Alema Primary 4/19/09

Dad said "We look like a couple of thorns among all those beautiful roses"

Dear friends and family,

Here are some pictures from our Sunday trip up country. We attended church in the Alema Branch and took these pictures after the meeting block. This was quite and experience traveling to the top of the mountain. The trip was worth it to visit these humble saints who live without running water and electricity. We can be truly thankful for what we have. There were about 60 children in attendance many with no parents with them. No cherrios, no quiet books, no fruit snacks, and no toys--but total silence and well behaved during the whole meeting even during the prelude music.

We love you,

Elder and Sister Flinders

We are having technical problems with the picture - sorry

Animal Sighting

Today - Sunday we spoke with my parents via web cam. They had been to church out in the "country". They traveled a very bumpy road for about 5 hours with another senior couple Elder and Sister Bishop. They are originally from Logandale, NV and more recently from Boise, ID. Their mission is to travel these mountains every day teaching discussions, visiting members and Sister Bishop even teaches keyboard lessons. They have had a lot of success in these areas. They have baptized 70 people during their mission (they have 8 weeks until they return home). The area is still so new to the church that the first baby born in the covenant was just born yesterday!!

Mom said they saw giraffes, wildebeests and I think she said zebras along the road. I asked if she got some pictures and she said the pictures were pretty bumpy from the ride but she will try to post some soon.

They are very grateful for the mission they were called to serve.

First p-day

Dear Family, Mom is busy cooking so she asked me (Leon) to compose this email. Today was a fun day--we went with Elder and Sister Elam to scope out some fabric and souvenir shops. I bought a Safari hat and another baseball cap to add to my collection. Mom didn't buy anything but I could see the wheels turning in her mind of things she would like. She will return later for some of the cool nativities we saw and also some of the beautiful African fabric we saw. We visited the Westgate Mall--a mall as modern and up to date as any in our country. Many upscale shops, a movie theatre and many eating establishments. We had lunch at the Artcaffe Restaurant--the sandwiches were superb with unique bread that was great. The Nakumatt Store, also located in the mall, is Nairobi's answer to Wall Mart but on a smaller scale. We did our weekly grocery shopping and returned home. Nakumatt has several locations throughout the city, but the one in the mall is by far the cleanest and most modern of all of them. As I type this email I am smelling the scent of onions and chicken cooking in the kitchen--it smells just like back home, my sweetheart is such a good cook and she feeds me well. Every Saturday the couple missionaries has a date night at a local restaurant. Tonight we are going to For You Chinese restaurant. Each week the couple who is in charge of the Family Home Evening is the person who selects the date night restaurant. We have the honor of doing that in two weeks. This is a great day. This week we have trained on the PEF system with our supervisor couple from South Africa. Elder and Sister Von Stetten are from Allentown, PA and they work out of the Africa Southeast office in Johanasberg. We are slowing making progress on our duties and responsibilities. Last night we rearranged our flat so now we can say it is our digs and it looks pretty cool.

We love all of you and pray for you.
Mom and Dad, aka Grandma and Grandpa

This is a picture of Nairobi I found online

We've been keeping in touch with my parents via skype and web cam so they haven't written much to us. I will try to remember what they've told us.

They live in an apartment that is in something like a compound. They go through a locked gate to get to their locked door. Last I spoke with them they haven't driven yet. Apparently the drivers are quite aggressive. Mom said she won't be driving at all :). They have a comfortable appartment or flat as Mom called it. The city of Nairobi is very large. They travel about 30 minutes or so to get to the mission office where they "work". They are still learning what exactly they will be doing. We will talk again this week and find out what they've been up to.

When I picture Kenya, I picture flat safari land. When I jokingly asked if they'd seen any animals mom said the mission president that picked them up from the airport saw giraffes on the way to the airport.

Deric's call

From Annalee, Deric just opened his mission call. It arrived in our mailbox on Friday but we were in Ohio. Cristi expressed the letter overnight to us and Deric opened it today. He has been called to the HONDURAS SAN PEDRO SULA MISSION. He reports to the Provo MTC on Wednesday, June 24.

We're Here!

Dear Family, Here we are in Africa. We have met many wonderful people. The countryside is beautiful, lots of flowering trees, reminds me of Hawaii.We are doing well. The flight was looooong. We slept and ate and slept and ate. It got really boring. We are having dinner tonight two other couples. Then we are having Family Home Evening with all the couples in our apartment complex area. We haven't been to the store yet but they promise us that someone will take us tomorrow.Our apartment is nice. The previous couple left a lot of spices and canned things and condiments.

We are all waiting for Deric's mission call. He has it in hand and will open it tonight. I will post as soon as I know.

Africa - Here We Come!!

This was an excerpt from an email dated April 2nd:
We have had another wonderful day in training. We spent today in SLC with training for the PEF Program. We met with Elder Carmack. He told us that when the Prophet stood at the pulpit in his 18 minute talk that it was pure revelation from the Lord. No one else had even heard about the things that he said. Everything that he said to outline the program is just the way that it works. They are doing some fine tuning on the paper work process right now. The PEF program has benefited 35,611 young people to date and is expected to reach over 100,000 by 2010. What an inspired program. This program is and will bless many lives. Not only lives but also families, communities and the church. We will be in SLC again tomorrow for another half day of training. This is all going to be on the computer, learning about the systems etc.
I got to speak to mom today. She called from the airport in Chicago. They are on their way!! They should arrive in at 9:00pm African time on Sunday. They are 10 hours ahead of us in Las Vegas.

MTC

My mom asked me (Cristi) to update their blog. They are really busy. They arrived in the MTC in Provo, UT on Monday March 23. It was snowing and pretty cold. After being there for just one week they said that if they went home now, they would have partaken of a spiritual feast.
They were able to squeeze in a "date". They went to the basement of the Wilford Woodruff building and did laundry.
There were 16 other couples and one single sister in the group that entered the MTC with them. They are going to different parts of the world; Florida, Fiji, Russia, New York, Romania... Many of the group have served before. Mom and Dad are doing CES as well as PEF and there is one other couple doing the same.
On their first full day in the MTC they learned how to teach a discussion on the Restoration and were able to practice teach on members from the Provo community who pretend to be investigators. It was a great experience. Tuesday evening is a devotional with a general authority. Elder Kenneth Johnson and his wife spoke. It was an uplifting experience.
The next day they were able to focus on the Plan of Salvation. "As we opened the door to greet our investigator the person was a familiar face from our past. June Nelson a dear Sister from the old 21st Ward in Las Vegas was this familiar face. What a joyful reunion meeting with her. After our lesson sister Nelson found her husband Glenn and we stood and talked with them for several minutes before going to our next class"
The next day they wrote, "For one hour today we served in the call center, both of us received on call from persons asking to receive material that was advertised on a television ad. Today’s teaching ended with a visit from Ed Pinegar, he has served several mission, been a mission president and is a professor at BYU. The time we spent with brother Pinegar was inspirational and entertaining. He quoted many scriptures without using notes or the actual scriptures. He would give us the reference and called on one of us to read. What a spiritual giant Brother Pinegar is. Giant meaning tall in stature and heavily endowed with the spirit.
Many of the other couples left for their fields of labor last Friday but Mom and Dad will be staying for another week of CES training and PEF training. They leave for Africa April 4th.