Waiting and waiting....and waiting some more

 Well, I caught my first indigenous infection - in my eyes. They had been bothering me for a few days and 

I was hoping that hot compresses would do the trick, but by Monday both eyes were beet red and very sore.

 I guess I wasn't careful enough and touched my face after touching something - or someone - else. I got 

so desperate that I called the Cuban doctor that had treated our missionary and his asst said I could see 

him he next day. Yay! I also had the worst headache that I've had since we got here - I think because of 

the eye pain - all day, and nothing would relieve it so just before Dad went to bed, I asked for a blessing. 

Within 5 minutes, the pain had lessened by 50% and within 15 minutes it was gone and I was able to sleep. 

 The next day we headed to the hospital. I had an appt, which we think is unheard of here, so when we got

 there, we walked past dozens of people and they took us right in.  I kinda felt like a heel. I didn't need, or 

want an vision exam, but the asst gave me one anyway. And it was awesome! I put on these funky glasses

 and she changed the lenses out one at a time and asked which was better 'first' or 'second'? Good thing 

I already knew the drill since it was all in Portuguese.... 

   They had me read a little poem to test my far-sightedness. Don't you love how the modern exam machine is sitting next to me unused? And the flashlight - no such thing as a penlight in the doctor's pocket.

 

  It actually worked pretty well! So now I've got this eye prescription and I'm curious to know how it compares with my US prescription. After the assistant did her thing - and told me I have glaucoma - she took us back to the doctor.

 He was great - efficient and competent, rare things here. He prescribed 3 medications. He also told me that I don't have glaucoma. :) We've learned that we have to look at the box and see where the medicine is made before we buy it. Medicines from India, Pakistan, China, or Africa are inferior quality. But after going to 5 pharmacies, I had to get antibiotic eye drops that were made in India. Neosporin eye drops are so common in the US, but non-existent here. Sigh.... When we were leaving, we saw this heap of old beds, etc sitting outside. No inside storage for this stuff!

 After the exam, we headed to the airport to pick up some packages and then drove to another city 25 minutes away, to deliver wedding dresses. One of the elder's mom gathered and sent 6 wedding dresses, which we badly needed here. They kept 3 in Maputo and sent 3 here. The elder happens to be the branch president for this city and their branch was scheduled to have 6 weddings the next weekend, so we took the dresses, along with some others that we picked up at the church, out to them. They were pretty excited!

  Then we dropped off some Christmas packages to E. Galland. He was one happy guy!!

 

    A lot of the elders in that apt. had some things carved by Vasco, the wood-carver. Here's E. Lynn with a statue of Christ that he had done.

 Then home - long day.

 

 We got new neighbors! Our apt bldg is 3 floors with 8 apts total. We were the only ones on our floor but we've had someone move next door and across the hall. One is a couple from England that's lived in Africa for 8 years but they've always lived in English-speaking countries. He worked for Toyota in S. Africa but I don't know what company he works for here. Neither of them speak Portuguese. Across the hall is a family of a dad, mom, and 2 girls, 12 yr. and 15 yr. 

 The mom is from Mozambique and the dad is from Italy. The dad is really friendly and out-going and the mom is nice, but more reserved. The 12 year old is friendly and has come over to borrow a pencil sharpener from us a few times. I made brownies and took it to both families this week. I also gave the girls a sharpener and one of the Chinese jump-ropes that Brooke sent in her Christmas pkg. (Thanks Brooke!) They were all really appreciative although the family was kinda surprised. I don't think Mozambiquens do "welcome to the neighborhood" kind of things. One of these days, I'll take their picture for you. Oh, the family has such a cute dog!! It's the smallest Maltese that I've ever seen. And the only one I've seen in Africa....

 One day this week was "visiting day". We had 3 sets of elders stop by for different things and then Mariana came by for help with her mission papers. She's going on a mission! She's writing her thesis right now but thinks she'll be done with the paper and her defense before the committee by July. Here she is with her papers :

The elders scored because I was testing cornbread recipes (it was SO good!) and so everybody got a piece of cornbread and honey. Needless to say, it was gone by the end of the day. I didn't take pics of the first 2 pair of elders, but I did take a picture of the last pair because when I glanced over at them, they looked so funny framed in the doorway.

