Saturday was the first day for institute class for the new year. This year the course of study for institute and seminary is the Doctrine and Covenants. We got to the school just after the class ended.

From the picture above it seems they watched some DVDs and then had cookies and orange drink for treats. Sister Renny is one of the faithful institute students – she is a recent convert who loves to learn.

President Kwaikwai also loves seminary he and sister Renny were two of the first students from the Potchefstroom branch to graduate as indicated in a post below. Sister Thato also was at seminary and joined in to help clean and polish the floors for church the next day.

Sisters Georgina and Evelyn smiled as the worked and sister Thato also swings a powerful mop.  It is great sisters such as these that each week makes the rooms in a school into a space that is worthy of the Lord’s church services.

Another picture of sister Thato heading into another room to work while brother Omphile is busy with a broom. He is second counselor in the branch presidency and also the institute teacher. A man of many talents. Speaking of a man of many talents, brother David is very special. A recent convert who can not get enough of the gospel. He is always there to help at church, with the missionaries, and in inviting others to come to church.

Wow am I behind in writing text to go with these pictures. Each may be worth a thousand words but if you do not know what they are talking about it does not make a lot of sense. On Thursday Mary had Seminary which is followed by an activity night. There were 5 young men and women there and after the introduction to the D&C, this years subject, she had the YM and YW try a new came which is like Pictionary…it was not very successful because most of them either did not know the subject they were to draw or if they did not what to draw to get the answer. But they gamely tried and it ended up a tie.

We finished the puzzle that the elders started the day before. Since there was so many animals and not many areas where the color was the same it was pretty easy. Each morning I put out food for our feathered friends – this is a typical gathering of sparrow, doves, and weavers that drop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The large black-headed bird standing by the piece of old bread is a new one for me. It looks much like an overgrown weaver but I am sure it is too big to be one.

President Dunn drove over to our flat this so he could interview the elders in the Ikageng district. He interviews all the elders about once each 3 months. While the elders waited for their turn to be interviewed we kept them entertained with a new puzzle and church history videos. After the 6 elders were interviewed, the president interviewed 5 members from Jouberton or Klerksdorp to renew their temple recommends. Elder and sister Dummer brought those from Jouberton. This included brother Ayanda Mdlambuzi who will be leaving to serve in the London mission at the end of the  month. It should be an amazing experience for him and his family.

The Ikageng district with president Dunn, E/S Dummer and ourselves. Elders in front row – L-R Oldroyd, Rami, and Di Ruscio. In the back next to president Dunn – Taylor, McAllister, Liera, A great district of dedicated elders that we are privileged to serve with. From L-R – elders Liera, Rami, Di Ruscio and McAllister work on our latest puzzle of Noah’s Ark.

While the elders finished up, the members who came for interviews enjoyed watching Church History videos that Mary was wise enough to think to play.

Soon to be elder Mdlambuzi with president Dunn and then with his mother and the president. That is one proud mother and she should be.

This is not the puzzle the elders were working on. We finished this one last week. The zebras were challenging while the green turned out to not nearly as much fun. In fact Mary left most of that to me to work on.

For our YSA Family Home Evening this month we are concentrating on genealogy and the temple. There were only four men at the FHE but brothers Lebona and Rampai both came prepared and was able to at least 3rd and brother Lebona got some done on his 4th generation. They are super excited to get them on Family Search and then take the names to the the temple.

Brother Rampai met with Mary the next afternoon and was able to get his names into Family Search. It is wonderful to see how these men became involved in this important work for those who have gone before them.

Brother Lenona wrote this on his FaceBook page – “Finally i hve a testimony of de spirit of Elijah in my life…doing Genealogy for our familys it’s de best thing and most satisfying 4 yo spiritual growth.” There is certainly some spirits celebrating this work.

“South African Car Washes are on my mind…today I took our car into be washed – about $4.50 plus tip. As I waited and watched for about an hour, I thought of other times I had our car washed here. The first time was in 2009 in Swaziland. The car wash was 2 minutes from our house and I could always drive right in. However it took about 90 minutes for them to wash it and clean it inside and out. When we got to Richards bay and much more sophisticated wash – $4.00 plus tip – it only took about an hour as did the one today – $4.75 plus tip.

First the car is hand pressured rinsed, then soaped, then hand washed. Then it is moved to the detailing area where from 4 to 7 men and women go over and clean every inch of the car inside and out. Some areas are worked on two or three times.

By the time they are done there is not a speck of dust, let alone dirt anywhere they can get to without crawling under the car. My guess is that in the US the same wash would run about $25 – in fact in Florida that is about what it was but I stuck to the normal $10 one.

