Friday, July 26 the whole gang goes to dinner to welcome BF couple Carliles

Friday, we tried to get caught up on the stuff we didn't get to while away. We also had to get some groceries and check on things at Chatsworth. We spent a lot of time trying to get the woman we got to do the draping paid. The area office wasn't happy with the terms and conditions of her contract, but they wouldn't tell her what they objected to. We had been told for the last two weeks that she would be paid, but it was one problem after another. She finally said, if I don't get paid by Friday, I cannot get the things I need to drape the Youth Centre. We spent so much time emailing and phoning and by the end of the day...no money. We are praying this gets resolved in time, so we don't lose her. I spent a lot of time getting her to cut her pricing, so not to pay her the deposit she requires makes us feel terrible. Hopefully it will get resolved by Monday, as they said.

We stopped by the mission office today to pick up a card with drawings in it for Elder Kyle (Father's Day)...better late than never and there were some really cute drawings of the boat that Lehi's family built (Nephi) to get them across the ocean along with scriptural references, and they were really good! I think we have some budding artists in the family. We met the new couple that are taking the Zwackey's place - the Sutherlands. They are a really cute, but very tiny couple...both are very petite. We will have many opportunities to see them, as they will be at our couple's family home evenings.

We also met the new couple that is going to Bloemfontein to take the Shumway's place. They were a very nice couple from Utah. Elder Carlyle spent his mission in South Africa during Apartheid, when they were not allowed by the government to teach the Black people. He learned Afrikans, which will come in handy in some Bloemfontein neighborhoods. He picked up a couple of Books of Mormon in Afrkans...those words are sure long! They had some trouble getting from the US to South Africa. They accidentally left Sister Carlyles coat in the Chicago airport. Their plane was late to Chicago, so they missed their connecting flight and had to spend the night at a hotel. This caused them to miss their connecting flight from London to Joburg, so it had to be rescheduled. Then they got to Joburg and no luggage. The good news is that they got lots of sleep, because of all the layovers. The bad news is that they had to wear the same clothes for three days and hope that they would see their luggage again and Sister Carlyle really needed her medications. At least she brought a couple of changes of underwear for them in their carry-on.

We decided to all meet for dinner at Ocean Basket at 6PM. The Clusters were already there when we arrived. Elder Stark came but said Sister Stark had strep. The Southerlands were there, but the Holts (who suggested the dinner) had another engagement. Mission President Zackrison and his wife came (They like hanging out with the senior couples and they are very interesting). Elder Stark got a call from the Carlyles that they had gone to the airport, but were stuck in traffic trying to get back. That happened to Elder Kyle and I coming home from the airport the day before, so we figured they would be along in about 15 minutes. Finally they called and said they had barely moved in 15 minutes, so we went ahead and ordered our dinners. Eating dinner in Africa is always slow...slow to get your food ordered...slow to get your food...slow to get your bill, etc. Left to right in photo...Elder Stark, Elder Kyle, Sister Cluster, Elder Cluster, Elder Sutherland, Sister Sutherland, Sister Carlyle, Elder Carlyle, Sister Zackrison and President Zackrison. (This photo was taken after we had eaten and the Carlyles had just arrived. Dessert was ordered, so they wouldn't have to eat alone.)

The Carlyles arrived right after we had finished eating and they looked frazzled. It took them 2 hours to drive from the airport to the restaurant...a 20 minute trip normally. They picked up all but one suitcase (Airlines didn't know where that one was) and apparently it was the suitcase with the most stuff in it. So, they had to stay in Durban one more night, and wear the same clothes again, while the airlines looked for their missing bag. We found out later that the airline called to tell them they found the bag. The Carlyles planned to pick up the bag the following day about noon and then go from there to Bloemfontein. The problem with that plan is that it takes seven hours to get from Durban to Bloem and it is winter here, so it gets dark before 6PM and driving there in the dark is a very bad idea. They must have realized this, because by the time they got to Bethlehem it was starting to get dark, so they decided to stay there and got a hotel recommendation from the mission office. They went to bed and woke up the next morning to find their car had been broken into and their luggage opened with all her jewelry and all her medication stolen and their stuff all over the back seat. All of us missionaries here know that you are not supposed to leave anything inside the car that might invite a desperate person to break into your car, but they either missed that memo or were so tired that they disregarded it. They had to report it to police, which delayed them even further and then they had to drive the rest of the way in the cold with no window in the back seat. I felt so sorry for them. When they arrive in Bloem, Elder Carlyle called to ask Elder Holt what he should do about the car and was told just to duct tape something over the window until it could be dealt with. We don't know what happened after that, but I am sure something else went wrong. They were dealt all the bad things that could have happened. Hopefully things will go well in Bloem where they have that fantastic stake that was just created and those wonderful people. They will soon forget about how awful it is to come here...so sad. We hope to get to see them at couples conference in a couple of months after all of this is behind them with smile on their faces and warm fuzzy stories about their wonderful experiences.

Monday, July 22nd - Thursday, July 25th -preliminary plannning trip to Cape Town

Today we headed to the airport to catch Mango Airlines on a flight to Cape Town. Other than my knees and back hurting from walking so much, it was pretty easy going. The flight was uneventful. They charged for soft drinks, but not for baggage... Interesting. We arrived in Cape Town and got our rental car and GPS that we ordered. We got in the car to find our hotel in the GPS and were both sitting there, when Elder Kyle noticed that the car was a four-speed (not automatic). He looked a bit pained, but said he would manage. He spend a lot of years driving cars that he had to shift, but not when the shift is on the left and you have to think about that, plus shifting gears, driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car in a town where you are totally unfamiliar. I insisted he go and change cars to an automatic to eliminate some of the stress of being in unfamiliar territory, so he did and we started off towards our hotel. This GPS was a different version, so I was unfamiliar with how it works, but I got it going and found out that it was in miles instead of kilometres (just when we had gotten used to kilometres) and the voice had a heavy English or South African accent, so we couldn't understand what she said. Also, if we made the wrong turn, the GPS rerouted without telling you that you didn't make the turn as directed. It was very confusing, but we found our way there finally. I wasn't the greatest of navigators at first. But, we finally made it to the hotel. There was a cute little guy there in uniform that kept saluting us during our stay...very cute...couldn't understand a word he said...Ha.

