Week 56

 There were 347 baptisms in the mission in the month of March.  These are pictures from one of the weeks.  Debbie L (another single sister), Diana and I were approached by two different people at the market who saw our badges and wanted to know where the church was.  Our missionaries have more media referrals than they can keep up with. What is amazing about these baptisms is that the people are following through with the covenants that they made and are continuing to attend Church.  President Davis got a call from the Missionary Department in Salt Lake.  They wanted to know what we are doing to keep the Sacrament Meeting attendance so high among the newly baptized members.  I believe a big part of it is that these people in Zimbabwe are hungering for the messages of peace and love that the missionaries bring.  They love to come to church!  I am thankful to be able to support our 180 young Elders and Sisters in this work that keeps them busy all day, everyday 6 days a week.  They love Pday when they can slow down a bit.  Almost all of them now have washing machines so they don't have to spend so much time washing their clothes by hand.  I could not have requested a better place to  come.


As usual, my job as Mission Secretary keeps me busy from 8-4 everyday.  When I finish one thing, there's always 2, 3 or more things to do next.  Here are some things I did this week.  


Here's what some of their badges look like.  I sent out a message with this picture on the Mission WhatsApp and told them if the name of the Church was not readable on their badges, like these, that  they needed to send me a picture of them so I could get them some more. I have a large supply of badges with the Church name and I found a local engraver who I take them to who puts their names on them.  I have 11 requests so far. 

                               

Their visas expire one year after they arrive.  President Moyo keeps up with this and takes them to get them renewed as they are about to expire.  It's a big job keeping up with about 200 passports and visas.  He brings them back to me, I copy the visa, laminate it and put it in the missionary's zone basket to be picked up by the Zone Leaders.  We keep their original passports in the vault for safe keeping and they carry copies.  This is what I had this week.


I keep an eye on scriptures and pamphlets in English and Shona and order when they start to run low.  There was a communication problem because I got 60 cases this week that I feel sure I did not order.  And I was told more are coming.  On my!  Where to put them??  I spent half of one day getting them all organized in the storage room.

Keeping up with landlords, leases, payments and more pertaining to their flats takes a lot of my time.  I spent 2 whole days working on that this week.  This is what my desk looks like on those days.


Garments cost about $.25 per top/bottom here.  They want to stock up while they are here so they order from the Church Online Store and they get shipped to the office.  I put their names on the boxes and stack them up by zone to be picked up.  Then I get frequent messages, "Sister Stephens, has my package arrived"?.  

Friday night dinners at different restaurants is a relaxing way to end the week.  We went with a senior couple to this beautiful place this week.  I had curry chicken with coconut rice.  Delicious!

This is my beautiful roommate, Diana.  She is the Financial Secretary and stays busier than me.  We have become close friends and have such fun together.  We both love to laugh.  She leaves May 2nd.  I will miss her.  I will still love being here, it just won't be quite as fun. We already have plans for me to come see her in South Jordon, Utah and her to come see me.  She wants to see Savannah and Charleston.  I told her we would also stop at Buc-ee's when we travel there.  They don't have those in Utah.  We had a good laugh as I told her about them.  She wants us to go to Thailand together.  I told her I'd have to think on that one.


This is what I look at every day.  It is on my desk.  People often ask about my family and I love telling them about them and showing these pictures.  I envision getting off the plane in Atlanta every day and hugging all of my people.  I love them all so much!



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