December 28, 2014 - Clark

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Having written a letter on Christmas Day, I was tempted to skip a Sunday without a letter,  but I just had to write week 36-Clark.  For Christmas we had activities at the mission home that were similar to Thanksgiving.  We had a dinner Christmas Eve and then another on Christmas Day.  Each of the senior missionaries had a pot-luck dinner assignment and the meals were wonderful.  

Sister Renee Mikesell from St. George prepared a special reader’s theatre to reenact the nativity including scriptures, hymns and we ended with a testimony meeting.  Seemed like a perfect way to celebrate.  I’m sure we will remember our Congo Christmas for years to come.  

We enjoyed face timing with family and friends and sharing your Christmas with you.  Young children bring magic too the holiday and we were happy to see our grandchildren.  Unfortunately, mom caught a cold and has been feeling under the weather since Christmas Day.  We cancelled our work schedule on Friday and I spent the day in the office alone.  We both went to the office on Saturday after shopping for the incoming missionaries.  23 are scheduled to arrive January 6th.  This doesn’t represent a net increase simply restoring the numbers after those who returned home in December.  

One of our assignments for the mission is to purchase incoming supplies for all the missionaries.  They each receive: blanket, sheets, pillow, water-filtering bottle, led lights, mosquito net, umbrella, and colored pencils all packed into a fancy bag with their name attached.  We have enjoyed shopping for these items in downtown Lubumbashi.  It seems you have to go to a different store for every item on the list.  It has been a way we can help and with Elder Clawson’s help, we know where to shop.  

I spent most of the time on Friday and Saturday updating our project files, completing the financial accounting side of things and preparing project development worksheets to be submitted in 2015.  We were notified back in September that for the last 3 months of 2014, we couldn’t submit any more project development worksheets (PDW’s) for local area initiatives.  These are the projects under $25,000 that are left to the discretion of the local humanitarian couple.  Of the 7 projects we have received approval for since coming to Lubumbashi, 5 are local area projects.  

I was trying to have 5 new PDW’s to submit on January 1st but we just received notification that Johannesburg has not finalized the 2015 budget and they asked us to wait until after our annual senior’s seminar in Johannesburg, January 11-17.  This means for a full 4 months of our mission, we have been unable to submit local area project requests; what a bummer.

We’ve been reading more about the DRCongo on the internet today.  Our Province, Katanga, has the highest child mortality rate in the world.  DRC is the poorest country in the world or next to the poorest depending on the source.  The average life expectancy was 47 but has risen to 51 over the past several years.  Operating under these poverty conditions, it seems as though we have been handcuffed with the restrictions on our project proposals.  I have often said that if I were an employee, I would have walked long ago.  We have however been anxiously engaged in humanitarian projects such as the orphanages that didn’t use any church funds.   

We’ve enjoyed having a family home evening group with the other senior missionaries.  I’m responsible for tomorrow’s lesson on preparing for the second coming.  I’m not ready for the lesson or the event.  

Have a great week and a Happy New Year,  Love Dad (Elder Davis)