Perpetual Education Fund

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/perpetual-education-fund-achieves-milestone

Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Friends and Family,
We are taking this opportunity to send Christmas greeting to everyone. We are enjoying our mission very much and hope through this message we can convey our thoughts and feelings about serving the wonderful people here in Kenya. As some of you may know our main focus is to coordinate the Perpetual Education Fund in the Kenya Nairobi Mission and the Nairobi Kenya Stake. There are about 150 loan participants that we monitor on a daily basis. We have coordinated the addition of 30 new participants since we came here eight and one half months ago. We are thankful for this opportunity to serve these young people, most of them are in their mid to late twenties, they keep us on our toes and we love interacting with them.

We also have responsibilities with the Seminary and Institute programs. We teach one institute class every Wednesday (Presidents of the Church). We started with Joseph Smith and have gone through every President up through George Albert Smith. This week we will begin teaching about the life of David O. McKay. One mission district located about 150 miles southwest of Nairobi has 10 branches where they hold twenty Seminary and Institute classes each week. Our duties in that area is to teach the teachers in monthly in-service. The first Friday and Saturday of each month we drive there and meet with these devoted teachers. It is wonderful to see their dedication to the work and we love sharing techniques with them to assist as they teach the youth and young adults.

We understand some of you are wondering why we haven’t written or emailed you since we came on our mission. We have tried to respond to all correspondence we have received and will continue this practice. Please send your emails to flinders1@earthlink.net. There may be some confusion because for a time our email service was interrupted, but it is back now and we would love to hear from you.

This Christmas season is so different because the weather is so mild. The temperature is in the mid 70 degree range night and day. This is also the rainy season so everything is beautiful and green. It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit with no snow and such beautiful summer time weather. Yes, this is summer here because we are in the southern hemisphere. Our seasons are just the opposite of those back home, but the temperature stays about the same year round and the sun comes up about 6:30 AM and goes down about 6:30 PM every day 365 days a year.

We love serving the Lord and feel his presence every day. We know many of you are praying for us for which we give our sincere thanks. This time of year when we focus on the birth of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us we appreciate all he has done as the savior of the world. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and may the Lord bless each of you with his spirit.

Our love and best wishes to everyone,
Elder and Sister Flinders, Leon and Brenda, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa (you choose)

August 9th 2009 Update

This is our visit to the giraffe orphanage where they bring in young giraffes that have been orphaned due to being abandoned by their mothers, or their mothers may have been a meal for a pride of lions, or poachers have killed their mothers. These young giraffes stay here until they are able to go out into the wild and survive on their own. Brenda, Mom, or Grandma is shown feeding one of the orphans. The food is like rabbit pellets - they are specially formulated to be nutritious and provide the animal with everything they need to grow up healthy. If one is brave enough they can hold a pellet in their lips and the giraffe will take it from there - hence the person is the recipient of a sloppy kiss from a giraffe. Neither of us did that.

This picture is Elder Flinders dressed in a cap and gown to deliver an address to graduating students from DALC University. The invitation to speak at the graduation came unexpectedly after a visit with Dr. Obarah whom we talked to about the role of PEF as it pertained to students at DALC. Dr. Obarah is the Director of the University. We told him about our call to serve as missionaries and that we do it without receiving pay from the Church. His response was nobody does something like that here in Kenya. They just don't volunteer anything without asking what is my compensation or what's in it for me. A few days after our visit with him he sent us an email and asked me to speak at the graduation. I was to be the motivational speaker and talk for ten minutes on the topic of "Human Sacrifice In The Community - The Case of Missionaries". This was a big challenge especially when I found out there would be over 1200 people in attendance along with press from all the television stations and local newspapers. I told them about how we serve for 23 months and our assignment to work with the Perpetual Education Fund. I encouraged the students to get involved in community service now that their education is completed and not expect to receive anything in return. A few days after the graduation Dr. Obarah sent me an email informing me that during a board of directors meeting the voting was unanimous by the board the I should become one of their board members - the first one to serve on their board as a non-Africian. We are still waiting for instructions to become further involved when school starts up next month.

Last month we attended a CES conference held here in Nairobi for all the CES couple missionaries in this mission. The Area CES Administrator from South Africa was in attendance as well as the administrators from Kenya and Uganda. This conference was held at the Fairview Hotel, one of the best ones in Nairobi. The conference lasted two days - we ate lunch both days at the buffet which was comparable with any in the U.S. The last night of the conference we ate dinner in the gourmet room upstairs - the food was excellent and we think very expensive but the tab was paid by CES so we loved it. We are having a wonderful time interacting with the PEF and Seminary and Institute students. These young people are so humble and teachable and grateful for the chruch and the progams it provides for them. We are thankful to be serving here in the Kenya Nairobi Mission and having this opportunity to interact with these choice young members of the chruch.President Hinckley was certainly inspired with this program. It is truly blessing the lives of many students, especially here in Africa. We add more students every month. They are very thankful for this opportunity. We are grateful to the Lord that He allows us to interact with these great people. The gospel is true of this we are sure. May the Lord bless you all.

