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.

 

 

 

December 2012

 

 

Early in the month we attended a community Christmas concert at a nearby univeristy auditorium. It was delightful. There were about 40 people in the chorus, 20 female and 20 male. These were all young people and the majority were black. Maybe there were 5 whites total. The orchestra was mainly 16 strings with one each of flute, oboe, clarinet and trumpet. And there was one person who played timpani and another drums. Of those in the orchestra they appeared a little older and there were maybe 5 or 6 black persons. The audience was 90% old white people. It was a lovely concert with 23 songs. The songs included favorites such as Away in a Manger, Cantique d'Noel, and Silent Night. There were also spirituals such as Mary's Boy Child and Go Tell it on the Mountains. They included hymns from many countries. There was Irving Berlin's White Christmas and The Battle Hymn of the Republic from the United States. We were a little surprised that they would sing of a White Christmas and have a fake snowman as decoration on the stage as it is summer here. Anyway it certainly got us in the spirit of Christmas and taught what a truly Christian country this is. It is a great experience we are enjoying here. We pray for the African nations that they will continue to work for peace and allow the gospel of Christ to be taught to their subjects that the Lord may bless them and prosper them.

One of the highlights of the month was the Tembisa Ward’s Christmas party.  It was announced that it would run from noon on Saturday to 6:00 pm.  This seemed very long to us, but they never planned on starting at noon, but at 1:00 pm.  Africans are noted for being late, and they know it as well as we do; so they set the early time.  We got there about 1:45 pm and it had just started.  It was a nice party with lots of primary age children from who knows where.  There definitely aren’t that many at church.  It was good as member-kids brought their friends and all had a good time.  Tom was asked to be Father Christmas (Santa).  He found a Santa suit that somebody in the Area Office had.  It went well as the kids seemed happy to see Father Christmas and many followed him around.  On the lawn outside the children lined up to receive a small gift from Father Christmas.  One little girl gave him a kiss, as you see in the photo. 

 

 

The other interesting thing about that party was the food they served.  Several women spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing the food for nearly a hundred people.  A few of the men cooked the meat on the brai (grill) outdoors by the parking area.  They served a salad that resembled cole slaw, beans with chilies and pap.  Pap is a staple food of the natives.  It looks much like mashed potatoes but is heavier and made of maize or corn meal.  It doesn’t have much of a taste, but it is filling.  They piled the pap on the children’s plates and gave them a small serving of beans and a small piece of meat.  We wondered if the children would eat it all.  But they brought back empty plates and were looking for more.  No utensils were served.  Everyone, including us, ate with our fingers.  Also there were no tables with chairs for everyone.  They don’t have the facilities for that.  The children all went to a couple of small classrooms and sat on the floor.  The adults ate out on the lawn or standing up.  They brought us two big plates with salad, beans, a good portion of sausage and chicken and steak and pap.  We said we would just share one and thanked them.

 

 

 

 

We made a trip to Luanda, Angola to train an assistant auditor and the district presidency.  It was about a 3.5 hour flight and over 1500 miles.  Everything is very expensive in Angola; a car wash is the equivalent of $50.  President and Sister Thompson fed us and let us stay at their place for the night.  We offered to take them to dinner, but they said the traffic was so bad that they drove as little as possible and they weren’t very impressed with the restaurants they had tried in their neighborhood.  The traffic was the most memorable thing about Luanda.  For one thing one drives on the right side of the road there.  The roads themselves are in pretty good condition, except the major roads are at the most 3 lanes wide going one direction and four or five lines of traffic try to squeeze in.  It reminded me a little of Los Angeles freeways, only the traffic was only inching along and cars kept barging into our lane, motorcycles kept darting in and around, and pedestrians crossed wherever they felt they had a chance.  Elder Eppel, who has seen a lot of Africa, says that it is the worst traffic in Africa including Kinshasa in the Congo.  To make matters worse it is impossible to make a left hand turn off of these main roads because they have built concrete barriers down the meridian.  About every 5 kilometers they have built in places to make U turns.  So to make a left someone has to drive to a U-turn and go back the direction they came from until they come to the corner where they wanted to turn and then make a right-turn.  It makes for added mileage and traffic. 

