Walstons in Egypt 2024-2026

A made a promise to myself that I would give one talk a month in Arabic for the remainder of my mission in Egypt. This was my 2nd Arabic talk and I used the example of how we consider windows and mirrors. That we must look through at others and serve them, rather than look at ourselves all of the time. A couple of the people told me that they could understand it better this time than my first talk. I did practice a lot and I think I am getting a little better. I also had the young women sing "Love One Another" at the end of my talk. Here is the start of my talk with my "window". On the stand is our new District President, Briant Platt, and our branch president, Madut Bol. I will need to keep working hard on my Arabic, as I will need to conduct starting in November - next Friday. Here is a closer shot.  On the way back to my apartment our branch clerk Farajella and branch president, Madut, were riding a small bicycle together. They are both very young (22 and 27) goo...

  We had a baptism of 11 people today. At the left are our primary children singing at the end of the program. These are those getting baptized and those baptizing. It was great that we finally convinced Johnson, who is in the middle of the picture to baptized his brother, William. Johnson is 16 and was ordained a priest last week. He was very reluctant to baptize, but finally did. The counselor in our Area Presidency, Adilson Parrella, was here today to reorganize our district. He stayed and is in the middle of these large young men from South Sudan.  The past missionaries always baptized people, but I encouraged the members to do the ordinances. Initially, our clerk, Farajella, told the people that I did not want to baptize them. I corrected that in that I would prefer they be baptized by local members and ended up baptizing 4 of the 11 and 4 other members baptized. We then had almost all of those holding the Melchizedek priesthood confirm. President Parrella looks small amo...

The young women from both branches (Cairo and Nile River) had an activity to thank us for our service in Egypt. They were very kind. One of the fathers picked up all of the girls and us at the Center and took us to the branch president's house. Interestingly, most of the time the girl's from both branches remained somewhat segregated. They were kind to each other, but still stayed mostly in their own sides. We continue to having tutoring each Saturday from 2 to 4 and we feed them something each time. Today we provided bananas and yogurt. There were about 25 people again at the Center today. Some smaller kids and a couple of mothers. The children work on Khan Academy. This is the Nile River at night. As will be shown in the following pictures, we were invited to dinner on an island in the Nile. The weather was wonderful. This picture is of Laila, Kathleen, Steve, Baher Marcous (our past branch president), Maged, and Guirgis. We had dinner together. They are continuing to investi...

  We had dinner with Daud and his family. I wore the shirt that he wife sewed for me. They are still waiting to be relocated to Winnipeg, Canada. We took a one-day trip to Alexandria to visit two NGOs with whom we have projects and considering others. The new couple, Dave and Maire Whipple came with us. This is the Citadel on the coast. We visited a Roman museum. Here is Kathleen viewing the many pots preserved. Here is the travel that existed in the Mediterranean Sea thousands years ago. The museum had many ancient coins, some going back to Alexander the Great. Kathleen looking at a burial sarcophagus.  This was a Christian mummy that had a painted head. They even mummified crocodiles. Kathleen and Steve at a mural. The Whipples and Walstons with the leaders of Don Bosco in Alexandria. Welding training in Don Bosco in Alexandria. Dave Whipple in Don Bosco training area. Kathleen in Don Bosco Alexandria. We were told that the roof over this facility was made of asbestos and ne...