Zambia

We arrived in Zambia late in the afternoon yesterday. It took us about 8 hrs. to drive here but that includes the time at the border, which is always an experience. We had paid for a double entry visa last time so we thought it would go a lot faster but..... it didn't. It is winter here so things are dry and some of the trees lose their leaves. It looks like our autumn but not as many nice autumn colors here.

We are staying at the couple's house here in Lusaka, which by the way, is very modern and nice. It is kind of used as a mission home here in Zambia, if the need arises. They have gone north to what is called the 'Copper Belt' to be part of the measles campaign there and will be back Wednesday. We will do what they need us to do here. We are meeting someone at the church nearby at 9:00 a.m. and will help give out T-shirts that they had made up for the members who will help this next week. We don't know our way around here so someone will have to ride with us and show us where to go. We will also go with the District Pres. to see a possible water project that he wants to show us while we are here.

It is the mission zone conference here on Monday so we will go to that. Jim has been asked to take 20 minutes and talk about how the B of M answers questions of the soul.

The water specialists leave tomorrow morning to go back to Utah. They live in West Jordan and are taking back and suitcase of stuff for us and will call Pam to pick it up. I don't think they live far from her. We had to come up here so arranged for Johnsons to go overnight to a game park and do a safari etc. They should enjoy that. We did accomplish a lot with them but never got the projects written up so we will have to try and get that done when we get back. Hopefully we have enough information. We asked Locardia Murenza to be our hygiene supervisor and she accepted. She has been going out with us to the sites and has been a huge asset already. She will do a great job. She gets paid for doing the job and she does have quite a bit of responsibility. We also have our two borehole site monitors and they also will get paid. We were definitely guided by the spirit in our selection of help. Locardia left on Tues. evening as she had a temple trip to Jo'berg planned with her two sisters. She will be back when we get back and she can help us write up the projects, and she took a LOT of notes so that will be good. Elder Johnson and Elder Bullock were going to write up the project proposals on Thursday but Elder Bullock got called by Pres. Dube to help with some mission business. It was something that could not wait and it took most of the day. It was not pleasant mission business.

We have started packing already and will have to finish up most of it when we get back to Harare next week. We will get our things out of our flat so that when the Beans arrive they can move right in. We will live out of a small suitcase for a couple of weeks. We have been invited to stay at the "Sharp's" home during that time. (Nice place!!) They will be leaving as soon as school ends on Aug. 4th and have said that we are welcome to stay in their home. If by some chance that doesn't work as planned we will stay at the Holiday Inn and eat with the other couples.

Today we need to go exchange some money for the local currency so that we can go buy a few groceries. The exchange rate is 5000 to $1.00 USD. We have to do some quick figuring in our heads to see what we are actually paying for things. Prices are about the same as Zimbabwe, for the most part. We brought our squash rackets with us and there is suppose to be a court nearby so we will check that out and see if it is possible for us to play there and get our exercise.

I better go get showered and dress and ready for the day.
Love to all, Nancy

a couple of pictures

Just a couple of pictures from our weekend:

I went walking with the lions again, along with Elder & Sister Johnson, our water specialists.

The Murenji family's baptism

Friday morning July 9th

Hi, A quick update.

We have our water specialists here (Elder & Sis. Johnson from West Jordan, Ut). We have been busy and are getting lots done. We have been out with a couple from a borehole drilling company and have been 'divining' wells/boreholes with Y shaped tree limbs. It has been pretty fun and interesting. They can tell how deep the water is and whether it should be a drilled borehole or a hand-dug well. Elder Bullock and do it but it wouldn't work for me - except when I held one side of the limb and the borehole guy held the other side and then we held hands -- then Whoa -- it worked like crazy. I will have to keep trying I guess. Another method is to balance a 500 mil bottle of water (full or partly full) on your hand and walk around -- when the bottle starts to wobble and tip - there is water and the direction the bottle tips tells which direction it is flowing!! Amazing.

