Coming Home

June 2013

Baby Penquins



In London
 

 

London street scene

Here it is June.  We will be home before the month is out.  Our flat is looking bare as we have taken down all the décor, pictures, etc. and sent them home by slow boat. 

A couple of days this month we were occupied doing a project for the MSR department.  Actually it was for the Area Presidency and DTA.  The presidency is looking at the stakes and wards and having a goal of achieving “real growth”, have set a new policy for 1914.  The “ideal” stake would have no more than six to eight units and the “ideal” ward would have 250 to 300 members with average sacrament meeting attendance of 100 to 125.  The idea is to work toward such an ideal by dividing units larger than this so that the priesthood can more effectively shepherd their flocks.  One of the main problems of doing this is the housing (meeting places) for the units.  The goal is to have one owned building that would serve as a stake center for each stake and then lease or build smaller structures for other units. 

The MSR dept in SLC provided a huge database showing the total membership, sacrament meeting attendance, number of Melchezidek Priesthood holders, and MP holders who are full tithe payers for all 500+units here in the Africa Southeast Area for the last five years.  What was needed was a projection of what and where the growth would be and how many new buildings might be required.  So we took the database and came up with a list of 35 stakes that were “too large” by this new standard and also which wards and branches exceeded the goal.  The leadership also wanted a list of all units whose sacrament meeting attendance exceeded 125.  There were 219 such units, the largest attendance being 425.  Units here are averaging about 44% attendance at sacrament meeting.  The most growth right now is occurring in the DRC Congo where a new stake is being created about every two years.  We saw two new stakes created there just last year. 

 

The Murdocks who are serving in Public Affairs gave a fireside. They taught us some about using “social media” to help share the gospel.  We learned about all the possibilities that are available through the church websites, etc.  It was interesting enough to stimulate us to want to try it.

We went to Benoni to train the new stake presidency, President Glenn Holmes and his counselors and clerks.  We left in what we thought was plenty of time.  We decided to use only the freeways since it was after dark.  There was traffic on the M1 and we ended up being 10 minutes late.  The training went well.  They had several questions.  President Holmes expressed that he doesn’t want any defalcations on his watch.  I had explained that defalcations arose from not following church policies and procedures so they would want to make sure that all of their units are well-trained.  I took some cookies which they appreciated.

We also made it to Cape Town.  Rodney Siems picked us up and took us to the stake center in Bellville, a suburb close by.  President Paul Kruger, a counselor in the stake presidency and the audit committee chairman, presided at the meeting.  There was also in attendance Rodney’s father who is a member of the committee, and four stake auditors.  Rodney had prepared an excellent power point presentation on the sacred nature of their calling and the basics of performing online audits.  The Area will be doing online audits for the first time in August for the 2013 MY audits.  Everyone seemed interested and had questions.  We had prepared booklets with information for stake audit committees and auditors from the Resource Library and also the Getting Started Guides from the training and support section of LUFAS regarding online audits.

While in Cape Town we took a tour of the Cape Peninsula.  Isadore was our guide and there were four others who joined us.  One was a single girl from Australia who was here to do volunteer work with sharks.  She will be diving in cages to observe them.  Another was a young man from Peru who was here with his employment for a few months.  A couple from Italy who had only been married three days were the other two.  It was quite an international group.  At first two young girls from Germany were going with us, but they only signed up for the half day so transferred to another mini bus.  We first saw some very expensive real estate on the coastal side of Table Mountain.  American movie stars and rich foreigners owned most of these places along the beach.  Our first stop was in Hout Bay.  We purchased a few more African souvenirs. The weather was sunny and clear.  It had been raining before we arrived in Cape Town, but was very pleasant while we were there.  We went as far as the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point.  There is a lighthouse on a high elevation at Cape Point.  We walked up the hill and the steps as far as the Funicular House and then Tom walked up the remaining steps while I waited below.  We also had lunch here with our tour mates.  They all ordered spirits along with their meal, but we toasted with our water glasses.  On the way back we stopped at Simon’s Town and visited a penguin colony.  The penguins were smaller than I thought they would be.  There were some young ones with brown fur which had not molted yet.  These were as big as the parents.  Our last stop was at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.  It is world famous and has an amazing variety of indigenous plants.  We were only there for less than an hour, so did no more than get a glimpse of all the plant life.  It was a fun and informative day.

Our final week in the mission was one of “lasts” – last time to serve in the temple, last time to be in Tembisa Ward, etc.  We are excited about going home.  We leave here Thursday evening (20^th), fly to London, go from there to Seattle and then to Spokane.  We will be in Spokane Friday evening which will be Saturday morning here in South Africa.  So it is a long trip, but we will be happy to be home.  We have an eight-hour layover in London.  We are hoping to take a two hour bus tour of the city during that time. 

