Kunama: A Miracle in Statistics

Joseph Smith look alikes at Zone Conference

Kunama: A Miracle in Statistics:

On Saturday I was on exchange with Elder Crane in my own area. The day had not gone as planned mostly because we hadn't properly planned it. All of our set lessons had fallen through and I felt like we weren't being effective enough. Our Zone Leaders called us and wanted to do a pass-off lesson with a guy in a nearby complex in 5 minutes. We showed up and waited in the car for about 5 minutes but it soon became apparent that the Zone Leaders would not be here for a while. Trying to make the most of our waiting time we got out and just started walking along a road in this apartment complex, at first the only person out was an older Hispanic lady who accepted a card, said, "No English" and then hobbled off. 

I was getting ready to start knocking every door on one building in particular when someone a few feet in front of us started revving their parked Nissan Altima so we walked over there to see what all the ruckus was about. Inside the Altima was a man who looked kind of African but not enough to make a fair judgement. And there were 2 women outside of the car who also looked  kind of

 Like they were African but were trying really hard to blend in with average African-Americans. We went over and talked to them tried giving one of the women a card but she just laughed and told her friend to take it. I could barely hear them over the sound of this guy, still revving his Altima so we weren't sure what accent they had. They wouldn't talk much in the more quiet moments anyway they would just stare at us and ask if we were Jehova's Witnesses. Finally the guy got out of the car walked over to us in a pair of basketball shorts and a tanktop swore at us and cursed what he assumed to be our religion (Jehova's witnesses).  I was about ready to call it quits and just tell the lady to go to the website and ask if there were any Africans because it was becomimg obvious she wasn't interested in talking with us. Then the 2 started speaking to each other in some non-exclusive language and I got excited. 

"Where are you from?" I asked, 

"Africa... obviously." The woman replied turning slightly away from me. 

Uncaring of her apparent dislike of me I continued, "Well, where in Africa? It's a big place."

"East Africa." She humphed and with that folded her arms and turned almost completely away from me.

"I have a friend from East Africa," I said hoping to spark her interest, "He's from Eritrea."

She looked at me over her shoulder trying to act disinterested, "Well... I'm from Eritrea."

That was surprising. Eritrea is a tiny country with a matching tiny population. Most people, including Africans have never heard of it, I think we've met 2 people that actually knew where it was. On top of that, it's difficult for people to leave the country, it's been called "The North Korea of Africa." I'd only met one other person from Eritrea (besides Elder Shiday). 

I was shocked but continued, "Oh cool... he speaks Kunama though."

She turned toward me completely and said in a gravely serious voice, "We speak Kunama too."

What we've just witnessed is a statistical miracle. The Kunama people are an ethnic minority in Africa. The only place they can be found (natively) is in Eritrea and they only comprise 2% of the population. Today, 80% of the Kunama people still reside in Eritrea. That means the other 20% (Elder Shiday estimates it to be between 100,000-200,000) are scattered throughout the rest of the world. Most, still in refugee camps in Ethiopia or Sudan. There are handfuls in Alabama, North Dakota and Georgia and maybe like 5 or 6 families in Dallas. In his first week in the field Elder Shiday found 2 more but they moved almost immediately after that. And now we just found 1 more family.

She didn't believe me at first, saying she could list off every Kunama person in DFW but after I explaimed who we were she did. She agreed to hear the message, but she probably just wanted to see if there actually was someone that spoke Kunama.

The next day I took Elder Shiday to her apartment and guess what: she wasn't home! 

He was a little disappointed but we tracted out the building to see if there were any Congolese nearby and in doing so we found a Nepalese guy that somehow has gotten hold of a Book of Mormon and had been reading it regularly for the past month and wanted to meet with missionaries. And then we found 4 more Kunama people from two separate families plus the guy who swore at me the night before, it was a party.

This is proof that we are each called to serve by more than a bunch of old guys and a computer, all of us are where we are and where we need to be by divine design, even though sometimes I forget it. I believe it. 

Je vous aime,

Elder Murdoch

Pic: Joseph Smith costume party at Zone conference