Matero Primary Baptisms, the Magunji's and the White's

We are studying the Book of Mormon in Primary.  Since most of them don't speak English, we decided to use the Book of Mormon Stories Reader.  It is read in English and then Baptista explains in Nanja.  This will hopefully help the children learn English as well as learn more about the Book of Mormon!

We have anywhere from 14 to 25 kids each week.  It's quite challenging with them all in one class. But we don't have a room or a teacher to split them out into age groups, so we do then all at one time!

They love it when we have power and can have the piano in the room.

This is Noria Mkombe.  Her grandparents were the first members in Lusaka, having joined the church in England.  They started with a small group in their home and now there is a stake and seven wards here.  They have really had a great impact on the church here.  Noria is proud of her coloring. 

Pohamba Phiri and his mother and Alan.  Pohamba is one of our Primary boys who got baptized. He wanted Alan to baptize him since his dad (we don't even know who he is) could not do it.  It was pretty special to Alan to be able to baptize this little guy.  He has a growth problem and is very small and will likely not grow very big.  He was quite the bully when we first got here, but he is maturing alot and is pretty easy to get along with now.   

                                         

   

Chileshi is another of our Primary boys who got baptized.  This is his family.  His dad is really active and the sister, Hope, comes to church often as well.  We don't see the mom much. 

This is the amazing White family--Blessing, Jimmy, Steven, Kelvin, Bridget, Helen and Nathan. Helen is one of our Primary children. Brother White is from Liberia and was visiting there when Ebola broke out.  He was unable to return to Zambia and so went to Ghana where he joined the church.  Four years later he was able to return to Zambia and be reunited with his family.  For four years, Bridget worked and held the family together.  She's an amazing woman.  And the kids are great.   Jimmy and Steven are actual one of their sibling's children, but they stay with the Whites.  The whole family was baptized.  We were able to teach some of the lessons to them with Elder Ssengooba and Elder Sagers.  It was a choice experience to watch them grow in the faith, especially Bridget, as she as so skeptical at first.  But she prayed and read the Book of Mormon and got an answer to her prayer that the church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

.The whole family as baptized!

They are a crazy, happy family!  With the Elders!

Here they are:  The Whites in white!  It was a great day!

Here are all the baptisms that day! (Well, not the elders or Sister Bodily) It was an amazing day!

David and Agnes Magunji and Gracious Mutale were also baptized that day.  Gracious is the sister of Kennedy Musanga whose family was also baptized after our arrival.  They are being wonderful missionaries and sharing the gospel with their beloved family!

January was  BIG baptism month for the Matero Ward!

A Visit to Sister Dorothy's

Dorothy Sashani was baptized not long after we got here.  And she is such a sweet sister.  She was very generous with us at Christmas and probably spent more money on us than she should have.  Anyway, this night was only one of many visits to her flat.  This is the building she lives in.  She has a little flat behind this one.  This is where Sister Shumba, the RS President, stays,  She is the one who introduced Dorothy to the gospel. To get to her house, we drive through these trees and it is a one-way road.  We waited for the mini bus (main source of transportation here) to come through the trees.

Shortly after she as baptized, her nephew, Jacob (she calls him her brother.  Everybody here is a brother or sister regardless of the family relationship) moved in with here to teach school.  He started taking the lessons too.  He is such a happy and special person.  We're glad we got to know him too!

We took them the conference Liahona and were just looking at the picture of the general authorities in the center fold.   She is really a beautiful woman!

The picture below is after a FHE. She had invited her neighbor and is already being a great missionary.  With Elders Abasai and  Shabalala. 

   

We feel like our faces are just too plain white when we are with these beautiful and wonderful black people!  They really are beautiful!

        

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These children stay in her complex.  They are playing a game similar to jacks, but they play with rocks instead of a rubber ball and metal jacks.  They are quite creative in their toys and games. 

We love Sister Dorothy and are so happy she has accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is looking for a job and won't consider any waitress job that has a bar!  She is so faithful!!

Eureka Camping Place

One P-day afternoon we decided to find this campground that was supposed to have lots of zebra and giraffe.  Elder and Sister Salmon said they wanted to go too, and Bodilys were out of town, so off we went.  It is a small park about 30 minutes outside of town and it was really quite fun.  We were able to drive through the park and get out and do whatever we wanted.  We had never been this close to zebra as they tend to be a bit timid.  The stripes on their head and face are very beautiful

They are quite amazing and beautiful animals.  And all individually striped!

There are no two zebra stripped alike!

We were able to get pretty close to them too!

There were multiple giraffe browsing on the trees.  And they were not very afraid of people.  We watched them from the car and then got out and walked toward them. 

They definitely have their comfort space and 

when we got too close, they took off.  

We saw several types of antelope and really like Kudu that has the curly horns.  They are pretty magnificent animals.

 

The park has a swimming pool (not shown) and these cute chalets that can be rented out for a night.  They were locked so we couldn't see inside, but we think it would be fun to be able to spend a night there knowing there were zebra and giraffe grazing right outside our door!

Stake Primary Activity

   
The Stake had a big once-in-a-long-time activity and there were so many children there.  It took awhile to get things organized, and the children were so quiet while they waited about 30-45 minutes.  I was quite surprised at how well they waited. They had a bounce house that the kids absolutely loved.  One of the sisters from another ward taught the girls basketball
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The biggest hits for the boys was football or soccer in America.  There were multiple teams and they had a great time.  It was so hot, I just couldn't believe they could keep running up and down the field (small as it was), but they didn't want to quit.

