Christmas in Africa

Dear Family and Friends:

We are in the last few weeks of the Christmas Season, but so far it doesn’t feel like it.  Of course the countryside doesn’t look like Christmas; it is warm, rainy, not many decorations, no busy malls, or Santa holding children.  However, we did see one skinny Santa by a small pizza stop-over, as we were headed for our monthly visit to our assigned branch. He was very enthusiastic, but just a little too skinny to be the real Santa.  I think Elder Bean, however, did get a chance to tell him what he would like for Christmas, just in case.

Santa?

Boogie Fever

We have been very busy finishing up the sanitation graduation ceremonies in Muzarabani.  We still have a few more boreholes to finish and then we will at last be out of there.  It is such a long way from Harare, and it has been 12 weeks of sanitation training, latrine construction, bore hole drilling and graduation ceremonies in a politically sensitive area a long way from where we live.  The rainy season is now in full force and it will be good to finally not have to drive that far or worry about our trainers who are teaching and staying there a week at a time.  It has not been a good place for us to be, but wonderful for the people that needed water and received sanitation training.

We attended the last sanitation graduation ceremony, six out of six, and as you can see by the pictures, it was a great success and very fun.  Approximately 500 people attended this last graduation.  We invited our missionary neighbors, the Mayfield’s, to go with us and attend the festivities and also help pass out the graduation gifts.  When we arrived there was great excitement, drum beating and dancing.  It was hard to get everyone to settle down to start the program, including ourselves.  It is contagious.

 We started with a prayer and proceeded with the singing of the Zimbabwe National Anthem.  Our site monitor then introduced us and the trainers and acknowledged the presence of the woman councilor over this particular area. We are drilling four bore holes in her area.  She is the so called “Big Drum”.   Elder Bean then spoke and told a little bit about the project and a little bit about the Church’s humanitarian program.  The councilor then spoke and thanked the Church on behalf of her district and was quite complimentary about what the Church had done for the people in her district.  The people, who received the 12 weeks of sanitation training, put on several skits depicting aspects of their training.  We especially liked the skit where they portrayed a family member with a stomach ache and all the many methods they used to try to help her.  They gave her some bitter tasting herbs, which seemed to make it worse, they called in the witch doctor, which didn’t help at all, they then put some sanitation tablets in her water and she started to feel better.  They also did a demonstration on washing hands, washing dishes; digging a trash/rubbish hole away from the house and several other things they had been taught in the training classes to prevent the stomach ache in the first place.

Addressing the Crowd

We loved it, it showed us that they understood what they had been taught and had put the training to use. They did such a good job that even though we didn’t understand the language, we knew exactly what they were doing.

Oscar-worthy Skits

It was threatening to rain during the program, but it held off until everything was finished and we were on our way home. The rain has held off until our graduation ceremonies were over on every one of the six ceremonies we have held.  We really think that although these past 12 weeks have been a lot of work and not in a desirable place to work, it will help many many people avoid the terrible water borne diseases they deal with daily and help to prevent illness and possibly even death.  This area experienced a terrible cholera epidemic last year and we hope this will lessen if not stop a repeat of that problem this year.

MORE PICTURES

LDS Charities Crew

The woman councilor had arranged a nice lunch for us at the conclusion of the ceremony and even invited our trainers.  This was an unexpected show of appreciation, since this is a very poor district and funds would not be readily available to purchase food for a luncheon. We wanted to leave right after the ceremony because of the long drive back, but it was such a nice and thoughtful thing for her to have done, that we gladly accepted. The luncheon was served in a nearby school and the menu was chicken, rice and spinach. Before we ate, they came around with a pan full of water, which they poured over our hands to wash them. It made us realize that the training was already being put into practice. They were so thankful and appreciative of what the Church has done for them, it was rewarding to hear.

Dancing at Handover

We also heard from our driller that the chief administrative officer, aka “The Big Drum” in the area where we are drilling, was still demanding a bore hole in his yard.   When it looked like he wasn’t going to get one, he filled up a freshly drilled bore hole being drilled in another area with dirt, making it inoperable.  The driller called us and wanted to know what to do.  We told him to move out of this area and on to the next district and start drilling and we either would not come back to this man’s area or reassess this problem at the end.  It is so hard to believe he would do such a spiteful thing to deny many others a chance to have clean water.  He is a very powerful chief and is used to getting his way.  Elder Bean and I will make another trip up there and see what is to be done. Again, as we mentioned before, this is not a good area to work in.

