Have we been here three months already?

On Monday, October 4th, we went on a game drive. Brother Killick from the Richards Bay Branch wanted to take us. He is an amazing man but that is a whole other story. It was a wonderful preparation day. He took us to the Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Game Park. Brother Killick has a LandRover and it can go anywhere; what an exciting day! We saw lots of wildlife as you can see from the pictures. We had a great lunch at the Lodge.


Capetown Buffalo

 

Impala



Pregnant zebra with bird on its back



Male Nyala



More nyalas seen out the window of the lodge

Male Vervet Monkey





Vervet Monkey



Giraffe



Young Zebras

 

Baby Giraffe



White Rhinos

 

White Rhino with baby



Warthogs have to kneel to eat off the ground

We have fought ants for some time, thousands and thousands of them coming from everywhere, walls , windows, tile floors and we were fighting a losing battle. We called an exterminator and had the place sprayed and it is so nice to be bug free.

October 9th we had the funeral of Thandeka Shandu, a young 22 year old sister, who passed away from TB. She was the only member in her family. Her adopted gogo (grandma) belongs to another faith but wanted the branch to handle the services with a few deviations. We let them know how we would need to handle it and they agreed. The services went well and afterward they did a few Zulu traditions that were very interesting. Clyde was privileged to dedicate the grave. After the grave dedication, men from the family, friends and neighbors lowered the casket into the hole which they had dug by hand previously. One of the men jumped down into the hole and started laying small logs side by side across the casket and then another layer across the other direction. When that was completed, he climbed out and they all took turns filling in the hole with the soil (mostly sand) until they made a large mound. As the men were doing this the women were singing beautiful Zulu hymns. The cemetery was very humble.


Nseleni Cemetery



The resting place of Thandeka Shandu

 October 16th Clyde transported two Branch Presidents and one of the counselors in the District Presidency to Durban, 2 ½ hours away, early in the morning. The Mission Presidency, the Stake and District Presidencies, Bishops and Branch Presidents from the whole mission met together with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Steven E. Snow of the Seventy and Elder F. Michael Watson from the Africa SE Area Presidency for leadership training. What an experience it was to be taught by an Apostle of the Lord and other Church Authorities! Elder Holland shook hands and spoke with each person who attended.

Following the meeting, Clyde drove back to Richards Bay, dropping off his passengers along the way just in time to pick up Yvonne and drive all the way back to Durban in the pouring rain. By now it was dark and we had to find our way to a B&B, Little Haven, in Durban, a sprawling city of about six million. Our gps took us to the wrong area of the city, but after some tense moments, we finally found our way. Little Haven is very charming and Grace Rawlings is a gracious hostess but when we arrived she informed us that her husband, Brother Vic Rawlings, had passed away unexpectedly two days before. Her children were there helping her keep things going.


"Little Haven" Bed and Breakfast



Clyde and Grace Rawlings' dog

 

The amazing African Weaver building a nest

Sunday morning all the missionaries had an early morning meeting with Elder Holland. As the missionaries say, “He spoke with fire”! Again Elder Holland shook hands and spoke to everyone present. He reached up and stroked my cheek and said how appreciative the Brethren are for the service of the Senior Missionaries. I was touched. We later attended a Stake Conference in Durban, where we listened to him again.

We stayed another night and the weather was beautiful so we spent our preparation day seeing some of Durban, Sea World aquarium and dolphinarium. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!


Durban on the Indian Ocean

 

Yvonne at Ushaka Beach
Can you tell it is a little windy?

  

Beautiful fish at the aquarium

 

Large sea turtle



Great dolphin show

Tuesday we were back in the saddle, doing boarding inspections and car inspections for all ten Elders before transfer day. We had to say good-bye to Elder Skinner and we welcomed Elder Hall, a greenie from Pretoria, SA.



Saying good-bye to Elder Skinner who was transferred to Durban

Saturday, October 23rd we had a braai (SA version of a barbecue) with the Port Durnford Branch. About seventy people attended. It was the first time we have ever eaten steak, beef sausage and salad without utensils or napkins. The food was delicious! We made two batches of brownies and three loaves of banana bread and it was gone in a flash.



