I guess we have gone longer than we thought before writing a letter so we’ll try
to do a catch –up. Sometimes when we get in a routine of doing the same things,
it’s hard to write exciting letters to you.
We had a District Conference about 3 weeks ago which included Elder Renlund, one
of the Seventies, as a visiting authority. We helped provide him and his wife,
as well as the mission president and his wife, a lunch in between the leadership
sessions and the general session. We also took a few extra food items for one
of our poorest branches and they got gobbled up as quickly as we could pull them
out of the car. It was a very good conference and we enjoyed spending just a
short time with the visiting authorities. I think we are welcomed anywhere as
long as we bring food!
We are currently working with two young people on the perpetual education
program and two others on temple preparation. There are some problems with the
pending marriage because they are from two different countries and the paperwork
needed will probably take some additional time. Kuda is from Zimbabwe and
Adalae is from S Africa.
We have decided to start visiting each branch which has a seminary or institute
program at least once on a Sunday just to get a little better acquainted with
the leaders and the youth. Our first visit was to the Lenyenye branch, about 30
km from here. We are leaving tomorrow for a 3 day trip to visit the KaNyamazone
Branch and teach several teachers in that area. It is about a 6 hour trip to
get there.
Earlier this month we were invited by the mission president and his wife to join
with them and the other senior missionaries for a two day retreat. It is also a
one-day travel each way to Johannesburg so we were gone a total of 4 days. The
first day we went to a Lion and Rhino reserve about an hour out of JoBurg.
There we saw a few new animals including some white lions, cheetahs, wild dogs,
etc. but never saw the normal brown lions. They were burning all of the tall
grass in the area so the fire and smoke caused many of the animals to go into
hiding. We then had lunch together, about 30 of us, in downtown Joburg and went
to the temple in the late afternoon for a temple session. We had to divide into
two groups because the temple is small and could not accommodate all of us at
one time. We ended the day by having a late dinner in Joburg. The second day
we spent the morning in a meeting where we were told about some of the progress
in the mission, followed by Q&A. We were then given about 5 hours to do as we
pleased (shopping,shopping,shopping) and return for one last dinner together at
the mission president’s home. It was a very enjoyable time and we especially
enjoyed meeting and visiting with several of the other senior missionaries.
We travelled to Joburg with our neighbors, the Mihu’s. When we returned after
the 4 days they found their door wide open. Apparently each assumed the other
had closed it—you know how that goes—and no one had closed it. Luckily for
them, nothing was taken which is amazing for this area.
We have several tiles coming up from our floor again so we are hoping the
landlord will get it all repaired while we are gone this weekend. They
apparently used some bad adhesive on the entire complex and so periodically they
come in and replace all of the loose ones.
Mom is taking up a new hobby during the evenings when we can’t go out and work.
It is tatting. It is similar to crocheting, but more intricate. She seems to
have several things now to keep her occupied during our down time. We pretty
much have to stay in after dark due to safety reasons.
We have survived so far without using any of our portable heaters, but this
required us to buy another blanket, warmer nylons, and put on more layers. It
is not excessively cold, but it just penetrates you because of the high humidity
and cold brick/concrete walls and floors. But we think we will survive!
We had a crazy mail strike in Joburg a few weeks ago. Some of the nuts broke
into the building and burned up all of the mail backlog and packages. It is all
settled now so it should be okay. We just received a package from April Colton
yesterday so that one arrived safely, but we are still on the lookout for a
different one which was shipped several weeks ago.
I’m struggling to think of anything else newsworthy so it’s good-bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment