Swahili Report #2 - The Brass Plates ​and​ Merry Christmas

The last few days have been filled with activities that I was largely unaware of. A small group of Saints had come from the Salem Oregon Restoration Branch led by Brian Herren. I had been anticipating meeting them, but they were not to arrive here until Christmas day—today. Four youth (older) and four adults. Today being Christmas day and Sunday, the Kisumu Restoration Branch came to our center where the translation is going on. Of course we did not do anything but enjoy a special meal, preaching ministry and fellowship all day. There were about fifty people in all.

Now it is time for me to send out my special Christmas greetings. I have placed it at the end of an article that I've been working on in my spare minutes from day to day until I finished it last night. I had extra time last night after everyone went to bed. The article is about the Brass Plates and their purpose. I've named it "The Language of Our Fathers." It it is the only Christmas present that have to send to all of you on this Christmas day.

So, may you all have a blessed day and may God continue to bless His work through out the world.

Blessings to all, 
Frank Frye

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"The Language of Our Fathers"

by Frank Evan Frye

In 1960 (?) the American nation was challenged to send a man to the moon and return him again alive, no one knew all of the good things that would be discovered in the process. In a similar manner, when it was decided to translate the Book of Mormon into the Swahili language, the resultant blessings that it would cause were also unknown.

Most Saints have heard of the promises in the Book of Mormon regarding the Plates of Brass (Brass Plates). There are two well known prophecies-one in the First Book of Nephi which was reported by Nephi when he and his brothers had just returned from Jerusalem (c. 600 B. C.) after their father Lehi had first examined the Brass Plates. He spoke under the inspiration of the Spirit of God and 
said:

1 Nephi 1:169-170 "these Plates of Brass should go forth unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, who were of his seed. Wherefore he said that these plates of brass should never perish, neither should they be dimmed any more by time." 
The other is in Alma chapter 17 and is very similar-but much longer: 
Alma 17:32-34 (and much more) "these Plates of Brass which contain these engravings, which have the records of the holy scriptures upon them, which have the genealogy of our forefathers, even from the beginning. And behold, it has been prophesied by our fathers, that they . . . should go forth unto every nation, kindred, tongue and people, that . . . they will retain their brightness . . . that by small and simple things, are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances, doth confound the wise.

We should ask ourselves, "What is the importance of the Brass Plates? Why have they been preserved and why will God see that the message on these plates goes to every nation in the last days? I believe that the answer lies in their origin and what they contain, and perhaps even where they will be found.

One clue is found in 1 Nephi 1:167-168: "And thus my father Lehi did discover the genealogy of his fathers. And Laban also was a descendant of Joseph, wherefore he and his fathers had kept the records." As Lehi began to read the Brass Plates, he found that he was a descendant of Joseph the son of Jacob (Israel). Lehi also found that he was related to Laban who had kept these records until that time. The wording of the next phrase gives us the clue: "wherefore" Laban "and his fathers had kept the records." In other words, Laban and his ancestors had kept the records because they were descendants of Joseph that was sold into Egypt.

Another clue is found in 2 Nephi 3:1-5: "And now I, Nephi, speak concerning the prophecies of which my father hath spoken, concerning Joseph, who was carried into Egypt: For behold, he truly prophesied concerning all his seed. And the prophecies which he wrote, there are not many greater. And he prophesied concerning us, and our future generations; And they are written upon the plates of brass."

Even though we have a significant amount of information about Joseph in the Bible, we have nothing like what is described above. The Brass Plates contain a number of wonderful prophecies by Joseph about his descendants. Were those very ancient prophecies written by the hand of Joseph, or copied down by someone else as he dictated them? It is apparent from his responsibilities that Joseph had learned to read and write as he worked in Egypt. 
Joseph was sold by his brothers to Ishmaelites who carried him into Egypt as a very young man, perhaps in his mid to late teens. When Potiphar purchased him, he eventually gave Joseph charge of his personal affairs until Potiphar's wife caused him to be sent to prison. However, even in prison, Joseph continued to excel in the area of management. He had to have learned very well the reading and writing of the Egyptian language. Later the Pharaoh placed him second in command of the entire country of Egypt. Joseph could not have been given this responsibility unless he was well educated in the written language of that country. If Joseph had written his prophecies on anything-papyrus or metal plates-what written language would he have used? Obviously the Egyptian language that he had learned.

Centuries later, Moses was raised in the Pharaoh's court and became a prince of Egypt. No one would question the fact that he received the best possible education in reading and writing the Egyptian language. Herein lies another clue:

1 Nephi 1:158b-161 "my father Lehi took the records which were engraven upon the Plates of Brass, and he did search them from the beginning. And he beheld that they did contain the five books of Moses, which gave an account of the creation of the world; And also of Adam and Eve, who were our first parents; And also a record of the Jews from the beginning, even down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah."

The Brass Plates contain the five books of Moses. When Moses wrote his five books, what written language did he know? It is possible that he could have learned some other written language from his father-in- law Jethro after Moses fled Egypt, but his first language was certainly Egyptian.

Without doubt the history of the world, the history of the House of Israel since Joseph, and the history of the Jews down until King Zedekiah were written in the Egyptian language. Is this just a theory? No. The Book of Mormon clearly teaches the same:

Mosiah 1:4-6 "And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the Plates of Brass . . . For he [Mosiah] having been taught in the language of the Egyptians, therefore he could read these engravings."

Here we are told that because King Mosiah had been taught the Egyptian language- "therefore" he could read the writings on the Brass Plates. Can this be any plainer? The Brass Plates are written in Egyptian! We are not told who first wrote on the Brass Plates or who started this precious record, however there is a possibility that Joseph of Egypt was that man. It could have been someone before or after him, but suffice it to say that his prophecies are on those plates.

Did they exist before Moses? Probably. Could these plates be the original records of Moses? Possibly-or Moses' records were copied directly from their originals onto the Brass Plates. Moses was a Levite and not of the house of Joseph. We saw above that the Brass Plates had been entrusted to the descendants of Joseph. Laban, a descendant of Joseph lived in Jerusalem along with Lehi. The Bible states that a portion of the house of Joseph lived in or near Jerusalem. So this Israelite record was kept by the tribe of Joseph. The Brass Plates could have been the official record of the entire nation of Israel, since within its leaves were: "the prophecies of the holy prophets, from the beginning, even down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah"- -including the prophet Jeremiah. The Lord chose to preserve them in a strange way, and perhaps for a strange purpose. If they had stayed in Jerusalem, they probably would have been destroyed with the people and the city by the armies of Babylon. Instead the Lord commanded

Lehi to take them with him to the "promised land." They were used to teach multitudes of people in New World for centuries until close to the time of the Nephite final battle when they were hidden up in the Hill Cumorah along with many other records. The promise is that they will come forth at some future time for "a wise purpose."

Most serious Book of Mormon students are aware of the statements made by Nephi and Mormon regarding the inclusion of the Small Plates of Nephi in with the final group of plates that were eventually given to Joseph Smith, Jr. to translate into the Book of Mormon. Both Nephi and Mormon state that this was done for a "wise purpose." Both were unaware of the purpose. Today we know that the translation of the Small Plates took the place of the 116 pages of manuscript that 
were lost by Martin Harris. That was important-those plates may eventually be returned to someone in the last days for the great revelation which is contained in the "Sealed Portion" that was originally written by Ether on 24 gold plates and later summarized by Moroni to be revealed at some future date. It is similar to the sealed records kept by the Nephite spiritual leaders that Jesus commanded to be read when he came to the Land Bountiful in the end of the year that he 
was crucified and resurrected. That sealed portion along with the plates that Joseph Smith translated will most likely be returned to the Lord's people in the time that the Lord chooses.

However, there is a greater set of promises regarding the Brass Plates. As Alma taught his son Helaman, he told him of the promise which is quoted above in Alma 17:32-34. Until recently I had regarded that prophecy and Lehi's prophecy (1 Nephi 1:169-170) to be the only two important prophecies about the Brass Plates. As I was re-reading the Book of Mormon earlier this year in preparation for several projects, I discovered that Alma did not stop speaking about the Brass

Plates in verse 34. In fact, he continued prophesying about them for nearly two more pages (verses 35-51).

Perhaps others have found this many years ago, but I've never heard anyone else speak or write about it. I had always assumed that those following verses referred to the Small Plates of Nephi because of the use of the phrase "wise purpose." However, Alma never stopped speaking about the Brass Plates and states that they also have been preserved for "a purpose" and that they will witness to future generations. The phrase "wise purpose" is mentioned four times in the context of 
speaking about the Brass Plates.

Lehi explains that one of the reasons that his sons should return to Jerusalem to obtain the Brass Plates is so that "we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers." Another reason that their language should be preserved is that they may be able to read God's word and teach their children God's laws as seen below:

1 Nephi 1:82-83 
"And behold it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers;

And also that we may preserve unto them the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the spirit and power of God, since the world began, even down unto this present time."

