Monthly Archives: July 2015

17 July 2015 – District Development Meeting

Because the errands we needed to run went quickly we arrived at the Klerksdorp chapel 45 minutes early. I took a photo of elders McCartney and Peterson. Elder Peterson is the only missionary in the district besides ourselves who is from the US. Elder McCartney is from Scotland. We have a very diverse group of missionaries – but all are here because they love the Lord and want to share the gospel with others.

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We took pictures with the district. In the one on the right elder Peterson was missing so we took another one with him and his green tie. In that photo from left to right behind us is elders Hentunen – Finland, McCartney – Scotland, Wild – England, Tukia – ZL – Samoa, Peterson – US, Khwela – South Africa, Turauskis – Lithuania. From the photos below you can see that we brought apples as treats…The zone leaders, elders Tukia and Masoka are showing the district how to pose with an apple in their mouths – true leaders in every way.

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Along the N12 in Klerksdorp there is a group of mimes that are often preforming at the robots. They put out a box or something that folks can toss money into. Mary’s job is to try to get the coins into the box – she is getting better. It helped that this time we were the first in line so she had lots of time to make the toss.

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While district meeting was going on, I was working with brother Andrews to finish the year end audit for Klerksdorp so I missed the training. I am just glad this is the last time I will have to do any audits – it is not a fun job no matter how well organized the branch financial records.



Flashback Friday….

I was looking at the Mann’s mission blog and  came across these two photos. It reminded me of how many great couples and missionaries we have met over the last 9 years. I think the couples who served together for the last 18 months of the Mann’s mission really got close to each other as we enjoyed a number of couple conferences as well as gathering in Durban for other meetings. We truly treasure the friendships we made there and in our other missions. Many of us got together in Idaho to hear the Manns report their mission!

The couples who helped us build

And then there are the young missionaries who we served with. Unfortunately there is not one photo with all of them. But the group below includes some of them that we served with. In the 5 years that has passed since the photo was taken we have been able to keep in touch with a few of them through FaceBook and them visiting us in Provo. Thanks for the memories folks!

July 2010 departure

I came back and added this photo of our last zone in Richard’s Bay. These are the elders we said a final goodbye to just a few weeks later. President and Sister Mann left for home about a week before we did. This was the gathering for the last Zone Conference

Richards Bay Zone May 2010This is the zone taken just 6 days before we started home. They came for the 4th of July where we celebrated with lots of food and sparklers! I had a nice mess to clean up the next day but it was well worth it.04-july-2010-elders-rb-zone-2



16 July 2015 – A New Seminary Teacher

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Birds Like Marshmallows

I was cleaning up some things in the cupboard and found an old open bag of marshmallows. I started to throw them out but decided instead to see if the birds that come to eat would like them. The first group i put out were ignored for a couple of days and then they disappeared. I only put a few out at a time and now they last about a day. The sequence shows one of the sparrows coming up, taking a peck and then checking around before taking another. I think some of the birds have developed a sweet tooth!IMG_0944 IMG_0943 IMG_0945



Flowers and Load Shedding

I usually plant African daisies and dianthus each year that we are home in Provo. Then winter comes and they die. But here  in South Africa they seem to thrive during winter – at least this winter. The pot of daisies hardly had a decent bloom during the summer and fall but now with winter it is alive and beautiful with them. The dianthus has been blooming since the day I planted them and even now they are full of color. I look at them often because by the time we get home it will be fall and so I will have to wait until April 2016 to plant these beautiful flowers again.

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We had load shedding again last night and it was all my fault. In the morning as we were getting into the car, I said to Mary that we had not had any load shedding – that is when the power goes off for 2 to 4 hours – in a long time. As soon as I said it I realized that I had just hexed us and so I knocked on wood. Unfortunately I was too late  – the power went off at about 6:00 and did not come back on until about 10:00  So we lighted the candles, got out the emergency lighting and had a quiet evening. Unfortunately Mary was in the middle of baking a batch of sugar cookies when the power disappeared and the oven is of course electric. But on the positive side the oven stayed hot enough to finish baking the batch and as you can see they came out fine. I will not mention load shedding again – at least not while we are in South Africa.

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13 July 2015 – YSA has a great FHE

 

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July 2015 – Birds, Seminary, Vaal Zone Meeting

If you have been reading this blog you will know that I feed the birds in neighborhood. It is something I also do when home in Provo. I have Alton Thygerson to thank for this habit. He is an avid birder and a little of his enthusiasm has rubbed off on me. After I have filled the feeders and then sprinkled some on the lawn, one or two birds arrive and like scouts make sure it is safe to eat. They are soon joined by a few other feathered friends. Then more and more come to eat  – it is as if an open for breakfast sign was somewhere in the yard. At times there are 30-40 weavers, sparrows, doves and pigeon all busy eating. IMG_0907 IMG_0908 IMG_0910 IMG_0910 a

Thursday is Seminary and activity time. Because many are away for the school holidays there were just four at seminary. Mary has been assigning members of the class to teach the lessons and they do a wonderful job. Today it was Shavonne Kruger’s turn. After the lesson we played a game of ‘Who am I”  where one person goes out of the room and the rest decide who he/she will be. Then the person must ask questions that can be answered by yes or no until they come up with who they are. It turned out that they were very good at the game – better than I was when I was ‘it.’

