Warmer Weather and Warm, Friendly People

I did two blog posts previous to this one.  I like to keep my blogs short so sometimes I do several in one day.  Here goes this one . . . 

The weather is gradually warming up.  In the middle of the day, the sunshine is intense but the mornings and late afternoons and evenings are cool and you still need a sweater.  We are continually amazed at how cool it is here at the equator.

We have had some wonderful missionary experiences lately.  So amazing to have someone walk into the mission office and want to know more.  J* walked in with a list of questions.  Since I am just the missionary secretary I looked around for the young missionaries but they had just gone into a meeting with the mission president.  Sister Msane was busy working at her desk.  I swallowed hard and started answering his questions.  I wasn't as coherent as I wanted to be but I told him that I knew these things were true.  He has been back in the office several times with more questions and it has been so exciting!

Sister Msane and I checked out the local Karen Hospital this past week.  Hospitals have to be approved before our missionaries can use them.  The Karen Hospital was started and is privately owned by a Kenyan lady doctor, Dr. Betty Gikonyo, and her husband who is also a doctor.  Her story is amazing.  She lived in a small village "up country" and never wore shoes till she was 12 but she always had a desire to gain an education and become a doctor.  She worked hard until she attained it.  Her dream of a hospital has been fulfilled.

The hospital was really nice with up-to-date equipment, very nice, well-educated staff and it was clean and cheery.  We were impressed.  Several people living in our compound also work at the Hospital, including doctors from India who are also well-educated and professionals in their field.

Sister Msane sponsored a brunch today for the women church leaders in the Nairobi stakes.  I got to help her with the food and it was so nice to meet these good women who care so much about Kenya and about sharing the gospel here.

After the brunch, LeRon and I went to a birthday party of Dan, a young boy in our compound.  We love the people we live around.

On another topic . . . I've learned why it's hard to find good cheese here.  Cheese is not part of the culture here.  They just don't eat cheese.

The Karen Hospital.  It's a lovely building with gorgeous grounds -- flowering trees and lots of bushes and flowers.

Lovely black Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary Stake leaders.  We had a great time visiting with them and sharing ideas on how to share the gospel here in Kenya.  The sisters loved the breakfast casserole that I made.

We learned that Kenyans just don't eat cheese.  Some of them tried it but most didn't like it.  And that's okay.  There's some African food that I don't like either.  Sister Msane loves cheese and put together a large platter of different cheeses.

Sister Msane talked about humanitarian projects we could be involved with.

Women love chocolate!  Everyone has a chocolate bar with a paper saying "Sweet is the Work."  It was a really lovely brunch.  I was the only mzungu there.  (Just noticed that my chocolate bar is upside down!)

Then it was back to our compound to celebrate Dan's birthday.  He was happy to have his Japanese grandparents from Malaysia here for a visit too.

The kids had fun swimming in the swimming pool and this baby swam in its tiny swimming pool too.

Black and white.  Our compound has such good people living here (or rather, staying here as the Africans say.  They never say that you live somewhere; you always stay somewhere).  Here's Jaco and Mariska, my "children" from South Africa.  They are of Dutch descent.  I have adopted all of the people as my children since I am old enough to be their mother.