On Saturday, August 11 we had a missionary zone conference which we attended. The seniors are invited, but not required to be in attendance. We usually go since we generally are asked to help provide a luncheon for the missionaries between the conference sessions. And we did that again for this conference. Mom attended the entire conference, but I only attended up through the lunch time. Another senior and myself were asked to go and do a thorough check of each elder’s car during the last part of the conference. They have a detailed checklist which requires us to check registration, cleanliness, seat belts, body damage, fluid levels, all lights, horn, etc. So we spent about two hours doing this for all of the cars which were at the meeting. So this was a new experience added to my repertoire of missionary work. Later that night the mission president invited the Mihu’s and us to go have dinner together so we had a very enjoyable evening with
just 6 of us. It has been nice to get to know President Omer and his wife on such occasions.
We are continuing to make our audit visits. So far we have done three, with another one scheduled tomorrow and one more on Saturday. That will leave just the district left to audit. Since I am the financial clerk here in Tzaneen, I can not audit myself so a brother is coming up from Johannesburg to audit this branch on Saturday. He has been auditing for years so it will be interesting to see how I should have been doing it! Over here, training is an exception; not a rule.
Mom continues to teach some of the sisters in the branch how to sew. So far it has gone very well, and the sisters seem to enjoy it. A couple who is going home in another months gave mom their sewing machine so that will make things move faster with two machines. The first lesson was to teach them to make a bag, and now she is helping a sister make a skirt.
A couple of weeks ago we drove to Mokopane to do an audit—about a three hour drive. We decided to spend the night since we had to do the audit late and didn’t want to drive home in the dark. While there we received a phone call asking if we would speak at a young single adult conference in Polokwane, on our way home. Since we never say no, we worked late Friday night and early Saturday morning to prepare something and then gave our talks. Other than a few remarks from the District President, it turned out we were the keynote speakers. To top it off, the person in charge failed to arrange for lunch for 50+people at an all day event. As a last minute way to deal with this, he ordered pizza and some fruit, etc. Unfortunately he brought no money so I had to foot the bill and was then reimbursed a few days later. Again, an example of how things frequently go unplanned until the last minute. We stood up together and gave our remarks—something we
had never tried before.
Yesterday was the Mormon Helping Hands service assignment. We decided to do some repairs on the desks at the grade school which we also use for our church services. The branch president purchased 150 bolts thinking that would allow us to replace lost bolts and make repairs for most of the school. As we got into the project, we found things much worse than anticipated. We used all 150 bolts with just 3 classrooms so we’re thinking we might go out and do more repairs occasionally, since everything is in so bad repair. They just don’t seem to have much money to maintain schools, particularly in the villages.
Today we had another visit from a church member from Bingham, Utah. He works for a mining company, and comes here 2 weeks out of each month to do safety checks, etc. He brought an investigator family—a man from South Africa who was married to a woman from Russia. They seem like a great family, but live about 1-1/2 to 2 hours from here. If they get taught and baptized, there will be no place for them to attend except to make a two hour drive here. I think the missionaries were going to seek advice from the mission president.
We have started a choir in Matupa. President Mihu is the leader and his wife plays the keyboard. I sing alto and surprisingly Dad is trying to sing bass. I think he will get it eventually (I’ll probably get it in the next life) . This is his first attempt at choir. It has been fun to watch the members learn how to sing the hymns. Some do very well and some need more practice. We have had 4 practices and have sung 4 times in Sacrament meeting.
Winter has turned to summer (no spring). One day it was winter and the next day it was summer. No gradual change just one season to another, overnight. Temperatures are in the high 80’s. It won’t be long until we are wishing for the cool days to be back with us.
We hope all of you are doing well.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Not Your Everyday Walk
Hi Everyone,
A couple of weeks have slipped by since our last email so I guess it’s time to update you. We are still working with about 6 PEF candidates to help them plan a career. Two of them are too young to qualify for a PEF loan at this time, but we are still teaching them about the process of selecting a career and getting the required education. When they get out of High School they will be much better prepared; and while they are in their last year or two they might be better motivated to do well in school if they know it makes a difference.
So many people drop out of high school and they can never graduate until they pass a standard test given to everyone. The longer they drop out, the harder it is to pass the test so they can graduate. There are several in our village branches who are in their 20’s and have not graduated. Most drop out around the 10th grade. We have a 23 year old young man who is preparing to go on a mission, but he keeps failing the test—and it only requires 30% to graduate. We keep reminding them that the alternative to getting an education and career is to sell mangos or bananas on the street like so many do. Every village and city is lined with dozens of sales booths along their streets selling fruit and other miscellaneous items.