The hotel was at the V&A Waterfront, which I thought meant on the water, but not so. It was surrounded by buildings and our room's view was of the street and a medical facility, but it was close to the V&A waterfront and we could walk down there, so it wasn't so bad. We had to work most of the time anyway, but our room, though nice, was pretty small for two people. We ended up doing some of our work in the common areas downstairs. Service was amazing. The people who worked there were very nice and we had fun chatting with them. It was rainy and cold, so we stayed in the hotel until it was time to go to dinner.

The hotel used to be a holding building for prisoners going to Robben Island prison. There is quite a history there. The restaurant had photos of some of the prisoners and daily logs from those in charge of the prisoners. You could even see part of the old building peeking through and some cell windows high up.







There were photos on the wall of some of the prisoners who stayed there as well as notes about each prisoner and their names. I assume that any of Nelson Mandela were put in safes somewhere or sold as souvenirs.









Monday night we had dinner with the Cape Town PA team at the Commodore hotel next door, which is owned by the same company that owns Portswood, to talk about their concert and what they had done about transportation of the David Glen Hatch crew. We talked about the invitations, posters and flyers and went over the list of people who were supposed to get them. Larry (the PA Director) said that even with two helpers, they could not get it all done, so we took the list of names and agreed to help him contact the people and invite them to the concert.






Tuesday it was still windy and cold, so not a good day to go anywhere, but we decided to walk down there and see if we could find the water. We had to go down a million steps to get there (maybe an exaggeration, but it felt like that many to me and my knees) and it was windy, but oh so scenic...nautical and beautiful. There were great looking shops, but Elder Kyle was not in a shopping mood (actually hardly ever in a shopping mood) and it was pretty cold.




I mainly took photos of the working waterfront and Table mountain that looks like it is rising from the sea. We also saw the boat and building that honors Mandela and takes people to Robben Island where he spent many of his years in prison.

There was also a memorial to Nobel Prize winners, like Mandela, De Klerk and others who were instrumental in ending Apartheid. The statues were very short, so they looked funny, but it was a nice gesture. Mandela is everywhere here, obviously trying to attract the tourist trade.






There were lots of people around regardless of the cool weather and yet it was not crowded. I could have spent so much time there just looking around and shopping, but no time to do that on this trip. We'll perhaps have some time after the DGH concert in Cape Town.







We went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day looking up key names and emails, and some addresses, of the companies on the list. The ones getting the special invites were mostly music schools or departments. I would find them on the internet and read off the info, while Elder Kyle wrote it down next to the name. We decided to try and find the places we would have to take the Hatch Crew during the concert, but we got lost and could not find any of them. The GPS was a disaster, took us all over the place, but not where we wanted to go.




Wednesday, Larry called us and asked us if we could pick up the special invites that were sent to the mission home. He said he had a meeting and wanted them before the meeting, but could not get off work in time to go pick them up. Elder Kyle called the mission office, but spoke to a new couple who couldn't tell him exactly how to get there (They had only been there a week). We got basic coordinates from someone else at the office and headed out there. We had gone a few miles when I looked at the GPS and it said we would be there in two hours. We realized that something was wrong and it took forever to turn around and go back, but we went back to the hotel to regroup.We talked to the office again and was told that we needed to find the Courtyard that was right down the street. If we could get to that point and call them, they could instruct us the rest of the way. Elder Kyle was not excited about trying it again, but I talked him into it and we took off again.

This time it was a lot easier and we found the place without too much trouble. We met three couples there...one couple was getting ready to go back home and was training the new couple who had only been there a week. They were all very nice and we had a chat about where everyone was from and I took these photos. One couple was from Alaska, and the other two from Utah and Idaho. We then told them we had come to pick up a package for Larry Carver and they informed us that the missionaries that live in his basement picked the package up on Monday to take to him. That is so funny...they live in the same house and had the package for three days without telling him about it and he had been waiting for it. Wasted trip, but we got to go the mission office and meet the couples, so it worked out.

We had to mail our invites, so we took off to the mall on the waterfront and found the post office. We bought padded envelopes and addressed them and sent them off. We checked out some more places on our journey back to the hotel and looked at a couple of shops as we passed, plus took some photos.







These sculptures were pretty interesting. I just couldn't help but get between these ladies for the photo.  And I couldn't help but get Elder Kyle with the Elephant, even though he was getting impatient to get back to the hotel.









Breakfast at the hotel was wonderful and free. We had all kinds of fruits and breads, cereals, meats, fresh juice, plus we could order whatever we wanted from the menu. It was a pretty good deal. After breakfast on Thursday, we took off again to see if we could find the theatre where the concert was to be held. It was about 20K away from the waterfront, but we found it without too much trouble. We still had some time, so we went to a mall and passed out flyers and some posters, then we headed to the airport and back on Mango. It was a fairly productive trip...at least I hoped we helped them a bit.

Today is my son's birthday...Happy Birthday son! We love and miss you!

Sunday, July 21st- Berea Ward -Umlazi Ward-Chatsworth Ward to deliver flyers - lost

Today we went to church at Berea Ward. Our opinion is that Berea Ward is the most advanced of any of the wards we have attended since we came here (and there are many). We talked about it today and figured that the more equal combination of blacks and whites is what makes it work. It's almost like God planned for us to work together all along and is showing us how well it works when we do.

The first speaker was Elder Daines. He is on the left in the photo, next to Elder Kawanatsoka from Swaziland (the one that Gave Elder Kyle his Swazi name. He is also amazing). They asked Elder Daines to bear his testimony, because he was going home the following week. He is a very special Elder who affected many of the Senior Couples with his sense of humor and great wit. A little bit older than the other missionaries (26) with stubborn traits, he entertained us all. He is also a great cook and plays the piano at church, though he looks like a wrestler. There are those who say he makes the most yummy tortillas, but sadly, we were not able to partake. He lived in the same building as the Clusters, so they knew him best. They got permission to take him and his companion to a wild animal park before he left and they said he was so much fun, because he appreciated everything so much...excited just like a little boy. They said he took hundreds of photos of the animals, and on the way back talked about how he needed to get home and find a wife, because he wasn't getting any younger...Ha. Apparently, he was a bit of a hellion and his parents had a difficult time with him, but something happened to change him, which resulted in his mission. He agreed it was the best decision he has ever made. He spoke about remembering the last two years and the faces of people he taught (when they finally realized the Gospel is true)... how he saw that realization change their lives for the better. He said, "How could anyone who sees that happen doubt that the Gospel is true?"

