February 22, 2010 and February 26, 2010

February 22, 2010

This morning Bigboy, our wheelchair expert, and his wife, Susan, came in to learn about the church. We ask him what had prompted him to ask us if he could come in and talk to us about the church. He said that he has decided he needs to attend a church and he has seen missionaries doing service work in the community and is interested in learning more. He told us that he used to drink a lot at nights and his wife and children were worried about him. He decided 6 months ago to quit. He called his wife and ask her to pray for him because he was not going to drink anymore. When he was late coming home she would call and ask if he was drinking but he never did take another drink after his initial decision.

Bigboy also told us that in 2004 he had a stroke and ended up in the hospital. He told us how he was/is in the business of helping people with wheelchairs after they have strokes, etc. and suddenly he was unable to move his left side. He prayed to God and told Him that his livelihood was helping people and he needed to be able to walk. The next day when he woke up he could move his arm and he could stand up. The Doctor couldn’t believe it. His one side is not quite perfect but he is able to carry on. He works with a wheelchair organization and assembles and fits chairs to all sort of disabled people. He goes around the African countries training technicians to be able to do the same.

We taught them the first discussion. It went well. We thought he lived in Harare but he lives about 60 Km. out but is not too far from Bindura and there are two branches there. He has a vehicle so that helps. We arranged to go to their place on Saturday and meet their children (2 teenagers) and we will review or teach them more.

Jim is busy typing up contracts for the projects that we are working on. Mostly it is fill in the blanks and of course, give some details but it is a bit frustrating. They have to be approved in SA by the church lawyer before they can be signed.

February 26, 2010

O man!! A lot of people here have some sad stories. Lawrence, our policeman investigator, came in to see us. His parents died when he was 14 yrs. old. From that time he has taken care of himself and his younger sister. He quit school and got a job gardening so he could support them and he paid school fees for her so she could stay in school. He managed to do his school at night. He got a job with the police about a year ago and because he has some accounting education they have him working in the office. He really wants to go to school and get a degree in accounting but.........how can he? He is now 27 and his sister is 21 and she is married with a baby boy. The husband is not working and they live with his parents. Lawrence was planning to get married (saving labola) in April, however, his girlfriend, Doreen, is 3 months pregnant. Her parents found out and ‘chased her away’ and she is now with Lawrence. The $200 he had saved towards the labola had to go to the clinic so that Doreen can have maternity care and delivery of the baby. He has a ‘stand’ (small plot of land) that he bought about 6 years ago. If he does not start to build on it by June he will lose it. He needs $240 so he can just even have water and meter run onto the land and that would be enough to keep it. As a policeman he is paid $150/month. His rent is $60 and utilities about $20. The rest goes for food, transport, etc. It just isn’t enough but the gov’t. is not paying more than that. Teachers here also get about $150/month. Some teachers are on strike right now, trying to get more money but unfortunately it is the children who suffer as they are not getting their schooling. It is hard to hear these sad stories AND there are a LOT of them. We wish we could fix things and help everyone but we just can’t. There are a lot of child-run families because of death (due to AIDS a good share of the time).

Mayfields had a wonderful young man come in and apply for a PEF loan for school. He is supporting 3 or 4 younger siblings and wants/needs to go to school so badly but has to work to feed the family. I don’t think they could make it work for him because to get a loan you have to be a returned missionary and he could not serve a mission because he has to support the family. Perhaps they can get an ‘exception’. I’m not sure what has happened with it.

Anyway – sorry, enough of the sadness of Zimbabwe! The auditor is back again this morning to finish off. The SA fellow from the church left this morning early. The audit is going well and they only had 3 or 4 questions for me and I was able to find what they needed. I’m relieved that it all seems in order!!

The electricity is off a lot lately but we are coping. They run the generator here at the mission office when it goes off so work carries on as usual here. At the flat we try not to run the generator too much as it is noisy and we don’t want to irritate the neighbours. We use it to pump the water from the tank for our shower (love having our tank!!!!) and we use it to quickly cook something and then we shut it down. We are doing fine!! Mayfields have moved into the flat next door as of yesterday. It will be nice having them there – nice and close for playing a card game or getting together for a movie night (if we have power!)

