"You are awesome God!", Purple to Orange, and Transfers; Halloween in USA

      

        We love our Sunday morning walks. Bruce always carries a Book of Mormon with him and relies on the Spirit to know who to share it with. I was trying to get a photo of some Apostolic or Maswoe worshippers in their beautiful white robes. A family was walking toward us on a quiet street. We heard the mom singing a beautiful song and stopped to talk to her. She sang for me while I videoed, "You are awesome God, you give us our food, you give us our clothes, you are awesome God." She was so joyous as she sang. She had three beautiful children with her in their early teens, Michael, Abigal, and Ishmael. I asked her how she was able to keep their white gowns so clean. She replied, "God willing!" I told her about the temple we are building and how we also wear white in our temples. She was amazed! The mom, Mariam, recognized us as Bruce shared with them a Book of Mormon. We had stopped by her little vegetable stand for some potatoes last month. She reminded us we had told her we'd bring her a book and now serendipitously we found her to share one. Mariam told us she wanted to teach her children about Jesus. We told her the book is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" and she'll find all of Jesus's full gospel within the pages. She was so grateful and said she'd stop by our Welcome Center at the temple site.

      The Jacaranda trees are finally losing their purple blossoms, but they were so glorious all of October. Now the purple is being replaced with vibrant orange blossoms of the Flamboyant Trees. Appropriately named, now we are seeing these bright orange trees line the streets of Harare. We wonder what color will be next? It's amazing to see the beautiful blossoms throughout the city in the summer, not fall.

        Monday was transfer week. Our mission had 20 missionaries going home too. So we anticipated a crazy day of missionaries coming in and out of the office with lots of luggage. Sister Judd asked us to feed 3 elders coming from Mutare. They ended up getting pulled over by police, which delayed them. The Assistants to the President and the Social Media (Borrowdale) elders asked to be invited too. We had a medium-sized roast and figured we'd do the "loaves and the fishes" meal and hope it would feed all the hungry young adult men. We ended up feeding 8 missionaries instead of three. Bruce was getting the "hungaries" so he decided to eat after they were an hour late. Elder Delacruz and Kopi came with two of the Mutare elders, Jensen and Flores so we fed them at 6:30 p.m. Bruce had thrown in some more potatoes to mash too. About the time they finished eating, the assistants, Elders Ricks, and Maganaga came with two more elders, Larson and Griffin. All four Mutare elders were headed back home from the States. Our mission had a large influx of missionaries right after COVID-19 in 2021. Now their two years had ended. It's been a strain on the mission's leadership losing a lot of experienced missionaries. Sister Kitchen and Louder also were going home. A lot of our favorites have taught our temple workers.

                     During the pandemic missionary service was restricted internationally and resulted in some closures. The number of missionaries grew in 2021 from 56,000 to currently 72,000 serving. This includes 5,300 senior missionaries; we are two of these! It's exciting! Our mission should be getting about 15 missionaries to replace those going home; but, there is always a delay in visa issues. Many of our missionaries go stateside waiting up to 6 months for their visas. The church just announced 36 new missions being created.

    Monday, the senior missionaries helped to keep the parking lot and luggage organized as the missionaries all came rolling in. It's usually a big reunion of past companions and visiting. It was nice to have a process of placing "transfer" luggage on one end and "going home" luggage in another area. The zone leaders had to collect their "allotments" money for their zone, their new missionaries in their area, luggage, and the driver to head out. This process took until noon. It was fun seeing the excitement and enthusiasm of these wonderful sisters and elders.

(Above) Elder and Sister Stuki just arrived from Alpine, Utah. They'll be over fleets and flats. 

Here's the best photo of the day, Elder's jumping for joy! 2023.10.30

The Judds asked Bruce and me to drive some elders to Epworth for transfers. We were happy to take two elders to their new areas. Epworth is known for the "balancing rocks" or boulders in the town. The balancing rocks on the bond notes are from Epworth's rocks. I was even very impressed that the Queensdale and Epworth flats were quite clean and tidy. Sister Judd had texted the mission a challenge of leaving their apartments clean, a "house of order" invites the Spirit.

Epworth elders, these huge balancing boulders are in their flat's backyard, 2023.10.30

We had a few of the missionaries going home stop by to see the progress on the temple one last time.

On Tuesday we had 17 Zimbabwean pre-missionaries stop by our Visitor Center. Reeve Nield puts them up in apartments and takes them for their missionary physicals and dental exams before putting in their papers. This was an amazing group. It's so inspiring to see so many African youth desire to go on a mission and dedicate time to service. Reeve and Lolly also set them up with missionary clothes, suitcases, and even haircuts. 2023.10.31 Hurrah for Israel!!!!

    We've had a lot of visitors at our new Welcome Center on the Temple site. Seventeen young adults from Zimbabwe completing their pre-missionary physicals, our sister missionaries (who pick up litter every Monday), and elders leaving for home in America.

    Halloween came and went without notice in Zimbabwe. In fact, no signs of Halloween or Autumn at all. It's summer here and trees in blossom! There are no jack-o-lanterns or trick-or-treaters here. My cute grandkids enjoyed the day, however. I missed seeing their cute little smiles and costumes!

Here's my little Anderson and Russo Spooks! Halloween 2023

     Thursday, Nov. 2nd, I got to use my nursing skills. A gentleman collapsed right in front of the temple fence on the sidewalk. He was unconscious and starting to seize. Luckily he was breathing and we found a note in his pocket saying he was diabetic. I got on the ground and lay his head on my lap. We slowly gave him some sugar dissolved in water then the medic came with glucogon powder. He remained unconscious for about 10 minutes then came to after we stabilized his blood sugar. There is no 9-11 here and so I had Bruce drive him to the hospital clinic to get follow-up care and some insulin. He had no medical aid or money. I kept thinking of little Aria, with Type 1 Diabetes, and how I would pray someone would help her if needed. It was an eventful day; never a dull moment here in Zimbabwe. We've been shocked to meet so many young adults, whose parents have died in their 40's either by accident or an illness. Many people just don't go to the doctor because they have no insurance or money. It's so sad. There is no rule that a hospital will help you "regardless of your ability to pay". In fact, our missionary friends, who got in a horrible accident had to pay everything up front before they would med-evacuate him to South Africa for surgery. Currently, we know of typhoid and cholera outbreaks. Pray for our good health to continue!