The importance of using metal plates to write upon cannot be over emphasized, because their records were to last thousands of years. Jacob, the brother of Nephi explained this clearly when he said: "We know that the things which we write upon plates must remain; But whatsoever things we write upon anything save it be upon plates, must perish and vanish away" (Jacob 3:1-2).

Some climates have preserved things as fragile as cotton cloth and papyrus-Peru and Egypt respectively have extremely dry climates and have preserved such things for thousands of years. However, the climate in which the Nephites lived would have destroyed most things except gold, silver, brass and copper. Jacob knew that where he lived only metal plates like he was writing upon would have survived the ravages of time. The records that Nephi and Jacob wrote have 
lasted over 2500 years. A thousand years later, as Mormon was concluding his abridgment of the Large Plates of Nephi, he said that even the way they wrote Egyptian had changed according to their "manner of speech" (Mormon 4:98).

By the time of Christ, the Egyptian language had become a lost language. The meaning of the engravings and writings on temple walls and elsewhere in Egypt had become forgotten and seemingly impossible to understand. For over two thousand years, there seemed to be no hope of reading it again. Then in 1799 a large stone with inscriptions in three languages was discovered near the mouth of the Nile River in Egypt. In the mid 1820s a French Egyptologist named Champollion discovered the key to its translation. The bottom third of the Rosetta stone was written in Greek. Champollion speculated that the same message was written in all three languages. The other two being Egyptian hieroglyphics (top third) and Egyptian demotic (middle third). He is credited with deciphering the Egyptian language, however serious studies did not get underway until the mid 1860s. Today Egyptian can be read again.

The importance of this is great, because the language used to write the scriptures on the Brass Plates is an original form of Egyptian. When the Brass Plates come to light again, their language is no longer a lost and undecipherable text, but will be able to be read. It is for this reason that the Brass Plates will most likely be discovered by someone who is not connected with the Book of Mormon. The Lord provided a miraculous appearance of the Book of Mormon through angelic 
ministry for those people who would believe and seek the Spirit of the Lord. This time, the world will be faced with an irrefutable artifact that will be found in the New World. It will be identified as a record of much of the Old Testament, but written in a language which will astonish the nations of the world. The text will not require a miracle to be translated. The fact that other ancient documents have already been found in Israel-the Dead Sea Scrolls-have already set the stage 
for this ancient record. The Dead Sea Scrolls were, shall we say, captured by a tiny group of supposedly elite "scholars" who literally held them in secrecy for forty years while they individually did their own research and planned to publish their own books about this great archaeological find. The world is no better because of them. Later the scholars of the world made an agreement that we all hope will be firmly held to. That when other ancient documents or records are discovered, no one group of people will be allowed to "capture" them and hold them in secrecy for any significant amount of time again. They must be published to the world. So when the Brass Plates are discovered and made public, there will be many responses from people around the world. Questions that will be asked are: "How did this record arrive in the New World?", "Who brought it here, why and hen?", and "Why would a Hebrew record be written in ancient Egyptian?"

Many of the prophecies on the Brass Plates clearly witness of the Hebrew Messiah. They contain the Five Books of Moses, the story of Creation, the Flood of Noah's day, and many other prophets of the Old Testament. These things, found in such a manner, will challenge Bible scholars around the world. The Brass Plates will challenge the faith of people of many diverse and non-christian religions. Atheists will be put on notice. The Jews will learn of their Messiah from an original text of their own book that will be much clearer and complete than what they have. The Arab nations,

including many Muslims will be confronted with an original text of the Hebrew Old Testament that is written in Egyptian. Liberal Christians will be challenged by an uncorrupted text of the Old Testament that refutes liberal theology. The nation of Israel, where the Brass Plates came from, will find a new identity with their native American brothers of the New World. In short, these plates 
and the library with which they are found will turn the world upside down.

During the month of December this year, I've been working with several teams of men here in Kenya to do a final review of the Swahili Book of Mormon. During that time, we have reviewed and analyzed every verse of what Nephi calls "these plates." We have come to call these first six books of the Book of Mormon the record of the Small Plates of Nephi. His "other plates" we now call the Large Plates of Nephi, and they contain a more complete history that Mormon used to 
make his abridgment of the entire book. The Small Plates are written in first person and are not an abridgment, but are the actual writings of Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, etc. As we struggled to find the meaning of each word and put it in its proper place, it became very clear to me that these words were not written by anyone who speaks English, but they really are a faithful translation from another language. A number of the above ideas have been the direct result of the review of this translation.

Previously when I had worked with the translation teams, I was only a facilitator and teacher about how to translate and preserve the original text. This time, as part of the final review team, I am learning a great deal of Swahili, but most of all, as we review each verse, each phrase, each word, and especially as we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, new ideas have appeared and new ways of thinking of the words become apparent. It is a wonderful experience to work together like this!

Tomorrow will be Sunday and Christmas day, and the Kisumu branch will be meeting at the location where we are working. Additionally, a group of young people led by Brian Herren from Oregon will be meeting with us. A special meal is being planned and with all of the activities, we probably will not get very much done with the translation. We will enjoy the break as we have been working very long hours every day since we arrived here at the facility about three weeks 
ago. We are approaching 25% of the text completed and my time runs out at the end of February, so please keep us all in your prayers.

Merry Christmas to all, and even though our Messiah's birthday is still several months away, may you all have a blessed day with your families.

"The Language of Our Fathers" by Frank Evan Frye 
December 25, 2016

Swahili Book of Mormon report #1

Trip report to Kenya to finish the Swahili Book of Mormon translation, 2006 Frank Frye

Left MCI in Kansas City Nov. 25 at 9:05 a.m. and had a six hour lay-over in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis to Paris flight was nearly 8 1/2 hours long, most of which took place at night at an altitude of about 39,000 feet.

There was cloud cover over most of the North Atlantic. As we flew over England just before dawn, we came in over the northern part near Scotland and down over Manchester. Could see the lights—some very clearly as distinct orangish lines—roads lit by the sodium vapor lights, and some areas as an orangish glow through the thin clouds.

While deplaning this morning at Paris, I met a young man and asked him if he was returning to Kenya. He said no, and that he was from Somalia, which is north of Kenya on the Indian Ocean. I felt an immediate repulsion, as the only thing I've ever heard about Somalia is that it's people are vicious and brutal pirates who capture merchant ships and hold their crews for ransom and even murder some of them. Then I felt ashamed for judging him based on such limited information. The people of that nation also deserve to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The airport at Paris was the most inconvenient airport I've ever experienced, perhaps due to the fact that I had less than two hours as a layover and perhaps due to my inability to speak French. There must have been at least a thousand people in a huge area, all being funneled into a half dozen check points where luggage was X-Rayed and every one was required to empty pockets and carry-on baggage, remove belts, etc. I could find no one at first to answer questions, and when I finally found someone how to reach terminal C2, they just said go out that exit in the far corner of the huge room that I had just crossed to get to them. I went back in that direction retracing my steps only to find that there was a kind of line about four people deep that apparently started back near where I spoke to the lady who told me to "go over there." There was no way to get out of that far exit except to retrace my steps again and search for the beginning of the so-called "line" of four people deep.

I finally just blended in to the group way back near the beginning and stood in that "line" for another hour, wondering how far it was to terminal C2. It was unusually hot and people were fanning themselves and looking for a place to sit from heat exhaustion. I had already taken off my jacket and sweater. Finally I saw a man in a uniform who had come to check on our "line" and asked him if I was in the right line and showed him my ticket. He said yes and turned away. About fifteen minutes later and about the same number of feet forward in the line, I got his attention and asked him again if I had enough time to get to terminal C2. He looked again at my ticket and looked a little flushed, and told me to follow him. We cut across several of those airport barriers that funnel people in zig zag fashion toward the X- Ray machines and across a couple of the doubled back "lines." He took me to the front of the line and told me to remove everything electronic from my carryon bags (hard drives, electronics, etc.), empty my pockets and take off my belt. In the hurry, I had missed something in my computer case, so I had to return through the check point to take care of that. When I finally got my things back and my belt back on, he said to "run through that door."

There was a long corridor that snaked around to the terminal where we then had to wait for a bus that arrives about every ten minutes. Terminal C2 was not close. When we finally arrived, signs were scarce and I finally discovered that my gate—C87 was about a quarter of a mile—up an escalator and way "over there." I ran as fast as I could for between five and ten minutes dragging my computer case behind me and when I finally arrived—totally out of breath at C87, the boarding area was completely empty as the departure time had come and gone. Seemingly all the passengers had boarded. When I finally found my seat and got my carryon bags stowed, we waited another fifteen minutes for "some other passengers who have arrived on another flight that was late." After the door was closed we waited another fifteen minutes while someone was working on the "brakes." All of this caused me to rethink my future plans about riding on Air France or going through the Paris airport ever again.

