Paulo's Search (Religious Post)

In preparation for Paulo's baptism I have encouraged him to read the scriptures independently for about 5-8 mins each night. I have been assigning him different scriptures to read which relate to baptism and the sacrament. It has been touching to see Paulo sitting quietly, reading to himself, and then describing to me what he understands from the verses.

Last night, somehow we started discussing religion and in particular Paulo's recent interest in the Hindu religion. He attends a Hindu School and most of his friends are Hindi. At times they discuss the Hindu gods and Paulo wonders how they became gods. He said he is often asked if he is a Christian, to which he says, "Yes." He then turned to me and asked, "Is that right? I am Christian?" I asked him what he believes to be the meaning of the word and he answered, "someone who believes in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ." "That's right." I said.

A few other important exchanges happened during the course of our discussion. I asked him how he felt when he discussed with his friends about the Hindu gods and he mentioned that he felt similar to when he learns about Christ but just a little different.

I'm sure there are many LDS parents who would begin to worry about their child learning and having feelings for the beliefs of a different religion. He could be confused and unsure and that could lead to questioning his beliefs. But I saw this as a golden teaching moment in which Paulo could come to his own personal testimony of the truths of the Gospel. In fact, it was confusion, unsurity and questioning that led to the restoration of this Church in the first place. Couldn't a bit of soul searching benefit my son as well?

I committed then not to overreact but to trust that he could find the truth on his own. I said, "Paulo, you are thinking about some really important things and I think it is good that you are interested in what others believe. It's kind of like how Joseph Smith was interested in different religions and then sought to find the truth. Do you want to figure this out on your own or do you want Dad to teach you what we believe?", "A little of both." he said. Perfect.

We talked about the first Article of Faith, which he was able to recite, and how it differs from the Hindu belief in many gods which are often carved into images and adorned with gifts. He seemed to agree with the fact that God should be like a father who looks like us, loves us, and wants to bless us.

I shared with him an example I used on my mission comparing the church of God to a mirror which was broken into many parts, all of which reflect a portion but not the entire truth. The restoration of this mirror/church has led to the complete truth being established on the earth again. Paulo really understood how that could happen especially when we began talking about the similar beliefs that Hindi's have with us. For example, Paulo pointed out the similarity between reincarnation and resurrection and I brought up how we can be exalted to have all that God has which is similar to the Hindu belief that one can possibly become a God if enough lives are lived with good karma.

We also talked about the feeling of the Spirit. During spiritual moments when Paulo was a young toddler he used to say, "Mom, why is it peaceful?" I reminded him of that. The real important moment came later when I said, "Paulo, Mom and Dad would love it if you continued to search your questions about religion, continued to read the scriptures nightly and then one day when you feel it is right, do what Joseph Smith did by praying to ask Heavenly Father if this Church is true. Just make a simple prayer saying 'Heavenly Father I believe this is the true church, is it?' and then wait to see if you feel peaceful. Then you can bear your testimony on Fast Sunday before your baptism." Then I asked Paulo to look me in the eyes. He turned and looked sincerely. I testified to him, "I know Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are the true God and that He has called true prophets to teach us about His true church. Now when I say that to you right now, how do you feel?" "I feel good and peaceful." he said. "If what I said wasn't true, do you think you would feel good and peaceful?", "No," he responded. "Then what does that make you think about the church?" "That it is true," he said. "Ok." I said.

I continued to encourage him to do his own research and find his own answer by preparing for a special day when he could pray for clarity to his curiosities. I told him that we were not about to force him to be baptized and would wait until he came to his own testimony and could answer the Branch President's interview questions with perfect independent integrity.

What a fantastic father–son talk.

I continue to have experiences in life that confirm my belief that conflict leads to real opportunity and despite our continual human tendency to search for comfort and security, it's only life's challenges and struggles that yield genuine growth. I'm so proud of Paulo's questioning nature and I'm thankful that I had a moment to sit with him, to accept his perspective and to discuss matters of eternal importance.

I ask If you are willing, to join me in praying for Paulo and his personal search for truth.

Thanks

-Hunter

Yoga

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my new yoga class! My name is Reyna and I'll be your instructor today.

 Lets begin with some stretches.

First, get down on all fours and round your back out like a cat:

Now relax into neutral spinal position.

I made up this stretch myself. Ahh, that feels good!

Next, let's stretch our calves. 

Good job!

Now some basic yoga poses:

Plank

Downward dog

Cobra

Pigeon pose

Seated twist

Okay, that's it for today! (I think I pulled a muscle!)

