14 December 2008 – Sunday

At about 8:00 am this morning we got a call from President Mann telling us that he just got our papers. He asked if we would be willing to have a change in assignments from the office to the field. We told him we would be happy to serve wherever he and the Lord thought we were most needed.

We had a nice discussion about the mission, the weather and the conditions we would find. He said that we would find first world conditions in a third world country. Good health care, good food, and good water. He also said that we did not need to take pills for malaria because they do not have a problem. He mentioned that they have been trying to get that information taken out of the instructions to new missionaries for 10 years without any success. He said that the weather was not as hot and humid in the interior as it is in Durban or elsewhere along the coast. I am hoping we will be is some town like Ladysmith but we will be happy to serve anywhere.

If he is able to get the missionary department to understand that we will not be serving in the office, we should only be in the MTC for a week. Which means we should be in the mission by the 27th or 28th.  President Mann said if we get there by then we will be in time for a couples conference. That would be great because we could get to meet all the couples who are serving there. President Mann said that when we get there, he will have 11 couples.

This morning we had a short meeting with President Jackson so I could be released from my HP calling. I mentioned to the President that there were 11 couples in the Durban mission and he said that in the three years he was serving in Brazil, he had no couples.

29 November 2008

Yesterday, after 5 weeks of anxious waiting, the magic enveloped arrived. With Jim, Kristy, Olivia, Charlotte, Brian, Daniel, Becky and Spencer watching we opened the package and read that we have been called to serve in the South Africa, Durban mission. We are to report to the MTC on January 19 and should arrive in South Africa sometime in the first part of February. The letter said that we would be serving in the office.

We called all the rest of our children, other family, the bishop, and some close friends to tell them the news. It was great to share our joy with others. We will now have about 6 weeks to get things wrapped up here before starting our mission.

Today – Saturday – we sent off our acceptance letters to church headquarters. We also had some photos taken and sent them off to Durban where I would guess they will be used to get our visas.

We did a number of web searches and found that Durban is a little cooler than Jakarta but still sub-tropical and very humid. Like Jakarta it is a sea coast city. We will arrive during the rainy season – just like we did in Indonesia. The country is 83% either Christian or no religion – almost a mirror image of Indonesia. Many people speak English but Zulu is spoken in most of the African homes. We do not know if we are going to need to learn Zulu or Afrikaan to function in our calling. We will try to find out Monday.