I must get back to work. We need to start preparations for our district training assignment a week from tomorrow in Gweru. The topic is ‘the temple’. Elder & Sister Taylor left a nice file of information so that will be very helpful. We just need to come up with a plan/presentation that will take approximately an hour.

Love to all, The Bullocks

----

I have posted 2 other letters below as well! Kim

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Just a quick update.

Our policeman investigator, named, Lawrence, texted us last night and wanted to come today with his girlfriend, Doreen, so that we could explain things to her. We gave them the same discussion as we had given Lawrence already. Doreen is really quite shy and quiet but she seemed to understand. They committed to go to church tomorrow morning.

I helped organize some things from one of the containers that Reeve, Lolly, and CC brought over from SLC. There have been a lot of people out there working on it most of the day. I think they have one container done. There are a lot of good medical supplies as well as numerous other things. It is a big job. It will help a lot of people here in Zimbabwe. They had one empty container and put all the medical supplies into it and then sorted the other things and put them back into the first container.

We have talks to give tomorrow in Kadoma and are putting finishing touches on them. We are also invited and need to leave soon to go watch Ishmael play a squash game against the #2 player in Zimbabwe. That should be good. Ishmael is #1 in his age category. They are really quite amazing to watch. We are also invited to go watch Bro. and Sis. Sharp's daughter ballroom dance with the Bell's son. They are super good too and won all the competitions in SA recently and are now headed to Europe somewhere to compete. I don't know that we can
get to both events though. (The squash is closer so... we will try that first).

We went to Sharp's earlier so that Elder Bullock could do a polygamy interview for a lady who wants to get baptized. She works there. While we waited we were given juice, potato chips, small pancakes with syrup and when we left we were given a box of wonderful chocolates
(which we aren't eating - but Mayfields will enjoy them for us!). Sharps weren't home but the domestic help were treating us well. Nice!

Love to all, The Bullocks

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Good morning,

We have had a good week so far. Today we are stuck in the office because our truck is getting serviced. That is okay though as we set up appointment with people who want to talk to us.
Some ladies want to come in and talk about a 'sewing' project they would like us to look at. Pastor Mhike wants to come in and talk about 'doctrine'. He was in yesterday with some paperwork and a map for the water project we are looking at up in Muzarabani.

We are lining up some possible areas that need boreholes and we will get a visit from a 'water specialist' from USA to come and assess them with us and help us develop the projects. We are looking forward to that. It will really help us a lot. The specialists will visit Zimbabwe and also the humanitarian couple in South Africa. We will likely have them for a couple of weeks and then they can also assist us via email afterwards.

1 Feb 2010 - On wall of ZESA office in Kadoma

1 Feb 2010 - Another one

5 Feb 2010 - Elder Bullock picking an avocado

We took Bruce, our borehole guy, out to look at a place where we want to replace a 5000 lts. water tank and he gave us a price on what that will cost. On our way back we stopped at the school 'head master's' house and he wanted to give us some mangos and some green mealies.
Green mealies are cobs of maize that haven't had a chance to dry on the cob yet. We were given instructions on how to cook and eat it. So we tried it. It didn't have much flavor (not like the sweet corn). It was rather chewy too but ok, I guess. I don't think I will care if I have it again or not though. We gave away a lot of the mangos - they were the smaller ones that have a more stringy fruit. Everyone loves the mangos and we lots of people eating them right now. They are very good!!

Pastor Sikyani's wife passed away - she had a stroke 2 or 3 weeks ago. We went to the funeral. He told us to come at 2 p.m. and when we got there they were filling the grave with dirt. I guess he wanted us to miss whatever happened before that. There was lots of singing and clapping as the young men took turns shoveling the dirt back in. Then everyone was fed a meal of sadza, meat with a little sauce and some shredded cooked cabbage. We ate too. That is the first time we have done that. We ate it with our fingers like everyone else. They take a bit of sadza, roll it into a ball and make a little indent in it and then dip it into the sauce. *Before you begin eating they come around with a bowl and some water so people can wash their hands and then do the same thing afterwards as our hands are dirty from eating. The sadza has no flavor and the sauce and vegetables are a bit on the salty side but it tasted good. These people LOVE sadza!!
Afterwards we went and thanked the ladies who had prepared the food and got a surprise!! Check out the pictures to see 'what we saw'! YIKES!! I guess it is a good thing we had already eaten or ............. we might have declined the offer.

