Thoughts by LeRon

You may be interested in some of LeRon's thoughts.  So far, you've only gotten mine (Colleen).  Here goes:

Each day as we drive to our office, which is right in the main downtown area, and the traffic is so wild, we have an adventure. Luckily, nobody is going really fast so it's almost like a comedy. There are traffic lights and signs and lines, but nobody pays any attention to them, now including us.  The traffic circles, of which there are many, are an absolute circus.  At first, I was scared to death but now, I am almost as aggressive as most.  However, most vehicles have a dent or two so I am hoping I can avoid that fate.

The people here are very warm and friendly, both in and out of the Church.  When we got here, we were told that we would soon not even notice "color" and though I doubted it at first, it is becoming true.  They are really a beautiful people.  We were also told, and we are really noticing it, that the general population is far more Christian than at home.  Jesus slogans are everywhere -- signs, billboards, and splashed across the buses, which are very brightly and uniquely painted.  (We need to get some pictures for our blog).

We were kind of "snowed under" initially by the complexity of our office duties and responsibilities but we are starting to get the hang of it now and I can even see a few things I think I can improve upon.  Our mission President is a great man and we are truly loving him and his wife.  His replacement comes on July 1 and is a black South African so that will be another wonderful experience.  He will be the first Black mission president here in Kenya.   And yes, that is politically correct to say.  White African and Black African are OK to say.  I joked with our black African Branch president that I scared some Black Africans so bad with my driving that they almost turned into White Africans!  He had a good laugh at that.

Well, we can see that we are needed here.  An unofficial duty is to be grandparents to the young missionaries and we can do that.  They are great, but very young.  The trend has been to have mostly Black African Elders called here in Africa, both from Kenya and other African countries, but the Area President told us that we are going to see a gradual switch to about 50/50 Black/White so that more of the leadership and "growing up in the church" experience of most of the White Elders can be shared with the Blacks.  There are no white young Sister Missionaries serving in this mission, just Black Sisters, although I do not know about any other African missions in that regard.

Those are some of my thoughts.