Oct. 23 2023

Learning, Learning, Learning

First of all, just a quick update on humanitarian work. Stacy and I were asked by the Central Africa Area to visit four colleges and universities in Dar es Salaam where students either were seeking PEF loans for education or Benson scholarships for agricultural studies. We went last week with Daniel, who helps interpret for us and also keeps us from getting lost to these schools and we were able to meet with the CEO or director of each school. They ranged from university’s with many students and programs to a small college started by a successful farmer with a PHD who is using his farm as a college and they have 60 students. It is very difficult for the youth here to go to college and get advanced degrees. We drove busy highways with multiple shops lining both sides of the road to tiny dirt paths darting up and down hills, one even requiring us to put the truck into four wheel drive so we could climb the steep, dirt road with ruts and rocks. There was no parking lot, just a

place by the fence at the bottom of the hill. We keep learning and re-learning that happiness does not tie to achievements or possessions. Elder Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who was being interviewed by Sheri Dew about his experiences in Africa said the following: “Elder Ronald A. Rasband: I mentioned earlier that I still have much to learn in Africa and this is one topic I want to plumb even deeper. I seem to feel that their happiness is related to the simplicity, and I don’t say that in a negative way, the simplicity of their lives. They truly can focus on things that matter most. They can focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ. They can focus on the messages of the Prophet. They have a tendency to order in their lives the things that matter most and that gives them great happiness, is what I’ve learned. You go into an African humble home, I’ve done that, and it may have a tin roof. It may have a dirt floor, but on the wall will be a picture of the Savior, Jesus Christ, or on the wall will be a picture of their closest Temple, which for some of them is a great distance away. And they either have a great hope that someday they can go there, or they’ve been there and they’re preserving a magnificent memory. And that might be all the decoration that they might have in their living room, which may serve as other purposes too. So, I think the complexity that we’ve added to our lives, in many cases, sometimes clouds the things that really matter most. And I think for these wonderful African saints, they can still focus on the things that matter most, and they do, and I think it brings great happiness for them.

Sister Sheri Dew: I vividly remember sitting in an airplane flying home from my first trip to Africa thinking, “I wonder who the Lord is worried about more — the Africans who have nothing but happiness or the Americans who have everything but happiness.” Our guard tonight summed this up by telling us the people in Tanzania are happy. Most do not get more than one meal a day and yet they are happy. They believe in Jesus Christ and they have faith and assurance that everything will be okay.

Many of the youth here in the city have never been to anywhere but the busy streets of Dar es Salaam. The institute students in our Branch are trying to plan a trip to go to a forest reserve which is in the outskirts of the city. They are so excited. The hard part for us is finding some way to transport 15 people to the location because these students have no form of transportation and even our Branch President has to come to church by Bjaj or bus. Many of these young adults do not have ready access to a phone, let alone a smartphone and yet they share what they have without question. I hope we can find a way to get them there and let them experience the beauty of nature. Stacy has been busy, helping with the humanitarian work, teaching piano lessons and playing for the church choirs and is such a good example of love and compassion. One of the young men Stacy teaches piano lessons needed a ride to his father’s market which was in a back alley not too far from the church. We had to park the truck and walk through a narrow space between buildings that were only wide enough for us and an occasional motorcycle coming through. The shop was small and had a variety of vegatables and a few kitchen items. We picked up some vegatables in a small plastic bag and went to pay for them and the father told us, no charge. We told him we would gladly pay and he seemed to really appreciate that. They make so very little money. Our 7,000 Tanzanian Shillings for the bag of veggies was the equivalent of about $2.50 in dollars and he was so grateful, and we were also filled, not with food or possessions, but filled with love for these wonderful people.