10 Feb 2010 - Ladies who prepared food for the funeral

10 Feb 2010 - YIKES! This was on the ground by the pot (goat's head and feet)

10 Feb 2010 - Ladies with Elder Bullock

10 Feb 2010 - Shredding cabbage

10 Feb 2010 - Lady eating a mango

10 Feb 2010 - Two little girls wanting their picture taken

We had a pregnant lady waiting for us at the gate when we came in a couple of days ago. We stopped and she came to my window (the ladies usually want to talk to me and the men choose to talk to Elder Bullock). The lady said, "Madam, I have a problem". We hear that a lot. I ask what she needed and she pulled out her papers from the doctor and they did say that the baby was breach. She told me she was 12 months pregnant because the baby was breach and couldn't come out. I told her that I have had 7 babies and that it doesn't work that way -- that she is NOT 12 months pregnant. She wanted money from us and we don't give money so she went on her way.

Last Saturday we were invited to Nield's for a birthday party for CeeCee. Her request was for Mexican food and it was wonderful. One of the best meals we have had since being here. They have a great family and we enjoyed our afternoon with them. We bought a couple of bouquets of flowers off the street to take with us. One cost $10 and one cost $5 -- too bad I paid the $10 first because I probably could have gotten them both for $5 as they were desperate to make a sale. O well -- they were beautiful arrangements.

6 Feb 2010 - Bouquets of flowers for $10 and $5. Nice!

6 Feb 2010 - Nield's yard -- gorgeous!

6 Feb 2010 - Bullocks, Reeve, Deppes, Lolly, Mayfields, CeeCee at Nield home

6 Feb 2010 - Nield clan and friends

Tomorrow morning we are going for a golf lesson (after we play squash at 5:30 a.m.) so that we can meet a couple that our golf friends know. They are hoping that perhaps we can get to know these people and friendship them. He is a retired Dr. and does some humanitarian work here too.

Our first appointment of the day has arrived so .... back to work.

~Later~

Hi, We had a good day today. This afternoon two young men came in. One said we had met him at the grocery store a while ago and talked to him and he came to find us because he wanted to learn more about the church. He is a police officer and his friend is looking for work. They were both about 27 yrs. old. One is married with a baby girl and the policeman is working on saving up the lobola so that he can get traditionally married about April, he hopes.

We taught them about the Book of Mormon etc. (1st discussion) and gave them a restoration pamphlet and a B of M each. The police officer had very good English and really understood everything well. It was good!

The lady came in to discuss her possible 'sewing' project and we will go out and meet her group of ladies tomorrow morning and talk with them.

They have a problem at one of the grinding mills. One person wants to only charge $.50 to grind a bucket of maize instead of the normal price of $1.00. They cannot make any money at that rate and possibly not even have enough to pay the electricity bill and the $50 they pay to the miller. This particular person is trying to get points with the people there as he wanted to be re-elected as the SDC chairman (School Development Committee). He did get re-elected yesterday! So, we have a problem. There is a grinding mill committee and they should all be making these decisions but...... The head master came and discussed it all this with us. We were all hoping the chairman would not get voted back. Anyway today Elder Bullock phoned the MP (Mr. Zhanda) that we really like and he really likes us and told him of the problem. He will meet us at the mill on Monday morning, hopefully along with the committee, and talk to them. He is well respected and they will listen to him (we just need the one man to listen, really). I think he will be able to solve the problem for us and set things straight. We are doing several projects in his jurisdiction so he will do whatever he can to help and he really appreciates all we are doing.

We talked to him about the problem the church had recently with getting items cleared through ZIMRA (tax people) - and he knows the head guy and is going to set up a lunch with him and the mission president and ourselves and see if things can't be simplified for us. That will be great it he can help us. Pres. Dube says he will be happy to buy the lunch if we can get these people together.

Elder Bullock has gone to pick up the truck from being serviced. All is well. We were hoping to get our talks written for Sunday but our day just fills up (with good things though, like discussions of the gospel).

Love to all, E/S Bullock

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

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Our day is winding down and it has been a good one! We attended meetings at the Highlands ward and Elder Bullock confirmed Dzikamai. Merci gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and did a wonderful job. You would never know she was a recent convert. Malaika (her 5 yr. old daughter) sat with us and so did Seka and of course, Dzikamai. As I sat there I thought, "Here we are sitting together with our Africa family" because they feel like our family. These are the ones we will miss the most when we leave here.