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On Friday we went to Sharpeville for Zone Meeting. On our way there we usually stop at this ‘garage’ – in America it is a gas station – along the N12 to fill up. Most of the attendants are women and while most stations have some women working the pumps usually the men greatly out number the women. These women are very friendly and efficient. Here in South Africa there is no self service – reminds us of Oregon – and the windows get cleaned, oil and water checked if you want them to and even tire pressure checked. Of course they also are paying about $5.00 a gallon for unleaded gas.

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Every transfer there is a Zone Meeting where all the elders come together to be instructed by the zone leaders about what they learned at the Mission Leadership meeting held the week before. This is usually ideas and areas that the mission president wants to have all the missionaries be aware of. In this case it included how to answer the phone properly – no ‘Yeah what do you want?”

For some reason I did not take any photos during the meeting only before and after in the parking lot. The elders enjoy getting together and just chatting about what is going on and catching up with what other elders have been doing.

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A Trip to Parys…

On Tuesday july 7 we took president and sister Kwaikwai to visit sister Bobbi Swanepoel and Louis her son! I know Louis looks much like a dog but he knows better. While we were there we got to meet a Mrs Olley, a friend of sister Swanepoel. She stayed and enjoyed the sacrament with us.

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The Week ends…Saturday and Sunday

We hold Church in a school in Ikageng. The branch leases two rooms for our full time use. One has a branch presidents office and a dividable RS room that we use half for a clerks/class room and half for RS. The other room is divided into three rooms. Two are used for Primary and the other is a store room for all the equipment and supplies. On Sunday we have use of a large classroom that can be divided into four rooms but on Sunday we use half for a chapel and half for a class room. The chapel room is used by others during the week so on Saturday afternoon it has to be swept, mopped and waxed for it to be suitable for Church. Different groups are assigned to clean each week but it usually falls to just a few faithful saints to do the work. This week it was sister Ratema and president Kwaikwai. Bill helped out for part of the time and the Institute students helped after their class.

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Sunday was a beautiful Sabbath day. It was so nice that the Primary went outside for the second hour.

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Other than the children and this one picture of President Kwaikwai with sister Brummer, all the other photos I took were of sisters in the ward. When I took the photos of sisters Thulo and Mothobi I did not notice they both had stripes.

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When I snapped the photo of sisters Kwaikwai, Thulo and Mothobi I did know that the outside sisters had on stripes but for some reason it did not register that sister Thulo also had stripes in her sweater…it was not until I edited the photos that the pattern clicked. Two of the lovely YSA in the branch – sisters Neo and Ratema did not have any stripes.

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However when I started looking at the photos of the day I noticed that there were stripes in two more of the photos. First there is the three YW and the child with her mother. Sister May is a recent convert.

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The last photo is sister Lekebe who is carrying a container of sister Mary’s famous fresh achar – a spicy vegetable preserve that probably was introduced to South Africa from India. Most people do not realize that there is a large Indian population in South Africa. The majority live in and around the city of Durban making it ‘the largest ‘Indian’ city outside India.



Five Days of Photos…

We had a quiet week here in Potchefstroom. We visited the orphanage we give some support and took this photo of George, Lolo and Mary. George and Lolo run the orphanage and have between 13 – 18 orphans that they take care of. They see that they have a roof over their heads, food to eat and an education. George works a full time job in a butchery and gets meat for the family at a good price. He works about 45 hours a week for about $45 and considers it a good job. Tuesday night as we drove into our complex I noticed the full moon sitting over the steeple of the Dutch Reform Church next door took this photo.IMG_0863  IMG_0865

When we on our Kruger trip we bought a few souvenirs including this beautifully carved Kudu, a nativity scene make from banana leaves. a stone hippo and a very unusual woman made out of bark and a carved head. The three smaller women were purchased here in Potch.IMG_0870 IMG_0871  IMG_0872 IMG_0873

Thursday when we went to the school to hold seminary, there was a group of young people having a dance practice in the yard. I do not know if it was for a performance that they would be part of or just good exercise but they seemed to be having a good time.IMG_0874

On Friday we went to Klerksdorp for district development meeting. We are usually the first ones there but today elders Wild and Hehir beat us there. They both had new haircuts and elder Wild used the razor I gave him to shave. We were sorry to hear from them that elder Hehir must go home next week so he can get his medicine stabilized – he was told he would get to come back to finish his mission.

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Elder Peterson is the the new district leader and this was his first DDM. He did a good job even though the Jouberton elders had to leave about half way through to open their chapel. Elder Hehir led the music with Mary trying to give him some help!IMG_0877 IMG_0878 IMG_0879