The brakes situation made me remember the last flight that I left Nairobi on at about 1:30 a.m. in 2014. As we finally boarded the jumbo jet walking out to it on the tarmac, I saw an opportunity to take a quick photo of the stairway and the tail fins of the giant airplane with my iPhone. Weeks later when I downloaded and analyzed the photos, I discovered that there was a huge corroded crack surrounding the tail fin on the left side of the plane near the stairway up to the door. It was too late for terror, but not too late to thank the Lord for a safe trip.

On this flight, I had asked the travel agency to book me a window seat on the left side of the plane, hoping that I might see the coast of Italy on the way south as I did on a previous trip coming back from Kenya northward. An hour or so later, I looked out of the window and was instantly dazzled by a range of completely snow covered, very jagged mountain peaks and glaciers. It was the Swiss Alps. I'm sure I saw the Matterhorn. It was just an awesome sight! Like a thin spire of pure white ice sticking up among the mountains. I hope that the pictures turned out. Looking out of the window and then back and forth at the map on the seat in front of me, taught me a lot about the geographical layout of Switzerland and later Italy. As the Alps were left behind the snow disappeared. Our flight path took us right down the middle of Italy. Much of the land was mountainous like I've seen in Oaxaca, Mexico from the air.

The passenger to my right was a very pleasant young lady—I mentally assessed her age at 25 and it turned out to be right. She spoke very good English unlike the gentleman to her right—he only spoke French and remained silent the whole trip. Her name is Chiara Dallarosa. She explained that she is from Vicenza, Italy, which is near Venice. I shared with her the purpose of my trip and how in 1992 Pam Agwanda had written me a letter inquiring about the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ and that she was in Nairobi awaiting my arrival. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Book of Mormon, but she answered in the negative. She is a Roman Catholic who lives in Italy, and knows nothing about other Christian churches. I explained that it is a book similar to the Bible, but is the history of God's dealings with His people in the Western Hemisphere and how Jesus Christ had visited and taught them shortly after he left his disciples in Jerusalem. She seemed to show an interest in that. So I asked her if she would be willing to do me a favor and learn something at the same time. She asked what it was. I told her that I knew of two manuscript copies of the Book of Mormon that had been translated into Italian but had never been proofread by anyone else that I knew of. I then asked if she would be willing to take a look at part of the manuscript and perhaps help us to proofread it in the process of

publishing it for the first time in Italian. She said that she would do that, so we exchanged email addresses. Who knows what will come of that discussion? She was going to Kenya to do some social work in some small villages. I told her that I would write her when I got back home to Missouri.

Saw the northern edge of northern Africa as we finished crossing the Mediterranean Sea. The land was a sandy tan stark, barren emptiness. No trees, no crops, just a vast, barren desert. During the next hour and more I could see some waves of dunes. Then a thin cloudiness veiled all that was below.

Looking down over the great desert of northern Africa shortly after flying over Khartoum. The main feature below is a great river that we seem to be following. According to the map in front of me, it is the Nile River that flows out of Lake Victoria which lies between Kenya on its north and east, Tanzania on the south, and Uganda on the west.

It is 4:30 p.m. Central European Time, but our flight plan sends us eastward as we go mostly southward. It must be closer to 6:30 p.m. at this location because the sky is darkening and the reddish golden sun is going down on the other side of the plane. The air is hazy, but it is obvious that there is a patchwork of agricultural fields below. They probably depend on water that is pumped from the Nile which is still visible toward the eastern horizon.

The screen on the back of the seat in front of me says that we are traveling at 39,000 feet and just on the other side of the window the outside temperature is -67° F. Our speed is 560 miles per hour. We have already traveled over 3,100 miles from Paris in 5 1/2 hours. It is still about an hour and 45 minutes until we land in Nairobi where I will be met by Brother James Yogo at the airport. He and some other brothers took me to the airport from his home in 2014 when I last left Kenya. I will probably spend the night with his family and be met by Pamela Agwanda tomorrow.

It is nearly dark outside now and I can see lights below that seem to be following the edge of a river or a lake for short distances and then stop. Another in the shape of a spear. The map does show some lakes down there. They must provide the water to survive in this parched land. The map also says that Addis Ababa is nearly straight east of here, but too far away to see. It is the capital city of Ethiopia, the country that borders Kenya on the north. My laptop dictionary tells me that it has an altitude of 8,000 feet—something I had never expected.

The pilot just announced that we are flying over Nakuru and that we will land in about fifteen minutes. Nakuru is a small town between Nairobi and Kisumu. It is famous for the beautiful game preserve that I got to briefly see in 2010. He also announced that we are crossing over the equator and that it will be rather chilly at Nairobi upon arrival. The jacket and sweater have been very helpful so far on this trip, as airplanes can get pretty cold, especially at the window seats.

After arriving at Nairobi, going through customs, I met a young man his small son who are from Grandview, Missouri. Imagine the "coincidence" of that! We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to get together when we both get home.

Paid $50 USD in cash for the Kenya visa. It is for three months only, but can be extended. The visa application required me to swear that I would not seek to find a job while here. Hmmmm, strange that the US government does not do the same for the myriads of people who come across our borders every day.

Found my luggage without any problem. James Yogo, an Elder from Nairobi met me outside the terminal and took me to put the luggage in his car. Then he took me to exchange some dollars into Kenya shillings (98 to one there). He then took me home where his wife had a supper meal for us. It was close to midnight.

Sunday morning, instead of going directly to Nairobi to start working on the translation as I had expected, I was taken to church where I was asked to teach the adult class and preach. I knew some of the people from 2014 and Pamela Agwanda (Eric Odida's wife) was there also. It was decided to go on to Nairobi tomorrow (Monday), in a car that they had instead of on the bus. That afternoon, after church and lunch, James took me where I could get a haircut and to look for a King James version (KJV) of the Bible.

While speaking with James and Ruth's 15 year-old daughter Grace earlier after church, I discovered that her school required her to purchase a Bible for one of her classes. Kenya, being a Christian nation, still teaches the Bible in their public schools. However, the only Bible she was allowed to purchase was a Revised Standard Version (RSV). The RSV is one of the older corrupt bibles that was published first in the USA in 1952. Many of the translators of that bible were not even Christians. It has mostly been abandoned in the USA in favor of other more "modern" versions, however they are all based on similar if not the same corrupt Greek manuscripts such as the Vatican Manuscript. Only the King James and the Inspired Version are not based on those corrupt manuscripts.

I showed Grace and two of her cousins some of the more obvious flaws in the RSV and suggested that she look them up in a KJV. Then when James took me to town, I discovered that KJVs were nearly impossible to find. Apparently the publishing company had made some kind of a deal with the Kenyan government. I'll bet that they got a new copyright for that outdated version and someone is making the money off of their sales that would not be possible with the KJV. KJVs have no copyright and cost less, so there is less profit. Now the children are growing up being forced to use a Bible that is of a seriously inferior quality. I finally found a tiny pocket KJV in Kisumu the next week and bought it for her. I will give it to her at the youth retreat next week.

Monday Nov. 28th we made the seven hour trip from Nairobi to Kisumu by car. We previously shipped our heavy suit cases by bus to Kisumu in order to save the springs and shocks on the car because of the rough roads. We only saw one small herd of zebras on the south side of the road.

Since the five of us started working on the review of the Swahili translation over a week ago, we have been working on an average of 14.2 hours each day. We take an average of about two hours off for meals each day. Once in a while we take thirty minutes to rest after lunch. We are working in a two story house in the town of Kisumu. Each of us has a small bedroom and there is a patio and a very small kitchen and a dining area that also doubles for a second work area for one of the committees that is doing a preliminary review on certain chapters that need more work than others. There is a security guard at night in the patio.

The work is proceeding slowly as we begin and are quickly learning ways to save time. More men will be arriving next week. It is a real joy to read and analyze each verse of the Book of Mormon with these brethren. Today we reviewed 2 Nephi chapter 9 which includes —among many other wonderful prophecies about the Messiah, His virgin birth and coming kingdom—the quote from Isaiah 9:10–11 that is explained in the book "The Harbinger." I am keeping careful notes in a clean copy of the Book of Mormon as we work. One of the parts of the work is, after reviewing each chapter, we carefully paste the final text into the publishing layout of the final material that will be used to print the Book of Mormon in Kiswahili.

The men who are currently working together here are Eli Okecha, the pastor (a Priest) of the Kisumu Restoration Branch. Eli is a construction contractor here in Kisumu. Mishael Onyiego (an Elder) who lives in Kisii, which is about a two and a half hour drive from Kisumu toward the south in the direction of Tanzania. Duke Nyakweba who is a business associate (and cousin) of Mishael. Duke is currently the pastor (a Priest) of their branch in Kisii. They have a shop where they make and sell artisanry that they create from soapstone. Bernard (Ben) Ogolla (a member and a Teacher) came from Nairobi several days ago to help us at the request of Eric Odida. Ben is a teacher in middle school in Nairobi. He teaches Swahili, the sciences and English. We anticipate that several other men will arrive within the next week to expand our help in getting the Swahili review finished sooner. I will keep you posted regularly now how the work is proceeding. Mishael just today helped me set up a hotspot with his cell phone so that I will be able to send and receive emails on a regular basis. That will save me from having to leave the work here to go downtown to look for an internet cafe.