There are many modern buildings in downtown and many under construction.  But Luanda like so many other places in Africa is a city of contrasts.  The people on the street appear poor.  And there are slums and shanties on the outskirts of the city.  There are the little stalls along the roads (no sidewalks to speak of) where people try to sell food, clothing, trinkets, souvenirs, tires, etc. Several times while we were at the Thompsons the power went out and their backup generator came on.   I was glad to return to South Africa.

The Buhamahlo orphanage in Tembisa is one several of the missionaries here have tried to help.  We went with some missionary couple to provide the orphanage a Christmas party.  The Tshbalala family (Dominic is an employee in the Area Office) did a Nativity and we sang Christmas carols, ate lunch and gave some gifts to the kids.  It was a fun morning and we think the kids enjoyed it.  One of the missionary couples had rallied their family and they bought Mama an industrial type sewing machine that she loved.  In the accompanying photo Mama is wearing a duck (headdress) and flowered top.  The Tshabalala family is in costume, the rest are the orphans and help.

 

On December 17^th, a national holiday, the temple missionaries and area office missionaries rode a steam locomotive train from Johannesburg to Magliesberg which is a couple of hours west and north of where we live.  We parked the car at the bus/train station in downtown Joburg.  Even though it was about 8 in the morning the place was filled with people – all going somewhere with kids and baggage in tow.  Our group filled one whole box car.  It was a fun ride and we got to see places we haven’t seen before such as Krugersdorp.  Most townships have shantie villages on the outskirts.  The photo is one near Krugersdorp.  It is hard to imagine how people live in such places.  Magliesberg was our destination and we ate lunch there at a nice hotel and spent some time investigating the small shops in the town.  Since it was a public holiday (Day of Reconciliation) most of the shops were closed.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year.  Time is going by so quickly.  Another week, another month, even another year just went by.  It is a reminder to me of how precious time is and how I must make the most of it.  As we never know how much more time we may have.

Christmas was wonderful in that we got to talk and Skype with our children and most of our grandchildren.  We spent Christmas Eve with a few other missionaries relating our testimonies of Christ.  On Christmas we shared a meal with the other missionary couples and spent the day relaxing.

  Hippo on his back

The 26^th of December is another national holiday in South Africa – Day of Goodwill.  We invited the Kraczeks, a new missionary couple,  to go with us to Pilanesberg which is a big game park about two hours north of here.  We arose early and left here about 4 am.  We had been told that it is good to arrive about sunup in order to see more animals.  It is one of those places where you drive your car around the park and keep your eyes peeled to see what you can.  We saw a rhino. hippos, and some giraffes in the distance and kudus (large African antelope), impalas (small antelopes), warthogs, wildebeest, and a large millipede up close.  We also saw many colorful birds.  There were a couple of places where we could get out of the car and walk in a protected area to observe the animals more closely.  These are called “hides”.  I think Americans would refer to them as “blinds”.  In one of these blinds we saw a kingfisher (bird) with a small fish in its beak whacking the fish and smashing it against the tree limb.  I supposed it didn’t care for a live meal. It was there we also came across a small crocodile.  Sister Kraczek really wanted to see an elephant so she could report to her grandson that “yes, they had seen an elephant”.  The park reported having 200 elephants, but they were hiding from us that day.  The Howes, another senior missionary couple, also were in the park that morning and they did see one on the same road we had been on.  How can you miss an elephant?  The Howes explained that even though they are big, they blend in with the environment.  The Howes also saw some fun hippo activity in a hide.  I will share a photo they took as well as a couple we took.  To see more of this happy hippo go to my facebook page.  Photos of hippo by Sis and Elder Howes.