Bee and Candle Project

This month we also drove to the City of Bulawayo to hire a driller, prepare the contracts, and start the water project that has been approved for this city.  We have approval to drill 12 bore holes here. We usually do not do them in an urban setting, but this city is in bad need of water.  Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe and so many people are in a bad situation.  We were first contacted by the Stake President, President Makasi.  He said his stake is located in this area and most of the church members are being affected some of the people are totally out of water.  He had contacted us and everybody else he could think of, including the area presidency and the mission president.  They both asked us to help in any way we could, ASAP.  President Makasi said it was affecting the attendance of his Church members because they had to stand in line all day on Sunday to even get a little bucket of water to use for washing, drinking and cooking.  We met with the engineering and water department of the city and agreed to drill 12 new boreholes.  We drove there a few weeks ago to get things started.  

Elder Bean and Mayor of Bulawayo

President Makasi also said that the Mayor of the City would like to receive some donations from LDS Charities for a Christmas party he sponsors every year   He gives these donations to orphanages, hospitals, clinics and institutions.  We told him to tell the Mayor that LDS Charities would love to donate to this special event.  We made an appointment to meet the Mayor and presented him with 15 blankets, 15 humanitarian kits, a big box of toys and baby layettes. Before he arrived, I asked his assistant the proper way to address him, and was told to call him “His Worship”.  It was hard to do that.   We met with him in his office for about 30 minutes or so.  We took the opportunity to tell him about the 12 boreholes the Church is drilling in his city and the several different projects the Church is also doing there.  It was a great PR meeting.  The Church is trying to acquire some land from the City to build a new chapel. They want to buy it from the City and not from a private individual, because it would cost more money from a private person.  We told the Mayor about this and he was readily agreeable to sell the Church some city owned land.  It was a great meeting. He showed us around the council chambers and we took pictures and he asked if we would e-mail the pictures to him.  I think we made a good friend who can be very helpful in doing future projects and aiding the Church in this area.

Presenting Donations to Mayor

We were asked by the mission president to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with 10 missionaries in an area called Gweru.  It is about three and a half hours from Harare.  This area does not have senior missionaries serving there and except for the zone leaders, these guys are a little bit isolated from the main point of strength.  The two other couples, plus the Mission President and his wife also went to different areas to celebrate Christmas with missionaries.  There are only three senior missionary couples in all of Zimbabwe.  They are the mission office workers, CES and humanitarian country directors (us).

The mission president’s wife, myself and the two other missionary wives got together and stuffed  big red Christmas stockings with, toothpaste, toothbrushes, ties, stockings, deodorant, candy and special T-shirts with the mission logo on them, to hand out on Christmas Eve.  We also arranged with a local grocery store to provide sliced chicken, ham, roast beef and cheese rolls for us to take to our various locations for Christmas Day lunch. We wanted the food to fit in coolers so we could transport it.  We planned on making sandwiches, but also ordered brownies, pudding, cookies, a vegetable plate, potato salad and soda pop, water and even A&W root beer that just recently arrived to this local store. This store is owned by a white member of the church, and is the store to go to when you want to buy something that we are a little familiar with.  They do not have much of a selection of foods we are familiar with, but every once in a while, something wonderful appears, like A&W root beer.   It was expensive, but especially fun to give to the African missionaries, who had no idea what it was or how it tasted.  They were first concerned and wanted to make sure we weren’t giving them some kind of beer and wanted to know if it was OK to drink it.  We thought it would be fun to make root beer floats, but could not find any ice cream.

On Christmas Eve we treated our 10 missionaries to a buffet dinner at a game park called “Antelope Park”, it is a very nice game park and a place that you can walk with the lions, (REALLY), and ride an elephant, which of course was out of the question for our young missionaries to do.  We did not want to report any mauling or worse to their parents.   This park is quite well known and so we wanted to go there also.  We had a wonderful buffet dinner, and the guys kept asking if they could go back as many times as they wanted.  The answer was yes, and we think the buffet was totally wiped out when we left.  After dinner we drove to the beautiful new Church and had a Christmas program.  We read the Christmas story and sang Christmas Carole’s and handed out the stockings.  It was wonderful, we got to know the young elders better and we enjoyed a lovely evening together.  We told them that we were their grandparents and they were our kids and this was going to be just like a Christmas Eve with family and we wanted it to be a wonderful Christmas Eve.  They went back to their apartments around 10:00 pm.