Each morning and evening we pray for our families, the work we are doing and the welfare of the church in Missouri and around the world. I have had almost no time to write anything since we started the review here at the guest house. We are up at 7:00 AM every day and usually do not get to bed before 11:30 to 12:00 pm at night. Tonight we stopped an hour early at 10:00 pm because it was Eli Okecha's birthday. His wife Trufena serves as our cook and another young lady (Pauline) helps her every day.

It looks as if this will take longer than I had originally planned, but we believe that our translation will be better than any of the other Kiswahili translations that have been previously done (LDS, Temple Lot & Bickertonite). We have felt God's Spirit each day in our work. We pray for you all each day and ask for your prayers.

Frank Frye 

Swahili Translation - Refining the work

Thursday September 11

Since last Thursday when the translation was finished, we have regrouped the teams and now have only three teams for the review process.  The purpose is for different people to review each chapter that has been translated into Kiswahili (Swahili).  Some of the team members had to return home and left last Sunday after the brief celebration and break from all the work that had been done.  The new teams consist of the same people, some interchanged, but the intent is not to allow any documents that were translated to be reviewed by the same individuals.  We have kept two people per team—one who uses the computer and the other to access either an English Book of Mormon, one of the other three translations of the Book of Mormon into Swahili, English or Swahili Bible or any of a number of dictionaries as needed.  

It is a good thing that my stay here was extended because I'm sure that the details of the review process will probably extend into late next week.  My ticket is for Sunday the 21st, but I must travel by bus across the country again from Kisumu to Nairobi a day or two ahead of time to assure that there will not be any snags in getting to the airport on time.  At present we are at about 1/3 finished reviewing the chapters.  We hope to also have a couple of other small documents translated before leaving.  

I'm leaving templates with each member of the teams which can be used to translate materials of their choice into Luo and other languages when they have time to work on them.  All members of the teams now understand the process quite well and know how to use the page layout program so that they can proceed to do other things as needed.

They will be left with copies of many testimonies and articles about a wide variety of Gospel topics which hopefully will prove to be useful in their work after I return home.  They have been formatted into the A4 paper sizes to facilitate the printing on paper that is sold here.

Please keep the review process in your prayers as we still have a lot of work ahead of us.  The team members are still very excited about what they are doing and very dedicated.  We have a short worship service and prayers every morning and evening followed by a 30 minute class which I've been teaching.  Some of the men continue to get up in the wee hours of the morning (3:00 — 4:00 a.m.) to continue with their work.  Some of the rest of us work quite late and get up in time for the 7:00 a.m. worship service and class.  We are all tired, but we are enjoying it all and will be very happy to see the work finished.

Brother Tom Okeyo who is coordinating the entire project, has been bringing friends in on a frequent basis to have be share with them things that he feels they would benefit from.  It will be good to get back home but I will miss the good friends and the close fellowship that we have enjoyed here during the past four weeks.

In gospel bonds,

Frank Frye

--

"In God we trust"

"En Dios confiamos"

"[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible".

Founding Father, Benjamin Rush.

"[L]a única manera de establecer y perpetuar nuestras formas republicanas de gobierno es la educación universal de nuestra juventud con los principios del cristianismo por medio de la Biblia".

Padre Fundador, Benjamín Rush

Update on the Book of Mormon Translation

Today is Thursday September 4th and we are progressing very rapidly in the translation work on the Book of Mormon.  We do not have easy access to the Internet or email, but to some extent that is an advantage because there are fewer distractions.  I will include photos of the facilities and of the teams in my final report.

Twelve Swahili/English speakers (all members of the Church) have been invited to assist in this project.  We have divided them into six teams, five of which are doing the direct translations and the sixth team is doing some review work as it proceeds.  We felt it important to analyze which teams would be doing the best work, but surprisingly, after their training and about ten days of translating, all of the teams are producing very good translations.  As of last night we had finished about 85% of the text with only seven chapters that are yet to be assigned.  Each team is assigned a few chapters at a time and they return the documents to me continually so that their work can be backed up (by several different methods) and then reassigned to the revision team.

In preparation for this task I originally prepared the documents into the separate books of the Book of Mormon for translation, however during the past four years since I was here last, it became apparent that those were mostly too big for a team to deal with.  If a document were lost or damaged, it would be catastrophic and the men became discouraged.  Smaller documents were necessary.  So I divided the text into a separate document for every chapter in the Book of Mormon.  Each group of chapters were kept in a separate folder for its respective book.  

In translating materials from English to Spanish over the years in Mexico, we discovered that word processors just won't do the job, because two, three or more columns of text are sometimes necessary and they must all be independent of each other.  So a page layout program must be used.  Most have been quite expensive in the past.  One or two are now available at fairly reasonable costs.  So I began with page templates that had three columns that I had developed for the Spanish translations.  We now have the entire Book of Mormon divided into separate documents for each chapter.  The English is in the left hand column, the second column is used for the new translation and the third column can be used either for a different translation or for a blank column for comments.

Next I developed a spreadsheet to keep track of the chapter assignments and their progress.  Since all of the chapters are obviously of differing lengths—some dozens of pages long and others less than a page, it became a challenge to keep track of the progress as the work proceeded.  The length of verses also complicated the tracking.  Then I found that if we counted the number of pages in our page layout program, they would give us a fairly accurate way to track the progress.  While one of the men helped in counting the pages in each documents, I set up the spreadsheet and designed a few simple calculations to make a graph of our progress and project a finishing time.  What we could not project is that the team members improved both in the quality of their translations and in their speed as the weeks passed by.  So we now expect to be finished with the initial translations from the five teams by this weekend.  Everyone here is so excited!  The people here in Eastern Africa have been waiting to be able to read the Book of Mormon in Swahili for many years, and now the end is in sight.

It is very easy to see the growth of the team members as the weeks have passed.  Their knowledge of the Scriptures, their own Swahili language and of the English language has been greatly increased.  The fact that they now have this experience behind them and they all have a sound knowledge of how to use this page layout program as well as the laptop computers, they will be able to easily repeat the process to translate other materials into Swahili or even into Luo—a more localized language on the eastern side of Lake Victoria in Kenya.  Many classes have been taught about the gospel and before we part, each team member will be given a packet of DVDs and CDs with an enormous amount of information on them.  We will be giving out several books and other materials as gifts for those who were especially helpful, or who showed the most improvement or for whatever other reason—to be selected by the teams themselves.  Team members are already excited about sharing what they have learned and done with friends at home and with friends in other countries of Africa—such as the Congo where we already have a small mission, in South Africa and in Malawi which is south of Tanzania.  

It has been an exciting time to be a part of this project.  It has been such a blessing to me to see a renewed cooperation between the Saints in the Center Place.  I believe that the Lord is moving to reunite the Lord's work all over the world.

Funding through the ARM board has made it possible for this group of twelve men to assemble in a reasonably sized facility that is very secure and quiet enough to do the work without interruptions.  My plane ticket and a small amount for personal expenses were provided by the Joint Conference of Branches, and MMSG continues to take care of my wife, Patti at home so that these kind of activities can continue.

___________

Since I don't have easy access to the Internet, it has been several days since the above was written.  These last paragraphs are to announce that we have finally finished the first draft of the translation.  100% of the chapters of the Book of Mormon have been turned in to me for editing and to prepare them for the final review which begins tomorrow after church services here in Kisumu.

Today was set aside as the first break we've had in the weeks-long task of this first draft.  The average work day here has been between 16 and 18 hours.  Some of the men worked very late into the night and others began getting up as early as 3:30 a.m. to see the work accomplished on time.  A special meal was prepared and visitors were invited for a meeting that lasted about two hours where each team was invited to share some of their testimonies.  I was asked to give a sermon and chose to speak about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.  Before the day was over, three new people asked for copies of the Book of Mormon.  

I've been asked to extend my stay for one more week to assist in the final review process.  It has been very exciting to be a part of this historic effort.  I want to thank all of you for your prayers and also for the cooperation of all of the various groups that have made this possible.

I'll keep you updated as things progress.  There will be many things to share when I get back to Missouri.

In gospel bonds,

Frank Frye

--

"In God we trust"

"En Dios confiamos"

"[T]he only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible".

Founding Father, Benjamin Rush.

"[L]a única manera de establecer y perpetuar nuestras formas republicanas de gobierno es la educación universal de nuestra juventud con los principios del cristianismo por medio de la Biblia".

Padre Fundador, Benjamín Rush

Short Update from Frank Frye in Uganda

Yesterday we had six baptisms and perhaps there will be as many as six more on Saturday.  Must go.  We have a class to teach.