Random things we've seen in KENYA

On the way home from a day of shopping - the best way to transport heavy bundles of just about anything. The ladies here carry large things on their heads. Most of them don't even use a hand to balance the packages. They must have very strong necks.

Not fifty feet from this sign we saw a man standing right on the side of the street urinating.

Interesting billboard!

What a load! We see things like this all the time. We will post more pictures another time.

As we arrived at church in Athi River, this little girl was standing in front of the church. I took her picture through the window. When we got out of the truck. She wanted to pose for us. The kids love to have their pictures taken.

June 13, 2009

Hello to June and all of you. We are still having a wonderful time in Nairobi. With our PEF assignment also comes an assignment with the CES. This assignment took us to the Chyulu area for some training of 20 teachers. This area is where the church actually began in Kenya. It is a remote area. It took us four hours (130 miles)to get there. There is a lot of road construction and several deviations. In America we call them detours. The roads were sooooo bad in the deviations the only way I have been able to come up with an explanation is this: if I bought a pint of cream before I left and set it in the back seat of the truck and drove the four hours, I would have butter when I got there. There are couples that drive that road every day and they say that it is a rarity that there aren't some of the big trucks tipped over. One day they saw seven. It is so dangerous. We were told that one of the sections of new road (divided highway) will be completed by November. That is the part we drive every Sunday going to our branch. We love going there, the people are so great. We begin teaching the Temple Preparation class tomorrow. I'm not sure who is more excited, them or us. What a wonderful opportunity for them to become eternal families. We have one student who lives there, he has served a mission but did not get the chance to go to the temple. There are many native returned missionaries that haven't been to the temple. This time of year is the beginning of winter, or so they say-- right now in our flat with the windows open it is 75 degrees, a cold winter day. Many of the Kenyans are wearing sweaters and coats when they come to work; when the temperature gets below 70 degrees it is cold to them. We visited the Bru Bru Chapel this morning, it is designated as the Stake Center for the Nairobi Stake. This building sits on about ten acres of property, the Chapel occupies about three acres and the rest of the land is a shomba (garden) area for the members who attend there. The Nairobi 1st and 2nd Wards meet in this chapel. The garden spot is divided into sections where the members plant and harvest for their own use or they sell their harvest. One of the young men in the PEF program was there spading his section to plant peas. He showed us one area with peppers. The climate is so mild here that the gardens can produce year around. They are able to get three growing seasons each year. What a tremendous blessing this is to the members. But like everything else here, those with ambition are the most successful and those not too motivated have weeds where their crops should be.

May 31, 2009

This has been way too long since we updated this blog. Sorry to all of you. We are still alive and doing well. We stay busy with the PEF students. We are loving the association we have with them. This past week we had two of our students (funny how they become ours) come and told us that they served their mission in Dar es Salaam with Steve and Margaret Terry. "Hello" Terrys.
We spent Tuesday of this past week with some very dear friends we have made since we arrived here. Elder and Sister Luke from Greenriver, Utah. They have been so kind to us, taking us around, feeding us when we first came, telling us fun places to go and do and see. We went with them to the Nairobi Game park. They wanted to take us there since we first arrived but we have been waiting for our work permit because it is cheaper to get in. Elder Luke worked for the Forest Service before their mission. Well the permits haven't come and the Lukes' were being released on Thursday so we bit the bullet and went anyway. We had a wonderful time. We saw more black rhinos than any other couple had seen since the Lukes' came 18 months ago. We have some awesome pictures. The thing that is so astounding about this park is that it is right in the city limits. We took pictures of rhinos with the tall building that is right next to the church complex where our office is in the background. Amazing. As I have said before, this place is beautiful. We love it.
Let me tell you about some of the people we have met. Betterman is a young man who has helped train us in the office. His wife lives in Uganda because that is where she is from. She went through the PEF program as he is now doing. But she can't get a job here because she is Ugandan.. One day while he was in the office his mother called. She lives "Up Country". That is where the native village of their tribe is. She told Betterman that her cow had died and she didn't know what she was going to do. By selling the milk from one cow she was able to sustain herself. Now she is left with just three calfs. She could sell two of the calfs and buy another milk cow. Not sure what she has done.
The Branch President, James Chylu, joined the church with his wife several years ago. They went to the temple. I don't know anything about his family but he has served as branch president for nine years. His wife is inactive and quite antagonist towards the church. The saints here are super. When they serve, they serve well.
The people here are so different. For the most part their testimonies are so strong. They really do rely on our Heavenly Father. If they have something come up in their lives, they know that they can go to the Lord and He will help them.
The PEF program is for young men and women between the age of 17 and 30. When they have their 31st birthday they have to get an age exception to be considered for the loan. We had a young lady come into the office seeking a loan. We looked at her age and determined that she would need to go through the Age Exception process. As she left the office, Betterman told her to say a prayer. We began looking at her birthdate and determined that she wouldn't be 31 until June. He ran and caught up with her and told her to come back. She was speechless. She said that she had never had a prayer answered so quickly. We started the loan processs for her that day. The next roadblock was that the school started before the loan process would be completed. Elder Flinders typed a letter stating that Judy was in the process of the loan and would they allow her to begin classes before the funds would be disbursed. They said "OK". Then by the time that the loan would be processed she would have her 31st birthday. Another delima. Her church records state her birthday June 21st. We needed until July 4th. She said the the church records were wrong. She had chided her mother all her life for putting the wrong birthdate on her blessing certificate. All of her other records had July 6th as her birthday. She had her birth certificate and her National I.D. card as proof. As our luck would have it, the brother who is over the records for the whole mission has an office down the hall from our office. We spoke to him and told him she had proof that her church records were wrong. Judy gave him the documents and by the following morning the church records were corrected. Everything she needed was in order now and her loan papers were submitted. She is done and the check to pay for her tuition is in our office waiting for her to pick it up. The Lord is certaintly aware of his children and the struggles. The PEF progran is for worthy, ambitious, and needy students. She is probably the most ambitious that we have seen.
We begin teaching the Temple Prep Class next week. We are excited about that. There are three or four families that will attend. It will be a wonderful experience to be able to go to the temple with them. When people go to the temple, they receive their endowments one day and then get to attend several more sessions for a couple of days. Usually the missionary couple ends up being the sitters after the initial temple session. Sounds fun?

