There is so much to take in here!  Zambia reminds me a little of California because it is warm and kind of humid.  There are palm trees and flowering bushes and trees.  The people we have met have been very kind and friendly.  They are always willing to help us.  Sometimes just in passing someone at a store they look at our missionary name badge and smile or nod.  When we get aquainted a little bit with a salesperson, they want to know about our church.  At the hardware store, a young man helped us and then finally he said, "when are you going to invite me to come to your church?"  We are so green!!   We invited him to come tomorrow.  He said maybe he would.  He said, "I think you have a good church because you are so cheerful!"  We were just smiling because we are idiots in a strange place:)

We are very safe in our flat.  Bars on the door and windows.  We are also in a compound that is surrounded by a tall wall with electric barbed wire at the top. We have an electric gate that we operate with a remote.   It is well lit at night.  Hard to tell if it is morning sometimes.  But we feel very safe.

We have nice new furniture.  Our dining table and chairs was held up at the border so some other missionaries loaned us their outside furniture for awhile.  Sunshine is streaming in....most of the time.  It is the rainy season but we have a little rain and then it blows over and is sunny the rest of the day.

Our kitchen....Stove is in centigrade of course.  Luckily Bruce brought a page showing conversions.

Nice, comfortable bed.  Now we have mosquito netting too.  Interestingly enough we have no street address.  Like many places here.  We live on a dirt road in the Kalingalinga area.  Our road has no name and our housing complex has no number.   That is why we get our mail at the mission home.   It has been hard to get internet at our house because we just have to describe where it is. This is the way is is for many people, even in nice neighborhoods like ours.  Luckily we have Bruce to do the directing!

Here we are at  the mall just before Christmas.

We were invited to the missionaries Christmas Eve party.  Elder Louthan is opening his white elephant gift.  First elephant we've seen!

We are at the Mission Training Center.  It is a wonderful place to be, especially at Christmastime.  We have a beautiful, new room, in a new building.  The decorations are beautiful.  Everyone here seems happy, there is a wonderful spirit and lots of energy.  The energy comes mainly from the young 19 and 21 year old missionaries.  Especially at mealtimes....It is amazing to see over a thousand young men, some young women and some senior missionaries all eating all they want.  They have it very well organized and it doesn't even seem that noisy in the cafeteria.  The food is wonderful!  We have enjoyed meeting the other couples.  They have amazing stories, some serving their 4th missions!  They are going all over the world, serving in capacities from member training to facilities maintenance to area presidency executive secretaries.  We are the only public affairs missionaries in our group, but there is one other couple going to Africa as member support missionaries.