Another African Experience

It has only been a couple of weeks since we belatedly updated our blog but we feel we need to update you now. February 22nd we lost four great elders that we miss already, but we gained four new wonderful elders. What sharp young men they are! We love them already. 

Our new Elders in Richards Bay waiting to go on a game drive:
left to right:  Elders Armstrong, Fokuo, Shokane and Kamara

 Elder and Sister Heninger, the mission public relations couple, came into town on Wednesday, the 23rd, and we had the privilege of meeting them and hosting them. I took them with me to District Council, that evening, and they gave a very enthusiastic presentation to the council. It was close to 9 PM when I was able to come home and I was quite tired. We all talked for a while and then we all retired for the night about 10 PM. Normally we leave our bedroom door open but since we had guests we closed it. At about 4:30 AM Yvonne got up to have a drink of water and went into the kitchen and noticed that the sliding glass door was wide open. I was walking up about the same time and I heard her gasp. She immediately realized the television was gone. We looked into the office and our computer was gone. Then we looked out the window and saw that our car was also gone. We had been robbed, while we slept just a few feet away. They had entered by cutting the lock on the rear steel grate over the sliding glass door and then pried the door open. How blessed we were that we hadn’t awakened and startled them. We looked around and we had been cleaned out and our guests too lost their computer. To say the least it was a sickening feeling, not so much at what we had lost, but that intruders were right in our home just a few feet from us. It is not an unusual occurrence in South Africa but a first for us. The Heningers were scheduled to leave on Thursday but they decided to stay until we were situated. How grateful we are that they would offer to do that, after what they had just been through. They are truly gracious people. Without their help things would have been so much worse as we were now without a phone, computer and car. They had a cell phone and their car which they shared with us. Within the day we purchased a new computer. When it is all put into perspective, it has been a major inconvenience but it is behind us now.

Friday afternoon our good friends the Blackburns, who serve in Swaziland, came and brought us a car and a new telephone from the Mission office. How lucky are we?

Thanks to the Durban Mission we have a new car and a new cell phone!

The Blackburns stayed Friday night and on Saturday morning while Clyde was gone, Sister Blackburn found a small puff adder on our front step. Elder Blackburn got rid of it before Clyde got home (another tender mercy as you know about Clyde’s aversion to snakes)!

"Puffy" the puff adder is no more, but where is his mother?

We had a wonderful visit with the Blackburns, as we always do. We all attended the District Career Fair and District Social. They were both a success. Elder Blackburn met people from his first mission to South Africa as a youth. We had a super evening with the Blackburns, DeKlerks (whose farm we visited a few weeks ago) and the Petersens, the Employment specialists. The Blackburns had to leave early Sunday morning for Swaziland.

Eating fish and chips at the beach with the Blackburns

Elder and Sister Blackburn serve in Swaziland

Chivalry is not dead!  Elder Blackburn wipes the sand
from Sister Blackburns feet after she went wading in the Indian Ocean.

Richards Bay District social, a braai

Elders waiting for the food!

We are getting everything back into order; all new locks, and securing the sliding door; getting training on the security system on our home. We have had to put together our seminary class materials and records, since all of that was in the boot of the car along with many other things. The work goes on in spite of it all. We are wiser now and not quite as naïve. We know we are supposed to be here at this time. We know we were protected while we slept. Thank you for all the prayers in our behalf.



Yesterday, March 7th we went on a game drive with our Richards Bay Zone.  It was a very hot day and we didn't have a lot of time.  Consequently, we saw very limited wildlife but it was great to be together.  It is such a great blessing to work with these strippling warriors!

Our Richards Bay Zone on P Day at the game park
top row left to right: Elder Fokuo, Sister Nuzman, Elder Castleberry, Steve Killick (our guide),
Elders Tualufo, Shokane, Denning and Ngwenya.
bottom row left to right:  Elders Adams, Fisher, Nuzman, Kamara and Armstrong

                                                 We had to wait quite a while for our lunch.

                                        On our way home we had to wait for cows on the road:

Challenges Bring Forth Blessings

Goodness, can it be mid February and we don’t have our blog updated? Time is quickly passing, faster than we would like to believe. January started with a bang. Saturday morning, January 01, 2011 we received a phone call from Elder Hudson in Ladysmith asking if we had a burial kit. I told him we did but I would have to go to the chapel to get it. He indicated he would come and pick it up. Security had not been working on the building for some time and when I got into the building and opened the library (walk-in safe) everything was on the floor and I thought, “ what a mess in here” and then I glanced up and the ceiling had been kicked out. The building had been broken into and robbed. They gained entrance through the roof and cut the steel mesh and pulled it away and kicked in the ceiling. Later that day we had been invited over to the district president’s home for a braai (South African barbeque) and we had a wonderful time. The Baldwins are a wonderful family.

The pool built by President Baldwin and his sons.  It really looked  inviting!

During January there were two more burglary attempts on the building. On the second attempt the guard chased them off and the third attempt ended with the guard being sliced with a machete and then beaten by five men. He was able to set off the alarm which scared off the robbers. He had to be taken to the hospital to be stitched up. Now the guards are ordered to shoot to kill by the security company. We have had no more problems and the alarm system is now up and operational.

We assisted with transfers on January 11th and had to drive the bakkie (pick-up) down to Durban, to deliver Elder Rainibe and bikes and brought a brand new elder back, Elder Ngwenya, from Zimbabwe. He is doing great. The bakkie was a beast to drive in town (5 speed on the floor) and I had to shift with my left hand. Not fun. We were exhausted when we arrived home that evening.

