There is beauty all around – the jacaranda trees are in bloom. A good shot of Mary and I am not sure how I got a picture of me on my camera. I am glad we have a cell phone except when it rings during a meeting or after I am asleep. If I turn it off I never remember to turn it back on – maybe that is a good thing.

Us with Elders Babeeyo and Mholo. The Empangene District – Mholo, Babeeyo, Maremela, Mokopotsa, Richey, Musemare – at their last DDM. The Richards Bay branch had a great Helping Hands project and made this poster for the foyer.

The first picture is of the car that the angels who helped us find the right place were in. I think this is the first peacock we have seen in South Africa – we did see some in Swazi. Beautiful flowers grow everywhere.

Mary is standing in front of the main police station in Kosi Bay. We all got a laugh from this sign but of course it is not a laughing matter since a whole generation or two has been wiped out by AIDS. I was going to send a picture of this car to Elder Johnson and say it was the recovered car but I resisted. The mission car looked OK on the outside and has now been towed back to Durban.

I started to go back and put these pictures in the posts that they belong but decided that was too much work and probably no one would see them because they had already read the old posts.

These pictures from our September 21 zone trip to the game parks proves that Mormons do have horns.

I will not put very many pictures from this drive on the blog because there are already so many. But I thought these were good enough to share – especially the one of the large animal in the tree. I think it must be related to the babboon in some way. Sorry Elder Weaver I could not resist.

Elder Petersen wanted to get a good shot of this elephant. To try to get it closer, Elder Weaver is holding out a large container of peanut butter. Luckily it did not work but he did managed to get a large quantity of the peanut butter on the side of the car where it did not look like peanut butter.

About a month ago we got these three beautiful pictures from Olivia of ourselves and her as missionaries. We have put them on the side of the refrigerator where everyone can see them. In the middle of September we finished our latest puzzle. We have not decided it we will bring them home or not.

This morning I took these pictures of the huge pink bottle bush and the unusual tree that sits right off the patio at Crystal Stream Manor. It was a beautiful morning until about 8 a.m. and then a coastal layer of fog seemed to roll in.

A last picture of the Richards Bay District. Tomorrow evening Elder Petersen and Elder Muthoka, who are in the front, will be gone  and Elder Otieno and Elder Weaver will have new companions, who have only been out 6 weeks, to finish training. I will miss both of these elders but know they will serve well in their new areas.

07 October 2009 – Wednesday

Slept well and had an enjoyable morning. I sat out on the patio and read the first few chapters of Alma and the start of the Nephite nation under the judges. It is not a pleasant period with lots of death but also where there are many who live righteous lives – even when they are well off – something that does not happen often in the Book of Mormon.

We enjoyed having breakfast with the Knudsens and we were able to learn more about their area. Since they are in the same district and zone, they often work closely together. The branches in the townships seem to be solid and the district is functioning well.

The Barts picked us up at 9:00 and we headed home to Richards Bay. As we traveled along the Bs realized this would be the last time they would travel that way as missionaries. There will be a lot of ‘last times’ for them in the next 10 days. We stopped at the Super Spar in Ballito where we were able to get real Campbell’s tomato soup, egg noodles and lasagna pasta. We did not find any of the Dr. Pepper that sister Mann said she saw there a week or so ago.

When we arrived home we expected to have some lunch, a quick nap, and then head to Esikhawini. Unfortunately we had a rather large and wet surprise waiting for us in one of the bathrooms. It seems that the valve on the toilet that I opened wider so it would fill faster leaked and there was water in the bathroom, hall and two of the bedrooms. Luckily it had only been dripping for about 26 hours and so it was not very deep. However it took quite a while to clean up the water but I needed to wash the floors anyways so it was not a complete waste of time.

The only real problem – and we will not know for a while how big it will be – is that I had put Mary’s computer under the bed in one of the rooms that got wet. Thankfully the water was not deep where it was, but it was wet on the bottom. Mary used the air only setting on her hair dryer to dry up any moisture we could see and we are going to let it set for a couple of days before we turn it on. Hopefully it will be fine but if not we hope the hard drive is OK because there are pictures that we have not backed up. Everything else can probably be found on one of the external drives we back up on.

I should mention that today we got a small feel for what it will be like in Richards Bay in a couple of months – that is hot and humid. By the time I was done getting up the water and drying the floor, I was exhausted. So once I put all the wet towels in the washer I just went to bed and we will do what we were going to do this afternoon tomorrow.

After I woke up I drove down to the mall to pick up the repaired speaker system for Esikhawini. While I was waiting for them to bring the unit to me, I talked to the young lady who was at the counter and mentioned that it was warm today. She didn’t think so – she said it was still winter weather. But she did warn that December and January are terrible. 

I went to the bookstore to see what they had on sale. As I was browsing the books, I heard a voice call out ‘There is Elder Pier.’ I turned to find two elders coming towards me. They eagerly shook my hand and asked how I was. I found out they were elders Tembo and Nkosi who are now serving in Swazi and they were on the way to Durban for transfers tomorrow.  I must confess I did not recognize either of them and am not sure how they recognized me. I am pretty sure that we have not served with them and the only place where we could have met was at  All Zone a few months ago. But we were all wearing Swazi ties and I was able to ask about the Manzini branch and talk about the way the work is blazing in Swaziland. When we said goodbye I said that we would see them next week in Richards Bay for Zone Conference.

Good news! We looked at Mary’s computer and it seemed dry so we decided to see if it would open without catching on fire and thankfully it did fine. I count this as a tender mercy of the Lord.