The next speaker talked about how God has purpose and told us to love the Lord thy God so we can have the same purpose. He talked about Jesus walking by Galilee and watching the fishermen cast their nets when he said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." He then said that we are all called to be 'fishers of men' (and women), that we are called to forsake our sins and follow him. He also quoted Mark 8:34, "Whosoever will come after me, let him take upon himself his cross and follow me."

The next speaker asked, "When was the last time your family experienced a shortage of water? When was the last time you saw the prices of petrol go up, food prices going up and other things you need."
He spoke about natural disasters that have happened in the last few years all over the world. He said that in the United States there were 1200 natural disasters in the last ten years and how Asia had outbreaks in AIDs and Tuberculosis and how even though Africa has not had many natural disasters, it is the leader in cases of Aids. He asked if we were prepared for these disasters, for sickness, for shortages, for unemployment. He quoted 1 Nephi 2:2-4 about how we needed to be prepared and follow what the Lord asks us to do...like 72 hour emergency kits. He told us what we needed to have on hand and mentioned some things that we had never thought of.

He talked about serving in Ghana on his mission and they were told to keep R100 in case of emergency on hand at all times. Once in Nigeria the missionaries were evacuated suddenly and that R100 saved their lives. He said that Lehi in the wilderness was commanded to go back and get the records and reinforced how important it is that we keep records...documents and photos (plus emergency numbers) in a place where we can quickly take them with us if we are ever evacuated. He finished by talking about the tornado that hit 40 meters east of Joburg and how we need to listen to the voice of the prophet to prepare us for such disasters.

The choir then sang, "Fount of Every Blessing" and it was BEAUTIFUL!

Another black returned missionary said he heard that song on his mission and it formed the theme of his mission and helped him develop enthusiasm for his mission. He talked about how when we go back home to Heavenly Father, he is going to ask what happened to those people we were stewards over...where are all those people that we should have brought to heaven with us? He spoke of someone in history named Felix that was the first person to jump from an air balloon from 1,357 meters high. He had to overcome his claustrophobia to even be in that air balloon, but he had calculated and used all his scientists to gauge the wind, humidity and timing to make the jump. When everything was perfect for the jump they told him to go whenever he felt it was right. He then could trust the scientists or quit and go back to earth. He said that we live in a day and age where the Church has given us everything we need to survive and like the man who had to trust that he would not become unconscious and end up like a scrambled egg on the ground (some light laughter at this simile), Jesus Christ restored his church with modern day revelation to prepare us to jump as we make decisions to change our lives and follow him. He quoted Elder Oates, "The final judgement is not what you've done, but what you've become. When you are sitting among Gods, will you be comfortable with your knowledge?" Then he quoted Prov 23:7, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

He talked about growing up on a farm and watching the cows eat all the time. They never stopped eating. When he asked his parents why this was, they told him they would regurgitate it later when they needed it. He said that is why we need to gain all the knowledge we can in this life, so later when we are in the company of Gods we can regurgitate that information and have discussions with them. He quoted D&C 89:18, "All saints who remember to do these things...that the destroying angel will pass by them..." He warned that we need to take care of mind and body and the church has provided us with all the tools to do this (D&C 121:45). He suggested we use those tools to not only learn ourselves but to help motivate others to learn...after all, we want them all to be with us when we return to our Heavenly Home or we may be asked, "Where are those you were stewards over?"

It is great taking notes at sacrament meeting...It's like hearing the talks all over again when I do the blog. I am going to try to do this from now on. Imagine the things I will be able to learn by putting them in my journal!

Umlasi BB Chapel

After sacrament meeting, we had to leave to get over to Umlazi and drop off some flyers and posters for the David Glen Hatch concert. Sundays seem to be the best time to do this, as the people have no transportation, but always find a way to church. This is such a beautiful chapel with an amazing view. Everyone was in Sunday School, so we left them on a table in the hallway with a note and headed over to Chatsworth Chapel.

View from Umlazi Chapel

This is where it all got interesting. In the Umlazi Chapel parking lot, I got out the GPS and selected Chatsworth Chapel. Since we knew they were not far from each other, we didn't want to backtrack the several miles to the freeway, so we assumed when the GPS told us to turn the opposite way, there would be a shortcut. Well, the shortcut turned out to be a long and winding trip from the top of the canyon to the bottom in low income black neighborhoods where people were wearing some very interesting outfits to church.

 Sunday, people by the side of the road going to Church

The guys wore light blue long jackets and hats, plus they had a white cross in the middle of the back. They wore white pants. The men were carrying some kind of stick that resembled a spear. Although most people were in blue, we did see some in all white as well. These pictures seem to show more the women than the men, but the man in the light blue jacket was typical for the men. Everyone walking to church had on some sort of outfit. We were in a totally Zulu township, so there were also some traditional Zulu outfits as well.

Zionist meeting 

We saw so many of these people walking to church that it was hard to maneuver the car around them. The roads were getting very narrow and we would have to stop at certain intervals. We both kept saying, "This doesn't seem right, as the GPS directed us further and further down into the canyon and into poorer and scarier neighborhoods. I saw a women with jeans and a white t-shirt on. When we passed her, on the back of her shirt was crudely printed by hand, "12 years in prison." We were finally at the bottom of the ravine surrounded by thousands of small homes as far as the eye could see, when we realized there was no way out. We could see a pedestrian bridge in the distance, but knew there was no way we could cross the river and get to the other side. Of course, the GPS was still saying, Turn left, turn right, etc. I punched in 'HOME' and said 'GPS...you got us into this, now get us out of here. It was a lot easier to get out than to get in, so in ten minutes we were back at the top and relieved to be headed to the freeway. When we got there it was only about a mile to the Chatsworth exit and we were there in about ten minutes.