   Mariana was still there, so I put her in.

 

  Then I decided to jump in too. But I had just finished my workout so I wasn't really 'picture-ready'. (Their day starts at 6 am, mine doesn't......;)

 

 They wanted to show how tall E. Oryang is and how short I am. 

 

 

 That night, Dad went to District Council meeting. We have District Conference next week with a general authority, Elder Hamilton. At one point in the meeting, they were talking about how the conference will end at 12:00pm, but then there was a youth fireside later at 5:00. They are having buses bring the people in from the farther cities but were wondering how to get the youth back to the chapel for the fireside. Dad suggested that some families in the closer branches each host a couple of kids for the afternoon until the fireside started. His idea was immediately rejected. Why? Because the members don't have enough food for their own lunch, much less to feed the extra kids. One man there speaks some English and he leaned over to dad and said in English, "This isn't Zion." Poor Africa.... It was finally decided that the kids would just hang out at the church and the district would buy bread, baloney, and cheese and drinks for them to eat while they waited - for 5 hours.....

 

 A new seamstress moved in a garage across the street. I took some capalanas to him to be hemmed. It costs 6 metacaiz, or 20 cents apiece. Here's how he works all day:

 

   Here's a giant pile of smashed cans. There's a pile next to it that's almost as tall. How'd you like that next door to your house? The people don't even seem to notice the garbage around them. They just step around it, usually. Sometimes they're going through it...

  One day, dad and I were driving down the street and I saw a hand through the window grate of the car in front of us. I saw lights on top so I thought it was an ambulance. It wasn't. It was the local paddy-wagon on its way to jail with a prisoner.

On Saturday, we had a Relief Society activity in the branch where we serve. There's another couple, the Dickeys, from Zimbabwe that were serving there before we got here. They should be attending another branch in Beira but the district president asked them to help the group. Sue Dickey organized the activity and decided to teach them how to make woven bracelets from yarn. I told her I'd help so I made a banana cake and went to her house at 9 am to ride with her. Here's how the day went. It's typical.

 

  I showed up at 9 am and she was cooking with the RS president. She was making a potato salad and baked beans (nope, they're not like ours) so I put on a towel and started chopping. Then she made cookies. We left the house at 9:50. The activity was supposed to start at 10:00am and the church is 45 minutes away.

 Comparatively, they live in a nice apt but no A/C, so all the food was covered with mosquito netting to keep the flies off of it. The foiled dish is my cake. 

 

 When we got to the church, no one was there, so we sat in the kitchen and the three of us sat and talked for about 20 minutes.

  Sidenote: One of the things you have to adjust very quickly to is waiting. Things - and people - don't move fast here. They move at snail speed. You learn to take things with you ( I do word games on my phone) or just enjoy the moment, if you're with people. You can't change it and you'll go nutty if you try.

 

Then they said, "Let's go across the street to Sister Elena's house." so off we went. We took the salads with us because she has a refrigerator. (Their standard of living is above average. Probably $1.00 an hour wages.) We walked up and said "hi" to Elena who was outside and then we went in the front door and sat down. We sat there for 15 minutes or so and then the RS president asked one of the kids for a fork and when they brought it to her, she stuck it in the potato salad, took a bite, and told Sue, "It isn't bad.", because Sue was worried that the potatoes weren't done. Then she got up, and left the living room and we didn't see her or Elena for another 20 minutes. Then Elena came out with make-up on (she's a girly girl) and we all trooped back across the street.

 Here's Elena with three of her kids:

 We sat and talked, well, mostly they talked and I chimed in every once in a while, and waited some more. Finally, one woman came. So we decided to start. In another 15 minutes, another came and then a few more until we had a total of 6, including the RS president. What do you do? Oh well. Those 6 had fun!

 

   In this city, Dondo, the elders live at the church. It's a house that the church rents so there are 2 bedrooms upstairs. We didn't have any plates for the food so we borrowed the elders' plates. And....ate with our hands. Here's a couple of other things you quickly learn to do. 

One: Go with the flow. 

Two: Never appear surprised, shocked, or repelled by anything you see, smell, eat, etc. 