 

Sunday we attended church in Tembisa as usual, not expecting to have any responsibility other than to play the keyboard since we gave our “farewell” talks last Sunday.  But the bishopric invited us to bear our testimony which we were happy to do.  One touching thing happened to me at the end of Relief Society.  I have been leading the music for Relief Society, but for the closing hymn I was invited to remain in my seat while all the other sisters – about 30 – came to the front of the room and sang “God Be With You”.  I needed a tissue. 

Our farewell with the other senior missionary couples was really a lot of fun.  We prepared our scrapbook page and each couple gets one and we get one from them.  We have been providing one to the others who have had farewells. The one you prepare for your farewell is usually a little more elaborate than the ones you prepare for other couple’ s farewells.  On each one is the contact information for you at home; so people can stay in touch if they want to.  It is a nice idea since we have so many couples here and we get pretty close to many of them.

For the farewell Elder DaBell, who has a son in our stake in Spokane, was conducting the meeting.  He announced the opening hymn and prayer and said some nice things about us, which was very nice of him.  Before the hymn and the prayer they played a DVD of Kermit the Frog and Ray Charles singing about how good it was to be green.  It was fun.  After the opening prayer they turned the time over to Elder and Sister Eppel, the other Area Auditor couple, for a tribute to us.  They did a great job making us laugh and cry before they were through.  Elder Eppel has a song for every occasion and is happy to sing them.  For tonight he told about how we had shared some Tootsie Pops with them and how we only gave them the flavors we didn’t like.  The song he sang was about lolly pops and he adapted it to us.  It was pretty funny.  They had refreshments that were all green in color even the drink. They also had each couple write something on a green leaf for us.  It was a nice evening and we enjoyed it. We have made some good friends here and they will be missed.  The Eppels have particularly endeared themselves to us.  Since they have a daughter who lives near Vancouver, WA there may be opportunity for us to see each other again. 

 





Africa in May

Burmese Phython

Croc City

Dimakatso(bride), Tabong (groom) and Mpho

Wedding party dancing in street

More street dancing

Elder and Sister Green - wedding celebration

June 2, 2013

The 1^st of May is a holiday in South Africa, Freedom Day.  It celebrates the rights of workers similar to our Labor Day in the USA.  Together with a few other senior missionaries we went to a reptile farm where we saw crocodiles and snakes.  There was a snake show where a naturalist introduced several non-venomous and venomous snakes.  The black mamba is one of the most deadly snakes.  Snake bites can poison you either through the blood stream or the nervous system.  Then there are those that constrict its victims to death.  We saw and handled a bull python, and a Burmese python, and saw a spitting cobra, puff adder, and black and green mambas.  The yellow python around our necks in the photos was friendly, but heavy.  We learned that crocodiles lay hundreds of eggs but only 5-10 survive to adulthood.  Those that survive sometimes live to be 100 years old.  They have amazing healing properties – crocodiles have no scars and have a great immunity to diseases.  They are responsible for eating many people each year who get in their path.  They can swim and run faster than we can – so we will stay out of their way.

Tom and I were given the opportunity of teaching a condensed version of the Teacher Development Class in Sunday School.  I enjoy teaching, but I learned from the lessons in Teaching No Greater Call there are things I can improve upon.  For instance, here it is difficult to know the students very well when we do not live in their community nor or are we able to visit their homes.  So we do not know their backgrounds or family circumstances.  We do well to remember and pronounce their names correctly. 

One other sister this month from the Tembisa Ward received her own endowments. I was her escort and her son who just returned from a mission accompanied her.  She seemed to enjoy the experience and especially being in the celestial room.  We took them back to Tembisa and stayed for a bridal shower for Dimakatso.  In typical African style it was announced as starting at 1, but didn’t start until 2.  It was a surprise shower sponsored by her sisters and the Relief Society.  Instead of playing games those of us who were married gave her counsel.  Most of the advice was in Zulu, but what was in English I appreciated.  Hilda, the primary president, emphasized the importance of prayer and family home evening and staying out of debt.  Several advised against living with in-laws.  Apparently in African culture the wife does not correct or counsel the husband.  Some spoke of now we should be living the gospel culture and letting go of the traditions that do not agree.  Our Relief Society lesson on Sunday also followed this theme of husbands being more supportive at home.  It is not uncommon to see women carrying babies on their backs and at the same time balancing a water container or other load on their heads while the men walk along side without any burden.  We think mores are changing, especially in the church, and men are helping more in the home and are not quite so domineering.

