Fort Jesus

The kids had a midterm break a few weekends ago. I took them to Fort Jesus to explore. Fort Jesus was built on Mombasa Island by the Portugese in 1591. It sits at the east port of Mombasa where the open Indian ocean begins to flow around Mombasa Island. 

It was fun and interesting, but I realize now that Hunter was right--I snapped way too many pictures. Enjoy.

Within the fort, there's a museum displaying all kinds of artifacts that divers have retrieved from shipwrecks. This chest was my favorite.

This skeleton is a replica of the actual one that is buried below it. The boys thought that was cool.

Biscuit Baby

Reyna just LOVES biscuits. I've done some taste testing and sampling because there are multiple brands and flavors. My favorite is Manji Butterscotch biscuits made with real Kenyan butter. They taste like Danish butter cookies. Reyna likes them all.

Swahili Donuts - 2nd Attempt

I added more cinnamon to this recipe. They were pretty good. If I can get the right temperature of oil, they'll be perfect. I love that the kids like to help me bake.

Andre's Haircut

Andre took the scissors to his head again.

We decided it was finally time for a buzz. Now look my big, handsome boys. Andre wanted me to mention that before his haircut he looked 6, and now he looks 7 and a half!

Back On the Mission

The full-time missionaries in Mombasa have been met with many challenges the last few months. Restrictions on visas has caused our branch to go from two companionships down to one and then to none. On top of that, new curfew restrictions have been set which require the elders to be home by 6pm. So, using the missionaries from another area to teach in our area means it must happen during the daytime hours–the same time everyone they should be teaching is at work. 

Nevertheless “the work of God will go forth bodily, nobly and independent,” because we as members of a branch, left with no missionaries, have been approved to teach investigators. Tonight, Yolanda and I did just that. 

A few months ago we decided to follow the council given in General Conference to pray about referring someone to be taught by the missionaries before December. We held a companionship study in the mornings and prayed about individuals we had recently met. During this experience we were prompted to think of Dickson, a security guard at our children’s elementary school. Yolanda invited him to church and he attended but getting taught by the missionaries was difficult for him because of the full–time missionary situation.

A period of time passed by where little progress was being made with Dickson but we had felt satisfied with the fact that we reached our goal of making a referral. After a recommitment to our focus on doing member-missionary work, we strived to have the missionaries continue to teach Dickson but continued to see little progress because of the curfew and visa constraints. 

In our last visit the elders invited us to continue to teach Dickson on our own. Now, this is something I have literally dreamed about. For years I have had a reoccurring dream in which I get called back on a mission today in a different area to help missionaries strive to see similar success to the experiences I had in  Philippines. Every time I wake up from these dreams, I’m happy to be still lying next to my wife but disappointed that it is not real. However, this opportunity with Dickson was not a dream.

Yolanda and I prepared since last Friday by having our companionship study and planning our lesson. Yolanda had been reading in Alma about the Faith/Seed metaphor and explained how we could use it to build his testimony from the seed of faith he has already started with. We also engaged in a fast today to be sure we had the Spirit with us. 

As we taught I worked my way through a first discussion the way I had done on my mission a thousand times before. It wasn’t all that smooth but it did what it needed to do, which is to bring in the Spirit, commit him to follow by action and testify of truth. 

The miracle is, as it always is, that Dickson accepted a commitment to be baptized. He said he had already knew the Book of Mormon is true and that he wanted to be baptized. In fact, he had had a dream about a gate that he could not pass through with a picture of Christ hanging on it. He woke from the dream feeling sad that he could not see what was on the other side of the gate. I quickly shared 2 Nephi 31:17–18 and testified that dream was a real prompting from God.

Yolanda shared her part of the discussion on Faith, taught him how to pray for an answer and gave him a reading assignment of 3 Nephi 11. 

Dickson was so happy and excited for his baptism commitment and Yoli and I are thrilled to be able to teach our friend the truth. For years I have felt that I cheated God out have having an awesome missionary in Yoli because I married her. But after this lesson I feel happy to have provided to her the experience of full-time missionary work in at least a small dose. 

We are so exited to continue to be missionaries in this area and hope to see continued guidance in our lives because of it. For both Yoli and I, it’s literally a dream come true.