Hi to our family and friends,

This has been a REALLY busy week so far. Sunday we went to Kadoma. Two of our missionaries that have been serving here finished their missions and returned home to Kadoma this past Wednesday. The 2nd counsellor in the branch presidency was released and one of the newly returned missionaries was put in that position. It was fun for Elder Bullock to be able to call him. The elder certainly wasn't expecting that. He will do a good job. The other elder was put in as Young Men's President. We were really pleased to see that the Branch president is putting them to work right away. These young returned missionaries are such assets here and are the ones who will be the great leaders.

I gave my talk in church and the two elders both talked. That didn't leave time for Elder Bullock to give his talk so he just said a few words and will save his talk for another day. We heard back from the elders here in Harare that Lawrence, our investigator, was at church and they have an appointment with him for tonight to teach. He had no transport money so he walked to church.

Trying on white shirts and ties at Kadoma

Happy recipients of shirts and ties -- it was great to be able to help them out.

He's happy to get a white shirt and tie -- he looks pretty smart!

Monday we had a meeting with the committee at the Kadymadare Mill. We invited the MP to join us as we needed his help to solve a problem there. I think I told you about it before -- how one man, the chairman/also a village head, insisted on only charging $.50 instead of one dollar. At the beginning of the meeting Elder Bullock read 'their' original proposal to us requesting the mill and how they were planning to make the project work for them. He explained that they were not living up to what they had proposed and agreed upon.

The MP then took over and talked for quite a while, some in English and a lot in Shona. He explained to them how a business has to run in order to be successful and make some profit. He also explained very well how the committee should work and the role of the chairman. It was agreed that they would start charging the dollar. We then ask how soon they planned to do that. The Chairman wanted to wait until March 1st and one other agreed with him. I suggested starting in 1 week (this coming Monday) so that they could start making some profit sooner. A member of the committee agreed and we told him he needed to make the proposal and it was seconded. We then suggested that there were two proposals and as a committee they should vote on it. The outcome was 7 to 2 in favor of starting to charge sooner. It was really a good meeting and I think the members felt somewhat empowered when they realized they didn't have to feel intimidated by the chairman/village chief. They realized they all had an equal say
and vote on things. We were pleased how things came out and are grateful to Mr. Zhanda, the MP, for helping us. He is really a good man. One thing I keep meaning to tell you is that whenever we have these kind of meetings they always begin and end with prayer. Quite different than America.

Monday afternoon we went with Bigboy (a wheelchair contact that we have talked to a few times) and met with a lady who is over all of Zimbabwe and represents disabled people and groups. They are the ones who we can partner with and they can bring the chairs into the country duty-free. It was a good meeting and we are hoping to get the wheelchair project underway.

When we got back to the office, Pauline was waiting for us. She is the mom we helped several months ago with the tiny baby, Edson, who almost died. We took formula out for the baby and food for the family so that the mom could eat and be able to nurse the baby. Edson is now about 8 months old but looks like he is only 2 months. He apparently has some symptoms of Downs Syndrome (I could see it in his face) and he also has some heart problems. However, he is one lucky baby as he was leaving the next morning with a Doctor who is taking him to Italy for 3 months where he will get some heart surgery etc. free of charge. Pauline was needing help for her 8 yr. old who she said was very sick, had a rash, and was losing strength. She had him at the hospital the day before and they gave him some tablets and said to bring him back to get his temperature taken. However, the combie (transport) would not take him. We drove her home and put her and the boy in the back of the truck (just in case he had something we don't want to get) and took them to the hospital. The husband, Ed, came too. We had to wait for quite a while as the doctors decided to go for lunch just as we arrived. While we were waiting we gave some balloons to the children in the waiting room and that seemed to cheer them up! Anyway, the boy has measles and a problem in his chest and a high temperature. They gave him a couple of injections and sent him home with instructions to go to a different hospital in the morning that would admit measle patients and also he would get a chest x-ray. We haven't heard any more yet. That all took about 5 hrs. and we got home about 8:30 after returning them to their home.

Pediatrics waiting room at Harare Hospital - we gave out balloons to the kids while we were waiting with Paulene and Ed

At hospital -- we made a few kids happier

Tuesday we spent most of the day helping Reeve, CC and Lolly and a good group of youth, finish sorting the goods in the containers that arrived last Friday. It has been a big job but it is now organized. I went with Reeve to take a truckload of medical supplies to a Dr. who has helped us the other day with the boy that had terrible rashes all over his head. The dr. wasn't there but we left the things - She will be delighted to have them.