Dimaktso Morapedi got married the following week.  We attended the sealing in the temple on Friday.  There were a few guests including her sisters, Mpho and Kedibone.  The ceremony was simple, dignified and beautiful.  The next day they had a ring ceremony in the morning in Tembisa, went to the temple for photos and then back to Tembisa for the reception.  The reception was supposed to start at noon.  Knowing African culture we arrived about one.  The bride and groom and wedding party did not arrive until 2:30.  They parked their cars about half a block away and then in what I would call a ‘congo line’ only in couples with the bride and groom leading the way, they danced down the street, turned and then back into the tent in front of the house.  The tent was decorated as nice as any cultural hall I have seen with pink filmy material and bows and white seat covers and white leather thrones for the bride and groom.  All the time the loud speakers were going with loud African music.  At times it was difficult to communicate because of the music.  There must have been at least 100 people there by the time the program started.  The program started with prayer and then had short tributes by several friends and family members.  Between talks someone would spontaneously start singing and all would join in.  We didn’t join in because most everything was said and sung in Zulu.  After the program everyone cued up for the food – a big meal.  We left about five and the party was still going strong.  I am glad we got to experience an African wedding.  What is puzzling is how the family who lives in very modest circumstances can afford such an affair.  African funerals are also very expensive as the family is expected to feed all those who come to console them for up to a week before the funeral.

We are running out of weeks.  We are now down to about three weeks left in our mission.  We are trying to stay busy and not let the thoughts of home cloud our minds. There is still some training that we need to do before we leave.  We will be going to the Benoni Stake Center (close to Johannesburg) to train the new stake presidency in that stake shortly.  We also have a trip planned to Cape Town to train a stake audit committee and the auditors.  It was just announced that Africa will be doing audits on line for the first time in August.  Lots of opportunity for training it seems.     

We had our quarterly zone conference this past week.  Elder and Sister Cook, he is 2^nd counselor in the Area Presidency, were the program.  He had been a mission president in New Zealand before his call to the 1^st Quorum of 70.  I always enjoy hearing from both of them.  They actually did what happens in many zone conferences.  They showed us how to do an “after baptism” lesson which would encourage new converts to go to the temple right away to do baptisms.  It was fun and reminded us a little of our mission in Japan where we did that kind of thing in zone conferences.  We all then attended a temple session and Tom and I were the officiator and follower.  After that we came back to Dukes Court and had a dinner of soup, bread, salad and of course dessert. 

 We get a spiritual lift from the Monday morning devotionals in the Area Office.  Recently Georges Bonnet, our DTA (Director of Temporal Affairs) spoke of his trip to Kinshasa in the Congo over the weekend.  Bishop Stevenson, the Presiding Bishop, met him there.  Brother Bonnet testified to the mantle that Bishop Stevenson has and that he is the man the Lord wants at this time.  Bishop Stevenson was very impressed with the building program going on in the Congo.  Men are trained to be carpenters, plumbers, electricians and then put to work building chapels, etc. for the Church.  The Church is growing so fast there, and this program is helping to solve the problem of housing the saints.  President Renlund, Area President, was also there and called a meeting for the youth on Saturday afternoon.  1,100 youth showed up ages 12 to 18.  The twelve-year olds were invited to come up and bear their testimony of the Book of Mormon.  There was a little hesitation at first, but then after the first one, several came up and bore strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon.  The closing hymn was “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.”  Brother Bonnet said that not since he was a young boy in France had he sang that hymn in French.  But there was such a spirit with everyone bearing their testimony through music that he remembered all the French lyrics.  He remarked that it was doubtful that such an attendance and performance could be repeated in Utah.

 We have sent a few boxes home.  We sent one parcel by airmail which has already arrived.  The others were heavier and went by slow boat.  It may be the end of the summer before we see them.  We didn’t think we were collecting very much, and we haven’t compared to some.  It will be nice to have some mementos of our time here in Africa.

A trip to Kruger Park and AAA Conference



A Leopard in our path!



We followed this elephant



Yellow-billed Hornbill
 

A kudu

One of many giraffes we saw

A hyena on side of road

After we got home from Blantyre on the 30^th of March we were able to celebrate Easter by going to church in Tembisa and having dinner with the senior couple missionaries. Monday morning we were off to Port Elizabeth to investigate a possible defalcation in the Uitenhage and Kwa Nobuhle 2^nd Wards.  We stayed in a bed and breakfast that was within walking distance of the Uitenhage chapel.  We interviewed all the bishopric and the member of the stake presidency whose tithing was missing.  No one confessed, but we discovered irregularities in how the clerk and bishopric counselor were processing the donations.  We pray that the heart of the guilty will be softened and that trust can once more be established in that ward.  The other ward was lacking in documentation and funds may have been missing there as well.  We trained the bishopric who were new as of last September and left it in the hands of the stake clerk to follow through.

Wednesday morning we had no appointments so we took advantage of our free time to visit the Addo Elephant Park which was not very far distant.  It was also our 54^th wedding anniversary so it was nice to be able to spend some quiet time together.  It rained most of our time in Uitenhage and this day was no exception.  We drove around some areas of the park and saw warthogs, a black-backed jackal, zebra and many beautiful birds.  We stopped and listened while a bokmakerlie sang.  There are supposed to be 500 elephants in the park, but none of them were visible to us that day.  Tom was very kind and patient that day as we slowly drove around and stopped to see anything that interested us.