Some of the children of the Port Durnford Branch

 

Branch President Vezi preparing the beef sausage



Clyde, Sister Chirwa and Sister Vezi

Our boarding is often being used for district and zone development meetings. Sometimes we order pizza (10 large for all 10 Elders) for lunch following the meetings.

On Halloween Sunday we had the Elders for dinner. We couldn’t really party but we had the African Elders experience trick-or-treating to various rooms in our house where the American Elders handed out the treats. It was fun for everyone.
  



Our Ngwelezane Seminary class



Some members of our English class
Agnes Chirwa, and Thandile Nzama

 We are involved in missionary work in case you think all we do is party. We are now teaching Seminary in two branches, an English class and a temple prep class. We are often asked to speak in Sacrament meetings and teach Priesthood or Relief Society lessons, sometimes without prior notice. We are preparing three young men to go to the temple in December. We have been given permission to be their escorts. We are planning a second temple prep class and another English class in January. We sometimes are asked to help the Elders with discussions with their investigators. We are also constantly shopping for items for the Elders boardings, taking bikes to be repaired and paying for such things as driving lessons for which we are later reimbursed.

Time is now going very fast and we love every minute. We continue to be best friends forever!

Following are pictures you might find interesting:


Looking out over the pulp tree forests coming out of Nseleni.
These trees are cut down about every eight years and new ones are planted.

 

Sand roads in Port Durnford when it rains

  

You think you have seen potholes!

 

This was 4 PM in a rainstorm on our way home.


 

The Richards Bay Chapel
This is our Nissan Tiida.

 

A blue-headed lizzard on our gate.



Being on the east coast of Africa we don't have sunsets
over the Indian Ocean but we do have beautiful  sunsets.











Plugging Along in Service

It is now the 4tht day of October, so we have been in Africa two months. We hopefully have progressed and grown some. We have spoken at least once in every branch except Kosi Bay. We still haven’t been able to get up there as it is about 2 ½ hours north of here. Yvonne has been called as the councilor in the District Relief Society and I have been called to the District Council. We are teaching English out in the Port Durnford branch and help with seminary later the same day. Our English students are sweet humble women with strong testimonies, living lives uncluttered with the worldly things. The youth are amazing young people and we pray they will continue on the righteous road they are taking. We are attempting to help out in five Branches where we can. We end up doing a little of everything, from teaching classes to planning funerals.

Agnes Chirwa and granddaughter in front of their home

Elder Nuzman with Thobani Chirwa in front of his uncle's house.

Transfer Day was Thursday, September 9th. Every companionship in our zone was affected. So half of our Elders left and we welcomed five to our zone. We really love these Elders!

top l to r - Elders Ndhlovu, Shannon, Ssesanga, Skinner, Mwita, Jensen
bottom l to r - Elders Rainibe, Mutuku, Shumway and Meistre

September 15, 2010 we arose early, about 3:30 AM, to get ready and out the door and off to Durban to attend our session of the mission tour. Elder Dale Renlund of the 70 and Sister Renlund instructed us. President and Sister Von Stetten also gave us instruction. It was a super day. After the meetings we met with the Renlunds, Von Stettens and two additional senior couples for lunch at the Taco Zulu in Durban and were fed temporally as well as spiritually.

Saturday, September 18th, we did a presentation on food storage and “how to begin” for the Richards Bay Branch. We prepared several handouts and spoke to a group of about 15 people. It was fun but we had to qualify everything since all our materials were geared to food and people’s tastes in the U.S. We tried to show how they could adapt much of it. The District President’s wife prepared several dishes from food storage items to illustrate how bulk storage items could be used. The hot humid weather here creates a challenge for them as things go rancid and spoil very quickly. Metal cans rust and many people do not have air conditioning. Our theme was store what you eat and eat what you store. We felt it went well.

