One of the things we miss serving here in Potchefstroom is access to a real game park. We were spoiled by being in Richards Bay on our last South African mission because we were just an hour away from two wonderful parks. To make up for this lack of seeing live animals, I spend some time each day looking in on the Tembe Elephant Park webcam. The other day I was happily surprised to find a pair of lions at the waterhole. It is only the 3rd or 4th time in over 5 years of checking Tembe that I have seen lions so I thought I would share. Hopefully we will get a chance to go up to Kruger National Park and see them and many other animals live! But until then these pictures will have to do.
I wrote this on Facebook in 2011 – it refers to a talk I gave back in 2008. As I read it I realized I would not change anything that I wrote. But I would add a sixth thing that I learned. For all my missions I have had the perfect mission companion!
I was looking through our Indonesian mission blog and came across some notes about a talk I gave after we got home. Now after going to South Africa I think they still sum up my thoughts…Bill
“Five Things I Learned on My Mission.â€Â
1. The Lord knows where I needed to serve. I included the thought that we teach young members “I’ll go where you want me to go†but when we get older that many decide that we know better where we should serve than the Lord does.
2. I really do belong to the Household of God – a Fellow Citizen with the Saints. (Ephesians 2:19) That no matter what branch we went to, we were immediately accepted and felt welcomed.
3. My Mission was more about learning than about teaching. I learned to have more patience, more faith, and to listen to the Lord. I learned from the leaders and the members on what it means to be faithful in adversity. That you do not need lots of money to be happy.
4. There are no sacrifices in serving a mission. (Mosiah 2:24)
5. Missions are like potato chips – one is not enough. Home is a wonderful place to visit between missions.
