Well we made it through the first month of our mission to South Africa. Hopefully next week we will get our internet and I can keep this blog up as I would like to.

To me it feels like we have been here much longer than a month. I mean that in a good way. I feel comfortable driving on the left side of the road – at least most of the time – I can get to most places that we need to go to without getting too lost – but thank goodness for Lia our faithful GPS – and I can remember some part of the name of at least 25% of the branch members – sister or brother said with a smile works for those I do not.

I think the fact that we have served other missions combined with our experiences in the church, makes it easier for us to adjust to wherever we are called to serve.

Of course we miss out family – especially since we can not easily contact them until we get the internet in our boarding. Of course we still have some chances to get e-mails and can spend a little time on Facebook. I think it also helps that while on our first mission we found that our children are quite capable of taking care of themselves and that we miss our grandchildren more than they miss us. Besides the few years of our being on missions is less than a second if you look at it from an Eternal perspective. We hope that we are setting an example for our children and grandchildren and they take the opportunity to serve as many senior missions as they can.

We have heard recently that there are 52 missions that have no senior couples and that there are about 3000 requests from mission presidents for senior couples. Missionary work would go forward more rapidly if they could fill those requests so we hope that couples reading our blog or visiting us on Facebook will “counsel with the Lord” and tell their bishops that they are ready to serve and serve often.