Helping Hands in Matero Ward

In early September, all the wards in the Lusaka Stake were encouraged to do a Helping Hands Project.  Matero Ward accepted the challenge with this awesome group of members and missionaries who helped clean floors and windows in a residential center for adults.

We were asked to clean the floors, which included raising all the beds and cleaning under them.  There were four buildings with three units per building and eight occupants per room.  They had everything they owned in the little space around and under their beds. Some were pretty neat and some beds looked like they had not been lifted up and cleaned under in a good long time.
LaNice trying to get the back corners under the bed.  Sister Chifunda sweeping.

We had mostly Young Adults and Young Men and Young Women, but also several of us older folks.
The floors were cleaned by most with rags as mops were in short supply.  We provided most of the clothes to clean the windows with some coming from the Ward.  Below is Nathan White, a recent convert, who is happily cleaning windows.

Mark, a long term member and RM.      Elders Brewerton and Ssengooba - Lifting where they stand!
  
This is Juliet, a faithful young woman.

                
This is Andrew Kampelya, our EQ Pres and RM,
       
Below is Brother Kolunga, the counselor in the bishopric who organized the service project.


The residents gathered with the Helping Hands Mormons for a short presentation.  Alan visited with this elderly gentleman who found shade and coolness almost sitting inside this bush.

 
Some items to be given out were left at the church, so while we ran back to get them, the members danced and sang with the residents.  Alan also made friends with the man on the right.  His name is Samson and he is quite the character.

  
The "handing over" portion of the meeting consisted of providing each resident with a small bag of rice, a small bag of sugar, some toilet paper, a bar of soap and a small box of laundry soap, and a toothbrush and toothpaste.  They were all so appreciative.  The gentleman below was so ill he could not leave his bed, so the volunteers took him his gift.
  
It was quite a humbling experience to be able to help those who really are not able to help themselves and made us feel quite fortunate to have a nice place to return to that has all the basic necessities of life.  The gentleman on the right was left sitting in the sun at the conclusion of the meeting, so LaNice pushed him back to his room where a staff person helped him out of the wheelchair on to the step where he wanted to sit and enjoy the afternoon.  Such a wonderful opportunity to be "helping hands" to those who could really use it!

               

Kupu zone conferene

President and Sister Kupu came to the mission on June 29.  They had a problem with their flight from Johannesburg and so were not able to have any overlap time with the Ericksons.  They did meet at the airport as the Ericksons were leaving, and they did get a picture with them.

                             

The Kupus are from Tonga and Chris and Becky met them before they left for Utah for the MTC!
                                                                                           LaNice and the Kupus.
  

They held a MEET and GREET with each zone.  This is the Lusaka Zone.  While we are sad and miss the Ericksons, we are anxious to get to know and work with the Kupus.  There is something that each of us can learn from different people, and we know the Lord called the Kupus here at this time for a reason.  We look forward to serving with them.

The Elders of Israel with President Kupu.  Their 17-year-old son, Junior, came with them on the mission and is the one in the front wearing the Tongan clothing.  He's a very nice young man.

The Sisters in Zion with Sister Kupu. 

The Kupus are bringing some of the Tongan culture with them to Zambia!  Sister Kupu said that in Tonga, to show respect for someone, they feed them.  Food is very important to their culture.  For the missionaries who had completed their mission and were returning home, they roasted this whole pig. They said it didn't turn out quite as it should have, but they are sure they will have it perfected by the time they return to Tonga in three years!   It was an interesting process of making it turn on the pole just enough to get every side cooked.  They said it was pretty tasty too!


 

Missionary Leadership Council of the Great Zambia Lusaka Mission!

Ward Temple Activity

There were about 80 people who attended this activity, including children.  There were several short talks on what happens in temples.  Alan talked about the "MY FAMILY" book and LaNice talked on baptism for the dead.  President Mushala talked on the importance of the attending the temple, and being sealed as a family.  Elder Ssengooba and Elder Hiltbrand put together a nice slide show on the temple and explained what happened in each area.  It was very nice.

