We made it to Lusaka, Zambia the first of
the month. We were able to help the
finance person in the mission office some and also gave financial training to
the branch and district leaders. We
showed two PowerPoint presentations; one was on the procedures for handling
church donations and expenses and the other on auditing procedures. Doesn’t that sound exciting? We didn’t keep them much over an hour and it
should have been helpful in fulfilling their callings. We enjoyed being with the mission president,
Mickel Padovich. He has been out a year
now and had the opportunity of setting up a brand new mission. While there the Padovich’s treated us to a
little safari at a place called Chaminuka.
We will add a couple of photos.
It was the first safari we have ever done. It was much like I had pictured. One sits in the back of an open truck, with a
guide narrating in front while riding through the bush (natural countryside)
looking for animals and birds. We saw a
number of different kinds of animals like elephants, lions, giraffes, a number
of unusual birds, antelope, kudu, hyena, impalas, bush buck, etc. The lions and hyena we saw were not free to
roam, but the others were. We hope to go
on a couple more such trips such as to Midikwe and Krugers National Park here
in South Africa.
On Sunday while in Lusaka we tagged along
with the Padovichs to the Matero Branch (there are no wards or stakes in Zambia
or Malawi). They met in a large house
which the church leases. The floors were
all concrete, no curtains or soft chairs, but faithful saints. There are only two LDS chapels in Zambia and
one in Blantyre Malawi. The training we did was in the Lusaka chapel. When the meeting first started there were few
members there. By the time the sacrament
had been passed there were more than 100 there.
Most of them had walked to church.
It was fast and testimony meeting.
It was a spiritual feast to listen to their strong testimonies. There was no keyboard, so we sang a capella.
With the exception of a couple of variations in the tune they sang well and with
enthusiasm. A young girl who just
returned from a mission to Kenya in March gave the Sunday school lesson for new
members and also the Relief Society lesson.
After the meetings a young couple was baptized. The font was a big tub – maybe five by six
feet – in the back yard. A couple of
ladders helped the participants in and out of it. The water was cold and I was
glad the weather was fairly decent. That
evening four senior couples joined us for dinner in the mission home. It was a very enjoyable day.
While in Zambia I made a few
observations. The people are very humble
and childlike in their faith. Security
measures in the airport were more relaxed, although we did have to take off our
shoes in Lusaka which we did not have to do in Joberg. It was good to get a semblance of a meal on
the plane rather than just peanuts and a drink.
Drivers are crazy everywhere we have gone in Africa. They do not stop for a red light if there is
no opposing traffic coming from the side.
They hardly stop for a stop sign regardless of the traffic. They extend the green light by jumping the
gun as soon as the cross traffic light (robot) turns red and driving through
the yellow and even red light at the end of their turn. It is hard to calculate what you are spending
when you have to divide the price by 5,300 to get the US dollar equivalent. Zambia “Subway sandwiches” are not as good as
the ones at home. They skimp on
everything. The internet service is not
reliable – just thankful they have it.
While it was almost warm, but windy in
Zambia, it has definitely turned cold here in Joberg. I think the wind has made it seem
chillier. The temperature is only 60
degrees F, 15 degrees C, but everyone is complaining of how cold it is. Problem is that no one has central heat in
their homes or flats and they aren’t used to cold temperatures. I did wear my leather jacket for the first
time since I arrived here however, and was glad I had it. Yesterday we bought a warm jacket for Tom for
casual wear. Zambia is north of here, so
it is warmer. The Cape Area is south and
colder – even has snow on occasion.
The other big event this month was a
conference we sponsored for our sixteen assistant area auditors. The logistics of getting them all to
Johannesburg from their various countries was difficult. Africa is composed of many small countries,
each with their own rules and visa requirements. One of our assistants couldn’t make it
because the Angolan government had confiscated his passport and denied
travel. Two others never made it out of
the Congo because South Africa wouldn’t let them apply until three weeks before
the actual travel, and the person helping them had not gotten all the correct
forms filled out in time. It turned out
to be a great conference. Elder Grow of
the Seventy, was supposed to come, but his wife got quite sick the day they
were to leave. Brothers Cantwell and
Beck did make it from Salt Lake and were able to give good guidance. The Area Auditors (the Eppels, Howells, and
Greens) did most of the presentations.
Tom gave two good lessons – one on the handling of donations and
expenses and the other on audit requirements and procedures for independent
mission branches. Tom developed his own PowerPoint for the latter one. Norene was able to teach them about using
the Local Unit Financial Auditing System (LUFAS). She prepared a half-hour PowerPoint
show. These PowerPoint presentations
were the first ones either of us had attempted; so who says you can’t teach an
old dog new tricks?
Neither Tom nor I have had bad colds since
before we went to Japan. We have
contributed it to the warm lemonade we drink.
We couldn’t find lemonade here in Africa until recently, so maybe it is
true. Now I remember why I don’t like
colds. It has been so long since I had a
real cold – maybe before we went to Japan – that I had forgotten how miserable
they are. I watched Tom suffer with his,
hoping not to succumb. But a week later
I got that tickle in my throat and it went downhill from there. The Lord did bless me though that I was able
to be well enough on Saturday to attend the AAA conference and present my
PowerPoint on LUFAS.
One day the MSR department had one of their
birthday luncheons for Ephraim and Tom.
Only Tom wasn’t there. Both Elder
Eppel and Jane Howell have birthdays at the end of June so we celebrated then too. They bring pizza or chicken along
with cake and soft drinks. A tradition
here is to pour vanilla custard from a carton over the cake. It is pretty good.
I finally got to see Elder and Sister Rands
from Spokane. It was good to see someone
from home. They are serving in Botswana
with the seminaries and institutes. They
were on a temple trip. I was sorry that
Tom was not there to see them. We also got to go to the temple with the Bonkemeyers from North Spokane. Their son is going on a mission soon.
We
don’t have any future travel plans at the moment except to go to Malawi again
in a couple of weeks to train priesthood leaders. We will go to Lilongwe as well as Blantyre
this time. We will also need to make a
trip to Angola in the near future to complete some audits and or train a new
assistant. There are a couple of
branches in Luanda, Angola which haven’t been audited in 18 months. They are the only ones with such a bad record
out of 545 units. It could be a lot
worse; so we are sort of happy.
From top to bottom: Matero Branch chapel, giraffe family, elephant, safari ride, AAA conference
This week was the farewell for Bob and
Ranee Lewis. He has been the executive secretary for the area presidency and
has been instrumental in not only making missions for senior missionaries a
spiritual experience, but also a fun experience. She has a great laugh, makes terrific treats
and has been very friendly to me. She is also my third cousin (our shared great
great grandparents are Henry and Henrietta Standage. Her great grandmother is Eda Standage Lewis,
mine is Sarah Standage Stewart. She was
already a Lewis before she married Elder Lewis). He is a really strong athletic fan. He invites anyone who wants to come and watch
games on ESPN, but they are usually about 3:00 am here. We will miss them a lot. Sunday evening she gave us three boxes from
her kitchen – mostly spices, mixes for sloppy joes, salad dressings, etc. Now we have Taco Seasoning, Chili powder,
diced green chilis and lots of other good stuff. Much of it was brought to her from the States
by missionaries.
