What is black and white and not read all over?

I love studying the New Testament.  In Matthew 7:21-23, Luke 6:46, 13:25-30 and 3 Nephi 14:21-23 we are taught to do the will of the Father.  However, I believe we need to be careful with all the noise going on in the world today that we don't just go through the motions of living a good life without properly learning to know the Father.

President John Taylor declared: "We are told that 'Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?'  Yet to all such he will say; 'Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.'  You say that means the outsiders?  No, it does not.  Do they do many wonderful works in the name of Jesus?  No; if they do anything it is done in the name of themselves or of the devil.  Sometimes they will do things in the name of God; but it is simply an act of blasphemy.  This means you, Latter-day Saints, who heal the sick, cast out devils and do many wonderful things in the name of Jesus.  And yet how many we see among this people of this class, that become careless, and treat lightly the ordinances of God's house and the Priesthood of the Son of God; yet they think they are going by and by, to slide into the kingdom of God; but I tell you unless they are righteous and keep their covenants they will never go there.  Hear it, ye Latter-day Saints!" (taken from verse by verse: The New Testament.  Ogden and Skinner)

I often wonder what I am doing to really get to know the Savior.  I think being willing to leave parents, children, grandchildren and the comforts of home is one step but could just be going through the motions if that is all I do.  We all have to make the sacrifice and pay the necessary price to know the Savior no matter what stage of life we are in.  This is why I think scripture study and prayer are so important for all of us to learn and then act upon the promptings we receive.  Slow down, He will guide us to where we need to be if we will let Him.

Here we live in the Pearl of Africa and haven't gone on a safari since December.  Man, what were we thinking to wait so long.  This worked out well because Elder and Sister Wallace are heading home in another week and we wanted to go on one last trip with them.  The Wallaces are the office couple and fortunately are training the Taylors to take over for them until the next office couple arrive at the end of April. We found this week worked well because the Taylors could work the office and we didn't have any obligations that could not be moved.  This park is only 3 1/2 hours away from Kampala so it was an easy journey.  Elder Wallace found us a nice resort to stay at.  We later found we paid $300 for a tent to sleep in.  What is up with that?

This is the smallest National Park in Uganda but the only park that has zebras and eland antelope here in Uganda.

If you look close wherever you are you can always find something to play with.  Hello, I am talking to you through this zebra skull.

 

Look at the size of those molars!

 

We arrived and found each campsite was located in a secluded spot.  None were close together and you had to hike to get there.  This is rough!

We finally arrived at our campsite.  Each one hidden in the trees with a view over the salt lick and watering hole to watch the animals.

 

As you can see, life in Africa is not easy. 

Our tent from the outside.

Our deck that is part of the campsite.

Pondering, pondering.

I did not let Sister Squire know this little guy was outside our door until the next day.

This is the bathroom.  Very nice and the shower and toilet are open to the outside (just a screen on the windows).  That is the reason you need a secluded spot I imagine.

The main part of the lodge where we ate some of the best meals we have enjoyed while here in Africa.

After getting settled in we went on our first self-guided safari.  Um, this is awkward but you have some food stuck in your teeth.

Zebras!  The first we have seen in the wild here in Uganda.  They burn the grass in January and July, during the dry season, so the new grass will come up better.  It looks a bit weird.

These two were scuffling a bit as we drove by.  I settled them down, always the peacemaker...

Caught this little guy playing in the mud holes.  This is the dry season but we had rain the day before we arrived and we found lots of wart hogs in the small pools of water.

I liked this one.

Impala

After our first drive we rented the open air jeep and a guide to go with a spotlight to look for leopards. It became a long night as we left at 6pm and didn't get back to the lodge until 9pm.  No leopards, daddy shot them all last night.

They had a hidden blind by the salt lick where you hike down and watch the wildlife.

Our guide with the spotlight.  I think they know what the eyes look like.  It was cool when you would come on a heard of deer like creature to see all those yellow eyes looking back at you.

This one looked like me with all the wrinkles.

This was on a rock just outside our lodge as we were coming back in.

I wanted to drive and was ready but they decided not to let me do it. 

Eland, only found in Uganda here in this park.  This picture was taken down by the water hole.

Even their tail gets into the act with the striping thing.

The female impala.

Use sunscreen and you will not get that nasty burn!

Uganda has the largest of variety of birds not found in any other place.  More than half of the total species located in Africa are in Uganda.  This one was really pretty.

Can you ever have too many cute monkey pictures.

After all the safari trips we decided to take a quick boat trip out on Lake Mburo.  Two cute girls came with us.

The fish eagle sure looks like the golden eagle.

We found a baby alligator out sunning himself.

A bigger alligator enjoying the sun.  The birds didn't seem to mind walking right in front of him.

You don't ever pass up a chance to shop I have found.

Here we are enjoying our new purchase.

Seriously, she really likes her new hat!

On the way back we let the guide know we really wanted to see a python.  He got all secretive and said he would take us to see one that had just killed a water buck and was in the process of putting it down the hatch.

You can see the water buck but the pythons head is underwater.  The python would roll around and we were told it would take a week to get it down the hatch.

So less than a hour after seeing the python and heading back out of the park what do we see...

I will go to my death sorry that I didn't grab this guy by the tail and see what would happen (Sister Squire says it isn't just the young missionaries that do dumb stuff).

Here in Africa, when you get the wish bone, it is much larger that what many of your are used to.

No more safaris until next month...