And the winner is .....

We have been really busy this past few days with the arrival of our new missionaries. We are so happy to finally have them here. We went from 45 to 62 in one week. This transfer effected almost the entire mission. We are so thankful to have all of them here. When you stop to realize how this great work unfolds, it is most humbling to know that the hand of the Lord is involved. To have all of these young missionaries come from all over the world at this time in this place is not by happen stance. In the beginning when we lived with our Heavenly Father, we all chose to follow Him. Not the adversary. We all kept our first estate, chose to come to earth and gain a physical body and to learn to walk by faith. As I look at all of their pictures on the wall, I wonder what it would be like to see them as their Spirit and to see just how old they are. We can see them physically sure, but to see them Spiritually I think we would marvel at just how long each of them have waited to come here to the earth to complete Heavenly Fathers plan. The facts that surround this "gathering" of people is staggering. 62 different individuals, 9 different countries. At least 10 different language's. Family circumstances that in most cases would bring tears to your eyes. And all of the events that would lead all of these servants to the same place at the same time to do this work. It's not by chance. It is by the power of the Priesthood that created this earth. It is by the love and kindness of a Heavenly Father who loves his children and knows them all by name and blesses their lives as they serve Him. We are so blessed to be able to serve here with all of these wonderful saints. We have had general elections this past few days. It has been very exciting to say the least. Elections in Africa are a life changing experience. We have had several of our missionaries in lock down due to the fact that they really have to be careful with the locals and how they react to the events of the day. We are all fine. We have been blessed. I am sure many of our Elders & Sisters will have lots to write home about in the next few days. We are on the move again. It seems like we just get home long enough to wash our clothes and pack them up again and were off. We will head back over to Malawi on Tuesday for 10 days. We have new areas to look at and several meetings. We love you all. We hope you liked the pictures. We look forward to sending you more. Remember, we have room for all of you. Come and serve with us. We need you.

xoxo,

M&A

On the Home Front

This is the side of our home and the gate with the guard house next to it.

This is the front of our home with the block wall.     

Different view of the front of the house.  Office upstairs.   

The guard's house.

The electric wire on top of the walls and gate.

  

Mikele standing in the laundry room with some of our bananas.

Our long hallway.  That is the door of our bedroom.

Part of our living room.

Another view of the living room with the President.     

Stairs going up to the office.  Inside, but outside our part of the home.

 First door on left in hallway, part of the kitchen.

 Eating area in kitchen.  When looking in kitchen, it is around the corner on the left side.  

Part of the pantry on left side of kitchen before the eating area.   It goes more on left side and then the fridge is across from what you are seeing.

Dining room next to kitchen.  The little window is the kitchen.
                                                                       

Spare bedroom that we are turning into the exercise room.
             

This one is my make up room in our bedroom.

These two pictures are part of our bedroom.

Another spare bedroom or the General Authorities Room.  
     

 Another spare room that we are using as our office downstairs.

Dining room before we hung the curtains. 
      

These three are our bathroom.  We have a new shower head now and it works much better.  

Mikele outside with our bananas.  This is only one bunch.  We have had about 9 bunches. Mikele can hardly wait for the mangos. 

We do have a pretty yard. Which is something here.  Most people do dirt only and they sweep it to keep it clean.  That is something to watch them sweep dirt.


Well I hope these all get sent. Here we never know.  This is a start and  we will continue to send.  Miss all of you and love you all. xoxoxoxox

The longer we stayed ..... the closer they got!!

Well it all started with the question. "What shall we do on P-day?"

In the mission field all of the missionaries are suppose to take a preperation day or day off every Monday. We have not taken one of those since we arrived. That's just because we have had so much to do and after 12 weeks or so you just get to the point where you need a break. So we went out into the bush to see what we could see. Elder & Sister Taggart who are serving here with us thought it would be fun to go with us. We headed out into the bush, which is about two miles out of town. Ha! We followed the road for awhile until we saw a sign that read "KALIMBA RETILE PARK" 4 miles. We found it, paid a small fee and met our tour guide. "Lovegood", don't ask, that was his name. We walked through the park for a few minutes and he asked if we wanted to see them collect the Crocodile eggs. Crocodile eggs I asked. Yes, he said. So off we went over to the pond. He said, want to go inside? Now, let's just think about that for a moment .....Do I want to go inside the fence line where the crocodiles live? I never was one to think about things for very long. So off we went. We climbed through the fence and there we were. As we approached the pond, eyes from all over the pond appeared. They knew we were there. They could feel that lunch had come a little early.....

We wandered out into the center of the pond to watch this fellow dig into the fresh ground and uncover these new crocodile eggs and mark them.

One, two, three...26, 27, 32!! lot's of eggs.

Then it happened....Mom's home ......

And she has brought her friends.....

Elder Taggart? Where are you .....

We were out on this small part in the pond. They were all over. You could not turn your back for very long. Sister P. was yelling. Here comes another one!!

When you hear a splash, you turn and look!!

This one was on the move .....

Lot's of eyes watching ......

They can move fast .....

We were so close.... it was awesome!!

Just waiting for something to eat........

Missionary.....yummy......

We had a great time. We are off to Zimbabwe tomorrow. We will be gone until Sunday. Then back home. We receive our new missionaries from the MTC on Wednesday. We have a big transfer this week. Lot's going on. We love you all. Thanks for the emails. We are well and happy. We are so blessed to be here.

Love you all,

M&A

It was a nice day on the road....What did he say????

Like he said, "don't pass the elephants" ......

More pictures....

We think at least for today these will post. We hope you enjoy them. We are doing fine. We see things that you just can take in sometimes.....We are very busy. The days just fly by. We are going up to the Copperbelt on Saturday for District Conference. We will be able to visit. Kitwe, Luanshya, and Ndola. We travel up on a small plane. An E-ticket ride for sure. It's amazing how you spend most of the flight praying hoping all goes well. I sure you can understand. In all of the bloge we post I mention to you all how wonderful Sister Padovich is. I want you to know that this lady is a Saint. She puts up we me and in and of itself is a task. She watches over the missionaries and calls them to make sure they are healthy and doing what they need to do. Heaven help you if we stop by to "spot check" your flat to make sure it's clean! It's like I would tell my boy's. "if you mess with your mom....you're on your own"I can't save you. We will try this again. We hope. Love to all of you. The Church is true. The Lord loves his children. This I know.

xoxo M&A

We went up to the Copperbelt for Conference. Zambian ****

This deluxe model had "His & Her's Mosquito Netting.....

Family fun day at the International School. Elder's love to play soccer.

The nice thing is at this age they don't keep score.....Right!

Dancing with the Stars. Lusaka style.

This was taken on top of Mount Zomba in Malawi. It's over 7000ft.

It was cool and very green.

When they see the white truck in Lilongde, it's time for candy from Sister P.

...but first you must check out the "muzungoo" with the camera...

Try this at the next "Iron Man Competition"

When the bus stops, and they just stop anywhere. The vendors run to make a sale.

I saw this at the water stop on the Lusaka Century bike ride.......

Most of the streets look like this one. No paved road except the main road.

The 405 in Zambia. No food, no water, but plenty of cars and trucks.

Lot's of fruit and vegetables, everyone has a garden.

If they spill they pick it up. We waste nothing.......