Well actually the missionary department got our visas this morning and we will have them tomorrow. So that means we will definitely be leaving for South Africa on Wednesday February 26th and arriving in Johannesburg on the 27th to start our latest missionary adventure.

As the day that we are to leave gets closer I find myself looking more and more at the Tembe Elephant Park webcam to get to know the different animals again…it is easy to tell a Elephant from at warthog…actually to tell either from anything else…but there are a lot of different antelopes in Africa and they are what we will see the most of. The picture below is one of a mixed herd of Nyala and Kudus. The Kudu’s have the twisted horn while the nyala has a curved horn.

We got two good pieces of information today. First everything is in to get our visas…should be available the week of the 10th…and we do not have to go through London with a 10 hour delay but are going through Atlanta for a direct flight to Johannesburg! Even if we end up with smaller seats it will be worth it.

In case you do not know what an elephant looks like he is a fairly young one.

YEAH !!!!  Saturday’s mail brought Mary’s FBI clearance – she had been turned down the first time because her finger prints could not be read – so we were able to send in our visa application. This means that we should be able to fly out as scheduled to Johannesburg – for a while we thought we might have to be reassigned to the US or Canada – and once again enjoy the beautiful land and people of South Africa.

We are going back to Africa…South Africa, Johannesburg Mission. We are to report on February 24…We are excited about being called as Member and Leadership Support missionaries. We hope we will be serve somewhere outside of Joburg or Pretoria…we like to work with the branches. But wherever the president puts us we will love it…