We don't get out much

It's true, we've been here for over a month and we had not been out of the city until Jan 15th. We are very careful with fuel and there just had not been a good enough reason until then. Again, with the fuel shortages there are many flights that are cancelled and there were 3 missionaries in Blantyre whose visas were expiring and they had to leave the country. Finally they were able to get on a bus from Blantyre to Lilongwe on Saturday but there was no bus from Lilongwe to Lusaka until Tuesday which was 2 days too late. We arranged to pick them up at the bus and Elder Packer stayed with the zone leaders here and the 2 sisters stayed with us. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of them. (I was not feeling very well. That's my excuse.) We had a great time with the sisters. We took them visiting and teaching in the village and they did a great job. We wanted the member sisters to see that there are sister missionaries too not just elders and old sisters. It was great fun. Early Sunday morning we loaded them all up and headed for the border where we met President Padovich who was there to pick them up. Everything went without a hitch and we were back in Lilongwe in time for choir practice. Poor Elder Prete did the drive back pretty much on his own because I slept most of the time even though I really did want to see the countyside. Nasty stomach bug. One of the elders and the President had it too. All well now. I promise to have the camera poised next time we leave town. Sounds like it may be this week. We have Sister Seiben from Raymond transferring in to Blantyre and again, she has to fly here, then we will meet the Bullocks halfway the next day and they will take her the rest of the way.

One little scene from the drive. I missed a great one though. There was a little gal carrying a sewing machine on her head. I will keep the camera in my hand!

This is the Thomas family. Their little twins, Rachel and Asher, were born in July. They have been members for a few months but haven't been attending for the last while. They are just a really sweet couple and we are hoping they will start coming again soon. Elder Buckholz baptized them when he was here before and just loves them.