Beautiful Blantyre

We arrived in Blantyre on October 4th and were welcomed by the most beautiful sunset.

 This is a picture of the only church-owned building in Malawi.  It  was a convenient 5 minute walk from the first home we lived in.  The Kufa Road house was an older, character-filled home with a large beautiful yard.  It was situated in a well established, lovely neighborhood with wonderful areas to walk affording views of the city.   Can you see the papaya hanging from the tree?  

Blantyre is surrounded by three  'mountains'.  The vegetation is  similar to what you would see in Hawaii or San Diego. Because we are heading into summer (the hot, wet season), the trees have been in full bloom, especially the stunning purple Jacaranda trees.  It's a beautiful place to live!

General Conference

The first week we were here was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.    Because of the time difference, the normal pattern here in Africa is for the members to watch conference a week later.   Knowing of our desire to watch the opening session, the District President was so kind to make arrangements to set up the satellite receiver so that we could watch the first session live (all by ourselves).   It was thrilling to hear President Nelson announce the "integrated curriculum to strengthen families and individuals through a home-centered and Church-supported plan to learn doctrine, strengthen faith, and foster greater personal worship."  

The next week --as is the custom-- each of the meeting houses re-broadcast General Conference.   We went to watch a session in Zingwangwa, one of the branches of the church here in Blantyre.   As we pulled up we saw the Elders with the hood of their truck raised.   When we asked what was wrong we were informed that there was no electricity (a regular occurrence here) so they were taking the battery out of their truck, hooking it up to the generator to "kick start" it so we could watch conference.

As we entered the building we found all the little children seated right up front gazing up at the screen.   You can see that it is being "signed" for several branch deaf branch members.   It was sweet to hear all these beautiful Saints singing "We thank Thee oh God for a Prophet." Oh how we are growing to love the people here.   

". . . He inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; . . . and all are alike unto God. . . ."                      2 Nephi 26:33