Goodbye Africa: Abrupt End - Coronavirus

A whirlwind two weeks has ended with an early return home

 due to the Coronavirus worldwide plague.  Two weeks ago Monday,

 we left Kasungu on a pre-planned trip to Lusaka to take care

 of some of our humanitarian projects.  We were able to visit some

 project and get supplies for those that we needed to be present for.

  Then we were told we needed to prepare to go home. 

 Thankfully, Sister Pulsipher had been inspired to bring all our

 personal items from Kasungu so we just packed and finished what we could.  

Visited the Tiyende Pamodzi School.
 The 3 classroom building was finished and desks delivered.
  A few touch-ups were needed but we told them to go ahead and start using it.
 Hopefully our Stake and Mission President can attend the handover ceremony.

Finished Tiyende Pamodzi school block

All 60 new desks had been delivered.  Another 30 desks are still being repaired.  

We got some final supplies for the Sosco School maize milling machines.
 They are now up and running just in time for the Maize harvest season.
 Now they can pay for quality teachers and school supplies.
 They were very, very grateful. 

Dehuller and milling machines.

Visited Twikatane health post project.
 The community has a good start on the staff house they are building.  

The health post is being plastered and the roofing will be put on soon.  

Visited the Chainda Clinic maternity ward building.
 The building is complete so we ordered beds and hospital equipment for it.
 Hopefully it will be up and running soon. 
We hope to pay invoices and complete ordering from home.  

Before we left, Grandma went to a Sister Missionary's night.
 These three are fantastic missionaries.  They are all probably at home now
 that all the North Americans got sent home.  

More great sisters.  Sister Eme...., the middle one,
had finished her mission and was on her way home.
 She lived next to us in Lusaka for several months so we grew close to her.   

During the week we were notified that it was time to go home. 

 We packed and cleaned and finished up loose ends.  

 We were sad we didn't have enough time to say goodbye to many.  

Ready to Go!

Goodbye Zambia!  

The "new look" in all the airports! Wore these in crowed areas.  So fun!  

When we arrived in Johannesburg, our flight to the U.S. was cancelled.
  So after scrabbling, they got us on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey.
 After a 6 hour layover, we headed to New York.  Thankfully they put us
 in a hotel by the airport for some much needed rest.
 The next morning we learned our flight to SLC was cancelled.
 So we called around and got a flight through Minneapolis to SLC.  

Our Welcoming committee in Salt Lake City. 
We were so excited to visit with Tren's family at the airport.
  We couldn't resist one hug as we held our breath. 
Took our truck and drove to a hotel in Tremonton.  Then drove home the next day.  

After 75 hours of travel, we finally made it home!
  Greeted Tallies family then started our 14 day self-isolation.  

We had the most wonderful mission! 

 Were able to serve as humanitarian, office, and member support

 missionaries all in one mission!   What a blessing it has been for us. 

 We will continue to serve from home until April 23rd then be

 officially released.  But this will be our final entry in our mission blog. 

 We love the Lord and the people of Zambia and Malawi. 

 Great things are ahead in this work of the Lord.  

Nkotakota

These past two weeks were filled with teaching and playing. 

 We were able go with the missionaries to teach several

 groups who lived outside of town and had been waiting for

 their turn to be taught by the missionaries. 

 Our hopes of getting the Kasungu branch organized soon

 were put on hold with the Coronavirus issues

 and meeting closures.  We were able to do a get-away for

 a couple days to a nice wilderness area lodge.  

We went out to several areas about 25 kms from Kasungu
 to teach people who have been coming to church.
 This is the typical teaching setting. 

We couldn't pass up taking a picture of this couple,
 even if the Washington University was the wrong one.  

These folks are harvesting caterpillars from the trees.  They shake the tree and the
 caterpillars fall to the ground.  They love to roast them up for a tasty treat.  

We traveled about 2 hours to the Nkotakota Wilderness
Reserve for a nice get away with the Rowans.  

A view from our room at the lodge. It sits on the Bua River.
 This lodge was very nice and we had it all to ourselves. 

Lodge entrance

Very nice room.  There was a small swimming pool (tub) in the room too.

Fancy bird napkins set for dinner.

The blue lagoon.  Grandpa enjoyed a dip in the evening.  

We went out on the river to watch the Sunset two nights.  Gorgeous sunsets!

An evening sunset on a rock that Livingstone stayed on overnight.
  He was going up river to find a route to the Zambezi river.
 He was trying to stop the slave trade that the Arabs were conducting in this area.
  He chose this rock because it was surrounded by water
 except one little connection to land.
 They built fires at that connection to keep away lions and wild beasts.  

A swinging bridge over a stream leading to the river.  

Visited a nice waterfall on the river.  Pictures don't do it justice. 

Grandpa even got to do a little fishing.  

The great fisherman actually caught a fish!

Grandma being taxied across a small branch of the river
 so we could get to the falls.

Grandma trudging through the tall grasses to reach the waterfalls.

More sunset

Spotted some elephants on the roads through the park.
 Kept our distance because they will attack anything that gets too close.  

Although church was cancelled today, we were able to have several baptisms.
  Most of the youngster's parents or Grandparents were baptized earlier. 

If you zoom in, you can see the special CTR ring that
 Grandma gave the kids several weeks ago. 

We were excited to witness the baptism of Sinai and Gift Nyirongo.
  They are special to us because they live within the property we live on.
  He is our guard and groundskeeper and she does little jobs for us at times.
  This was also her Birthday!  

Windmills and Zone Conf

Zone Conference time again in Lilongwe then back to Kasungu

 for more teaching and organizing. 

 We also were able to see a famous windmill... see below.

Sisters and Elders being instructed at zone conference

Elders role playing how to get to know people.

Lilongwe Zone Conference

Missionaries who served in Kasungu minus Elder Jones

We visited an Academy about 30 minutes from Kasungu.
 Grandma says it was just like Hogwarts from Harry Potter.
 It was really beautiful.  It was like a small college campus
 with a large auditorium, dining hall, swimming pool, etc. 

The school was a boarding school for Primary to Secondary students.
Only the well-off could possibly attend.  

Of course Grandma loved the library.

While in the area, we went to Wimbe village and saw the original
 windmill built by a young boy who couldn't afford to go to school.
 He checked out books from the library and learned about electricity.
 He built the windmill from flattened out pvc pipe, a bike frame/chain,
 and a bike light generator. Everyone thought he was crazy until
 they saw the light in his house. 
 "The boy who harnessed the wind" is really worth reading.  

It was so interesting to visit this windmill after we read the book.
 We were able to meet the boy's mother and father as well.
 There's not much different about this village than any other
 village in Malawi but it was fun to actually visualize it. 

Grandma's primary kids coloring a page about Book of Mormon Stories.
 They absolutely love to color.

Grandma's fan club

Baptism of a wonderful family (4) and two other great Saints.
  Up to March 1st, there have been 89 people baptized in Kasungu.
 What a blessing to behold.  Just waiting for approval to form a branch here.
 Missionaries can't keep up with those wanting to be taught.