 So, I ate potato salad and pink (yup, not sure what she added) baked beans with my hands. A little tricky, but do-able. One woman brought her 3 girls. As we were eating, I noticed the little girls eating off of her plate. They were all sitting on the ground and when their plate was empty ('licked clean' is more like it), I asked her if they would like some more. She said 'yes' so I loaded her up again. I noticed another woman watching. She had the baby. 

 

 

I asked her too and she also said yes. Ten minutes later, both plates were empty again. They loved the cake! I made a big pan and there weren't many of us, so I was going to surprise the elders and leave them some cake. It wasn't quick enough. By the end of the activity, it was all gone. 

 Elena went to her house and came back with a beaded necklace that she told me to wear around my waist. When I put it on, she told me to stand up and model it for everyone. So I did:

 

 We finally left at 4:00 pm. It was so hot outside, I was dying! (I'm not sure why we didn't do it inside with the A/C.) Sue had asked 3 girls from the Beira branch to come and help her teach how to make the bracelets. Those girls had spent their whole Saturday, mostly waiting. Can you imagine any 18 or 19 year olds in the US doing that? Wouldn't happen. They had just walked over to the Dickeys house that morning but we dropped them off at their houses on the way home. Here's what their neighborhood looks like:

 

 I got home at 5:30, dead tired. 8 1/2 hours for a RS activity - making bracelets.

 Sunday, nobody was in Primary except the 16 year old secretary, Domingos. The new presidency was just put in the week before... So, I hurried and planned a lesson and found 2 pictures of the Shadrack, Meshack, Abedego story and asked Domingos to read the story in Daniel while I did opening exercises and singing time and be ready to tell it to the kids. The lesson was on obedience and I told them about the bike accident that I had in third grade because I didn't listen to my mom and went down a hill and crashed. That took a lot of sign language!  We made it through the first hour and Domingos was getting ready to tell the story when the one of the teachers showed up. Two hours late. He said he had problems getting a chapa ride. So he took over but petered out about 40 minutes later so I took over again. Oh Primary... We're having problems getting the kids to say the prayers, even though I've taught them the four steps and they can say them from memory. I'm not sure why. 

 The people here are afraid to try things because they don't want to make a mistake. It could have something to do with the fact that the people here laugh at you if you make a mistake. It's pretty weird. Even the adults do it. You gotta have pretty thick skin. Anyway, I brought stickers and gave a sticker to the two kids that said the prayers. Of course, they all crowded around after Primary and asked for one but I explained that they only get one if they say a prayer or bear their testimony (I've only seen one child do that.)

 Then we took pictures for Jason's birthday! Here was my great idea. It didn't translate to Facebook very well but it sounded really funny in my head. Happy Birthday (again) Jas!!!

 "Happy birthday, Jason! Your Dad and I stayed up all night putting birthday signs on this tree for you." 

 (It was really for the elections.)

Close-up of one of the "signs":

 

  Then the "real close-up":

 

 

  Then the classic picture with us. "Ahhhh......"

 

  You can't see me, but I'm taking a bow. ;)

We've been having a lot of problems with electricity and water going out, and this night the electricity went out ALL night long. It was suffocating!! We got up every 2-3 hours to get a drink of cool water, even though we're not supposed to open the fridge when the power is out. We were so hot and thirsty. We didn't get much sleep. It happened at midnight so dad called the owners of the apt complex. They didn't answer. So he called the electrician that works for them. He answered but refused to come out. It was Sunday and he was sleeping. The next day, the owner called and told dad that he needs to respect people. Dad said he called because it was an emergency. They said it wasn't an emergency and could wait. Apparently fire is the only thing that they consider an emergency.....oh Africa.... 

It's past my bedtime. I love you, love you, love you!!! Please be good!

PS A big shout-out and thank you to Brooke for the Christmas care package!! I have makeup that's not broken and new work-out shirts to go with the only 2 that I wear every day. And things for the kids. And beads for the YW. And Dad has socks w/o holes! And I have socks to go with the one pair that I brought. Yippee!! THANKS BROOKER!! 