We no soon got home from Port Elizabeth when we turned around to go to Kruger Park with the Eppels for a week.  The first Sunday we were in Crystal Springs in the Drakenburg Mountains of South Africa.  We traveled one and one-half hours to go to church in Nelspruit where a small branch meets.  We enjoyed the Fast and Testimony meeting and the other meetings.  The saints here have to travel long distances to meet together.  It was General Conference weekend but we were unable to listen to very much of conference.  The Eppels have a modem and 3-G card so they can access the internet, but listening to the Saturday morning session last evening was very choppy.  We only got one talk on Sunday.  We live in such a wonderous age – to think that we could be listening live to conference half way around the world and 8 hours’ time difference!  In Joberg we can use the internet to call via our Vonage phone our family at home and it sounds as if they were next door.

We really enjoyed our time with the Eppels in their time-share condo.  We took two whole days in Kruger searching for animals and birds.  I don’t think we saw as many animals as we saw in Madikwe.  Someone else told us that the sightings were scarce this last week at Kruger.  Neverthless we experienced a leopard which is quite rare.  Elder Eppel hoped to see a hyena and just before we left on Wednesday we saw a mother hyena and cub beside the road.  We saw giraffes, zebra, hippos, impala, kudu, elephants and a variety of birds. 

The Area Presidency gave us their impressions of General Conference in the devotional on Monday morning.  They spoke of some faith promoting incidents and Sister Renlund gave a thought gleaned from Elder Bednar regarding the necessity of coming to meetings, conferences, etc. with a question in mind in order to be taught by the Holy Ghost.  President Renlund said the new assignments for the quorum of seventies were given, but can’t be made public until May 1^st.  All President Renlund would tell us is that he and Elder Cook will not be packing their bags soon and that we will be getting a new member of the area presidency.  We were pleased to learn that Elder Dube, recently released as the Zimbabwe Mission president and called as an area seventy, is now a member of the First Quorum of Seventy.  Two other members of our Area were called as Area Seventies, Elder Giddy and Elder Van Reenan, both stake presidents from South Africa.

AAA Conference Attendees Apr 26, 2013

We have had a busy time this past month preparing for the Assistant Area Auditor conference.  Elder C. Scott Grow who is over the Auditing Department and Brother Michael Beck , a managing director of the department came from Salt Lake.  Ten assistants from Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa attended.   We started with a dinner on Thursday evening, all day training on Friday, a temple session Friday evening and ended with a joint meeting of the Area Seventies and Assistant Auditors on Saturday morning.  It was a lot of work putting on the conference – arranging for the flights, hotel accommodations, a conference room at the hotel, transportation from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the area office and temple, etc.  Tom did almost all of these arrangements and did a great job as it all went smoothly.  Well, except for Solomon Malidadi, our assistant from Berea, Mozambique.  His plane from Berea was over an hour late getting into Maputo, so he missed his connecting flight to Joberg and also his dental appointment we had made for him.  Thankfully it is only a short hop from Maputo to Joberg so he made it in time for the dinner we had Thursday night.  And the dentist was very gracious in seeing him on Saturday before he had to fly out even though it was a holiday. 

We usually hire Abram to take us back and forth to the airport and we had hired him to transport some of our assistants.  There was also an Area Council meeting for all the Area Seventies this weekend.  Actually we had a joint meeting with the Assistants Auditors and Seventies so that they could connect and build a relationship.  Abram picked up two of the Seventies coming from the Congo on Friday night and was hijacked on the way to the hotel.  It was the first time it had happened to him.  Two cars headed him off the road and approached them with guns.  They took all their belongings, but thankfully no one was hurt.  It happened on a back road after dark.  We cannot be too careful. 

Tom and I enjoyed the conference – especially after it was all over and everyone had returned home safely.  Neither we nor the Eppels will be here for the next training- we will just leave notes for our successors. 

 

 

 

 

 

March in South Africa and Malawi

March 2013

Another one of the senior couple went home this month and that is always a little hard as they are all good people.  This one was a little harder than most.  Elder Ralph and Sister Edy Howes were the ones leaving.  They were our host couple; so we felt a closeness to them that we might not feel with everyone.  When you get off the plane in Johannesburg after about 24 +or- hours in the air or in airports it is so good to see the smiling faces of someone you don’t really know, but who wears a black badge just like you.  They were an excellent host couple as they helped us through those first hours and days as we got our feet on the ground.  They have been especially good to us since then as well.  They went to Madikwe with us, Crystal and Eric.  We didn’t travel together, but had good times there with them.  Elder Howes has become a very good photographer and you have seen some of his pictures already.  The ones of the revived missionary are a couple of my favorites. 

