Summer Holidays

As we began December and the holiday season, our teaching of Seminary came to a close as the school year ended.  School will begin again the middle of January.  Many members leave to return to families in other areas.  Many visitors come to the coastal cities to enjoy the beaches in summer.  We had never considered Richards Bay a tourist spot but we do have quite a nice beach area.  The mall and traffic have proven that many people have come here.  Our new Elders along with their companions are working hard and continue to seek out investigators. 

top left to right:  Elders Castleberry and Fisher
bottom:  Elders Adams and Tualufo

We had a Richards Bay District Conference on December 11th and 12th.  President Von Stetten and Elder Hill, from the Southeast Africa Area office, came with their wives. The Worldwide Leadership Training and the All Africa Conference dvds were shown.  We were in charge of refreshments for the district YSA fireside held Sunday afternoon.  We baked Christmas cookies and served them with a mixed berry ice cream and soda drink which was enjoyed by all in attendance. 

The following day was Elder Nuzman's 65th birthday.  It was P day so we took a game drive.  Elder Nuzman said he wanted to see an elephant and his birthday wish came true!

Bronze statue of a black rhino and the birthday boy!

The elephant on the other side of the river.

Can you believe how big these white rhinos are?

September 15h found us in Durban to atttend Zone Conference and our Mission Christmas party.  We again stayed at Little Haven with our new friend, Grace Rawlins. 

Mission Christmas party catered dinner

Mission Christmas Party

Our friend Grace Rawlings, owner of Little Haven

September 18th we attended the wedding of Richards Bay Branch members Mark Schwartzberg and Breeze Stander.

The Wedding Party
The groom's father and stepmother, Breeze and Mark

Then it was off to Swaziland for our mission couples conference.  Elder and Sister Davis and Elder and Sister Zweifel picked us up in the Opel van, referred to as "the box".  It was about a 3 hour drive to the border and then another 2 hours to where the conference was held. We stayed at the Timbali lodge in Ezulwini, Swaziland.  There were thirteen couples, including the mission president and his wife.  We had so much fun. We shopped at the local craft markets, took a game drive where we saw several animals we hadn't seen before, visited the cultural center there and ate and ate.  The weather turned very hot but we had a most enjoyable time.  We traveled back to our boarding on Christmas Eve just in time to get to the packed grocery store (there weren't even any trolleys -- shopping carts-- left to use) to purchase last-minute items for our Christmas dinner with the Elders.

Big John carving our drum

top:  Elders and Sisters Berry,Davis, Zweifel, Nuzman and Hudson
bottom:  Elders and Sisters Ward and Allred

Our hosts, Elder and Sister Blackburn, serving in Swaziland

Swaziland Cultural Center - dancing for us

Beautiful Swaziland

A village at the cultural center

Entrance to the Mkhaya Game Reserve

An endangered species of antelope
His horns are covered as it is rutting season

Our means of transport on the drive

The white rhino or flat lip

Taking a mud bath on a hot day

The black rhino (much more rare) also called the hook lipped
rhino.  Much smaller head than the white rhino

The mighty elephant

White rhino and baby coming out of the river

Notice how close she is to the side of the land rover.

Blue wildabeests



Albino wildabeests (very rare)

 

A pod of five hippos

The beautiful resort, Summerfield, where we had dinner

Do we look sunburned or what?

President Von Stetten showing the drum the couples
presented him.  It has the names of his family carved on it.

President and Sister Von Stetten

Typical rural Swaziland houses

President Von Stetten wants us to focus on training the various members of the branches as to what their responsibilities are in the organizations to which they are called.  This usually is done at the district level but he needs the couples to assist. This will be a challenge for us as we are helping in five branches and one group and many of the organizations have only a leader or president with no counselors, teachers or secretaries.  Adapt, adapt, adapt is what we will have to do.  We are losing new members within a few months because there is little or no fellowshipping, no home or visiting teachers, etc.  So we will be busy.  We will also be teaching Seminary in the branches if there is no teacher called.  That will begin the latter part of January.  We think we will try to spend a particular day of the week in each area, visiting, fellowshipping and teaching as necessary.  This looks great in planning but then we get distress calls from our Elders who have vehicle or other problems.  But we can never feel that we aren't needed.

Christmas was very quiet.  It was strange not to have children and grandchildren with us but we really enjoyed Skype!  How we admire the couples who served years ago with no means of communicating with their families except by letters!  They really sacrificed!!

Stockings for the Elders

Christmas Eve with my giraffe from Swaziland

Playing games on Christmas

More strippling warriors

Just relaxing at Christmas time

Following are a few pictures of interest:

Swazilsnd road sign
Watch out for warthogs!

Watch out for wildabeests!

President and Sister Vilane's baby girl, Nosipho, which means "the gift"

Isn't she the sweetest?  She is about the same
age as Mike and Natalie's, Eleanor.

