 |
| We walk in the mornings with all the maids going to work |
.JPG) |
| Promise and her children |
 |
| "Our Hawaii" and it's winter time here |
 |
| A special baptism - Of course they all are! |
.JPG) |
| Cooking dinner. |
 |
| I love my English class!! |
Dearest Family and Friends,
Recently we received an email from a long-time friend who said that life is full of "little bits of
amazing in the middle of a lot of exhausting/challenging/discouraging
moments." So true. How did she know what we are experiencing? Just yesterday for
example we woke up hoping to go on our normal walk, but my plugged up ear had
become painful in the night time. It's
been going on for a while so we decided it was time to brave the local health
clinic. The doctor was pleasant and
professional and diagnosed me with an inner-ear infection. No problem, we decided to just keep our
existing appointments so that I could rest otherwise. We then hurried out to Motupa to pick up
Sister Tiny who has recently separated from her husband and is living with her
children and elderly mom. They have no
food, so we brought Sister Tiny into town to go shopping. We purchased the normal staples which includes
a huge bag of Mille-maize (for pap).
When we told her that she could buy a few cans of beans to go with it
she was so thrilled that you would have thought we provided Christmas for her
whole family. Next we picked up Kuda so
that he didn't have to pay for the taxi (not the kind your thinking of) going
home since he lives close to Tiny. We
visited with Tiny's mom and she too was very thankful for the food. After a quick stop back home for a bit of
lunch, we hurried out to Nkowankowa to visit Promise and her family. They appeared to be doing fine. While we were giving the message from
President Uchtdorf about having "spiritual landmarks" in our lives, I
noticed that Mighty (8 months old) was chewing on her arm. I asked if he was teething and Promise said,
"No, he's hungry. I ran out of
formula and I don't have any money."
We had picked up a few bananas just outside the village at a little tuck
shop. I went out to the car and brought
in some. Mighty loved his first
banana. We left with the name of his
formula and a promise to bring some back.
We then hurried over to the hospital to visit Sister Mama and her new
baby. The baby's dad, Max, was
there. We had a wonderful visit. We invited Max out to church and he
accepted. I held baby Lulamile the whole
time we visited. When we left Max asked
Ed to say a pray for them. He offered a
beautiful blessing on the "soon to be family", we hope. We arrived home from our shortened day a
little after 6:00 pm. We fixed a little
dinner and my ear said that I was DONE, and so we were. Our days are filled with those normal/exhausting
moments, but with hopes of miracles, and a prayer that we might touch lives
along the way.
In the meantime we continue to love and think of you all the time,
Ed and Jolene, mom
and dad, grandma and grandpa, AKA Elder and Sister Smith