On Christmas morning, they met us again at the park and we had arranged for them to go on a game drive.  It was a beautiful, clear, warm day and we loaded them up in a safari vehicle.  We had a wonderful guide who stopped periodically and told them about the animals, birds, vegetation, etc.  He then did a very special thing, which he said was his Christmas present to the missionaries.  He drove us over to see the lions.  This is a park that also studies lions and has an experimental program studying the  habits, behavior and other things to help preserve the African lion, which we understand is slowly being reduced in number all over Africa.  He took them out to the huge areas where the lions are kept, which is usually off limits to the public.  It was fascinating.  There were huge male lions in the tops of trees, which I have never seen before, only in books.  He told the guys, if you are ever chased by a lion, do not climb a tree.  There were many lions in this area and when we got out and went to the fence, they went wild, they roared and lunged at the fence and he told the guys, do not put your hands on the fence.  It was a special treat, but the big male lions are very scary up close, powerful, huge teeth and very upset with us and you could see they would love to be able to get at us.  We took pictures, but it was a little unsettling to see them up close and think about what would happen if the fence gave way. We watched the missionaries very carefully to make sure they didn’t get too close to the fence.  They all wanted to have their pictures taken with the lions in the background.

We were lucky enough to see all the animals that were in the park, zebras, giraffes, elephants, impalas, wildebeest, kudos and all kinds of birds.  When we returned to the park, they wanted to stay and play rugby and soccer on this big expanse of grass by a river; while they were playing; four elephants came to the river to drink.  So we took pictures of missionaries playing ball with elephants in the river behind them.  There was also a big bare place on the lawn covered with dirt. One of the park workers came to us and said tell your guys not to step on that bare spot, because there is a big pit lined with burning coals under that dirt and we are roasting a caribou for Christmas dinner.   It was a nice thing to know because several times their ball had landed close by.

When the missionaries were tired and hungry, we left the park and went back to the Church to eat lunch and we put out all the food we had brought, and they ate, watched movies , ate and later called their families and we suppose ate again.  We left because it was getting very dark and we needed to find our way back to the park, as we were spending the night there.  We had a wonderful day and it helped them and Elder Bean and I get through the Christmas Holidays without too much home sickness.  We want parents whose kids are sent here on a mission, what wonderful young people they are and how well they are doing. These kids are working in a not so comfortable mission, culture wise, environment wise, sanitation wise, and many other differences they confront every day, and they take it in stride.  They are positive, funny, spiritual, mature (most of the time) courteous, helpful.  Many asked if I needed help with the luncheon, cleanup, or carrying things in and out, and volunteered to help in any way.  They must have good parents that taught them well. So many people at the game park asked about them, who they were, who are the young men in white shirts, ties, and were so well behaved?    On Christmas day they wore their casual clothes, but still looked great and just had a wonderful time.  Again so many people asked about them. It was fun to be associated with them. The Church is in good hands in Zimbabwe.

That night Elder Bean and I were quite tired; we were staying in one of those thatched roof huts, on a river in the park.  It was dark and we went to bed and could hear the lions roaring across the river, just like in the movies.  We said this is unreal, where else in the world can you sleep in a thatched roof hut, under a mosquito net and go to sleep while lions roar in the night.  Pretty Cool!!!

We visited an orphanage on our way to Gweru and delivered boxes of toys to the kids.  We fixed a broken down borehole at this orphanage a few weeks ago and had seen the kids and thought it would be appropriate to drop off a few things.  Next year we want to take the missionaries with us to do some service project.  We think it would be a wonderful and make Christmas Eve more meaningful.

We have several more projects ready to start and hope to be able to complete them shortly after the first of the year. Our  plans and new year’s resolution is to do as many projects as we possibly can and to help our brothers and sisters as much as we can in this very wonderful country.  It is hard in many ways, but a very rewarding mission.  We understand that we have two more senior couples coming soon to this mission, and they are sorely needed.  Thank you for remembering us in your prayers and we pray that we will continue to be blessed with health, strength (spiritually as well as temporarily) and safety so that we might complete this mission in the way that the Lord would want us to.  We miss all of you and pray for the happiness and safety of our family and friends.  We think of home always. 

Love, Elder and Sister Bean

Note:  Our wonderful little granddaughter, Sarah Kate, was sealed to her parents in December. The sealing was done in the Newport Beach Temple. We are so grateful and enjoy the pictures.

