After Luputa, we drove back through Mwene Ditu and had been asked by the Branch President to stop and meet with the members. We met them on a Monday about noon. We visited for awhile and then went into the church where we were all asked to speak for a few minutes. They were so warm and welcoming. We enjoyed our time with them.

This is what has been used for many years to send messgages from one village to another. They ususally will send their messages in the middle of the night when it is quietest. It was a way of communicating that someone had died, or other information they neede to pass along. They use some type of code and pass it from village to village. That way someone in a distant village gets the message and can come when needed. Not much has changed in a thousand years in many of these villages, except now they have cell phones!

A picture of the homes in Luputa.

We met at the mayor's home the morning we were to leave. He had just learned of the death of a family member. He was still gracious and received us. He has pledged to be very supportive of the last two phases of the water project along with the casava project. Je is standing in the middle in the green shirt.

Sister Moon singing again with a group of people.

What is Sister Moon doing?! Actually, she was enjoying teaching songs to a group of people while we were waiting for the others we were traveling with to have a meeting. The Congolese do love to sing! We made a quick stop at Marie Josee's orphanage. She receives many orphans, malnourished children, children of violence, and displaced people. She tries to help them all. I think she has already qualified for sainthood! What an amazing woman.

We heard some wonderful music one night at the monastery coming from the church. We walked over and found this group playing away on their homemade instruments. They were fantastic. The little boys in the background were playing african drums and shakers. They really put together some great sounds! Hopefully, our video of them will download so you can see and hear them. They were really fun!

This picture is a little out of place but shows much of the foliage that the workers had to cut and dig through for the trenches for the water project.

Omar has been our driver when we go to Luputa. He is a fun person and a great driver. We appreciate his skills and company.

Elder Moon and one of the women trying out one of the water stations. They worked great!

Elder and Sister Godfrey from South Africa were on the trip to Luputa. They are the area directors for the Humanitarian efforts in the Africa Southeast Area. They were a delight to travel with!

Elder Moon and one of the engineers for Adair, the contractors, check the water pressure on a water station. It was 30 psi. Great pressure!

After the ceremony we were served large plates of rice and some really tasty goat meat. It is one of the foods saved for special occasions.

The young people from the church branches sang in a choir at the ceremony. They all looked so nice in their white shirts and blouses.

We ran into our good friend Marie Josee at the closing ceremony for the water project. She is head of maternity at the Luputa General Hospital and runs a clinic and orphange. It was great to see her!

The governor of the province came to the festivities and presided over the ceremony. He spoke very kind words about the church and all it has done. He talked about what a saint is and said that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints truly were saints. Dominique Sowa, in the red shirt, has been the contractor for the project. What a good man he is! We have really enjoyed our association with him.

The cutting of the ribbon for the turn on of the water in Tshibobo!

The governor signing official documents related to the water project. Notice the various chiefs and mayors looking on.

As part of the ceremony, a group put on a great skit about water. They were a lot of fun and did a good job portraying the need for water.

We were privileged to go to Luputa again for the closing ceremony of the first phase of the church's large water project. While there we went to the the casava project. It had a rough start in the beginning but looks fantastic now!

The fields are lush and green and healthy looking.

The plants that last February were not even up to our knees, are now over our heads. What a thrill!

These two cute girls showed up at the monastery we were staying at one night. They were waiting for their ride to the next village to practice for the choir that was to sing at the closing ceremony for the water project. The were excited to practice their English.

Elder Moon found this old ammeter sitting on a window sill at the monastery. He thinks it was made before 1900. He's grateful for modern day tools!

Elder Moon hiking up to the falls.

What a glorious sight!

On our Preparation Day, we went with the Moody's and some other friends to the Chutes of Zongo. They were beautiful!

Elder Moon can still do his had stands. I didn't quite catch him at the top, but he still has good form-even at 60 years old!!!

And he can still do head stands!

On our way out from the Chutes of Zongo, there had been a light rain and turned the dirt roads to very slick roads. Yes, we slid off into a ditch and immediately, the villagers ran to our rescue. They started digging and placing rocks near the tires. It took about tweny minutes, but they got us out. Then six of them rode on the outside of the back of truck for the next ten miles and helped us get through all the bad spots. We were worried about them getting back but they kept insisting on going with us until they knew we were over the bad spots. They had a long walk home in the dark but truly helped us out!!!

Elder Moon fixing more machines!

Dr. Hunsaker and Elder Moon working together. Dr. Hunsaker has come twice since we have been here to bring donated eye equipment and to train doctors.

Elder Moon, Elder Moody and Dr. Hunsaker assembling one of the eye examination machines for St. Joseph's Hospital.

President and Sister Headlee started serving July 1st. They are doing a great job! They have spent time in Zambia and South Africa before coming here to serve so they had at least been exposed to Africa before they came.

Elder and Sister Moody are good to include us when they do many of their Humanitarian projects. Elder Moon especially gets involved with many fix-it projects.

We love to go to lunch at this fun restaurant that has a gigantic hamburger! It is huge!!! We share it of course.

We had a wonderful visit from Elder Holland and Elder Koelliker and his wife. We spent several days enjoying their company. They visited one of the hospitals that the Moody's have done several projects with. This hospital has been a great partner to do Neonatal Resuscitation training and Vision projects. Eustache, who is our office manager is in the white shirt and did all their translating.

Elder Moon has fixed a number of machines for the hospital. When we returned this one on the day of Elder Holland's visit, Dr. Kilangalanga told them how they had not been able to do a certain surgery for six months because their machine was broken and no one could fix it.

Our English class grew to 90 + participants each week. They loved to do the Hoki Poki!

We took a picture one day after class but some of the members had left. We loved working with them. It has been one of the highlights of our mission.

Our closing activity, where we presented over 90 participation certificates to those who had qualified, was a great success. We had about two hundred people show up for the ceremony and dinner. They loved to sing and really know how to harmonize.

Marie and Felicien Lumu came to help us with our closing activity for the English class. They were a great help serving the dinner and cleaning up afterwards. They are some of the stalwart members of our ward.

This baby lion and I became good friends. When Bill tried to pet him, he tried to take a chunk out of Bill's leg!

I never realized how increibly beautiful all these animals are! Zoo's don't do them justice. To see them roaming the hillsides in their own environment was inspiring!

Look at those teeth! And his tongue was huge!!!

I was excited that this lion decided to let out a roar as we were passing by. What a sound!

What a makeup job on the eyes! Just kidding, it's the real thing!

Just thinking of having a drink but it's a long way down.

Family dinner!

This Cheetah looked like it was really checking something out. The flower in the foreground just added a nice touch!

Had to include another cheetah. They really blend in with the landscape. They were beautiful as they moved around. Truly graceful!