The Latest

Several things to tell you.

Elder and Sister Williams just barely left to go home to Kaysville, Utah. They were here with the Church educational system. Their two daughters came over a week or so to see the country and accompany their parent’s home. We have been with them several times, once at a luncheon at the mission home and once for family home evening and met them once when they were with their parents in their truck going off to see the source of the Nile. The one daughter Noel is married and her husband’s sister works with you in the young women’s program in Lynnwood. I can’t think of her name, but anyway you will probably know who I am talking about. We really enjoyed meeting them and I think they had a great time here. However, while they were at the source of the Nile, their parents home was robbed. This is not a good way to finish your mission. The whole family left yesterday and we will miss them. The Williams were a lot of fun and Elder Williams is just crazy, and has a wonderful sense of humor. When he and Ron would get together it was just a competition on who could tell the most outlandish story and you couldn’t believe a word either one of them said. Anyway just thought that was interesting because she mentioned the connection with you.

Noel and her sister brought 3 full bags of little kid’s shoes and gave them to us to distribute. We gave them to a woman in one of the branches [so she could sell] the shoes to get a little money. It is so sad here. A lot of people in the branches only have one meal a day. President Call told us he went to one of the branches for a meeting and it was very dark in the room. He said to the branch president turn the light on and the branch president said, we only have one light bulb and that is for Sacrament meeting. Stealing is a big problem here and you cannot leave anything in your car, even if it is locked. We carry everything we don’t want stolen with us when we leave the car parked. The Moore’s have had their truck broken into 3 different times. That was the first month they were here. We have a guard at the gate to our homes, but we are always very careful about locking our doors, locking up our computer. People are so poor that I guess they don’t think anything of helping themselves to whatever they can.

We sent some pictures of our latest trip to one of the villages and a picture of the Relief Society sisters in our branch with our update to the blog, so hope they worked, we are still trying to master the new Vista system. [MATT: HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO OPEN THEM YET, BUT WILL POST THEM WHEN THE VISTA ISSUES HAVE BEEN WORKED OUT]

Thank you again for heading up the hygiene kit project. When we were out in the village last week and all the little kids were following me around, I was wishing I had those kits to give out then. However, we still have a lot of time left here and will be going to the villages all the time. Wish I could kiss all the kids. I think of them constantly and miss you and Matt very much. I got an update from him about driving the NASCAR. Tell him the two missionaries that live in our compound are so impressed and so is Ron. WOW, heard you were also headed for SunRiver. What a fun summer you have planned. Has Torri arrived yet? We have not heard anything, but we have been out of contact too.

I sent the boys some hand painted African bookmarks. I thought they were cute and they were easy to send and fit in an envelope. We sent them in the pouch that goes out every Tuesday to America. So it only costs the usual postage. I think we sent the address of the pouch to you. Ron and I both have the bookmarks and think they are kind of cute.

We have been very busy. The new mission president comes in two weeks and we have our boss coming from South Africa the day after the Calls leave. He will spend a week here and we will be taking him around to all our projects and to a hand over. Also the Call’s are going to stay with us for 3 days when the new president gets here. They don’t want to stay at the Mission home with them there. I really like Sister Call. We have become good friends. We went to the Mission home last Wednesday for a going away luncheon for the Williams and Sister Call is very fussy and a good cook, so everything was very nice. It is really a beautiful home. It is furnished very nicely and has some very pretty & unique pieces of African art. I don’t like a lot of the art work here, but I would like to get a nice wall hanging before we leave. They do hand painted African people or batik on bark cloth and there are some very pretty ones. I would also like a few of their baskets. I am keeping my eye out for gifts for everyone, so far a few have been bought and stowed away.

We really appreciate having you there – I often think of you and Matt and the kids as “Beans”. And I mean that in a wonderful way. Nana could not be a better companion – she is like a “pied piper” to all the children in the villages and the sisters in the branch all adore her. This is truly a blessed time in our life.

Anyhow, thanx for all you do, Ron