We have been asked to purchase and deliver Bishop’s (Branch President’s) food orders as needed. There are no Bishop’s store houses here so we have a standard list and we purchase the items and deliver the orders as well. The branches are not close to any stores and they do not have transportation to get to Richards Bay, so we do that. We delivered an order about 9 days ago to a very ill sister who was dying of TB. She was wrapped in a blanket on a couch and was just a little skeleton. She passed away yesterday. Her uncle died the day before in the same house. People in their 30’s and 40’s are mostly gone from disease; AIDS mostly; they will say cancer or TB and won’t admit to AIDS. There will be a missing generation. The gogos (grandma’s) are raising the children. You will see houses full of little children being raised by the gogo’s.

We were traveling out to one of the distant branches and on the way we looked into the cane field and there was a hippo grazing. My, what a huge animal, we knew they were large, but not as large as they are. We had to stop and take pictures. That was so fun. Last week we were taking an elder to Swaziland on a transfer swap and on the return trip we saw a small herd (about 8) of elephants down in the river drinking. That was a beautiful sight.

This hippo was as big as our car!

Elephants just south of Swaziland.

We do get lonely, as we don’t really have a chance to socialize much. We will see another couple perhaps at a conference but don’t have a chance to really visit. This week, however, the couple (the Blackburn’s) from up in Swaziland had to come to Durban and stayed with us overnight on Monday and then stopped for lunch on their return on Wednesday. That was a real treat. Elder Blackburn served in South Africa in about 1960 as did, I believe, my sister-in-laws brother, Dean Knight. Elder Blackburn had a companion named Elder Knight from Salt Lake. I am trying to see if there could be a link there. Wouldn’t that be something? Elder Knight passed away a few years ago.

Wasn’t conference great? We watched Saturday morning and afternoon sessions live on our computer; they came on here at 6 PM and 10 PM and could have (if I had known) watched the Priesthood session at 2 AM Sunday morning. I went to the church at 11 AM and watched Priesthood session and then we watched the Sunday morning and afternoon sessions on our computer live that evening. We had the missionaries over for dinner so they watched most of the Sunday morning session with us before we had dinner. We packed 10 Elders on chairs in the small room we use for an office and we watched from the doorway. It was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop as they listened intently to the prophet. It was a great weekend!

Elders watching and listening to the Prophet

Feeling our Way

On August 14th we participated in the Helping Hands Project here in Richards Bay. We sorted clothing into sizes and kinds (shirts, pants, shoes, etc.). It had all been stuffed in a huge metal shipping container and was just a heap of clothing. No one could use anything because there was no order to it. We spent about three hours and what a difference we made. We had a good turn-out with some members, investigators and the missionaries. We then went to the chapel where we all cleaned and then had lunch together.

 

Arriving at project site

The sorting begins . . .

Making progress

Project completed

The Richards Bay Crew

Sunday, August 29, 2010

It was a wonderful day today. It actually started yesterday morning when we received a call from Elder Peterson, the Mission Employment Specialist. He indicated that he had a package for us and that he would be at the Richards Bay chapel for another hour. I went over and picked it up along with some mail for Elders Shumway, Meistre, and Ndhlovu. I called Elders Shumway and Brinkman to make arrangements to get the mail to them and they indicated that they could meet us a about 1:00. We decided that we would go to Durnford Branch to church and meet Elders Meistre and Ndhlovu in Nseleni and follow them to the Durnford.; we called and made the arrangments. We met Elders Shumway and Brinkman and gave them the mail and asked if there was anything that we could help them with. Elder Brinkman asked if would go to an appointment on Sunday at 5:30 to a family they were teaching that needed a boost and we were of course excited to do so.

Sunday morning we got up extra early and left for Nseleni and met the two sets of missionaries at that boarding. I gave them their mail and then we followed them out to Esikhawini where we attended a PEC meeting at the Esikhawini Branch and then followed Elders Lwanga and Ndhlovu out to the Durnford Branch out through country you wouldn’t believe - dirt roads and pot holes the likes that you have never seen. We arrived at a very humble wooden building on a members property. What a spiritual feast the meeting was. They asked Sister Nuzman and I to speak. It is a 2 hour block so we had a combined priesthood/relief society taught by Elder Lwanga. The people are so humble and loving. We left having been spiritually filled and charged. Then we went home on a “paved” road with pot holes even worse than the road we came in on but it was worth every bump.

