Eternal Families....

Before you say anything.....I know we have been off the grid for awhile. One of the first lessons we learned, in fact we learned this lesson the day we arrived. I could not get on the Internet, and Elder Taggart said..."Welcome to Africa". Well it has been one of those months. We get on the net every now and then. We get to hear from the kids....every now and then. So it has been a "Welcome to Africa" month. We have been so busy. We have been all over the mission and have had a wonderful time being with the missionaries. We had several training meetings with the Districts and many of the Branches.

Arlene has recovered from malaria....finally. Boy that is nasty stuff. She has been doing great. She has even started back walking on the treadmill again. So, we think she will be fine. I am glad she is feeling better. I am glad to be able to tease her again....I missed her laugh.

We are very excited that President & Sister Erickson will arrive soon. We have had an opportunity to visit with one another on the phone and exchange pictures of the missionaries. They are great. We know they will continue on in this wonderful work. We hope they have as much fun as we did. They are scheduled to arrive about July 1st. You can find their bio on the Church website. Just look at that smile....when I saw their picture I knew the missionaries were in good hands.

We said goodbye to Elder & Sister Lookhart last week. They will be missed. They were on their way to the States to see their family in the east, then on to Idaho. We are blessed to have Elder & Sister Skidmore called to be our new office couple. We prayed them here. We are so thankful that we will have a new office couple in place when the Erickson's arrive. During the interim we have three Elders filling in for them. They are the best. You can surly see that all of the video games they played has paid off. Their computer skills are super. This generation was blessed with the "computer" gene. All of our reports and tasks are up to date, thanks to them.

Two weeks ago we were blessed to attend the Temple in Johannesburg. We were able witness three families from Malawi sealed together. What a choice experience it was. We met them all when we first attended our little Branch in Kauma in Malawi. To see them grow in the gospel and to see them come together as families has been one of our greatest blessings as we have served here. If anyone were to ask us, "Why did you go on a mission?" We would just show them this picture. It is worth a 1000 words. As members of the Lord's Church here upon the earth, we were sent here to find our brothers and sisters and to teach them the gospel of salvation. I know that these good friends were part of our family when we lived with our Heavenly Father prior to this earth life. We have witnessed the light of the gospel come into their lives. We have witnessed them grow in love for one another. We have heard their testimonies and have helped them prepare to become an eternal family.We are blessed to have been a small part of this great work.

We have a full schedule during the time that remains. We have three District Conferences with three General Authorities in May and June, plus another round of zone conferences with the missionaries. We will attend our final Mission Presidents Seminar with the Area Presidency in May. Oh, then the movers come to pack up all of our stuff. Other than that, we are not doing a thing....

We love you all. We miss you. We look forward to the last few miles of our marathon....

M&A

We love you.......

"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way"..........