Sorting containers that Reeve, CC and Lolly brought to Zimbabwe

We were tired at the end of the day. Reeve, CC and Lolly left this morning for Australia for some golf tournaments etc. They will be back in a month. We will miss them. They are fun to have around. We will continue our squash playing though and we now have President and Sister Dube joining us in the mornings and learning squash. Fun!

President Bullock has gone right now to a meeting with President Dube to meet with some government minister to explain what the church and LDS Charities does.

Today we are hoping to work on our training session that we are to do in Masvingo on Saturday. We have an hour allotted to us to train on lesson preparation as they feel that too many just read the lessons from the books when they teach (& they do that a lot here). We are
feeling a little nervous about this as we don't feel like we have a lot of expertise in the area, however, we do have "Teaching No Greater Call" and I have printed off some talks from church leaders. We will make a plan and pray a lot!! I better get busy working on it.

One more picture:

AIDS sign

We are grateful to you all for your love and support. We have a great family that we are proud of and also wonderful friends! Thank you!!

Love, The Bullocks

Hi from Zimbabwe

Hi, I forgot to tell you that Jim was asked to talk in church this past week in Masvingo. Apparently the Branch President had emailed us and ask him but we never got the email so he had to stay up late on Saturday night preparing.

We just chuckled because we thought perhaps they would have talks about Christmas but his assignment was "morality and modesty". I am attaching a copy of his talk as he did a good job and the Branch Pres. was quite happy with it. Elder Bullock asked after if that is what he had wanted and he said that it was (and even more). The Branch Pres. said when he has a hard topic he will always assign someone from outside the Branch since it is easier that way and Dad did a good job of it.

The x-branch president nodded his head in agreement a couple of times during the talk so it was obviously something that needed to be addressed. Women here are not especially modest and think nothing of pulling out a breast and nursing anywhere the need arises. They did
laugh when dad said that he was often afraid that certain body parts were going to fall out from their clothes. (and that is very true!)

Anyway - if you are interested there is a copy of his talk below.

I guess I am feeling the Christmas spirit as two different ladies came to the offices today asking for help and I was generous to them - gave them some clothes for themselves and their baby. They looked like they needed help. My only worry now is that they will go back and tell their neighborhood and we will have another rush of people begging at the gate. We have mostly put a stop to that as it is hard to tell if they are genuinely in need or not. O well. I was feeling in a generous mood today. There was a lady in the garden too that has two small children and they looked needy. I gave her a couple of toys for them and some clothes. She was really grateful. It is fun to give and help them but it can create a 'nightmare' too. I also made up a small box of toys and clothes etc. for Seka and his two children for Christmas.

We are fine and making preparations for Christmas day with the elders. It will be a nice break for us.

Oh yes -- we got one more grinding mill project approved at the Danangwe school (the one that has no desks or chairs or anything). We had to be a bit persuasive to get them to take it to the area presidency and get it approved on this year's budget but the money is there and better on this year's budget than on 2010 when our budget has been slashed somewhat. Thanks to Elder and Sister Godfrey for pushing it through for us.

Merry Christmas and love to all, Elder & Sister Bullock

Jim's talk:

In the Book of Mormon, Jacob chapter 2, Jacob explains that he has been commanded to teach the people something that is difficult to do, but because of the assignment he had received from the Lord, he had a responsibility to teach what he was told to teach. My assignment did not come from an angel, like Jacob, it came from President Munaki, but it is still difficult for me, and it is important.

David, the King of Judah started out as a very righteous man. Because of his righteousness, he was favoured of the Lord and he was protected as he fought and killed Goliath, but things started to go wrong for David as he was disobedient to God’s commandments. One night he couldn’t sleep, so he got out of bed and went out on the roof. As he was getting some fresh air, he noticed Bathsheba washing herself; he stood there and watched her, then he started to think about her, then he started to ask questions about her, then he sent servants to go invite her to come to his place and he broke the Law of Chastity with her; Bathsheba became pregnant. Once that happened, David called for her husband to come in from the battlefield, hoping he could hide his sin by having Uriah and Bathsheba come together. When that didn’t work, he sent Uriah back to the war and had him placed in the fiercest part of the fighting, and then he had all of the army pull away from Uriah, leaving him to fight by himself, and he was killed.