When we got home our dinner was about ready as it had been cooking in the crockpot. It was a good dinner and after it was all cleaned up we read and worked on the computer a little. We went over to Elders Brinkman and Shumways at 5:15 and then followed them over to the Muses (sp) family and they were all there except the father. There is the mother, terminally ill Granny, two sons, daughter and a young neighbor boy. Oh the spirit was there in abundance! We had a wonderful discussion on prayer and everyone participated and the mother and Granny, who has throat cancer and has a trach., bore testimony of prayer and expressed their gratitude for the Elders finding them. The two sons offered the prayers and everyone read from the scriptures except Granny. We all bore testimony to the family and everyone shared what they were thankful for and Granny said that she wanted to go to Church next Sunday. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was, words are not adequate. When we left they all shook our hands and thanked us and Granny gave us a hug.

We took the Elders back to their boardings and they asked if we would like to go with them to an appointment with Prince and Freedom whom we had met the week before at the helping hands project in Richards Bay. They live in a settlement not far from where we live and the Elders drove. It was out off the road down through little shanties and it was getting dark. We arrived to a little 2- room stone hut where the two brothers live and there was an electric cord on the ground going off to I don’t know where. The main room was only about 9 x 9. It was so humble. We had very spiritual meeting with them. They are reading the Book of Mormon and they shared what they had read and Prince offered the opening prayer. We had taken our laptop and the Elders showed a video of the first vision. They both said they knew it was true. Prince bore his testimony as did each of us. Freedom is shyer. It was a banner day. This is what missionary work is all about and to see these humble people working hard at searching for the Gospel is so gratifying.

Saturday, September 4th
 

Beautiful children!

Sister Moloi with Elders Webster and Kaseke

On September 4th we were asked to speak at a fireside held in Ngwelezane at the town library in the afternoon. We left Richards Bay early but on the way our GPS stopped working. Elder Nuzman had felt impressed to find a map to take with us the night before. It wasn’t a very good map and we got totally lost. We had also forgotten our cell phone (a very big mistake) and so we couldn’t call the Elders to come and find us. But Heavenly Father didn’t let us down and we found our way. We were about 20 minutes late but when we got there the fireside hadn’t started and didn’t start for another hour. They just kind of wait until everyone shows up.

Ngwelezane Branch President Mngadi

Since our GPS has stopped working we have been finding our way with directions left by the Piers (former couple here) and google maps that Clyde has downloaded and pieced together. Luckily we have been to some of the places before so we know the general direction.

New friends in Port Durnford

Port Durnford Chapel

One type of home in Port Durnford

Young boys who fill the potholes with dirt
We pay them for their valuable service.

On the road to Esikhaweni and the sugar cane fields

Houses on the way to Ngwelezane

It is transfer week so we will have to say goodbye to some of our Elders and welcome the new ones. Elder Brinkman is going home. We anticipate that every companionship will be affected by this transfer. These Elders are our heroes!

 Our Elders
front row (left to right) Mutuku, Brinkman, Ndhlovu, and Meistre
top row Ssesanga, Kaseke, Bentley, Lwanga, Shumway and Webster

Our First Two Weeks

Friday, August 27, 2010

We have been in Africa for just over 2 weeks now. It has been an interesting 2 weeks for us. We left Salt Lake City on August 9th at about 11:00 A.M. and flew to Atlanta, Georgia. It was a 4 hour flight and was quite uncomfortable and so we were really beginning to dread the 16 hour flight to Johannesburg. We had a layover of about 3 hours which gave us a chance to stretch and get something to eat as the Johannesburg flight indicated that we would only have a dinner and we were afraid we would get hungry. Our flight itinerary indicated that we were to be sitting together but when we checked in they had us separated. I was concerned as both our seats were middle seats and Yvonne needed to be able to get out so she could walk around a little, with her leg problems. They changed us and then we were together but we were way in the rear of the plane which really concerned Yvonne. When we finally boarded about a ½ hour late, we were in the back but our seats were in a two seat row. How great is that? There was a young woman just behind with a toddler and an infant and the children were very restless but since there were only 2 seats she wanted to move to see if she could get to where there were 3 seats and she was able to make the move so now we were set. They did serve a dinner but they also served snacks several times and drinks so our fears were in vain. It was a long flight but actually less uncomfortable than the Atlanta flight. We only slept for short periods but we did fine. When morning came we looked out and we were just off the coast of West Africa and we were surprised to see the coast was actually a desert with little if any vegetation at all. We arrived in Johannesburg about 5:00 P.M. and were approached by a missionary couple waiting for a couple, who flew over with us who are on an auditing mission for all the southern half of Africa. They showed us how to get through customs and then we went to our gate for Durban. While Yvonne was in the restroom a young African lady approached me and asked if I was here for a conference. I told her we were going to be serving in the South Africa Durban Mission and I was just waiting for next flight. She explained that she worked at the airport and was a member of one of the Johannesburg wards. We boarded our last leg of the trip on South African Airways which was virtually empty and had a good flight and were fed a meal; we were well taken care of.

