Time is growing short.

We have been very busy with the work (and play) of missionaries. January brought us Kathy and Jim Porter for a delightful visit. We enjoyed shopping at the Kimironko market, (Kathy had a dress made while we waited), a super fun safari in Akagera, and a fun visit to the Kings Palace with the Wyckoffs and the Robinsons joining us.

left to right, Jim Porter, Kathy Porter, Me, Jeff Stephenson, Sister, Christine Wyckoff, Elder Kerry Wyckoff, Sister Kathy Robinson and Elder Ben Robinson at the King's Palace Museum.

This ornery elephant is apparently famous for his bad temper and insecurities because of his missing tusk. He chased us down the road for a good 100 yards.

From about our 18 month mark, we have felt a sense of urgency to concentrate our time where it can be most impactful. Even though I started teaching music conducting and keyboarding from the very start of our mission, I still have not graduated a student from the Harman Grant program. I REALLY want to have at least two students finish and receive their own keyboard for teaching others and continued practice. I've had many promising students, but their lives are complicated and when they get new jobs or get sick, they just can't keep up with the required practicing. A few have just been unable to practice and then when they stood me up the third time, I dropped them. I can be very lenient if they just let me know.

I have two students that I am fairly certain will finish. They are both young men, Mateso and Severin, one in Gisozi and one in Kikukiro branches. I have other students but they are not practicing enough to finish before we go home. The good news is that the music in Sacrament meetings has improved significantly. Lot's of people have worked to help that happen, but I have at least participated.

We are teaching our 7th and 8th round of temple preparation classes. We've adjusted over time to anticipate the needs of the students, and it has been increasingly enjoyable for us.

Our language coordinator roles with the missionaries is fun and frustrating. Few study English as much as they've been urged to do, but we do see steady progress. We've gotten to recommend 3 elders so far that got laptops through the Help Start program when they finished their missions. (It's a private group who provides laptops for BYU Pathways students. We only work with the missionaries. We teach a weekly English Class using English Connect to each of the three zones in the mission.

All of our Church buildings but one have been shut down for almost 2 years. With nine good- sized congregations in the country, we all pile into one building, overlapping 5 sessions of Sacrament meeting each Sunday. After Sacrament meeting the two combined branches move to the tents in the yard for Sunday School/ Relief Society and Priesthood. (Primary, Young Women and Young Men) Here's a Sunday school class

A couple weeks ago, it started pouring rain right before the end of Sacrament meeting. There was soon a river running through the yard and the big tent for Sunday School was leaking. Nobody wanted to get drenched in a charge across the yard to the tent, so Sunday School was rain delayed. It stopped just AFTER it was time to end.

Sister Robinson and I have enjoyed working together to help train the district Young Women and Primary organizations. It's hard to measure the impact we've had because of the extreme difficulties of trying to develop the programs and help them operate as designed when they have nowhere to meet and are always mixed with other branches that may be quite distant from each other. But we do see progress and at least they will know what to do when we're free to worship in our own facilities.

We have enjoyed going to lunch or dinner with the other seniors more frequently than the first year of our mission. We usually meet up for a meal a couple times a week. Most restaurants are so cheap that it really isn't a financial consideration. We also get together for dinner on the second Sunday of each month.

February brought us another round of visits from family. Our son Rob Stephenson, his wife Marseille and our son Scott came and stayed for 8 days. It's hard to describe how glorious it is to get to spend time with some of our beloved family when we've been away for so long. It was so fun to show them some of the interesting places, introduce them to people we love here, and have a few adventures. We were chased by an angry black rhino in Akagera!

These were taken with the volcanoes where the Mountain Gorillas live in the background! Scott and then Rob and Marseille. SO FUN!