IT ONLY LOOKS LIKE ALL FUN AND GAMES

We had a ward Christmas Party on January 9.  These are some of the ladies in the ward that were doing the cooking. The girl on the right just recently got her mission call- she is going to Scotland/Ireland.  She is the daughter to the stake president, President Lumbama.  Her mother is the one on the far left.

We were told that the party started at 11:00 but when we got to the church there wasn't a soul in sight.  When we came back at 12:30 there were a few people.  Then we got a phone call asking if we could help transport the food from the bishop's house to the church.  Because of rain and power outages, they didn't start cooking until 11.  We made 5 trips between here and the church and finally.....

at 4:00 we ate.  Everyone just kept telling us that it's African Time.  That's worse than Mormon Standard Time.  There were a lot more people than we see at church.  We barely had enough food to feed everyone but it was delicious.  I made a potato salad but it was long gone before Craig or I got to eat.  There was rice, macaroni, chicken, sausages, coleslaw and potato salad.

If you can't tell what this is, I'll tell you.  It's the swimming pool at the gym we found close to our flat.  We joined the gym and it has pretty much everything we need, except for maybe air conditioning, but we never see anyone working on the pool.  I think it's going to be a while before it's ready to use.

Soooo, lots of people get their L's and their R's mixed up, right?

And right across the street is the local Dr.'s office.  He wasn't in the office on this day, though.

Just about 20 minutes outside of Lusaka we found this little campground that had zebras and giraffes just wandering around and we got out of our car and wandered among them.  They wouldn't let us get too close but it was kind of fun to get as close as we did. 

I don't even know what this animal is called.  Some kind of antelope.  Abe, see if you can find out what this is.

Just so you know it isn't all fun and games out here, our work in self reliance continues.  Our groups are growing in size and we will be conducting several YSA firesides on self reliance this weekend in Ndola and Kitwe.  It is an inspired program and we love teaching it's principles.

This past week I read the talk given by Elder Larry R. Lawrence at the 2015 October General Conference. It is titled "What Lack I Yet?"   I loved it although it's hard to look at your own weaknesses.  One of my weaknesses is that I look at my weaknesses too much.  What do I do about that?  Tell me your thoughts on this talk.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

Christmas morning we had the other senior couples and the sister missionaries over for breakfast.  On the right are the Bodily's from Arizona, who are welfare missionaries and the other couple, the Groesbecks, are from Sandy, Utah.  They are the office couple and this is their second mission, the first one was to Mongolia.

These are the name tags of the sisters.  Try saying those 3 times in a row.  Sister Nyachwo is from Uganda and Sister Andreamamonjisoa is from Madagascar.  They live next door to us right  now but that changes frequently.  It is so hard to remember all the missionaries names- especially the African names.  We have been to some teaching appointments with them and they are fantastic missionaries.  We love them!

This string of tinsel was my only Christmas decoration this year.  I was kind of a Scrooge- it just didn't feel like Christmas to me.  I had to remind myself the day was not about me but about the birth of the Savior.  That really helped me put it all into perspective.  Being stripped of all the shopping and holiday cooking and parties and gift giving can really make the season a different experience.  These sisters don't have a car- they walk everywhere- and Christmas Day was no different.  

This little friend was in the shower one morning.  No big deal.  

There were two baptisms in the parking lot after church last Sunday. There were only 2 cars.  Sometimes, ours is the only car in the parking lot.  Every baptism we have been to has been held on Sunday after church so the members can just stay a little longer and don't have to make another trip to the church.  It's a long way for most and no one ( well, almost no one)  has a car or even money for transportation.

We had a flat tire and had a hard time finding somewhere to get it fixed.  It was New Years Day and everything was closed but found some guys by a gas station that tried.  We ended up having to change to the spare and after figuring out where everything was and trying to squeeze in between cars, it was done.  It only took about and hour and a half and it was so blasted hot.

I was just hanging out by the gas pump in the little bit of shade I could find.  It was so blasted hot!  I got lots of people staring at me and I'm sure they were wondering what is this crazy white lady doing?

Everyone loves to put something about God on their cars.

One thing that really bothers me here is all the garbage everywhere.  This is just about a block from where we live but very typical.  Plastic water bottles are a big problem. Some people have no water   in their homes- I don't know if that's a contributing factor but trash is a big problem- especially in the city.  No one seems to care.

Compare it to this beautiful sight we was today as we went with Elder and Sister Bodily to visit some sights for the water projects they are working on out in the bush.

In order for the church to come into a village and pay for a new bore hole (well) to be drilled, the village must come up with some of the funds.  Otherwise they won't take ownership of it and they won't maintain it.  This takes lots of time, paperwork, and negotiating between the welfare missionaries and the people representing the villages.  The Bodilys have been working in this particular area for about 6 months trying to get 6 bore holes done.  They go home in March and are so hoping to get done before they leave.  There are no other missionaries coming to take their place.

Coming to get water at the bore hole is a daily chore.  Imagine how heavy that bucket of water is on this woman's head and that's a container of water on her back also.  It is about 2 kilometers back home.

This is the school in the village..... 

And this is the bathroom.  So count your many blessing, name them one by one.