May 17, 2009

This has been a busy week, Sister Flinders has been working with one of our PEF participants to update our files. For those of you who know Brenda, Sister Flinders or Mom will recognize her as the perpetual organizer. She just said, we should take a picture of what those files looked like before and after. Those who follow us will certainly appreciate this great work.



We have met so many wonderful students. By our standards in the US they are not even on the radar screen as we define poverty. Their living conditions are more primitive than people in the US over 100 years ago. There is an area called Kibera, one slum area in Nairobi, over 1 million people walk the main road in this neighborhood every day. Someone told us about walking down this road and having to dodge flying toilets. Flying toilet defined: A plastic bag used for a toilet, tied up and thrown into the street where raw sewage is running. Many of the people living in this area are members of the Upper Hill Ward in the Nairobi Stake, their chapel is connected to the mission offices and service center where our office is located. We are so blessed to be assigned to this area and to have a beautiful modern air conditioned office in which to serve.

Here it is Thursday of this week. We have to get better at posting on our blog. We don't know what to post that anyone would be interested in so we are going to just post things that we are learning or want to remember.

On Wednesdays We teach an institute class from 1:00 to 2:00 P.M. It is Presidents of the Church. The Couple before us taught an Eternal Marriage class for the whole time they were here. I guess you could say that not many graduated from the class because there are soooo many young single members here. They also served the students lunch every week. That's my part. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches, some kind of sweet or fruit and punch. We can get little bananas, at home they are called fingerlings, I think. They are very inexpensive here. Everyone seems to like bananas. There are many different sizes here. Anyway, sometimes we serve one of them with the sandwich and sometimes just a biscuit (cookie from the store) or a homemade cookie. They really like the homemade part as most of the people in Africa don't have ovens. Many of them cook on electric hot plates but most use charcoal to do all of their cooking. Anyway, back to the class. Brother Gideon Matwale asked us to teach this class.
There are mostly young men that come to the class. A couple of young ladies have attended, but are sporadic. They get fed spiritually as well as physically. For many, that is probably the only meal they get. We love the class. Some of the members of the class are the custodial workers at the church complex so we see them every day.

We see a lot of young people in our office. Many of them want to use the phone. And let me just say - everyone here has a cell phone. They buy what is called a sim card to be able to call out on their phone. They can receive a call for free but they have to pay to call out. Their phone will ring and then the caller hangs up. They call that being "flashed". Then they come in to the office to call back. Funny how that works. For the people that live "Up Country" they have rigged up a car battery with which to charge their phones. We don't know how long that lasts or how that works but the people "Up Country" don't have cars!!

The stake had a Young Single Adult activity on Saturday. They invited us to the planning meeting. They told us that there would be between 150 and 400 people there. WOW! When it came to Saturday - probably there were about 100 there. They always serve refreshments which consists of sloppy joes, banana and punch. Let me explain about the sloppy joes. It is nothing like you have ever seen before. Onions, green pepper and spices cooked up in a lot of oil and then they add what they call mince - we would call it hamburger in America - about 50/50. Fifty percent meat and fifty percent fat. Then they put about a tablespoon of it on a bun and call it good. They like it. IT IS NOT FOR ME!!!

We have been asked to attend the Athi River Branch for church. This is about a 45 minute drive on horrrible roads. If the roads were like even the worst road you have ever seen - it would take about 20 minutes. The branch president has asked up to teach three families the Temple Preparation Class. We are excited for this opportunity. There are several other couple missionaries who have taught that class and then they get to plan and prepare the trip to the temple. This is a wonderful experience for these humble souls. It is really a sacrifice for them to be able to go. They will probably only get there once in their lives. Other couples have said that the experience of going with these people to the temple is the best highlight of their entire mission.

We love what we are doing and hope all is well with our family and friends.