24th of July in the Congo

We visited one of the two new cities that have been put in our mission Kananga DRC.  This was very exciting because we have 26 new missionaries that we went to meet!  They are great Elders! Here they are 900 miles from the mission office and are teaching and obedient.  There is no couple there to help them!

As we arrived to Kananga this was what we saw at the church. Wow! 29 baptisms

Kananga is about 100,000 people ( no one knows how many) but it's smaller than Kinshasa !  Not many cars!  It was very quiet ! Here is a picture of their baptism font notice the pipe from the roof that funnels rain water into the font!  It was tin and welded together to stone posts.  It works!!!

The next day Sunday we attended church.  RS was first and was held outside at the back of the church.  There the lesson was given on the Holy Ghost.  As the teacher was teaching us outside with a chalkboard the only had three legs.  I couldn't understand very much but the Spirit was so strong on that foggy Sunday morning

Across the lawn in the back of the church hung the 29 baptismal clothes hanging up to dry.  How pleased Heavenly Father must have looked down on this little part of the world and smiled.

Here is the church we attended in Kananga. The members were wonderful with entire families attending!

Monday morning was the missionaries P-Day they were playing soccer while the President interviewed each one.  See how foggy it is!

On the side of the road right by where the Elders were playing were these women who wanted to met a white lady.  They came over to our AP and asked if they could talk to me so I went over and met them and took this picture.  They don't see many white people in this remote area of DRC! We were quite a novelty.

After this we headed to the airport to fly back to Kinshasa after we had been there two hours they said the plane wouldn't be here for another three hours. Asked why the plane was late they just said" it's here when it's here"! So I knitted and the President was off doing this -riding a bike of one of the workers at the airport!  He was trying to convince the Elders that they could ride bikes in Kananga!  We wasn't very convincing. The Elders said riding bike would give them hemorrhoids.

We look pretty good for only having bucket showers in Kananga, no electricity, and Congolese food!  Another African experience!

Here is the kind gentleman that let president Cook ride his bike

The 4th of July in Kinshasa

It was very difficult to tell President Cook that it was a holiday on the 4th of July. We never know what day it is!  So what a surprise when Sneddons had made a reservation for us to go to with them to the American Embassy's 4th of July picnic!  It was held out on the lawn of the Ambassador's  home on a beautiful well groomed yard.  I said to the President you need to be an Ambassador !  Private pool, tennis courts nothing that I had seen in Kinsasha. There were two important people that we there.  President Cook recognized the first celebrity Dikembe Mutomba.  He plays basketball for NBA for Houston and now plays for Altanta.  He was the best to let us take pictures with him. He is known for that finger wagging after he stuffs the ball or blocks the basket!

This is the best picture. Here is Elder and Sister Sneddon with him.  He said when I took this picture to not cut off his head. It was difficult to get his head and the Sneddons haha He looks like a giant next to them!

The other celebrity was Vice President's Biden's wife Jill.  She was in Kinshasa doing some work with women in Africa .  This is Brother Ellsworth shaking hands with Dr. Biden he is American who works at the American Embassy.  He is a member of the church and is here with his family.  The man across from him is the Ambassador. 

the food was great !!  hamburgers and potato salad can it get any better than that? We all commented that we hadn't been around so many white people in along time! But the best was sitting under " Old Glory" and looking up at it and saying a quiet thank you for our blessed homeland.  God bless America takes on a new meaning to us here in Africa!

Desserets were all decked out in Red White and Blue!  It was a wonderful day!

Here is the Ambassadors beautiful home in Kinshasa and Sister April Ellsworth