Now, let’s consider Joseph, who was sold by his brothers into slavery. The Lord was also with Joseph, as he served in Potiphar’s house, so much so, that Potiphar made Joseph overseer of all that he possessed. Potiphar did not know what he owned, he just knew he could leave it with Joseph and he would prosper. Potiphar’s wife liked Joseph...too much. She wanted him to lie with her. Finally, she grabbed Joseph by the cloak and tried to have him lie with her. Genesis 39:12 says he left the garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. David looked on Bathsheba to lust after her and committed adultery and murder; Joseph fled and got him out. What if David turned away and went back into his palace?

Sister Bullock and I spend a lot of our time out in the rural areas doing humanitarian work. We work with some of the ministers and pastors out there. We have found that there are a lot of children being raised by their grandparents, because they are double orphans. There are many children who are single orphans, living with only one of their parents. The main reason for this is that one of their parents, or both, has died from HIV/AIDS. Not only have the parents passed away, but far too many of their children have also been infected, or they have died, from HIV/AIDS. This disease is not something you get because someone sneezed and left germs in the air. Usually, this disease is the result of the husband, the wife, or both, breaking the Law of Chastity with someone they are not married to and then returning to their spouse and passing it on. I understand that many may have been infected with the disease before they joined the Church, but many more were infected after joining the Church.

The physical consequences of breaking the Law of Chastity are not always as drastic as contracting AIDS, but the spiritual consequences are. In Alma 39, Alma teaches is son Corianton, who guilty of sexual sin, just how serious it is. In verse 5 we read:

Alma 39: 5 Know ye not, my son, that these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost.

Being morally clean is not only avoiding committing adultery.

In Doctrine and Covenants 59:6 we learn: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it.

Adultery is committing sexual sin with someone who is married to someone else. What does like unto it mean? Like unto it is committing sexual sin when both partners are not married; we call it fornication. Like unto it is thinking about committing sexual sin with someone; like unto it is making physical contact with someone, of the opposite sex, in an inappropriate way; like unto it watching movies or shows on television, listening to music and reading books that promote sexual sin as if it was something normal, and acceptable; like unto it is using language or telling jokes that are not appropriate.

Young sisters, you need to read 2 Samuel 13. Amnon loved his brother’s sister Tamar. He made up a story to get her to come into his place with him when they could be alone. He wanted her to fix him something to eat, and as she was doing that, he forced her. She tried to say no, this is wrong. They were of the same family and the same religion. If that young man you are seeing is not a member of the Church, how much different will his values be. He may say he loves you and giving him what he wants proves your love for him, but look what happened to Tamar after Amnon got what he wanted.

15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.
16 And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.
17 Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.

He chased her away. Young men, it is not love, but lust, that pushes us to acts of sexual impurity before we are married. Young women, once we have submitted, the supposed love turns to dislike and hate. If they will do that before marriage, what will they do, and with whom will they do it, after marriage?

Doctrine and Covenants 121:45 counsels us to let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.

President Boyd K. Packer, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave us some good counsel when he said that the mind can only have one thought going on at a time. When we have inappropriate thoughts, we can replace those thoughts by memorizing a favourite hymn and letting that go though our mind until the bad thoughts are gone.

Sometimes, as we go from place to place, not only in Zimbabwe, in Canada also, I almost have to hold my hands in front of my eyes, as I walk down the street, for fear that certain body parts are going to fall out right in front of me because they are so exposed. Other times, the clothes that people wear are so tight fitting that the clothes leave nothing to the imagination. It is difficult to have virtuous thoughts when the way we dress detracts from modesty. We can be beautifully dressed and still dress modestly. Your children watch how you dress and they will do as you do. If you stretch the limits of modesty, so will they. However, if you demonstrate how beautifully you can modestly dress, they will follow in your footsteps. Sister Bullock suggested that if you will dress yourselves, and your children, as if you were wearing the garment of the temple, you, and they, will not have to change the way you dress when you go to the temple.

Ephesians 2:19-20
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

Sisters, if President Monson was sitting up here, I wonder how many would nurse your babies in front of him. That may be an accepted cultural tradition of the past, but when we join The Church of Jesus Christ, we leave some of the incorrect traditions, of our past life, behind and adopt higher traditions of modesty. The chapel is not the place to feed your babies, nor is being where the public can observe you. A small blanket can be used to cover yourself so that modesty can be preserved.

In Mosiah 4:29-30 And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.

In the last days of the Nephite nation, Mormon mourns about how the people had lost their sense of moral values and civility.