Frank

Seventies to Minister in Uganda

Seventy Rex Curtis and Seventy Frank Frye leave on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 for Uganda to minister for two weeks.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Book of Mormon Classes

The Warrensburg Restoration Study Group will launch its activities for 2011 with a series of Book of Mormon classes,"The Eight Pillars of Evidence of the Book of Mormon" taught by Seventy Frank Frye. The classes begin at 6 PM on Sunday, January 16th and continue each Sunday evening thereafter for the next several weeks. The classes will be held in the ABC Building (Warrensburg Parks and Recreation facility), in Grover Park, Warrensburg, MO. The building is located just south of the intersection of E North Street and Commander Wilkes Dr. (Driving directions: US Highway 50 to Warrensburg. South on MO. Highway 13, to North Street. East on North Street to Commander Wilkes Dr. South on Commander Wilkes Dr. to the second building on the right.) Everyone is welcome! If you know someone in the Warrensburg, Holden or Knob Noster areas, including members of various Restoration churches, inactive members or interested non-members please let them know about these classes.

Frank Frye's Jun-Aug 2010 East Africa Diary -- Ch 2

Sat Jun 19
Last night there was one kamikaze mosquito that managed to get inside my mosquito netting and kept dive bombing my ears.  There could have been more—but they all sound alike.  I went to bed late after having written several letters and working on catching up with the earlier days of this diary.  The pesky mosquito then kept me awake for a couple of hours more.  However, I still woke up quite refreshed and feel great.

We had a very good omelet this morning for breakfast.  Tom came about noon and we went to downtown Kisumu to look for a Swahili dictionary and several other things including a few groceries.  We went down to the lake (Victoria) where we had a tilapia lunch, since the cooks back at the house were not preparing lunch for us.  While there we met Caroline Miruka, a cousin of Paul Makawiti and had a nice visit with her.  She is a Seventh Day Adventist, but attends our services frequently.  She will be coming over to visit us at the guest house Sunday evening, and I may have a chance to have a cottage meeting with her.  She is 27 years old and seems quite intelligent.  Picked up some post cards and stamps for my grandson Zachary. 

Came back to the guest house and worked on translations until close to 9:00 p.m.  Paul continued to work on my laptop on the translation while I went to my room to consider what to present at the church service in the morning, as I've been asked to be the speaker.  At about 10:30 p.m. I came back out to check my Email and found a letter from Tom Nunn and Sherrie Wages which had a forwarded letter from Tom's daughter-in-law, Susana Prange.   The letter had an attachment of the Portuguese translation of one of my tracts that I'd left with Tom when in New York with Brother Sherrie last month.  I took the translation and formatted it into both a tract layout and into a three column comparison and sent it back to her for her inspection and permission to send it on to our men in Brazil for finalization with accents and diacritical marks.  I plan to use it in England in August with Bob Moore's new contact who speaks Portuguese. 

Sun Jun 20
Preached in the Branch that Brother Austin and Sister Jane attend.  Tom Okeyo translated.  I spoke about our belief in a God of miracles and related a number of testimonies within the Restored Church and used appropriate scripture references.  Had lunch with half a dozen other men at Brother Austin's home, fixed by his wife, Jane. 

Later that afternoon, when we finally got home, Caroline (Paul's cousin), came over for a class.  We studied about the three different kinds of churches and about Authority.  Gave her several tracts.

After going to bed, a mouse in my room kept me awake until about 5:00 a.m.  I got up several times and moved my luggage to figure out where he was.

Mon Jun 21
Went to town with Tom to exchange some money, mail post cards to Zachary and buy some groceries.  Paul had spent the night with some family members and a young child died, so he had to stay and hold the funeral service and the burial.  He was not with us all day. 

Worked with Tom the rest of the day.

Tues Jun 22
Brother Austin arrived in the morning and I began teaching him about how to do the translation.  Worked with him most of the day.  Later Tom and Paul arrived and we worked together. 

Today I began working separately on a short Keynote class which could be used to teach the translation process so that I can leave it with the men for review after I'm gone.  We have developed a plan about how to finish the project.  The Book of Mormon will be divided into equal parts and given to teams of translators that I will train—one in Kisumu (western Kenya), one in Tanzania and one in Nairobi (eastern Kenya)—with at least two men on each team.  After each book is finished, it will be printed in English and Swahili, copied and given out to key members who know Swahili very well in addition to being students of the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  These documents will be designed with three columns, English, Swahili and a 3rd for comments and corrections.  These documents will then be returned to the committees for incorporation into the final text.

Just before supper time, I was looking inside my small projector case for one of my flannel-graph classes, when I found the mouse that had been keeping me awake for three nights!  Somehow he had gotten zipped in.  He had chewed up one of the plastic bags that contained the flannel-graph pieces for one of the classes, a small nibble on my good leather bound Doctrine and Covenants, and had chewed a little bit near one corner of the case, but thankfully nothing serious.  We took the case outside and I carefully opened it with Tom helping, in an attempt to capture it or stomp on it.  Tom said that they are quick and that we would not catch it.  He was right—it deftly jumped out and zipped away.  I'm sure that we looked pretty silly out on the back patio jumping around and banging slippers everywhere, but all to no avail.  About an hour later, I saw a mouse enter the kitchen from the living room side during supper.  Probably the same critter.  He must know the house pretty well and would have had to go around it to the other side to get in that open door.  So unfortunately he's back.  My door will remain shut, but he can most likely squeeze under it.  We have put poison out.  I should have carried the case across the road before opening it.  You know what they say about hind sight.

During supper, Sandra Osiro, Tom's business partner came to see me.  She is the same one that had come earlier in the week that Tom asked me to teach a class to.  I was rather surprised that she would come to see me again after the previous visit.  I greeted her and she said that she wanted to visit with me when we finished supper.  After supper, she asked me to teach her a class about the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church, because she was thinking about investigating it as she had been questioning the Roman Catholic church, and apparently the earlier class had pushed her over the edge.  I told her that we could visit briefly about the SDA, but that I would much prefer to teach her about the "Fullness of the Gospel".  She agreed.

Since I had just found all the parts to the Come Unto Christ Missionary Flannel-graph (when I found the mouse), I went in my bedroom and got them and we began the class.  I explained to her, that since I probably would not see her again on this trip, I would like to give her a brief overview of the six classes without reading a lot of scriptures.  She said that she would like that even though it might take longer than a normal class.  Tom, Paul and Austin sat in and watched the class, parts of which some of them had never seen.  Amazingly, and for the first time, I went over all of the classes in one extended class and Tom said that he was amazed at how smoothly it all integrated together.  When we finished I gave her four tracts to study and we took her home, because it was late (11:00 p.m.).  She was very pleased and promised to study.  I told her that she needed to get with Tom to study the complete classes properly with their corresponding scripture verses.  Her response was very positive.

Wed Jun 23
Had a very poor day.  Had sinus drainage all day with no relief.  Felt feverish.  Hot day also.  Laid down for about 1 1/2 hours in late afternoon to rest.  That helped.  Paul and Austin continued to work.  I went to bed about 1:00 a.m., but they stayed up until 2:00 a.m. working on the translation.

Thu Jun 24
Took some Ocillococcinium, a remedy that I'd brought from a health food store in Missouri. I took it and had immediate results from the cold this morning.  Had a much better day.

Tom was out most of today in other activities.  After all, he has his own business and has to make a living while I'm over here.  Paul & Austin worked all day.  They are learning how to work together quite well.  I worked on marking my copy of the LDS Book of Mormon.

Found out today that Eric wants Joab to go with Paul & me to Nairobi and then on to Tanzania to get maximum training.  Joab is living in Eric's home in Nairobi and rooms with Patrick Akello.  Eric wants Joab to be able to train Patrick after I leave.  We will have only two weekends in Nairobi to train the men there, but if Joab learns it well in Tanzania and later in Kisumu, then he will be able to fill in the gaps with Patrick and even others.

Fri Jun 25
We traveled from Kisumu to Nairobi.  During the night I monitored the elevation with my small altimeter as we drove back across the highlands and down into the Rift Valley and back up to Nairobi.  From Kisumu which was about 3600 ft, we climbed up to 6000 ft, then down into the Rift Valley at about 4000 ft and from there up to over 8000 ft and back down to Nairobi at about 7000 to 7500 ft depending on where you are in the city.

Sat Jun 26
Arrived at the bus station in Nairobi at 4:00 a.m. and waited until 6:00 as arranged when Eric picked us up to take us to his house.  It was just dawning when we arrived and Eric showed us our beds where we crashed and I slept for about 5 hours, because we got no sleep on the bus or at the bus station. 

When I woke up, they provided a small breakfast and I began teaching Ben, Patrick and several others (who had arrived a little earlier) about the translation process that we would be doing.  Taught several classes and then worked on the translation with the men for most of the rest of the day.