Mama Betty

A.k.a. Miriam. Every day since Miriam started working for me, I've kept a mental list of all the interesting conversation we've had. I want to log some of these experiences so you can get a sense of how dear she's become to our family.

Food:

I introduced her to her first sandwich. She had never seen lunch meat before, either. When she tasted it, she said, "Wow! It's nice." In fact she always says "It's nice, I like it." when she tries my cooking. I make lunch for us every day or we just eat leftovers. I've introduced her to cheese, chips and salsa, hot dogs, potato salad, nutella and adobo. She especially likes the nutella and is saving up for her own jar. The only thing she did not like was raw celery dipped in ranch dressing. I thought that was funny.

Modern conveniences:

Before coming to my house, Miriam had only ever seen microwaves and washing machines on TV. When I told her that there are such things as machines that dry your clothes and wash your dishes, she said "Eh!" in disbelief, followed by "Maybe I go there."

She's never taken a warm shower before. She adds warm water to the basin when bathing her children, but not for her own baths. And when it's the "day of water" on three designated days of the week, she can take a shower, but it's always cold. 

One time, I was telling Miriam that I'd like to see the movie, Gravity, at the theater down the road, she said, "When you and Hunter go to cinemax, is it just two people, or many?" She's never been to a theater in her life.

She asked me once, "At your place, do you sleep with mosquito net?" When I explained that you don't really have to because you have screens on the windows, she thought that was cool.

Miriam has a sister, Diana, who just left on a mission last week. Miriam has been the greatest support to her sister, encouraging her and helping her prepare. When it came to the day before Diana was to leave, she helped Diana pack, which didn't take much effort. She only has two dresses, and a couple pairs of shoes that people in the branch have generously bought for her. Among Miriam's contributions to her sister's mission was her own pair of slippers/flip-flops. I told Miriam that I would help her set up an email account so that she could use my computer to keep in contact with Diana throughout her mission. Last week, I helped her compose her very first email. It took her a very long to find the letters on the keyboard to type a short message, but afterward, she said, "Thank you so much. I feel that I have spoken to her." I said, "See??!! Just wait until you RECEIVE an email!"

Music:

One evening as we were cooking together, I said, "Hey, Miriam, what kind of music do you want to listen to? Fast or slow? Singing or instruments?" "Fast" "Do you want to listen to reggae or--" "Reggae!" When I put on UB40 she said, "I didn't know you have these ones! These are all my favorites!" She like sang and danced in my kitchen. It was so fun. :)

I was just called to be the choir director / music teacher in our branch. It's going to be awesome! People really only sing the melody here, and they only know select hymns. I went through the entire hymn book one day with Miriam and sang a line or two from each hymn to see if she knew them. There are MANY important and popular hymns that I will have a chance to teach. The members are going to be so excited if they can do the harmony. I think they'll feel extra cool. I'm excited!

Her first week of work, she saw our barn animal finger puppets and asked what they were. I demonstrated how I use them to sing Old McDonald to the kids. She laughed her head off at the animal sounds. 

Important Discussions:

Sometimes I ask Miriam to do some shopping for me. One afternoon after returning from the vegetable stand down the street, she said that she saw a woman there who was also shopping for her boss. And the woman was instructing the store owner to write up the receipt so that the cost appeared to be three times as much for each item than it actually was, and then she pocketed the difference. (This attitude of mzungus having to pay more just because they're white is VERY common and oh so VERY annoying!) Anyway, Miriam said that when she witness this, she felt very bad inside, and said "I can NEVER do that!" I gave her a hug and thanked her. I said, "I'm glad you don't do that. That would make me very sad." She said, "Even if the boss does not know it, God knows it!" I'm SO grateful that I have Miriam. Honesty is as important to her as it is to me. It's such a relief especially when we're just surrounded by people taking advantage of other people all day long out of desperation for money. Seriously, it's tiring.

Because many of the members of our branch have only been members between 5 and 10 years, some gospel principles are still very new, or overlooked. Miriam has asked a couple questions about some of the prophets' counsel on modesty in clothing and only wearing one pair of earrings. Whenever I try to explain a principle a little bit more to her, I see her thinking about it, and I've noticed she's since removed one of her four earrings, and has been wearing modest clothing more often as she prepares for the temple. Such a faithful lady.

Finally, I want to share one more sweet experience.