Early in the month we received a call from our friend, Patrick Bonkemeyer.  He is from Spokane but is now living in George, South Africa.  He was returning home from a trip and had a layover in Johannesburg.  During the night he got an attack of appendicitis and was taken to the hospital in Kempton Park. Raylene, his wife, flew up to be with him.  We picked Raylene up at the airport and took her to the hospital.  On our way in we met two priesthood holders from the Kempton Park Ward who had come to administer to him.  We learned later that they had contacted Rob Milne and he drove over 60 km to help out when he couldn’t reach anyone else.  He is a modern-day Good Samaritan. After the surgery we were able to arrange a place for them to stay in Duke’s Court for a night and then got them to the airport to go home.  Last we heard he is recovering well. We were glad we were here to help them out a little as they are good people.

We have been given an assignment along with the Eppels and the whole MSR department to locate “lost sheep” in the address unknown file. We call those for whom there is a phone number listed, hoping to contact them and get their current address. Most of the time the phone number is wrong or just a bad number, but we have found a few that we have been able to transfer to a new unit.  When the phone is answered and they aren’t there we leave a message and request them to call us back.  We don’t know whether the person we are calling really lives there, but we hope they do.  We get very, very few calls back.  We were given 2000 names to contact.  Some of these people have been in the dead file (address unknown) for ten years.  So far we have only been able to contact a few, but for those few it is important. The ward clerk (membership clerk) has an important responsibility and should be tracking down these people as soon as it is determined they have moved.

The Centurion Stake Conference was held this month.  I enjoyed singing in the stake choir. The stake music director and his wife are the accompanist and director respectively.  It is interesting to watch the interaction between them.  He obviously chose the music and has his ideas of how it should be presented, but she is the director and has a take-charge attitude.  She often scolds him for not watching her closely enough.  We sang for the Saturday night session as well as the Sunday morning.  The Sunday session was in Kempton Park which is at the southern end of the stake and closer to the townships in the stake.  It was held in a very commodious civic center building.  The choir and the congregation were equally mixed black and white.  Actually looking down at the congregation it may have been about 2/3 black.  I haven’t noticed much feeling of discrimination or prejudice among the church members. 

After nearly six months I got a new bridge of four teeth. The old bridge broke.  It has been quite a process to have the implants done.  I will be glad to be able to chew on more than one side of my mouth once again.  My dentist is an Indian Muslim whom I believe does very good work.   

At the end of March we took a 4 day trip to Blantyre, Malawi.  The priesthood brethren that we saw there are faithful and diligent.  We were there to do the audits for the four branches and district.  It was gratifying to see that they had improved and had adopted some of the suggestions we had made in previous visits.  The one branch which was probably the poorest was the best about having receipts and returning left-over money which had been advanced for activities even though it amounted to just a few cents.  Another senior couple, the Shields, escorted us around and took us out of town a ways to see acres and acres of tea fields.  Tea is harvested from small bushes, and here it is cut and gathered by hand.  At least it provides for employment.  We also saw a parade (only people, some in costume – no music or horses) of Christians (Anglicans we were told) marching down the narrow street.  They were 7 or 8 abreast and a kilometer long.  Many of the women wore long purple skirts, white blouses, and purple head scarfs.  We were headed in the opposite direction, but were soon ordered by the local police to pull over to the side of the road and wait.  Near the end of the parade a truck equipped with loud speakers announced something and the people in the parade knelt on the street and prayed.  Afterwards when we traveled through some small villages on the way to the tea fields we saw people similarly dressed – perhaps left over from a similar activity.  We are impressed observing multitudes who are always on the streets and highways.  Along the highway going to the tea fields we saw many women (not men) carrying large loads of sugar cane on their heads.  Some of them were chewing on a stick (sugar cane).  In fairness to the men we did see a few pushing bicycles loaded with large loads of charcoal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of this month has been attending the temple with six of those whom we have taught the temple prep classes in the Tembisa Ward.  Norene was the escort for 4 of the 5 women and Dad was the escort for the man.  The other woman had two escorts from the ward.  One of the young girls also had her fiancé there.  So it was a nice group and a very enjoyable experience.  We borrowed a van in order to bring them to our apartment afterwards for lunch.  It was a small van so Dad had to make two trips to get all eleven of us there – but we are only 7 minutes from the temple.  We served them sloppy joes, potato salad, chips, and ice cream brownie sundaes for dessert.  Almost all of the food was consumed, so we assume they liked it.  We couldn’t take them all back to Tembisa in the van (no one has a car and had to take a combie or taxi to come to the temple) so we took the older ones and gave the younger ones combie fare.  Here is a photo of those who received their endowments.  Going from left to right is Nomvula, Mpho, Moses, Kedibone, Dimkatso, and Brenda.  Mpho, Kedibone and Dimkatso are sisters.

We complained about our first travel arrangements Salt Lake had made for us coming home.  It was going to take 50 hours with half of that time spent waiting in airports.  We are happy to report that it has been changed and instead of 50 hours it will only take us 28.  We fly through London to Seattle and then Spokane.  We are now scheduled to arrive home on June 21^st. 

