A week of 1st times.......

We have a had a wonderful week. When we left the United States one of our daughters said, "starting today you will have many 1st times" go enjoy them. These are just a few of the 1st........we flew to London, England and saw the palace in the rain. We tried to use US dollars and they laughed, we rode the underground, we experienced the wonders of Heathrow Airport, oh my......, we saw the inside of a Boeing 777' where the first 30 rows looked like something from the attack of the pod people, we landed in Africa, we saw for the first time the face of this wonderful land, and the first smiles were given to us, we felt the sweet Spirit of these fine people who have allowed us into their family, we flew up to Zambia, and found our new home, we found that the Missionaries are true and faithful young men and women, we discovered that you might have hot water and you might not, we found that the dog next door really likes to bark......,only between the hours of 11pm & 6am, we experienced for the first time driving on the left side of the road, and discovering that when they made the cars they put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car.......,this was indeed one of the major firsts this week, we got to go to the bank, now that is an experience, they have never seen US currency, and you must use your ATM card, we asked the ATM for one hundred dollars in Zambian Kwachas and we received back two million in bills, it takes a shopping bag to carry them, we went to the grocery store and found it to be better than we had hoped, there were things we knew and even more things we didn't, we spent our first million Kwachas on a samll bag of groceries, we have the opportunity to interview a new missionary who has been called to serve in Uganda, we set him apart and sent him on his way, we met our new assistants, and senior couple, who are some of the finest people we have ever met, we attended and presided over the first baptism in the newly created Zambia Lusaka Mission, we came home last night to discover that the power was out, I mean it was out, we learned that walking around in a new house in the dark while trying to put away the groceries can be fun, we learned that sitting in the new couch in the dark can be a bonding experience I learned that my wife is a saint, that she is the riches blessing in my life, that her patience with the things you can't do anything about is a lesson I will continue to learn, we went to church for the first time in Africa, and saw the faces of these good people who love the Lord, and suffer from like of wordily things but are happy because they know the Lord loves them and here's their prayers. We know that we are blessed to be here at this time, we know that even though we have only been here for a week, we feel like we are running out of time. We are thankful to you all, not for the first time but for all of the time you have been our friends and companions, we think of you often, and pray that you will miss us as much as we miss you. We will write again soon.