We were wondering how we were going to get the flyers to the right person. It was about 10 minutes to the end of the bloc, but when we entered the building Bishop Chetty was standing there...almost like waiting for us. He was all by himself and everyone else was in class, so once again our silent prayers were answered. We had a great conversation with him about getting the flyers passed out. We asked him if there was someone in the ward that was in need of money that would be able to pass out the flyers in the neighborhood business center or mall and he had someone in mind. It seemed to please him that we were willing to pay someone to do it. Elder Kyle pulled out the money and left it in the Bishop's hands.

We had no sooner gotten home that we received a message from Sipho saying that one of the ladies on the PA team has a sister in Chatsworth ward who is having trouble since she lost her job and Bishop Chetty had asked her if she wanted to deliver some flyers and be paid for it. Sipho said she was so grateful and isn't Bishop Chetty a nice man. He thought we should know about it. Ha.
It made our hearts feel good.

This was a good day! Hope yours was too.

Monday July 22 - Saturday, July 26 chatsworth YC - deliver blankets to Little Lambs Baby Home

We previously scheduled the guy to do the pressure washing at the Youth Centre on July 21st, but the YC director told us that he was getting paint donated and it would be painted before August 10, so we cancelled the pressure wash. Monday, he told us that he found out the paint company was donating paint, but no labor. He told us it was okay to pressure wash the place, so we called the pressure wash guy again and he said he could do it on the 27th. We turned in invoices to the area office for down payments to all the vendors doing stuff the day of the event, but the area office called and said we couldn't do the pressure wash and needed to find ward members to do it. So, once again Elder Kyle called the pressure washer and cancelled. I sent an email to all the PA people and stake and ward leaders asking for pressure washing help. We got responses immediately from three sources. We also called Brother Brieckhoff again, the Helping Hands director for the stake, and he said he would try and get one of them or more to do pressure washing and all he needed was to know how many hose bibs and electrical outlets, in case the pressure washers needed them. He then laid out a plan to do the Helping Hands activity and we were so happy that he is so efficient. He planned on doing it Saturday, July 21st and Saturday, July 25th.

Tuesday, we went out to Chatsworth Youth Centre to check out the hose bibs and electrical outlets.  When we got there we noticed someone had started painting, but we could not get a hold of the youth centre director and the job was only partially done (very small part), but enough to question whether it was going to get painted or not and whether we should continue with the pressure wash. You can see the difference with the nice clean yellow paint and the wall below it that is not painted.

Courtyard of Youth Center

Wednesday, we tried to find out more but did not reach him, so we went back out to the youth centre (by the way, this place is not close). Nothing else was going on, so we checked and found the hose bib, singular and electrical outlet, singular. Our concert flyers arrived and we took some to the mission home and gave some to the Chatsworth Elders to pass out in Chatsworth. At this stage, we are thinking it will be painted and we can skip the pressure wash, so we let Brother Brieckhoff know. By now, he is probably thinking to just ignore us and maybe we will go away.

Little Lambs home for orphaned babies

Thursday we delivered some baby blankets to the Little Lamb's Baby Home for abandoned or abused children....mostly babies. The Afrikaner woman who is doing this out of a guest house or remodeled garage next to the main house of her property in a very nice Kloof neighborhood, is amazing! She gets very little assistance to run this place and had to rely on donations. Sister Von Stetten got the blankets sent to her from her family in the US. I think it might have been a RS or YW project. She didn't get to deliver them before she left, so she asked us to do it.

Pictures of the babies and toddlers that have stayed there

 She had a whole wall of photographs and she pointed to some of the children and told us their story and who adopted them and talked about the ones staying there now. Three were old enough to go to school so they were not there. Three more were just a few months old and one little boy was between one and two. He was leery of us, so she had to hold him the whole time we were there. A couple of the children (ironically two white girls) were the ones that were abused and they were in school while we were there, but she had their pictures on the wall and they were both adorable.

We were not allowed to take photos of the children's faces

She showed us around the place and told us she is down to six, but she had 13 two weeks ago. She showed us the room where they wash clothes and the clothes that were donated were on hangers in that room. That was the room where the babies are given baths. It was very neat and organized. She said they go through one large package of diapers and a large can of formula every day. What she needs most are diapers and formula, plus soap to wash clothes and dishes, which is continual.

Beds were the occupants sleep

There was a small room with cribs and little beds where they all sleep. Everything was so clean, beds were made and covered with cute little blankets. Another room had a little area on the floor with a big quilt spread out and fenced in with a colorful plastic fence. Three babies on their stomach were looking at bright toys and little stuffed animals. A black woman that works there was laying on the blanket behind the fence talking to the babies. No one was crying, and the place did not smell of diapers or the usual baby smells...very impressive.

Play yard in the front of the building

As she talked about these children, you could see that she loves them and worries about them all. She said that there are 2.5 million babies that need to be adopted, but only 2000 per year actually do. She said the social workers call her first, because they know she cares and the children do very well with her, but she told us that one time the social worker met her at the home where they were supposed to pick up the child and the social worker brought out the child and then left. She couldn't get the child to get into the car with her, so she had to spend an hour persuading the child to go with her. She is a real trooper! There are people like this everywhere we go....working for just the satisfaction of helping others. From what she said, the government run facilities were awful...It's a shame, because most of the children are there.

CE Mobility where we get our wheelchairs made& adjusted

Today Friday, we went back out the youth center to see if they had painted any more, but no luck. I guess the pressure wash is officially back on.
We got the rest of the names of the people getting wheelchairs on August 10th before the concert. I forwarded them on to our wheel chair guy from CE Mobility. His office is in this cute restored ancient house in the Berea area, close to downtown. 

Unicopy for professional printing and supplies

We went to the Unicopy across the street from there to pick up more flyers and we had lunch at the café there in the mall. There were tons of people in the mall. It is Mandela's birthday on the 18th and they celebrate on the 18th and 19th.

Cafe in the mall where we had lunch.