We are keeping busy and are happy doing the Lord’s work.  Recently I gave a lesson on consecration.  My thoughts were how we in our abundance and affluence could help those who barely have the necessities of life such as in Malawi.  It is not things they need so much as opportunity - opportunities for a good education and employment.  Sister Shields said the country had 95% unemployment.  We don’t know how true that may be, but we did see many who didn’t seem to have much to do.  I would have a hard time sitting on a city street corner selling a few peanuts all day or tend to a small lean-to selling clothing or dishes when there were 50 more such enterprises in the same locality all competing for sales among people who had little to buy with.  We are more and more appreciative of the comfortable and luxurious life with which we have been blessed and wish we could do more to help those not so fortunate.

 

The Lovingers come to Africa

February 2013

Crystal and Eric came to visit us!

We have really enjoyed having Crystal and Eric here with us and have tried to show them as much as we can.  Monday we took them to a devotional at the Area Office where they got to meet many of the senior missionaries.  Later that evening they viewed a couple of West African Church history videos at a missionary fireside.  We took them to a great place to get steaks afterward.  Tuesday it was out to lunch with the Eppels and then a temple session afterward.  Something Crystal ate must not have agreed with her as she excused herself from the endowment session.  She was able to participate in the prayer circle for the MTC missionaries just prior to that though. 

 

Must stop and tell you about the Eppels.  They were scheduled to leave for a month long trip to Madagascar on Thursday.  When we had lunch with them they told us they had received distressing news about their son, Desmond, who lives in Peoria, Illinois.  He had a seizure at work and was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the hospital.  Surgery was going to be performed on Thursday.  Their daughter who lives in Camas, Washington flew to Chicago to be a support for him.  The Eppels postponed their trip until they heard the results of the operation.  We were all praying for him and put his name on the temple prayer roll.  We were so relieved when we got home from Madikwe Friday evening to learn that the operation had been a success and they expected a full recovery.  So the Eppels left for Madagascar trusting that the Lord would bless their son while they were on His errand.
 

Wednesday morning we left early for Madikwe game reserve in the northern part of South Africa.  In fact it borders on Botswana.  It was about a 5 hour ride.  We got there in time for lunch and then an afternoon drive in the bush to spot animals and birds.  Madikwe was created in the 1990s and is owned by and operated by the Northwest Province Game Board.  Besides protecting the wild animals it was also created to provide employment for the local people in an eco-tourism industry the only viable industry the government deemed could exist.  So they moved out the local farmers and small towns people and created this huge game reserve, the 4^th largest in South Africa.  Some of the species were imported from other reserves; some had survived the people who had settled there.  It is a blend of eco-climates so it is a habitat for a great variety of birds and animals.  There are several private businesses who have leased some of the reserve from the government for lodges – places for people to stay.  Madikwe is different than Kruger or Philanesberg in that you can’t just drive around in your own car and make a day trip of it.  We stayed in the only bush camp where one experiences camping as opposed to staying in a hotel.  The little cabins have nice beds.  There is no electricity, so paraffin lamps are used for lighting at night and donkey boilers are used to heat water for showers.  All the food is cooked over a fire.  One night we had a delicious potjie (dutch oven) stew.  We are awakened at 5 am for a 5:30 drive in a Land Rover.  These drives last about four hours and cover a lot of territory.  Some of it is on graded roads and some just through the bush on little trails.  It was much fun and a great safari experience.

Our driver’s name was Justice and he did a great job in finding animals for us and knowing what animals and birds we were seeing.  Our first two drives starting with the evening drive the day we got there and the morning drive the next day we had a couple from South Africa that really knew their birds.  They were helpful to those of us with less birding knowledge.  We identified about 37 different kinds of birds and that doesn’t count the many we just let go. 

 A long-tailed paradise-whydah.

  A southern yellow-billed hornbill.

  Eating at the Boma restaurant in Victoria Falls.  We ate antelope and warthog. Elder Green and Eric ate Mopani worms and we joined the floorshow in dancing.

  These wild dogs could have enjoyed wildebeest for dinner.