The other day as we were doing some meal planning, I asked Miriam what she usually eats with her family. She said "sukumawiki" which is a vegetable dish. Somewhere in there, she casually mentioned that she hadn't eaten beans in about a month. Later in the evening, I remembered this and was completely disturbed as I realized that the reason she probably hasn't had beans in a month is that by the time she gets home from working at my house and traveling through rush hour on the matatus, she doesn't have time to boil the beans for an hour and prepare them. You have to understand how appalled I was. Beans are the cheapest, most nutritious, common thing that Swahili people eat. What's even more disturbing is that one night her children fell asleep before they were able to eat dinner. This was unacceptable.

I approached Miriam about it the next day. She admitted that I was right. She didn't have time to make beans, but said, "But, it's okay, Mama, it's no problem!" (Here, people say Mama to a woman, and Bwana to a man, So she calls me Mama or Mami a lot.) I asked her if she would sit down for a minute. I said, "Do you remember that before you started working here, I said I was worried that it might be hard for you to take care of your duties in your own home?" She quietly said yes.

I said, "I have three ideas: First, on Tuesday and Thursday when you prepare dinner for us, I want you to bring your own ingredients and your own containers from home so you can prepare dinner for your family at the same time. Then when you get in a traffic jam and come home late, your food will already be prepared." She was almost teary eyed and said, "Thank you so much. I am happy." She knew how excited her family would be to have beans again.

"Second, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we need to try harder to get you out of here by 4:00. Then you won't get stuck in traffic and you'll have time to prepare food for your family and take care of your own home." Truthfully, I try to do this every day, but she keeps working and adding one more thing until it's late. I told her I would set an alarm for 3:50 and when it went off, she had to finish what she was working on and get ready to go home."

"Third," I said, "how much is a school uniform for Betty?" Betty has only one uniform, so when Miriam gets home from work, she washes it and hopes it will be dry in the morning. If not, she irons it dry. It's not unusual for children to have only one uniform, but I was serious that I didn't want her work to make her family life difficult. If she weren't working, she could be washing and hang drying that uniform in the afternoon while the sun is still up. She told me how much it was, and I didn't think twice. I just gave her the money and said she should buy the uniform and if there was any change, she could use it to buy slippers for herself.

She was so overwhelmed. She just covered her face and cried. I gave her a hug and said, "Miriam, you take such good care of my family. I'm going to take care of you. I just don't want your family to suffer for my family." "Thank you, Mami. Bless you."

That day I felt really GOOD. I knew I had done some good in this world by providing an opportunity for a mother of young children to be able to bring her baby with her to work every day, and also respecting the important role she plays in her own home.

Such a precious memory. I just love this lady.

First Ponytail!

Pleasant Surprise

Paulo was getting over being sick yesterday, so I kept him home from school. After breakfast, he asked if he could "play Scratch" on the computer (Have I mentioned this yet? It's a kids' computer programming application. Hunter introduced the kids to it, and they've been writing their own code and creating their own games. I'll have to share some later).

Anyway, I said, "After breakfast, there are certain things we need to do first. First I need you to clear your plate, and then go to your room, tie up your net, make your bed and get dressed." He said, "Yes, Mom."

When I checked on him a while later, this is what I found:

He had completely tidied their room!!! I said, "What, are you getting baptized soon or somethin'?" He smiled.

What a good boy!

Brother Richard's House

After church, we were kindly invited to the home of Brother Richard, Sister Elizabeth, and their baby Collins. Brother Richard was so kind to arrange everything, including picking us up in a tuk tuk.

This is their home.

The door on the right behind Sister Elizabeth is actually their home. The one behind me is the door to the outside. The walkway we're standing in is a shared area that leads to several homes like Brother Richard's. 

This is quite typical of a Swahili home. The walls, Hunter told me, are built with a wood lattice structure, and then the holes are filled with mud and coral/rocks. Most people, I think, just live with the mud walls bare like this on the inside, but Brother Richard had carefully lined the inside walls with the same fabric that bags of rice are made from.

The home was one room with a shower curtain dividing the little sitting area from the sleeping area. This is also typical. The sitting area consisted of five plastic lawn chairs and a small wooden coffee table. The room was very neat with clean swept tarmac floors and just a few Liahona magazine pictures or free calendars hanging on the wall. There was one light mounted on the wall to provide light at night time. On the other side of the curtain, the sleeping area was just enough space to fit a double bed. And that's it. The only other possessions I saw were a "library" which was a stack of Liahona magazines piled on top of a few strings like a hammock near the ceiling, and some containers of water.