Dzikamai was looking really happy and feeling great. His countenance has really changed since the first day we met him. He wants to prepare himself to serve a mission in a year. When he was in Boston he met a black girl there from Tucson, AZ and she took him to church a few times and she is now serving a mission in Washington DC. She will be excited to hear that he was baptized.

We left there early and drove to the Kwadzana Branch at the West end of Harare. We were to meet Answer and Mary and their two little boys there. Answer didn't come as he had to go visit his ill sister in Norton, but Mary came with the boys. We attended all the meetings there with her and Honest, the 6 yr. old liked primary and Trust the 2 yr. old slept most of the time. It was good. We went on Saturday with Elders Law and Crosley while they taught them and will go again next Saturday. Mary met a lady at church today who lives close to them so we are hoping they can become friends.

Anyway -- it was a great day!! Makes being here in Zimbabwe all worth it!!!! :)

I'm sure there is more to write but my mind is blank at the moment so --

Here are some pictures from the last little while.

26 Jan 2010 - Marondera group that gave us a tour of possible borehole sites and then took us to lunch (chicken and chips)

26 Jan 2010 - Books LDSC donated to this library a few years ago in Marondera

26 Jan 2010 - Elder Bullock and librarian in Marondera

26 Jan 2010 - 012 Giving newborn kit to brand new mother and baby

26 Jan 2010 - I liked the opening and closing times on this sign - funny

27 Jan 2010 - Gave quilts to these two ladies - They gave me us a tea set

27 Jan 2010 - Merci

28 Jan 2010 - Beauty (our housekeeper & she does our laundry). She came in a new outfit today (cute!)

30 Jan 2010 - Bullocks with Dzikamai

30 Jan 2010 - Elder Bullock & Dzikamai

30 Jan 2010 - Dzikamai & Seka

Love to our family and friends, Elder and Sister Bullock

January 17, 2010 Sunday night

We are home at our flat and there has been no electricity here for more than 24 hours. We are hoping it comes on soon so we don’t lose any food in the fridge. We did turn on our generator for about 1 ½ hrs. this evening to cook supper and let the fridge cool off some. We do keep jugs of ice all the time and put them into the fridge when the power goes off. We went to Masvingo yesterday morning and just got back about 5 p.m. today. We had a nice time there today at their meetings. The branch president has shuffled people around in the branch and there are new Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary presidencies. My friend Elizabeth is the new R. S. President and will do a great job. Change is good!!

Saturday about 5 p.m. we decided to go for a drive up passed the Inn where we stay. There is a dam up there not far that we can see from the Inn. It is quite the sight but I left the camera behind and got no pictures. We drove over the dam and a fair ways up the road on the other side. It is beautiful up there. When we left Harare yesterday morning we put in several hygiene kits, T-shirts, a few stuffed animals and 1 soccer ball (a really nice soccer ball that Reeve Nield gave us to give away). As we drove along we stopped and gave Tshirts to some kids that looked like they could really use one. Some kids were scared of us and would just run away – too bad. We gave hygiene kits to the moms we saw working in their fields/gardens or walking along the road. They are all so appreciative. BUT the best give-away was the soccer ball!! We saw two boys about 12 yrs. old walking along the road and I asked Elder Bullock to stop and go back. We asked if they were brothers and they said they were so we handed them the soccer ball. Well, my goodness!! – you should have seen them!!! I have never seen anybody so excited. It was so fun! It made tears come to my eyes to see their joy and excitement. As we drove away they took off as fast as they could towards their home with their ball.

Some kids we gave T-shirts to on our way to the Inn on Great Zimbabwe

More of the group. They appear to really need the shirts, don't you think?

