or she first says, "Merci beaucoup pour votre question" -- a sincere acknowledgment of the interest of the person asking the question. Our guards in the lobby of the building always jump to their feet to open the elevator doors for us, and as we drive out the gates to the compound, they always smile. We wave to them and they wave back. We were warned about how the traffic police were always trying to single out foreign drivers and stop them and try to extract a bribe of some sort. The chief of police recently announced a new policy for the next six months that the traffic police will be nice, and we've taken to waving to them, who smile and wave back.

Food is incredibly expensive, and sometimes not available. A pint of cream cost $ 7, a tube of toothpaste is $ 6, and 18 rolls of toilet paper were $ 19. A single can of soda costs $ 1.50 -- no six or twelve packs, and we saw a pint of Haagen-Daaz for $ 17!! After a week or so, you don't even notice the cost -- you're just glad that it is there and available to buy. For about $ 90, we are able to fill two or three plastic bags with what we've purchase. But we shudder to think what the average Congolese family eats, compared to what we do. Our eating is becoming much more simple, and we are enjoying eating this way and even losing a few pounds.

Next Thursday, we will make a 6 day trip to a city called Luputa, where the church has 6 congregations, and another large city and two smaller ones. We will fly to an intermediate city, rent a SUV and driver from Catholic Charities, and drive down a road for two hours, and then a jungle trail for the last 30 miles. In Luputa, we will stay in a Catholic monastery which has no power except for a portable electric generator, which we can rent for several hours each night. We're taking bottled water, an electric hot pot, and a bunch of freeze-dried meals from REI to eat during this time. Their language is Tschibulu, and our talks will be translated by some of the young returned missionaries into their language. But it will be a spiritual highlight to visit these sweet humble people. Stay tuned for the report on our trip to Luputa, Mbuji-Mayi, Mwene-Ditu and Ngandajika.

The Missionary Work and Spiritual Things...

We are incredibly impressed by the dedication of the Congolese members of the church. Often when we arrive at a chapel for church services on Sunday, our Toyota diesel SUV will be the only car in the small parking lot. Everyone either walks to church, or rides these decrepit VW vans where the seats have been taken out and 6 rows of wooden benches inserted More about these the next post. But they are there on Sunday in their clean clothes, ready to worship and to sing. It's not unusual for there to be no water or power in an entire section of the city, and so they worship in these conditions and never complain. I have never seen a people so willing to endure difficult conditions with a smile on their face and a cheery, "Bonjour". It makes me almost ashamed to think how willing we are to complain in the U.S. at the least little thing. And amongst the church members, there is an amazing civility compared to the rest of the country.

Our missionaries in the DRC and Republic of Congo -- a separate country on the other side of the river, are almost totally from these two countries. We have a couple from Uganda and Ivory Coast, but by and large, missionaries from other African countries aren't assigned to work in our mission because of the difficult living conditions. Here are 15 of our wonderful missionaries at a recent conference. We love them with all our hearts -- they are great young people who are serving at a great sacrifice. In the back row, second from the left, is one of the two missionaries who serve as my Assistants. Elder Kalala had finished medical school here (only 4 years) and served as a doctor for a year before he decided to come on his mission. The doctor whose practice he was working in told him that there may not be a position for him when he is finished with his mission this December, but that didn't defer him from wanting to leave his profession and serve. He is so soft spoken, and yet such a terrific leader. Because of the unsafe conditions later in the evening, we ask them to finish their proselyting by 7 pm and return to their apartments (most are without electricity), and so to make sure that they are getting in a good day's effort, they get up at 5:30 and are out on the street by 8:30. I love to visit with them and as much as I try to teach them from the scriptures and words of the prophets, I find that they teach me as much as I can teach them.

Besides the young African missionaries, we also have some wonderful North American couples who serve in cities that are far from Kinshasa. Several weeks ago, a couple from our congregation in Provo, UT, Gary and Karen Henderson, finished their mission. In 15 months in a city called Lubumbashi, about 1,000 miles south of Kinshasa, they taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to many people, and saw 132 people receive testimonies of its truthfulness and become members of the church. This is a picture of the Hendersons and many of the people they taught, just a week before they were to come home to provo. We attended a meeting where the Hendersons shared their love with these people and gave them a special church book with the admonition that they remain "true to the faith" and continue to grow and serve each other. What a wonderful memory to have of something that you did to enrich the lives of others.

