Friday

Good morning, It is a holiday here today - labor day - so everything is shut down. We got up early and met our 3 golf friends at 6:30 so that they could teach us how to play 'squash'. It was really quite fun and a very good workout. I think I may have some stiff muscles tomorrow. They play every morning at 5:30 and the club is very close to our residence so maybe we will take up squash. We were suppose to go for another golf lesson after but decided we had done enough for one day so we will go for golf on Monday morning! They also brought me another Ziploc bag of the cereal they make up out of a lot of healthy things. It is good.

They leave next Saturday for their European golf tour and are gone until Christmas. We will miss them. They are really fun and wonderful at sharing the gospel with all they come in contact with. They keep a supply of scriptures in their vehicle (Bible and Book of Mormon) in a cloth scripture case and give them out. They gave out 2 this a.m. at squash and gave the two men a quick overview and invited them to church. These ladies have a fair bit of money and they spend it doing a LOT of good things. They have an organization called: Eyes4Zimbabwe and they have helped people get cataract surgeries, etc. They really are a great trio. One is Pres. Nield's daughter, and the other two are converts (because of her). Great ladies!

We went home and bathed (yes we actually had water for a bath). We then went to the Chinese Consulate and met a man named Lee. He was referred to us by another couple that we met at the MTC who are serving as teachers in Beijing and met his wife who teaches at the University there. He works here for 2 years at the consulate. He gave us some tickets for a Chinese show here in Harare this afternoon. It sounds like it should be quite good. There will be Chinese dance, acrobatics, magic and martial arts. He was a very nice man and we shared with him about our mission here. He would like to go to church with us one Sunday! We also suggested we could get together and go out for supper one night and he seemed to like that idea. Perhaps we will be able to teach him of some eternal principles and our MTC friends in Beijing can teach his wife. (they are not allowed to proselyte there). Perhaps they already are teaching her some things because he told us that his mother is Buddhist but that he and his wife are not. They have a 3 year old daughter.

We are also going to start teaching discussions to Phillipa and her two boys (12 yrs. and 17 yrs) so that they can get baptized. They have been coming to church for a long time and want to get baptized. I am not sure why it has taken so long but sometimes there are special requirements here. By the way, I have meant to tell you that in our branch in Marendera there were 13 convert baptisms and 3 child of record ones last Sunday. Unfortunately we could not be there. We really wish we had been. It would have been something to see. There are no missionaries stationed out there so the ward mission leader etc. teach the investigators and then the missionaries go out from here and do the baptism interviews. That branch is growing and are asking us if we can get them more chairs -- however, there is no room for more chairs. I think they are going to knock out a wall and make the room bigger for them. They meet in a house -- maybe one day they will get a church built. (It is on a large lot - they have their garden plots there). Apparently the church is no longer building chapels for just one ward - there must be two. So I guess these people will have to do with what they have for now.

We are now going to give Huseni a ride home so that he can take his maize harvest from his garden plot here. After that we will go to the Chinese production. This evening we are invited out for supper with the stake/district presidents in the mission and Elder Bricknell (the Area Authority
Seventy), the mission president and also the Taylors. Pres. Bester said he wanted some female influence!! Apparently we are going to a really nice place. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 they are having a meeting and we are invited to report on what we have been doing. They are having an open meeting to discuss whatever they feel they need to discuss. We were in on a meeting with some of these brethren when we first arrived here and were really impressed with their leadership.

I must run. Love you, Mom/Nancy/Sis. Bullock