Nice clear view from the Inn on Great Zimbabwe

This past Tuesday the new school term started here for the kids. They go for about 3 months and then have one month off (3 terms per year). Zimbabwe really had a good school system in the past but with all the troubles here schools have suffered. A lot of kids don’t go to school because they can’t afford the fees. While we were driving yesterday there were 3 or 4 kids that came to the truck window asking for school fees because they really want to go to school badly. Anyway – Tuesday morning as we were driving down the road from the office to an appointment we saw Panashe (our 11 year old boy who was recently baptized). We pulled over and ask what he was doing and he said he was coming to see us. I ask why he was not at school and he said he couldn’t go because he didn’t have the school fees ($30). Big tears started running down his cheeks even though he was trying really hard not to cry. His mom had told us that his uncle was going to pay his fees but Panashe said that he wouldn’t but that he did agree to pay for his school uniform. Panashe had left home before day break and had walked to our office which had taken him about 5 hours (it takes us a good half hour to drive to his home). We had him stay and work in the garden by the office until we got back from our appointment and then we brought him some food and took him home. We paid the $30 school fees for him (my friend Ruth had ask before Christmas if she could send money to help someone). We explained to him where the money had come from. He was one happy boy!! He knows how important it is to stay in school and wants it so badly.

Wednesday we had Zone conference and we had Elder and Sister Renlund from the area presidency here. They are going on the zone tour with Pres. and Sister Dube as they tour the mission (as they do every six weeks). We had a great conference and supper with all the missionaries.14 Jan 2010 - Girl bringing maize to the new grinding mill at Kadyamadare School

14 Jan 2010 - Waiting for maize to get ground. 3 came with maize while we were there. That is great!

Then on Thursday night Pres. Dube took we three couples out to supper with the Renlunds. We had a really nice visit. Elder Renlund has had a lot to do with the young people (YSA) in the church and has done of thinking and research in that area. He said it seems like as these young people are dating and looking for a spouse that generally they know fairly quickly when they meet the ‘right’ one and so it is important to have activities and regional get-togethers so that they can mingle and meet. He talked about keeping them active and getting them back into activity. He referred to Moroni chapter 6 where it talks about how we need to 1) number them, 2) name them 3) know them, and 4) gather them. We need to realize that “It is NOT all about me” and teach that to our young people. We don’t go to church and to activities just for ourselves, but we should go to fellowship and help others. If we can teach this and assign these young people to go and friendship someone it will help those who are shy or reserved to reach out to others and have a purpose. It brings them out of their shells and suddenly we start seeing results.

On Friday we met with the sister missionaries as they gave a discussion to the Dzikamai. He has a baptismal date for Jan. 29^th. He is feeling a little unsure as he thinks he needs to know ‘everything’ before he is baptized but we explained that baptism is just a start and there is a lifetime of learning ahead. He is doing well and we can see him feeling more positive about life. He has been kind of depressed, knowing that he blew the chance of a lifetime when he didn’t finish school at MIT in Boston. He had a breakdown while there and had to come back. He lost both his parents when he was 17 and still grieves over that loss. He’s had a hard time. He is 25 yrs. old. I told him that he is still young and shouldn’t give up on his dreams. When he came to church two Sundays ago he showed up clean shaven and looking really sharp so we could tell he is feeling better about life. I don’t know if there is any way he could go back to school or how he managed to get to MIT in the first place or who sponsored and paid for him to go. He must be a pretty smart guy to have been given the opportunity.

Monday morning: Still no electricity at the flat!! We ran the generator again for a while this a.m. It usually isn’t off this long so hopefully it will come back on today. It did rain a little on the weekend in some places. The country is in desperate need of a lot of rain. Usually they get a lot in December and January but have not received much this year and there is a lot of concern. They need it for the wilting maize and to fill up the wells. One community member in Goromonzi said that the government should call for a day of prayer. We suggested that they could do that in their own community and fast at the same time and perhaps the Lord would send rain to their area.

I better get this sent off as I haven’t written for a week or so. Love to all. Elder and Sister Bullock

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy New Year to all! We hope it is a good year for Zimbabwe and things can get better here for the people. There is concern about the lack of enough rain. They say that a lot of rain should have come in December and it didn’t. The rivers should be flowing by now and they aren’t. Some wells are low.

The zone leaders in Mutare put together a good meeting at the Holiday Inn for the ministers and pastors of other churches. There were over 30 in attendance plus about 10 of us. We explained about LDS Charities and what we do and have done in Mutare and of course, that brought a lot of enquiries afterwards. Pres. Chadambuka, the District President, the elders, and Pres. Dube, the mission president all gave short speeches about the church and that we are family oriented and want to serve and work together with them to help people. They said that if they have service projects that they would like help with that we are ready and willing with a lot or a few people that can help. Afterwards a wonderful lunch was served and they all enjoyed that. There were some really good and positive comments from them. Most didn’t understand much about us and were glad to know more. We were pleased with the outcome and Pres. Dube is thinking that perhaps we should do the same type of meeting in Zambia.

