July 12, 2015

We never knew senior missionaries were so busy.  It is a good kind of busy.  We feel the work in self reliance is moving forward now that "some" books have reached Zimbabwe.  We spend a lot of time during the week in our office.  The self reliance/family history center is always busy with students.  We spend a lot of time "one-on-one" with people in the office teaching them how to interview, choose a school, and get a correct lds account log in.  We are still observing several self reliance classes per week.  This is such an inspired and great program.  Everyone should study the manuals and teach the Foundation principles to their family in family home evening.  We visit units as often as possible observing how the self reliance group meetings are being conducted.  We find all different ways of facilitating the groups.  Mainly people stop coming after about the fourth lesson because they are not doing the homework so they do not see any change for themselves and their family.

On the fun side we have been to Lake Chivero which is a big fresh water lake near Harare.  It is kind of like Holter in Montana.  We went back to the Lion Park, farmer's market, downtown Harare shopping, Mbare flea market, the movie, and restaurants on Friday night.  It may seem to you that we do more playing than working.  We'll let you decide.

We never get over the culture shock and amazement of the amount of people here. There are people everywhere you look or go.  Thousands of people are on the streets selling everything you can imagine.  They line the sidewalks downtown and are on every street corner.  The government has been trying to limit the street vendors to no avail.  They have had some minor protests downtown, but nothing has changed.  The people are just trying to survive.  They are very industrious and hard working.

We have attended church at a lot of different wards and branches.  Some have very beautiful chapels and others meet in homes.  Many of the chapels are fairly new with anywhere from two to four wards or branches meeting in the same building.  There are approximately 25,000 members in Zimbabwe. The geographical area here in Zimbabwe is about the size of Montana.  That isn't a large number since there are millions of people in Zimbabwe.

Wherever we go or walk, people will ask us for a job.  How they know that that is our calling, we do not know, but they know us.  Oh...that is right, we are white.  They ask for any kind of work, for example, to trim our trees, clean our place, or come to the office and be referred to a company.  Many think we will hire them on the church's behalf.  We have helped people find jobs.  Mainly security or fast food restaurant.  Better paying jobs are very rare with more business/companies closing every day.  Yes, it is a bit discouraging, but we just keep looking at the thank you note from the "one" who is grateful to be working.

We are having winter here right now so it is cool in the evenings and mornings.  We have a little electric heater that takes the chill off.  There are not as many things in blossom right now as the indigenous trees have mostly lost all their leaves.  The poinsettia bushes have lost their leaves, but the red blossoms are still hanging in there.  They have been blossoming since April.

We are really trying to do what the Lord wants us to do here.  He knows the people he has prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We know he loves all of his children.  We have now been here over seven months and have seen quite a bit of change.  We have a new mission president as of the first of July.  His name is Mkhabela and is from South Africa.  Our former mission President Cook went to Inkom, Idaho.

On the way to Bindura, women washing their clothes at the dam.

Elder & Sister Robbins visited. We were at Pres & Sister Cook's for dinner.

One of the walls where the women and children lived at the Great Zimbabwe.

One of our self reliance training classes for missionaries going home.

This is "roughing it" at the movie theatre.

We have been very busy the past month.  We finally received a token amount of self reliance books.  There were enough to give each stake one set.  We have trained all but one of the stake self reliance committees.  The stakes are to train their wards and branches, however they need our help and there are 60+ of those.

The job opportunities are starting to come for members in and around Harare.  We are not sure how many are actually hired.  We received requests to send 50 people for interview one day and 80 the next.  There have been several requests for 15 to 20 people at a time.  We need to contact more companies who are willing to hire the members.  We have sent people to a fast food company who expect people to work for two weeks without pay to see if they pass their test.  We have talked to several people on the street, when we walk in the morning, who have worked for six months without pay.  They cannot quit or they will never get paid.

We go to Bindura for church each Sunday.  It is a beautiful hour and a half drive each way.  We are working with a small branch there who is struggling for retention of membership and leadership.  The other five units we are assigned to are growing and doing fine.  Our Zimbabwe Harare Mission baptizes about 2,500 people per year.  That is equal to a whole new stake.