We are going to Cape Town on Monday and we don't have many winter clothes. We heard it was pretty chilly there...at least 10 degrees colder than Durban. Elder Kyle found a pullover sweater at a good price, but I couldn't find anything. There was a lot of extra security in the mall, but nothing going on. Maybe they heard something was going to happen or maybe they were just being prepared because of the holiday, but all was quiet. These tables and chairs were where we ate lunch.

Sunday, July 14-umlazi ward-queensburgh ward

It is Sunday and we have flyers to pass out to two wards, so we head off to go to Umlazi W ward for sacrament meeting. This is an almost all black ward, except for us and three of the four missionaries from the United States. The Chapel is nice, but upholstered chairs instead of pews. No one minds and the chapel is packed.  As the people come in, they stop and shake hands with us. Everyone seems happy that we are there and they even acknowledge us when they start the meeting.

The sacrament was passed by men except for one small boy, who couldn't have been more than 12. It seems they are lacking young men in the ward, though maybe just this Sunday. The first speaker was an older gentleman whose talk was entirely in Zulu. He was very animated and talked loud so no one was bored and several times during his talk, the audience laughed. It was odd hearing this strange language with clicks and having no clue what he was saying. We heard only a few words in English, like 'Kingdom of God' and 'dispensation'. There was a second speaker, but this guy just kept talking. Finally the Bishop passed him a note and he abruptly finished his talk and sat down. The second speaker, who I would have loved to hear, just from the first few sentences he spoke basically bore his testimony, because there wasn't time for more. He started off with a short story, which I made note of, but can't find where I wrote it down, so I'm sorry to say I've forgotten. He is a member of the Bishopric, so I hope to get to hear him again.

After the meeting, we left for Queensburgh, a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that is situated inland (southwest) from Durban and now forms part of eThekwini, the Greater Durban metropolitan area. The hilly area was settled by people working in Durban who wanted to escape the humidity of the coastal city. In 1924, four residential townships in the area, Malvern, Escombe, Northdene and Moseley combined to form the town of Malvern. In 1952, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne, Malvern received municipality status and changed its name to Queensburgh. We had never been there before and didn't know what to expect. Of course, we got there during Sunday School. The building is different than any we've been in. You enter from the top floor and take the steps down into where the classrooms are. The top floor has a long hallway with the usual bulletin boards, but was eerily quiet. We walked to the end of the hallway, but didn't see anyone, so we surmised that everyone was down the stairs. When we got down there we could hear some faint chatter inside the rooms, but it was still pretty quiet. All the rooms had a piece of white paper with computer printed words. One door said, "Priesthood". One said "Sunday School" and "Relief Society". One said "Primary", etc. We heard a familiar voice teaching the lesson in Sunday School, former Bishop of Pinetown, Brieckhoff. We wondered why he was there, because he lives in the Pinetown area on the other side of Durban.

A woman appeared in the hallway with her teenage daughter and introduced herself as the Relief Society President. She said we could go on in the class, but the hour was just about up, so we said we would just wait. She opened the door went inside and set up some chairs along the wall and then beckoned us in. Then she left. Bishop Brieckhoff was just finishing up and it sounded like he gave a great lesson, but here is the weird thing...Elder Kyle was the only other man in there. There were about seven woman...that's it. I whispered to him, that maybe it was Relief Society and they had gotten Bishop Brieckhoff to speak to them. Luckily it was soon over and was indeed Sunday School.

Relief Society consisted of seven white women, all over the age of 50, 4 black women, probably in their early thirties and one Indian woman, probably in her thirties. Where is everyone, I kept thinking. It was time for Relief Society to start, but the Relief Society President was not there...Finally she came in and asked another lady to wing it until she got back. I heard her tell the lady that if she didn't get back in time, to ask everyone to share an experience where their testimony was tested this past week. She had to meet with the Bishop about getting some counselors called...hmmm. So this lady had us sing a song without a piano and then asked me to say the prayer (This was not a good day for me to forget my missionary badge! Yikes).

After the prayer, she asked if anyone had an experience where their testimony was strengthened - kind of the opposite of what she was supposed to ask them, but who can blame her for being rattled, when she is not even part of the Presidency. There were two older women who took up all the time talking around the subject and telling their personal stories. Finally, the Relief Society President showed up with her pretty (probably 16-year-old) daughter. Her daughter sat on the chairs by the wall that were stacked on top of each other and played with her two mostly naked Barbies. It soon became evident that the daughter had some mental problems, as she acted somewhat like a four-year-old. It was obvious that her mom was used to ignoring her and doing her business...in this case teaching the lesson. She started off by saying that we could put our Lorenzo Snow manuals away, because she was not going to teach from it.  She pulled rope from a spool of rope that she had brought and told us to move our chairs facing each other. This was hard, because the chairs were heavy and the ladies were old. I helped most of them move their chairs to face the other chairs. Then the rope was placed down the center on the floor. About this time I see out of the corner of my eye that her daughter at the other end of the room is taking her clothes off. Luckily she has pants and a blouse on under her dress (this must have happened before and mom is prepared). The blouse is coming unbuttoned, so she buttons it, but it is crooked. She walks by her mom and tells her, "I took off my dress. See I buttoned my shirt." Her mom distractedly says, 'Okay' and goes on with her lesson.

The RS President passed around small slips of paper and told us to write an incident that happened to us last week that tested our testimonies. She said to just summarize...that it didn't need to be too detailed. I figured that she would have us read them, so mine was so general that only I would know what it was trying to say. She then passed around a small bucket and told us to put ours in it and all did, except for one of the black ladies who was totally writing a book. Finally she put hers in and it was explained to us that we would comment on the 'test' the person had and tell what we would do.

 By now I am very confused. She then said the rope is the iron rod and when we do the right thing, we get to hold on, that our goal is by the end of class to have us all holding on to the rod. She pulled the first one out of the bucket and said, "Oh this is perfect, it is just what I was looking for." Then she asked what we would do it we were at a luncheon with people of another faith and they asked us what church we belonged to. The same two ladies that spoke before raised their hands and proceeded to tell everyone about their individual experiences with this. One of them was told to pick up the rope and hold onto the rod, because she had a good answer. This went on for awhile.