Goodbye Elder Rainibe.  We will miss you!

Welcome Elder Ngweyna from Zimbabwe

Trainer, Elder Tualufo with his greenie.

January 13th we accompanied Elder Ndhlovu to court. He wanted our support, as he was run over by a hit and run driver back in November. The elders had been able to get the license number so the driver was caught. The judge came down hard on the man; some jail time, R6000 fine, and driver’s license revoked. No damages were awarded; I think because the elders had no idea of proper court decorum and were disruptive (talking among themselves) during the proceedings. Live and learn. A large part of our time is spent assisting the elders with their various needs. We love these young men and see them growing into great men of God.

Elders Nuzman, Mwita, Castleberry, Hall and Fisher
having lunch after DDM. at McDonalds!

    We had the opportunity to work with a family who was investigating the church, the Sunchaze’s. They are a father led family of four. The mother is a school teacher and has been battling cancer. They were baptized on January 16th and Elder Nuzman was able to perform his first baptisms in many years. He baptized the father and the son. We check on them as often as we can and have done a couple of family home evenings with them. We were blessed to be able to teach them the Eternal Marriage lesson. Such spiritual experiences.

The Sunchaze Family
Mellissah, Gugu,Shiangalah and Gabriel

The Sunchaze Family with the Elders who baptized them.


Family Home Evening with the Sunchaze family

 Yvonne had been feeling under the weather for a couple of weeks but just kept plugging away. She had been battling a fever off and on, headaches, body aches and then started breaking out. We had to go to Kosi Bay to visit a small group where we both spoke and visited less-actives. We stayed at a lodge overnight and Sister Nuzman asked me to check on a sore behind her knee, I recognized it as a tick bite. We couldn’t get her into a doctor until Monday. Sure enough that is what it was. She was put on a strong antibiotic, given a pain reliever and an antibiotic ointment. It has taken several weeks but she is much better but still doesn’t have the stamina as before. Since then three of the elders have had tick bites and the same symptoms.

January 26th we started our two seminary classes again after the summer break. We have some choice young people in our classes. We are trying to get them ready for a temple trip (Johannesburg) in late March. After seminary in Port Durnford we stopped in to visit Thandie Nzama’s grandmother, who lives next door to her. What a delightful lady! She is in her nineties. She only speaks Zulu but just kept hugging us and told Thandie that she really loved us. She supports herself by selling mats that she weaves while sitting on the ground. They use the mats to sit on and even sleep on. She insisted that we take a sack of lemons from her tree.

Sister Thandie Nzama, her grandmother and Sister Nuzman

We had the opportunity to visit the De Klerks (members of the Richards Bay Branch) at their farm, 2 ½ to 3 hours west of us, for our preparation day and we took an extra day. It was a great visit and what an operation they have! It is very remote and isolated. They are building a large home on top of high hill overlooking their huge tract of land thousand of hectors. We were able to go with them as they sold milk, bananas, mangos and other produce. They are a wonderful couple and have had two sons assisting them with this operation.

Driving across one of three rivers we had to cross

They literally see no neighbors. Their water supply comes from
springs from atop the mountains.

Paul and Susan De Klerk and Elder Nuzman sorting mangos

Want some bananas?

One of the frogs we met in the house.  They eat all the bugs!

Family compound where we sold fresh and sour milk and bananas

Holding out several Rand to pay for what she purchased

A beautiful view from the house

Some of the neighbors several kilometers from their house

We had to leave on Tuesday morning and on the way home we were nearly hit by a semi. It scared us more than anything. Luckily the only damage to the car was a scraped bumper and fender. The truck tried to pass us on the left as we were making a left turn and to top it off the truck driver left the scene. We had appointments we had to get back for and we were almost late. Never a dull moment. The worst part was having to call in the accident report as Elder Zweifel has been inundated lately with accidents by the elders. Having one of the couples in one, as well, I’m sure was no fun.

We were lucky this is all the damage we incurred.

We finally broke down and bought a tv. The elders like to come to our boardings for DDM (district development meeting) and we have been using our computer to view training DVDs. It would take us a day or so to get our computer back functioning each time. It gets very lonely in the evenings and we have resorted to talking to our geckos in our kitchen window for social interaction. We will now occasionally watch mission appropriate DVDs and we can use it for training also. We will leave it for the next couple when we leave.

One of our gecko friends.  See the eggs she is carrying in her abdomen?

Sometimes they come inside to see us.

                                             

Elder Nuzman preparing for a talk.



 We have a transfer session coming up and we anticipate being hit hard. We always are sad to say goodbye to the elders who have to move on. We grow so attached to them but we always know that there are some new great young men coming. In preparation for transfers we have to visit all the boardings and do inspections and also inspect their vehicles. The elders really did a great job this inspection!

Our Richards Bay District Elders came by to say goodbye.
Elders Hall and Mwita are leaving us.  Hope we can keep in touch.

From Empangeni District we say so long, Elder Jensen .

And God be with you, Elder Shannon

Following are some pictures we thought were interesting:

 

Watch out for hippos.  We see this sign on our way to the post office.

Watch out for cows.  They roam free here.

One of many beautiful trees.

Houses in Ngwelezane, a township.

This beach is about 15 minutes from our house.

A ship coming into the port of Richards Bay.

Ships waiting to come in.



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!!!