We see some lions.

March 25, 2012

This has been a fun week except for a cold.  At last I have recovered from a hoarse throat and runny nose that has been bothering me this week.  It is the first cold I have had in several years, and I remember now how miserable they are.  Tom was so sweet to make dinner for me one night when I wasn’t feeling very well.

Wednesday was a holiday – Human Rights Day.  We celebrated by going to the Lion Park here in Johannesburg and then to the Apartheid Museum.  The Lion Park had a gift shop that had some African things such as aprons, candle holders, and ostrich eggs.  We didn’t buy anything because we figured we have time to shop around some to get what we want most and at the best price.  First we walked into a penned in area and saw baby lion cubs (some were white), giraffes, zebras, hyenas and ostriches.  I didn’t know that male ostriches have black feathers and the females have brown feathers.  Then we drove in our car through some other fenced in areas and saw zebras and gazelle, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs and birds of various varieties.  It was a warm morning and the animals, particularly the lions were all taking naps in the shade of some tree.  There were several white lions.  These are not albinos, but a recessive genetic trait like red hair in humans.  They are rare because they do not fare well in the wild as they have no camouflage.  We saw one mother lion with four cubs who were nursing.

The Apartheid Museum was interesting as it gave the history of the apartheid movement here in South Africa and especially of the role and life of Nelson Mandela.  The discovery of gold and diamonds brought many cultures and nationalities to South Africa and caused the Boer people to defend their political hold by a strict policy of segregation.  I admire Mr. Mandela for his efforts to avoid strife and to bring about a democracy peacefully.  South Africa seems to be the most stable government on this continent and also the most civilized.  I wouldn’t blame the people of color here to be angry and upset with whites, but all seem to be working in peace.  I think the blacks still have a long ways to go though to catch up economically.  I saw one small community that seemed to be nothing more than tin shanties built very close together.  I am very thankful for the comfortable circumstances I was born into.

We met the Jeffries this week who are serving as member support missionaries in Mutare, Zimbabwe.  They came with about 17 other members to the temple so that these Zimbabwe saints could receive their endowments and perform work for their ancestors.  They were busy in the temple for two days.  When they come they stay in patron housing which is part of the office complex here.  Anyway the trip involved an 18 hour bus trip.  The worst part per the Jeffries was that the bus driver insisted on playing music so loud the whole time that it was impossible to carry on a conversation.  The Howells bought them ear plugs for the trip home.  I am so blessed to have lived relatively close to a temple my whole life.  I was surprised to learn that in the Congo there are bishops and stake presidents who have not been endowed as they cannot afford the trip to South Africa and obtaining passports and visas is very difficult and expensive.  The newly announced temple in Kinshasa will be a great blessing.  But I believe it will be a miracle in the completion of it.  The church does have a temple patron fund to help such members who live so far away from a temple to come for the first time.

March 20, 2012

The weather is turning cooler and we wear sweaters when we walk in the mornings.  This morning was very clear and we saw a sliver of a moon in the eastern sky. 

Sunday was the Centurion Stake Conference.  Saturday conference was held in the Centurion Stake Centre, a beautiful new building.  The talks were very good.  I enjoyed listening to Sister Armstrong, the temple matron.  There were six speakers, three black and three white.  Sunday morning’s session was held in a big conference centre in Kempton Park.  It also was fairly new and very commodious.  There were water bottles placed under each chair.  Perhaps it was to keep down the number leaving to get a drink; it wasn’t that hot a day.  The talks again were very good.  A young girl, who is leaving on a mission soon, gave a talk on virtue.  Pres. Armstrong, temple president, and President Omer, mission president, both spoke as well as President Chatora.  President Chatora is only one of two stake presidents in this coordinating council (7 stakes and 1 district) who are black. 

The senior missionaries were treated to a St. Patrick’s Day brunch on Saturday at the Savage’s flat.  The Blakes, a senior missionary couple from Park City, Utah who are serving in Benoni Stake were invited to show Sister Blake’s paintings and art work.  She spends her evenings painting (mostly water colors) using photos she has taken of animals and people here in Africa.  She takes artistic liberty with the photos and produces some very good art.  She gave us all a print of one of her water colors.   She also does scrimshaw which is engraving done on ivory or bone and then pigmented, much the same way that tattoos are done.  These are in black and white and also color.  They are not serving along with other senior couples such as we, nor do they have television, so they have a lot of time in the evenings and not much social life.  We enjoy the social life as it is more than we had in Spokane, but I also enjoy the quiet evenings at home working on family history.  The photo is some of her scrimshaw.

 March 11, 2012

Sunday and another thunderstorm.  Not as bad as last week however. 

It has been another good week.  On Tuesday was the Area Audit Committee meeting.  I greatly admire President Cook.  He can move a meeting along. There seem to be more defalcations reported.  We were assigned to report on the Ennerdale Branch so that it could be shared with the stake and branch presidents.  It was a more of a compliance audit.  We ended up quoting the church handbook for relevant points and then stating what conditions we had observed.  Also this week we found out that another audit couple, one who lives locally, is coming to join us as Area Auditors the 10^th  of April.  We were quite surprised and do not know where they will be located as there are no additional desks in our office.  Also we are quite sure that there isn’t that much work to do.  We will see. 

Saturday we headed to Rosebank Mall and shopped at the African Craft booths.  There were many carvings, jewelry, tablecloths, etc. fashioned by Africans.  All the shop owners were anxious to show us their wares and persuade us to buy something.  We bargained a little with them.  Tom kids me about bidding against him.  The owner offered one price, Tom came back with a 100R lower and I compromised between the two.  Sounded good to me.  