A month ago we went to a place called Antelope Park.  There were not a lot of animals except for lions.  We could hear them roaring from our cabin early in the morning.  We did see another amazing site.  They fed five male lions at the same time and in the same place.  There was losts of fighting, growling and stealing each other's food.  It was not hard to tell who was dominant ones.  We were right on the other side of a very large chain link fence.  It is amazing how "fast" and strong they are. They each weigh five to six hundred pounds.

From Antelope Park we went to Gwero and Bulawayo and trained three stake presidents on self reliance.  Otherwise we do not get to travel outside of Harare very much except to Bindura.

We took a short vacation from Wednesday to Saturday and went to Victoria Falls with the Hermansen's and McMurdies.  It was spectacular and is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  The falls are nearly a mile wide and three times higher than Niagara Falls.  There is so much moisture that it causes rain to fall on the other side of the canyon.  We also went on a safari to the country of Botswana.  The place was called Chobe Park.  We did a ground tour, had lunch on a floating island, and a river cruise.  We saw lots of elephants, hippos, elands, pukus, baboons, monkeys, mongoose, crocodiles, water buffalo, large lizards, and birds.  All of these animals were in their natural habitat.  We were so close that we could see the eyelashes on the elephants.  We saw two baboons fighting.

Two dominant male lions at Antelope Park

Victoria Falls

Hippo with a dress and attitude on Chobe River

she came in the water after us

Primary in Bindura Branch

Small woman carrying 5 gallon water 1/2 mile to house from borehole (well)

It is a great adventure being in Zimbabwe.  We learn something new every day and have a new adventure.  We have a lot to learn from the wonderful, humble, and faithful people.  They have so little but are so happy.  We know we are in the right place doing the best job we can to serve the people of Zimbabwe.  We are preparing talks this week on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon for a small branch at Kadoma, about three hours away.  We Love you all!

January 31, 2015

Masikati (Good day)
Hi Everyone,
Tomorrow is our two month anniversary on our mission.  What an adventure it has been so far.  Something new happens every day.  For example, we sent five ads of companies who are getting ready and have started to interview people to hire to the Bishops and Branch Presidents here in Harare and received over 300 applicants.  So for the past two weeks we have turned into an employment agency.  Some of the members here have never worked or interviewed with a company, so we set up interview training classes on Monday and Wednesday until everyone has attended. There is a Sister Leocardia Murenza who is teaching the classes for us.  She had done this for her business and is an excellent teacher.  She understands the people in English and Shona.  We are still trying to get a handle on understanding those who are supposedly speaking English.  Our part is to tell them about the companies we are contacting, the process of resume writing, and doing practice interviews with each one.

We have an office in the Highlands chapel building.  The internet rarely works there so we walk across the parking lot to the mission office and use a conference room to do our computer work.

Our mission president assigned us to go to Bindura District on Sundays.  There are six branches in their District.  We have now visited all of them.  Two branches meet in one building, three in another and one branch meets in a little community center which is sort of like a cement hole.  There are two different churches meet right next door.  They sing and shout to the top of their lungs during our Sacrament meeting.  The Primary meet outside under a tree.  We have never been so amazed at the fine talks and singing in their meetings.  They sing beautifully without a piano, organ, or keyboard. The chorister sings the first restrain and then everyone sings.  The talks are awesome.  Some of the people have been members for only a year or two, including some of the bishop's and branch presidents.

Last Saturday for fun we went to the Lion and Cheetah Park.  We couldn't find it at first, but came back to the mission office and got directions and went back and found it.  They have 31 lions.  One of the places you just drive your car through and the lions are loose.  In another part of the park the lions are in cages.  Also in the caged area were hyenas, crocodiles, a pair of white lions and a monster size tortoise that they said is about 300 years old.  They also have a place to drive through where there are giraffes, zebras, elands, ostrich, monkeys, baboons, water buffalo, and lots of birds.  Some of the lions were sleeping way up high on some rocks.  One great big male was just laying in the road in the shade.

