Conrad said he would email us on his P-Day (Monday). For us that means late Sunday night or early Monday morning between midnight and 6 a.m. But we didn't get anything from him. His internet might have been down. Following is an email we got from Neal Beecher on the 6th.
Dear Dale,
We have been without internet. Some lines were vandalized in our area and they have been working but takes time. We are in Eldoret so were able to get on here.
Naitiri is about an hour from our place. Half of it is dirt road. Good right now as it is the dry season. We got stuck once in rainy season and had to get the branch president to get a tractor for us to pull us out. So it can be quite the road at times. They have to get a ride on what is called a matatu which is like a van or they have at times even taken a motor cycle when it is the only thing available. It would be Naitiri Corner that you saw. It is a wonderful area to do missionary work and the branch president is the son of Elder Sitati of the First Quorum of Seventy. Elder Sitati was just here for Christmas and was fun to see him and his family. He [Conrad] is replacing an Elder that is from Plain City, Utah and he did not want to leave he has been so excited with the work.
I did get to meet your son at the bus station in Kitale to bring his and the other elders luggage to the elders apartment next to ours.
We had to then come to Eldoret to do Patriarchal Blessings so we hope he got his luggage to Naitiri OK as we often take them there but were unable to do it this time. He said his parents found out he was going to Naitiri almost before he did. :) Was fun to meet him and we look forward to seeing him more.
Thanks.
January 3rd
Hi mom!
I am here in Kenya. The Mission president's wife said we can't really email right now, only tell you that we are safe. So here it goes: I AM SAFE. Wow that was easy. i love you so much mom and everybody!! I am having the time of my life and i have a bucketload to tell you. I will be emailing you next monday and i will upload pics and everything then. love you billions, talk to you soon :)
Your Happier then EVER Son,
Conrad
Dear Dale,
We just found out Elder Schneider is coming to Naitiri which is one of our branches. He should be coming in a day or so and we have heard good things about him already. We just had all the elders here tonight for ice cream and cookies which we do on most Tuesday nights. So we will look forward to meeting him. We are excited he is going to be in our district.
Love, The Beechers
(Neal Beecher is a former employee of LDS Family Services and a friend of mine.)
We can understand the questions you have for your son coming here. We can promise he will love his mission, and it will be a life-changing experience for him as he learns to love the people here. President and Sister Broadbent are fantastic to work with, and he will love them. They do so much to work with the missionaries to help them. President Broadbent is one of the most loving men I've ever met. Broadbents work with the elders through the couple mission secretaries to have apartments that have running water and toilets in them. This mission couple oversees the apartments to keep them in good working condition. That mission secretary is also in charge of the health of the missionaries. All missionaries in our mission take a daily dose of anti-malarial meds. That is very important. We try never to miss taking our drugs.
We have malarial mosquitoes here, so each missionary is to have a net to sleep under. Those nets are provided by the mission. President and Sister Broadbent also encourage all missionaries to keep a food supply in their apartments and to manage their finances well. Our mission covers Kenya and Tanzania, so we have a wide diversity of types of climate throughout. Nairobi is a modern city (terrible traffic), but highrise buildings. We live in one of the most distant areas of the mission on the Uganda border where almost everyone in our area lives in a mud house with mud floor and no electricity. We have 2 elders who live in our compound right next door to us. The mission requires that all the areas have apartments in good condition. Obviously some missionaries keep their apartments better than others do.
We have no Caucasian young sisters in the mission. Most of the missionaries here are African, which is a wonderful blessings because it will provide your son with exposure to tremendous diversity. We love our eight missionary young men here, two are American and 6 are African (we only work with elders in our area). We've had them for four days during the holidays because of the service projects and other Christmas holidays. It is a blessing to serve in this mission. I predict your son will come home changed in so many ways. He will have such a greater appreciation for the blessings he has. The people here are so very poor and sacrifice so much to follow the teachings of the gospel.
It is great to talk with you. Please feel free to ask us anything.
Neal
Conrad will be leaving in a few hours aboard a plane to Kenya. He was going to call us from the airport since he couldn't call on Christmas, but Leah got an email from his mission president, saying that Conrad was sitting in his office and he would not be calling from the airport. Needless to say, we were incredibly disappointed. I don't know what happened, but Conrad must have mentioned it to the President and the President said no. We didn't think it would be a problem but we don't want Conrad to break any rules or not follow the direction of his President. So...we will wait until he can call. Hopefully he can call on Mother's Day. And hopefully he will have access to a computer and can continue to at least send us email. We're spoiled. It wasn't that long ago that missionaries could only send letters to their family. So we're trying to just be thankful for what communication we do have with him. I'll be posting his address as soon as we know it, if it changes.
Danny boy !!!!! I will email you longer tomorrow because i don't have very much time but i love you!! I wish SOOOOOOOOOOOO bad i was there playing with you guys!!! Man... no snow here., it is hot hot hot and it's christmas tomorrow!! I really hope you are having lots of fun :) I will email you more tomorrow and i love you so much. and don't worry, i'll be able to email more in the mission field too. I love you and i already have some souvenirs!! Love you Daniel :)
> Love love love,
> Elder Conrad Schneider
