Lusaka and Copperbelt Zone Conferences Jan/Feb 2014. Miscellaneous missionaries and members.

Lusaka zone conference....our first held at the mission office.

                                        Sisters George and Orr. Sister George is a quadruplet!

                                                                   Idaho elders!

                                         Beautiful Sisters! Beautiful Hair! Maznio and Makunye

 Some advice was given to us in the MTC that our missionaries should have more character and be less characters. Well...this group has and is both. They are terrific.

                                                 Elders Moya and Hinckely in Lilongwe

 Elder Ayubu demonstrating for all other missionaries what NOT TO DO! We promise...we do not condone or promote this behavior...but sometimes...Ugandans will be Ugandans:)

 Sister Kandioni and her family. Faithful members in Blantyre. She is an artist and craftswoman. She and her granddaughters make beautiful necklaces and give excellent talks in church.

Copperbelt zone conference

                             Elders Odunga and Doig...great companions...a Kenyan and a Canadian

                                                         

Elder Barnard and Moses

Life in the mission is a never ending steady stream of comings and goings.

  Our most recently arrived are 2 wonderful sisters who did not get their visas renewed from Botswana, Sisters Vea and Gehring. Sister Vea is from Hauula on the north shore of Oahu and talking to her reminds me of Sharon Beaver and her daughters (they are in the same home ward). Sister Gehring used to babysit the grandchildren of our public affairs couple, the Humpherys. Small world! Then we received Elder Walusimbi who we were expecting and with him came 2 elders who did not get into Botswana, Elder Barrett and Elder Njeri.

Sister Santinho and Sister Khumalo departed the mission in Jan and Feb. Sister Khumalo left us with a special gift that she made out of paper! INSPIRING!

And finally, we get to meet  Elder and Sister Stones and their son Nate who we have been corresponding with for months to get them here with us! They will serve in Lilongwe, Malawi. This is their 3rd mission and we are so blessed to have them here with us. They got here just in time for our senior couples conference. 

Yes, pictures can paint a thousand words but they never do justice to the real thing. Forgive us all the roadside scenery, but we can't help it.

Frank Mantchichi was President Erickson's AP when we arrived in the mission. Now he is home in Blantyre and Sunday we were blessed to witness the baptism of his sister. She chose Elder Draycott to baptize her. It was a wonderful day. Our Blantye elders have big personalities! and we love them.

We loved our drive to Malawi in December so much we decided to drive it again in January. In eastern Zambia the road crosses the Luangwa river. The elevation here drops to 400 meters above sea level (1300 ft) and it is hot! This little town sits at the edge of the river valley. We bought 4 baskets, 2 sweepers, a sun hat, 2 wooden spoons, 3 chitenges and 2 bottle fish for lunch and spent about 13 USD. The woman with the skewer wrapped the fish in newspaper for us and then gave me a Tbs of salt in the palm of my hand.

The Lord taketh and the Lord giveth! 8 unexpected missionaries in 3 days.

 These 4 Sisters came to us by way of Botswana. Security clearance visa issues.

 In Botswana they are not required to have Yellow Fever shots, so first on our list was to get them immunized.

These 4 Elders are waiting for their visas to get into Kenya. That makes a total of 9 missionaries pending for Kenya, 4 for Botswana. We have already decided we love them enough to want to keep them forever. Eager to serve wherever they are sent, these young elders and sisters are remarkably resilient and faithful!