A couple of weeks ago Alice went to a District Relief Society event in Polokwane. While she and the ladies were attending the event, three of us men folk went to a local animal refuge and did a walking tour of about 5 miles. They did not have any people-eating animals so we were safe, but they had a large variety of other animals such as giraffe, eland, antelope, gemsbok, hartebeest, rhino, nyala, etc. We saw several on our walk. We go on a walk several times a week in the city, but this was my first walk in the wilds. It was very refreshing.
The trucks here on the highways are larger than those in the US. Instead of the 18 wheelers, they have 26 wheelers. They are longer and usually wider than at home, and have two pivot points. They seem to maneuver them pretty well here in the city streets but you definitely want to stay out of their way. I told you a little bit about driving on the two lane roads. In order to pass someone, since there is usually too many cars coming both ways, people coming in each direction with move over close to the outside shoulder so there is room for someone to pass up through the middle of the road. I think I mentioned that before. What I didn’t mention, it that the person who was granted space to pass between the cars usually turns on his flashers for two cycles after he has passed as a thank you to the car who moved to the edge of the road to let him/her by. Then, the car who was thanked frequently flashes his high-beam headlights once to say
“you’re welcome”. This is just an interesting courtesy one experiences while driving. Most people do not stop at stop signs—just slow down to see if it is safe to keep going. And more and more people do the same at signal lights. And of course, cars almost never stop for people except on rare occasions—even at crosswalks, etc. Pedestrians take their life in their hands.
We just returned today from a three day trip to Nelspruit and KaNyamazane. We visited a seminary class at KaNyamazane on Saturday, and attended church and met with teachers at Nelspruit on Sunday. We took a different route there so it took about 4-1/2 hours instead of 4 hours to get there, but we went over some beautiful mountain passes. For some reason there seemed to be a lot of cows, monkeys, and baboons on the roadsides this time. The seminary class was very good. The students participated well and were motivated to learn. We try to teach the students that learning in class is their responsibility; teachers are to guide and provide opportunity. Most students do very well and there are no behavior problems.
We went to something very similar to a county fair last week in Tzaneen. It was very interesting to walk around. They had animal exhibits, food exhibits, rides for kids, etc. just like we have a home, but on a smaller scale. We were very impressed with the number of different varieties of chickens that had been entered in the fair. We had never seen or heard of most of them. Many were unusual and beautiful.
I just got go-ahead to start my every six-month financial audit in 5 branches and the district. They will probably get completed in August if we can schedule everyone. This will give us a little change from what we usually do. Then, this Friday is a zone conference and we will be attending that on Saturday. Mom and Sister Mihu will be preparing lunch for the mission president and his wife as well as all the missionaries in the zone. This occurs periodically.
The young missionaries prepared lunch for us and the Mihus one Sunday. We usually provide lunch for them on Sunday. One Elder Marowa is from Zimbabwe and he made pap. Pap is made from ground corn meal boiled in water and is like mush. Elder Scanlin is from Utah and he made chili. Together they tasted like tomales. Great lunch!! Pap is the staple food here and is bland but with chili it is nice. It looks like play dough. People eat it 3 times a day because it is cheap. Sometimes they have meat or vegetables with it. It is gross without something with it. The villagers eat with their hands not utensils.
It sounds like it is soon back-to-school time for all of you. The school year here starts in January so they are coming up the end of their school year. They have a shorter summer vacation, but have a lot of vacation days throughout the year. We hope all of you kids enjoyed wonderful summer vacations and are excited to be back in school.
A couple of weeks have slipped by since our last email so I guess it’s time to update you. We are still working with about 6 PEF candidates to help them plan a career. Two of them are too young to qualify for a PEF loan at this time, but we are still teaching them about the process of selecting a career and getting the required education. When they get out of High School they will be much better prepared; and while they are in their last year or two they might be better motivated to do well in school if they know it makes a difference.
So many people drop out of high school and they can never graduate until they pass a standard test given to everyone. The longer they drop out, the harder it is to pass the test so they can graduate. There are several in our village branches who are in their 20’s and have not graduated. Most drop out around the 10th grade. We have a 23 year old young man who is preparing to go on a mission, but he keeps failing the test—and it only requires 30% to graduate. We keep reminding them that the alternative to getting an education and career is to sell mangos or bananas on the street like so many do. Every village and city is lined with dozens of sales booths along their streets selling fruit and other miscellaneous items.