Our Richards Bay and Nseleni Elders treated us to pizza on New Years Eve. They brought it over so we could celebrate together.  It was so sweet of them to think of us.  They had to get back to their boarding prior to the beginning of 2011.  We were entertained by the miriad of fireworks (crackers, they call them) set off by our neighbors.  There were all sorts of bottle rockets, etc.  It reminded us of years ago at home when anyone could set them off.  We were glad it had rained most of the day and everything was quite wet.  So here we are in a new year, 2011!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

With Gratitude in Our Hearts

Serving here in South Africa continues to be a learning experience for us. On November 13th we were asked to speak at a District YSA Fireside. We attended the planning meeting, prepared our talks and helped publicize the fireside throughout the district. We arrived early and greeted the young people as they arrived, mostly via taxi. We had a good attendance. At the conclusion of the talks a question and answer session was held and during this part of the meeting, the YSA president approached us and asked where we had put the refreshments. We were stunned! No one had informed us that the senior couple always brings the refreshments. We were in a township and all the stores were closed. So we had to beg forgiveness. It was most embarrassing. We are trying to help them understand that we are here to train and lend support, not do everything. We are willing to help but we need them to ask for the help.

The following day, Sunday, there were several baptismal services. We attended the service in Richards Bay as we had worked with the Elders and the investigator, Prince.

Elder Mwita in sweater, next to him, Prince and Elder Shumway in suit

On Monday, the 15th, we had a zone activity with the Elders. We went to the Hluhluwe/iMfolozi game park. Our friend, Steve Killick, helped with transport. With our pass and his pass we were able to take all the Elders into the park at no cost. We had lunch at Hilltop, a beautiful restaurant in the park. Everyone had a great time.

Steve Killick and us

Our stripling warriors of Richards Bay
Elders Jensen, Ndhlovu, Meistre, Mwita, Hall, Rainibe, Shannon, Ssesanga, Shumway, Denning

Anyone for a swim with this crocodile?

Check out the horn on this rhino!

On Saturday, the 20th, we had a District Relief Society Conference. Our theme was “Feed My Sheep”. We had a luncheon, served by Elders Nuzman, Shumway and Mwita. In the meeting that followed a sister from each branch told of a visiting teaching experience. One of the RS Presidents told how to be a better visiting teacher. We concluded by watching Sister Barbara Thompson’s talk on visiting teaching from this year’s Relief Society Women’s Broadcast. We had worked very hard to make it a beautiful event and were pleased to have nearly sixty in attendance. But wearing too many hats that day, the one that was forgotten, was the photographer. So you can’t see the beautifully decorated tables and the happy faces. I should have delegated that to someone else.

Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here in Africa but we had a dinner on Friday with all ten of our Elders. We even found turkey and cranberry sauce! The stores are stocking up for Christmas. We served turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie. The Elders brought side dishes and dessert. A big hit was Elder Shumway’s fruit salad! Everyone expressed gratitude for our many blessings.

They were thankful, but mostly hungry!

On Saturday we headed for the Kosi Bay area, where a small group hold church. (Kosi Bay is located 3 ½ hours north of here, about ten minutes from the Mozambique border.) Brother Iris Ohite and his wife escaped from the DRC (Congo), joined the Church in Tanzania and are now residing in the township, KwaNgwanase. Brother Iris, the Presiding Elder, has a tailor shop and presently the group is meeting in his shop. There is one other priesthood member who serves as his counselor. Our Elders go there once every six weeks to teach the investigators. There were twenty-three in attendance – eight adult members, three of whom were visitors, four adult investigators and the rest were youth and children. We had purchased a CD player to aid them in singing the hymns. Brother Iris had hymns playing early Sunday morning and a young man, a peace corp volunteer serving in a remote area, was in town, heard the music and joined us. He is from Oklahoma and is a member. Brother Iris is in the process of building a cinderblock building so that they can meet there for church. He is truly a man of faith. His goal is to return to the Congo but he wants to leave the group in Kosi Bay with a place in which to meet.

Brother Iris' tailor shop

Max Avery (peace corp volunteer), Elder Nuzman, Elder Iris and a young woman setting up for church

Most of the group

Elder Nuzman and Elder Iris in front of the "future church"

While we were in Kosi Bay we stayed at the Maputaland Lodge.  Our room was the end unit next to the driveway and a bamboo fence.  About 10:30 PM drums, chanting, shouting and dancing began on the other side of the fence.  This continued all night long until 5:30 AM!  It was some kind of celebration honoring their Zulu ancestors.  We didn't realize that a cemetary was on the other side of the fence.  Our sleep was somewhat disturbed.  At one point I awoke with visions of cauldrons of water boiling and us on the menu.
Actually we were in no danger. This township is more what you would expect to see in Africa.  As we left Kosi Bay and were heading toward the N2 (the main highway) we found giraffe in the field next to the road. There were zebra off in the distance as well.

One block off the main street they were doing their laundry.



Our lodgings.  Note the white dog that befriended us.

 

The dark coloring on this giraffe is beautiful.

December 2nd was transfer day.  We said goodbye to Elders Shumway, Ssesanga, Meistre and Ndhlovu.

They were here when we first arrived.  They taught us so many things.  We will miss them so much! We are welcoming Elders Adams (from Las Vegas, NV), Tualufo (from Mozambique), Castleberry (from Salem,UT) and Fisher (from West Valley City, UT).

Goodbye Elder Ssesanga and Elder Shumway!

The weather continues to be pleasant. When it rains, it cools things off. It is hard to realize that Christmas will come in the summer here.

We thought you might find the following pictures of interest:

A hibiscus tree in Nseleni

A snail African style  -  escargot anyone?

A new meaning of hands free
At the Boardwalk Mall in Richards Bay.  Women carry all kinds of things on their heads.