Holidays in Africa; Projects Continue

Dear Friends and Family:

We are quickly approaching the holiday season, time is really flying by. We are busy and hardly have time to be homesick, but we manage to squeeze that feeling in periodically, especially around Christmas.  We celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with the two other missionary couples by going to a very nice restaurant with beautiful tropical landscaping, not home, but nice.

African Wind Chimes at Thanksgiving Dinner

"O Christmas Tree!"

African Nativity

We didn’t have turkey or pumpkin pie, but it was nice to be together with our missionary family here.  We then went back to our office to work on our projects. A SKYPE session had been arranged with Roger, Brett, Julie, Janell and Garrett, who were having Thanksgiving dinner at Roger’s house.  It was fun to talk with the family and Elder Bean had a smile on his face all the rest of the day.  It doesn’t feel like Christmas here, so we decided to decorate a small Christmas tree and put a wreath on our door to see if that would help.  We also set a hand painted pottery nativity and a hand carved nativity that we bought in the country of Malawi on a shelf in our front room.  We bought a woven reed Baobab tree and decorated it with handmade pottery ornaments from Malawi. So we are decorated and trying to make it feel like Christmas.

"O Christmas Tree" v 1.2

We are now in the rainy season.  Usually the mornings are clear and warm and by afternoon the clouds move in and it rains very hard with lighting and thunder.  Soon the storm passes and it becomes very warm again, but the past few days it has started raining in the morning and continues all day and into the evening, with a very impressive amount of rain fall combined with thunder and lighting.  The locals say this is unusual, we hope so.

Making Sure the Door is Locked

Our water and sanitation project in Muzarabani is going very well, at least the sanitation and hygiene classes are.  The drilling of the boreholes is somewhat slower and we are afraid they will not be finished now that the rains have started.  We drove there a week or so ago to check on the drilling progress and to see why it is going so slowly.  We also wanted to observe the hygiene and sanitation training classes.  It was very hot and when you open the car door, it is like stepping into an oven with a hot wind to dry things out even more.  Our training team leader and project monitor met us at the district council building to escort us to the different training areas.  We are using this building to store our mosquito nets, soap and hygiene kits for the upcoming graduation ceremonies.  It is not a very secure building as people wander in and out. We bought new locks for the storage room doors because some how things disappear and no one know where they have gone or who made off with them.  Stealing is a big problem here and our driller had to post a guard over his supply of diesel, which is needed to operate the drilling rig.

We then drove another hour and a half on bumpy dirt roads to get to the furthest point where our team is training in sanitation and hygiene The bridge that crosses to Mutemakungu, which is our furthest village and borehole sites, had collapsed and we had to drive down into the dry river bed to cross. We bounced along the riverbed and then really had to gun our truck to get up on the other side.  The truck slid and struggled, but we made it. This site will become inaccessible when the rains come and water fills the river bed.  We had the driller drill these boreholes first because of that problem and hope it and the training classes are completed before the heavy rains come.  We visited the boreholes and saw that they were almost finished.  We than visited the training areas.   Training in this area is very successful, the villagers hardly ever miss a class and they are really putting it to use.  As we drove by their huts, we saw “tippy taps”, hand washing facilities, hanging on trees around the latrines. This is a plastic bottle full of water with a string tied around it and when you pull the string, the bottle turns upside down and the water pours out onto your hands.  This is a hand washing method being taught in the training.  They had also erected wooden dish washing stands, so their dishes and pots are not left on the ground for animals to get into.  We also noticed that a lot of debris had been cleared away from their huts.

Huts with Tippy Taps

More Huts

Elder Bean Speaking at Sanitation Training Class

Sanitation Class

Woman Searching for Water in Riverbed

On the way back across the dry riverbed, we saw a lady with a bucket standing in the river bed digging with her hands to find water to fill her bucket.  She was almost waist deep standing in a hole she had dug.  It was very, very hot – miserably so, and we realized the extreme measures people have to go to find a little water in this area. We also were told that quite often the ground around them collapses as they dig and because there is nothing to grab onto, they are buried alive. We were glad that soon there will be a borehole up and running for this village.

