Street Contacting, Flooding the Site, Acres of temple plants, Young Women Conference and Primary

 It was another wonderful week in Africa! We've been flooding the temple site again with the Book of Mormon. We are so happy the workers on the site feel the special spirit in the temple, even during construction. We were able to meet with the HVAC team and Rio Douro Construction teams. Each time they all come forth and desire to take a book home with the promise to read. I've been taking team photos for the church temple history book. The workers love to have their photo taken; they come see them printed on a bulletin board we've posted by our office trailer. It's fun getting to know them and learn a few Shona phrases. I love how they smile and and cheer our pronunciation on! We've learned how to say good morning, good afternoon, I am fine, and thankyou! Ma moo kaa si, Mascati, Tom moo ka, Ta tenda! I'm not sure if they're laughing or pleased at our attempts at their language. 
Last Sunday, I enjoyed hearing the cute primary children sing. I took Joanna to primary so Agnes, her mother, could stay with the sisters in Relief Society. Sister Tondi King does an amazing job organizing the children and teaching them primary songs outside in a circle. She asked me to help with the choristering. We miss our grandkids; but have adopted a few here. Sister Reeve Nield, said you will be grandparents to so many less fortunate children that never had a grandparent before.  Our ward had two more baptisms last week and three next week. Our bishop, Bsp. Nicholls stated there were over 50 baptisms in the last 3-4 months in our area. It's great to witness the swimming pool baptisms.                                            

Bruce taught me how to do "street contacting" on our Sunday afternoon walk (2023.03.26). We gave out 10 Books of Mormon to people we met on the street. The African people are receiving additional Godly light and power by accepting this book and reading about another witness of Jesus Christ. We're near a park where the Apostalic worshippers meet. They dress in beautiful white robes. We love seeing them walking down the street or gathering in large circle congregations outside.  One night we were awoken by their constant chanting at 1:00 to 4:00 in the morning. There's a beautiful beat of drums and chant-like singing and clapping. It sounds joyful! Unfortunately it goes on all night sometimes!

Apostolic walking down street                                       Beautiful bougainvillea at the York Lodge

Our first attempt at cookies, no crisco or "Kitchen Aid" and "zesa" power for oven only comes on from 11 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Bruce got up and cooked the dough at 3:00 a.m. Here is chicken dinner take out!

Emerald Seedings, Nursery where temple plants and trees are being propagated and stored. There seems to be several acres of beautiful plants, flowers, and trees being grown for the landscaping. This is Lucas and Ryan (above photo), the main temple landscape architects. 2023.03.29

Rescued trees (below) the property was sold for development and the trees were given to the church to rescue rather than bulldoz them down. There are large palms being transplanted and stored here also. The plants want to be grown to maturity so the landscaping is ready for the open house when the temple is completed. Gill, the gracious nursery owner, showed us around.

Juanita is growing beautiful white roses for the temple site, 2023.03.29.

Stake Young Women Conference, theme was "Temples" so we were the guest speakers, 2023.04.01

Traveling to conference in African style!

Sister Reeve Nield helps with technology as we speak with our power point presentation last Saturday.

We love the sister missionaries, Sister Rodriquez and Louder.  We took them to lunch and they were so grateful. We are so grateful for their strong testimonies and for teaching our new friends, Agnes and David. (2023.04.01)

Horrah for Israel! Stake Young Women, Harare, Zimbabwe 2023.04.01, we talked about the temple, construction, and the light the temple offers.

Cases of books, water divining, school children, elephants, giraffes, and the wild life

 We placed our testimonies and contact numbers in 3 cases of Books of Mormon for the temple site workers. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 07:15 a.m. we are able to participate in the different team's "toolbox" meetings. So far we've talked to the Electricians, Plumbers, and Masons. There are about 25-50 workers in each group. Lottie gives a safety tip as a nurse on "good handwashing" and situational awareness for safety. Bruce shares how they are building the "House of the Lord" and how Christ teaches of "other sheep" he will visit. He tells them they are some of His other sheep he speaks of in the New Testament. Bruce also read out of the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 11:1-10, when the resurrected Christ visits the people at the temple. He testifies they will feel God's love and his Holy Spirit as the temple is being built. We offer a Book of Mormon and they all come forward to take one. Bruce was handing out books as fast as their hands reached forth for more knowledge of Jesus Christ. They are ready to hear the gospel and promise to read with real intent to learn of its truthfulness. 
It reminded us of Pres. Ezra Taft Benson's quote in 1988, "We must flood the earth with the Book of Mormon." It was like giving out manna!

              Here's a photo of the plumbers listening to the verses read from 3 Nephi (2023.03.21)

I love how Sister Judd commented on our temple construction mission, "They join us in our efforts to not only build the temple but also to build the temple inside the hearts and minds of every saint in Zimbabwe."

Elder Foriji came to visit us and meet at the temple site. He and his wife are service missionaries and are so excited to have a temple in Zimbabwe (2023.03.22)

This week we had the privilege of going with the humanitarian missionaries, Elder and Sister Peterson, to Mabvuku. We passed by very humble lodgings. The church has donated many boreholes and drilled for fresh water for the townspeople. They are very grateful!  Tuesday, March 21st, we got to witness a water diviner, Elaine Leazh, find water for a third source of water for the Tashinga Primary School. She is very experienced and has a 98% accuracy rate; successfully she's found over 500 water sources for the church already. She uses fresh guava sticks soaked in water to find the natural flow and best pressure source with a GPS coordinate. She kneels on the soil to get a direct connection with the earth. She even let Bruce give it a try. I loved meeting the schoolchildren, all neatly dressed in matching uniforms. All the school children wear uniforms here in Zimbabwe. This particular school is quite large with over 1,800 children from kindergarten to 7th grade. The early childhood development center (ECD) has 630 children with 18 teachers. Each class has about 50+ children. I met "Chipo" the head teacher over the ECD, she explained things to me and let me take their photos. They loved having their photos taken and shaking hands with a "white" person. 

Tashinga Primary School in Mabvuku and Elaine, water divining for a borehole (2023.03.21)

Friday, March 24th after a busy week, all the senior missionaries went on an outing to 

"Wild is Life Zen" is a wonderful wildlife park in Harare. We finally saw elephants! It was a beautiful experience to see rescued elephants, lions, hyenas, kudus, impalas, and giraffes in a recovery program. We saw an endangered oldest-living pangolin. The pangolin is close to extinction due to being poached for its scales and eaten as a delicacy. We loved feeding the giraffes and really having up-close and personal contact with the animals. The tea, treats, and atmosphere were extremely pleasing!

Wild is Life with all the senior missionaries, it was quite a wild experience! (2023.03.24)

                                          We love giraffes! Wild is Life Zen, reserve (2023.03.24)

Saturday, we had another golf lesson from the pros, hopefully, our swing is improving! (2023.30.25)

We are so grateful to be on a mission. What a privilege to serve in Zimbabwe. Every day is an adventure! If we knew a mission was so rewarding and fun, we would've gone 5 years earlier.