A couple of weeks ago Alice went to a District Relief Society event in Polokwane. While she and the ladies were attending the event, three of us men folk went to a local animal refuge and did a walking tour of about 5 miles. They did not have any people-eating animals so we were safe, but they had a large variety of other animals such as giraffe, eland, antelope, gemsbok, hartebeest, rhino, nyala, etc. We saw several on our walk. We go on a walk several times a week in the city, but this was my first walk in the wilds. It was very refreshing.
The trucks here on the highways are larger than those in the US. Instead of the 18 wheelers, they have 26 wheelers. They are longer and usually wider than at home, and have two pivot points. They seem to maneuver them pretty well here in the city streets but you definitely want to stay out of their way. I told you a little bit about driving on the two lane roads. In order to pass someone, since there is usually too many cars coming both ways, people coming in each direction with move over close to the outside shoulder so there is room for someone to pass up through the middle of the road. I think I mentioned that before. What I didn’t mention, it that the person who was granted space to pass between the cars usually turns on his flashers for two cycles after he has passed as a thank you to the car who moved to the edge of the road to let him/her by. Then, the car who was thanked frequently flashes his high-beam headlights once to say
“you’re welcome”. This is just an interesting courtesy one experiences while driving. Most people do not stop at stop signs—just slow down to see if it is safe to keep going. And more and more people do the same at signal lights. And of course, cars almost never stop for people except on rare occasions—even at crosswalks, etc. Pedestrians take their life in their hands.
We just returned today from a three day trip to Nelspruit and KaNyamazane. We visited a seminary class at KaNyamazane on Saturday, and attended church and met with teachers at Nelspruit on Sunday. We took a different route there so it took about 4-1/2 hours instead of 4 hours to get there, but we went over some beautiful mountain passes. For some reason there seemed to be a lot of cows, monkeys, and baboons on the roadsides this time. The seminary class was very good. The students participated well and were motivated to learn. We try to teach the students that learning in class is their responsibility; teachers are to guide and provide opportunity. Most students do very well and there are no behavior problems.
We went to something very similar to a county fair last week in Tzaneen. It was very interesting to walk around. They had animal exhibits, food exhibits, rides for kids, etc. just like we have a home, but on a smaller scale. We were very impressed with the number of different varieties of chickens that had been entered in the fair. We had never seen or heard of most of them. Many were unusual and beautiful.
I just got go-ahead to start my every six-month financial audit in 5 branches and the district. They will probably get completed in August if we can schedule everyone. This will give us a little change from what we usually do. Then, this Friday is a zone conference and we will be attending that on Saturday. Mom and Sister Mihu will be preparing lunch for the mission president and his wife as well as all the missionaries in the zone. This occurs periodically.
The young missionaries prepared lunch for us and the Mihus one Sunday. We usually provide lunch for them on Sunday. One Elder Marowa is from Zimbabwe and he made pap. Pap is made from ground corn meal boiled in water and is like mush. Elder Scanlin is from Utah and he made chili. Together they tasted like tomales. Great lunch!! Pap is the staple food here and is bland but with chili it is nice. It looks like play dough. People eat it 3 times a day because it is cheap. Sometimes they have meat or vegetables with it. It is gross without something with it. The villagers eat with their hands not utensils.
It sounds like it is soon back-to-school time for all of you. The school year here starts in January so they are coming up the end of their school year. They have a shorter summer vacation, but have a lot of vacation days throughout the year. We hope all of you kids enjoyed wonderful summer vacations and are excited to be back in school.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Halfway Through Winter
We have just reached the half-way point of winter and so far it has been surprisingly mild. Most of the days warm up in the mid-to-high 60’s and sometimes the 70’s, but the evenings get quite cool. So far we have survived without using our heaters by just adding sweaters, jackets or blankets. In many ways it is more comfortable than the hot summers. We have forgotten how hot it got in the summer but we’ll get one more chance to remember it!
So far we have only talked to Dan, but it sounds like everyone had a great time at the Pismo reunion. We’re sorry we were not there to enjoy the fun. But there is always next time, I guess. We are now convinced that things work better when you guys plan them rather than when we do. Let us know how each of you enjoyed it and send a few photos if you have them.