While sharing a video about the "Miracle at Entebbe" and the struggle for Modern day Israel's survival, I suddenly realized that I was near where that took place.  Idi Amin of Uganda had ruled at that time on the other side of Lake Victoria.  The video detailed how several of the rescue planes had circled over Lake Victoria while the advance plane landed with look-alike cars from Idi Amin's entourage to make the first strike.  Later Eric told me that Kenya had cooperated with Israel in the rescue of the hostages from Air France flight #139.  It was fascinating to be so close to where that historical and miraculous rescue took place nearly 34 years ago on July 4, 1976.

Spent the night at Eric and Pam's home.  We had a worship service just before going to bed and instead of a BoM study, they asked me to share some testimonies which I did.

Sun Jun 27
Up at 7:00 a.m. so that we could leave the house by 8:00 to be at the meeting place before 9:00.  Eric had asked me to teach the class using the laptop & projector.  He had asked me to teach the class on the Eight Pillars of Evidence about the Book of Mormon.  It had to be greatly shortened because of the need for an interpreter.  We met in a restaurant that was closed on Sundays and rearranged the tables and chairs.

He had also asked me to preach after the class, which I did and had good liberty.  Eric said that there were about 50 adults plus children.  There were several new people and non-members present.  One of them sent Eric a text message after we left saying that she really enjoyed the sermon.  I spoke about a God of miracles and tied in the Restoration and the BoM using Isaiah 29, John 10:16, etc.  Shared several testimonies including Patti's vision of Christ when she was a teenager, and of a healing in Oaxaca.  Ended with Moroni chapter 10:4 and then the last 3 verses of the same chapter. 

After church I shot a few group photos of the members outside of the building and then we took Pam and two others back to the house.  After that Eric took Paul and me to a supermarket to get a few groceries for lunch. 

That evening Eric took me from his house at 8:00 p.m. to go to the bus station where we met Paul and Joab and we left on a bus for Tanzania.  When we travel on buses, I've been alternately loaning Paul and Joab my iPod and the headphones that my son David had loaned me for this trip, so that they can listen to testimonies and sermons.  The moon was full and Eric had told me that we would be traveling through the Serengeti wildlife area of Kenya.  As we rode west and then southward in the darkened bus I could see the beautiful trees that are characteristic of the Serengeti—the ones that go up so far and then spread out and form kind of a flat canopy of branches and leaves.  I believe that some of them are Acacia trees.  On my left I could see a range of low lying hills or mountains that the road seemed to be following.  There was a lot of vegetation, but I couldn't tell what kind it was.  In the daylight I've seen eucalyptus trees that apparently the British brought here from Australia several centuries ago.  I've seen cactus and agave type plants that are very similar to what grows in Oaxaca, that perhaps were brought from Mexico.  I've been monitoring the altitude since leaving Nairobi and we climbed out of the city to 8000 feet and then have gone up to close to 10,000 feet and are back down now to about 9000 feet.  The air outside is quite chilly, in fact if I didn't have my jacket on in the bus I would be down right cold.  The window seat would be uncomfortable tonight.  Thank goodness the bus is not full and I can carry my laptop case in the seat next to the window and can sit in an aisle seat.

Part of the road has been good, but we just turned off onto a really bad bumpy road.  Makes for hard typing.  I've had little time to work on my journal in the day time since I'm either teaching a class on the laptop or the men are using it to do the work together on the translation.  Don't think I'll be able to write much more tonight.

Mon Jun 28
We arrived at the Tanzania border at about 5:30 a.m.  We had to get out of the bus and walk to the Kenyan office where I had to fill out a card and get an exit stamp put in my passport.  Of course Paul didn't need to do anything because he is from Tanzania and the countries of East Africa have travel agreements for their citizens.  The office was not open yet.  There was a stiff breeze and the temperature must have been 50° F. or below.  If I hadn't had the jacket on ... well it was really cold.  When the office did open and I got a form, it was difficult to write because my hands were shaking so much.  That made me thankful that it was not a permanent nervous condition!  Then we had to walk further and cross into Tanzania so that I could get a visa stamped in my passport for that country.  It cost $100.00 USD.  They assured me that it would be good for one full year.  (Wow—think of all that will save us!)  I began to walk back to the bus to get on it, but it was already moving to the border check point.  After getting on it, we waited for the other passengers to finish up their paperwork and finally left the border at about 7:00 a.m.  The altitude at the border registered at about 6300 feet.

We continued on in the bus in Tanzania through more of the Serengeti.   Did see some wildebeest off in the distance once.  Arrived in Mwanza at a little after 11:00 a.m.  It was about a 14 hour trip through the night.  Part of the time, I had to hold my laptop/projector case on my lap because the bus filled up after the border.  When it finally became light, I was able to shoot a number of photos out of the dirty window, but think that I did get some interesting shots.  We arrived at Paul's home and I finally got to lay down for a short rest.  Paul and Joab had slept quite a bit on the bus, but I don't think that I slept more than five minutes a couple of times, so I was pretty tired.

When I woke up after a couple hours of rest, Paul was gone but Joab was here.  He fixed me a small basin of water that I could use to bathe with and took it outside to the one hole outhouse near the entrance to the house, but then couldn't find a towel.  So I had to wait until Paul returned several hours later before I could get cleaned up and shaved.  Soon Paul's family members began to arrive.  We visited and then began a class that Paul suggested, but then his sister and two other girls started bringing some food in for us.  We stopped for supper and then started the class over again for all to see.  At Paul's request, the class was about the Body of Christ—the Church of Jesus Christ.  The class went well in the very dim light of his home. 

Everyone has gone home now and it is about 11:00 p.m.  Tomorrow we plan to start training men here in this area about the translation of the Book of Mormon into Swahili.  The government of Tanzania intentionally chose to reject the English language of the former British colonists and for about a generation now has only taught Swahili in the schools.  Consequently few people speak English.  Paul and I shared the one bed in his home which has a nice mosquito net over it.

Tue Jun 29
Paul and I did some studying together early in the morning, and then he had to go downtown to exchange some Dollars into Tanzania Shillings so that we could buy some food.  (He got an exchange rate of 1410 TSh / USD.)  I stayed at the house with Joab.  The house consists of two rooms, each about 9 x 10 feet—a living room and a bedroom.  The living room has two small couches one matching chair, a large coffee table and a television set in the corner.  We do have electricity which keeps us running for working on the translation materials.  Paul is a tailor by profession, but has taken time off to spend full time working with me and the others that need training.  Later I met others of his family and discovered that the whole family consists of tailors.

Gershom Jeremiah ODaks came at about 3:00 p.m. at Paul's invitation to receive some training.  Gershom is a teacher in Tanzania.  He teaches English & Math, for the Third Grade level.  He is a member of the church, but not a priesthood member.  Paul says that he has been helping on the Book of Mormon SDA manuscript.  We had three classes and a lot of discussion—one on the translation of the Book of Mormon, another on Bible translations (versions) and the third and longest one was the DVD on the Eight Pillars of Evidence of the Book of Mormon.  Paul wanted me to show it to him on the laptop.  Paul had to translate for it, so I had to stop it after every sentence.  It was long, and we paused at about 7:30 p.m. because it was taking so long for the translation (into Luo), but Gershom did not want to stop.  He wanted to see all of it.  We finally finished at 10:00 p.m.  Both Gershom and Paul's brother-in-law Nicolas Ojijo (who is an SDA) were very attentive.  Gershom later said that he liked the archaeology part best.

Worked late after Paul went to bed.  I finally got to bed at about 2:00 a.m.

Wed Jun 30
This morning I worked on the dictionary for the Book of Mormon.  Before leaving Kenya for Tanzania, I had written back to the States asking several people for an electronic copy of a Book of Mormon dictionary thinking that it would expedite the selection of proper nouns for translation, but none had arrived yet, so I am marking them in one of my Books of Mormon.  Later, Joab read them off to me as I typed them into the database which I had designed for this purpose.  A database is best suited for this kind of task because of its versatility.  When finished, it could be exported from the data base and reformatted and printed for distribution among the translators.

I had also written to Sharon Warner asking for some specifics about the number of translations of the Book of Mormon that had been published without verses and just when the verses were finally added to the LDS Book of Mormon and our edition also.  Sharon passed the request on to Pamela Price who found the information and got it to me in time for me to finish up the training class before my twelve days in Tanzania ended. 

Later in the day, we went down town to look for a good Bible.  We still haven't found one.  They are more expensive in Tanzania than in Kenya.  I finally found a small booklet to jot down expenses in at a book store.  We then came home and I continued to work on the words and Hebraisms for the Book of Mormon dictionary, while the others worked on the translation with this laptop.  Later I worked on my LDS Book of Mormon in remarking it with our chapter and verse numbers.  There is no real table to work at here, so it makes this kind of work rather difficult. 