Four people were holding on when the Bishop slipped into the room and asked if he could say a few words before class was over. It was about the end of the hour, but she just went on with her lesson. The Bishop kept looking at his watch, but she just kept going. Finally with just four people holding on, she abruptly ended the lesson saying that we all need to hold on to the iron rod. I was thinking she could have had everyone pick up the rope and then say that just being in church meant they were all holding onto the rod, but she just ended it. The Bishop then got up and said that he needed to tell them all something very important. By the way, the bishop looked about 20 years old. He asked them what time sacrament meeting starts. They all said 9:00 and he said that was right. He also asked who got up to an alarm every morning to go to work. About half raised their hands and then he asked again what time church starts. He then said that it doesn't start at 9:15 or even 9:05, but at 9:00 and if they couldn't get their at 9:00, they needed to start setting their alarms, getting up earlier, planning so they could be there at 9:00. All of a sudden one of the ladies started crying and saying she was sorry she was late, but she had a personal problem... By now, I am feeling like I am on Candid Camera and any minute someone is going to say...Just kidding. Ha.

Afterwards, I found out that the neighborhood and ward used to be all Afrikaners and after apartheid many of them left South Africa. The ones who stayed just got older and many of them had passed on. The Afrikaners who are left in Queensburgh  are pretty set in their way with their old religion (Dutch reformed I think). Of the new people moving to the neighborhood not very many were converted to the church yet, so the ward was really hurting. Their average sacrament meeting attendance is 38 people. Bishop Brieckhoff and his wife were asked by the stake president to go to the Queensburgh ward and help these people, so the woman who was taking over for the RS President was Brieckhoff's wife and he taught not only Sunday School, but priesthood too. It was very sad. All the other wards we have been to have been packed, so it was hard to see such decline in a ward. The black families in the ward will be what saves it eventually. The missionaries have their work cut out for them in that ward. Sister Brieckhoff spoke to me after church and it was obvious she was having a hard time with this assignment. Elder Kyle and I decided that maybe we should go there more often just to have two more bodies.

Friday, July 12 and Saturday, July 13-Lunch with zachrisons, visiting Taviso in Umlazi

Friday we worked in the office in the morning and then went to the Mission office at noon to visit with the mission president and give him an idea of what we are up to. When we arrived, he was busy...His wife has set up an office inside his office...odd, but kind of cute. She came out when a missionary came in to see him. I can tell that he is feeling quite out of his element as a Mission President after being a lawyer for so long. He acted a bit frazzled, like he wasn't quite sure he would ever catch up with all that was going on. They have only been here about two weeks, so I think they are doing great, but it is catching up with them. Last week they had to drive around to Bloemfontein and other areas (like we did our first week out). They drive this huge van, which is difficult to do on these little streets and small parking areas.

When he was finally done, he came out and announced that we were all going to lunch. The Holts looked startled and Elder Holt said, "No we are not going." President Zackrison said, "Well you gotta eat don't you?" Elder Holt very firmly said, "We are the only ones in the office, so we must wait until the other's get back to man the phones. You guys go ahead." By the look she gave him, I could tell that Sister Holt would like to go, but he was right. So Elder Kyle and I went to lunch and they drove the big van. We went to a nice Italian restaurant, but the service was very slow and I could tell that the President was exasperated about it. He hasn't learned T.I.A. (This is Africa) yet. We went over the things we were doing at lunch and they asked questions about us so we told our life stories. Ha. They are nice people, but I can see where they might seem intimidating to the missionaries. In many ways they seem to be the opposite of President and Sister Von Stetten. But, both of them have great qualities. The mission is in good hands.

We then went to pick up flyers for the concert and went to the grocery store. When we got home we ordered a pizza and Elder Kyle ate all but one piece of it (It wasn't all that big so he actually didn't get that much).

Today (Saturday) is our Preparation Day, which means we can wear casual clothes and get our work done, but Elder Kyle promised our landscape guy here at the apartments that we would come and see his new house in Umlazi. Several weeks ago, Taviso came to Elder Kyle and asked if he could use the church's bakki (truck) to move. He said he had borrowed it previously (before we came) to move. Elder Kyle was pretty sure that was not allowed, but he asked and they said that it was not allowed and they didn't know who would have done it. When Elder Kyle told Taviso that we could not let him use the truck, he asked him how much it would take to rent a truck to move. He said R400, which is about $40. Elder Kyle gave him the money and told him not to worry about paying it back. Ever since then he insists upon washing our car every Friday to pay back the money. He told us how much he and his wife and children like the new house and showed the pictures of it on his cell phone. So Elder Kyle said we would come and visit on Saturday.

We could not find the address on the GPS or the Google Maps, but the street was there so we started off in hopes of finding it. Umlazi is a bunch of houses built on hills with small winding roads, so I was not too sure of being able to find it and pretty sure we would get lost, but we were in need of an adventure I guess, because we went anyway. When we got close to his neighborhood and then found the street, we were feeling pretty good; however, house numbers were not matching up...many did not have house numbers and we decided to stop and call Taviso. As soon as we stopped, we saw him walking up the street. He had been looking for us and told us he would get in the car and show us where to go. This is hard to explain, but his house was behind another house and the only way you could get to it was to park at the other house (hardly anyone has cars in Umlazi) and walk through this house's backyard down to his house (down because it is on the side of a mountain). I wish I had taken pictures. I don't think my description will do it justice, but let's just say it was a very modest area with debris everywhere and a makeshift fence with a 2 foot path of dirt and weeds that went down and up and over until we reached his house. This view is from the front of his house.

His house is a government built home for people who don't have housing. It has electricity, but no water and the house is not entirely finished, so the homeowner has to do it himself. For instance there is no ceiling inside, just rafters and there is no bath or kitchen set up. We have no idea where they go to the bathroom. This photos is a finished house in Umlazi. His is not at all this nice, but it could be eventually. I didn't feel right busting out my camera to take photos of his humble home.There is a community tap somewhere where the neighborhood people go to fill up buckets with water. We have no idea how they bathe, perhaps a washcloth? The house was a very small rectangle with a tiny living room with two beat up vinyl couches facing each other and a chair on the end. There was a very small outdated TV playing nice music and a DVD player. That took up 90% of the floor space. The main bedroom was very teeny with a bed on the floor. The other bedroom had no bed for baby or their 6-year old daughter or his brother who appeared to be staying with them.