Last Sunday we took a few pictures of some of the places people live on our way to church in Bindura.  Many do not have indoor plumbing, but there is a satellite dish on the roof.  Many walk for very long distances to get water and go to church.  We see women carrying five gallon buckets on their heads filled with tomatoes and other garden produce taking it somewhere to sell.  Many are out every morning hoeing in the maize fields.

We are still waiting for the new self reliance books to arrive.  It is very frustrating as we were promised they would be here the end of January.  We are going to make an attempt to train Bindura District on the new curriculum tomorrow at 4 on the computer without the books.  That should be interesting since this new curriculum is "hands on".  The people here need this training desperately. Everyone here buys something from somewhere and tries to sell it on the street.

Today we went to the Chinese mall.  It is a huge store with all the China junk you can imagine.  We did find a few things for our office like a stapler, paper clips, white board markers and eraser.

 Lion in the road would not move

Large male baboon 

Biggest lion 

Us and Debbie & Larry McMurdie 

 Homes  on the way to Bindura

Homes on the way to Bindura 

 Beautiful trees on the road where we walk each morning

 Modern Zimbabwe dish washer (the water is Very Hot)

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

We have been very busy the past two week.  Elder and Sister Adams came from South Africa to help us contact businesses to recruit jobs.  We were able to find a lot of businesses who were willing to talk to us and let us refer the members for job openings.  Then, Elder Sitati from the First Quorum of the Seventy came from Salt Lake and Thabo Lebethoa, the self reliance manager from South Africa came.  They met with us, the Adams, and Binghams who came from Zambia.  Elder Sitati had leadership training meetings all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  All of the meetings were to introduce the new curriculum and self reliance.  He met with the young adults, and had a fireside for all members of three stakes.  There are six stakes and two districts in Zimbabwe plus a mission district with six branches. There are 60 wards and branches all together.

Our electricity is off about half the time, so if we do not respond to your messages it is because we have to start the generator to have electricity.  It hasn't rained this past week.  It's been in the mid 70's every day.  It's just a little warm at night.  Sorry to those of you who are freezing in Montana.

We drove around town trying to get a little more oriented as to where everything is.  We came to an area which had a much larger flea market than the one we had been too.  It covered the area of about five blocks long.  We didn't stop, but it looked like mostly cloths.  We also got lost (again) and found ourselves in the outskirts of downtown where it was very difficult to drive through the streets because there were so many street vendors (in the middle of the street), plus solid cars and people shopping or wandering around.

We walk every morning at 0530 for an hour and found a sign that made us feel like we were home.  The picture is attached.  Also Miles is standing by a sample of beautiful flowers which are everywhere you look.  We also tried the poached corn that they sell on street everywhere.  It really was pretty good for "field" corn (maze).  We have tried sadza (really thick cornmeal mush).  It is tasteless, but they make a "sauce", which is kale with spices which makes it pretty good.  I won't be cooking much of it however.

We took Binghams to a "western" restaurant where the "guys" had a steak and "gals" had a hamburger.  It wasn't too bad for Zimbabwe.  They played "old" western music which made us feel closer to home.  We eat out three or four times per week, as the food is just about as cheap at restaurants as it is to buy it in the store.

We found Hayden's business competition.  Notice the bow tie, necktie, and scripture cover made of beads.  We are trying to figure out how to send you the bow tie so all you older boys can take turns wearing it to the prom.

The people who are members of the church are so friendly, kind, and humble.  They are all first generation members but they have really strong testimonies.  We have had two people approach us wanting to be taught about the church.

We love you all!

Elder Sitati on the right

December 30, 2014

Sorry our internet quit working and we thought we lost this one.  Sorry for the duplicate.

Hello from Zimbabwe

We had a long grueling flight to get here, but we finally made it.  It took three long days.  We flew from Salt Lake to Chicago to London to Johannesburg to Harare with five to seven hours at each airport.  All our luggage arrived at the same time.  It was a long wait to get through customs.  Elder and Sister Hermansen (the office couple) met us as did our director, Brother Paradzai.  We were taken to our apartment (flat) which is a very nice, fully furnished two bedroom.  Hermansen's took us out to dinner, it began to rain, the electricity went off, they laughed and said "Welcome to Zimbabwe".  (The electricity is off here often.)