 

 

Beira, Mozambique

This week we had transfers which meant several trips to the airport! Gratefully, our main road 

to the airport is finally open (after being closed for over a month) as a small bridge was replaced. 
 Most all of our mail is sent via the airport. There is a company (Portador Diario) that we use to mail 

information back and forth from the mission home in Maputo. This business has an office at the airport,

 so whether it is dropping off or picking up missionaries or packages, we travel quite often to the airport. 

With the road open it is about a 20 minute drive otherwise it is 40-45 minutes. 
This week has rained quite a bit, which has effected our electricity and ability to get around. The generator 

in our building has stopped working and we have had a couple of nights without much sleep...one day

 I took two naps, it was great! :)
 
This photo of the men bringing the chickens to market was  previously included in Mom's email, but it was 

just so good, it needed to be included again!! 

  Eat Mor Chikin !!!
 

After eating lunch we saw this man dumpster diving for treasures....

 

 And here is a copy of an email from Chad's good stake president 

 

 

and then photos of the result.

Before:

 

After:

 

I love you!

We are accountable to God-what do we want to become?‏

      While we still live in the same apartment we were transferred of sorts, to a different branch.

      President Spencer W. Kimball said: "There are even many members of the Church who are lax and careless and who continually procrastinate. They live the gospel casually but not devoutly. They have complied with some requirements but are not valiant. They do no major crime but merely fail to do the things required—things like paying tithing, living the Word of Wisdom, having family prayers, fasting, attending meetings, serving. Perhaps they do not consider such omissions to be sins, yet these were the kinds of things of which the five foolish virgins of Jesus' parable were probably guilty. The ten virgins belonged to the kingdom and had every right to the blessings—except that five were not valiant and were not ready when the great day came. They were unprepared through not living all the commandments. They were bitterly disappointed at being shut out from the marriage—as likewise their modern counterparts will be." 
(Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.7-8)

    
 We continue to help train and encourage the good Mozambiquens and ourselves, to develop 'holy habits and righteous routines'.

     How blessed we are to have the fullness of the Gospel and all the blessings that come from keeping the commandments. 

      The First Presidency said:  “You are responsible for the decisions you make. You should not blame your circumstances, your family, or your friends if you choose to disobey God’s commandments. You are a child of God with great strength. You have the ability to choose righteousness and happiness, regardless of your circumstances. You are also responsible for developing the abilities and talents Heavenly Father has given you. You are accountable to Him for what you do with your abilities and how you use your time. Do not idle away your time. Be willing to work hard. Choose to do many good things of your own free will.”  (True to the Faith ‘Agency’ p. 12)

      Elder Richard G. Scott said: “We knew that we would be tested here.. Part of that testing here is to have so many seemingly interesting things to do that we can forget the main purposes for being here... Be wise and don’t let good things crowd out those that are essential.  

    Study the things you do in your discretionary time, that time you are free to control. Do you find that it is centered in those things that are of highest priority and of greatest importance? Or do you unconsciously, consistently fill it with trivia and activities that are not of enduring value nor help you accomplish the purpose for which you came to earth? ... After this life, you will be restored to that which you have here allowed yourself to become.

     Whether you intend to or not, when you live as though the Savior and His teachings are only one of many other important priorities in your life, you are clearly on the road to disappointment and likely on the path to tragedy..” (‘Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer’, Ensign, May 1997, pg.53)

Labels

      President Thomas S. Monson said: "Sometimes cities and nations bear special labels of identity. Such was a cold and very old city in eastern Canada. The missionaries called it “Stony Kingston.” There had been but one convert to the Church in six years, even though missionaries had been continuously assigned there during the entire interval. No one baptized in Kingston. Just ask any missionary who labored there. Time in Kingston was marked on the calendar like days in prison. A missionary transfer to another place—any place—would be uppermost in thoughts, even in dreams.

     While I was praying about and pondering this sad dilemma, for my responsibility then as a mission president required that I pray and ponder about such things, my wife called to my attention an excerpt from the book, A Child’s Story of the Prophet Brigham Young, by Deta Petersen Neeley (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1959, p. 36). She read aloud that Brigham Young entered Kingston, Ontario, on a cold and snow-filled day. He labored there about thirty days and baptized forty-five souls. Here was the answer. If the missionary Brigham Young could accomplish this harvest, so could the missionaries of today.

