Friday, February 5th

Hi Everyone, We have had a somewhat busy week. I have been organizing financial records in preparation for the audit later this month.

We spent yesterday morning out at a clinic (where we are replacing the transformers and fixing the borehole). We met with the committee there and had a good meeting. They seem to be doing pretty good. The transformers will likely be finished this next week and they say they
can take them out and install them at both clinics on the same day. The MP (Mr. Zhanda) was at the meeting. We really like him and he is really good with the people. He is thrilled with us for doing projects in his area!

On Wednesday we went to Kadoma to get some quotes for the transformer that we need to upgrade at the Danangwe School so that it is big enough to run the grinding mill. While we were meeting with the fellow he ask about the church and said he would like to attend. We
took his phone number and told him we would call him before we go to Kadoma next Sunday (that is one of our branches). It will be nice if he comes. I have been ask to speak that Sunday as well -- topic: teaching/learning/living the gospel at home. I am also speaking the next Sunday in Masvingo and I think I will likely just give the same talk. Anyway, after our meeting with the transformer guy, we went out to our vehicle and found that they had put a clamp on the wheel. We learned that we had to have a parking disk (paper) that costs $1 to park there. It was just under a tree on a dirt area. A guy took us across the grassway to pay our $20 so we could get the clamp off. We ask to talk to someone in charge and were directed around back. We had to wait for a bit but found the guy and told him we didn't know we had to pay to park there. He walked back to the lot with us and showed us the sign. However, when we got back to the lot I noticed that the clamp was no longer on our truck tire. I guess someone else had paid to have a clamp removed and they thought it was us. The NICE man let us go!!! The employee went on his way to take the clamp off the correct vehicle. :)

Today we went and met Pastor Wonder out in the rurals of Goromonzi and he had arranged a meeting to discuss a possible water project. It was a good meeting with over 30 people there. The Village Head was there (he is the head over the 31 villages in the Ward) and there were 19
village chiefs there or representatives). We explained how LDSC works with water projects and what they need to do to. It was good.

After that we came back to Harare and went for lunch with Bro. and Sister Sharp, members of Highlands ward. They are an awesome couple who have been members for about 2 1/2 yrs. We had a really nice visit with them. She is from Russia and he is from Zimbabwe. They have a
14 yr. old daughter that does ballroom dancing with the son of another family in the ward. These two are really good and won everything at a competition in South Africa and they are now going to a big competition in ?? They are really good people!!

Dzikamai just came to the office to ask Elder Bullock if he would ordain him (Priest) on Sunday and of course, he would be delighted to do that.

There has been some rain this past week or so and that is making everyone happy. They still need lots more but at least the crops are getting some moisture.

Things are good here. Elder Bullock was assigned by President Dube to make arrangements for a couple's conference on April 6 - 9th and we will be going to Victoria Falls. We are looking forward to that. We will do a day trip (1 night) into Botswana. Reeve's friend, Cornelia lives there and she is arranging an early morning cruise, and an animal drive in the afternoon, etc. It will be great. The animals in Botswana are suppose to be really great! We will spend 2 nights at Victoria Falls and have some meetings and also tour the falls and the flea markets etc. We will stay on the Zimbabwe side of the Falls.

Tomorrow we are going with the Elders again to teach Answer and Mary a discussion. We enjoy going to their humble little home and they are so thrilled to have us come. Maybe that is why we like going!! After that we are going to a birthday party for CeeCee at the Nield's home. She is one of our 'golfing' girls. We play squash with them almost every morning and they make sure we get a 'good' workout. Merci has been coming to squash a bit too -- since Uncle Phil told us that the only things she has that fits anymore are her shoes!!! :) Nice guy!

We are happy and doing fine. Love to all, Elder & Sister Bullock

July 13th, 2009

We arrived home safely from our trip to Johannesburg for our Humanitarian welfare training. There were 7 couples in attendance plus Elder and Sister Godfrey and Bro. & Sister Elks who oversee all that we do in SE Africa. The couples and their area of responsibility were:
Lester and Joan Moody – DR Congo, Cameroon, Congo, Guinea, Gabon, Central Africa Republic
Neuman and Judy Callister – South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland
John and Geri Esplin – Kenya, Tanzania
Robert and Susan Bird – Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion
Bruce and Linda Cox – Mozambique, Angola
Kent and Becky Himle – Ethiopia
Jim and Nancy Bullock – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi
Arthur and Alice Glenn – Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Southern Sudan

We were really impressed with some of the projects they are doing and it was fun to share and learn from each other. We stayed in a lovely hotel that had good beds, hot water for the shower & tub, electricity that never went off, and a wonderful buffet of food for every meal (and of course we all ate way too much).

Duck at hotel in Jo'burg

We had meetings everyday and learned about ‘raising the bar’ in regards to what projects we do and how we do them. It is our main objective to help people become self-reliant and do only projects that will accomplish that and get away from just ‘giving’. We had two video conferences with people in SLC who oversee water projects, wheelchairs and agriculture and could ask questions.

Thursday afternoon we attended a session at the temple with just our group. It was really a good experience to be there together.
To finish off our conference we were then taken out for supper to a very nice restaurant with some great food. Friday we met up with Elder and Sister Ward (who we met at the MTC) and they took us shopping. Johannesburg is a very modern city with real freeways and malls with good stores!! We bought ourselves a set of flannel sheets (which we are loving), an electric frying pan, a sharp knife and some raisins, nuts and a ‘little’ chocolate! The nuts and chocolate have already been eaten and we are now on our ‘sugarfree’ diet again and trying to eat carefully. We had fish and salad for supper tonight. (It was good). We brought back 2 computers and a projector for the mission (as carry-ons).

flying from Johannesburg - the haze is smoke from all the burning of grass etc. that goes on
This just shows the layer of smoke hanging over the country from all the cooking fires and the burning along the roads and in the fields.

Harare airport

We came home on Friday evening to no electricity or water and again none on Saturday night either. O well – that is life in Zimbabwe! We haven’t had water much lately – we have to haul it from the nearby borehole tap outside. Oh – and by the way – we managed to get 5 - 100 Trillion dollar bills. They are not easy to come by (collectors item – supposedly worth something on e-bay). They are the largest bills they printed here but never really went into circulation before they did away with the Zimbabwe money and started using U.S. dollars. We had a good week and enjoyed our time in South Africa but are now back and ready to go to work.