When the day ends, the light is very dim inside the house.  There is one three foot fluorescent tube that is about an inch in diameter that goes through a hole in the wall between the living room and the bedroom that serves as the only light in the house, so it is difficult to do anything else except work on the laptop after the sun goes down.  The three men stopped working on it during supper.  After supper, I taught another class about the Apostasy and a little about the Restoration.  After the class, Paul and I stayed up and talked for about another hour and we finally got to bed just before 1:00 a.m. 

Frank Frye's Jun-Aug 2010 East Africa Diary -- Ch 1

Introduction
A number of people have asked me to share the diary from my eleven week stay in East Africa with the Saints in a similar manner as Brother Randy Vick has done.  I've agreed to do so with the understanding that Randy and I are two very different people and the purpose of my trip was very different than the ones that Randy has written about.  It should also be kept in mind that this was my diary and is not intended to even use complete sentences at times.  At times, brevity was very important.

We have both had some wonderful experiences with the people of Africa, but my diary may be a bit more hum drum than his because my task was to focus mostly on just one thing—the preparation of the Swahili text of the Book of Mormon for publication.  As you will discover while reading about my stay in Kenya and in Tanzania, it was not as simple as we had first thought. 

While in East Africa, I was privileged to share in teaching and preaching ministry on many occasions and had many wonderful experiences with both members of the Church and those who came seeking more truth.  I hope that you are edified from what has been written.  It certainly was a valuable and memorable experience for me and I made many new friends among the Saints there, as well as others outside of the fellowship of the Church.  I found the Saints there to be just as dedicated to the "cause of Zion" (the Church), the Lord and the spreading of the Gospel as the best of the Saints in America.  They share a vibrant faith in the Lord and the Restored Gospel.  Their enthusiasm to build up the Church in all the world is strong.  Many of them practice family worship in their homes daily.

I pray that the sacrifices that were made to cover the cost of this trip as well as the sacrifices and efforts that were made by the Saints in Africa will be rewarded by a rich harvest of souls who will have opportunity to read the Book of Mormon and the other materials referred to in their own tongue when this project reaches its completion.          
Frank Evan Frye

Sun Jun 6
Our daughter Sariah and my wife Patti took me to the airport in Kansas City where I arrived in plenty of time.  We were delayed in our departure, but I had sufficient layover time in Detroit that there was no problem.  The flight to Detroit lasted only a couple of hours.  Actually we were delayed in our departure from Detroit because they couldn't get one of the doors to close and had to replace it.  Better to do that on the ground than have it fall off in the air.  We left Detroit and flew for seven hours to Amsterdam.  It was night during most of the flight, but I couldn't see anything anyway because my seat was in the middle row of four seats.  There were three seats on the outside rows.  Probably because of the recent volcanic eruption, we flew south quite a bit on this trip and could not see Greenland which is covered with ice and is a break from staring at the empty ocean.  By the time we came to the British Isles it was getting light.  We were arriving earlier than Missouri time because we were flying toward the sun and gaining hours.  I did get a glimpse of Ireland and England as we flew over them by getting out of my seat and looking out of the windows in other parts of the airplane.  We were free to walk around much of the time.  They were very green contrasted with what we would see later flying over the great Sahara Desert.

We arrived a little late in Amsterdam because of our delay, but I still had about three hours for a layover.  We had gained six hours during the flight.  I had no money except US Dollars, so I was at the mercy of the shop keepers in the airport.  I was very thirsty by that time and looked for water.  A small bottle of water was €1.55 (Euros).  One shop keeper, not wanting Dollars, tried to charge me $5.00 USD for 8 ounces of water.  I guess that's not highway robbery, but it was airport robbery.  Finally I found another shop that sold me a small water for $3.00 USD.  I savored it carefully.  The plane for Nairobi was a couple of hours late in boarding us.  KLM seats are very narrow, so the next seven and one half hours were quite uncomfortable.  Sleep was almost out of the question.  We flew south, south east over Europe.  We flew over French air space and then over part of Italy and near the western coast of Greece.  Then over the Mediterranean Sea.  After that, we flew over the sands of the Sahara Desert.  It was still light enough during the first part of the flight to see the yellowish brown sand dunes 39,000 feet below.  We flew through the night gaining more hours as we went eastward and arrived in Nairobi early in the morning. 

Mon Jun 7
De-boarding the plane, waiting in line to get a visa at the airport and going through customs took about an hour and a half.  I did not know that we had to pay $25.00 USD in cash for the visa.  Fortunately I still had a little cash out and could pay it.  As I went through the gate leaving customs, the first person that I recognized was Randy Vick and Eric was at his side.  Randy saw me and yelled to get my attention, but he was not hard to identify because he was rather tall and was standing in a crowd of Africans.  They took me outside to a car where they placed my luggage.  Then we went back inside where we waited several hours more for the men coming from Liberia who were flying in that morning.  When they finally arrived, they did not have the money to pay for their visas and were detained in some office.  They were able to call Eric on his cell phone.  Eric was on his way to the airport when he stopped to put diesel in his car, but they put gasoline in it by mistake.  When he realized what had happened, they had to drain the tank which took quite some time.  Because of that, he was about an hour and a half late getting to the airport.  As a result of that, we missed the bus ride that we had planned to go to Kisumu.  However, Raymond James from Cameroon had been able to obtain a visa to Kenya at the last minute and flew in later that morning.  We had already given up on his obtaining a visa and were planning on going to the retreat without him as we had not heard otherwise from him.  He called Eric when he arrived at the airport while Eric was still trying to get the gasoline out of his car.  Eric later realized that if he had not had the unfortunate accident with the diesel, we would have gone off and left Raymond stranded at the airport in Nairobi.  We all realized that God had intervened by allowing the accident at the service station so that Raymond could travel with us and not miss any of the conference.  When Eric finally arrived at the airport, he had to jump through a bunch of diplomatic hoops just to get the men from Liberia out of their detention at the airport.  It was late in the day when we finally got to the home where Randy and I were going to stay with Brother Auggrey Anditi and his good wife Sylvia.  Randy hooked up his computer and called home using his Skype account.  Then he let me make a phone call home.   David answered.  I just told him that all was well and that I had arrived in Kenya.  Our host family fed us supper after which we visited for a while and finally Randy and I went to bed.  We shared a double bed with a mosquito net over it.  Neither of us slept well, but it was much better than the airplane seat.

On the last leg of the trip into Nairobi, there were about six seats in the middle of the plane and the usual two or three on each side.  I had been awarded one of the middle seats in the center seats.  A very large Kenyan lady was seated to my right.  After we took off, she went to sleep and spilled over into about 1/3 of my seat.  That gave me the dubious privilege of sitting at about 20 degrees to my left for most of the trip.  As we were arriving I tried to speak with her, but she did not understand much English.  I gave her a tract and smiled and said that it was about Jesus.  She smiled back.  As we deplaned, she had to wait for a wheel chair because of problems with her legs.

Tue Jun 8
In the morning our host family served us breakfast and later Eric arrived and took us to his home where I saw his wife Pamela and some others who were to travel with us that day.  We waited for several hours while Eric was calling around to find a van that would take us to Kisumu for a reasonable price.  We finally left and wound our way through the streets of Nairobi to get out of town.  During the five hour trip I took out my iPod and the headphones and passed them around sharing recordings that I had made of different testimonies over the years and that I've used on our tours in Mexico.  I was able to share five testimonies with four different men during the trip.  We drove down into the great rift valley as we drove across Kenya toward Lake Victoria.  Then we drove up the other side of the rift valley.  I'm guessing that it is about a thousand feet deep and maybe twenty to thirty miles wide.  A couple of the men saw a zebra during the drive, but all that I saw were a few antelope at a great distance.  They said that the zebra was right next to the road.  By this time it had been three days since I'd had a good night's sleep, so my attention may have drifted. 

During the last half of the trip to Kisumu, we drove through vast plantations of tea plants that were trimmed like the bushes in an English park.  They went on for miles and miles.  The plants were trimmed about two to three feet tall and as flat and perfect as a putting green.  There were walk ways every so often where the workers could get around to harvest and care for the plants.  In several places we saw huge housing compounds where I presume the workers lived, and also large buildings where the harvested leaves were either stored or processed.  By that time in the afternoon, it was almost too dark to get any photos of the area, but I managed to get a couple.  Hope to get some photos on another trip on that road.  The area where the tea was growing was at a high elevation, probably between 6000 and 8000 feet, because it was quite chilly through that area.

Wed Jun 9
Pan African Elders Conference began.
Randy Vick's report gives the details of these days.  Brother Eric Odida asked me to teach classes on nearly each day and on some days more than one.  There were men who attended from Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Tanzania, the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.  We stayed at a camp ground to the east of Kisumu.  The accommodations were very adequate for the needs of the conference.  Brother Randy taught the men a class on stewardship that had been approved by the Seventy and the Bishopric.  That same class was taught several other times during the time that I was there on this trip and copies of it were left with the men in Africa for them to use in the future.  I gave each of the men at the Conference about a dozen new tracts that I had written while in Mexico and several DVDs about the Book of Mormon.  These had been prepared for this purpose by Brother Harry Williams and were donated by MMSG (Mexican Ministries Support Group).

