We were asked to travel to Nairobi, Kenya for Humanitarian training. As we arrived at the area office the first thing we noticed was a lot more Christmas in the air. This Christmas tree was placed at the entrance.
We flew in on a Sunday. On the way to our hotel I saw a sign that said MTC. That can't be the Missionary Training Center again? Then I found out it stands for Manual Toll Collection. We've seen so many acronyms so far in Africa.
More interesting things to see on the drive.
One of the senior couples we knew invited us to their Family Home Evening. They had about 12 senior couples serving at the Kenya LDS Area Offices. It was incredible to see so many serving together in one place, so far from home.
We were all asked to share a special Christmas we remember. Sister Martin shared the story of when I asked her to marry me on Christmas day nearly 16 years ago in a song. I shared a story about a sister we met in India who lived in our apartment temporarily because she got cancer and was sent home from where she was serving. While going through chemo she helped invite people driving by the church to come and see our Christmas / Life of Christ visitor center. A few visitors invited in were so impressed that they asked if they could stay and invite others.
We had a great time meeting so many awesome people sacrificing all to serve Christ in Africa.
They made some great treats to share.
A view of wild animals from their apartment of the Nairobi National Park, where so many come to go on African Safaris.
Monday morning and our first day of training - How about a picture out front?
Elder & Sister Kimsey took us to one of their favorite restaurants.
We were privileged to hear from Elder Ardern of the Church Seventy. We talked about his conference talks. I reviewed one he gave in 2011 when he talked about an account of Hyrum Page who was using a stone to receive revelation for the Church by mistake. Hyrum apparently ground the stone into powder. Elder Ardern challenged everyone to figuratively grind our time-wasting distractions into powder.
We enjoyed their big Christmas Devotional. A few spoke including Elder and Sister Ardern.
Sister Ardern gave a beautiful message about Christmas in New Zealand and how they get to go home every year at this time. Very interesting message as Sister Martin and I have never been there.
She talked about how they all know when it's Christmas time because the Pohutakawa tree is blooming red. She said the red flowers fall on the ground and make everything so beautiful, especially memorable as you walk along the beach. She talked about traditionally they open gifts on Christmas morning and not on boxing day, a day we had never heard of.
She said they always had a prayer in the morning and read from Luke in the New Testament. She said her daughter and granddaughter help her cook various dishes of food they enjoy and Elder Ardern always helps clean the dishes.
They always go and pick strawberries and dip them in chocolate.
We enjoyed music and other speakers.
If you like Christmas nativities, they had a lot of them on display at the devotional.
This one was made with banana leaves
Sister Ardern brought this one to show from the Philippians
This one was made with small beads
Sister Ardern also brought this one to show.
Back to some more training meetings. We're trying to learn the humanitarian and self-reliance programs and procedures. It's a lot to learn.
One of the couples serving in Kenya, Elder and Sister Kimsey took us shopping for hard to find items and we even bought a couple of nativities.
We took a picture with the wood carving artist that made our nativity.
Since our flight back to Ethiopia was later in the day, we had time Wednesday morning to visit the Nairobi National Park with Elder and Sister Kimsey. We had such a fun time with them.
We started off by seeing a lot of Impalas. These bucks were fighting.
The Hippos were mostly hiding under the water. Notice how close the park is to residential homes.
If you want to laugh at one of the best stories about hippos, watch this video on the fails of humanitarian giving that they showed us here in Kenya and also the MTC in Provo, Utah. Research and listening is one of the most important aspects of humanitarian work.
If you like Giraffes this is the place to come.
We saw one Giraffe sitting or something since we could only see his head.
We saw this sleepy lion next to the road. We could have got out of the car and walked over to pet her since there are no fences or barriers like a zoo. Do you think she would have let us?
Since they don't feed the animals, they must feed themselves. We saw bones along the road.
Almost looked like this Croc wanted you to come pet him.
It was amazing how so many animals were close to the roads.
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