Special District Meeting With Elder Quentin L. Cook

Monday October 20th was a special day for the Lusaka District of the Zambia Lusaka Mission.  Two special meetings were held under the Direction of Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The first was a Priesthood leadership meeting where he talked to the brethren about the Prophetic priorities.  The first two are to strengthen the priesthood and to strengthen the families.  This is pertinent as the District is preparing to be a Stake.  The second meeting was for all the membership of the District. These meeting were held on a Monday because of the schedule that Elder Cook had so he could visit a number of different southren African countries in a limited amount of time.

Here is a gathering of the Saints after the meetings.

There is a Church Distribution center in the Lasaka building and after the meeting we were waiting in line to make an order.  It took a while as things move a little slowly here.  As we were waiting Elder Cook came by and greeted us again and mentioned that he had heard that we had left, he thought, 23 grandchildren at home.  We told him that we had left a number at home but that it was 35.  He said that would be a blessing to us as there were 35 little children who were praying daily for us.  He stopped for a picture with someone and then told us we needed to have a picture with him also so that our grandchildren could see us with him. It was his idea.

Elder Quentin L. Cook with Papa & Gradma for the Grandkids

We are at the mission home today so we are going to add another blog while we have internet access were we can attach a picture.  We have been to a couple of the competed projects so I will share pictures of them.  There is a contrast in these two schools where projects have been completed.

This one is City of Hope run by the Catholic Church.  Several wells were fitted with solar panels and pumps. The tower with the tank is for water for the large two story building in the background.

This other one is a school where the roof was collapsing so the roof was removed, walls repaired and a new roof placed.  This one is run by some kind of government agency.

Here are some of the kids at this school.

Fast Sunday

October 5th was our first Sunday at our newly assigned Branch.  President Erickson asked us to attend the Matero Branch which is located in the north part of Lusaka.  It belongs to the Lusaka District, one of three districts in the mission.  It is located in one of the poorer areas of the city and they meet in a house that has been converted into a meeting house.

The testimony meeting was a "Testimony" meeting. No travel logs, thankamonies or long discourses. They don't have much and don't go many places so all they have to share is their testimonies of The Savior and His gospel.  It is what should happen on Fast Sunday.  There were only 2 vehicles at the meeting, ours and the other senior couple who are assigned to the Branch.  Everyone walks to church and for some it takes an hour.  Some of the members of the branch meet at the Elders Quorum Presidents home a couple of the weeks during the month because the chapel is so far for them to walk each week.

Arrival to our home for the next 18 months.

We have now been here a total of 4 days.  This is what we saw as we were brought to our flat by Elder and Sister Skidmore, the office couple.

Their assignment was to keep us awake until night so that we could sleep all night.  They took us to the Mission Home and then out to dinner and finally back to our flat.  They were mostly successful seeing we had been traveling on very little sleep for the past 38 hours.  When we went inside the gate this is what we saw.  Our flat and vehicle are on the left.  Elder and Sister Humphreys live on the right.

Four Sister missionaries live on the far right.  Our day and night guard/gate keeper stays in the shack on the left.  They plant and keep the garden.

The rest of the pictures are from the inside of the flat.

 This is our office.

To the right is our kitchen.  We are pretty safe as you can see the bars on the inside all of the windows.








Below is our dinning area with a nice large table.

Living room.

And where we sleep under a mosquito net.  We have yet to see a mosquito but it is the dry season here.

We are quite spoiled with our living accommodations compared to most of the people of Zambia.  There are a small group who have a lot more.  

MTC Day 1

We made it on time to the MTC this morning.  We were orientated, checked into our room and fed twice.  After diner we visited with a couple who went to Zambia in 2006 with a group called Mothers without Borders.  They are jealous of our mission call.  We were greeted with a nice summer thunder storm this afternoon and now we are preparing for our training tomorrow.  We  have homework to prepare for tomorrow.

Leaving on a Mission soon

We are still preparing to leave September 5th for the Zambia Lusaka Mission.