We have Locardia, who is going to be the LDSC supervisor for hygiene/sanitation training and overseeing the committees at the different borehole sites. She has been spending the past 2 days with us and will do really great at this job. She has to recommend a couple of names for 'trainers' who will help her. She will also be a huge asset to E/S Bean when they arrive. We feel like we made an excellent choice when we picked Locardia for the job - she is going to be good!!

We are on our way to a 'hand-over' ceremony at Chifumbi Clinic where we bought new transformes and fixed the borehole. Lots of speeches, etc. but it will be fun.

Tomorrow we head to Kadoma for the 5 baptisms -- our headmaster at Danangwe School and his family. We are thrilled about that. After the baptisms we will continue on to Antelope Park with the Johnsons so they can enjoy an evening there and take a walk with the Lions. (That was Bronte's favorite activity while here). We will stay overnight and go back to Kadoma Sunday morning for church - confirmations and priesthood ordinations.

Monday we go to Muzarabani for talk about boreholes there. We are enjoying our time with Johnsons and appreciate their help/expertise with the water projects. We will get enough done that when Beans come they will be able to take off with these projects.

Love to all, Elder/Sister Bullock

Private

Mom and Dad are sorry to make their blog private so close to the end of their mission, but something came up (I don't even know what - they said it would be another story for when they return home) that they wanted to be cautious who could see what. So, just like you're looking forward to knowing more, I am too!!!

Just a little more than a month until they will be home! :)

After spending 5 days in London, England for some relaxation time, they will fly into Calgary on August 17th in the evening. They will be speaking in their ward that following Sunday, August 22nd at 9:00 a.m. at the new chapel in Airdrie. Here is a map:

View Larger Map

Love, Kim

Monday, July 5th

Hi everyone,

We had a busy weekend at Masvingo finishing off the audit there at the branch. There are good people there and we hope to get back down there one more time before we go home.

One of our elders from this mission who returned home a few months ago is in Masvingo. He told us Saturday that he has met the girl of his dreams and they are planning a temple marriage. He said he would introduce us on Sunday. I was kind of hoping it was one particular girl named Elizabeth and it was!!! Yeah!! Anyway - this young man is staying at Pres. Munaki's house, renting a room. Elizabeth also stays there. We gave Pres. Munaki a ride home and I told him that I heard he has been doing some matchmaking. He didn't know what that term so between me and a young man who was with us we explained it. Then Pres. Munaki looked at me strange -- and I realized he didn't know these two had been dating (not really dating here). I told him that they didn't say I couldn't tell. He was pretty taken back by the idea. After a bit he started to smile and said, 'now it all makes sense'. They have been asking me questions about how to go about temple marriage etc. etc. He said that he would tell them and then they would both giggle. He had been totally clueless, however, the young man with us knew about it and so does Pres. Munaki's wife. It was quite funny and I am sure he had some fun with it when he got home.

We got a call today from Mr. Musoro, the head master from Danangwe School where we are doing a project. He is the one who has been to church and wanted to get baptized but we informed him that he had to have the missionary discussions first. It took a while to get the branch missionaries to do their job and finally Pres. Dube had the full time missionaries in KweKwe travel to Chegutu and teach with the branch missionaries. We really wanted to see this man and his family taught because they are just really super people. He will be a branch president. Anyway - he called today to tell us that he and his family (wife and 3 teenage children) are having baptismal interviews and planning on being baptised on July 17th. We really want to be there for the baptism so will do whatever we can to arrange that. We are really excited about this family. This is so awesome!!!

The water specialists come tomorrow about noon so we will have a busy couple of weeks. I hope we are at least a little prepared for them. I know we aren't as prepared as we should be and part of the reason is because we really don't know all that we should do. Hopefully we have done enough to make their time here worth while.

Our personal computer has a problem and won't turn on today. I hope we can at least retrieve everything off of it when we get home - pictures, etc.

Must head home - it is dark out. Love to all, The Bullocks