Goodbyes - Baptism - Primary

Saying goodbye to one of our lovely senior couples.

We invited the Senior couples all over to our apartment for a potluck since Elder and Sister Stanford announced that they had to go home for personal family reasons. They were sad to leave and we were sad to see them go back to New Zealand. They have arranged to continue their mission from home in a different service. 

We had a great time with everyone.

Showed a clip of the New Zealand Rugby team for our mission president who is a huge fan.

Poi-balls dance, substituted with towels.

Elder and Sister Tohiariki sang to us in their New Zealand Maori language.  

And then I was surprised by everyone singing happy birthday to me, even though it was one day early. Sister Cowley made my favorite cake-German Chocolate!

Enjoyed watching our Grandchild baptizing his younger brother back in America by video call. His other two older brothers were witnesses standing as officials to be sure he was fully immersed. We love all of our family and Grandchildren. We are very thankful for the blessings of technology that allow us to stay connected with our family, especially for these special events. 

Even though the quality of the video and audio was lacking, it was great to be there with everyone for this wonderful event. With baptism we take upon ourselves the name of Christ and agree to follow Him.

New faces in Primary - And this girl speaks Amharic and good English. 

She was just visiting as the Sister missionaries have been teaching her more about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Half of the children were visitors and they mostly had a good time. This little girl who speaks English stood up in the middle of class and said it was boring and walked out. Sister Martin went with her to give her a coloring page to color and walked with her to her mother. As she talked to her, the little girl changed her mind and came back in the Primary room. 

I took a risk in taking this video walking down the street. So many of our missionaries have had phones stolen on the street they advise us to never take them out on the street. But I wanted to let you see a little of what we see on the street in front of our apartment.

We had just bought some loose brown eggs on the street so Sister Martin is holding a plastic bag with eggs. Then we walked by a wheel-barrow full of bananas where we buy them once a week. Then you'll see many people selling their small piles of vegetables and fruits on the sidewalk. Women often carry their children on their backs as you see this woman do. The big line of people are all waiting for a taxi that they crowd into.