March 4, 2012

This was a busy week.  Tuesday I went with Elder and Sister Roberts to teach music at the Kempton Park Ward.  Wednesday evening we stayed late at the office to train Vincent Cockbain, one of our new assistants for the Gauteng Coordinating Council.  Thursday evening we had the delightful pleasure of eating dinner with President Carl and Sister Lynette Cook of the Area Presidency.  Friday afternoon and evening we worked at the temple and attended a session.  Saturday we took a walk by the golf course and came home on the other side of the freeway.  Today I taught the Sunday School lesson and we got stuck in traffic on the way home.  All four lanes were channeled into one so that workers could repaint the white lines delineating the lanes of traffic.  It took us nearly an hour more to get home. 

The Lewins and Howells were invited along with us to dinner with Elder and Sister Cook.  She served roast lamb and mashed white potatoes along with sweet potatoes and a green salad.  The dessert was the best I have tasted since here.  It was a chocolate cake topped with whip cream, nuts and chocolate sauce.  The Cooks were great hosts and he entertained us with stories of giving his first general conference talk last October and a time when he was a newly called Area Seventy and was assigned to the Garland Stake in northern Utah and Elder Packer asked if it would be “convenient” for him to accompany him.  His first general conference talk was titled “Looking Up” and he started it with telling about being in an elevator with President Monson and being told it is better to Look Up.  The talk made him very nervous, especially about the requirement to be just under nine minutes. He was able to practice it in the conference center using simulated monitors, but when the time came when he looked out on the audience it was total darkness.  His son-in-law congratulated him on only taking 8 minutes and 30 seconds.  Just before his talk while the choir was singing he went down and stood next to Elder Holland who gave him a fatherly hug.  I asked Lynette if she had timed him.  She said “No, I was praying for him the whole time.”

The stake conference with Elder Packer was still fresh on his mind even though it was nearly eleven years ago.  At the time Elder Packer asked to go with him the agenda for the meetings had already been worked out with the Stake President.  Elder Packer told him to reschedule and that they would just “go by the spirit.”  With only 10 minutes to go before the Priesthood Leadership Meeting Elder Cook did not know who was going to speak, but assumed he would be given some time.  Before the meeting started Elder Packer told Elder Cook to be quiet and to tell the organist to play more reverently.  Elder Packer spoke for the first 15 minutes and then invited Elder Cook to speak next for another 15 minutes continuing the theme of “going by the spirit.”  Elder Cook said he was relieved when it was done, thinking he could relax until the next meeting.  But after Elder Packer finished his next 15 minutes, he again invited Elder Cook to speak for another 15 minutes.  Elder Cook wasn’t sure what he was going to say but managed.  Then it happened again.  Elder Cook was asked to speak for another 15 minutes.  The only speakers were Elder Packer and Elder Cook.  Elder Packer was giving him a teaching lesson in following the spirit.  He was then asked to speak again in the adult session, twice, and again in the Sunday morning session.  As Elder Packer was leaving he motioned to Elder Cook and said, “I guess you   might want to know how you did.”  Elder Cook wasn’t sure whether he wanted to know or not.  But he said, “Sure”.  Elder Packer’s reply was “well, call me sometime.”  Elder Cook got enough courage to call him and was told he had done all right.  In discussing the story with other seventies he realized he was not the only one to be broken in by Elder Packer. Elder Samuelson told him that at a regional conference he was seated next to Elder Packer on the stand. Elder Packer asked to see his talk, which he read and complimented Elder Samuelson.  Then he proceeded to put the talk in his own briefcase rather than giving it back to Elder Samuelson.  When it came close to the time for Elder Samuelson to give his talk he got up the courage to ask Elder Packer if he might have his talk.  Elder Packer said, “Oh, you will do fine,” and did not give him his talk.

February 26, 2012

Another  warm, peaceful Sunday.  This one was special because President Cook and his wife accompanied us to church.  Elder Cook likes to visit different wards and branches much like we used to do when we were in the temple presidency.  It was a good sacrament meeting, Prince – the elder’s quorum president spoke as well as Elder and Sister Cook.  Tom gave a great Sunday School lesson on the Isaiah chapters in 2^nd Nephi.  I am getting to like Isaiah more all the time.  The second counselor in Relief Society gave the lesson today.  The remarkable thing is that she and her husband were just baptized three weeks ago.  After church there was another baptism for a mother and her daughter; a nephew of Thokozani, the clerk; and another adult sister.  The baptisms are held in the kitchen which has a font at one end.  It is too small and many need to stand.  There was a good spirit there.

We walked yesterday morning at Zoo Lake again.  I enjoyed seeing the birds and trees.  Most mornings we walk on the top of the mall across the street.  It was designed for parking cars, but it makes a good walking place especially early in the morning.  When we go at 5 now it is still dark.  By the time we come back around six it has lightened up, but it is still before sunrise. 

Bishop Burton of the Presiding Bishopric was supposed to have come this last week to South Africa.  But he decided to only go to Kinshasa in the DRC Congo instead.  While he was there he spoke to us in the Area Office via Skype.  The new Director of Temporal Affairs, Brother Benoit, was announced.  He will replace Leon Holmes who is going to be a new mission president in Ghana.  He also talked about the new temple to be built in Kinshasa and encouraged the saints there to prepare themselves spiritually for it. 

Monday evening was family home evening for the Area Office missionaries.  The Smiths who work at the temple and are from London spoke about their lives and conversion to the church.  Sister Smith had a terrible childhood, being in an orphanage, abused by her stepfather, and being very poor.  She bore strong testimony as to how the Lord helped her to let go of her anger and forgive her mother and step-father.  In vision she saw the torment of her now deceased mother in the spirit world as she saw the anguish and pain her children were enduring that she was mostly responsible for.  It was a touching evening.