However, he was so proud of his home and so happy that we would come and see him. He said it made him feel like a 'King' that we would come. He also said that all his neighbors would now think of him as a king, because we came and visited him in his house. I am having a hard time writing this without crying, because it was so humbling. What a sweet man. We kept trying to tell him it was we who were honored, but he just kept repeating how happy he was that we came. His little girl was adorable, very pretty about the size and age of our granddaughter. She was very shy and kept putting her hand over her mouth when she thought she might smile. His other daughter was six months old and I got to hold her. She was such a chubby baby... felt like lead, and right away starting pulling my hair. Her mom and sister have no hair to pull, so she was pulling my hair with all her might. Then she went after my earrings. She is very cute. I brought them cupcakes that I made and they brought out a container of grape juice and some store-bought biscuits (cookies).

Taviso's brother is younger than him and not married and not employed. They all grew up on a farm. We gave them one of the church Cd's about Africans and they wanted to watch it while we were there. It talks about the importance of families and the work the church does in Africa. After it was over, I looked at his wife and she had her hand over her heart...she was obviously touched by the DVD. We talked to them about the church and how great their lives would be if they would attend and get to know the members. He said, "Oh yes, we will go." When we left, Elder Kyle gave him the pamphlet where the addresses of the chapels are in Umlazi and elsewhere. When driving away, we just looked at each other and were both thinking, "Wow." It made them so happy that we came. It shouldn't have, but it did. The Africans are definitely teaching us the meaning of being humble.

Here is a bit of history on Umlazi:

In the province of KwaZulu-Natal is Umlazi, its biggest township with an estimated population of 800,000. In South Africa, Umlazi is the second to the biggest township that was once made up of several townships. In 1967, Umlazi was formed by combining these smaller towns in order to create a “black township”. This was, of course, during the Apartheid period and the government at that time wanted segregation of race and skin colour. Many black people were moved to Umlazi and even after Apartheid, it became known as the “criminal capital of South Africa.” Sadly for Umlazi, it is having a hard time shaking off that title.

Nonetheless, visiting Umlazi is not what one would expect from a town that has supposedly has a lot of criminals. It’s a beautiful area where infrastructure has been developing at a comfortable pace since 1994.

Even the name of the township has a legend regarding the origins of the name, and it is not favorable to the place or people of Umlazi. According to the story, when the great Zulu leader, King Shaka, was passing through, he came upon the local river. Since he was thirsty, he was offered a drink from the river which he promptly spat out claiming it tasted like “umlaza” which is a Zulu word for sour acid from fermented milk. Since then, the place has been called Umlazi.

Umlazi is southwest of Durban.The township is divided into 28 areas strangely named after the alphabet like AA, BB, and CC. Many of the houses were originally nothing more than shacks but with the housing project of the government under President Zuma, RDP houses are replacing them. RDP houses are subsidized low-cost houses and are a major project for the president using alternative and affordable construction methods.

Umlazi is a good place to live in because of its rolling hills, natural green landscape, and rich soil. Life is very traditional in the sense that the food uses many African herbs, and sangomas and natural healers are very popular. The sense of community is also very strong and many locals are intent on changing the image of the township to a more positive one. In fact, you won’t be surprised to see young men and women sporting national replica soccer jerseys on occasions when national pride is at stake: the same pride is beginning to develop with regards to the township itself.

That pretty much took up our Saturday. I thought about taking Sister Stark dinner, but could not get a hold of her to see if she wanted it (She had arthroscopic surgery on her knee Wednesday). I made pasta salad and Sloppy Joes that were actually really good. I found this pasta Bourgeoisie sauce with meat. We had it once with hamburger on pasta and I thought at the time that it wasn't good on pasta but would be a great sloppy Joe mix, so tonight we put it to the test and it was delicious. It is in a jar, but tastes very fresh and has small diced veggies in it. When hamburger is added it is very nice. I learned quickly that you just got to try things here and maybe you will come up with a masterpiece!

After dinner, and reading scriptures, I started doing this blog and Elder Kyle read all the Facebook posts and was laughing at the Dachshund  photos. He kept saying, "Look at this one." It was very annoying, but they were very funny photos.

Thursday, July 11th-visit Adele's handicap home for teaching skills-getting wheelchairs-Rajesh Indian home

Today we had two appointments to see people who were promised wheelchairs from the church, by Lotus FM. We want to make sure that the chairs are going to individuals and not institutions, so we are scoping out the two non government agencies that were listed, along with some individuals getting chairs. Our first appointment was with Adele Walker who runs an organization out of her home for handicapped people who would like to learn skills that will help them earn money and be independent. This turned out to be an amazing experience.


Adele and he husband live in a modest home in the outskirts of Durban. It started when a handicapped woman came to her home and asked her to teach her to sew. She did and then someone else came and asked to be taught. This snowballed quickly until she had to get more machines. Then she started looking into ways for these people to earn money through sewing. She contacted environmental companies and found that they would be interested in having things sewn for them.



They would provide all the materials and pay someone to sew in a straight line all the different materials. This worked out great, so they started checking into sewing other simple items. Handicapped people kept coming and she realized she could not teach them all to sew. She needed another way to keep them busy and help them earn a living, so she visited manufacturing plants to ask them if there was something these people could do.

Adele showing us what they are doing to renew headrests

In one of these places that makes headrests for cars she saw huge bags of stuff stacked everywhere and asked them what it was. They explained that it was the plastic devices used to blow the foam into the headrests, but there was foam still in the plastic, so was not environmentally friendly and could not be thrown away. They didn't know what to do with the stuff. She picked up one of these plastic pieces with foam sticking out and started twisting the foam. It finally came out and she thought, my people can do this. The manufacturer started paying them to do this and they reused the plastic device. Adele thought of other things at the plant that they could do and the plant paid them for all those things. When we visited her that is what the people were doing. This is Adele showing how the device works.




