Malawian churches

                     Didn't even realize that I had captured this boy with his shoe on his head!

The drive between Lilongwe and Blantyre, Malawi has become one of our favorite places on the earth!

The 1st weekend in November we were in Malawi for our first District Conference (the first of three in the mission). The conference was terrific. Blantyre has 4 branches that make up the District and there were 225 in attendance at the Sunday session. The district presidency gave powerful talks that were very inspirational. We love the members in Blantyre. Sister Catherine Mwale gave me a chitenge! My first. I wanted to pay her for it but she wanted it to be a gift. This is a sweet and wonderful woman. Her husband, James is in the district presidency and her son, James is submitting his papers to serve a mission. She is the one who told me that she loves the restored Gospel because it has taught her how to forgive. On Saturday we did the same district council training that we did with Lusaka district 2 months ago. It was very successful and Leif did a terrific job again! There were almost 25 investigators at Sunday's conference session. They all met with President Erickson after the meeting for a special gathering. Their excitement to be meeting the Mission President was fun for me to watch.

On our drive to and from Blantyre we decided to pay particular attention to and try to capture for our blog the beautiful people in Malawi and the things they transport….whether on their heads or on bicycle or by truck.  As common as these sights are, we do not tire of seeing them….in fact, just the opposite. We love these vistas and sights and long to repeat the drive again next month to see the changing landscape as the rainy season approaches and the maize starts to grow in this fertile soil.

Three new sisters waiting for Kenya visas. While they're here we'll love them as our own

Dearly departed missionaries, as in those traveling back home.

Elder and Sister Harvey

Elder Speakman

Chris and Angela Chansa and their cute kids came over to swim

Robert had a bit of trouble and it gave Linda a good excuse to go into the pool in her clothes. As he was in the deep end and starting to struggle I said: "Well, you better go get him". She had already shed her watch, and glasses and in she went.

The construction of our new meetinghouse in Kalambo. Lilongwe, Malawi. A little different than the ones we put up in Utah.

 This will be the chapel

 Our construction team. Can you imagine showing up to work at a construction site in Boston with these shoes or no shoes in some cases? They're doing great work.

 These building will be used as classrooms and offices