We were met by our Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Von Stetton. We stayed the night in the mission home. Were we exhausted! The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast prepared by Sister Von Stetton and then went to the mission office across the driveway and received some instruction by President Von Stetton, the mission Secretaries, Elder Cunguara and Elder Christopher and the office couple, Elder and Sister Davis. We went out to lunch with the Davis’ and headed out to Richards Bay about 2 ½ hours north of Durban, driving on the right side of the vehicle and on the left side of the road (scary). The Davis’ thankfully took us there, they led the way in their car.

We arrived at our boardings (house) about 4:00 P.M. and were met by the District President’s wife, Sister Baldwin and her mother who were making our bed. About that time we could have crashed right then. Everyone soon left and we were alone in a strange house in a strange country and we were tired and lonely. Now, what to do? Well, first we needed some electricity and here you buy your electricity before you use it. So we went down town (with our GPS) to buy electricity but the office was closed and now it was dark. The roadways were teaming with people just wandering around and we had dropped the GPS somewhere on the floor of the car and we couldn’t find it and we didn’t know how to get home. We couldn’t just stop and get out to look for the GPS; we began to panic. Finally, we found a lit place where there weren’t any people and we got out and found it, put our address in and went home and locked ourselves in and basically hid for the night. We went to bed and died.

All locked in!

Brick walls surround all the homes with locked gates. 

Thursday, August 12th was a new day and we had lots to do. First on the agenda was to go back down town and buy some electricity. Then back to our place and start making it ours. We at first didn’t know if we really wanted to stay in this house as it is a lot bigger than we really need, about 2400 sq. ft, I imagine. It is a 3 bdrm, 2 bath house with a yard. It is the most expensive boarding in the mission and we thought perhaps we should find something smaller and less work. We finally decided to stay. That actually took a few days to decide but we started to get this place fixed up the way we want it. We changed furniture around, cleaned and cleaned, bought rugs, some tables, a vacuum, towels, pillows, linens etc. to start. We moved the office equipment from the back bedroom to the dining room and started going through all the supplies.

Our Living Room

View from the living room looking into kitchen.

Our kitchen - note the sink is in the next room.
Clyde calls it the scullery.

The front gate was not working and we needed that repaired as we felt very vulnerable. The house has a 6 ft brick fence around it with an electric gate, a security system, bars on all the windows and iron gates on all exterior doors. We needed to get our internet up and that required a phone system. Now you just can’t go down and sign up for everything, you have to jump through numerous hoops, which requires numerous trips down to the office after each step is completed. Today after over two weeks we are supposed to get our internet, we are keeping our fingers crossed. Our mission president told us how we could get internet temporarily (expensive) by purchasing a portable modem that you plug into a port and it works off the satellite, about the size of a pack of gum, which we did. You buy G’s of service, how much a G is we haven’t figured out but we bought what they said would be enough for a month. Yvonne spent a part of one evening trying to get it to work and we couldn’t, DRATS! The next morning I went in and noticed the SD card wasn’t pushed in all the way and IT WORKED! Yvonne got on the internet to see how we were doing financially and all of a sudden the Skype started ringing so we quickly hooked up the camera and answered it. It was Nicole (2 A.M. her time) still online and she noticed Yvonne had gotten on the computer, somehow. Well, we were elated, we were feeling a bit down and isolated by that time so we talked and saw them. Isn’t this an amazing time to be alive! Later that evening (for us), in the morning for them Nicole called again and the girls wanted to see us, so we talked again until something went wrong and it went out. We went down to the store and told them and we had used a months worth in one day. Skype evidently eats MG’s like candy. Oops! Lesson learned.