      Without providing an explanation, I withdrew the missionaries from Kingston, that the cycle of defeat might be broken. Then the carefully circulated word: “Soon a new city will be opened for missionary work, even the city where Brigham Young proselyted and baptized forty-five persons in thirty days.” The missionaries speculated as to the location. Their weekly letters pleaded for the assignment to this Shangri-la. More time passed. Then four carefully selected missionaries—two of them new, two of them experienced—were chosen for this high adventure. The members of the small branch pledged their support. The missionaries pledged their lives. The Lord honored both.

     In the space of three months, Kingston became the most productive city of the Canadian Mission. The grey limestone buildings still stood, the city had not altered its appearance, the population remained constant. The change was one of attitude. The label of doubt yielded to the label of faith."

President Monson's talk from October 1983 General Conference. "Labels"

New Years Day and Zone Conference

     This week was part 2 of our holiday, such as it was.  The Kretlys were here for Zone Conference, so Monday was spent getting ready for it.  Dad and I were in charge of the food so we went to the restaurant to double-check on everything. Good thing we did because the owner is out of town and the person in charge didn't know about the lunch order. Oh Africa......
     Two of the missionary apartments are out of water so both groups of elders came over to shower and fill up their drinking water containers.  The one apartment is within walking distance of us, but the other one is farther away so we went to pick them up and brought them, and all their containers, and 2 loads of whites to wash for them. They were pretty happy to have a shower and some clean clothes to wear.
    We had to go to the airport twice to pick up four elders that were flying in from two different cities. One group is with Elder Lara that went to THS. His comp went to Mountainview. Such a small world. Currently, we have 3 elders and 1 sister that went to THS, and 2 couples whose kids' went there.  In the words of Elder Christianson, "We own Mozambique!"
    President Kretly LOVES shrimp, and so does their son, so they had bought some shrimp to eat but since Sis. Krelty doesn't like it, she doesn't fix it, so I offered to cook it for them.  The Dilles were at their apartment already, so Sis. Kretly decided to turn it into an impromptu pot-luck.  It was a little late and Dad had already eaten (while I was writing to y'all) but we brought up some shrimp that we had and Diiles brought some over and we had a shrimp fest with Brazilian rice and salad.  It was fun to talk and visit for a little bit because the next day was going to be a marathon.

    Tuesday was Zone Conference. It started at 9 am. We had lunch at 1:00 and then dinner at 7:00. President Kretly had four elders talk about a miracle that they had experienced and it was very touching.  Even though my comprehension is about 2%, I could feel their testimonies and pick out enough to get the gist of their experience. It was very good. We LOVE the missionaries!! They are all so different but are able to use their own personalities and abilities to do what Heavenly Father wants them to do.  And they have good hearts and really work hard and do their best, which is not easy to do 24/7, but they really try and are usually successful when you wouldn't think its possible. It's pretty amazing how they're so young, and fairly inexperienced in life, but are able to do what Heavenly Father wants them to do and accomplish so much.  As tired as I am sometimes, their schedule would do me in!!  K, I'm rambling - back to Zone Conference.... Although we love all of them, we do have some we know a little better than others. One of them is Elder Houston.  I forget where he's from, but he's fairly new - been out maybe 2 months.  But he's a guy that doesn't get too worked up about things, has already adapted, and just rolls with it. He makes me laugh and Zone Conference was no exception.  
     We're entering the 'rainy season' and Tuesday it was raining tons.  All the elders had to walk to catch chapas to the church and some have worse routes than others.  He thought it'd be a good idea to put his suit pants in a sack and wear his P-day shorts.  It WAS a pretty good idea, except he forgot the sack. And also, apparently, the key to the apartment, so the whole apt was locked out.  When he walked up to show dad and I, at first I was flabbergasted. But then he explained what had happened and I busted up. When I chided him about it, he just took it in stride.  I asked if I could take his picture and he said yes.  When I said it'd be on our blog, he said he didn't care and started telling all the other elders "he was gonna be on the Snelsons blog."  What a character!! 

 

  After lunch, we took a group picture outside. I could barely hold my eyes open because it was so bright.  The Kretlys had bought Santa hats for the elders and put treats inside, including Christmas ties, and bought scarves and ties and a CD for us and Dilles for Christmas presents. It was fun for everybody.