Here I am feeling grateful for lights.

They generously served us several packages of biscuits (pronounced bisk-weets'), bananas and three 1-liter bottles of fanta!

We visited with them only for about an hour. I was very pleased with how the boys behaved. They entertained everyone with the "black magic" game, which they call "green monkey" here. Our hosts were stumped for a good long time until we finally revealed the secret of the trick to them.

Afterward, while we waited for the tuk tuk to come get us again, we strolled outside to see Brother Richard's little vegetable stand business and bought some potatoes from him.

Then we strolled down the "block" to let the kids play with the other children on the huge water pipes and sand.

I was going to trim this video but I thought you'd like the silly guy at the end.

It was a wonderful evening.

General Conference

Just so you know, this is a religious post.

We finally got to watch General Conference. After a month, the branch receives the CDs and we watch it together on a Saturday and Sunday at the church.

The primary planned an activity for the children on the same Saturday so we got to watch without distraction. We took a short break in between sessions to eat a meal so kindly prepared by the sisters. I am repeatedly impressed with how willing these members are to serve.

You know when people say "my heart is full"? By the end of the first session, I realized that my throat felt "all choked up" and my "heart felt full." Every word of President Uchtdorf's talk rang true to me. His talk was just saturated with truth.

I had been talking with a lady who is a Seventh Day Adventist last week about similarities and differences between our religions. I began to feel discouraged slightly thinking how inadequate/incompetent I am in explaining the gospel in a secular way. I don't know how to testify of the truth that I know when people are not searching.

I mean, when I teach a lesson or bear my testimony in sacrament meeting, I feel like I'm given the right words to explain appropriately and accurately what I feel/know. But when people don't really care to know the truth, there's no power behind my words. It's a little frustrating.

I thought, how BOLD it is for us to claim we are the only church that has the complete truth restored by Christ in the SAME way as it was established when he was alive on the earth with the SAME priesthood authority. I mean, it sounds CRAZY! The lady I was talking to agreed. And it IS a bold claim! But as I listened to President Uchtdorf's talk, I felt the Holy Spirit strongly confirm again to me that IT'S TRUE!!

Hunter used to ask people on his mission when they were feeling the Spirit for the first time bear witness of the what he was teaching, "Do you think that if what I was teaching you were not true that Heavenly Father would allow you to feel this good feeling?" Each time, they would say "No." The fact is, (which fact can't be observed by the physical senses) if none of this were true, I would not have felt the Spirit testifying of the truth in EVERY general conference and EVERY testimony meeting and EVERY baptism. If a person is earnestly searching for the truth, they WILL find it here in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Crazy Kids

Look what I found the other day:

Want To See Kenya?

While riding on matatus you will hear some interesting music. Most of it is hip hop stuff and occasionally you hear a some real deep reggae. I quickly took a liking to one song in particular by an artist named Juliani. The song is in Kiswahili but is still catchy even if you can't understand it. So I looked up the music video on YouTube and found it to be an awesome overview of the people and places we see everyday here. It even features Moi Avenue which is where the Mormon Church we attend is located. So here it is. Turn up the music and enjoy:

My Walk To Work

My office is pretty close to home. It's nice. See the people, tuk tuks, and matatus on the way from my front gate to the office.

Still Had A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I hadn't planned to make any costumes this year, but I woke up on Halloween morning and I felt that sudden spark of creativity and motivation to AT LEAST come up with SOMETHING for Reyna. Poor thing--I can't NOT dress up my ONLY daughter on her very first Halloween! And one hand-me-down kimono, one headband, one black sock and one twist tie later, this is what I came up with.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is SO STINKIN' CUTE!!!!!!!!!

I realized, this is why I do it! I like to google over how precious my kids look in their costumes and yip and yap and sound like a complete fool while trying to get my babies to "SMILE FOR THE CAMERA!!!!" So glad I did it.

The boys were cute. I bought candy for the first time at the store. I discovered that they have Mars bars and Smarties like the ones in Canada. I bought just a few candies for each boy, and then we had them trick-or-treat in our house to the different bedrooms. Haha!

Daddy came home a little early and brought pumpkins with him. I guess it took quite a bit of effort for him to find them. The kids had fun carving. Our landlord and Lenik were excited to see them on our doorstep.