Searching for Water

Class under the Baobab Tree

At another training site the people were seated on the ground under an open air thatched roof structure they use for village meetings.  At other sites, they were sitting under big trees trying to stay out of the sun.  My favorite site was people sitting under a very old and large Baobab tree being trained.  These trees are very unusual in that they are only found in very hot dry areas and they are called the upside down tree because they look like the roots are coming out of the top.  At several of the training sites, they welcomed us by dancing and singing and then of course we had to join in.  One group sang a water song in Shona to us and we did hear our names mentioned a few times.  I hope it was complimentary. They have been practicing and will sing this song at their graduation ceremonies. There were a lot of women, babies, small children and some men in this class. We talked with them about their training and what they are learning and it was great.  They were very enthusiastic and seemed to love the lessons.

Dance Party

We supplied our training team, as well as the community volunteers and the van driver with blue T-shirts that have the logo “Latter Day Saints Charities” on the front and on the back so they are easily recognizable.  They love the shirts and they look very professional and the shirts really helps them standout as official trainers.

Snazzy Shirts

Trainees

It is now the next week and we are ready to graduate the villagers that have attended the sanitation and hygiene classes.  We will be handing out 2,400 graduation certificates, mosquito nets, and soap and hygiene kits for the next two weeks to the people who have been trained, they will return to their villages and train approximately 15,000 additional people who live there.  There will be six individual graduations held.  We are attending just the first and last because it is such a long way for us to travel each day.   We have invited the dignitaries and chiefs from each training area, as well as the news media and other interested people and/or organizations and we hope to get a lot of good publicity for the Church.  The most important issue however, is to help each village solve their health problems associated with water borne diseases and illnesses. We will be tracking for a year how many diarrhea cases have been treated at the local clinic, as sort of a measuring stick on how and if the training and clean water are really making a difference in this area.  Each week as the 2,400 families come to their training class, they report on how many diarrhea instances they have had in their family.  The report from the start of their training was very high approximately 372 cases in the one village and now it has gone down to way below a 100. We have also asked the local health clinics to help us throughout the coming year to report to us how many cases they have treated. So we hope it will be considerably lower than usual as a the result of our sanitation/hygiene training classes  The Church is also building two latrines in each borehole location as an example to the community and to make sure the water doesn’t become contaminated.

Handing out the Goodies

The first graduation ceremony was held on Tuesday, November 30, 2010.  It was a big success.  We had approximately 500 people in attendance.  It was held in a big partially covered structure that had been used for one of our training sites.  It was a rainy day, but most of us kept dry under this thatch roof.  It was almost a relief from the heat.  The lorry was there loaded with mosquito nets, soap, hygiene kits, soda and biscuits (cookies).  The primary school that is nearby released all the kids to join in the celebration   We had made certificates of graduation for each person that had completed the training.  An attendance roll was kept at each training class and those who had attended a majority of the training classes were given a certificate with their name on it. We set up four sites for handing out the certificates and as each name was called, they were presented with a certificate and then handed a mosquito net, soap, hygiene kit, soda and biscuits.  This was a very orderly way for them to receive their reward and also kept others who were not involved, from cashing in on the goodies.

We have had a few problems with the chief administrative officer over this district the project is located in.  He decided that he wanted one of the four boreholes scheduled for the ward or area he lives in, to be drilled in his yard by his house.  This of course means that it will be his and no one else can use it.  It is hard to believe that there are people with such self serving demands, when all the villages are in such dire need of water.   He had threatened to make trouble for our project if his request was not granted.  Because of the terrible political problems that have been and are in this area, we held our breath that all would go well with this first graduation, and just hope we can finish with the next seven graduations and the rest of the boreholes and latrines without any problems. The borehole will not be drilled in his yard and if he makes trouble, we will just pull out.  I think the people in this village would make a little trouble for him if we left before they received the promised boreholes. Sometimes it is hard for the “big drums”, as we call them, to realize that the boreholes are for the community and not for them.  They are so used to taking what they want

All went well with this first graduation.  We started with the Zimbabwean national anthem, had a prayer, Elder Bean spoke, we had African dancing and a play depicting the things the people had learned about hygiene and sanitation.  They then sang a water song and we could hear our names mentioned three or four times (the singing was in the Shona language) so all we understood was Elder Beany and Sister Beany, I guess they were saying that we were the ones that brought the training and water to them.  We then heard speeches from the chief and head man in the district, enjoyed another African dance and drumming, and then divided the people into four groups and handed out the certificates and the gifts. Everything went very smoothly and I think we all had fun and enjoyed the day. The rain even held off until we were on our way home.  We worried about the river crossing, but made it with a little holding of breath. We invited Elder and Sister Bowen from the mission office to go with us and it was a very fun day.  One down seven to go.

