18 May 2015 – This should have been the first post of day but I posted about the elephants before I realized my mistake. Before we did the game drive in Pilanesberg National Park we stopped to look at the Black Rhino Lodge to see if we would like to stay there instead of going all the way to Kruger. We had to drive about 2 1/2 hours to get there. When we drove up to the Reseve gate we were met by Lucky who informed us that unless we had reservations we could not go in. Of course we did not have reservation but I convinced him to call the Lodge and see if we could come and visit them. It was made more complicated by the fact that I managed to leave our cell phone at home so I could not call them myself. But everything worked out fine as they told Lucky to let us in.

As we drove to the lodge – it turns out there are many of them in the reserve – we saw our first animal – a nice size impala buck who greeted us and then wandered off into the bush.

Paul – the new manager who has only been there a week – showed us around the main lodge, the grounds, and the very nice rooms. We had packed enough to stay overnight if there was room but it turned out that they do not take walk ins so we will have to make reservations. I really liked it but Mary really wants to see Kruger so we will spend our anniversary there.

After we left the lodge we drove to the nearest gate into Pilanesberg Park and just inside we found this great looking warthog 3 feet from the road looking for something to eat. This was the first hippo we saw – it never moved a muscle. You can see the tiny ear and an eye just over the rocks.

May 18, 2015 – We have been in South Africa for almost 15 months and we have not seen a single elephant except those on the Tembe Elephant Park webcam. So we were excited when we saw some at a distance and then drove to where they were. Mary took the picture of the big elephant that was about 20 or so feet away.  After she took the photo he wandered over to a near by bushy tree and tore off a good size branch and started eating it. The next four photos show the progress of his meal. One of the interesting thing about this bull is that he only has one tusk – you can see it clearly on the away side in the photo where he is selecting his meal. He probably lost the other one in some fight.

Just behind the bill bull, there was a group of 4 or 5 other elephants playing in the water. I never got a clear shot of them because we could not drive close without disturbing the one that was eating and that was not a good idea.

  We decided to go around to the other side of the body of water and see if we could get a better shot of the ones in the water. As we were driving we came across a pile of fresh elephant spoor – a really, really fresh pile – and saw the young elephant on the left in the bush near the road. I like this picture because it seems it is looking right at us. The picture on the right is a large female that had just got out of the water. Notice the small size of the tusks…

From across the water we took these two photos of some of those who were playing in the water. They all are rather young and small. They reminded me of children who are playing in a wading pool in the backyard and having a great time.

As we were heading to the gate to go home we found this good size herd getting drinks from a dam area. Notice that there are all sizes in this family. Right down at the bottom of the photo there is a very young one, a little larger one and then on the other side of one of the adults is an larger but still small one. So we had a good time looking at elephants near water but we did not see any others in our 5 hours of driving.

The events are upside down but I felt the most important event should be shown first. Our granddaughter Gentry Bartholomew and her husband Devan became the proud parents of Cooper Batholomew who was born at 8:00 a.m. Utah time and weighed in at a hefty 8 pounds 11 Ounces. Welcome to the family Cooper!

  Earlier in the Sabbath day the Potchefstroom branch enjoyed the beautiful sunshine of middle fall when the temperature is not too hot or too cold but just right.  The lucky brothers Kenny and Tinashe have the lovely Kea and Meisie between them.

Sisters Georgina and Merriam are probably discussing  Primary. While sisters Thato and Shavonne are checking out some pictures.

Renny Motha poses for my camera while brother Omphile talks in the background.

I take lost of pictures – this shows me taking a quick snapshot and then a better posed one. President Kwaikwai is in the background.

Due to a funeral that took many members away for the day, president Kwaikwai taught Sunday School while Bill later got to teach Relief Society. Somehow brother Kenny got involved with a real set of police handcuffs and it took him a while to get anyone to let him out of them.

After the block is over the Priesthood help the elders return the chapel to a school room. Here brother Philip has his arms full of odds and ends as the last items are on their way to the storage room.