Of course in South Africa the people are working for about $1 an hour plus tips and are more than happy to get that. But it sure adds up to a super clean car even if it does take an hour or so out of your day.’

This afternoon the elders and two members of the branch manned a street display at the busy corner near the police station. In three hours they gathered over 50 names and phone numbers of people who are interested in receiving a DVD or Book of Mormon. In the past these booth have produced at least one new member each time.

Elders Liera and Taylor enjoy some cookies while brother David Rampai talks to two men who showed some interest. Brother David is a recent convert who was found through a prior booth and loves to talk to others about the gospel and how it has changed his life. Brother Johannes also helped in the booth. The more the branch support the better the booth works.

The elders and brother Rampai. While the last picture has nothing to do with the booth, it does show a lot of weavers who dropped into our backyard for breakfast this morning. At times we have up to 40 or more feasting on the seed I put out.

Today we went to Klerksdorp for the first meeting of the new Ikageng district. Actually there was only one change in the district this transfer. Elder Di Ruscio from Italy became elder McAllister’s companion as they serve in the Klerksdorp area.

From left to right – elders Taylor – the district leader – McAllister, Oldroyd, Di Ruscio, Liera and Ramiliarijaona – we all call him elder Rami for short. Anytime I take a group picture I give them a chance to do one crazy one – they love it.

After district meeting the Dummers and ourselves went to the new Klerksdorp mall and enjoyed a delicious lunch at Mugg and Bean. On the way out I saw this young lady cooling her feet in the fountain and asked her father if I could take a picture. He said sure and told her to smile – she would have none of it but I still think it is a fun picture.

Here are all the new companionships and the areas where they will serve for the next 6 weeks. Sorry that you may have to look through a lot of pictures before you find the elder you are interested in but I have not figured out any other way to do this…

Elder May has just finished his training with elder Stilgoe and is already training elder Turauskis. Elder Barton is training elder Nelson.

Elder Rushton was transferred out of Witbank and is now a senior companion! Way to go Elder Rushton.

Elder Stilgoe is now with our former district leader elder Otieno and serving as zone leader. Elder Compton who was serving in the Ikageng district when we came here about 11 months ago has a new companion and hopefully a less adventurous 6 weeks than the last 6.

Elder Thompson came from the whitewashed Orange Farm district and is now with elder Kolditz. Our friend elder Perkins now has elder Compton’s former companion elder Garnica. May you two have a very peaceful transfer.

    

We were sorry to see elder Whitesides leave the Vaal zone but we are glad to see he is serving with the ever smiling elder Tekuriio

Our red headed friend Elder Johnson will serve as zone leader with elder Olson.

Elder Stephens was released as an AP and will spend his last week as a companion to elder Dzowa. We are also sorry that elder Kalani has left the Vaal Zone – we lost a bunch of great elders – and is now serving with our friend elder Bryner.

We were happy to see elders Dutson and Graham serving together. Elder Dutson left Orange Farm and the Vaal zone. Elder Graham served with us in the Ikageng district until a couple of transfers ago.

The Finns got split with elder Kankkunen moving to the warm Nelspruit area.

Elder Mukasa is the only transfer from the district and we will miss him. Out great friend elder Perez has a new companion for his last transfer before heading home.

Elders Reed and Kufoalor get to open a brand new area! 

Elder Lyon – our tall friend who like elder Johnson seems to be at every large group meeting we go to has a new companion.

Hopefully elder Rogers and his new companion will get through their time together without being robbed or run into.

The ever smiling elder Sipiri has a new comp in Sebokeng 1 while elder Hentunen – the other Finn – has one in S2

Elder McAllister will serve with elder Di Ruscio in Klerksdorp…elder Di Ruscio is from Pisa and must have leaned out of the picture. The whitewashed Orange Farm area has two new missionaries. We are excited to meet them.

With elder Stephens being released as AP, elder Menendez will serve with elder Malapula.

We got to the mission office about an hour before the transfer meeting started and spent the time taking care of some business and talking to the gathering elders. It was going to be an unusual meeting because there were no missionaries leaving and the three elders who were joining the mission would be coming in over the next week or so. That meant there for the first time there was no traditional volleyball game.

Mary got some supplies from and certificates for her seminary class while I got some cleaning supplies. I also found out that the branch organ that was brought in for repair was beyond repair and that they were trying to get us a new one. Until then we will just use the keyboard that we have.