The missionaries wanted to do an activity on temples hoping to encourage active preparation to attend the temple in December.  They put on quite the event.  Elder Ssengooba was an event planner in his pre-mission life and had so many ideas that he was able to actually get the rest of us to pull off. It was staged like a wedding and reception with food and music and the married couples being honored as they danced outside to where the food was served amid blows and balloons that he had prepared.  This centerpiece was a pineapple that was cut into pieces and then attached to another pineapple core. It was quite attractive.  Elder Bobowski and the Salmons are really into making it look nice!



They had DJs who came to play the music for the activity afterward. These were friends of Emmanuel, one of the recent converts to the church. When these couples made a commitment to attend the temple, the fired off these fireworks.  It was pretty fun.

  



While they were setting up for a different activity, we taught them the Heel and Toe Polka.  There were not too many older couples who joined, but the young ones seemed to like it alot.


Josephine and partner.                                                Blessings White and Batiste
 
Sister Shimchimba and Brother Ngandabanka                 Gracious and Mark

The kids loved playing with the decorations after the event was over the everything taken down.

This is our new chapel being built near the current Matero rented building.  They were supposed to be done by September, but it will be a miracle if they are done before we return home in February.   But it's coming along.  This is Brother Kalonga and Bishop Chifunda.

 

Ericksons Final Lusaka Zone Conference

Well, it was inevitable.  The day came for the Ericksons to leave Zambia and return to Utah.  We were glad they scheduled one last zone conference for combined zones before they left.  This was the conference with all the missionaries from Zambia.  A similar one was held in Malawi for the missionaries there. What a great bunch of young people, so firm in their faith and so dedicated to their purpose.  It doesn't look like it here because they also are a very fun group of missionaries.  We love them all.  The Ericksons have had a tremendous influence for good for all of us.


We have served with the Ericksons for 11 months and this is the only picture we have of us and them.  They are wonderful and have served so faithfully for three years for the establishment of the church here in Zambia.  Their influence will also be felt throughout all of Africa when the missionaries they have mentored, taught and loved return to their home wards to become the future leaders of the church in Africa.

Sister Mukewaya and Sister Aidoo.                  Sister Arok (Utah) and Sister Andriamamonjiso                                                                                                  (Madagascar).  They are the STLs.                              
 
Elder Groesbeck and Elder Zimene.                          Elder Tayembi was pretty excited about the                                                                                                 results of his English Proficiency Test!
 
We put together this table runner for the Ericksons which had the name on it of every missionary who had served with them over their three years here.  I gathered the names and got them printed on the fabric and Sister Salmon designed and put together the runner.  She did a great job.  Certainly, the Ericksons have influenced many more people than just missionaries, but there were about 250 listed!

Primary Activity

We had so much fun doing this activity.  But it was also a lot of work.  We had hoped to have about 30 children there and about 25 showed up, so that wasn't too bad.  We packed everything in to the truck to take to the church.  We invited Steven White, a Young Man, to help put up the Hoola Hoops for the rocket through.  It didn't turn out quite like I had planned, but even better I think.  He was very creating in how to hand the Hoola Hoops in the tree.
 
So we did the rocket through the hoola hoop and then we did a candy walk, because it's a little easier to do and much less messy.
 
We did balloon races, a ring toss and a bean bag toss but with a softer ball.  The Elders in the ward helped us.  So we have Elder Almeida and Elder Hiltbrand demonstrating how it is to be done.
  
The White children came up with this game where everyone splits into animal groups and are all scattered around the field blindfolded.  They make the noise of their animal group and have to gather the group together according to the noise.  It was pretty fun.
  
The Young Men and Young Women were having an activity right after ours, so they joined in helping with the jump roping.  They are pretty good at this!

Then we play a game of tag which, after we finally got explained how it would work, was really fun.  We had people from all age groups playing together.  They really enjoyed this and the weather was just right--not too hot and just cool enough to make it fun.
 
We have Elder Bobowski, Elder Groesbeck and Elder Hiltbrand in the left picture and me being chased by Steven White in the right picture.  It was a fun activity.  We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and they all loved it.  We also had very small edible cupcake forms that we filled with chocolate pudding for dessert.  We had a great time, but it was a lot of work.  Well worth it! though!