02 Feb 2011 Sister's Night Out-Pakistan Mission

This week we went to dinner with four Sister missionaries to the Cafe Klatch, a very quaint Italian restaurant in Friedrichsdorf. The food was wonderful and reservations were required. We were there at 5:00 and they told us we had to be through by 8:00 PM. I told you German's feel that eating and socializing are sacred time. I am amazed that the restaurants make any money doing it this way, but then again, we are use to the US where you are expected to leave as soon as you are finished. On the way out we saw a girl playing monopoly with a group. I guess they had to take their three hour block of time doing something besides eating. How fun is that? I took a picture of our group at the entrance to the cafe.

A few nights later, we had our Sister's Night Out. This happens once a month and we always do something fun just we sisters in the mission. Actually, Sister Windley and I are now in charge of it. Next month we will have Sister Lykins teaching us Tai Chi. I think old people can manage that can't they? For those who can't, I will be teaching a knitting class. All grandma's should be able to knit and crochet. It should be fun. Tonight Sister Boone who has been on 5 missions, I believe, talked on "Keeping Close To Your Grandchildren." I got some really good ideas and some great web sights that you can use. If you are interested, send me your email.

The second speaker was Sister Davies the wife of the Executive Secretary to the Area President. She and her husband have been on four missions and the first one was to Karachi, Pakistan. I can't imagine how terrifying and hard a mission would be to a Muslim country, but she told us so many spiritual things about the beautiful people in Pakistan. When they were called, the Mission President gave them explicit instructions to not walk on the streets alone and do not take any public transportation. They would be assigned a taxi cab driver who would also be their so called body guard. They were to dress as tourists while they were flying into the country and so they both dressed in their white pants and colorful shirts. When they got on the plane it was full of Muslim men dressed in usual clothes and she was not even allowed to sit with her husband. She felt very uncomfortable knowing how the men felt about their women and how they should be dressed while in public.

When they arrived at the Karachi Airport, they were told to stand at a certain place and someone would come to greet them. They were to talk to on one and not to draw attention to themselves. Of course they were not allowed to wear their missionary badges. After an hour, a couple came and took them to a waiting taxi. The couple were members of the church and they helped Elder and Sister Davies move into their apartment. It was by Pakistani standards quite nice. They did have a small air conditioner in one room, running hot water for bathing and water that they could purify for drinking and cooking. A small refrigerator and stove were furnished, something other women did not have as a luxury. They were given instructions by the Mission President that he wanted them to start having meetings in their home and to find the other members of the church that were in karachi, a town of 5 million at the time.

The story was told that 3 years ago there was another Senior couple there but they were told to leave because of civil unrest in the city. That left the small group without any Priesthood authority to run the branch. There were only 9 members of the church that they knew of at the time. The Bible and Book of Mormon had not been translated into their language yet so they had no scriptures to read. The only manual they did have was "Gospel Essentials", a good thing to have if that is all you have. They said the task seemed so unattainable that they were driven to their knees many times to seek guidance from Heavenly Father. The members there asked to have their children baptized, at least the ones who had turned 8 by then, but the only place to baptize them at the time was in the Arabian Sea and that had to be done in the early morning or late at night because they could not be seen by anyone. For this reason, the Davies decided to use the roof of their apartment building and build a small font from the overflow of the water tank located there. The members hauled in hand made bricks on their donkey's.

The taxi driver was a Muslim from the Pushtun tribe and he was a highly respected tribesman among his people. For this reason they felt very safe with him. He had been a driver for two other couples as well as other church authorities. He had a wife and two children. They said he was a wonderful person . She showed us a slide presentation of some of the families they had baptized while they were there, When they left they had 91 people coming to church in their home. After only six months the government told them they had to leave, they don't know why but they were told to leave immediately. One memory she recalled is the talk she was asked to give by the Mission President to the people on tithing. She said she just did not know how a people could give when they had nothing, but the Lord helped her give that lesson and the people were so grateful for learning about it. They all gave something and they said if they sacrificed what they had to the Lord he would bless them to get their freedoms in Pakistan one day. I thought about that and they were right, the Lord will make things happen so that those faithful members can practice their religion in the open. It was a wonderful night with lots of thoughts to ponder about my own life.