This past week we have been plagued with no-shows which usually mean a lot of wasted time and driving. Dependability is not a strong point here so even when you are helping someone at their request, it is not uncommon for them to be no-shows. I guess it is a cultural thing because it is very common. And even though everyone has a cell phone, they rarely let you know they will not be there. And if they do, they send a text and ask you to call them because they can do that for free while calling cost money which most of them don’t have. We have learned to roll with it—at least most of the time.
Mom has been teaching a lot of the ladies and young singles how to sew. We had several ladies here the other day making shopping bags and several finished one—their first sewing product. They were extremely excited about their successes. It’s good to see them learn something and be successful at it.
We have been working a little more with Perpetual Education Fund (PEF). We have about 6 people we are working with presently. We helped one young lady get into college and it looks like she might get a grant and be able to complete school without a loan. That would be great news for her if it works out. It’s always better if they can complete schooling without a loan. There appears to be quite a lot of government grants and scholarships for people in the villages. We are learning quite a bit as we go along. We are expecting someone shortly from Zimbabwe for PEF help.
We have had a lot of activity here at our apartment complex. One of the apartments’ ceiling started to drop on the second floor, and an investigation uncovered that one of the roof trusses had broken and causing the ceiling to sag. So they removed all the ceiling and have had a lot of workers here all week repairing that apartment and doing repairs on the other apartments as well. Luckily we are on the first floor so we have not had as much excitement (pain) as those upstairs.
Tomorrow we are leaving for a long day to Mokopane and back, with a brief stop to Polokwane. It is about 6-7 hours driving time, but we are looking forward to getting out.
We hope all of you are doing well, and recovering from a fun week.
So far we have only talked to Dan, but it sounds like everyone had a great time at the Pismo reunion. We’re sorry we were not there to enjoy the fun. But there is always next time, I guess. We are now convinced that things work better when you guys plan them rather than when we do. Let us know how each of you enjoyed it and send a few photos if you have them.
This past week we have been plagued with no-shows which usually mean a lot of wasted time and driving. Dependability is not a strong point here so even when you are helping someone at their request, it is not uncommon for them to be no-shows. I guess it is a cultural thing because it is very common. And even though everyone has a cell phone, they rarely let you know they will not be there. And if they do, they send a text and ask you to call them because they can do that for free while calling cost money which most of them don’t have. We have learned to roll with it—at least most of the time.
Mom has been teaching a lot of the ladies and young singles how to sew. We had several ladies here the other day making shopping bags and several finished one—their first sewing product. They were extremely excited about their successes. It’s good to see them learn something and be successful at it.
We have been working a little more with Perpetual Education Fund (PEF). We have about 6 people we are working with presently. We helped one young lady get into college and it looks like she might get a grant and be able to complete school without a loan. That would be great news for her if it works out. It’s always better if they can complete schooling without a loan. There appears to be quite a lot of government grants and scholarships for people in the villages. We are learning quite a bit as we go along. We are expecting someone shortly from Zimbabwe for PEF help.
We have had a lot of activity here at our apartment complex. One of the apartments’ ceiling started to drop on the second floor, and an investigation uncovered that one of the roof trusses had broken and causing the ceiling to sag. So they removed all the ceiling and have had a lot of workers here all week repairing that apartment and doing repairs on the other apartments as well. Luckily we are on the first floor so we have not had as much excitement (pain) as those upstairs.
Tomorrow we are leaving for a long day to Mokopane and back, with a brief stop to Polokwane. It is about 6-7 hours driving time, but we are looking forward to getting out.
We hope all of you are doing well, and recovering from a fun week.
Friday, June 22, 2012
It's been a long time...
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.
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.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Kruger Park
Well, a lot has happened since our last email, so here comes the update. First of all, we did move from upstairs to downstairs. It turned out to be quite a hassle which took more than a week, but we should finish by tomorrow. There were a lot of loose tiles in our flat and the one below us so they decided to replace them during our move process. We won’t bore you with all the details, but it just took longer to get the tile torn out and replaced than planned. The good news was that the tile workers helped move the heavy stuff downstairs so we didn’t have any broken backs or sore muscles. We are now officially in apartment 2 instead of 4, but since we use a PO box, there is no change in our mailing address.
We did make it to Kruger Park and had a wonderful time. There were 9 couples and a friend who made the trip. We drove through the park with 2 couples/car on a self-guided trip. We saw an abundance of many different animals except the cat family. One of the cars saw three different cats—Lions, Cheetah and Leopard, but they were the only ones. We saw an abundance of elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos, rhinos, zebra, warthogs, cape buffalo, all kinds of animals from the deer/antelope family, pretty birds, etc. We didn’t think we would be able to get too close in the car, driving on a paved road in the park, but the animals were not bothered at all by the cars. Perhaps they viewed cars as just another type of animal with wheels instead of feet. They would cross the road in front of us so we would have to wait. We spent a total of 12 hours in the park and it was very exciting to sight each new animal type.
