April 3 - Today is our youngest daughter, Rebecca's birthday. Happy Birthday dear baby girl!
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| Another Beautiful sunrise |
Today each zone in the mission chose a service project to complete in their area. As a mission home we went to an orphanage and painted the two rooms that serve as their cafeteria.
The Kolwezi Zone cleaned an island area of the road and painted the curb portion so it can be seen at night.
April 4 - During our walk we came upon a snail.
The evening before Elder and Sister Bennett depart. The mission will miss the Bennetts. They have done a marvelous work with the people in Likasi. They were very busy teaching 7 different English classes each week, in addition to teaching piano lessons to several students and helping the leadership in all the wards and branches. Likasi became a stake last June, a result of the combined efforts of the members and missionaries. Elder and Sister Bennett helped greatly.
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| Elder Richard & Sister Margaret Bennett |
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| Elder & Sister Bennett, Sister & President Shumard |
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Elder & Sister Bennett, Sister Peterson
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April 5 - Departure day for Elder and Sister Bennett.
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| Elder Bennett, Ilunga, Sister Bennett |
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| Elder & Sister Bennett; Sister & Elder Eastmond |
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| Elder Lorin & Sister Nancy Peterson; Sister & Elder Bennett |
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| Sister Peterson, Sister & Elder Bennett |
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| Carlos carved this small bowl for us; two of his four sons |
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| A caterpillar found crawling on our dining room floor. |
April 6 - We delivered sandwiches for the zone conference to the Katuba Stake Center. On the way we pass a river where many people go to wash their clothes.
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| Dozens of people along the river washing their clothes |
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| Close up of the bowl Carlos carved for us. |
April 8 - During our Saturday walk we noticed people down by the river. They were singing. We thought it might be a revival meeting. Then a young man came out of his yard to explain to us that it was a baptism in the river. There were white birds flying about and if you look closely in the foreground you can see 6 or 7 in the top of the tree.
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| Sunlight shining on the flowers and weeds |
We have crossed this river before and pictures are posted last year. The bridge is pieced together with sections of metal. A natural dam of water lilies and plastic bottles keeps the water from flowing freely.
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| In the foreground notice the sand bags for stepping stones. |
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| Water appears backed up by water lilies and plastic bottles |
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| Close up of water lilies and plastic bottles |
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| A dugout boat along the river further down from the above crossing. |
Our explore this morning with Elder and Sister Eastmond was over 2 hours long. We took them to places they had never been. It was enjoyable, but we were tired when we arrived home.
We listened to two conference sessions today.
Sunday, April 9 - We finished listening to all the conference sessions. A very inspiring conference. As I am sitting here in the office working on the blog, all of a sudden it starts to rain HARD. The funny thing is, the sun is shining.
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| Rain is pouring off the roof |
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| Notice the huge drops of rain |
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| The infamous courtyard. Notice all the drainage ditches have now been covered with grates. |
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| See the blue sky on the left; gray cloud on the right |
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| You can see the raindrops here |
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| Rain is pouring down but look at the blue sky. The cloud must have just been right over our compound. |
April 8 - During our Saturday walk we noticed people down by the river. They were singing. We thought it might be a revival meeting. Then a young man came out of his yard to explain to us that it was a baptism in the river. There were white birds flying about and if you look closely in the foreground you can see 6 or 7 in the top of the tree.
