Our Mission in Cameroon (Republic of Congo Mission): 2/22/2015 - Piano Star, Bills Visit, Electric Company, Teaching Classes

Samuel finished the piano course book and has begun the application process for custody of a piano! He is the first student to achieve that among both branches. Since he is in the Douala Branch that has no electricity, we loaned him a piano to study at home. He loves music and is progressing fast. Piano lessons in Bonaberi went well with the 6-7 students who are still coming and two who are near completion.

Elder & Sister Bills came to town for two days to inspect apartments. Our Elders worked hard and had their apartments well organized and sparkling clean. After inspections we shopped for good quality pots and pans, a few basic tools, and one new stove to bring the apartments up to the mission standard. Cameroon’s standard is a bit higher than the Brazzaville standard, where the Elders still wash their clothes in buckets and don’t have ovens. Some of the Brazzaville apartments are even lacking in chairs, so the Elders eat standing up. That will be fixed.

The Bonaberi District with the Bills & Sister Coleman

The Bills' plane was late so we waited in the only comfortable, air-conditioned room in the airport: the restaurant.

Waiting in the airport restaurant

The menu calls this a "Mexican Salad"

We also took the Bills to Marché Congo, where they shared the gospel with a few people while Sister Coleman bought some fabric. It was fun to have houseguests and swap stories. The Bills are awesome missionaries.

Marché Congo

Marché Congo with Sister Coleman on left buying fabric

The zone leader, Elder VanAusdal, held a training meeting for the zone.

Zone Training Meeting

Again, nobody showed up for the Douala branch council meeting, maybe because just before meeting time it suddenly started pouring rain. The first counselor called me after a while and came to the church late so we had a mini meeting with him and his wife. He would be an awesome branch president. On Sunday the meeting was rescheduled for the following Wednesday.

It was a pleasure to audit the Bonaberi Branch. They were well organized and try hard to do things right. Afterwards we went next door to the rented storage building and took inventory. The building owner saw our truck and stopped by to talk during the audit so we overstepped our bounds and brought the Douala sacrament table out of storage without waiting for local approval. We're waiting for the repercussions from that.

The neighbor kids saw us moving tables and ran to help.

We went to the electric company in Bonaberi again to try to pay for electricity in the Bonaberi missionary apartment. We had trouble finding them because they had moved from their unmarked building to another building about a mile away. We asked a passerby and got incorrect directions. Fortunately, we chanced to pass a small sign and Sister Coleman noticed it. This time I brought a photo of the electric meter with the serial number clearly visible. They said that that meter is not in their system and shuffled us from office to office. I presented a letter I had written, signed, and stamped asking for an account. They said they would call and send a technician to check it out. Until they do we’ll just keep getting free electricity. But we believe in being honest.

13 students came to our Teacher Training class, 11 to our Fortifying Marriage class, and 17+ to Temple Prep. The entire branch except the Primary came to Sister Coleman’s first Music Conducting class at the beginning of Sunday School. With 6 different classes to prepare for we are spending a lot of our time just preparing lessons and loving it.