In the Cameroon, we have two wonderful couples,
Bill and Janine Hanks from Salt Lake City who serve in Douala, and Steve and JoAnn Hanks from Las Vegas, who serve in Yaounde. Each of them have four young American elders who serve with them in these cities (Cameroon is judged safe enough for young North American elders to serve). Both the Coles had very successful careers in retailing and then real estate, while Steve Hanks was a very successful orthodontist in Las Vegas. Yet they left all this behind to come serve. Here, Bill Coles and Elder Wilde are with three people just before they are baptized (the baptismal font is an outdoor font -- the blue tiled font just behind them). The person in the middle is a strikingly beautiful young woman about 25, who was a model in Europe but returned home to help her parents.

This is the joy of serving on a mission -- teaching others the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and trying to make a difference in the world. Besides proselyting, we have couples here who supervise humanitarian work -- next time, we will show some of their work -- a water well which now provides fresh clean water for a neighborhood, and a neo-natal recessitation clinic which shows the doctors and nurses here how to improve the mortality rate of new infants. Tonight, ten volunteer doctors and nurses are arriving from Utah to spend a week doing the neo-natal recessitation conference here in Kinshasa and across the river in Brazzaville. We're grateful for these people who come to serve.

Blessings on all of you -- we love and miss you, but wouldn't miss doing this work. We love those with whom we serve, and those whom we serve. God lives, Jesus is his Son, our Redeemer and Savior. They love each of us, and desire that we live so we can return home to their presence. We hope to be with you for the eternities in their presence.

Don and Marsha Livingstone

our trip to Bonobo Park

who is watching who?? Which are the real monkey watchers// see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil


Saturday we took a P-day with the other two couples here in Kinshasa to one of about three "tourist attractions" here in the area. It's called Bonobo Park, after the bonobos that are being protected here. The bonobos are a pygmie chimpanzee who exist only in central rain forest part of the Congo. Most of those in this preserve are orphans, because their parents have been killed and hunted for the bushmeat. They are about 3 feet tall when mature, and will live for up to 60 years. There is a picture later of a mother and her child, who is so small after three years of life. It takes about 12 years before a young bonobo will leave its mother, so the mother only has about 3 or 4 babies in her lifetime.
(I'm sorry that these photos aren't interspersed, but I haven't really figured out the photo additions quite yet--give me time--maybe by the end of the mission I will have it figured out :-)
Anyway, we loaded up the car and tried to follow the directions that we had received, and got really lost, but finally found this park. It is interesting--in the USA there would have been lots of advertising and signs --direction markers, etc. to get there, but here there was nothing to indicate where it was or how to get there. If we hadn't had these directions that were so specific--go 5.7 kilometers and turn right, go up a steep hill that is almost impassable, etc. etc. we never would have found it. But when we got there, we were very impressed with the facility and the beauty of the spot. It is next to a river where some young guys were swimming and playing a game that I could swear was Marco-polo. There was a nice pavilion where there was a tv with a running program all about the bonobos. Then you just walk on this loop through the forest and come to several locations where there are people who are in charge of the care, feeding and other things with the bonobos. The bonobos are very friendly--and seem to enjoy the interchange with people. We were able to have a guide come with us on our trip and point out some very interesting things about these cute little animals. He would walk along the fence and call out to the chimps and they would come down out of the trees or out of the underbrush and come to the fence to greet him and us.
The reserve partners with a bunch of places in the US--a couple of zoos, etc. and the grounds were very well maintained and nice---and there were flowers and butterflies and nice paths, etc. It was nice to be in such an area. We had heard that you can only picnic there if you are willing to pay a $40 fee to sit on their lawn (no picnic tables or anything), so we opted to come back into Kinshasa and have our picnic here at the mission home! !

Don has a fixation on taking pictures of potholes because he has to be so careful trying to avoid them, but the photos just don't do them justice, so think in your mind the worst pothole that you've ever seen and multiply that by 100 and that's about right for some of the small ones. But it's all good! ! I makes driving a real fun adventure and like a thrill ride on a rollercoaster. We love it! !

This is a wonderful experience and we are so grateful to be able to be a part of it all. THe gospel is true and the people in Africa love to hear about it and respond to the teachings of the gospel.

By the way, the office couple leaves at the end of March and we need a couple to replace them. You don't have to speak French--although it would be a bonus if you did. The man is the financial guy and the gal is the secretary--does a lot of computer stuff about the missionaries, etc. They also teach a couple of English classes--some to the stake presidents in the area who are trying to learn English. Anyone want to volunteer?? We would love to have any of you who would be so inclined to come this way join us in this wonderful adventure! ! ! Think about it and let us know if you are interested! !

Until next time---au revoir and ayez une bonne journee! ! !

finally, a blog from us

We have been here in the Congo for three weeks now and are getting so we think we know what's happening most days. We have done a lot of traveling to get acquainted with the missionaries and saints all over the mission during this time and are now finished with the first round of zone conferences.