 

 

 

 

November 2012

        

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in South Africa. So while our fellow area office workers were at work, the senior missionaries and those who serve at the temple had a delicious feast in the White House Garage. The White House is a very nice, large home on the property in which the members of the Area Presidency live. The home is divided into apartments. The garage is a commodious three-car garage with tiled walls, so it made a great dining room for about 60 people. Everyone brought a dish to share and we had the traditional turkey (had to hunt for that), sweet potatoes, pies, etc. I made a sweet potato casserole. I had to shop at several stores before I found any sweet potatoes. Remember the seasons are reversed here. The sweet potatoes that grow in South Africa are white on the inside instead of orange. When they are cooked they turn a pale green, but they tasted ok with enough butter and sugar. We missed being with our family of course, but we had a good meal with friends. (That is me standing in the doorway leading the music.)

President Cook at the Thanksgiving dinner related that he, his wife Lynette, and daughter, who just returned from a mission to Spain, stood on a street corner in downtown Johannesburg and asked passersby what they were thankful for. He said that 90% of those they asked said they were grateful for life itself, to be alive. These people who have so little of life’s material wealth are happy to be enjoying life. That is particularly so when there is such a high mortality rate here due to HIV. It made me think of how many spiritual and material blessings for which we have to be thankful.

Monday night President Reber and his wife of the Johannesburg MTC spoke at a family home evening for the couples. The MTC here is small, usually about 25 missionaries. There are 15 international MTCs and the one in Johannesburg is the smallest. They have been getting new missionaries every 3 weeks, but with the new policy it will be cut to two weeks. The African missionaries need help as many of them have never used deodorant or shampoo before. They arrive sometimes with just a grocery sack with their belongings. The missionaries from Uganda and Tanzania don’t recognize many of the common foods they serve. Sister Reber asked them after a couple of weeks what foods they had eaten before. Their answer – rice and bananas. Many of the Africans are used to only one meal a day. The missionaries from the US and Canada learn to eat pap (pronounced pup) with their fingers. (Pap is a traditional porridge made from mielie meal, ground maize or other grain, and is a staple of the Bantus.) The Rebers said the young elders and sisters go through quite a transformation from the time they come to when they leave for the field. There are about equal numbers of black Africans and white elders and sisters from the States, Canada and England. We often have the opportunity of participating in the prayer circle at the temple when they come. For many of them it is the first time to go to the temple and perhaps the last for the remainder of their lives as they live so far from a temple.

This is a photo of Rachel Matswagothata, one of the temple sisters who ride to church with us. Her son was just made the stake president of the new Botswana Stake, the first to be organized in that country. (We either call her Rachel or  Sister Tata).                                    

  On November 30th we attended a community Christmas concert at a nearby univeristy auditorium.  It was delightful.  There were about 40 people in the chorus, 20 female and 20 male.  These were all young people and the majority were black.  Maybe there were 5 whites total.  The orchestra was mainly 16 strings with one each of flute, oboe, clarinet and trumpet.  And there was one person who played timpani and another drums.  Of those in the orchestra they appeared a little older and there were maybe 5 or 6 black persons.  The audience was 90% old white people.  It was a lovely concert with 23 songs.  The songs included favorites such as Away in a Manger, Cantique d'Noel, and Silent Night. There were also spirituals such as Mary's Boy Child and Go Tell it on the Mountains.  They included hymns from many countries.  There was Irving Berlin's White Christmas and The Battle Hymn of the Republic from the United States.  We were a little surprised that they would sing of a White Christmas and have a fake snowman as decoration on the stage as it is summer here.  Anyway it certainly got us in the spirit of Christmas and taught what a truly Christian country this is.   It is a great experience we are enjoying here.  We pray for the African nations that they will continue to work for peace and allow the gospel of Christ to be taught to their subjects that the Lord may bless them and prosper them.