Then Daddy treated us to this AWESOME fried chicken place owned by an Egyptian guy from Saudi Arabia. Seriously, like just as good as Roscoe's Chicken n' Waffles from Pasadena. EXCELLENT fried chicken. And I liked their fries, too. Actually crisp and tasty, the way fries are supposed to be. They even had coleslaw. Then to top off our lovely meal, Hunter took a scoop of what LOOKED like pudding for dessert….it wasn't pudding. It was garlic creamy stuff that maybe we were supposed to dip our chicken in. Hahahahaha! He discreetly spat it out into a napkin and took it like a man. Oh so hilarious! It was kinda expensive, but it was nice to celebrate the holiday together. They even had a TV inside playing Tom n' Jerry and Garfield Halloween episodes, so the kids were able to feel like we weren't the ONLY ones celebrating. :)

Alright, I'll let you go ahead and scroll back to that picture of Reyna now. Oh my goodness! It's too much for me!

Primary Program

What an awesome Sunday! Today was the primary program. Now, I've been known to shed a tear or two while listening to the kids sing the beautiful primary songs in past years, but I was especially touched this time when the sweet kids in our branch were saying things like "I know Heavenly Father gives me many blessings" knowing what some of their homes look like. Or singing things like "I always want to be with my own family…." and knowing that many families have yet to save up and make major sacrifices to make the long journey to the nearest temple which is in South Africa so they can be sealed eternally as a family in the temple. I was just very touched. I love these children.

(That mzungu at the piano is Elder Lyons. He was just called to be an AP. I'm worried they'll ask me to play the piano now.)

It was also a very special day today because we got to attend the baptism of a young widow named Agnes, and her daughter who have been attending church since we arrived. 

It was awesome to watch our entire branch pile into two matatus and bus over to the public swimming pool called Star of the Sea. I'm talking like thirty bodies packed in a 12 seater sized van which is already crammed with 15 seats. It was hilarious and so exciting!

All the members laughed at Elder Lyons for jumping into the shallow end. I made a comment like, "Yeah, I want to jump in, too! It's so hot!" and I was immediately met with shocked expressions, and "Can you swim?????" I said yes. Few adults can swim here. Honestly, there were only a handful of people swimming in the pool. They only teach it at the private schools which are generally too expensive for people to attend, I guess. The sisters were clinging tightly to the bar along the shallow end wall. It probably took a lot of courage to let the elders baptize them by immersion. 

Anyway, it was so special. I'm excited for Paulo to be baptized in just a few months!

By the way, these are the famous Mombasa tusks over Moi Avenue. They're just a small distance down from where we meet for church. The kids look sloppy, I know. I've since cut their hair.

Shamba La Salaam

Last weekend, we were invited to South Coast to Shamba la Salaam, which is the name of the estate that Natalie Fairbourne's parents lived in when they were here. They are preparing to sell the place as a vacation home, so we got to take advantage of it one last time (my first time) before they sell.

The place is on this vast, lush, land and the richness of the home and property is completely hidden from the rural dirt road outside the gate. The beach house is completely open to the air. There are windows in bedrooms, but the common area is open.

Our room had a king sized bed and this was the view from it.

We could walk past the swimming pool

Cross the lawn and through this little coconut tree grove

And then there was the ocean. 

Gorgeous. 

The kids enjoyed playing in the sand. 

Here they're coconut bowling with the Fairbourne kids.

We also made a Volkswagen Beetle.

Once again, we'd see fishermen out working. When the tide was low, they'd be picking through the seaweed, I think for fish bait, and then when the tide came in, they'd go out in their boats which apparently are made from mango trees, all one piece, carved out into a boat.

It was so peaceful. It felt very much like a private beach except every time we're near a beach, we're approached by people trying to sell us a carved keychain or a bracelet. This time I told the teenage boy that I used to make bracelets too when I was a kid, and I tried to explain a different method he could try.

Anyway, it certainly felt like a vacation at this home. The Fairbournes cooked for us or hired people to cook for us so we didn't have to worry about food the whole time. 

I made friends with the cook, Najma. She taught me all the stages of how to get the coconut milk.

First it starts like this.

After the green part is removed, you try to remove most of the husk, and whack this huge heavy knife around the center of the coconut until you can break it in half with your hands. I wish I had filmed this part. Sorry.

The juice, if I understand right, people like to drink because it supposedly helps with urine infection.

Anyway, after you grate out the meat of the coconut...

…you put it in this cool woven bamboo thing called a kifumbu and then squeeze out the milk. The milk is used for cooking.

Now this is how you process an older coconut. A young coconut's meat is much softer and is used for drinks. Yum!