I guess we should start from the beginning--we left the MTC in Provo on June 27th and flew from SLC to Atlanta the morning of June 28th. Then onto Brussels and then onto Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo--arriving on Friday night, June 29th. Arriving in Kinshasa is an experience in and of itself. It's just an immersion into the peoples and culture of the DRC and Africa. Luckily for us, we had met a friend on the plane who sort of shepherded us through and we had received pretty specific instructions from the Maycocks (whose place we are taking). It is just a cacaphony of loud voices and very warm bodies and strange language and lots of men who haven't yet read and understood D&C 121:39--"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion." :-) After we had collected our luggage and things, with the help of a small African man named Antoine--we went outside to find the Maycocks and Eustache, a man in his early thirties who is a returned missionary from the Congo and works in the mission home, there to greet us and take us to our new home. They were a welcome site to us.

The trip from the airport into Kinshasa is also a unique and incredible experience-- all by itself. We have made that trip now 5-6 times now and each time I am amazed at it all. It would appear that a large percentage of the 8,000,000 people who inhabit Kinshasa can be found beside the road leading to the airport or else in commvies---old vw busses or other similarly sized vehicles with the seats taken out and wooden benches installed so they can get more people into them. You will see five rows of benches with five people each, and several more crammed into the front seat -- about 30 people in a 20 or 25 year old VW bus. Often the suspension is worn, or tires are low, so the bus leans to one side. The humanitarian couple who are here in Kinshasa with us have written a wonderful explanation of these commvies on their blog which is barlowsinthedrcongo.blogspot.com. You might enjoy reading their post.

So, the trip in was unique--people running in front of the car, across the road, alongside the car--not much electricity, so lots of candles on tables alongside the road where people were still trying to sell their wares or people just gathered to talk and communicate. But still, the feeling of being inside a beehive or ant hill with people swirling around you and total confusion and movement, but in the dark!!

The next day the Maycocks instructed and showed and demonstrated and helped as much as they could to try to get us acclimated to where we were and what we were supposed to be doing---but it felt like it was all a blur--so much to understand and do and we were feeling totally overwhelmed.

Sunday--the Maycocks leave and we are in charge! ! Now we must pick up the mantle and begin to do what we have come here to do, which is to work with the missionaries and help the work of the Lord to move along here in the Congo.

Monday--we can't find the keys, we can't get the computer open, we have lost a book of instructions that we MUST have--we feel like we are in a jet-lagged fog--but later in the afternoon and on Tuesday we begin to figure out some things and come out of the fog--just in time, too, because Wednesday we receive 12--count them, 12-- new missionaries from the Missonary Training Center in Ghana. They are a happy and darling lot of missionaries that are ready to serve and anxious to be here as missionaries for the church. (Marsha was absolutely fantastic greeting them, communicating as much as possible in French with people who speak no English. She helped inventory their possessions, give them their anti-malaria medicines, etc.)Then on Thursday we have an all-day training session in our apartment, and Marsha makes lunch for 17 of us -- what a great companion!!)

Friday the new missioanries were taken out to meet their new companions, and we bid farewell to three wonderful young men who had faithfully completed their missions. One was the assistant and a finer young man you would have a hard time beating. He was adorable. The others were, I'm sure, great missionaries, but Elder Ilunga had helped us the previous day with the teaching and orienting of the new missionaries, etc.

Saturday we flew to Lubumbashi--a city 1,000 miles away on the other side of the country. We had a couple of "first" adventures with this trip. Because driving to the airport is such a chore, you can take a bus run by the airline that you are flying with--only one problem--you have to leave about 4-5 hours before your flight, ride out on the bus, go through the whole customs thing, etc. etc. and then wait in white plastic lawn chairs in a big room with a cement floor for the rest of the time until your flight. We had a wonderful time in Lubumbashi with a wonderful couple from our ward in Provo who are just finishing their mission there. We attended the two wards that they were assigned to, went to a meeting that they had arranged for with the people that they had introduced the gospel to (all 130 or them! ! !) and had a lovely Sabbath day with them, then had zone conference with the missionaries on Monday.

It was our first zone conference and a wonderful experience of getting acquainted with the young missionaries here in the Congo. They are, for the most part, wonderful young men (and a few women) who are usually older than your typical 19 or 21 year old missionary, but usually with great church experience already behind them--often they have been branch or ward missionaries and are already familiar with Preach my Gospel and other particulars of missionary service. One of our current assistants has finished medical school here (it is only the same amount of time as any other university degree--about 4-5 years) and had actually practiced medicine for a year before coming on his mission.