 

As far as animals that we saw there was an abundance of zebras, impalas (not the Chevrolet kind), and wildebeests.  There were other animals but not in the many, many, groups.  We saw some kudos, warthogs, giraffes, rhinos, lions (no males however), elephants, wild dogs, African wildcat, water buffalo, springbok, and maybe some others.  One kind of unusual thing involved one wildebeest and a pack of about 22 wild dogs.  Wild dogs are noted for their ability to take down a wildebeest even though they are pretty big.  This wildebeest just wandered right into this pack of wild dogs and Justice, our driver, said well there is dinner for the dogs.  We stayed around, not because we wanted to see a wildebeest slaughtered, but it just seemed like an opportunity that doesn’t come along every day.  Anyway the wildebeest, when the dogs surrounded him just stood his ground and pretty soon the dogs lost interest and as far as we know they never killed him.  Another interesting item was a giant bull elephant that was walking down the road towards us.  Justice pulled over and backed off the road behind a tree and we waited for the elephant to pass.  He did and just kept going.  It seemed like he didn’t even notice us.  Justice said he was out looking for girl elephants.  Later in the evening we were driving and again this same giant elephant was coming towards us.  There was no real place to pull over and hide at that place so Justice just pulled over to the side of the road.  The elephant continued to plod along towards us. As he got closer he took a little swing away from us and it looked like he just wanted to go by us with some room to spare.  Then he started to swing back and was coming right for us.  When he was only a few feet away and headed right at Tom.  Justice started the engine and we took off.  Tom asked if elephants could turn over one of the Range Rover trucks and Justice said they could and had; so we were happy to get away.  It was a fun few days.

The next week we took a trip to see Victoria Falls.  It is located in the corner of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana.  We stayed on the Zimbabwe side.  We got quite wet at Victoria Falls and not because it was raining.  It just felt like it was raining.  The mist from the falls was very heavy.  They call the Falls “The Smoke that Thunders”.  We took a cruise up the river later in the day and looking back to the Falls it looked like smoke arising high in the sky.  We saw hippos in the river but no crocodiles.  The hotel where we stayed overlooked a watering hole and it was fun to use our binoculars and watch the animals enter and exit our “stage” as we viewed it.  One afternoon one of the kitchen staff took the leftover raw meat and fed the vultures.  There must have been 100 or more vultures swoop down and fight over the pig’s head, and other scraps.  Then there was a marabou stork which patiently sat in a tree just waiting for the vultures to leave so that he could have the bones.  We had a great time at Victoria Falls and then did some other things around here including a trip to the Rhino Lion Park the day the Lovingers left.

 "The smoke that thunders"

 

A week later we made a quick trip to Mozambique to attend the Coordinating Council held in Maputo.  Jaimie (Jai’-mie) is our assistant auditor there.  He can speak English well.  We invited him and his wife to dinner at the hotel Friday evening.  She doesn’t speak English, but appreciated being invited and promised to learn English.  The official language in Mozambique is Portuguese. Jaimie also picked us up at the airport and took us to the coordinating council meeting Saturday morning.  Elder Bricknell promised us 20 minutes at the beginning of the meeting.  We actually were given an hour and a half.  The senior missionary couple in Beira is going home soon with no replacement coming.  They have been making all the Sunday deposits for the branches there.  It is thus time for the branches to take more responsibility and they need to be trained to make their own deposits and write their own checks.  Solomon Malidadi in Beira is literally going the extra mile to train a couple of the dependent branches.  The counselor in the Mission over these branches was at the coordinating meeting – so hopefully they will do better in getting the audits performed and done on time.

 

The temple was closed for a couple of weeks for maintenance, but is open now again.   We attended a great session with the Senior Area missionaries after a zone conference on Thursday.  A dinner was enjoyed in the sister’s flat afterward. Elder Renlund spoke in the zone conference about “mighty prayer”.  We commented on how the prayers of the African saints are humble and sincere.  They are grateful for life no matter their circumstances.

In the Church News this week was announced the formation of 58 new missions effective July 1^st.  The Africa Southeast Area there will be two new missions, Angola Luanda and Botswana, Gaborone.  We were interested that our old mission, Tokyo South, was resurrected. The Lord is hastening His work and the time is coming for His Second Coming.

We heard from the Kings from Washington that they accepted the call to be area auditors here in Southeast Africa.  They will enter the MTC on June 10^th and arrive here on June 18^th.  We are now starting to think about going home and will need to make arrangements.  We have mixed feelings about knowing the end is coming.  I am excited about going home and being with family again, but also feel there is more to be done here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2013

Tom had another good and interesting experience in the temple.  He was asked to be a follower on the first session of the shift.  I went along as a patron.  We usually don’t have brother followers on sessions here just the officiator and a sister follower.  The reason he was asked to go in was to help Elder Rakotonjanahary, from Madagascar, as he officiated his first session after being here for a number of months.  His English is not very good, but he is anxious and willing.  He actually did pretty well.   Tom had to give him a few clues, but it went well and it was fun for Tom to be of help.  When we were done his wife, who was the sister follower, thanked Tom for helping her husband and being patient with him.  He also thanked Tom and gave him a big hug.  After being in Japan we can understand the problem when you don’t know the language very well.  There are a number of languages here that the regular temple workers need to deal with, many more than we ever could imagine in Spokane.