The young Elders gave us our driving test.  It didn't seem too strange to drive on the left side of the road.  Road conditions are very bad.  There are very few street signs and the street lights are way down low so if there is a truck ahead of you it is impossible to see the light until you get to it.  We call the streets "pot holes with a little pavement".

We've met with our director for part of two days then he went on vacation for two weeks.  He is moving his family from a city about three hours away to Harare on January 1.  We will meet with him again on January 2.  There will be people coming from South Africa from the 3rd-9th of January.

We went to several grocery stores.  They have everything we need except the packaging and names are different.  The fruits and vegetables are plentiful and very good.  Groceries are very expensive.

We went on an all day Safari to Imire Ranch on December 26.  Hermansen's had made reservations before we got here  It was awesome!  We were able to get up close and personal with all the animals. They served us a delicious lunch by a lake.  We saw every kind of African animal you can imagine.

We went to the "flea" market on Saturday (Dec. 27) with the other missionary couple, the McMurdie's.  You can find anything there.  They have a lot of the same stuff in every booth.  It is like hundreds of make-shift plastic booths with tarps over the top.  Going downtown to the police station was an experience yesterday.  We went by another flea market that made the one we had been to look very small.  We think that is where the million and a half people were.  By the way, Marlene had a little fender bender accident already.  That is why the visit to the police station.

Our mission president has given us the assignment to work with a District (6 branches) on Sundays.  It is an hour and a half drive from where we live in Harare.  It is called Bindura District and is a beautiful drive.  The people are very friendly and kind.  They all have to walk to church.  Some up to 7 miles or so.  They are very smart and well dressed.  The church meetings were well done.

There are fruit orchards on the way to Bindura (we couldn't tell what kind), lots of maze crop and farm land. Each family has a little plot where they grow their own food.  They stand along the road side selling whatever they have.

Our self-reliant calling will really get started on January 2 when our director gets back.  We will be moving our office to the new self-reliance center probably sometime in February.  The Bindura District already has self-reliance committee's set up and are meeting.

We are working to learn our duties and trying to do the Lord's work here in Zimbabwe.  We are called here for the purposes known by the Lord and as we listen to the promptings, we will figure it out.  We are happy and know we are where we are supposed to be at this time.  

Love - Elder & Sister Diede

First Week in Zimbabwe (December 17-22, 2014)

Hello from Zimbabwe,
We have been here in Harare for one week.  It was a grueling three day trip.  We started in Salt Lake City, then to Chicago (in the airport for 5 hours), then on to London (in the airport for 7 hours), then on to Johannasburg (in the airport for 3 hours).  With flight time, believe us when we say, it all adds up to three long days.  We were met at the airport by the office couple and our director for self-reliance, President Paradzai.  They took us to our flat.  We got unpacked, then they took us to dinner.  During dinner it started a pouring rain, buckets and sheets like we have never seen before.  It causes rivers to run in the streets, down the sidewalks (where there are some).  There is also loud thunder and lightning like we have never seen.  It is the rainy season and has rained every day at least once, twice or three times per day.  The electricity went out during dinner and everyone laughs and says "Welcome to Zimbabwe".

The next day we went to the mission office and took a driving test.  The young elders ride with us while we drove, not that we knew where we were going.  Driving on the left and the steering wheel on the right is quite an adventure.  We past our test, although I think most American do.  The natives do not have driver's licenses.  There is going to be a problem with drivers when the Elders start going home early next year.  There will not be enough Elders who can drive the cars.  The traffic here is "crazy".  There are vans they call "combis" which transport the locals to their work or wherever they are going.  We didn't know you could jam that many people in one vehicle.  Anyway they pull right out in front of you after picking up people on the side of the road.  There are no bus stops, they just stop wherever there are people waiting, waving them down.  Many people just walk.  They cross the roads wherever they want.  Vehicles do not yield to them as you would never get anywhere.  The streets are horrible.  It is impossible to dodge the huge potholes.

We met with our director on Thursday.  He trained us in the morning and in the afternoon he took us to a stake center where they are planning to set up a self-reliance center.  The church buildings are beautiful.  In the afternoon he took us to an outlying neighborhood to meet Stake President Makaza. He was rich to Zimbabwe standards, but the neighborhood was the poorest we have ever seen or could imagine.

