We loved Christmas dinner at our apartment. We had four of the young missionaries and
Joseph Bizimana as well as Evariste and his children Emma and Kenzo. We enjoyed playing a few games and eating
roast beef, but the highlight was showing the Church’s short Christmas video
and afterwards singing a Christmas carol together. There was a wonderful feeling in the
room. Evariste’s children said they
wanted to come to church afterwards (Emma has not been baptized though she is
ten years old; Evariste doesn’t push them).
On Christmas Eve we had a party at the Community Center
with the people who are learning English.
We made a lot of food and had four different games for fun and learning
English. We also brought notebooks and
other things as gifts. It was very
successful.
A disaster occurred on Christmas Eve. A tree fell on one of our African member’s
car (Joseph). Joseph had an old
clunker which is essential to get to work at Walmart (his shift starts at 4 am
so the bus is not an option). Hopefully,
we can get the apartment owners and/or insurance to replace this vehicle. In the meantime, he needs help to get to
work.
Also on Christmas Eve, Evariste, Emma and Kenzo dropped in
to our house because they thought that the dinner was Christmas Eve, not
Christmas Day. Though in pajamas, we
quickly heated up leftovers and played games.
We had a great discussion with another lady, Kathy, this
week. Sandy met her at the African party
at Lillian’s house two weeks ago and Kathy expressed interest.She is a pale face in the apartment with all other africans. We had her over to the house for dinner and
afterwards essentially gave her the Restoration discussion. She really enjoyed the discussion and said
she would come to church and also wondered if we could teach her son. We didn’t see her at church this
week but we think there was a lot going on for Christmas so it’s still very encouraging.
Earlier in the prior week the Ward had an
interdenominational fireside that was great.
We had the Methodists at the church.
Their Pastor gave the opening prayer and they had a little choir that
sang songs. We Mormons had a Choir and
our Bishop gave the closing prayer. It
was really a neat evening. I talked to
the Pastor who was very gracious and gave her and several others the link to
the Church’s Christmas video. Several
investigators also came—Gizelle and Salvator.
We were with the missionaries earlier for a lesson with
Gizelle. She is from Burundi. She was tortured and brutalized and then
taken to the woods where both of her legs were broken and was left for dead. She was able to escape with help. The discussion went very well and Gizelle
seems quite interested.
We helped Salvatore fill out a Walmart job
application. It took about three hours
because Walmart has a psychological test with 65 questions. He did not understand many of the questions
so I had to help (see I have a purpose
here—I help people fill out Walmart job applications). This is the fourth Walmart job application
done at our apartment.
One of our African members Jean De Dieu gave a moving talk
in church about focusing your life on religious things. He related how when soldiers came to kill his
Uncle, his Uncle asked for 10 minutes to sing, “Nearer My God to Thee” and pray
for forgiveness for the soldiers. He was
then executed. Jean reported that
several of the soldiers later became Christians after that. Sounds like the Anti Nephi Lehis, huh?
