Ants!

Hi family:
Well this week has been one of continual blackouts. Every day we wake up to no power and go to sleep when the power comes on. On Friday we read in the newspaper, that the country of Zimbabwe did not pay the country of Mozambique 7 million dollars for power. So all the people have had to suffer for failure to pay a power bill. When will people wise up around here. But today we woke up to power and it's still on. Yeah!!!! Happy dance day.
Today we went outside the gate, and went for a walk. We just walked up the street. When we go for a walk, we really can't see houses, except it we peek through a fence. The homes are really large and beautiful, but every home is surrounded by a large wall, or fence, with electric wires. Rather a scary thing to look at. There aren't a lot of white people, so black people are trying to keep out black people, not white people. Hope that didn't sound too bad. There are also every type of tree here, tropical to pine trees, to desert yucca plants. It's very dry now, hopefully the rains will come and green every thing up.
This morning we went out to the Domboshava branch and met the missionaries and branch mission leaders. From the branch building we drove to meet an older couple. The sister who is in her 60's wants to get baptized, but her husband who is 91 doesn't want to get married. He doesn't believe in marriage. I just wanted to tell him, "Hey you're going to die soon, so give your wife a really nice gift before you leave this earth". Of course I did not say that, but said  how wonderful married life is and to be  married and sealed to my soul mate.  He said that he would think about it. The elders even offered to give him a ride to church in the morning, but he refused and said that he would walk to church and no one was going to give him a ride. One stubborn old bird!  But he softened up, and told me that if I would come to his wedding he would make some cake! So I just said, tell me and I'll come to your wedding.  Now the funny part of this whole experience was, I had to sit on the ground with his wife, during the missionary discussion. She pulled out a plastic canvas painters tarp and we sat on it under a lowly tree. There were ants all over and I hate ants!!! So I wrapped my long skirt around my legs and held them off the ground, so the ants wouldn't get to me. She told me to put my legs down, that African women put their legs straight out on the ground when they sit. I told her I don't like ants...... She really laughed and then her husband laughed and so forth. She asked her granddaughter to go get a pillow so I could put my legs on it. What a white person I am!!!. The sweetest little lady,  but she wants to get baptized. She comes to church all the time.... Their living conditions are really different than what I saw and wrote about last week. she lived in a little rectangular brick home, with her husband, daughter and two grandchildren. No outside kitchen building. Their home is about the size of our family room in Utah. They did have a building out house with two doors.  No garden, but a well. They lived about two miles off the main road. Good thing we have a truck. I appreciate my home so much. No Lindsay I will not sell it when we get back. I will love it more.
I do have pictures that we'll post. Me and the lady under the tree, sitting on the ground.
When we arrived back at the church, we had a baptism to attend. A single young girl was baptized. She bore her testimony but no one translated for us. This young girl also has a little baby boy. Very cute baby. During the baptism, in the sacrament building there was a young single adult conference. There were about 30 youth that attended. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. So after the baptism, the young single adults were just about ready to have their lunch, so our branch president announced that everyone from the branch was invited to have lunch with the YSA group. Talk about feeding the 5,000 with one chicken! There was plenty of food for everyone! There were 3 ladies that were cooking the food. They built a fire outside and cooked their rice, chicken, and then a sauce to go over the chicken and rice. It looked really good, Elder Hermansen did eat it, but I just couldn't bring myself to food this afternoon. Eating utensils are not for everyone here. Most people eat with their hands. And then they clean utensils and plates with not clean water. Just having a problem with that!   So after the meal was over, about 2:30 this afternoon, then we witnessed a wedding. The second counselor in the branch presidency was married to his child's mother. This couple is so cute, and very active in the church. I don't know why people don't get married first, but they are now. They each had to sign 3 different papers, and put their thumb print on the same papers. Then our branch president read to them the wedding arrangement. This is all government controlled, so it was different. We have pictures also of the wedding.  The branch president did add a few church words to the ceremony, but it is cheaper for them to be married through the church than to go to a government building.  They have a tradition yelping after the ceremony, we just clapped. So it has been an eventful day. Now tomorrow we are driving about 2 hours outside of the city to a small community to see if this little group of people are going to be faithful to make a branch. That should be another story to tell.

Well,the power has gone out, my talk for Sunday isn't written. Elder Hermansen is going to turn on the generator, so life will be good.
This week has been really good and fast. Still learning a lot. On Wednesday my young Elder trainer came to the office for the day. He really misses his cushy office job. But he is baptizing many people where he's at. When he goes home in 2015, I'll miss him. Cute little guy from Idaho.  I love reading everyone's posts on Facebook. It keeps me updated on life in the states. In fact a cute girl came to the office window and started talking to me on Friday. I noticed right off she didn't have an accent. She was from Idaho, and works at the US Embassy. She asked me if I missed anything yet, from home, I said just about every thing. She said she'd be back with a surprise. I hope she doesn't forget about me.... The weather is getting very warm, very fast. I don't have mosquito netting over my windows. There is a lady here that I need to talk with about that, so I can open our windows at night.
You are all in our prayers. We love you  and pray that the Lord is with you always. Last week I recorded 50 new convert records, in one week. That is only from a few of the zones in the mission. The lord is really Hastening the work, just pray that we are a part of it.  Well, time is flying by and my talk isn't getting done. Love you all. I'll write about our Sunday tomorrow. Love you MOM. No I don't have braids yet, but have found a hair cutter.....




 Here is the link for their pictures
https://www.dropbox.com/home/Alan%27s%20%26%20Chris%27%20Homes/Zimbabwe%20Harare%20Mission%20Pictures