Sign above a toilet at Kwe Kwe church

We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn as it was too late to drive home – we don’t drive on rural roads after dark. It was New Year’s Eve so there was a fair bit of noise outside most of the night. It seems like the people here like to celebrate New Years!!!

We had a young man about 13 or 14 yrs. old come to the gate on Wed. and ask if there was any work he could do so that he could earn money for his school fees. I was impressed with him for trying to earn his own money so let him work in the garden area for 2 days. He earned $6 a day plus I gave him a school kit. (I think he needs $65 for his fees for this next term starting Jan. 12^th.

On Tues. we took ZESA, the electrical people, out to the school to connect the power to the building where the mill will go. It was suppose to take a couple of hours but it took our whole day by the time we waited for them to get organized, do the job, and return them to their office. If we don’t take them out we could wait indefinitely for them to do the job as they have very little diesel for their vehicles. On Wed. we led the way out to the school with the Precision Grinder people to install the mill and dehuller. That also took the whole day. We were to be at their business at 9:30 but didn’t leave until 11:30 when they were finally loaded and ready to go. It got hooked up but couldn’t be tested as the power was out due to a lightning strike. (Note: Zimbabwe has more people killed by lightning strikes than any other country in the world).

Unlaoding grinding mill at Kadayamadare School on December 30th

Getting mill and dehuller set up

Can't flip the switch and test it because the power is not working today!

On Friday afternoon we stopped in to see our investigators, Carol, Ellison, and Dzikamai. They are doing well, especially, Dzikamai. He hadn’t been to church until last Sunday because he had no proper clothes to wear so we gave him a white shirt and tie and I found some pants from our humanitarian clothing. He has attended church in the past when he was in Boston. He said he had forgotten how good it felt and he wants to keep coming and learning. We are going to Highlands ward today so we can be there with them. Hopefully Carol will come – she plays the keyboard at her other church and feels needed there. We could really use her to play the piano too! Later: Only Dzikamai came but he had a good day and we spent a couple of hours after church with him as he had some questions. We also spent time with Seka, as well.

Reeve, Lolly, and Cecilia are back from their golf tour now so they have us back playing ‘squash’ again. My body was a little stiff but is getting used to it again. It is good exercise. Jim isn’t playing as he doesn’t want to put his back out. I have a good trainer – the #1 guy in Zimbabwe on the squash court. Reeve, Lolly and CC help he and his brother a lot and occasionally send them to tournaments and for training in other countries. Needless to say, they are really good. They are gentle with me and let me get a point once in a while. Mayfields are learning to play too and the girls are teaching them. Deppe’s also have played too but Sis. Deppe hurt her hand (doing something else) and can’t play right now. We meet at the court at 5:30 a.m.

The girls (Reeve, Lollie and CC) brought us a nice gift bag of goodies for Christmas. They are too good to us. It included a tie for Jim, scarf for me, Hilary Weeks Christmas CD, chocolate, an Ipod (16 GB) filled with church music, videos and talks. Nice!!

Yesterday we took a Preparation day and went grocery shopping and then we went with Mayfields to the ‘Lion and Cheetah’ Park that is only about 30 minutes away. We took lunch with us, had a little picnic, and saw the animals there – lots of lions, but not the kind we would want to walk with. It was a nice afternoon.

Kids sitting in a Banana tree - more joined in when we pulled out the camera.

At the Lion and Cheetah Park - these guys were big!

We were in the car - not walking with them!!

Nice bush

Big turtle at park - he is 300 years old!

Sister Mayfield and me

Cubs (3 and 4 months old) getting their dinner

Tomorrow we are back to work again – hopefully getting another grinding mill motor installed. We have 4 grinding mill projects that were approved – a new kind of project for here and our people in South Africa are watching to see the success of them. We think they will be good but will also monitor to see how they work out and report back after a few months.

There are some ladies that want to talk about a ‘sewing’ project that they are hoping we might help them develop. We will look into that shortly too. Some ladies in Mutare at the meeting we just had also approached me about a sewing project. I suggested we could talk more in a couple of months as I want to see about this one here first and see if it is something we should look at or not.