When we arrived there were a few elders standing around under the trees to get out of the sun. Then the cars started flowing in at an increasing pace. We got to see a number of missionaries that had served in the Ikageng district including elder Mayende who posed with Mary. I wrote sister Pier at first because it is what I call her when we are on missions. In fact after our first mission it took a couple of months before I stopped calling her that even when we were among friends who had known her for 20 years.

Elders Otieno, Mayende, Watenda, Mukasa are from East Africa. We have served with all of them except elder Watenda. Elder Perkins was here in the Ikageng district when we arrived in February 2014. He got a new companion today.

\Elders Rogers and Whitesides have had a rough few weeks. First they were robbed and then they were in an auto accident. I am sure that is not why the Lord moved elder Whitesides to a new area and hopefully they will not have any more interesting things to write home about – at least not like the other two. Elder Kolditz is another elder who seems to always be at gatherings when we are. For the Christmas gathering he was dressed as Santa…today he was just wearing a beaded tie featuring the flags of South Africa and America.

Speaking of ties, I kidded elder Segil that I almost did not recognize him because he was not wearing his Segil tie. Here he is with companion elder Mead – neither were being transferred but they came to be part of the gathering. Elder Mukasa is the only elder being transferred from the Ikageng district. He will be serving in Kwa-Guga 2 with elder Jackson.

Elder Stilgoe gives a big British thumbs up. Elder Harris arrived late because of a big mess on the freeway but he was still able to smile.

Elders Down and Bryner have been serving together up in the hot part of the mission. Elder Bryner will still be there while elder Down will get to spend most of the summer where it is a little cooler but no where is really cool during the summer. We did not see elders Perez, Graham and Rushton before the meeting so we were please to see them as they came into the chapel. All of them would receive new companions during the meeting.

Elder Dutson who was serving in Orange Farms played for the meeting. He and his companion elder Thompson were both transferred so the area was whitewashed. Elder Stephens conducted his last meeting as an AP. He will get to spend his last 6 weeks in Lenyenye as a senior companion. Both president and sister Dunn spoke about how much they loved him and the great work he has done for the last 6 months as an assistant to the president.

When the meeting started, I realized I had not seen our red-headed friend elder Johnson. I had often kidded him that I did not think there was any group meeting that we had been to when he was not there. I figured that I had jinxed us and this would be the first time. But 20 minutes after the meeting started he came into the foyer. I got up and asked him what happened since I never knew him to be late. It turned out that they had a late start and then ran into a huge mess on the freeway and then they had to go onto side streets. When the meeting was over elder Olson came up and asked if we knew an elder from the FFLM whose first name was Christian but he did not know the last name. Why he wondered was that elder Olson’s sister will be marrying him later in the spring. I remember some FFLM RM writing me on FB and asking me if I knew an elder Olson but for the life of me I can not remember who it was. I posted a note on FB about this and hope that I get an answer.

Elders Bryner and Holmquist after the meeting. This was the neatest boot that I saw – I am sorry that I did not take some pictures of other boots that were crammed with luggage and other things. The elders can pack an amazing about of stuff in a boot.

Elder Graham with elder Dutson. Elder Graham served with us and we had a number of opportunities to inspect the flat of elder Dutson as he served in Orange Farm. Elder Dutson with elder Lyon – another elder that has been to most gathering with us.

Elders Johnson and Holmquist are new companions as are elders Stilgoe and Otieno. 

Elder Tekurio has finished his training and will now serve with elder Whitesides. Elder Tekurio had very little English when came into the mission, but it has much improved over the last 3 months.

We had a number of reasons to go up to Johannesburg, but the main reason was experience another transfer meeting. As I have mentioned before there is a special spirit that is there when a large number of missionaries get together.

But before that we went to the distribution center near the temple. When we drove up we saw lots of members – young and old – dressed to go to the temple. There were so many together it was obvious that this was a special organized visit. As we parked an senior elder – I am kicking myself for not taking his picture or remembering his name – told us that the group had flown in from Kenya. The youth were going to do baptisms, many were going through for their own endowment, and one couple was to be sealed. He and his wife had extended their mission a week so they could share this experience. It is about 1800 miles from Nairobi to Johannesburg and take about 4 hours. The members who made the trip had to pay their own way and some saved for years to come to the temple. 

I thought about how blessed we are to have easy access to a temple. At home in Provo we are a mile from the temple – soon to be 15 mintues from another – and here we are less then 2 hours from the Johannesburg temple.

The next group we met was some elders from Mozambique on the way to their missions. Some of them had spent as long as 4 months serving in their country because of visa problems  and were very happy to finally being able to go where they were called. I felt that the smiles on their faces came from the depth of their spirit.

So you can see that we were spiritually blessed even before we got to the mission office and transfer meeting.