Saturday Mary had four students for her Seminary class on the D&C and afterwards they made bracelets using rubber bands. The activity took some time to master but by the end they were are fairly proficient. We let them take the left over bands and the looms home with them.

      

As I have mentioned before the water hole is shrinking and I believe that most of the watering places in the Tembe park are drying up. It seems that no matter what time of the day I look at the webcam, there are elephants drinking. Friday and Saturday produced these photos. I especially like the one where the young elephant is rolling in the muddy water – kids will be kids.   Â Some how I got on a quilt page at Facebook and now they keep plugging ads for them in my home line. When I saw this pattern I told Mary that I would really like to have it for home – there was also a pink version that also would look great in our bedroom. Maybe in my old age I will take up quilting…but do not hold your breath.

My excuse for not posting about the YSA FHE on the 12th is that I was so busy with the transfer pictures I just plain forgot! That is my story and I am going to stick to it….

This was the first district meeting of this transfer and the first for elder Barton as district leader. We welcomed two new missionaries – well new to the district – elders Dye and Turauskis. We knew elder Turauskis because  he was already serving in the Vaal zone  so we had met him at zone meetings.

     

We drove up to Parys to vist sister Bobbi Swanepoel. We usually take the elders but today we took branch president Kwaikwai. He is an old friend of sister Swanepoel and they had a good time discussing some joint memories. Of course nothing goes on in that household with out Louis being involved and Mary made him very happy by finding just the right place to scratch his back.

 

There are lots of photos taken at transfer meeting. Sister Allred is the semi-official photographer for the mission. She takes the pictures of the new missionaries with their companions, with president and sister Dunn, and lots more. I borrowed these from her website…http://allredsinafrica.blogspot.com…where you can see these and a lot more from this transfer…Thanks Sister Allred!

I am not sure why I have my mouth open – but some say I should keep it closed more. This is president and sister Dunn with all the new missionaries. Brother and sister Anderson came to South Africa to pick up their son before returning to West Bountiful Utah. Sister Allred got elder Todd to smile – something I do not have a lot of success doing.

13 Amazing missionaries left the Johannesburg mission today – only 12 of them were at transfer meeting because elder Kalani had a very early flight out to get home to Kenya. There is a small ceremony where each missionary receives a mission pin from sister Dunn, a framed picture of their areas and companion as if put up on the screen and then hugs from both Dunns. I am sorry that the pictures of elders Pius and Raymond getting pinned were just too blurry to post.

        

After the pinning ceremony ends each missionary is given a chance to add some words of wisdom that they want to share with the other missionaries…some of them are very spiritual and moving and some are just young men talking.

Elders Anderson – in the famous going home suit – and elder Andritiana, Elders Haynes – who is from Brisbane where our friends the Mickelsens are serving – and elder Kairu.

 Elders Magrangga – who became a great-grandfather today – and Majozi. Elders Mead and Musaka

Elder O’Riordan – who never complained when I mispronounced his name many times.

Elder Raymond – I was almost through taking pictures of the speakers when I realized I could take a picture of them with their mission history slide in the background. Elder Ryan was the last of the returning missionaries to speak.

  The transfer meeting ended with Sister and President Dunn giving word of encouragement and counsel to the missionaries.

And then 100 plus missionaries stood and sang the mission song. Many of the departing missionaries take videos or pictures of the singing. To be there and sing with them is one of the many blessings we experience as senior missionaries.

So here are the 9 new missionaries in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission. They spend a couple of hours in the morning being quickly trained in some mission policies, how to use their debit cards, auto safety and rules, etc. In transfer meeting they are given a few minutes to introduce themselves, tell where they are from and bear a quick testimony. After that they are introduced to their trainers. Some how I missed getting a picture of elder Ngilazi as he introduced himself but he is being trained by elder Reese who served as an Assistant to the President for a number of months so he should be well prepared to serve after his training period.