On our way to Kruger Park we stopped at a place called pot holes (separate from those found in the road). We travelled with the Mihu family and took pizza to eat. While we were eating our first piece of pizza, a monkey jumped up on the table and grabbed the plastic bag with the remaining pizza pieces and ran away. It bit through the plastic and then it and some of its friends took our pizza up a tree and ate it in front of us. We never realized they were so aggressive, but soon found out differently. So we had a light lunch! We have attached a photo of the culprits.
Yesterday we had the BYU Ambassadors perform here in Tzaneen. They put on a wonderful performance which was attended by many non-members. This is a very small city for a group like this, so everyone we talked to was very impressed. Hopefully this will be a positive thing for missionary work here. The Mihu’s (other senior couple in Tzaneen) and us were in charge of feeding the 40+ performers before they did the show. It was fun getting to know a them and then watching them perform. Unfortunately, people in the villages could not come because of money and the fact that there are no taxis that run past 7pm. We did invite a couple of teenage girls from the village to come and we paid their way so they could enjoy it. They were so excited.
The Ambassadors are going to put on a fireside outside tonight at the church for free and we expect that to be very good.
A week from today we need to travel to Johannesburg for a one-day CES meeting. We will be staying in the same hotel as a couple who were in the MTC with us and we always enjoy being with them.
Tomorrow we will move our bed from our office to the bedroom and unpack the rest of our things. We will try to finish up our monthly reports over the next couple of days and then continue with our May training.
Mom stumbled over an extension cord here in our flat and hit her hand real hard on the tile floor the day before we went to Kruger Park. We waited a few days for the swelling to subside and had it checked by the doctor this week. Fortunately there was no fracture, just some torn ligaments so the Dr thinks everything will be healed in a few weeks.
The weather has been beautiful here the past several weeks. We hope it will continue that way, but know it won’t. We only own one blanket which we have only used a few times so we need to get to the store before it gets too cold. The mission home delivered a couple electric heaters this week for our use when needed. None of the flats have any kind of a heat source as we have mentioned before. Since electricity is expensive, we will have to use the heaters sparingly. So I guess it is layers, layers, layers.
We have included photos of the thieving monkeys and some elephants. We took the elephant photos from the backseat of the car and got a little rearview mirror in it so you would know we really took it, and how close we were. We will eventually send the rest of the photos to Kim. We have not gone through to select the “keepers” yet.
We did make it to Kruger Park and had a wonderful time. There were 9 couples and a friend who made the trip. We drove through the park with 2 couples/car on a self-guided trip. We saw an abundance of many different animals except the cat family. One of the cars saw three different cats—Lions, Cheetah and Leopard, but they were the only ones. We saw an abundance of elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos, rhinos, zebra, warthogs, cape buffalo, all kinds of animals from the deer/antelope family, pretty birds, etc. We didn’t think we would be able to get too close in the car, driving on a paved road in the park, but the animals were not bothered at all by the cars. Perhaps they viewed cars as just another type of animal with wheels instead of feet. They would cross the road in front of us so we would have to wait. We spent a total of 12 hours in the park and it was very exciting to sight each new animal type.
On our way to Kruger Park we stopped at a place called pot holes (separate from those found in the road). We travelled with the Mihu family and took pizza to eat. While we were eating our first piece of pizza, a monkey jumped up on the table and grabbed the plastic bag with the remaining pizza pieces and ran away. It bit through the plastic and then it and some of its friends took our pizza up a tree and ate it in front of us. We never realized they were so aggressive, but soon found out differently. So we had a light lunch! We have attached a photo of the culprits.
Yesterday we had the BYU Ambassadors perform here in Tzaneen. They put on a wonderful performance which was attended by many non-members. This is a very small city for a group like this, so everyone we talked to was very impressed. Hopefully this will be a positive thing for missionary work here. The Mihu’s (other senior couple in Tzaneen) and us were in charge of feeding the 40+ performers before they did the show. It was fun getting to know a them and then watching them perform. Unfortunately, people in the villages could not come because of money and the fact that there are no taxis that run past 7pm. We did invite a couple of teenage girls from the village to come and we paid their way so they could enjoy it. They were so excited.
