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We had a marvelous time at the Missionary Training Center, or MTC. The group we were with was lots of fun. We actually spent the whole 2 weeks with most of them, since one couple included a doctor, and one a nurse. We did our week of medical training together as well as the week at the MTC. Well, here we are in Zimbabwe! We will add a couple of pictures, but we haven't really gotten a chance to take many yet. We are sitting here in the dark with the computer running on batteries, and 2 candles burning. The power is out. This is not unusual here, but the first time since we got here on Wednesday that it has gone out on us. Our bigger problem is water. Some days the city water fills our tank, and some days it doesn't. We quickly learned to get up and run the hose from the bore hole(read well)and fill the water ourselves! Our apartment is very nice. We have 2 bedrooms, 1+3/4 baths, a large living room and a tiny kitchen! The bedroom has a queen bed and 4! reach in closets with drawers. We have lots of storage space there, but none in the baths. The kitchen has enough space for our few things. The mission stocked the kitchen with new small appliances and kitchen gadgets. It's quite nice. Elder Reynolds has ventured to drive to and from work for a couple of days now, and is getting a little more accustomed to driving on the right side. We ventured to the shop down the street and got a few groceries. It is a fruit and veg mart and has really nice produce. We took a trip into town with one of the locals driving and wandered through various shops. We really felt like we were in a foreign country. Sights, sounds, smells, and shops. Lots of people and cars. You wonder how they keep from being hit, since no one has the right of way. I don't think we will be driving there by ourselves. We have already seen giraffes in the grassland between the airport and the mission office. Exciting! We will go out of town a little farther tomorrow to go to church. We will go with the Smilanick's another missionary couple. We will be working with them doing office work, between my nursing and Elder Reynolds' checking out apartments and cars, or fleets and flats as they say!

We are coming down to the final countdown--we depart for Salt Lake City and on to Provo to the Missionary Training Center. We will visit family in SLC for a couple of weeks and finish shopping for the last of our clothing. Do you know how difficult it is to find short sleeve white shirts in Everett in the middle of winter? Ann has most of her stuff, but I still need a couple of suits. Lots of fun to finish this all up before 4/22/13. We will be in the MTC for only 5 days. The training has been foreshortened because of the tremendous increase in the number of missionaries with the new lower eligibility age. Then we move to the Marriott in SLC for a week of medical training before finally flying out to Harare Zimbabwe on 5/3/13. When we finally catch up with ourselves and our sleep (the flight takes over 30 hours) I will post a few pictures so you can visualize where we will be for the next 23 months. Needless to say, we are just a little nervous and scared, but my missionary sons all tell me, "Wait until you get off the airplane." Thanks, guys!

Zimbabwe Harare Mission

So now we begin a new chapter, not just our travels, but our mission blog. We will be serving for two years starting in April, and I will try to add a monthly update, since we expect to be very busy. And yes, I will be taking pictures of the wildlife and the children.

On the road again, but this time in our motor home. Ann wanted something with a bathroom and shower, so we traded in the pop-up camper and bought a 31' Jayco. We are now soaking up the rain in Ocean Shores on our first outing with this unit. She wanted to watch the storm come in, and boy did it come in, thunder, hail, pouring rain, gusty winds, and waves high enough that we couldn't see the ocean out beyond the breakers. I'd like to post some pictures, but this connection is realllly slooowwww. Ken

We left Nauvoo on Thursday and really covered ground.  We got all the way across Iowa and into Nebraska.  We did see a cougar in a wooded ravine right alongside the road, but were moving too fast to get a picture. 

We ran into a "severe thunderstorm" just west of Omaha, continuous lightning, nickle-sized hail, traffic on the freeway down to 20mph with flashers on for quite a ways.  I guess it had spawned a couple of tornadoes in Colorado, just south of us.  The wind was blowing 50-60mph across the freeway, sheets of rain.  We decided to spend the night in a motel in York, NE.  I'm not sure either of us wanted to be out in that stuff in a camper. 

We scooted out of town and drove the rest of the way across Nebraska, leaving the freeway at Ogallala and following the Mormon Trail up the North Platte to Torrington, WY, where the thunderstorms were threatening again, so are holed up in Grandma's Inn for the night. We had hoped to get west of the storms, but still have a way to go. Fortunately, both motels cost us less than we usually pay for a single night, and we got nice showers out of the deal.   

We will take some time to sort through pictures, and I'll post the ones that apply to this portion of the blog when we get back into coverage.  So far, so fun, so good! Casper and Landers tomorrow, I hope.

We have traveled quite a long way from Texas since the last post.  We haven't had good WIFI reception anywhere we have been until now. 
So, we went from Lee and Cindy's to Many, LA.  Stayed in an RV park called Southern Leisure-not recommending it to anyone.  The bathrooms and showers were scary.  The path into the park should have warned us.  Paved, but barely, and huge lumps and bumps.  At least it was only $10.  From there we went to Ashdown, AR.  The trip there was nice, the scenery was green and lovely.  The RV park was much nicer, still only $10, but with a decent shower!  We went on up to Branson, MO the next day and stayed there 2 nights.  Very nice private park with good restrooms and showers, right off the main road.  It was much quieter than I had expected.  The best part was that we got to see fireflies for the first time.  I was enchanted.  Unfortunately we couldn't get pictures of them.  We went to the Butterfly Palace, to the Titanic Museum, and to the Johnny Cash Songbook.  We enjoyed all of them very much.  Ken especially liked the Johnny Cash show.  The lead was good, but the guy who played the backup guitar, banjo, and the dombro was fantastic.  He is the champion bluegrass banjo player in the country.  He was with the group on the Andy Griffith Show who always were coming into town and giving Andy a hard time.  They could sing and play, though, and Andy would end up joining in.  We sat on the second row for the show, small theater, and Ken was right in front of him.  He was great.
From there we went up to Owensville, MO.  It was a nice park, but really warm.  Our campsite had absolutely no shade, and it was a ways to the bathroom/showers.
 Went from there up to Nauvoo.  We spent the next 5 nights there.  This was the closest to real camping that we have done.  The camp was a State Park, and only had electricity hookups, no water.  It also had bugs.  The last 2 nights we didn't turn on the lights in the trailer, just used a little flashlight that has a red light setting for light.  The bugs aren't attracted by the red light. 
We greatly enjoyed Nauvoo.  We went to church at the missionary Ward, and felt the great spirit there.  We did a temple session, went to the missionary show, Sunset on the Mississippi, and to the BYU Ballroom Dance Show.  Sunset on the Mississippi was so fun!  I laughed until I almost cryed at the antics.  The young people who do much of the show are a group of young people who try out each year.  Of course the BYU group is excellent.  They were in full costume and had backdrops and lighting.  This was all done on the outdoor stage.  We also saw all the historic sites in the restored area of Nauvoo.