Tuesday--up at 4 a.m. to fly back to Kinshasa for two zone conferences that afternoon, and another one on Wednesday. Thursday morning we did laundry and got organized, and flew to Douala, Cameroon on Thursday evening, getting to bed about 2:00 in the morning. Friday Don went out with the missionaries, then interviewed the four missionaries that had come on the bus from Yaounde. Saturday morning we had a zone conference, interviewed the rest of the missionaries, then drove 3+ hours back to Yaonde with the senior couple there to see those surroundings. Went to church with them on Sunday to their two branches and sang in their branch choir! !
Monday morning Don went out with the missionaries in Yaounde, then we took the bus back to Douala and flew back home to Kinshasa Monday evening.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were days in the office and me trying to get some things organized in the mission home, etc. Friday we went down to the "beach" and took a speed boat over to Brazzaville for our final zone conference in this round of conferences. I'm sure that it's partially because my language is getting a little better and I am feeling a little more confident, etc. but the time with the missionaries in Brazzaville while Don was interviewing them was really fun and sweet. They were patiently trying to converse with me and sort of giggling behind their hand at my french and sometimes I wondered if we were really understanding each other, but we were all having a great time trying.

Which brings us to today and our first P-day (actually Don worked for awhile this afternoon), but we went to several grocery stores today and had the two couples over for dinner and to play games tonight. It was a pleasant diversion :-)

Just some random observations and thoughts and scenes--the African way! !
1 young, strong men moving huge long pieces of rebar onto the barges to be taken across the river to Brazzaville--some with football pads to protect their shoulders
2 all women wear wigs here--often with unusual colors and styles--some with braids, etc. one woman on the boat had her hair "off" and was brushing it, then just plopped it back on her head :-)
3 many, many carts about 5 feet square with two car tires on an axle --called "pousse-pousses" (push-push in French) that men push and pull with HUGE loads of all kinds of things--sometimes loaded with so much "stuff" that they cannot see over the top of them.
4 a dump truck truck filled to overflowing (3 or 4 feet above the top of the box)with loads of charcoal for their cooking fires or something else, with 6-7 people on top of the charcoal, holding on for dear life
5 a woman behind a small table, filling plastic bags with water from a dirty bucket---to be sold as "l'eau sante"--health water! ! !
6 everyone carrying huge loads on their heads--they have VERY good posture, and strong necks--big tubs with bread, a tray with a pyramid of eggs stacked neatly 4 or 5 rows high, big sacks of the plastic bags of water, baskets of fruit, etc. etc.
7 singing---they love to worship through music--the louder the better, but mostly it's with great harmony and joy---mostly they don't have musical instruments to accompany, so the person who has been selected to "lead the hymns" just stands before the audience and sings the first line, then says, "trois, quatre" and everyone sings along with him or her--at whatever pitch he or she thinks it would be good to sing at!!
8 Driving -- it's a thrill ride at best, a terrifying experience at worst. The roads are about 60% pavement, 20% dirt and 20% potholes -- and big ones at that. On most roads, you drive very slowly, weaving in and out of traffic and potholes. On some of the wider streets (many are just two lanes sandwiched in between very humble homes and businesses or roadside vendors), where there are two lanes marked in each direction, you see 3 and 4 streams of cars moving. There are very few sidewalks, so the pedestrians just jump out of the way when traffic comes. We've seen four stoplights in a town of 8 million people, which ought to tell you how chaotic traffic is. And few streets have street signs on them, so it's dead reckoning for navigation - you look for roadmarks like a fence painted in garish yellow and blue or some other recognizable feature. Tomorrow I have to hopscotch across the city to attend six different meetings over 9 hours. Hoping I don't get lost, because you don't want to be on the road after about 7 pm when it gets pitchdark (very few street lights).
9 the women's dresses are wonderful and colorful and very attractive. No matter how little they have in terms of worldly goods, they dress beautifully and look great in their clothes. Some are very ornate with beads and sparkly stuff--embroidery and fancy stuff. the patterns and colors of the fabric is unlike anything I've ever seen before, but I have come to really love it! !

But most of all, the sweet people of Africa. They have so little in comparison to us. But they are pleasant and happy. Three or four times a week, we walk down a road next to the Congo River which is "embassy row" -- all the embassies hidden behind tall solid block or metal walls, with razor barbed wire looped all over the top. Here and throughout town, the airport, etc., we smile and greet each person with a cheery "bonjour", and they look us in the eye and respond back equally as cheerfully. We have lost any recognition of color -- we only see the sweet faces of Heavenly Father's children who live in a different land that us.

I promise photos next blog---I have tried to upload some photos of the elders and haven't figured out quite how to do that yet--I'll get a lesson from someone here in the office soon. For now, au revoir and a demain. Until next time--we send our love.