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One of the adults (?) was Baptista from the Matero Ward.  He's our Primary teacher and is an awesome young man.  He has been so helpful and I don't know what we would have done without him.  The boys playing soccer felt the same way I think.

 

The activity was held in a children's park and had some pretty cool amenities--like this playground. There were also several other smaller buildings.  The Nursery was held in one where the kids had a ball playing with BALLS!

    

They had one building where the kids could play board games!

There was a very nice pavilion where some of the smaller children did color pages. 

And, of course, they had face painting.

It was an amazing activity with over 100 children there.  LaNice had to leave a little early as we had to pick up Bodilys at the airport.  On the return trip to town, it poured rain.  However, thanks to tender mercies, it didn't rain on the activity.

Wild Africa - Kafue National Park and Mukambi Safari Lodge

One day Elder Hull called and asked if we were up for a short 3-day trip to Kafue National Park.  Of course, we said yes, and, after checking to make sure nothing big was coming up at the office, we took off with Elder and Sister Hull and Elder and Sister Salmon.  On the way there, we stopped for directions from this little family.  I decided to practice carrying things on my head again.  This time it was water and it didn't work well at all.  I was surprised at how heavy that small jug of water was!

We got to the lodge just in time for lunch and the food they served there was excellent!  And way too much of it!  But we ate our share, that's for sure. It was a beautiful place with lots of greenery.  This is the entrance to the lodge.

   

The lodge from the Kafue River.

The river was not always this peaceful, but this picture shows how green everything is.  It's the rainy season and we were told that just a few weeks ago it was mostly brown!  Our timing was good.  And while it was the rainy season, we did not get rained on once!  Tender mercy!

The lodge was very nice with a swimming pool, a nice restaurant, a various levels of conversation and reading areas with beautiful lookout points. 

   

We stayed in one of these little chalets.

They were very nice and we had a great view of the river off our front porch.

We were told not to walk back to the chalet alone after dark as they have been known to have unexpected visitors like hippos and lions. We had to be escorted by one of the staff.  When we asked him if they animals came up often, he answered about every night. When we asked what he would do if we encountered one. he said he would RUN!

We went on an evening river cruise                    When we got across the river, we boarded this
on this boat.  We also had to cross the                 Toyota Safari Wagon.  It was 4 wheel drive and a
river for the safari.                                                good thing too since we were driving through mud
                                                                              and ravines. The first safari was in the evenin
  
      

Here's our group!  Elder and Sister Salmon, us, and Elder and Sister Hull. 

Prepare for a TON of animal pictures, because they are coming!

We first saw these tracks in the wet sand along the road.  A bit later, we actually found the lions.  There wasn't a cub with them.  They are actually two brothers.  And they were majestic.

   

We were in the truck about 20 feet away from these two kings of the jungle.  It was a little scary, but they are very used to the safari vehicle and really paid us no mind.  They were enjoying the sun and, when it appears they may be roaring at us, they are actually yawning!  I think we may have interrupted their afternoon naps! 

  

We learned that the lioness does all the work in making the kill for food and then the lion comes in and eats!  How's that for living a lazy life!

                                

As we were driving down the road, we noticed ahead of us a large congress of baboons.  They didn't let us get too close before they took off for the bush.

   

Also, as we were driving, we saw this herd (parade) of elephants cross in front of us.  The guide said it was a matriarch with several of her children of different ages from probably 2 years to 7 years old.  They were pretty close as they browsed the trees.  They were all very protective of the baby, but relaxed a bit the longer we were there.  One time the matriarch got a little anxious and started flapping her ears and charged a few steps toward us.  But then she changed her mind and settled down again. 

 

It was so interesting to watch them interact together.

   

We spotted a few hippos while we were driving, and got a few good pictures.  We saw more while were on the river cruise.  The print on the left is a hippo print and can be distinguished from other prints because hippos have four toes. 

             

  A group of hippos is called a laughter, we think maybe because they make this sounds like laughing. 

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There are many different kind of antelope in the park.  We saw Impala, Bush Buck, Spring Buck, Puku and Kudu.  The lone antelope on the left has marked his spot and is waiting for females come join him, the guide said. 

 

We were a bit surprised at the large herds of these animals considering the number of predators in the park.  It almost seemed like they were overpopulated.  But the park has 22,400 km (8,648 square miles) and is huge, so I'm sure it can handle the large numbers. 

   

These are all different groups and different varieties of antelope.

   

We also saw this handsome warthog.  They are not very cuddly animals!

There are lots of Guinea Fowl everywhere.                       This is a variety of eagle.
  

The second day we went out in the morning and were lucky enough to spot this leopard. The leopardess was up in a tree and it was amazing to watch her slink down.  We didn't get any pictures of her as she disappeared into the bush.  The guide said she was probably stalking the antelope which was resting across the road.  We probably saved his life!

The guide said leopard spottings are quite rare and we were very happy to be able to see one of these magnificent animals.

 The sunset that first day was quite spectacular.  We agreed with Elder Salmon when he said the sky just seemed so much bigger out there in the bush.  There were not mountains and it was like a 360 degree sunset!

The pictures just don't seem to do it justice.  But it was truly splendid.  It was quite the experience to see such beautiful creations of God in such a truly awesome setting.