The Ambassadors are going to put on a fireside outside tonight at the church for free and we expect that to be very good.
A week from today we need to travel to Johannesburg for a one-day CES meeting. We will be staying in the same hotel as a couple who were in the MTC with us and we always enjoy being with them.
Tomorrow we will move our bed from our office to the bedroom and unpack the rest of our things. We will try to finish up our monthly reports over the next couple of days and then continue with our May training.
Mom stumbled over an extension cord here in our flat and hit her hand real hard on the tile floor the day before we went to Kruger Park. We waited a few days for the swelling to subside and had it checked by the doctor this week. Fortunately there was no fracture, just some torn ligaments so the Dr thinks everything will be healed in a few weeks.
The weather has been beautiful here the past several weeks. We hope it will continue that way, but know it won’t. We only own one blanket which we have only used a few times so we need to get to the store before it gets too cold. The mission home delivered a couple electric heaters this week for our use when needed. None of the flats have any kind of a heat source as we have mentioned before. Since electricity is expensive, we will have to use the heaters sparingly. So I guess it is layers, layers, layers.
We have included photos of the thieving monkeys and some elephants. We took the elephant photos from the backseat of the car and got a little rearview mirror in it so you would know we really took it, and how close we were. We will eventually send the rest of the photos to Kim. We have not gone through to select the “keepers” yet.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Big move
Dear Family
It’s time to give you an update and let you know we are still alive and well. We have been busy making our monthly rounds to each of the seminary teachers or their classes. It has been very rewarding to see the classes that have worked out well, but also frustrating to see some which have fallen apart. These people go through so much just to make a class work. Most of them have so far to walk to go to and from seminary that it takes several hours. With the winter season on us and the shorter daylight hours, some of them do not have enough hours to get from school to seminary to home before it gets dark. It’s unwise to have any of the students, especially the young women, out walking alone after dark, so we are trying to adjust seminary times and do other things to keep the program working.
This weekend we travelled to Mokopane to visit a seminary class. The teacher is a young man who just returned from a mission and is having trouble finding a job. The branch president called him to teach both seminary and institute so he has been very busy. We attended his class and were very impressed with the good job he did. We spent the night there since it was about 3-4 hours drive, and came home the next morning.
In order to keep the travel cost down for the teachers, we have been having private meetings at teachers’ homes instead of bringing everyone together in a group. We have one city, for example, where the chapel is located, but there are no seminary kids nearby. But there are three “at-home” seminaries over an hour away in each of three different directions so we are trying to visit each of them separately. This makes a much bigger challenge for us, but so far we have enjoyed this approach because we get to see people as they really live, and understand better the challenge they and their students face.
Today is mom’s birthday but it has been too busy to celebrate it. She had to speak in two different sacrament meetings, teach primary in one and RS in the other, and then we both taught a temple preparation class to a young lady about to get married in the temple. Tomorrow we are going to spend our P Day with 8 other young elders and another senior couple, providing a lunch for them and playing Jeopardy using the messages from the recent General Conference. I plan on buying a birthday cake and celebrating her birthday there.
I just took a brief break to chase a large moth (about the size of a canary) out of the house. It’s still warm enough that we keep our door open most of the time so get surprised with a variety of critters from time to time.
We have decided to move downstairs the end of the month so we have been packing our things the last couple of days in between our trips to some of our teachers. We like the second floor better for security and view, but will welcome the few degrees cooler next summer after we move downstairs. There will be no change in phone numbers, addresses, etc. since we go the PO to get our mail.
We are joining a small group of seniors this Thursday to go to Kruger Park, the largest reserve in South Africa. We are looking forward to that trip. We will spend Thursday and Saturday traveling (5-6 hours each way), but will have Friday to drive through a portion of the park on a self-guided tour. Most people who do this see lots of animals so we are hoping for good luck! We have an entrance to the park only an hour away, but we thought this would be fun to do together, and we have been told this particular area has the highest animal density.
On May 5 the Ambassadors, a BYU singing/dancing group, is going to perform in our city. It’s unusual that they would come to a place so small so it will be interesting to see what impact they have on the missionary work. We will be involved in helping provide two lunches for 60-70 people—that’s something the seniors get a lot of experience in. We’re looking forward to the show.
In June they are having some kind of a Senior Missionary get-together in Johannesburg, sponsored by the mission president and his wife. We have no idea what we will be doing, but it is always fun to get together and meet new people.
I guess that is all of the news for now. We are including another photo as an attachment.
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