We met the mission president and his wife, the Cooks, on Friday.  They held Zone Conference.  We helped set up the tables and chairs for the lunch.  There about 50 missionaries, 20 of then were sisters.

We experienced our first trip to the grocery store.  Everything in the store is different.  Prices are very high.  Fruits and vegetables are not so high.  The stores are very busy with very slow checkouts.  We will need to figure out the metric system if we want to know how much something costs.

Our electricity was off again Saturday night and Sunday morning.  Miles started the generator so we could take a shower for church. We went to church about 30 minutes away with the office and humanitarian couples.  The people are so friendly and they held an excellent church service.  Sunday night we were invited to the mission president's home for dinner.

December 30, 2014

Hello from Zimbabwe –

The trip here was grueling as it took three days.  We started in Salt Lake City on Monday, December 15, 2014.  We flew to Chicago to London to Johannesburg to Harare.  There were layovers from 5 to 8 hours at each airport.  We arrived in Harare on Wednesday, December 17 at about 1210.  Elder and Sister Hermansen,  who work in the mission office picked us up.  We also were met by our director of self-reliance, Brother Paradzai.  They took us to our flat (apartment) which is a two bedroom, fully furnished, secure, gated area.  There are lots of trees, bushes, and flowers.  There is a park area and pool (which no one swims in).  Hermansen’s took us out to dinner.  Just before we got our food, it started to rain, thunder and lightning.  The electricity went off and they laughed and said “Welcome to Zimbabwe”.  The electricity goes off often.

We came to the mission office on Thursday.  The young Elders gave us a driving test.  It didn’t seem as strange as we thought it would to drive on the wrong (they say left) side of the road.  After that we met with Brother Paradzai.  He trained us for part of two days then left on vacation for two weeks.  He is moving his family to Harare from a city three hours away on January 1.  It will be nice to have him here full time.  There will be a self reliance center at one of the stake center’s about 20 minutes from our house where we will be working.  We hope it will be finished sometime in February.

The first Sunday we went to church with Hermansen’s.  That night we were invited to President and Sister Cook’s house for dinner.  They live in a beautiful place. 

Monday, Dec. 22, we met with President Cook in his office.  He assigned us to the Bindura District.  It has six branches.  We attended two of the branches on Sunday.  It is about an hour and a half away from where we live.  The drive was beautiful.  There were rolling hills with lots of farm land, orchards, maze fields, and trees.  The people are so friendly.  They are very smart and dress well.  The church services we conducted very well.  The teachers did a great job.  They ask questions like “How does that make you feel knowing that?”

Christmas was celebrated with the two other senior couples.  The McMurdie’s hosted, cooked a turkey, potatoes and gravy, jello, and homemade rolls.  Hermansen’s brought ham and a relish tray.  We brought stuffing (no stovetop here), pumpkin and coconut cream pie and corn on the cob.  The corn is not sweet here lie it is at home.  We ate at noon since everyone wanted to go to the mission offices to skype with our families.

 On December 26 we went on our first safari to Imire Ranch.  Hermansen’s had made reservations for all six of us to go a couple weeks before we got here.  It was awesome!  We were able to see, up close and personal, every animal you would expect to see in Africa.  They fed us a delicious lunch out in the wilderness by a lake.  We had our first taste of sadza ( a tasteless cornmeal mush).  The sauce they put on it made it good.

Last Saturday, Dec. 27, we went to a flea market and the white peoples mall with McMurdies.  The mall was just a very high priced tourist trap.  The flea market was hundreds of booths made of plastic walls with tarp roofs.  There was everything you can imagine there plus more stuff.

We went downtown yesterday to the police station.  Marlene had a little fender bender the first day of driving in Zimbabwe.  We are fine and the car has already been repaired.  Downtown is one big flea market.  We saw where the rest of the million and a half people are.

We know the Lord wants us here and has a purpose for us to accomplish.  We hope to find out what that purpose is as we work serving the people of Zimbabwe.

There is a place at the bottom of our blog to comment if you so desire.  We would love hearing from you.

We Love You all.  Take Care