Written by Lonny (October 30, 2011)
This morning we had Kenyan flat bread for breakfast. It is similar to a tortilla only three times as thick. We also had some fresh mango that was very good. We drove into Mombasa for church and arrived over an hour early because Johnson had to go to the airport to get Grace, Kevin and Shad. Mark had arrived sooner than them and had caught the flight last night so Bret had picked him up at 2:00AM.
While we were waiting for church to start we walked over to a wood carving factory. It is a series of small tin open sheds that are filled with men carving. They carve anything that you could imagine. Most of their work focuses around Africa. They do African animals, warriors, masks, bowls, etc. They have everything from ¾ size elephants about six feet tall to miniature carvings that you can hold in the palm of your hand. The carvers were very friendly and liked having their pictures taken. A couple of them asked me if I were a pastor because of my white shirt and tie.
The LDS Church building looked similar to the one in Awasa, Ethiopia. The branch had about 20 members attending. When we arrived we saw a TV in front of the pulpit. The members had just received the general conference DVDs and used that for their sacrament meeting talks. We watched the sustaining of the church leaders and Elder Bednar’s talk on family history and temple work.
After church, we stopped at an internet café so that we could send emails to our families and grabbed a quick hamburger while we were there. The internet cafe charged 120 Kenyan shillings per hour, which is about USD$1.20. Back at the farm, Kevin, Shad, Bret and I walked around the farm, surrounded by children as usual, and discussed the projects going on in the village. There is so much work to do to help the people here. I pray that they are ready to go to work.
Rachael and Emily made us pizza and french fries tonight for dinner. They had to improvise but did a good job. The power went out as we were finishing up. It was a new experience to shower under the stars in the dark. My battery is almost dead so I will have to go now, but I'll write more later.