I guess it is time to update you again. We continue to be busy with mom’s two callings and my calling. In addition, we have been asked to teach another family the temple preparation lessons as they are contemplating going to the temple. This is a member of the branch presidency and his family. They are Sotho but also speak English a little. We are excited for this opportunity again.
In addition, I am helping a 23 year old young man with math so he can matriculate (graduate) from high school. He has passed all of the other graduation tests, but needs to pass the math test. Then he plans to go on a mission. He has his paperwork filled out and has his passport. He is currently serving as a seminary teacher in the branch. There is a missionary zone conference on Tuesday so mom is helping Sister Mihu prepare a luncheon for about 35 people tomorrow. This conference includes the mission president and all of the young and old missionaries in the zone. So besides our seminary and institute work, we get a lot of extra things to do.
Two weeks ago we went on a two day trip to visit several of our institute and seminary teachers. We stayed overnight in a city called Polokwane. Overall, we trained or visited classes of 5 different teachers. We found out that there was a small animal reserve near that city, so we got up early and went to it before our first appointment. This turned out to be a very enjoyable, quick visit as we saw several animals there in the wild. It was several thousand acres, and was a drive-through reserve without any guide or safari vehicles. We saw giraffe's, zebra's, a mother and father ostrich with two babies, a warthog and several antelope-like animals.
And then, last week we were invited by a senior couple (member of the mission presidency) to join with them and 4 other couples to go on a safari in a reserve outside Mokopane. So we met together and had lunch, and spent from 4pm-7:30pm riding around in a Safari vehicle and see animals. We saw herds of wildebeests and zebras, several giraffes, a warthog, kudu, rhinoceros, blesbok, and a few other deer-like animals. We were hoping to see a lion and elephant, but the animals did not cooperate with our desires! It was a great trip, but we didn’t get home until 12:30pm due to the long drive and foggy weather.
We sent our photos to Kim this week of the last couple of months so she will have all the pictures we have taken since we got here--probably in about 3 weeks.
We are getting lots of opportunities to speak or teach lessons with little or no notice. Mom taught Relief Society today without any preparation. It looks like that will continue to happen throughout our mission. Also, I get assignments to help with the sacrament frequently. Seminary and institutes are going quite well in some areas and continue to struggle in other areas. We visit every teacher at least once a month to help them or we just visit one of their classes for observation.
It has been years since I received a traffic ticket, but I somehow managed to get two a few weeks ago. They use radar, usually just after the speed limit sign has been reduced, and take a photo of your license plate. They send these tickets to the area, who manages all of the cars. The area pays them immediately to keep the church reputation up, and then forwards them on to the offender to be reimbursed. So it was about two months after my offense that the tickets showed up. I have heard of Elders receiving 7-8 in the mail because the area was not very prompt in sending them out, and the driver was unaware he had even received one. In any case, I am trying to be a good boy and hold it right on the speed limit so I don’t have to dish out any more money.
Last week when we went on our walk around the neighborhood we found an area which was saturated with monkeys. Apparently they move through the neighborhoods and spend a few hours at a place and move on. This was about two blocks from our flat so maybe we will be inundated with monkeys one of these days. They apparently pass through the church occasionally.
One of our church meetings each Sunday is held at a grade school. We find it very uncomfortable sitting on elementary school desk chairs for two hours, but we don’t have any choice. It even makes it hard to sleep in church!
We are including a rhino which we saw on the safari as an enclosure. This rhino was so close to our vehicle we could have reached out and touched it (which none of us would have wanted to do). We will probably start send you a low-resolution photo with each email just to juice up our letters! Kim will be able to give you all of the high-resolution photos we sent to her on a DVD.
Ask all the kids to send us some art work to decorate our flat with.
Love, Mom and Dad
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