Moroni 9:11-14
11 O my beloved son, how can a people like this, that are without civilization—
12 (And only a few years have passed away, and they were a civil and a delightsome people)
13 But O my son, how can a people like this, whose delight is in so much abomination—
14 How can we expect that God will stay his hand in judgment against us?

Moroni counsels us that the Book of Mormon is to help us to be wiser than they were.

Physical intimacy between a husband and wife is a beautiful and sacred part of God’s plan for His children. It is an expression of love within a marriage and allows husband and wife to participate in the creation of life. God has commanded that this sacred power be expressed only between a man and a woman who are married. The law of chastity applies to both men and women. It includes strict abstinence from sexual relations before marriage and complete fidelity and loyalty to one’s spouse after marriage.

All around the Mulberry bush - the monkey chased the weasel

Hi, We picked some mulberries yesterday off a tree at Merci's. They were REALLY tasty. The tree is loaded with them.

Mullberries -- really good!!

Malaika with a Mullberry

Merci picking a Mullberry off her tree

We spent the day at Marondera today. We took Elder and Sister Mayfield there as they will be taking over that branch. We were just getting to know the people there really well but we have other assignments now. We will be away Sat. & Sundays for the next 3 weekends; Kadoma branch conference, Masvingo, and then Mutare. October is going to fly by and then we will be a our half way mark. The time flies when your having fun!!

Chapel at Marondera

President Banda's daughter

Tonight we are meeting at Dube's to discuss the plans for Christmas. Last year a couple went out to each area and did a dinner and made a fun day for the elders. Probably will do something similar this year.

Much love to all, The Bullocks

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Friday afternoon we left about 3 p.m. with Taylors and went to Imire Safari Ranch about 1 ½ hours from Harare (close to Marondera). We arrived, got our rooms (hut-type cottage with a thatched roof), and then went on an evening ride and saw the rhinos and elephants where they are kept at night (to protect them from poachers). We rode in seats in the back of a pick-up as there were only a few of us at that point – but it was quite cool and we wrapped up in blankets. We stopped to see the sunset and were given a little snack and drink and then returned back to the cottages. They had a nice fire going to warm us up. More people had arrived and we were served supper of chicken, rice and vegetables.

Our nice cabin

Getting ready to leave for our rather cold safari. It was windy.

Off we go!!!

The Taylors got up early and went for an elephant ride – (we wimped out on that plus we didn’t want to pay $20 each for it). We slept in, had a warm shower and spent a little more time enjoying the nice fire in the dining room area. They served us a nice breakfast of eggs, baked beans, potato fritters, fried tomatoes and toast. We were then off for our safari – this time in a wagon (see pictures) because there were quite a few of us. We rode around seeing animals for about 2 ½ hours and then we were served a buffet lunch, which was really good. We ate sadza for the first time with some impala stew, rice, cooked cabbage, and some salads. When we were about done eating the handlers rode the elephants over and we watched them for a while. I was hoping they would go into the water but they didn’t. They sure are big animals! They estimate that the largest elephant weighs about 4 ½ tons. We carried on again and saw Enzoe (Zoey), the elephant that thinks she is a water buffalo. She was orphaned and they had no other elephants at the time so they put her with the buffalo and because she grew the biggest she thinks she is the boss and takes care of the herd. She doesn’t like the males and when they start to get aggressive, toward the females, she becomes protective. She has killed 14 of them (they use the meat to feed to the lions!). Apparently when they get close enough she just whacks them with her trunk which is super powerful (10,000 muscles in the trunk), and knocks them down. He then stabs them with a tusk and rolls on them. That pretty much does the job. (I hope I am getting the story all right). Once, one of the bulls went after a man who works with them and hurt him quite badly. He had to crawl for help and Zoey, the elephant, walked along side him the whole way to protect him from the bull (this man is the first one who ever cared for Zoe when they first found him orphaned). Zoey killed the bull shortly thereafter. National Geographic has been there twice to do a documentary about Zoey and her herd of water buffalo.

Elephant Family

He wants a branch - they eat leaves and the bark.

They have an armed guard with the rhinos and elephants all the time because of poachers. They lost their rhinos (breeding stock) to poachers a couple of years ago and luckily had some young ones still and they are having to wait another two years for them to be old enough to start breeding. They kill them for the horns and ivory tusks. This farm is more of a conservation area for the animals than anything. They keep them in at night but they are out all day roaming around a vast area. There are a lot of impala and sable and other animals as well.