Here's the funny one.  The Kretlys got into it more than the elders! Haha

Then off to eat! And eat they did....;)

  During dinner, they showed a slide show. They had asked each person to send in 3 pictures. It was fun to watch.  And then we all went into the cultural hall and each apartment put on a skit.  Some were silly, but some were really funny! The elders with a quick sense of humor came up with some clever ideas.
This was a retelling of the "Pocket Watch and the Hair Comb" Christmas story - African style...

Here's some elders making a street contact to a couple with a "baby," who's really a local elder that's waiting for his visa to Brazil. Nicest guy - weighs about 120 lbs, dripping wet.  He's the one I did the language assessment on about 3 months ago.

And then Sandi thought of a skit we could do on the spot so we did. It was cheesy, but the elders liked it and just loved the fact that we did it. ;)

After we finished with everything, it was 9:00 pm - a 12-hour day!  We still had to take all the elders home and dad had the ones that live the furthest - an hour each way - so he was really beat when he got home.  The people here celebrate New Years Eve by playing loud music and staying up all night, so we had the beat of the drums ALL night long.  Ugh!!!

       The next day, we had a New Year's Day lunch/dinner with the Kretly's and Dilles.  After we ate, we played Heads Up.  It's kind of hard to play it with native Portuguese speakers, but they were good sports and got a kick out of it.

          Kretlys flew out the next morning and dad and I went to look at a house with some elders. We've been trying to find a new apartment for one group of elders because their apartment is not too good but it's been a challenge.  As poor as Mozambique is, the rent here is crazy expensive!  Unless it's a falling down death-trap.  So to find a decent house with good security, A/C, hot water, and in their area at a decent price,  is a lot harder than you would think it would be. The apt turned out to be in about the same shape as their current apt so we'll keep looking.             

      We got a call later from the one group of elders asking if they could come over and shower and fill up their water. We said sure and went to get them.  But our electricity was out in the garage where they shower (in the guards' quarters) so we got headlamps for them and they showered with that as their light.  Here's dad taking them home:

 

    On Saturday, the same elders called again and said that they still didn't have water.  They went through their water faster than normal because they had a pair of elders from out of town stay with them for Zone Conference.  They also asked if they could do more laundry, so we went to get them and we did 5 loads of the smelliest laundry ever! Like I said, it's been pouring rain so half of the clothes were wet and they'd been wearing them for almost 2 weeks, instead of 1, so it smelled awful but 4 hours, a lot of soap, and some bleach later, it was sort of normal. Their shirts are stained from the mud, and the wet, blacks straps of their backpacks, but they were definitely improved. Here's what the road looked like on the way to their house:

    

 We were out of fruits, so after that, we went to the veggie market in town to stock up. We bought bananas, mangoes, apples, oranges, and a pineapple. It's mango season so they're super cheap but the apples and oranges are expensive. They're worth it though.  Good food is one thing that we both really miss. It all tastes the same here - bland and tasteless. The quality is very poor except for the fresh things like the shrimp and locally grown fruit, which isn't much.  But even I'm getting sick of shrimp, something I didn't think was possible. But there's only so many days a week I can eat the same thing, even if it's something I like.  Oh well... 

      We've both talked about food so much, I feel like a military person on assignment in the desert that fantasizes about his Mom's cooking.  We fantasize about Cafe Rio, Zupas, and Cheesecake Factory, but we'd be thrilled with a McDonalds.  We did do date night with dinner at a hotel that's really nice. It was built by the people that built our apt building and the restaurant just opened. Its a beautiful restaurant but the food was expensive and just so-so.  Sigh......     

     That night, about 11:00 pm, the power went out (again!) but this time it didn't come back on and so we didn't have water or electricity all night.  It was sweltering hot and we could only sleep about 2 or 3 hours at a time before we had to get up and get a drink of cold water.  It was a very long night.....ugh!

      I remembered that someone was blessing their baby the next day and had invited us to their house after church.  We weren't sure exactly what they would be doing and I wasn't sure if I should bring something but decided to hedge my bets and make something. I couldn't sleep anyway so I made a chocolate cake to take, figuring that if something happened and we didn't need the cake, it would keep and  I could use it for something else. I always try to think of Plan B, because Plan A rarely goes as planned here.

