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"..........

Happy Valentine Day.....

It feels like we have been cut off from the world for the past month. The internet has been down and our phones have been out. It feels like we are reliving our past. We have gone through this before. And this time we are ready for it. So what do you do when you have no internet and no phones? That's right....Road Trip...... We held our zone conferences and we were gone for about three weeks. We went to all parts of the mission and I interviewed all of the missionaries and the couples. It was so great. They are all working so hard. The theme for conference was taken from 1Samuel 17..."Who is your Goliath?" What holds you back...... "Is there not a cause?" We had a great time learning about our "cause". I am thankful that we have a cause. As we work together we will make a difference. We are blessed to have this assignment. While we were in Malawi, we were working out in Kauma Village and Arlene was bitten by misquiteos. And sure enough, 10 days later she came down with malaria. Boy that stuff is nasty. It came on suddenly, like getting hit by a bus. She was so sick. One of our dear friends told her, "Oh, the first time is the worst. It gets better each time you get it". Oh my..... I hope that never happens again. About four days into the process I was able to prop her up, crazy glue a smile on her face, and get her on the plane to Johannesburg. We went to see Dr. Milne. He was an answer to our prayers. He stayed late at his office and ran a bunch of tests, and found her to be OK....except for the malaria. We were happy to hear there was nothing else wrong. I am thankful for blessings that come through faith. I am thankful that she is recovering, and know that we will be back up to speed soon. I have never seen her so sick. While we were in Malawi, we were able to divide the Kauma Branch. When we first arrive on mission, we had about 25 people attending there. When we split, we had 197. What a wonferful day it was. We will divide the Lilongwe Branch in about two months and then we will have four branches in Lilongwe. We are thankful for the good saints in Malawi. We have sent out several more missionaries from the area this past month. We have several more who will leave us shortly, with many more to come. We are thankful for our assignment here. We hope and pray that many more couples will come and join us. You can do it. Don't worry about the details. Just put in your papers and come join the ranks. You will be blessed for your service. We love you and miss you. We are thankful for good Bishop Vandermark. He always sends us updates and reminders how the Ward is doing. We support him and our Stake leaders. Drop us a line when you can. We heard from Elder Ed & Jolene Smith the other day. They are doing well and they are busy. That is a good thing to be in the mission field. We hope you enjoy the pictures.....Love you.

M&A

This is the new plot of ground for the new Matero Building.....2014

A brush and a can of paint will get the job done....

This plot is about the size of the Sand Canyon Building.

Gates and a fence already in place....

Lt. to right....President Lumbama, District President of 

Lusaka District. Elder Lookhart, Zambia Lusaka Mission Presidency.

Elder & Sister Rose, Area Real Estates Specialist. 

President Kalunga, Matero Branch President

 We have a bumper crop of bananas this year.....

Yes Officer.....He was a really big guy.....

About 9ft 6 and about 750 lbs....

He should be really easy to find.....

With the rains comes the bugs.....All shapes and sizes....

we found this one when he knocked on the front door...

 My friends from Kauma Primary.....We had a great time together.

The future of the Church in Zambia.

 Speaking of bugs.....Dinner at the hotel in Malawi.....Yes they are......

Roasted, alittle salt, and ready to eat.....YUM!!!

The real deal.......Can I get an order to go??

 When is the next meeting?? Always working hard....

We love you and miss you all....

M&A

Happy New Year......

