Enjoyed breakfast with General Authority Seventy, Elder Thierry K. Mutombo (standing next to me), our new Area President for the Africa Central Area. Wow, what a spiritual breakfast. He shared some great personal experiences with us. Talked about how his parents/family were miraculously changed through Christ after becoming members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He told us he was baptized 32 years ago when he was 9 yrs. old in the DRC, Africa. One day he asked his father why they travel 2 hours to church and 2 hours back home every Sunday. He said that he had no cars or property to give him when he dies but he has given him the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the most valuable thing he could give. Elder Mutombo also shared a personal experience about seeing his father in the temple after he died. We were all touched so deeply by the Spirit of God as he spoke it was an amazing experience.
We also were blessed to be in another meeting with Elder Mutombo with local leaders. Words cannot describe how amazing it was. President Cowley took the picture. Talking to a couple of people after the meeting they said they were deeply touched by the Spirit of God, more than in a long time. I told them that when you are spiritually prepared to listen and then taught by someone called of God as our leader, God can talk through them to us. In the meeting he gave great stories and challenged us to work to help create the first stake in Ethiopia soon. After there is a Stake or two, then the Holy Temple might come soon after.
Chicken curry and chocolate chip cookies with the sisters. We gave them a copy of our cookbook, the recipes we have to modify greatly while here.
Having some fun Italian food with friends.
That's one of Sister Martin's favorites, Lasagna. It was excellent.
Unfortunately the drive to this restaurant took us 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to. It was raining like crazy today which caused the traffic to be worse than ever. After dinner, it was only 20 minutes to drive back.
Then ate at Fabulous with the E/S Woodbury and Elder Lee. Also good but no comparison to lasagna.
For Zone conferences, our Mission Leader, Sister Cowley asked me and Sister Martin to make Curry Chicken. Wow, that's like cooking for an "Army" of missionaries. I've never cooked for that many before.
We started on Monday buying some of the vegetables and preparing the fresh garlic and ginger, about 20 tablespoons each. Chopped up some green beans, etc. Then on Tuesday we shopped for more ingredients and then went to the mission office to start chopping.
One of the new missionaries and two member friends had some spare time and helped us chop and prepare, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and more.
That's a lot of shredded chicken. I mixed in yogurt and all the spices to marinate over night.
Started cooking everything on Tuesday afternoon. Continued on Wednesday morning, adding everything and combining all the different pots together.
The food was for both Wednesday and Thursday zone conferences.
Elder Williams parents adopted him and his brother from Ethiopia when they were babies. They were both serving missions at the same time. They are from Arizona. They picked up one of their missionaries in Maryland and then flew to Ethiopia to pick up the other Elder Williams. Which Elder Williams do you think served in Ethiopia and which one served in Baltimore, Maryland? If you said the one on the left you're right. (Sister Martin has lost about 10 pounds and I've lost over 20 pounds.) The Ethiopian diet is a healthy one.
That night the power went off in the mission office. Luckily and thankfully I had made enough food for almost double the number required and we were able to save some of the food. Some of it spoiled and had to be thrown out.
We had a great zone conference, even though I missed a lot of it because I was cooking.
Thursday Zone Conference Group.
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