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!

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.

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.

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. 

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

  

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.

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.

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.  

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.   

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.

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.

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!

The birds really like our feeders because there are lots of places to eat. It is funny to see them fight for a place – they hover and then dash in and push another bird away. We have found a replacement ice cream source for our fixes that we used to buy from the Chix restaurant that was near our flat but closed some 4 months ago. You can see they serve small portions and of course it is low calorie ice cream – RIGHT!

Due to the crashing of my MacMini because of some problem with iPhoto, I have had to revert to using my old laptop with Picasa 3 for editing and posting. For some reason it does not produce photos that work well in our blog. I never had this problem with iPhoto and as soon as I can get it back I will probably redo the messy looking posts. Until then I am sorry that you will have to scroll through lots of photos that are all over the place!

Sunday morning we got a big surprise when we received an email from President and Sister Dunn telling us that the boundaries between our mission and the Botswana-Namibia mission had been changed. Basically all of our mission from Pretoria North will be in the B-N mission starting on July 1. This includes the 45 young elders and the 4 senior couples now serving there.

This was a surprise but it makes a lot of sense since the B-N mission can not get any visas for missionaries to serve in either country. Only missionaries called within either country can serve. So while the B-N covered two countries, there were less than 30 missionaries serving and most of those were serving in the city of Mafeking which is in South Africa. So now the mission will have some 75-80 missionaries and that may grow in the future. Hopefully so day the two other countries will issue visas for missionaries and perhaps then borders will be changed again. We just have to trust the Lord and learn patience!

You can see more about this change by going to http://dunnsinjoburg.blogspot.com and reading the June 28, 2015 post!

Below are the maps showing the before and after of the two missions. The other photo – which I borrowed from the Dunn’s great blog – shows some of the elders who are now going to be in the B-N Mission. All the elders and couples got to attend a meeting where the changes were explained. From left to right are elders May, Stilgoe, Sister Dunn, Elders McCallister and Oldroyd and an elder I do not know. Elders May and Stilgoe served in the Vaal Zone and we got to know them through flat inspections, zone meetings and transfers. Elders McCallister and Oldroyd served in our district for many months. Elder Oldroyd served as district leader. We will miss seeing these fine elders at future transfer and zone conference but we know they will do an outstanding job in their new assignments.

.              

14 missionaries were transferred home. They receive a mission pin from sister Dunn and from president Dunn a hug and a framed plaque showing what is on the screen behind them – all their areas and companions. After they receive their pins, plaques and hugs they are given an opportunity to share their testimony and last words of wisdom with the remaining missionaries…It is a moving experience and one of the blessings of being a senior missionary!