Warthogs have to kneed to eat

Rhinos have 24 hr. guards due to poaching

We met a young couple with a baby – he works at the American Embassy. They were really nice and we are going to have them over for supper one night. He reminded me of Wade. They are here for two years and come from Boston. The four nurses were at the ranch for a get-away. 3 of them are here in Zimbabwe for 5 weeks as part of their training – they were from North Dakota, So. Dakota, and Toronto. The fourth has been here for 5 years. They sure need them here. They were with a church organization. Nice girls. There were also a couple of family groups there. We all ate together in the dining room and visited some.

We headed home at 3:30 and got back before dark. It was a nice break but 10 minutes after we walked in our flat the power went out for the evening – a regular occurrence, it seems. We had hot water for our bath this a.m. but no cold!! We just added some borehole water from our bucket we always keep on hand.

Today we went to church at Highlands ward so that we could go with Merci and Malaika, her daughter. It was nice to have them there and they enjoyed it and met a few other people. We will see Merci tomorrow and give her another discussion. Elder Bullock is having an afternoon nap as he didn’t sleep much last night (due to a kidney stone which we think passed!!). I checked out the flowers in the yard while he’s been sleeping and picked a bouquet to enjoy in the flat.

Bouquet of flowers from our yard

They say the weather won’t get any cooler than it has been and should start warming up soon. We are getting a little more wind - apparently August and September are the windy months. The past couple of days have been cloudy. It looked to us like it would rain any minute but when we ask the gate guard if it was going to rain, he said, “No, just clouds” and he was right. Today is a nice sunny day with a slight breeze and probably about 70 – 75 degrees I think. It was only 56 degrees in our bedroom this morning when we got up though – we are enjoying our new flannel sheets!

Sunday, June, 21, 2009

I attached my letter that I wrote yesterday on word document.

We have a fellow that we have seen a lot when walking in the mornings and Jim gave him a Book of Mormon and introduced him to the missionaries. The elders met with him yesterday and he had his wife there and also his brother and his wife. They taught them and have another appointment next week as well. :) We are excited about that!

Sunday, June-21-09
Today we went to the first church meeting held in Epworth. It wasn’t the beginning of a branch, like I first thought it was going to be, but there will be Sunday meetings held there and when there are sufficient priesthood holders to form a branch then that will happen. The missionaries had passed out flyers and some pamphlets the past couple of weeks and we had about 44 people there. We were excited that our new friends from Epworth came and she brought her husband as well. His name is Gift and her name is Eveleen. Their son, Panache, the 11 yr. Old that we gave shoes to recently was there also. Panache also brought along his best friend, Brite, and Brite’s two sisters, Michelle and Olivia. Eveleen’s good friend, Beatrice, also came. They came late and missed sacrament meeting but were there for the Sunday School lesson that the elders taught about the Plan of Salvation. It was a really good lesson. Afterwards our friends made an appointment with the elders to come and teach them on Thursday. The elders were making several other appointments as well so all in all I would say that things went rather well.

I took the piano keyboard with me (with batteries, due to no power) and played the music. They ask Jim to lead and he did a fine job of it. The stake president and a counsellor in the stake presidency spoke in Sacrament meeting about the history and restoration of the church, also a ward missionary from the Queensdale ward (that ward will be in charge of these meetings).

The meeting was held at a school in one of the classrooms. Each classroom is it’s own building with dust pathways around them. They will request a different one for the future though – one on a corner. We were kind of in the middle of things today and it seems that several different churches rent classrooms there. Consequently we had quite a bit of competition as far as noise went. There was singing and drums etc. going on all around and it was hard to hear. From where I was sitting I could see the building right next to us and they were hauling in “American” style drums and sound system. I was really praying that we would get finished our sacrament meeting before they started up – and we did. We shut the windows during Sunday School and that helped some. It was definitely interesting. We were glad to have been there.

