So, in the words of the all famous and much missed Elder Steel, so good and bad news we have my team and a team in the congo that are trying this project so the team in the congo decided that it cant be dont its to hard! so just my team is the only one working on it so now were starting to draw attentino so on jan 23 they are coming down to look at my progress and see if it can be done so, thats kinda cool but kinda scarey at the same time so now the weight of all the churchs in africa is resting very squarly and heavly on 4 elders shoulders and one married elder! but it feels good! i think I work better on the hot spot! but because we are on the watch now they can get us stuff that we need so this week they bought me a welder! with an auto darking helment! so that was like a tender mercy I get to weld again! well thats the work on the house!

The pictures are of his most recent trip to zone conference. 4 hours by vehicle (in the open box of a pickup on dirt roads and a long boat trip up the zambizi river) The adventures never stop! The Monkey is named Sharira but sounds like Shakira she is a pet monkey. He said everyone has a pet monkey. He thinks she was killed though he said she pulled off an abu and stole some fruit and they killed her! sad day. He still has an infection that causes severe itching and makes life generally miserable his shower has very little water pressure and the house has no doors, or windows. But even through all that he says he ;oves it here and would not want to be anywhere else! Go Elder Steel

Christmas is Coming....but not in Africa

First off i wouldn't want to go to any other mission!! This one is the best one hands down, I mean yeah it has its down falls but for the most part I love it. Every single time I get a new sickness or something bad happens to me you can pretty much count on the fact that i'm on the ground laughing cause i'm so happy i just keep thinking you can lay as many sicknesses on me cause i'm not breaking my spirits and it's only going to make a great story when i get home! So i'm not crushed about it I love it, I mean it stinks that i have to eat rice everyday but you win some you lose some! The work... well it pretty much stopped because we are just working on the house but when we went up to zone conference this weekend in Quilimoni, President said that he wants us to be more balanced, so just 4 hours of study, 4 hours of teaching, and 4 hours of house work, so hopefully this week our teaching will pick up cause i feel kinda left out of that group right now! I didn't get a new comp, that is why i was sent here though. Cause the kid before me got sick, not my comp, so last transfer the kid got sick and went home so then Presidnet moved me in, in his place. My staff, it is on and off some days it's not bad and other days i cant stop itching it! And it looks bad but for the most part I think it's pretty calm right now. I'm really not getting any sleep, and not very good nutrition, but oh well i'm still getting enough, and that is 8 times more than any other person in Africa.

The house is slowly coming this week or maybe next week we should have the floor laid with concrete, so moving along on that part!

So i was shopping for light bulbs for my house this week which i couldn't find, but i found a christmas tree so i now have a fake 2 foot christmas tree with lights! i got to do something to keep me sane, or what little sanity i have left!

(This is wear they drive to get the sand)

I get up at 4 in the morning, jump in the back of a pickup drive about an hour out into the most jungle part of Africa, dig 4 tons of sand out of the ground then place it in the truck, then drive back to the church and drop the sand off then drive back and repeat.

(After their 4-hour drive in the back of a pickup)

Thursday we traveled to zone conference, so to get there we got on a boat to a town called Luabel, which by boat on the zambie(which i drove by the way) is about 2 hours. Then from there we waited for a car, we waited for 4 hours then one car finally left our town but the car drove back in the same way we came in, so we past Marromeu! So we drove for like....4 hours on dirt roads inn the back of a pickup but getting rocked like a rag doll! Then finally we got to a paved road so we then drove the rest of the way to Quilimoni where we had conference.

(Dreaming what skiing would be like in Africa)

Well that was my week in a nut shell, hope everything else goes well at home only one more week till transfers here, next week we find out! com Amor, Elder Steel

October means summer?

photo update from elder, (110 degrees, snakes everywhere, rats the size of cats, no power therefore no a/c, could someone send me a translator that does conjugation)...Steel He still loves it and loves what he is doing, and we love him. Nice golf course?, mamba jamba snake charmers, looks like spinach dip??? but not sure

Water system, turn on the water grab two buckets run to the well fill till full return to house pour water into cups and yahoo you have water

Balanca Kids

Balanca pets

Some of the latest updates from Lane for all of us to enjoy!

So one day I was sitting eating lunch with my comp talking trash on Jake and how I could beat him in raquet ball you know just the kinda stuff you say when he is half way around the world! when all of the suddon a mamba just crawes in our window... not a fun time it just haunts the rest of the week for you thinking there could be more snakes in your house so then saturday comes around and my comp sees this giant giant rat so he is hitting it with a broom trying to kill it when I run to get a cantan to kill him when I get back to where he was the rat ran out and jumped on me. I threw my leg in the air and he jumped on the other leg so I was hopping like a little girl it was pretty scary and the rat got aways so thats my week in a nut shell finding people are rats and snakes!

yea so the week was good I got your package thanks!! the litte kids here love the dolls I gave them out to the missionarys in my house to give out so I didnt get to see all of them placed but the ones I gave away the little kids loved! I gave one to a little boy and he was so happy he fell to the ground started to kiss it then got up dancing screaming in english I love you I love I love you it was pretty funny!

As for mozambique I think I know exacly why im hear, I wanted my mission to change me from this lazy wont apply himself lane to someone who works hard and is smart because i thought I was going to be forced to study 3 hours a day and I thought I was going to have these crazy rules that wont let me do this and that and come to find out we dont really have much rules so every change I have wanted in my life I have had to make it myself. I have to force myself to study and read and do the things I thought I was going to be forced by others to do so it has really helped me help me! Another reason might be I am being trained to build from nothing some of the strongest people to truely convert the members here.

just a little africa baby there all so fat its either super fat or super skinny there is not much inbetween haha! there a funny people