The Eppels have been assigned a major project in Madagascar.  They will leave on January 31^st and won’t return until March 2^nd.  They will be training priesthood leaders and doing all but one of the 41 units’ audits in the country.  One audit will usually take about 2 hours when the data is good, which in many cases is not true.  These will also be done in French, which Elder Eppel speaks only a little, which will add additional time to the audits.  They will be busy traveling, training, and auditing the whole time they are there.  We told them they might come back older than we are when in reality they are about 9 years younger.  Obviously there is something needed in Madagascar to require this much effort.  Elder and Sister Rakotonjanahary’s name is typical of what names are like in Madagascar.   We are glad the Eppels have Madagascar as one of their countries. 

 

One Friday morning this month we left early for Botswana.  We followed directions we got from Google and only made two wrong turns.  It took about an hour to process the papers at the border and in all about 6 hours to get to Gaborone.  We enjoyed seeing Bob and Janet Rands from Spokane who are serving in Gaborone as the seminary and institute directors.  We had lunch with them and then went to a small game reserve near where they live.  We saw lots of warthogs including some babies who were nursing.  We also saw zebras, impala, monkeys, and a couple of large antelope called elands.  We also went by the place where they filmed the movie “The First Ladies Detective Agency”.  The set was in pretty sad shape as the weather has caused it to deteriorate.  When we got back to the Rands they showed us the first part of the movie on video.  We could see what the set had looked like originally. 

Verdet Monkey


Hartebeest

      Ladies #1 Detective Agency/ Warthogs

 

The next morning we trained President Clement Magswagothata and his counselors and clerks of the new Gaborone, Botswana Stake in their new financial responsibilities.  They are enthusiastic and well organized.  We think they will do very well in getting the audits done and in teaching the local units to follow church policies.  We left about noon for home.  This time it only took about a half hour at the border and we followed our GPS and were home by five.  The GPS took us home a slightly different route.  One interesting sidelight – along the shoulders of the main highways in Botswana graze cattle, goats and even donkeys.  One has to keep an eye open not to run over some stray who takes a mind to cross the road.

 

The car we were assigned to drive had about 5,000 to 6,000 kilometers on it when we got it.  The car needs to be serviced every 15,000 km.  Well we hit that a little while ago; so we made arrangements with the Area car manager to have the car serviced today.  He led us on a very exciting 20 km drive in rush hour traffic.  He knows the way, but we didn’t have a clue where we were going.  Except for the bus that almost crushed us it went well.  We had to go back and get the car after work and that went much better.  The lady at the Nissan dealership said we were good until the car reached 30,000 km or a year went by; so unless the car breaks we should never have to have it serviced again.

We are getting ready for the audits for year-end 2012, but there probably won’t be many done until February.  We hope they all start early and get them done by the March 15 deadline.  We are also getting started planning our assistant area auditor conference that will be held on April 25-27, 2013; so we are keeping busy.

The Area Office is in the process of completing the annual history for 2012.  Each department has to write the happenings they experienced during the last year.  Tom did a great job of doing the history for the auditors.  The main progress we made was in the calling of all the local assistant area auditors.  These brethren will make a difference in being able to train and follow through with the local priesthood leaders in seeing that church financial policies and procedures are observed.  The Eppels had a touching experience as they trained in a very remote area in the Congo.  I will share with you what Sister Eppel related.

“One of the highlights of 2012 was a training trip to the remote Luputa Stake in the Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  What a wonderful training meeting!  There were 41 men in white shirts and ties reverently seated and prepared for the meeting.  The singing of the Church hymns was beautiful.  There was such a strong spirit.  The Stake President was a fine young man.  They all sat attentive during the training – very participative and involved.  All in all an incredibly spiritual experience and well worth the difficult trip.

The next morning at about 7am on the return journey the area auditors passed a Bishop riding his bicycle back to Mwene Ditu.  Amazing to think he had ridden all that way to attend his meetings the day before and who knows what time he had left that morning on his way home again.  A two and a half hour trip by car!!  The commitment to and love of the gospel of that group of priesthood leaders was truly inspiring.”

This last Friday night Loretta Sibanyoni from our ward received her own endowments. We gave her the temple preparation lessons in Tembisa.  I was able to be her escort, except since I was also on shift as an ordinance worker, I was also the follower on the session.  She confided that she had seen negative comments about the temple when she “googled” the church shortly after becoming a member about two years ago.  So she was a little nervous about going.  She said it was much different than what it said on Google.  The assistant matron who gave her the instruction did it in a loving and comprehensible manner.  Hearing her do that brought up sweet memories of the times when I was privileged to do the same thing.  We took her to Muggs and Bean, a small restuarant,  for something to eat afterward and then home to Tembisa.  Understandably she didn’t want to take a combie (taxi) home by herself so we offered to take her home.

Yesterday Crystal and Eric arrived! They brought us mail (Christmas cards mostly), brown sugar, vanilla pudding and most important themselves.  It is so good to see them.  We took them to the devotional this morning and will go to a family home evening tonight.  They even walked with us at 5 this morning.  They will be here for two weeks.