Thu-Sat Jun 10-12
Pan African Elders Conference

Sun Jun 13 
After the Conference ended, Brother Tom Okeyo took me to the village of Lisana where Eric Odida's grandmother lives.  There I preached for their Branch in the open air under a tree, and later blessed a baby boy (Emanuel).  I was impressed that a number of the people had handwritten copies of hymns in small notebooks from which they sang.  They were our Latter Day Saints hymns.  Paul Makawiti (from Tanzania) accompanied us.  He will be helping with Swahili project.  Ate lunch in the home of Joshua Okaylu (teacher).  He has seven sons and seven daughters.  Met Michael Onyiego (priest).  Gave out several tracts about the testimony of the light that came down from heaven in 1875 during a baptismal service at night where J.J. Cornish was performing the baptism in Canada.  I had mentioned that in my sermon.  Paul asked me to speak with a friend of his by phone and I promised to send her some written materials about the Restoration (Restoration in Prophecy & History)  Two adult men were invited by Tom and I gave them some reading materials.  Gave out two tracts about the "Wines of the Bible" there also. 

Then Tom brought me to the home of Brother Austin and Jane Odicoh where I was to spend the night.  I'm afraid that I was a rather bad guest at that point, because I was so totally exhausted that I just kind of passed out on their couch for several hours in spite of the fact that several guests came to greet me.  Austin's wife, Jane is a wonderful hostess and has taken very good care of me.  She is a very well educated person and has studied and taught a great deal of important information about nutrition in her area of Kenya.  Jane and Austin were not members of the Restoration when they were married.  Jane was a member of different church than Austin's when they were married and eventually joined his church.  When he found the Restoration, she was reluctant to make another change, but after much prayer and study, she joined with her husband in the greater light.  Both she and her husband have won my respect as dedicated and faithful members of the Lord's Church.  Brother Austin will be helping with the translation of the Book of Mormon into Swahili.

Mon Jun 14
Finally, got some rest last night.  Used some Melatonin drops that I had purchased for the trip and they helped me fall asleep promptly and I slept for ten hours and awoke very refreshed.  They had a basin of hot water for me in the bathing room where I bathed "jicarazo" style.  A jícaro [hee-kah-row] is the Spanish name for a gourd that can be used to either carry water in or if cut in half, as a kind of a natural cup with which to bathe or drink.  Then we had breakfast and soon Tom Okeyo arrived to take me to the Kisumu guest house where they keep visitors.  We went back to the village of Lisana and picked up Paul Makawiti and then traveled around the south side of Lake Victoria to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) institute, which had contracted to translate the Book of Mormon into Swahili many years ago, in hopes that we would be able to obtain the first half of the book in digital form.

Just prior to coming to Africa I was given a CD that only had the last half of the BoM on it, but not the first half.  No one seemed to be able to locate those documents in electronic form.  The SDA director was not there and the only person we could talk to, was new and knew nothing about the project.  We finally convinced the new man to look for the files on the computer because the director was out of town and would not be returning until next Monday.  After a lot of searching, he found copies of the missing files and I was able to install them on my laptop—thank goodness!  The new person began to ask us questions about the Book of Mormon and we had a good discussion with him, so I left him with several tracts to read.

We drove from the SDA institute back around Lake Victoria and to Kisumu where Tom stopped to purchase a couple of items and then we looked for a place to eat.  It was already too late to exchange any money as the exchange houses all close at 4:30 p.m. sharp.  We had missed lunch because of the trip to the SDA institute, so supper was welcome.  From there we went to the guest house arriving after dark. 

My room is comfortable with a double bed and a mosquito net over it.  The bathroom consists of three parts: an entry (dressing) room that has a small sink, a "water closet" (for the toilet) and a shower room.  The shower room has a cement floor and two faucets—one each for cold and hot water.  If you want hot water, you must switch on the water heater about an hour before you want to bathe.  It works quite efficiently—if you remember to turn on the water heater in time.

Tue Jun 15
I began explaining the translation process to Tom and Paul after breakfast.  It is a rather complicated sounding method at first, but we began to learn how to work together and to see what our strengths and weaknesses were.  Both Tom and Paul know Swahili fairly well.  Tom is from Kenya and Paul is from Tanzania.  Paul has done more studying on this manuscript than Tom, but Tom knows English better and can type.  Paul's English is limited to some extent and he can only hunt and peck on the keyboard.  Both have a fairly decent understanding of the Book of Mormon, but neither understood the importance of preserving the language of scripture. 

One of the fundamental problems is that the people who hired the SDA to do the translation work on the Book of Mormon did not understand the need to use some basic protocols on vocabulary, names of people and places.  The man who the SDA had hired for the translation work was given information many years ago about how it was to be done, but after working on the project for a while, he disappeared with the money and left the SDA institute holding the bag.  They knew nothing of Hebraisms and did not have a good method of translating (in English and Swahili in parallel columns verse by verse).  As a result, they couldn't even keep their own work in order.

The SDA institute is apparently not a real translation production outfit and just did what they thought might work, and since no one was here to monitor what was going on, a lot of time and effort has gone into a manuscript that may have very little use for our publication purposes.  We will however, be able to use it to show that we paid to have a completely different translation made in case the LDS church or anyone else challenges us for the work that we have done for a new translation.

We worked until about 11:00 p.m. with a short break before lunch and another one before supper (something that they call "tea").

Wed Jun 16
Today while we were working on the translation, Tom blurted out "Now I see!  I don't know how the Seventh Day Adventists were able to keep track of anything that they did!  Without the method we're using [multiple columns], they got all kinds of things mixed up!  No wonder their work was so shoddy!"  He realized what had happened and began to understand the process and saw the importance of doing the work in a more orderly fashion than what the SDA institute had done. 

A good part of the time during these first couple of days was spent in adjusting the English text into parallel columns with the Swahili text from the SDA institute (which was poorly put together) and in many places there were no verse numbers as well as gaps of text from one or two verses missing to a number of pages missing!  These guys did a very unprofessional job, and it is just now becoming apparent.  There is however a legal contract for the job, and it may still provide us with some leverage.

To simplify the process and for security purposes, each book of the Book of Mormon is being placed in its own separate document.  That way there is less chance of losing any significant portion of the book if any document is either lost or a computer crashes.  All documents are to be backed up each day also on some memory sticks which will be provided for that purpose.

Thu Jun 17
Worked from about 8:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. with the customary lunch and supper breaks.  The learning curve has been high for the two men, but we are beginning to work faster. 

Sandra Osiro, a business partner of Tom's came to visit in the evening and Tom asked me to teach her a short class.  I had never done this before, but I started with her for some reason on a class about "The Inquisition" which is one of my very graphic classes about the Apostasy.  She was very attentive, and after the class was over, she told me that she had been a Catholic since infancy.  When I heard that, I felt that I had possibly made a mistake because that class is very strong evidence of the historical problems with the Roman Catholic church.  But she seemed to be very interested.  We'll have to wait to see what happened with her after she has time to digest the class.

Each time that I turn on the laptop here at the guest house, or even wake it up from its sleeping mode, it checks for an Internet connection.  There are several in the neighborhood, but I've not been able to connect with any of them.  This time one connected and I could at least check my Email account.  I'm afraid to turn it off now because I may lose the connection.  (The connection only lasted several days.  When it was lost, I was never able to reconnect again.  After that, we had to go to an Internet cafe some place down town to check for Email.)

Fri Jun 18
Three days ago we saw a large rat run into the house from the patio, so the day before yesterday we went down town and bought two rat traps for him.  I placed them out with bait, but in the morning the bait was gone—no rat.  We reset them with different bait with the same results the next morning.  Last night I did not sleep well because I was awakened by a tiny mouse twice in the night.  It was nibbling on some plastic bags that I left on the headboard of the bed.  I turned on my small flashlight and finally saw the little critter.  Of course it was outside of my mosquito netting, so I had to get out of that in order to rearrange things.  That interrupted my sleep and I did not feel as good today as yesterday.  Today I figured out that these tiny mice can eat the bait from the large rat traps without setting the things off.  So it looks like I'll have to buy some poison for them because the critter I saw was too small even for a mouse trap.  I don't want them gnawing into my suitcases.  I have always kept them zipped up at night and nearly all other times.  I only open them when I need to get something out. 

Tom finally obtained the printed manuscript of the first 400 pages of the Swahili Book of Mormon that was done by the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) institute and brought it to us around noon.  Somehow rain water had leaked in around it and the bottom cardboard cover and about an inch of the pages were damp and severely mildewed.  Paul Makawiti has reviewed much of the manuscript and has made some corrections on it between the lines in pencil.  The manuscript is about five inches thick and is very fragile.  [We finally got it dried out and it is in much better shape now.]

Today we passed the 100th verse of the first chapter of First Nephi.