Monday, July 29 - Wed, July 31 finalizing plans for DGH group, wheel chair, lotus

We cannot believe that July is over!!!!! Time is whizzing by and David Glen Hatch concert is next week...It's enough to frazzle even the strongest nerves. Ha. Monday we tried to firm up our trip to Cape Town and visited pressure washing again as we have not been able to pin the Youth Centre director down on the painting. He has not answered any of our messages. It seems like finishing the painting would be the best thing to do at this point. Finding people who pressure wash and will not charge us is not happening. So we are going for painting the area, but need permission from the director to get started. We'll keep trying.

Today we found out that our draping people still have not been paid, so we have spent quite a bit of time communicating with the area office to get them paid. They were supposed to have it paid by 14 days out. She says if not paid by tomorrow, she cannot do the job. It's a nerve racking business, but we are placing phone calls and working hard to get this taken care of. They asked her to remove a part of the contract that they didn't like. She is being very understanding, considering the late payment. We vouched for her in hopes that would be enough, but they are nervous about paying her the whole amount before the job is done.

Monday night is our turn to have Family Home Evening at our house with the other senior couples, so we made a trip to the grocery store, to get ingredients to make some dessert for the gang. We came up with the idea of having a movie night. We used our church projector and borrowed a screen from the mission office. It was a pretty large screen, so it was like being at the movies. We arranged the seating and I made a cherry cobbler for dessert, popcorn for the movie and homemade chips and salsa for eating when they arrived. We had grapetizer (very African...like sparkling grape juice) and cream soda to drink. We watched the church movie, 17 Miracles, about the handcart pioneers and the trouble they had getting caught going to Salt Lake in the winter. It was really well done and although many died and they had so many hardships, including starving and freezing to death, they showed all the miracles that happened along the way that helped most of them survive. All the stories were taken from the journals of those who experienced them. The one that really touched me was when this woman was helping pack up to leave one morning and called her daughter to wake up, but when repeated attempts did not work, she went over and touched her and she was not breathing. It was very sad and the family was very distraught. The ground was too frozen to bury her, so they had to leave her there. They started down the road and the wife suddenly told her husband that she remembered that the apostle told them they would all make it to the promised land. She said she was going back, because her daughter was not dead. They looked at her like she was crazy, but she just kept saying, no, she is not dead, because we were told we would all make it. They followed her back to their camp and she started rubbing her daughter's skin and warming her feet, when suddenly she opened her eyes...That lady's faith saved their daughter...a powerful moment. I recommend you see it, if you haven't already.  We all had a great time munching and watching the movie.

Tuesday I wrote a letter to the lady from Lotus FM, because Elder Kyle spoke to her and she acted like they were not even going to have anyone from the station at the wheelchair distribution. She told him she might be there for 30 minutes, but no taping, no emcee. I couldn't believe they were not going to do it, so I wrote her an email asking if we had done something to offend and telling her how great the venue was going to be and how the wheelchair recipients were coming to the concert and we were going to have great numbers. I told her that if her station was not going to air it on their station that we would have to find another station to air it, because it was a big event. I planned on doing just that, but she sent an email back saying they were having a meeting and she had an emcee lined up. She agreed to contact us after the meeting. She sent another email telling me that they were going to have their crew out there to tape the event and will help with food donations. So, all worked out in the end, but we were sweating bullets until she gave us the news. Whew!

We also worked on a writing up a plan for when Elder Bednar comes in October. After a conversation we had with the new mission president, who said we should use the Proclamation to the Family as a public affairs tool, we drew up this plan where we would have an annual event where we gave out awards to those who did an exceptional job of preserving the family, whether it be through helping the handicapped to be self sufficient so they can have their own families or honouring an actual family that exemplifies these qualities. Elder Bednar's visit would kick off the event and he would speak to a group of religious and Civic leaders who agree that families are the key to South Africa's survival.  Of course there is a lot more in the letter we sent to our area PA director. He answered the same day and said that it was inspired and if we could get the Stake Presidents to buy into it, he would submit to the area office. I put together an email with the plan attached and sent it to all stake presidencies here in Durban and copied our pa directors and the mission president. The mission president and the PA directors were very excited about the plan and had lots of ideas, but we still haven't heard from anyone from the Stake Presidencies.  We are pretty excited. It is something we can really get behind and be excited about.

We also got a copy of the DGH ground transportation for Durban and Cape Town. We copied our PA director in Cape Town and talked about vehicles that will fit their eight people plus luggage for eight people. Larry will check with the member who has volunteered to drive them around in his van. Elder Kyle and I think we will have to rent a small van for an extra one or two passengers, plus all the luggage. There is a lot to coordinate. They will need to be picked up, taken to the venue, out to lunch, out to dinner, to the concert, to the fireside, to their hotel, etc. We have to do this in both Durban and Cape Town. We also plan to stay in Cape Town after they are gone, so we need to organize accommodations in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London. We will be visiting the Church leadership of those areas and giving them some Public Affairs training.

Wednesday our draping gal was still not paid and they had gone back and forth about whether they would pay before the concert. Finally it was agreed upon that she would get half the money on Thursday and the rest on August 8th, which is when she is starting her draping. Hopefully they will get the money to her tomorrow, so we can relax. Still no word from the Youth Centre director. Time is running out for getting this stuff done before the concert. Lisa from Lotus wanted the press release and told us they would read it on air. I emailed it to her.