We had a wonderful visit to the Temple. We took two missionaries, Elders Harper and
Johnson, and three African members, Anaclet, Beatrice, and Jane, to the Boston
Temple for Baptisms for the dead. The
three of them brought names of their relatives.
This was particularly meaningful to Anaclet because he had the names of
his parents and his brother who had all been killed. While waiting for our turn to do the
baptisms, I went out and got some scriptures.
Anaclet told me when he opened his scriptures they opened to D&C 138
verse 30 which talks about the Savior sending missionaries to spirits in the
spirit world. This was very meaningful
to him.
We had several good meetings this week. On Tuesday we had an appointment to visit
Joseph Bisimano—we wanted to read from the Gospel Principles manual since he
has to work on Sundays. When we got to
his home, two of his friends were there and wanted to learn about the
Church. Sandy did a wonderful job
explaining the First Vision and I piped in occasionally. Joseph’s two friends, Janvier and Olivier,
have been taking the discussions from the Elders and Janvier has been coming to
church.
Later in the week, Joseph came over for dinner. He told us his sad history in Burundi. He was a deputy mayor in his village and
disagreed with the ruling party. He had
to flee for his life and his wife and children are in Uganda in a refugee
camp. He hopes to bring them over
sometime in the future (how you can do this making $9 an hour at Walmart, is
difficult to imagine). Later, we helped
him move to a different apartment which
is actually quite a bit better than the one he was living in.
We’ve been reading about Burundi and the wars between Hutu
and Tutsi (Joseph is a Tutsi) which have caused the deaths of over 300,000
people so far. President Obama also made
an impassioned plea to the Burundi government which is on YouTube.
We also had dinner with Susan Chinchette and the Relief
Society President at our house. Susan
has been an active member in times past but is somewhat afraid of
commitment. We ate a lovely dinner. She said she wants to learn French so we
invited her to our Gospel Principles class.
Also, we are going to invite her to listen to the discussions in French.
We also had a good evening with another inactive, Bonnie
Kline. She was active at one time but
with the death of her husband and caring for her mother she feels overwhelmed
and just doesn’t feel she can do anymore.
She is interested in painting so Sandy might be able to encourage this
and she would still enjoy visits.
We had another entertaining discussion with a less active,
Eileen Ladeau. Her family is active out
west but she just doesn’t feel it. She
is very interested in ghosts and spirits.
She says there is a ghost in her house and she has used a pet
clairvoyant. Next time we visit we’ll
have some scriptures and teachings of the Presidents on this subject. By the way, we are dying to see her “ghost
meter” that she tells us indicates when there is a ghost.
Another of our African members, Evariste, is looking for a
part-time job. I called Walmart again
and they would love to interview him so we hope this will be another happy
Walmart employee.
We’ve also started another English class with Jane,
Beatrice and Aziza to help them learn religious terms.
We had a lovely Ward dinner this week. Someone sent some clothes for the African
members and so we set them out for people to take. It was a successful day.
As part of our work with Catholic charities we are helping
a lady, Pierette, study for the TOEFL.
This tests your ability to understand and converse in English at a
College level. Sandy primarily works
with her. She is a lovely person and I
wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually wants to learn more about the Church.
Our English class at the Community Center is going
well. We are getting a system down that
seems to work well. Doing this also
helps me with my French.
Sandy and I also went to Higgins Beach this past week
looking at the Ocean and the beach. It
was very relaxing. We bumped into a young
mother from the Ward with three children.
I actually think she enjoyed talking with adults for a few minutes
rather than just with the little ones.
We taught the Gospel Principles class this week. It went well. Sandy does great job.
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