Our First Visitor

We enjoyed our first visitor from the US this past week, Mike Flegal, from Atlanta, GA and son of our dear and longtime friends Teresa and Doug Flegal.  Mike works for Delta Airlines and was working in Paris and thought he’d do a quick stop over before he went on Safari with some friends to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. He was a great sport and came along willingly as we went about our work.  It was so fun to have him here!  

Dinner at Mamboz with Elders Huskinson and Dlepu and Mike

Pam and Mike standing in the Indian Ocean.

Music class at Mbezi Beach - thanks for the picture, Mike!

We did get to take a quick trip up to Bagamoyo, a beach town up the coast and one of the oldest towns in Tanzania.  It was the main terminus for the East African slave trade going east to India and north to Arabia.  For decades during the 1800’s many thousands of slaves, captured in the interior, reached Bagamoyo after a long march to the coast, chained to one another, in long lines. Our visit to the Bagamoyo Catholic Museum  was informative and sobering.  Bagamoyo means “lay down your heart” and our hearts certainly ached learning the atrocities that were done here. There were many influential abolitionists most of whom were multinational missionaries that you have never heard of, who were influential in stopping the slave trade in Babomoyo.   Two of the most famous are England’s William Wilberforce, a Member of Parliament, and Dr. David Livingston, a medical missionary of the Anglican “London Missionary Society”.

Inside the Bagamoyo Catholic Museum

 Mike and Agnes our friend and Swahili translator.    

General Conference and Farewells

We were finally able to view General Conference on the 15 and 16^th of October!  The DVD’s arrived from Salt Lake translated into Kiswahili.  We were thankful they also sent them in English too (Our Swahili is coming, but it is coming slowly) we really wanted to understand every word and we enjoyed every minute! The building was packed to capacity! The entire District met at the Ubungo building where they enjoyed a newly installed big screen to view conference. We also had to say goodbye to a couple of great Swahili speakers and favorite Elders (ok, we have admit, they are ALL our favorites!) Some were being transferred and one was going home. They love getting together the night before transfers.  It is a tradition we have them all to dinner. This time was at the Nolls, our house next transfer. : )

The Dar es Salaam District Elders from left going clockwise around the table, Elders Chimbetete, Anievas, Huskinson, Bywater, Dlepu, Rosemann, Coles, Jimu, Nyazumgu and Bhala  

Elder Rosemann, a great teacher and District leader- exceptional missionary, heading home to Woods Cross, Utah 

 Elder Coles, from Silverado, CA was transferred 10 hours north to Arusha, his last area before he goes home next transfer.Another exceptional missionary!

A Trip to a First World Africa - Johannesburg, South Africa

A lot has happened the last few weeks since the blog was last updated.

We were excited to learn that we needed to travel to the South Africa Area Office in Johannesburg to receive additional training from the Africa Southeast area Perpetual Education Fund director, Thembinkosi Mkhize, an extraordinary man of great insight and understanding of how this program is supposed to work and what we need to do to make sure it gets a strong start in Tanzania. We learned a great deal and are so grateful for the invaluable knowledge and information we obtained. To make a great trip even better, we learned that there was time scheduled for us to attend a session at the Johannesburg Temple. The city is very beautiful and modern, we were even able to shop a bit and get a few things that aren't available here in Dar. Our chauffeurs for the entire time were the wonderful Area Office PEF Sr. couple from Portland, Oregon, Norriss and Carol Webb. From picking us up at the airport, taking us back and forth from the hotel every day, to lunches and dinners, beginning to end, they made an already fantastic trip totally unbeatable. The last night we were there they accompanied us to a great Italian Restaurant to have dinner with all ten Sr. Couples serving in the Africa Southeast Area Office.   Did we mention how much we enjoyed the trip to Johannesburg?  

 Elder and Sister Worthen, Johannesburg Temple, South Africa

Lunch at "Mikes" with the entire Southeast Area PEF office staff
Thembinkosi is next to Pam, the Webbs are to the left

Harbari, Za Asubuhi! ( "Good Morning" greeting in Swahili)

We had the best day visiting the Mbezi Beach Branch on Sunday.  They have only been a Branch for a couple of months...they are small in number but great in enthusiasm and love. The church is a two story home that has been converted into several class rooms and a large area for the chapel. They had a convert baptism after church and then we all got together on the front porch area and had a traditional celebration dinner of Pilau and Pork Knuckles.

Irene between Elders Huskinson and Dlepu.  Her Father and Brothers are standing behind.

 Irene is the niece of the Relief Society President, Sister Kabaza. Irene's non-member father and brothers all came to support her.  Elder Dlepu baptized her and our new Elder Huskinson (from Bremerton, WA - a former Tacoma Dome Dance Festival Participant!) have been teaching her. 

The baptismal font is outside.  Yes, you need two ladders - one to climb in and one to climb out.
Elder Worthen was asked to witness the Baptism.

 Adam,  President Kachuchuru's son, is very proud of  his " Future Missionary" tag. 

Pam will be starting a Music Class at Mbezi Beach this coming Saturday.  This is the third out of four Branches that she has started so far. The Church's Basic Music Program has two parts: the Conducting Course and the Keyboard Course. They must complete the Conducting Class first, which teaches them the basics of rhythm, note reading and how to conduct hymns. Then they can start the Keyboard Course which will teach them them how to read music and play some simple hymns on the keyboard. It is so exciting to teach people that are so excited and hungry for knowledge. The classes are pure fun.

MUSIC CLASS - CHANG'OMBE BRANCH 

                           Elias, Grace, Robert, Romanus, Sister Worthen, Junior, Brother Okanda - Elias and Romanus have been called to serve in South Africa where they will use their new musical knowledge in the mission field.