February 5, 2012
Today I heard an awesome thunder storm. Once the lightning seemed to be just overhead and the thunder immediately behind it. It was so loud I jumped. When the rain came a few minutes later it was hail followed by huge raindrops. I could see the rain bouncing 4 to 5 inches off the stair landings outside. Summer here is the rainy season. I was told it doesn’t rain from the middle of April til the middle of October. Wednesday morning as we rose at 5 am to go walking, we didn’t get any further than our front gate. The gate is only two feet in front of our door. After we closed the front door and needed to unlock the gate we realized that we had left the keys inside and that now we were trapped in that small compartment in front of our door. No one goes by our door much as we are in the middle of the building and the elevators and stairs are at each end and especially not at 5 in the morning. There we were with no phone or anyway to contact anyone of our predicament. A neighbor lady happened out in about a half hour in her bathrobe. We asked her to summon the security guard downstairs to let him know we needed a key to get in. She came back with his instructions that we would need to go down ourselves to make the request. That wasn’t going to happen. He finally did come up and summoned a caretaker in the building who knew where the Howells and some other missionary couples lived in the building. The Howells were leaving that morning to go to Zambia at 8, but he came to see what he could do. About 6:30 we had a little crowd commiserating with us, but not able to help. Then Tom remembered how we got into a locked room in the temple one time when no one had a key. We tried a putty knife (too inflexible), a credit card (too short) and several keys that people gave us to try. Elder Nielsen then cut up a plastic folder so that we had a strip about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. Tom worked it into the slot, pushed back the latch and we were in!! After two hours in confinement we were happy to be free. We are repentant and check to make sure we have our keys before going out the door. We should make a list of things to remember before leaving (name tags, door keys, car keys, lunch, etc.) and post it on the inside of the front door. We saw such a list in the flat of a couple who invited us to dinner today.
The only outing we took this week was a walk at Zoo Lake with the Nielsens Saturday morning. We did better coming home from church, only missed one turn, but the GPS soon got us back on the freeway leading home. Today was fast and testimony meeting. We heard some great testimonies from youth and older people. I was surprised to find out in Relief Society that all except 4 or 5 were members of the church less than 10 years and about half less than 5 years. The church is growing so fast here. I taught the Sunday School lesson today. I want to learn the people’s names, but I have a hard time pronouncing them. The lesson was on Chapters 1 and 2 of 2nd Nephi. I realized that one cannot do good unless there is the choice to do bad and one chooses to do good. 
February 19, 2012
Trip to Durban. We saw much country side – lots of corn, cows, and hills that just popped up out of the ground. We experienced good highway, tolls, trucks, and construction. A top speed of 120 kmh (75 mph) is allowed. Our GPS is in the shop so we used maps to find the way. We missed the final turn getting on the freeway, N3, out of Johannesburg. With luck (Lord’s blessing) we managed to find another entrance, but it took some time. The trip one way took about six hours. I spent the time reading Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Childs to Tom as he drove. I would rather not drive as I have not learned to do it on the left side yet. Sometime when we go to Durban I would like to see the Indian Ocean. We didn’t quite get there this time.
We had a meeting with Sean Kennedy, a newly called assistant area auditor, who is young , vibrant, and capable. He brought appreciated drinks and cookies. The Internet was not accessible as we needed a password. Learned it is possible to get 3-G card to have anywhere access. The training took 2 hours. We were happy he was able to access CDOL (church directory of leaders) and LUFAS (church program for auditors) on his laptop as he had one of those cards. The Hillcrest Stake Center is a beautiful building. It was a misty day. Sean taught us some new vocabulary – freeway exits and entrances are called fly-ons and fly-offs. We stayed overnight in Pietermaritzburg in the Stay-Easy hotel. Dinner was in the nearby shopping mall food court – Nandos. The chicken was quite spicy. We had a small, but comfortable room. Breakfast was included.
Temple Attendance. Intended to go on Thursday evening, but storm was so heavy that big limbs broke off the trees blocking the streets around the flat. So we decided to go on Saturday. Friday we started working as ordinance workers. Prayer meeting started at 2:10 and the last session was over at 9:00 pm. I was actually released about 8, but I had to wait for Tom who was assigned the last veil. I enjoyed doing the ordinances again. First thing I was assigned to the initiatory for an own endowment without even being reviewed. It had been a couple of months since I had done any initiatory ordinances; the Lord blessed me to remember. And also the cards were posted in each booth. There were two booths; the flow in one was clockwise as in Spokane and in the other it was counter-clockwise. I was in the counter-clockwise one and it took a little getting used to. There was no assignment sheet with regular hourly assignments; the shift coordinator just reassigned us as the need arose. I had the opportunity of not only doing initiatory, but also doing name issue and presenting at the veil. The sisters all seemed very nice and friendly. I especially like Sister Giles and Sister Bird. The Birds and Smiths are neighbours of ours in Duke’s Court. Most of the temple workers are missionaries. Some are what is called “black-badge” missionaries meaning that they receive their call from the prophet and are assigned for 18 to 23 months. Others are called by the temple president for varying terms, usually one year. These are South Africans who leave their homes, live in Duke’s Court where we do, and work in the temple every day. We ended up going to the Saturday noon session. It was very small (6 patrons) and we were the witness couple.
Tembisa Ward. A couple of weeks ago I started bringing pages from the church keyboard lessons to give to Elder Mamba, a young, full-time missionary. I was helping him at the keyboard before church and decided just to stay and accompany the hymns as the only other option they were using was to use the programmed hymns. No one objected, so I did it again this week. I even accompanied the choir this week. They have a small choir which sang during the meeting and also as the congregation was leaving the chapel. The sisters could use some training in conducting as they start every hymn with the downbeat whether they should or not. I taught the gospel doctrine lesson this week on Chapter Nine of Second Nephi. It is Jacob’s discourse on the atonement. We have so much to be grateful for to the Savior. I felt there was a little more class participation this week. I pray that I will be able to understand what they say better and especially learn their names and pronounce them easily. This week we took two temple sisters, Mabel Dicken from Durban and Val Kuennig from Cape Town, to church with us. The temple missionaries are not given cars, so they are assigned to wards where they can go with us who have transportation.
Last week I spent quite a bit of time doing a 1500 piece puzzle. It was a picture of the Great Five (elephant, water buffalo, leopard, rhino and lion). It took me about five days to finish it, and I didn’t stay up late at night working on it either. I know I shouldn’t start on puzzles because I can’t leave them alone. This one was one that was in the small library at the Area Office.
