May 17, 2015 - Shelley

May 17, 2015

Well, today I decided to bite the bullet and wear the Congolese dress that Therese made for me as a gift.  It was such a sweet thought, but it put me way out of my comfort zone to actually wear it to church.  My fellow sister

missionaries made me feel okay about it (left to right:  Sisters Mikesell, Draper, me, Vance, and Cook).  For a person who loves plain fabric with little polka dots, it’s really a stretch to wear something that is covered with brown chickens, but the dress itself was actually very comfortable.  Don’t expect to see me in it at home.  Well, maybe on October 31st, if you know what I mean!  Haha

We received a real treat this week.  As I have mentioned, Lubumbashi has no mail service.  However, my daughter Emily knew a short-term water specialist who was coming to Burundi to work on a project there.  So she put together a wonderful CARE package and sent it with him (filled with nothing but essentials! wink wink).  Burundi is part of our mission and there were sister missionaries coming here on transfers this week.  So Sister Randrianarina (who is from Madagascar) brought my package with her!  I told Emily that I felt like it was Christmas!

It’s fall here.  The papayas on the trees

are getting ripe.  They are such a delicious treat!

We saw another indicator of fall while driving.  Some weeds along a river have dried out and turned white and looked so majestic as they caught the evening sun.

We are working hard at getting our major water project all lined up and ready to go.  Meanwhile, our local projects are winding down – but not without a few difficulties.  These two

gentlemen have been working hard to install the roof at Kamweneja School.  The agreement was that we would provide the materials and the school would provide the labor.  Well, the school director told us this week that they have run out of money and wondered if we could just pay the workers, too.  Not good.  We’ve met with the Catholic Diocese (they own the school) to see if they have something in their emergency fund, but I’m not quite sure how it will all work out other than the fact that we cannot pay the workers.  More to come.

I just love this wall that’s on a compound near the mission home.  

There are several of these giraffe posts along the wall surrounding the compound.  It’s just made of rocks with  cement painted white.  Isn’t that clever?

We have had a fun time this weekend following our son Matt and his wife Ashley as they competed in an Ironman competition in Texas.  Even though our internet leaves much to be desired, it was possible to track their progress through the swimming, biking, and running phases of the competition.  They have both trained for this for nearly a year, so it has been a huge deal for them.  Because of the time difference,

we stayed up until midnight waiting for results, but didn’t really find out the finals until this morning.  Here’s my companion looking at their progress. In the race, each person has to swim for 2.4 miles, bike for 112 miles, and then run for 26.2 miles.  We feel so proud of both of them for finishing with very respectable times, especially considering Matt’s bike accident six weeks ago.  There were 2588 participants.  Matt finished in 10 hours, 35 minutes and was 169th overall.  Ashley finished in 12 hours, 54 minutes and was 18th in her age division.  Anyway, kudos to both of them!!!!  It was pretty amazing for us to be able to follow their times from 10,000 miles away!

We have couple of big changes coming.  One is that we are moving!  The church has purchased the mission home compound after several years of negotiations, and we will move into one of the homes on that property this week.

Another change is that we are losing our translator, Steve Mutombo!  He has been hired as a full-time church employee to replace Felly Bukasa as the purchasing agent here.  We just couldn’t be happier for him!!!  But sad for us!!!  We still study French every night, but it will be quite a long time before we are able to do much more than stumble through the most basic of conversations.  So we’re in the process of finding another translator.

One year ago today, my companion and I landed in Lubumbashi!  We had spent the first month of our mission in training – both at the MTC in Provo and in Johannesburg at the Area Office.

Time is a funny thing.  Sometimes it slips away so quickly.  A friend mentioned in an email recently that she couldn’t believe a whole year has gone by since we left home – it seems like only a few months.  I remember saying things like that to other people, too.  Maybe it’s because at home we have such a routine that the days/months run together.  To me, it definitely feels like it’s been a year – maybe more.  However, it’s a year that neither of us would ever trade!

We’ve learned about a culture that was very foreign to us before.  We’ve learned so much about ourselves – both as a couple and individually.  Most importantly, we’ve recognized our Heavenly Father’s love for us every single day.  We have never felt truly alone.  We have experienced too many undeniable promptings and tender mercies to mention.    Much love to all of you,

Mom/G-ma/Soeur Davis