Hal and Janis

                     One of the responsibilities that has fallen upon me is to help missionaries with their medical issues. Skin rashes, ingrown toenails, athletes foot, headaches, fever, acid stomachs, pain in the stomach, flu, malaria, broken wrists (that just happened yesterday) and the list goes on and on!  This is NOT fun. I never know what to tell them and I guess I'm not very compassionate, especially when I feel that most of their problems will just go away if they give it some time. I am not one to run to the doctor with every little ache and pain; nor do I pop pills every time I'm feeling a little uncomfortable.              The mission president's wife is actually suppose to take this responsibility when a mission nurse has not been specifically called. She doesn't like it any better than I do. Most of the African missionaries especially, want to go to a clinic every time they don't...

We attended a baptism for three sisters this past week. There are baptisms often here, but what was extra wonderful about this particular baptism was how this baptism brought families together on the covenant path.                                                          Amos joined the church a few months ago but the language barrier prevented his wife Carol in understanding the things she needed to understand. Through diligent reading from the Book of Mormon, a patient and supportive husband, and additional lessons with the missionaries, Carol finally felt ready. They have been consistent in coming to church every Sunday for many months!  It is common for the people here to read English very well. They have a hard time articulating their sentences though. Carol had written down her testimony and when she read it you would not have g...

S Since we first arrived, one of the fascinating things we have seen is what people carry on their heads! This woman is carrying peanuts and those baskets are full and very heavy!!!!   Oranges. They have a satuma kind of orange that is absolutely delicious! Other oranges have seeds in them. So if we buy them from of the street vendors we have learned to identify which orange they are selling. They sell them for about 5 kwacha each...that's about 31 cents each.  At first they are a little shy but they giggle a little bit, then oblige us. These two ladies even let us try to lift their baskets. They are definitely stronger than I am!   Women mostly carry things on their heads but once in awhile we see men doing it too. Not a bad idea to keep the sun off of your head! I think in this bucket is what they call "fritters." They are fried balls of bread dough. One day our Bishop's wife brought some for us to try and they were pretty good!   I got a little tricky when taking ...

We made five trips to the airport this week! .                                           Elder Sandukira, Sister Ndashe, and Sister Chuma,                            These three are from Districts within the mission area, either Zambia or Malawi. These missionaries were is transit to other MTC’s and had to stop in Lusaka because they live in district’s within our mission and, as such, were set apart for their missions by the mission President, President Moyo.                            *Poor Elder Sandukira's luggage didn’t follow him and was “lost” for a three days!!                                 *The people in South Africa couldn’t find Sister Ndashe for abou...

    This little cutie is Mary. I didn't catch the name of the baby that is crying. When the Pease left, they asked if Elder Phelps and I could visit a couple of Humanitarian Projects to see how the work was coming along.  Yesterday we made that adventure.  The GPS pins the Pease gave us were not quite accurate (surprise, surprise). We ended up in the middle of nowhere!                                             Fortunately however, there were a couple of very nice ladies who spoke a tiny bit of English who agreed to take us to the Chinkuli school.  They, along with two young babies, climbed into the back seat of our truck (Sister Wilkinson and Sister Hatch were already in the back seat)! It was a little crowded but they were very determined to help us out!  They gave directions, "turn that way" or "go straight," or "not far." After driving on the w...