There is another lady from Epworth that keeps showing up (mind you – we did give her a flyer about the meeting today). We met her at the Highlands ward a couple of weeks ago and we did go out to her place after she ask for some help. She is not a member but knew to come to the church to ask for assistance. We did give her some blankets, soap etc. then but she wasn’t really happy because we didn’t take food too. (we don’t have food to give) Today she approached me and said that I had promised to bring her something and I told her ‘no, I hadn’t promised any such thing’. She wants food, money, or whatever. She had approached Jim before me and given him a sad story. We purposely had nothing with us. We don’t want people coming to church just because they think that they will be able to get stuff from us. In reality, the members do not receive from LDSC (humanitarian) but they would receive through the bishop (fast offerings) if the bishop feels they are in need. This lady does appear to be needy but it is hard because she will drive us crazy and we could never give her enough. I think she is a grandmother taking care of a couple of orphan grandchildren. We did give blankets so that they won’t be cold at night. We do not give money. By the way, the lady Paulene, in Epworth, that I gave $10 so she could start her banana business just spent the money. We also found out that she is living in a polygamy situation so the elders cannot teach her. There is a lot of that here.

Anyway that is our Sunday. We will have Taylors over for supper later – a combined effort. We will have some pot roast with potatoes and carrots and cabbage salad (coleslaw). We eat a lot of coleslaw here as cabbage is plentiful and cheap. There is lettuce but it isn’t all that great and it goes bad quickly – And the salad dressing here leaves something to be desired!! Cabbage and broccoli are in season now and there have been some nice looking heads.

One more thing – I want to copy a text message we received a couple of days ago from a Pastor. We are a little disgusted with his greediness. This is what he sent. “Elder, how are you this morning. Am going back to Muzarabani today so see you on Monday for our 836 orphans, 52 volunteers, and 300 guardians. Am requesting the following: 2 boxes of toys, 6 bales clothes for children, 2 bales for women guardians and volunteers, 2 for men. Then 15 boxes of school kits and 20 boxes of hygiene kits, wheelchairs and a borehole. I will talk to you on Monday. Pastor Mike.” That is quite the request. I guess our meeting Monday will be interesting. Maybe we will want to just run and hide when he comes!! We only have 4 bales of children’s clothes left – we had 15 bales. We want to try and take some to an orphanage in Mutare that we visited when we first arrived here. It was run by some nuns and they really did need help – I think they had 29 children living there. It was up in the hills away from Mutare. (We are meeting with the Mutare District President tomorrow about possibly doing something there). He may want to have the youth do a service project again at the same time. There is also a school for the handicapped in Mutare that we could perhaps give some school kits to (the kids live at the school). There aren’t a huge number of them.

We are thinking that we will write up an initiative right away for purchasing some exercise books for schools. There is such a huge need for them and that is something that we can buy here – rather than have the shipping costs. If the initiative is approved we would have the money available to order the books as we need them. They also really need chalk and pens/pencils. Schools have ask us for exercise books even just for the teachers so that they can have something to use for their planning (scheming, as they say). I hope I am not repeating myself as I ramble – if I have said this before, sorry for repeating it. I will end this for now.

Much love to our family and friends. The Bullocks

weekend update

Friday, June 12, 2009
Today we were invited to attend a Thanks Giving Day Program at the St. Charles Mavhudzi Secondary School in the Goromonzi North District (about 60 km. Northeast of Harare). Elder and Sister Hobbs did an initiative there in about 2006 where LDS Charities donated desks and benches, textbooks, exercise books and ball point pens. It is a school out in the rural area with about 450 students. We, as representatives of LDSC, were treated royally. We were seated in the comfortable chairs in the center of the head table along with The Honorable MP of the district – outside under some trees. I will quote a paragraph from the program:

"Belatedly, this day’s programme is a babe of the Honourable MP, P. Zhanda, in which the school admittedly had shelved due to immeasurable challenges bedevilled by lack of resources – is on with much happiness. On this day I feel honoured to gratefully enunciate our inexpressible appreciation to our distinquished guests in their beneficient manner in which they have chosen to stand alongside our needy community."

We visited with the MP, Mr. Zhanda, and really like the man. The people love him and he seems to really care about them. He is a successful businessman in the area. He has a daughter going to university in Missouri (his wife was there visiting her). His sons have been to school in Australia and England. We would like to try and work with him some more for this community.

The Honourable MP of Gorominzi North Constituency

They are hoping we can help them get a grinding mill at a school there – where people can pay a little to grind their maize and the proceeds will go towards helping with exercise books and school feels for the children. We are going to write up an initiative and see if SA will approve it.

Their only equipment for their science lab

Broken school windows - typical

Most schools here have broken windows -- I guess it doesn't get socold that it is a huge problem!!

