Christmas in the Zambia Mission

Christmas was such a whirl wind this year.  For two weeks before Christmas, we had our missionaries in the two large malls close to the mission office.  They set up booths and talked to people about Jesus Christ, gave out Books of Mormon and took information for future visits.  It was BUSY!  We were only able to go a few times, but we really enjoyed it.  We were not to be aggressive in approaching people and were only to talk to those who stopped to ask questions.  It was a pretty good success.
        
About 50% of the numbers we were given were not correct or the people did not live in Lusaka.  But of the rest of those who were contacted, between 20-30% were interested and are being taught by the missionaries.  It was a lot of work for our missionaries both during the mall time and in the follow-up time, but it looks like it will be successful in getting the name of the church out there and in finding investigators to teach.  It's a bit early to see if there are any baptisms from it, but we are hoping!

        
Elder Alexander (above)Elder Ssengooba and Elder Olsen (below) at the Mall.  One evening we were working late at the office (just like most evenings) and here comes President and Sister Kupu and the Assistants, Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders to sing us Christmas carols.  It was so nice!

 
Elder Alexander, Sister Newey and Sister Kinikini.     Right before Christmas we got a box for Elder Bennett who had been home since early November.  Those of us in the office enjoyed the snacks sent by his mom.  That happened several times.  Elder Sagers (who went home in July) got a very nice family favorite scripture book from his mom that was for 2015!  Oh well,..
   
The Primary children did the nativity again for Primary as well as for the Christmas program.  This year Mary was played by Anastasia and Joseph was Marcus.

We sure had some cute shepherds and lots of angels who came to celebrate Christ's birth.
 
And three wisemen were even there soon afterward.   Wisemen are Joseph, Helen and Mary.
  
On December 24 (Alan's birthday) we had a big stake baptism at the mission office and the baptisms were conducted in the mission swimming pool.  The missionaries formed a choir and, under the direction of Elder Ssengooba, all the sisters had matching dresses and the elders had a matching tie.  He is quite the event organizer and, in fact, did that for his job before the mission.  He doesn't do ANYTHING small.  I think his philosophy is "If it's not worth doing BIG, then it's not worth doing!"

This is me with Olivia, one of my piano students.  She also got baptized that day.  Her dad is President Blessings Mushala, the man who so capably serves as a counselor in the stake presidency as well as our agent with immigration.   It's a great family.  And here's the missionary choir!
 
We had a really great turn out.  We planned on about 200 and had rented that many chairs.  When they were delivered, Elder Ssengooba added another 50 chairs to the order and we still ran out of chairs and people had to stand.  So we think there were probably close to 300 people there.  We definitely did not have enough cookies for everyone to have more than one.  Many people really wanted to try one of each kind and were not particularly happy when we had to limit it to one.

So, here are the ones being baptized.  Those watching were lined up on both balconies upstairs and pretty much filled the parking area of the office. 

  

So here are the missionaries, those who were baptized and some of the priesthoood holders in the stake.  It really turned out very nice.  Again, a lot of work, but definitely worth it.  Alan was taking pictures (no surprise there) so was not in any of them!

Sisters Groesbeck, Kinikini, Marriott, Ntwe, Rice, Motseko, Newey and Salmon.

The next few rows are those who were baptized.

Elders Ssengooba, Alexander, Olsen, Gova, Merrill,      Maele,      Lesu,     Mani, Kennedy, Day,       Salyards and Salmon.

We did have a birthday party with cake and ice cream for him with the missionaries after the baptism.  We didn't get any pictures of that though!

Friends

 

  



 

Munda Wanga Garden and Animals

  
Impala Sable

 

 

 

Zambia Combined Christmas Party

 

 

           




   

Christmas Gifts from Groesbeck Grandchildren to Zambian Primary Children/Families

This year for Christmas, we asked all of our grandkids how they would feel about us using some of their Christmas money that we would send for their presents to be used to buy presents for our Primary children and their families.  Each of the 8 kids (Anson was too small to given his approval) said it would be fine to do that.  Most children here, at least the ones in our ward, no commercial toys to play with.  So we decided a soccer ball or frizbee would be the best gifts.  So we bought about 15 balls and 7 frizbees and started delivering them on Christmas day.  It was so much fun.  We didn't get them all done that day, so we also delivered on New Years Day.

