Two of the beautiful women from church. They wear wonderful headwraps that match their dresses. We should adopt that custom back home. It would really help out on bad hair days!

This is one of our porches to our apartment. It has had problems with the drain. One night a huge storm hit and within two hours, the entire thing filled up(it is 7 feet by 24 feet and is 6 inches high). We were in the bedroom which is in the back of the apartment watching a movie. As we got up from the movie, we noticed water pouring into our bedroom from the hall. As we scurried to investigate where the water was coming from, we found that our entire porch was flooded and was spilling into our apartment. It had already flooded the living room, dining room and kitchen and had flooded the hallway down to our bedroom! What a mess! It was about 11:00 at night but I ran down to the guard station to get help while Elder Moon started bailing water. We had four guards helping Elder Moon and I clean up and trying to unclog the drain to the porch. We finally got to bed about three hours later. We thought the problem had been fixed but a few weeks later another storm hit and it started filling up again. This time we knew that we had to keep an eye on things. Elder Moon tried all sorts of things but in the end he had to take one of the drainage pipes off the outside wall and we found a rock that had lodged in the pipe. Over time I guess it had collected all sorts of debris that had clogged the pipe. It was great as the next few storms hit to not worry about being flooded, something you don't expect when living five floors up from the ground!

OK, no makeup or hairdo but we found the rock. Amazing what something that small can do!

Typical way to catch a ride to wherever someone is going.

Bill got up early on Mother's Day and prepared a wonderful breakfast for me and served it to me in bed. He even picked a beautiful flower from our garden and potted it in a cup with dirt and all! What a fabulous husband!!!!

Elder Moon has taken on all the dish washing responsibilities since we came on our mission. He has been a huge help. As you can see, sometimes he does not put the vinyl apron on and then he gets pink spots all over his pants from the bleach as the water splashes on him!


We get beautiful sunsets. This was taken from the roof of our apartment building.

The soccer fields here are not the most beautiful but get used constantly. There is always a game being played. I'd hate to make a sliding tackle on these fields!

At our Stake Conference where
Elder Jensen of the Seven Presidents of Seventy was presiding, the power went out and the generator wouldn't start. Bill had to take the battery from our truck to get the generator going. Elder Moon saved the day again!

Still in love after all these years!

Pascal and Gloria at the church wedding. What a happy couple!

Putting on the ring at the government ceremony. The judge told all the couples that she expected to hear that they all had babies in nine months!

All of the brides had beautiful hats.

Pascal and Gloria at one of the three wedding ceremonies. This was the government ceremony where eight couples were all married at the same event. The hats were really amazing.

This was at the ceremony at Gloria's home. Gloria had a different dress for each ceremony.

This was also at Gloria's home. She came out surrounded by friends and family who were hollaring and yelling in delight. She looked beautiful and even teased Pascal as she got closer to him. Music was playing and everyone was enjoying the fact the dot had been paid and they were officially married by the traditions of their tribe.

The bridesmaids actually came out dancing first and do a traditional bridesmaid's dance.

Sister Moon in one of her Congolese outfits, dressed for the wedding. Elder Moon snapped the picture before I was ready but at least it shows the dress!

Cute

Cute babies at the wedding. We love their hair! They love to see their faces after we take their pictures!

Great hair!

The little boy on the right is holding a toy that he made. He pushes the ring of wire with the stick and a piece of tin can hooked to the end. He would run along keeping the ring of wire rolling on the ground. And how about the cute boy strutting his stuff!

Elder Moon has always loved to run and traveling to Luputa was no exception. I would only let him run around the field in front of our room. Even in the early morning there were people out and about. They gave him some very curious stares as he ran around! Some of the kids would try to imitate him for a few steps but would always stop.

This is the Nakale family. Oh how we love them! We had the wonderful opportunity to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's an opportunity that most office couples never get. They moved to Kinshasa from Namibia and don't speak French so we were asked to teach them in English. They were all baptized the same day. The youngest, David is almost hidden. We were thrilled when Eustache who works in the office with us and Mamie had their third child and we got to go see little Johan. How exciting to hold a newborn! We are grateful that all went well and both mother and child are strong and healthy.

This is the Nakale family on the day of their baptism. Bombyck on the far left is the Ward Mission leader and came with us to all our appointments. The sisters in front were at many of the lessons also.

Elder Moon also had the privilege of baptising these two cute brothers from our ward.

This little girl is sitting by piles of charcoal that she is selling. Most people cook with charcoal that is simply made by burning wood. Many people will only by enough for the day because if they buy a big bag of it, their neighbors and friends will see how much they have and will take some home for themselves.

If you look beyond the woman carrying the load on her head, you can see many homes of a village off in the distance. This is a beautiful country!