We are off to church (Highlands ward) right now and I will send this letter off after.

Love, The Bullock's

Thurs. Dec. 3rd, (Jim's birthday)

Just got a text message from Pastor Mhike from Muzarabani. That is where Seka lived and they are friends that came to us together with their questions about the Book of Mormon a few months ago. Pastor Mhike was here on the weekend and Seka took him to church. This what he has to say about it:
“Hi President and Sister Bullock. I failed to leave Harare that day due to pressure of work but once again this is to say I enjoyed each and every event at the church. Please keep praying for my family. The Lord has spoken and we have obeyed. Now our sincere prayer is our God must give us something to do in Harare that we may enjoy fellowship with other brethren and even show our commitment in baptism and participating in the sacrament service.”
Wow!! That brings tears to our eyes. These people are amazing.

Later in the evening we got a call from Panashe, Zvikomborero’s son. By the way, she is getting baptized on Saturday, Dec. 12^th. Panashe’s uncle, who is 7^th day Aventist, would not let Panashe get baptized. However, Panashe called last night to say that he is getting baptized with his mom. He is meeting the elders today for his interview. (He was already approved once but it’s been a while so he needs another interview). He was really excited and was asking us to come and see him, which we will try and do today if at all possible. We are thrilled because he is a really good boy. He is 11 yrs. old, turning 12 in January.

The work moves forward!!!! We are now teaching Carol (18), her brother, Ellison (9), their mom, Mavis, as well as a neighbour that wanted to join us (Dzikamai – who is 25). Dzikamai has been to church before when he was going to MIT in Boston on a full scholarship. Something happened there (not sure what yet) and he didn’t finish and feels really bad that he blew such an opportunity. Anyway, he says something is really missing in his life and he needs to find his faith again. Should be interesting. We will also take the sister missionaries with us when we go to the next appointment so that they can help us teach them as we don’t always have enough time. Carol and Ellison are the two that we met a few months ago on our morning walks as they were walking to school.

Monday, November 2, 2009

There have been more clouds in the sky lately but still no rain, until this evening when we got a little. The “early” rains (rain showers) are late starting this year and things are very dry. Hopefully they will start soon and then the people will plant their maize. They plant when the rains start. The real rains should start mid-late November. Those rains are heavy with huge drops of water. They usually last from about 20 minutes to an hour (from what we are told).

We spent the weekend in Mutare and I talked about Visiting Teaching and Jim talked about Home Teaching at the district training. We divided into men and women and then got back together for about an hour where President Chadembuka talked and we each talked briefly about our earlier sessions. I think it was okay. We attended one of the branches on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed that. We did note that English is spoken well in the branch (no Shona was slipped in, as it usually does in the other branches we look after near Harare). The meetings are suppose to be done in English.

In Sunday School class they were discussing what they could do to help prepare to have a temple here one day. The ladies suggested that they need more Priesthood holders and that the men should get busy and work on that. Then one of the men said, “I think the young women should go out and ‘woo’ some priesthood holders”. Everyone had a good laugh. Relief Society turned into a really good discussion too about visiting teaching and reactivation. I was really impressed with their lessons. They do really well in Mutare. They have a wonderful District President leading them. He is a really good man.

Today the electricity was off at the office so they had the generator running things. The phones and internet were not working most of the day either so it was a bit frustrating as we were trying to get some things done. Finally we, and Mayfields decided that it was a good afternoon to get away from the office and so we went shopping. We went downtown to the fabric stores. Downtown is an ‘experience’ here! We each bought some fabric – it was $2.00 & $2.50/mtr. When we go to Masvingo we will take the fabric to Elizabeth and she will make us a wrap around skirt. She’s a good seamstress. She uses the money to pay her daughter’s school fees. It will cost $5 or 6 to have her make a skirt (I think). She made an apron or two for me already. Sis. Taylor had her make some things for her before she left.

We also went to the flea market today. I didn’t buy anything but Sis. Mayfield bought some African necklaces. I don’t want to buy anything else until after we go to Victoria Falls in April (for our couples conference). They are suppose to have some nice things there for cheap. If I can’t find what I want there then I will get something here – I do kinda know what I am looking for. We have to be careful because we can only bring so much weight home!