     We were both exhausted in the morning and we couldn't shower before we went to church because we still didn't have power or water. [when the electricity goes out, so does our water because we need power to operate the pump that pulls the water into the building.]. So off we went to church - 45 minutes each way. We had told the RS president, Telma, the previous week, that we'd pick her up on the way because she just moved to another town that's between us and the church. When we got to the pick up spot, she wasn't there. We waited for awhile and then left.     

     About 10 minutes after church had started, Telma came in.  She did motions across the aisle but we didn't get what she was saying.  After Sacrament meeting, she told us that she saw us drive past but couldn't flag us down.  Apparently, we had gone to the wrong place, stopping short of the pick up spot, so when we took off, we drove right past her.  We felt bad but we tried. One stop on the side of the road, looks like very other stop by the side of the road.   This is Africa after all - tall grass is tall grass everywhere you look. She was typically African though and said 'no harm done, we'll try again next week.'  These people are used to things not working, people falling through, etc.  They just go with it.  We did give her a ride home though and found a landmark for us all to use next time. And the family didn't bless the baby because they weren't there.  We asked Telma where they were.  She said that they were visiting family in a city 8 hours away. On to Plan B....  But here's the picture that I took last week.  That's her sister holding her, Odette, the 16 year old YW President.

She's so cute and SO teeny! Two weeks!!

      The kids were really good in Primary this week.  Except that I had asked the teachers to tell what they were teaching the following week so that I could prepare a story and song to go with it.  This was a new concept for them to prepare the lesson during the week, instead of on the spot in primary. They've been pretty good about doing it except last week one teacher told me that they were teaching about prayer and that's what I prepared a story for.  Expect.....he wasn't there.....so the other teacher taught......about the 6 Days of the Creation.....which had nothing to do with my story on prayer.....and I had the story of the Creation at home.....but I didn't prepare it and bring it......because they told me that they'd be doing it on prayer.....which I did have ready and with me - -  you getting the picture here?  That is typical Africa  -  you try to prepare for any scenario as best as you can and then just shrug your shoulders and go with whatever happens.

     But they were really good so I told them that we'd sing 'Do as I'm Doing' and that I'd take a picture of them and their artwork - they drew the things that happened during the 6 creation days on the board.

One boy offered to take the picture so I could be in it. It was a long shot, but I let him. But about half of the kids got out of the picture to stand behind him and watch him take the picture. ;) 

Oh and I forgot to tell you what happened last Sunday. After church, Telma, asked if she, and some other ladies, could have a ride. Dad said yes. Four ladies and two kids piled in the backseat. Two ladies and one child climbed in the back of the truck. On the way, I asked Dad where we were going. He said to see somebody. I asked who. He didn't know. So I asked the ladies. Telma said they were visiting a woman from the branch whose brother had died. Twenty minutes over muddy/bumpy roads and we arrived.  When Telma went up to the house, the woman wasn't there.  So we started to leave. But Dad suggested that we call her. Nobody had her number. So Dad went up to the house and asked her husband if she had a phone to call her. He said no. Then he said that she was just up the street at her parents. He offered to show us where. So we all walked up the road. It was SO hot!

       

      When we got there, Telma took charge and we sang a hymn (they brought hymn books from the church) and then she asked the father about his son.  "He was 29 and got sick.  Doctors are expensive. He didn't get better and he died. They don't know why."  They rarely do here. After the father talked, Telma asked Dad to give a prayer, and then we stood up to leave.  I asked the father if I could take a family picture. It would be gauche to do that in the US but they were pleased that I asked and were fascinated that the picture was 'instant'. They were making tortillas, which I can't find here and when I told them that I love them but can't find them here, they offered me one. But I said no because there were 9 other people with us. It was nice of them though. The visit was good. They appreciated it, even though they're not members. The woman (in the green shirt on the right) is the only member in her family. 

Then we all walked back to the car.

And that's how you go visiting in Africa. 

We love you, think about you, and pray for you EVERY day - actually multiple times a day!!  

      xoxoxxoxoxox, mom