Welcomes and Good-byes - Carole's Post

First of all, we are celebrating tonight because the water has come back on after four days! Fortunately, we now have an outside tank so we don't actually have dry taps, but the water comes out of the taps with little pressure.  That is our clue that the city water is turned off. So we use water sparingly, not knowing when it will come on again.  Tonight it was back to flushing toilets and taking showers!

In the last few weeks there have been missionaries leaving from Blantyre.

This is Agness Chirwa standing with her sisters outside of the Ndirande branch.  

George set her apart and she had so much support from family and friends in attendance.  Here she is with her family.  Her father died a few years ago.

Then we all piled in two cars and headed to the airport to see her off.  Agness is headed to the London South mission.  What an experience it will be for her!

Her institute teacher says she will be a phenomenal missionary.  I am just sorry we won't be here for her return in 18 months.

Ownen Masiya came down from Lilongwe on the bus so that George could set him apart.  What a sweet spirit he had!  Here we are, along with the zone leaders, Elders Muangi and Sagers, and the Reynolds.

After the setting apart, he went off with the zone leaders to get a taste of missionary work and to spend the night with them at their flat.  After all, he is an ordained missionary now.

The next morning, they loaded his suitcase into their car and headed off to the airport.

Ownen is going to the  Johannesburg mission.

The biggest and most difficult good-bye for us was sending Elder and Sister Reynolds off after 23 months of mission service.  

George and I had been dreading this day ever since we arrived.  George and Elder Reynolds have spent hours and hours together over the last six weeks, as Elder Reynolds has been training him in all the office duties.  We know he is irreplaceable as he could fix just about anything and we have been warning the missionaries that it's not going to be so easy anymore!

How did they do it?  They came with four large suitcases and left with just three!









Sister Reynolds was the mission nurse so I hope I now don't get those late night calls from missionaries with the expectation that I will know what to do for their ailments!

Elder Reynolds won't be wearing that name tag much longer.  Before they arrive back home to Everett, WA (we're neighbors), they will make stops in Australia and Hawaii.

The next time we see them, they will be Ken and Ann.  I think they will be hearing from us quite often since we have so many questions about the office.  
Bon voyage!

A few weeks later, we sent off Elder Muangi -  another painful good-bye.  Elder Muangi, from Kenya, has been our zone leader for as long as we have been here.  

Here he is with Elder Barnard, who left a month ago and he is with Elder Sagers in an earlier photo in this blog.  He has been transferred to Lusaka where he will specifically work with obtaining visas for missionaries - not an easy job.  We will miss his easy way, quick smile, hard-working example, and spiritual depth.

Welcomes and good-byes - it's all part of missionary work.