PREPARATION

After the call, we received information about language tutoring at the MTC. Sue began meeting three times a week for an hour with a tutor, Kensie Wood, and later with Amandine Judas, a native of Madagascar, both returned missionaries. I began attending twice weekly with Amandine Judas who was delightful. Both were very helpful. Occasionally Congolese volunteers came to converse. The accents vary and the conversation helped tune the ear.

OUR MISSION CALL

Our call to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa arrived the last Saturday of July. The family gathered to open the letter. All the local children and my brother Ron and his wife Lynette, and my sister Sue and her husband Lee were present, and the rest of the family were on Skype, or FaceTime, on the computer and on Iphones. Because my daughter Emily had not served a mission, we had her read the letter. Our reaction, while not completely unsuspected, was, nevertheless emotional. We had been prepared by experiences over the past year and a half for such a call. One of my missionary companions from the French East Mission, Bill Coles and his wife had served in Cameroun and we had visited with them for some time. Prior to that, the Frogleys, my brother Ron's dear friends, had recruited Ron and Lynette to volunteer to replace them in Burundi. Ron had forwarded the email to me, saying that it fit Sue and me perfectly. We were not ready, and neither was he at the time. Shortly after that my son Seth was asked to help translate for missionaries who were teaching a Congolese man, Severin Tsumbu-NGoma, who had recently won a Green Card in the Congo and had recently arrived in Orem/Provo to study English prior to finding work, enroll in the University, and then to bring his wife and two children to America. Severin and his wife had heard many negative things about the Mormons, but he had agreed to listen to the missionaries. My son could had to travel and could not continue working with the missionaries, so I took over. Eventually Severin was baptized. During that time we were introduced to the Livingstones, who invited us to their home for a Congo Mission reunion, so we took Severin with us and went to their home where we met many wonderful returned missionaries and members from the DRC Mission. Later we received an invitation to a gathering of returned missionaries and mission presidents who gather on the first Monday following General Conference at the Golden Corral. There we heard reports from Ellis Nuttall, a former French East Missionary whom we knew in France in the 1960s, and his wife, recently returned from Cameroon, and from Gary Packer and his wife, recently returned mission president from the DRC Lubumbashi Mission. All of these experiences and many other chance encounters had prepared us for the call to Africa. We had many concerns, but have caught the spirit from all the experiences we have had, and from the emails of those now in the Congo, who have prepared us for this wonderful mission.

MTC WEEK

MTC Week Monday 14 January 2013 - Friday 18 January 2013

We entered the MTC at 10:00 am Tuesday morning. Volunteer staff hand out packets to each couple, give directions to several stations. Couples check in at the main desk in the main building M1, proceed to M2 to an immunization verification desk, to the book store to pick up or order name tags, to Travel to pick up flight information, passports, and shuttle itinerary, then to the Chapel outside the MTC Campus, through the fence to the North and into a general meeting where we are introduced, listen to some general information, are assigned to teaching teams, into districts with a district leader, then adjourned into classrooms for instruction. For five days we study Preach My Gospel, practice teach with volunteers from the community, have frequent breaks, eat lunch in the cultural hall, or in the general lunch room.

The first day we brought some snacks and glad we did because the food is Telestial, though the teaching and the teachers are Celestial. Because of the increased numbers of missionaries, seniors are housed in the Marriott, some on the MTC campus, and those who live close,  at home. We stayed at home each night. We ate once in the general lunch room, because on Wednesday we attended the Malaria lecture with a doctor during most of lunch time, and hurried to eat before returning to class. After classes we picked up our malaria pills and some other medications for Sue in case of yeast infections which may be a side effect of the malaria pills.

The entire experience is challenging but something that no missionary should miss. Couples in our group were called to the Philippines, Vanuatu, Borneo, Brazil, Hawaii, Germany, and many other places, as member support, historical documents preservation, office staff, and other assignments. We were blessed by the instructors, couples, and administrators that we met.