Happy New Year to all of you. We have enjoyed this Christmas Season here in Zambia. Anytime you are with the missionaries is a good time. With the help of the Senior couples, we divided up the mission so all of the missionaries could gather at the couple's homes to enjoy dinner and visit. It was a great time. We had about 30 here at our home both for Christmas dinner and for New Year's get together tonight. It was fun. We have had a wonderful 2012. We have grown in the mission. We have been able to help establish the Church here in Zambia and in Malawi. We have all worked hard to improve our obedience to the things we hold sacred. We know that the Lord has heard our prayers and we know that we have been blessed for our efforts. We are thankful to have this opportunity to serve here with these good saints. This past few weeks I have read a book called, "To Grow Closer to God" by President Henry B. Eyring. In his book there is a chapter on "Heeding".  To heed means to listen intently. It is a word I have known of all my life, but here in Africa I have learned to "heed" better. I know that we are here by assignment.  I know that the Prophet of the Church extended this assignment to us. I know that we were sent here for a reason and many of those reasons have manifest themselves to us over the past 18 months and we are blessed to be part of this great work. We have witnessed miracles. We have seen lives change and we have felt the blessings that come from God as we serve here. We have seen the lives of our children and grandchildren change. We have seen them challenged and blessed for their faithfulness. We are not without struggles. We are just like you. It's never downhill and shady.  You need to climb a little to get to the downhill. I think the older I get the more I enjoy the uphill rather that the down. At least for me the uphill is slow and steady.  The downhill goes too fast for me nowadays. I think of the scripture in Ecclesiastes 9:11: "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and change happeneth to them all." Change has sure happened to us. We see it in one another every day. When I married Arlene, it was the most important thing I have ever done. From that day, I have strived to be a better man each day. She is the foundation I build on. She is a pillar of strength. She is my eternal companion and I am blessed to serve here with her. In President Eyring's book, he speaks of things that will happen to all of us here on earth. One of those things is, "It is an absolute certainty that you will go through trails of your faith.  For some, it will be a physical or perhaps financial problems.  For others, it mat not be anything that an outsider would see as a trial, but the real trial of your faith is not necessarily that moment when disaster obviously strikes you; in fact, you may go through a lifetime with little or almost none of that. The real trial of your faith, is anything that would divert you from doing what God would have you do." This passage has meant a great deal to me this past year or so. You all know me.  I sometimes can become distracted. I think we all get distracted from time to time.  I am thankful that even with those distraction, I can find my way back and stay focused on why we are here.  I know that by reading my scriptures and saying my prayers and "Heeding" the promptings, I have a chance.  I know that we won't get everything done here before we return home, but I know that we will get the things done the Lord wants to get done. Last month, we received a letter from the First Presidency of the Church letting us know that our call here has been amended. We will serve for two years instead of three. At first, we were sad, but as we have learned, things change. We don't know what lies ahead, but we will remain true and faithful so when that new assignment comes, we will be ready. We will now ride a little faster and work a little harder. The clock is ticking and we need to pick up the pace. The last 6k's of the marathon were always the hardest, but for me it is where I learned the most about why I took up the race in the first place. We love you all. We miss you. We pray the Lord will bless and keep you until we meet again. Love one another and be happy. Take the time to enjoy the ride....

M&A

Senior Couples from the ZLM

Zone Conference 2012 

 Copperbelt Zone 2012

Malawi Conference 2012

New Christmas Presents....

There is never enough......boy can these missionaries eat...

Munali Sisters, Christmas 2012

I'm the one that should be wearing a hat......

 Now this is a happy Sister.....

Brother Damester, Lilongwe, Malawi 2012

Kauma Primary 2012

I am a child of God.......Happy New Year !!

30 Days and counting....

We are so sorry that it has taken so long to get back to the blog. We left home in the middle of October and were home for one day and off again to Johannesburg for the Mission Presidents Seminar. We returned home just a few days before Thanksgiving. Then to make things just perfect, we were without Internet during the holidays. Now here we are, Internet back up and running and here comes the latest blog. 

We went over to Malawi and had great conferences and up north and did the same. Johannesburg was wonderful. It was a lot cooler there then in Lusaka. It was nice  to hear Arlene say, "I'm cold". I thought it was wonderful. We even had some rain. It has been so hot here in Zambia. We are just getting into the rainy season. Everyone is busy planting the corn and crops. We are praying for good rain this year. 

We were very excited to listen to conference. We were really pleased to hear about the new format for missionaries. We were told at the seminar that our area will receive an increase of about 30%. Thant means we will grow again. We have about 22 new missionaries in process to come to Zambia & Malawi. We are thankful that so many young people will be coming to join us. We can really use the help. Now if we could get 10 more Senior Couples to come as well. We need your help in order to grow. If we had more couples, we could expand into the Western and Northern Provinces. One step at a time. We are thankful for the blessing we receive. No complaints, just hopeful. 

Thanksgiving was nice. The girls really went all out. Arlene found a turkey. At least that is what the package said. It was kind of a Zebra/Yak/ Tofurky kind of a meal. At least that is what we called it. The pies were the best I ever had. Arlene found two pumpkins and cooked them and made the filling and they were the best. We used bananas from our own banana trees in the yard. They were great. All of the couples came over and we had a fine time. 

We are busy as always. We will prepare for Christmas in the next week or so. All of the missionaries are looking forward to calling their families. We will get together in all corners of the mission and spend the day together. It should be fun. 

We will travel over to Malawi again on the 5th for about a week. We have to look into some challenges with the new flats and the new building construction projects. We are counting the days until Ed & Jolene Smith arrive. We hope to see them next time we travel to Johannesburg. We can hardly wait until Russ & Cindy Milhoan get here. We know they have really had a challenge with their business. We continue to pray for them. 

We got a small opportunity to Skype the kids the other day. It is great to see them, if only for a few minutes. We love our kids. We are so thankful for them. We miss all of you. We think of you all the time. As things change here in Africa, we ask for your prayers. We need your love and support. We have many challenges. We know that this is the Lord's work. We know that He is aware of our needs. We know that together, we will make a difference. We are thankful for all of you. We are truly blessed to be part of this great work. 

Until next time. We love you all.....

xoxo

M&A 

Two POSTS....

We posted two post today..... Mission Visit....and Established 1970....

We hope you like the pictures.....