This is the Lusaka, Zambia mission home.
It is literally the home of the mission president but it includes all the offices to run a mission.
Besides us there are the two assistants to the president, and two office Elders to help with the paper work. The mission president's wife also has a desk and takes care of many tasks besides running the home and entertaining everyone who passes through. Kristi helps her with meals besides her 8 hours at a desk each day.
There is also a couple who work on humanitarian projects to see that they are coordinated and accomplished. There is also a public affairs couple who cover our mission and Mozambique and Angola.
It is a very busy place. The work is NEVER done. I mean the paper work. It seems to be endless. I hope we can get it all straight in our minds before we leave.
That is Jackson opening the gate. He calls one of my phones when someone is there and wants in.
Half the time it is mail or FedEx or water delivery, the other half it is someone needing financial help.
The couple below are the Louthans. They drove us around for the first few days and tried to get us familiar with Lusaka. They did this by circling the same round-a-bouts over and over from differnet directions until spinning clockwise instead of counter clock wise seemed almost normal. Did I mention we drive on the left side of the road here and shift with the left hand? They are the public affairs couple so they travel quite a bit. The hard part is that they were also given the responsibility for the missionary housing in Lusaka. If I don't learn this financial job too quick maybe they will hang on to that portion of our responsibilities for a while. I really do know how to make friends fast.
We had dinner with the Padovich's and Louthan's our first night here along with three departing Elders after two years of service.
These Elders were very fun and happy. Elder Ngobeni (on the left) is returning to Pretoria. Elder Nyelele is returning to Johannesburg. On the right is Elder Okumu who is returning to Uganda after two years. The two in the middle are Elders Mantchichi and Cook who are the assistants to the president.
This was the next day when a young man from Lusaka just received his mission call. The president had received it by pouch mail as regular mail here in town is difficult and unreliable. His name is Andrew Kampelya and he will be headed to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Sister Padovich has a quilt top that every one signs when they enter and leave the mission field in the Lusaka, Zambia mission. We got to fill one of the last blocks.
Here is Kristi at her desk, but she is all over the place. She can hardly wait to move her desk to face out to the window and see outside, but she is being patient and waiting for the change in mission presidents to make the move.
I can't express how needed we feel. It is a good feeling but also overwhelming. We are hoping we can start feeling adequate.