There was singing, dancing, poetry and a little drama to entertain us. Due to the MP arriving about 2 ½ hours late they did a lot of extra singing and dancing for us. We did really enjoy the day – we arrived at 9 a.m. and left about 3:30 (just in time to get back home by dark). After the program and speeches (one by Elder Bullock that they hadn’t warned him about ahead of time) there was a huge spread of food (paid for by the MP). They had rice, potato salad, coleslaw, chicken and some beef dish. It looked very good but we did not eat as one of our mission rules is to only eat what we prepare or at established restaurants. We had told them ahead of time that we couldn’t eat there and why (due to the cholera problems in the recent past we are very careful). I think it would have been okay but we didn’t want to chance it.

Banner for Thank you day ceremony

Roman Catholic Choir

School Choir (in their school uniforms)

Cultural dance

Drummers

Entertainment - great dancers

they have some great hand and foot movements

boys dancing - very good

Pastor Chris and his wife

The favourite drink here -- mix 1 part concentrate with 4 parts water

Toilets

Sunday, June 14, 2009
Yesterday we took a “preparation day”. We will try and do that more often as we do need a break now and then. We went grocery shopping – made the rounds to our fruit and veggie market, The Cheeseman – where we get cheese, some frozen fish and chicken, yogurt and we got some real cream this time. Later we drove out to Epworth to take a pair of shoes to Panashe, an 11 year old boy with size 12 feet! We didn’t have a pair that would fit him when we were there earlier in the week. He was very happy to get them – he threw his arms around Elder Bullock and gave him a big hug and said thank you, papa! (They do call us mama and papa a lot here).

They are starting a new branch of the church in Epworth (at a school) next week. We will try and go as we have had a lot to do with some people in that district lately. It is a high density suburb of Harare where a lot of needy people live. We attended the adult session of the Highland Stake Conference at 4:00 p.m. When we arrived home the power was off AGAIN! It came back on about 10:00 p.m.

This morning we attended the stake conference. It was very good and they had an excellent choir of about 140 people. Elder Taylor played the organ (keyboard) that they hooked up to the sound system and it sounded terrific. Sharon Spencer led the choir and we decided it was the Mormon tabernacle choir of Harare. It sounded great. They held the conference in the ZANU PF headquarter hall – had to do a ton of cleaning and fixing of the building to make it ‘conference worthy’. There were about 1000 in attendance. We sat beside some guests that Pres. Nield had invited – a lady that is the director Of ZACH (Zimbabwe Association of Church related Hospitals). She seemed to enjoy the conference. We, as LDS Charities, do a lot for ZACH, along with Pres. Nield. There was also a fellow there that was a director at a hospital. The talks were good – they have some good strong leaders here.

Mom – when they have the mission president training this month you could look up Pres. Dube – our new mission president. He is from here and is presently a counselor to Pres. Bester and also has been the head of CES here. I think he will be a good mission president. He already has some plans to help bring the church out of obscurity.

We came home and made some cream of broccoli soup for lunch – it was really good. We will go send off this email at the Mission office now with a few pictures and check for emails from our family.

Love, Sister Bullock

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, June 6/09

We took our second P-day since we have been here. We get too busy doing things and never take a day off. We went shopping for groceries with Taylors. We checked out a new place and bought a few things – it was just an okay place. We did buy a ‘pepper sauce’ seasoning packet there – I am trying it out today. They make a really good ‘black pepper’ sauce here at the restaurants with peppercorns in it – they use it on beef steak as well as on chicken. I really like it and want to figure out the recipe. I am hoping that this packet will be similar!! Then we went shopping at the “Cheeseman” where we bought some frozen fish that we like and a few other things. If you take your own container you can buy some good yogurt, milk, or cream. We got some yogurt this time and I think next time I might try some cream. Cream is not that easy to get here and what you can get will not usually whip. We always buy UHT milk in cartons. It’s okay.

Speaking of shopping, we got Jim’s suit dry cleaned this past week. We had to take in our own hanger with it, but the good news is that it only cost $3.00. Wow! They did a good job. Some things are a great deal and others are ridiculous so I guess it all evens out.

Just as a point of interest - We are presently paying $l.08 a litre for gas. Diesel is 80 cents/ltr.

Back to our Saturday shopping – we then went downtown (where we are the only white faces amongst thousands) and went to some fabric stores. Taylors are buying fabric and taking it to a fellow who is making some shirts for them to take home.

Harare street cleaner

We came home and had lunch and then we drove about 45 minutes to the “Lion and Cheeta” Park which cost $5 each to get in. We drove through the lions and then parked in a different area and walked through a part that was similar to a zoo. It was a fun afternoon and I will send pictures for the blog. I held a 6 week old lion cub until he started to get a little wiggly and I didn’t want to get scratched or something. They were sure cute.