Our next door neighbors - the monkeys!

Now, what you say have they done as far as missionary work so far? Not much really. We met with the District President and he said that he wanted us to visit all 6 branches in the next 6 weeks, report to him and then he will make our assignments. We have visited 3 branches so far and we have spoken in all 3. The Richards Bay branch is fully functioning branch with a very nice chapel. The others are remote and very humble, two are in township libraries, one meets in complex of three portable buildings (Church owned), one is in a wooden shed about the size of a single car garage (Church owned building on a member's property) and the one furthest away (200 kl) we have no idea what it is.

We have gone down to the hospital to attempt to do volunteer work but we have to go back down and meet with the hospital admn. and show our ministerial certificates and passports and have an interview and then they will decide.

Being Senior Couple Missionaries isn’t a matter of just showing up and filling all the needs on the job description; we have to create the job. We had all 10 Elders over for dinner last Sunday and will continue to do this every other Sunday. What a great bunch of young men! Next week we will go out and visit all the Elders and do boarding and car inspections. I think that brings you up to date on us. Keep us in your prayers. Just returned from seeing Telkom (our internet provider) it won’t be hooked up until sometime next week they say. Oh well, we shall see. . .

MTC Experience

MONDAY, August 02, 2010

Greg and Gayle arrived at about 8:30 A.M. to pick us up and take us to the MTC. Off we went to begin this adventure. We had to be there between 10:30 and 11:00 and we arrived early; my feet were killing me. The kids let us off and unloaded us, we had to say some more hard goodbyes and we were on our own. (Greg and Gayle said that we had come full circle; we dropped them off on their way to the mission field and now they us).

Greg and Gayle pick us up to go to the MTC.

We had a short orientation and then had lunch in the large cafeteria with a sea of young missionaries. That was an experience in itself. You can’t believe how much those elders can eat! The food is good and unending so you have to have some self control. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there for the seven days we were there.

In our room with all our belongings.

Where  in the world is Durban, South Africa?

                                      

After lunch on Monday we again met with 25 couples in a large meeting room and met with the MTC presidency and our young return missionary trainers and started to work. It was a busy 5 days. With training starting everyday at 8:00 A.M. with short 10 to 15 minute breaks about every hour or hour and a half and a lunch break and then back to work until 5 P.M. and a study assignment for the evening. We had to learn teaching techniques and then use them in presentations the next day (it was scary but fun too). One evening we had a devotional that was good. We were broken down into 4 couple groups and worked with them the entire time. I was our district leader. We survived and they didn’t send us home on Friday, so we took pictures of our entire group of 50 and said goodbyes, some of them were leaving immediately, but we weren’t leaving until Monday morning so we stayed at the MTC for the weekend.

Elders and Sisters Lee, Mayo, Nuzman and Wright.

Our Group

                                 

Our Trainers

Saturday, we did laundry and then about noon, Jeremy, Nicole, Aurora and Eve arrived to take us to lunch. We had a great lunch at Mimi’s and then bless their hearts they took me to a SAS shoe store. I bought two pairs of shoes and Yvonne bought a pair of sandals, HEAVEN! Then again some more hard goodbyes and off they went. The rest of the day we packed, unpacked and adjusted bags so we wouldn’t go over the weight limits.

Jeremy, Aurora, Nicole and Eve

                                                

Sunday, we went to church and two great gatherings and listened to talks from the MTC presidency and their wives and also from the Kendricks an emeritus Seventy and his wife. It was super. The rest of the night we played with our luggage and got ready to leave at 6 A.M. on Monday morning.

Monday, we got up a 3:30 A.M., got ourselves ready and out the door by 5:30 for a 6:00 A.M. departure to the airport. We arrived at the airport early and Greg met us there. It was so good to see him as we were frazzled and he had a calming presence. He stayed with us until we boarded our plane at about 10:30 A.M..