Below  left is the Phiri family.  They came as refugees from Mozambique and then her husband left her with five children.  They are recent converts.  They were so excited to receive the ball.  We also gave a box of colored pencils to the older children and a box of crayons to the younger ones.  Most of them do not have these things at home.  We use them almost every week in Primary, so they were very excited to have some of their very own. This family walks about 5 kilometers to church every week. The mom carries the smallest boy on her back the whole way. We have started taking them home afterward.

Bottom right is Sister Mpalo and her daughter, Rosemary, and a neighborhood girl.  They are also recent converts, along with her son, Vincent.

 
The Magunjes are also a recent convert family.  Brother Magunje has been sick alot of the time and their circumstances are pretty humble.  Harrison was pretty excited about the ball, as was Cherish. She really DID NOT want to share it with her brother, but was willing to let dad play with it with her!

  
This is the Sikaonga family where they have 6 daughters and keep about 6 of their siblings children for a total of 12 children under age of about 10.  They run a school and so we also took them out some other games like pickup sticks and OLD MAID. The had never played these games before and it was very amusing to watch them learn.
                                                      
We had already given them a ball for the school, so they got a frizbee.  The kids were not exactly sure how to make it work, but it didn't take long to figure it out  

 Right is Sister Jessica Ngandabank and her daughter, Fides.  The fruit plate was for her parents, who we home teach.  We found out that day that Brother Banda had been admitted to the hospital.  His cancer treatments are not going too well and he had become paralyzed in his legs.
  
This is the Mwale family.  Marcus was not there.  Purity is in Alan's Junior Primary class.  Below is a picture of the Musanga family, that only has 4 daughters.  The rest are neighborhood kids who showed up to play dodge ball with the Musangas.
  
They really got into the game and were having a BLAST!  Or having a BALL!
                      
Below are Agness and Sarah Chifunda, the bishop's granddaughter and niece.  Sara just absolutely loves pink and wears it to Primary almost every week.  Below is Helen White and her friends.  We had already given then a ball so we gave their family a frizbee.
  
Everyone has to work a bit to figure out how to throw a frizbee, but they all seem to enjoy it when they get it.  It takes a bit of skill and some practice.
 
This is Anna and Joseph Kaluba.  They are so faithful in attending Primary.  If we had favorites, (which we don't) they were be included in the list!
 
This is Sister Mwanamoyo and their son Louis.  He really didn't want to share the ball with his friends and family.  Hopefully, he will also learn how to share.  Below is Brother and Sister Phiri and their twins, Samuel and Sara.  The older girl is Violet and is one of our faithful Primary attenders.
  
Here we have Isaac Tembo, Judith and Mary and their mom.  Yes, that's red and blue hair they are sporting.  When school is out, African students get their hair all plaited up.  They have to remove it before school starts as the government schools ban doing hair like that.  And it's not their real hair.  It is sort of a yarn that is woven, or plaited, to their nature hair, which is usually very short.

We did not get pictures of all the houses we visited, but there was agreement that we left them much happier than we found them.  Everyone of the recipients was so humbled that our grandkids would be willing to give some of their Christmas to them, and so grateful to receive a gift that all their family could play together  Oh, and we also gave each family a picture of all 9 of our grandkids with their names labeled on the card. Some of the kids were almost more excited about the picture than they were with the gift!  We also provided a bag of beans for the family.  And it was also surprising how touched they were with just a large bag of beans!

We noticed that, except for one house (the Whites) there was no Christmas tree, no decorations and no presents.  These things are way to expensive for most Zambian members to afford.  So Christmas is just another normal day for most of them.  Hopefully, they will remember this Christmas as not just another normal day, but will remember that we love them and that our grandchildren wanted them to have at least one present for Christmas.