While eating dinner and afterwards we watched and recorded the audio of Elder Holland’s talk on the Book of Mormon and then I recorded Elder Renlund talk on the way to keep our spiritual heart strong Elder Sitai’s talk that includes a comment on labola (the African version of a dowery) and Elder Choi’s talk on the 9 rowdy boys. I am going to try to use all of them in either Priesthood or Youth meetings over the next few weeks.

Yesterday I forgot to write about transfers. Elder Richey called to tell us that Elders Mokopotsa, Petersen, Mholo, Muthoka, and of course himself are leaving the zone. That means all the companionships will change tomorrow. We always dislike to see the elders we have come to know and love leave but it is also exciting to meet the new ones that come in. Two of them will be from the new group of 15 who are coming in today – which we will not know until after they get here.

At a little after 9:00 we went over to the Richards Bay district boarding to say goodbye to Elders Petersen and Muthoka. We let them know we would miss them and wished them well in their new areas. Elder Petersen will once again be in a white area – he is becoming a specialist in white areas. I told Elder Muthoka that if he did not get his drivers license he would find himself walking  the rest of his mission. We left them some Magnum bars to snack on while they packed. They head for Durban and their new areas tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. so I am sure they will be up most of the night.

06 October 2009 – Tuesday

I should mention that we either get weekly letters or read weekly blogs from a number of our friends on missions. Sister Creer writes about their week as they preside over the Ireland, Dublin mission, Elder and Sister Taylor are now reporting on their new mission as office couple in New Jersey, and Elder and Sister Nelson usually write about their mission in Nauvoo. The Mickelsen’s and Sister Mann write weekly blogs about their mission here in South Africa. Each letter or blog reflects the differences in our experiences but they also reflect the similarities we share as we work with wonderful young missionaries, other couples, and of course the great members. I doubt if those who have not been on a mission as a couple get quite the same feeling from these blogs and letters as those of us who have or are now serving.

Listening to Elder Renlund’s conference talk about how we must keep taking care of our changed spiritual hearts just as those who have a transplanted heart must take care of their new physical heart. He told a story about how he found himself drifting away from the patterns that keep our spiritual hearts well and how he caught his error and changed. This goes along with Elder Bednar’s talk about how consistency is an important part of our spiritual lives. I did not know he was a counselor in our Area Presidency.

 

Elder Weaver said the reason he was wearing this T-shirt and not his white shirt was because he had washed them all and they were not dry. Nice try Elder Weaver! The Richard Bay elders came over to try and make copies of some DVDs for elder Peterson. Unfortunately we did not have a good transfer program so they could not get it done before the Barts showed up so we could go to Durban for a meeting.

Sister B was feeling a little better – still not really well – so the trip was filled with lots of good talk about the mission, family, etc. They showed us where the Stake Patriarch lived in Salt Rock and then we had lunch at our favorite restaurant in Ballito before going on to Durban and our boarding at Crystal Stream Manor. We got the same big room we had last time which is quite nice and comfortable.

We went to the mission office and were soon joined by all the couples in the mission. It was a kind of mini-couples conference. Before the meeting started I had a good talk with Elder Markum where he told me some of his interesting baseball stories. He has had a life that is full of sports – as a participant, a coach and an official.

All of the senior proselyting elders plus elder Mickelsen met with President Mann to discuss the mission and the plans for the future. Before we started, Elder and Sister Helms who are the area Public Relations directors for the area talked to us about how we could get more involved with the community and help get the church good press. I wrote down a couple ideas and will try to find time to pursue them.

There is still no word on any couples coming to the mission so it seems we are going to go it alone in Richards Bay for the foreseeable future. There was good news that the Mickelsens may be able to come up and help at least one Sunday and a few weekdays each month. Any help will be greatly appreciated. While thinking of the Mickelsens, I should mention that they have been without any internet for a week and that is why they have not posted to their blog this week. They thought that they might get it back later in the day- hopefully they will.

It was a good open meeting with everyone sharing their troubles and triumphs. At the end President Mann asked Elder B to share his testimony and he truly poured out his heart about his love for the people and the work.

After the meeting we adjourned to the new Butcher Boy restaurant in Hillcrest where we enjoyed a great meal and lots of good discussion with the other couples. We shared a table with the Sessions, Barts and Ladysmith Wilsons.

The reason Sister Sessions is not in either of these photos is that I did not get any of her that she would want to see on this blog. I am not sure the Bartholomews will appreciate their picture either.

Sister Sessions is a real hero in my books. When they got their call to come to South Africa, she said she would not go because she was afraid for her safety. But she decided that their call truly came from a prophet of God and so even though her fear did not go away, she agreed to come. When she got here she continued to be afraid and it did not help that they were assigned to work in a huge township where they were often the only white people around. But as time passed she came to love the people, served them, and now is finding it hard to leave them. I told her she was my hero because she was willing to walk into the darkness until she came to the light.

But the Lord had even more challenges for her. When the office couple finished their mission and there were none coming to replace them, President Mann asked them to take their place. Sister Sessions had no computer training and her new call was almost all done on the computer. But once again she accepted the call and has done an excellent job. What a wonderful experience it is to know and work with such dedicated couples and see their great testimonies in action. The Sessions will leave South Africa this weekend, but I doubt if Africa will ever be far from their thoughts for the rest of their lives.

I spoke to the President about the idea of renting a retail space in Kosi Bay as a chapel. He said it sounded like a good idea so I am going to call Iras and find out what he pays and if there is another space his size that we might rent. President Mann said we should get maps we need to get the paperwork started to make Kosi Bay a branch.

After dinner we rode with the Knudsens back to our boarding. It was a busy day – not hard but busy – and I was glad to go to bed. I tried to read from D&C 1 but my mind was too tired so I soon turned off the light and went to sleep. Another day that approached being a two mite day.