Sister Bullock with lion cub

Oops! He's wiggling too much - I don't want to get scratched.

Baby lions playing - small ones are 6 weeks old.

lioness

Lion @ Lion and Cheeta Park - we couldn't get out of the car

Baboons

Mama & baby baboons

Some little guys

Elder & Sister Bullock

Elder & Sister Taylor

I thought I might swing like Tarzan!

more balancing rocks

More cool rocks

Weird looking tree

6 week old lion cub

We came back and went to the office to email but shortly after we got there the power went off. O well, what’s new, right? It was off here at the flat this morning. It happens so often I hardly even mention it anymore.

Strange looking duck we saw on Saturday

Sunday, June-07-09

We were expecting the lady that we gave the wheelchair to this past week, to come to church this morning so instead of going to our branch out of the city we went here to Highlands ward. We then planned to go to another branch here in Harare to meet a fellow named ‘Answer’ that we met at Mama Mia’s restaurant and gave him a Book of Mormon. He text messaged us and said he wanted to go today. The wheelchair lady never showed up but as we were getting ready to go to the other branch to meet Answer he showed up at the Highlands building. We went with him to the 2nd and 3rd block there. He’s a great guy. I think I told you that on Friday we had driven around Epworth for a long time looking for a couple that we had some blankets and clothes for but could not find them. Anyway, she came to church looking for us (it seems like perhaps she has been before a time or two) and I saw her in R.S. She ask why we didn’t come. She said I had lied to her when I said we would come out. I explained that we had tried to find them. Anyway, we came home and picked up the blankets/clothes and went back and picked her up and she took us to her home. (We had been very close to it but it was off on a narrower pathway – it is no wonder we never found it). We gave her the stuff and saw her place and took a couple of pictures. Her husband was not home as he was off selling fruit/vegetables. Her two young daughters were there.

Our new friend we gave blankets and clothes to & a doll for the little girl

This is a lady next door to where we took the blankets/clothes. She was cooking dinner so we ask if we could take her picture while she was cooking. They make little fires to cook on under a tin can - it takes less wood.

She's making dinner

Cooking a vegetable called rape with a bit of tomato

We see these congregations all over when we are out and about. They meet on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. They meet outdoors under a tree or wherever. They generally all wear white robes.

Apostolic church - always held outside in a field

This is a house we saw on our way back from Epworth. We stopped at a house near it and gave a soccer ball to a couple of kids that were playing by the house. They were pretty excited to get it. We were excited to see those balls in the boxes of toys that came. Balls like that are rarely seen here. They use rags tied together or sponge balls if they are lucky.

a house built into this truck

Also as we left the church Estere was there hoping to see us. We have been trying to figure out how to find her. She is the one with the 6 yr. Old boy with cancer in his eye. Pres. Neild has arranged with a doctor to see the boy and can probably do the surgery here in Harare (free of charge) rather than go to South Africa. We told her and got a phone number where we can contact her tomorrow and try and work things out. She has to get a referral to this doctor.

Also after church today we were approached by another lady with a broken/sore arm that was asking for help with food and clothes for herself and 6 children. We did determine that 3 of her children are not at home but are old enough and on their own. So really there are only 3. She is also from Epworth – do you think that word is travelling fast out there?? We arranged to meet her Tuesday afternoon at a place in Epworth that we can find!! We won’t take anything with us until we go check out the situation and see if there is a real need. It would sure make this job a lot easier if everyone was upright and honest!!

These people that come to the church are not members – they just come hoping to find us. Normally we aren’t even around there on Sundays – perhaps that is a good thing!

Elder Bullock is presently out discussing the church with our gate guard, Benjamin, here at the flat. He has been reading some pamphlets and B of Mormon and has some questions. The people here are wanting religion so badly and are so eager to learn. Mind you, there are some who think all white people are Satanists!! At least that is what we were told today by the lady who we took out to Epworth. We have heard that before – in Malawi and Zambia that is a problem that the Elders cope with there. People call them satanists. We are exactly the opposite and I suppose with time they will realize that.

This week ahead of us will be busy – we have lots on our calendar. Perhaps one day soon we can actually get some paperwork done and try and get a couple of new initiatives written up. We might have to hide out so we can get that done.

Love, Sister Bullock