Some were sewing...others taking the foam out of the plastic pieces. They also teach the handicapped to wash their own clothing, so they bought all these washing machines and people in the neighborhood started paying them to wash their clothes.










They eventually got soccer teams to pay them to wash the uniforms and another income source was born. It goes on and on. The lady is a genius and she also got food donated by stores who were throwing out outdated food. She has it prepared the day she receives it and the poor people come and eat twice a week...usually soup in the winter and other simple fare in the summer.

Determining the needs of the centre and how the Church can help

Half of her house is taken over by these projects and she is happy as can be. The people who come there are making money, learning self esteem and all are benefiting from this woman's loving guidance. Since the people she ordered wheelchairs for do not live there, we know these chairs are for them and we suggested that if she knows others to get their names and we will get them a chair also.




We also invited them to attend the concert and she said she would take them all there in kombi. How great is that! Transportation is one of the biggest problems with the people who live here. Two of the ladies, who were so cute, come from Umlazi and she asked them to arrange for a kombi. They may be handicapped, but she treated them like anyone else. It was fun to see.

Aryan Benevolent Home for Indian population

After leaving her place, we travelled to Chatsworth where the Aryan Benevolent Home is. The list Lotus gave us said they were to get 20 chairs, but no names were mentioned. We met with the CEO, Rajesh. He is also an amazing guy. He has about 600 aged people living there. He has about 150 orphans.  The facility is supported by private donations and gets a little from the government. Some of the elderly people are pretty bad off, but there were no smells. Many of them do not have any visitors. He said that some were just dropped off there and their family left notes that they wanted no contact with them again...very sad.

He also has a nursing school. The people studying nursing get to work in the adult care unit, so he saves money there. The place was as clean as can be and Rajesh spoke to the people there as we toured the facility in a very nice way and they knew him. There was a large group of people being taken by the staff to the circus. When we invited them to attend the concert along with the wheelchair recipients, he said that he would bring at least 60 people and to save them seats. He will supply us with names of the people getting wheelchairs.



These are drawings the children made for the aged that live there. Rajesh is Hindu, but is doing the work that Christ would want us to do.

As we were leaving and talking to Rajesh in the parking lot, a lady walked over and gave me a hug and a smacking kiss on the cheek, then she turned to Elder Kyle and he started to shake her hand, but she grabbed him and hugged him and gave him a smacking kiss also. I think he turned red. Rajesh introduced her as Sarah, their resident dementia patient. After she kissed us, she just walked away. He says she does that to everyone. Ha.

Well, we had some eye-opening experiences today and will never forget them. My spirits have been lifted. I met two 'Mother Theresa' types today and realized how much more can be done by us in the U.S. to help ease other's burdens. I know it is something Heavenly Father wants us to know. I now am looking forward to the concert so I can see these people again. WOW!

Wednesday, July 10th appt with Rising Sun newspaper

Today is Wednesday and we have an appointment with The Rising Sun Newspaper editor. V.  Thambiran. He is the guy in the left middle with the glass of wine. I found this photo online. They were not celebrating our visit...ha. The building was very nice. They had animals engraved in rock on the front of the building and inside was a modern sleek office with shiny black floors and pretty Indian young women manning the round modern reception desk. We were taken up a circular staircase to Vivaga's office. As soon as we sat down, he started talking about the community and how there are many Christian churches, but he is Hindu and he believes everyone can believe what they want, but they need to help those less fortunate and act like Christ, by serving the people. He then started talking about how so much propaganda is spread by the outside media that Chatsworth is a dangerous place, but that is just not true. He said, "When you go to an Indian's home, they invite you in and offer you tea and biscuits right? We looked kind of vague, because we haven't been to an Indian home, so he asked one of the girls from the office the same question and she said, Oh, they would invite you in and give you tea and biscuits. He then asked us if we ever saw any crime there and we admitted we had not, so he said, "You can walk anywhere on the streets here and no one is going to bother you. There is no crime, at least not any more than anywhere else. It is quite safe here." Then we told him a little about the concert and he said that it sounded good and gave us his card. He said he liked the guy at the youth centre...He is a good man and told us when we sent our press release he would print it. He said he also had a story about our last wheelchair giveaway in his newspaper. He is an interesting man and we enjoyed him a lot, even without the kind of reception that is in this photo.

We came back and worked on the press release and I found a place online that would do flyers for 1/3 of the printing places here, the flyers are bigger on glossy paper, so instead of paying the equivalent of $325 for 4000 1/4 page flyers, we are paying $125 for 5,000 1/2 page flyers...good bargain hunting. It takes longer to get them printed, but it will be well worth it. We are trying to get our PA council on board to find ways to hand them out to different neighborhoods and organizations. Did I mention that this is a lot of work?

We also got an email from Lisa at Lotus giving us the names of the wheelchair recipients so we can let CE Mobility start making the chairs. Unfortunately, when we got the names she had two organizations listed. One had the names of the six people getting chairs and one just said 20 chairs. Our contract is to give to individuals, not institutions, plus we have the wheelchair giveaway and we want recipients to be there. It would not do, so we made appointments with the two groups getting chairs for Thursday, so we can go and see what is going on. This concert and wheelchair handover has my moods going from happy to sad to mad, depending upon the day. Elder Kyle calmed me down and said just wait until we meet with them, because I was grumbling that we were going to all this trouble and no one was going to show up for the wheelchair distribution or concert. But, I calmed down, wrote a nice positive letter to Lisa at Lotus and decided to wait until tomorrow and see what we find.

Wednesday evening we went out to dinner with Elder and Sister Holt. We enjoy them and haven't been to dinner, when not working on Public Affairs, hardly at all, so we went to the Ocean Basket and all had king fish and chips (fries). and salad, except your dad who had fish and calamari. It was good, but the company was even better. They are a very nice couple from Canada. Sister Holt works at the front desk in the Mission office and is less than a year older than me. Elder Holt works in the mission office on the car fleet that the church has going for all the missionaries and is about two years younger that Elder Kyle. He worked for a feed manufacturer (for cattle) in charge of a sales region for most of his life. They lived out in the country. We had some great conversation and got to know each other a bit better. Another busy day.