We got a phone call late today from the district president in Gweru confirming that we were going there this Saturday for their District training. We didn’t know about that but said we could come. This will be the 4th weekend away. Gweru is 3 hrs. away. We will drive there Sat. morning do the training and then we will drive back about ½ hr. to Kwekwe and stay in a hotel there. Kwekwe is about 30 minutes from Kadoma and we have committed to being in Kadoma on Sunday. (We don’t want to stay at the hotel in Kadoma again!). Our Kadoma branch is having the primary presentation on Sunday and planned it on a Sunday that we could attend so we cannot cancel on them. The next Sunday, the 15th, will be Seka’s confirmation day (baptism on 14th, so we will be here in Harare for that.

We are relaxing at home as I write this. We are just going to watch the DVD of the Priesthood session of General Conference. We hear it was a ‘good’ one.

Love, The Bullock's

Thursday, October 29

Just a quick note to say that I sent a bunch of photos and notes to Kim to put on the blog so check that out if you want. All is well - keeping busy. We checked on the progress the school/community are making on the building for the grinding mill. They are doing alright but we will hold off ordering the mill for a few more days.

Yesterday we had a visit from Pastor Mhike from Muzarabani (up north). He is the one who originally came with Seka and wanted to be taught the gospel after we had given them Book of Mormons. Seka quit his church and moved here but Pastor Mhike hasn't done that yet. He had some questions though and did say that he is having a hard time because he is teaching his congregation things that he now knows are not right. He says he knows that the LDS church is true. He wants to get things to a point that he can move to a place where our church is and find some sort of employment. He needs some land as well so that he can produce food for his family. He is missing Seka as they used to be able to have discussions about what they were reading and he says that Seka is better at understanding than he is. Good man!

We are giving another discussion to Seka after his work today and Bishop Spencer will join us for the discussion. That will be great.

We loaned Seka one of our 'wind-up' flashlights (with a radio) and he thinks that is pretty neat technology. He was trying to study by candlelight so the flashlight will help a little. Also he was feeling a little lonely and too quiet where he is so the radio will keep him company. That is the flashlight that we got at our Christmas time gift exchange when we had our get-together with sisters & husbands and Rob and Wendy.

This weekend we head to Mutare to help train at their district conference and then attend Sunday meetings at one of the branches. We will stay at Holiday Inn - pretty good place!

On Nov. 21st, the 3 couples here, are going to Masvingo to the Ruins on the Great Zimbabwe. Jim and I have been once but it will be good to go again. It is our weekend to go down anyway and we can show the other couples the area. The Ruins are something that they need to be sure and see while in Zimbabwe. We will stay over at the Inn on the Great Zimbabwe and they will like that. It will be fun to get away. We couples seldom take P-days so we have to plan ahead when we want to get one.

Jim is taking a little nap on the office floor at the moment. I guess he is a little tired. I need to quickly do my October financial report for SA so I can send it tomorrow. We didn't spend much money this month so it won't take long. When we get some projects going we will be spending a LOT more.

Kowoyo Clinic (Juru) old borehole pump and tank.
This is a clinic where we hope to replace their transformer (it was stolen) and get their borehole up and working again.

Well they are having dug -- now down about 20 meters - still no water.

Surface of hand-dug well.

Kowoyo Clinic.

Sink and tap in clinic, but NO WATER.

Fridge is run by gas.

This baby was crying - the kind of cry that said I am sick!

Birthing room - when it is an emergency and there is no time to send them 60 km to next facility.

Sign on wall by vaccines -- they have had power failure since January!!

Maturi Dehwe School - We hope to fix the borehole here for them. The cost will be about $1,000.

Kids by the truck window.

5 second later by the truck window!!!

Another 5 seconds and I have a crowd wanting their picture taken.

Bruce (our borehole guy) and Elder Bullock juggling for the kids

Notice the albino girl. We see a few of them but a lot more guys than girls.

I am never going into our backyard again at night -- at least not without shoes on!!! Elder Bullock saw these when he went out to turn off the generator.

Big spider in back yard.

Toad in backyard at night.

Slug in backyard. YUCK!

Kids at Kadyamadare School practising for a 'traditional' dance competition.

The drummers for the dancers.

Fixing and securing building for grinding mill.

Reimer clinic community stats

Love to everyone, Elder and Sister Bullock