Drilling the Boreholes

We are starting are second big water project in the district of Goromonzi.   We drove to Goromonzi and held a meeting with the head man to tell him the news.  He nearly jumped over the desk to shake hands with us when we told him it was approved.  Just a few days before we arrived, the Zimbabwe Electric Supply Assoc. (ZESA) had cut off the power to the district water utility because the district could not pay their electric bill, which means the water utility can’t pipe water into the major parts of the community, the whole district is totally without water. So when we arrived and announced that we had looked over their project, sent it in for approval and had it approved, it was very welcome news. We are going to provide 14 new boreholes and rehabilitate 16 broken ones.  Included in this district are a very large elementary school and the city’s administrative complex. In these two areas alone, help will be provided to hundreds of people.  This should be a great project. We will also provide hygiene and sanitation training classes.  We discussed sites where the district and local community wanted the boreholes and stressed that the boreholes were for the community and not for politicians and officials for their private use.

A few weeks ago we flew to the country of Malawi for training in the Church’s wheelchair project.  The Church will be supplying 359 wheelchairs to Malawi and another 359 wheelchairs to Zimbabwe.  Wheelchairs are now distributed using the World Health Organization’s standards.  Each person now receiving a wheelchair must first apply by sending in their name residence location and reason for needing a wheelchair, to the organization in charge of the distribution.  The organization will than make an appointment with the patient and with a physical therapist arranged for by the Church to measure, fit and assess each person’s individual needs. The chair is a like a prescription, made to the personal specifications and problems of the person receiving the chair.  It is a wonderful program and we spent the week learning about how a wheelchair is made, how to put a chair together, riding in one, fitting the chair to personal specifications and then each trainee had an opportunity to help prescribe for and fit a real disabled person into a specific wheelchair, which will ultimately be given to them.  Four young disabled men were brought in with all kinds of spinal injuries and they were personally fit for a wheelchair. It was very sobering.  We each had a chance to use a wheelchair and to negotiate barriers and try to get up and down ramps. It was very hard and we learned how difficult it is for people in wheelchairs, We also know how much better it is now that they will now have a chair that fits and eliminates pressure sores and other problems. The wheelchairs should arrive in Malawi the last of December or first of January and we will return to help with this distribution.  They then will arrive in Zimbabwe and we will do the same thing.

Wheelchair Training

Shades of Things to Come?

Craft Time Begins at Noon

Malawi is a very beautiful country and it reminded us of Uganda.  It is more tropical looking than Zimbabwe and is very green and hilly.  We are anxious to go back, but this time we will drive.  The Air Malawi flights from Harare to Blantyre, Malawi only fly two times a week and then maybe will not show up at all.  Our flight retuning from Blantyre was canceled because a group of business men had rented it for a business meeting that day.  We spent a whole day trying to get home. 

We had wonderful news this month, On November 19^th Kami, Brent and Sarah Kate flew to Oklahoma for the final proceeding n the adoption proceedings.  It took about 10 minutes for the Judge to sign the official papers.  An appointment has been made on December 4, 2010 at the Newport Beach temple to have her sealed to them.  This is a wonderful event that we would love to be a part of.  Many friends and family will be there and her uncle Matt is flying from Seattle to be a witness.  We know that this will be a very spiritual and wonderful day. We are all filled with gratitude and thankfulness to our Heavenly Father for this wonderful blessing.  It will also be a fun time with friends and family, and we would very much love to be there.  We feel so blessed and happy that this has finally happened. Many prayers have been answered  What a wonderful Christmas present for our whole family.

Welcome Sarah Kate (officially) to the Family!

We are doing well and are remaining healthy and busy.  We are enjoying the adventures that this country offers.  We are a little concerned about the politics here, especially with upcoming elections.  There are still concerns and everyone we meet has a story. It hasn’t been that long ago that this country was in a bad situation.  When Elder Christofferson was here at attend conference, he gave Zimbabwe an apostolic blessing, saying that if the people continued to be righteous and live the commandments, the Lord would bless this country. It really needs that special blessing.

We have an upcoming country director’s meeting in Johannesburg in March.  We also have the person from Salt Lake who is in charge of water projects for the Church all over the world, coming the week before the conference to spend a week with us to get first hand information on our water projects and to also advise and to learn more about the water problems in Africa, so we have a lot to look forward to.  We miss our family, especially at this time of year.  We love all of them very much.

Love, Elder and Sister Bean.