We had the privilege to take our branch president, Madut Bol and our primary president, Samia Yanga, to the Kenya Temple this week. Madut is only 27 years old and I serve as his first counselor. Samia has only been a member for just over a year and had never traveled outside of Egypt.
Samia insisted that we take a picture prior to boarding our plane to Kenya. Our flights were both in the middle of the night and we arrived in Kenya at 3:30 am to find that the car agency we had booked with did not have a counter at the airport. After about 1 1/2 hours they found someone to take us to the temple grounds by 6 am and then we waited there until our session at 11 (instruction started at 9 am). Our car was delivered at about 10:30 am.
The temple was just opened last May. The people working here were wonderful. We had booked and paid for a hotel that was a 15 minute drive through a ghetto but the temple found rooms for us and after the first night of many mosquitos, noise and a tiny room, we shifted and stayed at the temple for the next 2 nights.
Here are Steve, Madut, Kathleen, and Samia in front of the temple entrance. We were able to do baptisms and 3 endowment sessions. Touchingly, Madut was able to be baptized for his grandfather (I baptized him) and he baptized Samia for his grandmother.
This Christus statue is in front of the temple housing and across from the temple.
We took Madut and Samia into the Nairobi National Wildlife park with a guide. Although a bit expensive, neither person had ever seen these animals outside of a zoo. They had a great time.
Madut and Samia riding in the safari jeep taking pictures.
We were at an overlook and had a group picture.
Giraffes and a rhino in the background.
The park is next to Nairobi. You can see the city in the background.
This is the temple at night. We enjoyed being able to stay at the temple housing and being on the temple grounds.
Kathleen and I in front of the Christus statue.
This was a group of people in the lounge of the temple housing. The younger boys in the back were leaving on missions soon. One was going to Ivory Coast and the other Ghana. Both are from Kenya. The lady sitting next to Kathleen is Rebecca, who is in charge of temple housing. Her family considers her rich because she has a steady job now.
This is a poster on the major road just outside the temple. We took this picture from the temple patron housing we stayed in.
Again the statue
Samia and Kathleen outside the patron housing.
This was our dining in the patron housing. As an end note - we had spent most of the week preparing for Madut to go back to Egypt. He did not have a current residency card in Egypt. We traveled to the Egyptian embassy in Kenya and found that they had changed the rules and only allowed residents of Kenya to apply for visas. We worked with the Central Area's travel coordinator and thought we had the solution. However, after going through airport checkin and security, they would not allow him to board and we had to return without him. It is Sunday, Feb 22nd now and we are still trying to determine what to do to get him back. To make it worse, when they refused to let him board they took off the wrong bag (Samia's) and sent his bag to Egypt. Therefore, he did not have clothes or toiletries. Luckily, a family he knew and we met there (Erica and David Merrell) helped him buy some and got him back to the temple. It probably helped that I gave him almost all the USD I had ($210) just before we boarded the plane and left him.
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