Power!!


This is a Malawian Newspaper dated just a few days ago. I wish the article could be read.

So far we have been fortunate not to lose power much. The first time the power went off was while I was blow drying my hair. Consequently, I went over a month with trying to get my hair dried and fixed before we flew out the door to go to the office. Not easy!

The missionaries in Malawi have not been so fortunate!! Because of extensive damage to power stations due to a severe storm last year, the citizens there have to tolerate “load sharing.” Power is on only certain times during the day. It is off more than it is on. At least one set of missionaries have told us that they only have power about 9 hours during the day and not all at the same time! They have power from 10 at night to 2 in the morning and then from 2 in the afternoon to about 4 or 5 in the evening. Kind of a challenge to be a missionary with those hours to work with!!

Elder Phelps has been working with the other Senior couple in Malawi to get small two burner gas stoves to the missionaries so they can cook. 

The Assistants took a truck across the border with stoves and propane to the missionaries. Obviously they don’t have any refrigeration either!


Part of the country’s problem is that the are so poor that they can’t afford to buy power from neighboring countries. One US dollar equals over 1000 Malawian kwatcha. It is one of the poorest nations in the world!!



The flash certainly did a number on their eyes! It really wasn’t scary!!




Last night all of the missionaries from one of the zones came to our flat. Lots of laughing, joking with each other, eating, and finally having a little FHE activity. The zone leader, Elder Wainwright had previously asked me if I could give a little presentation on FamilySearch. Well, just as they were about to get serious, the lights flickered and then we lost power! Fortunately there was a rechargeable lantern in our flat that Hal had just plugged in a couple of days ago! Coincidence? I don’t think so! Thanks to the lantern we proceeded with the mini lesson on FamilySearch. Questions were asked and we were able to help a few of the missionaries clear names for ordinance work, merge duplicate ancestors, and gave instructions on adding people to the tree (the sister missionary didn’t realize siblings of her grandparents or in any other family could be added)! 


Even with no power there was power in our activity!!

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