September 29, 2014 Back at Home in the United States!

We finally arrived back home on September 29th with our daughter's family to greet us. The grandkids were so happy to have us back. They kept holding on to us, as if we might take off again. How great to see everyone, but bittersweet knowing our time in Africa was officially over.

We got back to our house and we were served a Mexican dinner, with Kyles and Pleasants.

We hope we get opportunities to speak about our mission in Church, to encourage other couple to go on a mission. We kept being told how hard it was to get couple to serve in Africa, but every couple we met loved Africa and some served a second and even third mission there.

Do you remember Elder Bednar's promise to the senior couples, that all couples who choose to come on a mission will be blessed for two generations? Our family is now an eternal family thanks to those blessings and we have an opportunity to be together forever. All of these things fell into place after we chose to go on a mission! What joy that brings to our hearts!

We are so grateful for the opportunity! WE LOVE AFRICA!

The End of our Africa Blog!

Grabbed by Mia and Trey as we came our of customs

Ryan, Mia, Patty, Trey, Shannon and Everett

Mexican Fiesta...YUM!

Eagles Nest House

More Pictures of London

Some great photos of our wonderful red bus tour, river tour and Church building.

Downtown walkway

LDS Church Building

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Big Ben

Guard of the Gate always at the ready

Buckingham Palace

September 26 - Tour of London on way home to US!

River Tour, also a transportation option.

 Our sweet daughter paid for us to stay a couple of days in London on our stopover coming home. What a nice gift! We loved and the history evidenced in their old ornate buildings. We loved the little black cabs, the red bus tour, the theaters (where we saw Wicked), the hotel in the middle of everything and the river you can also use to get places. It would have been very difficult to spend 22 hours in the airplanes again, so this was not only an amazing opportunity to see England, but a lifesaver as well!

The hotel where we stayed in London

Hotel Lobby

Walking distance from hotel, Famous London Bridge.

The Apollo Victoria Theater where we saw the play.

Poppies to commemorate those who died for their country.    

Red Bus Tour of London

Loved the little black cabs they use there, but expensive!

September 24th Heritage Day at the Office

Today was Heritage Day at the office. People were supposed to wear their tribal clothing from the area they were originally from, so there was quite a variety of dress, from Nairobi to Swaziland. The women were so beautiful in their very colorful clothing. It gave us an opportunity to find out where they were from, eat a few treats from that area and ask questions. Nothing is boring in Africa! The ones I added names to are ones we worked with directly that became friends. All are Awesome and provided smiles every day! We will sure miss everyone. The food was great too!

Zanelle and Dorcus from the Law Offices

Carly from the Travel office

Dominic Tshabalala, National PA Director

Kapu in Area Office

Lady that works in cafeteria

Patricia from the cleaning crew

Fezi, receptionist at main entrance

Our final days at the office...photographing memories

The last few months have been a whirlwind. We have to start thinking about moving and what items to take and which to leave behind. We have many things going at work, including training our replacements. We've been to Swaziland with the Bergs and passed on the mantle of that Public Affairs area. We've had many work related things to take care of and people to say, "Goodbye" to. There are so many people that we will miss...well just about everyone! Here are the ones I could catch on Camera:

We took this photo, because often we come to the office looking like we planned to dress alike. It was by chance of course, but we started taking photos. The theme today was black, white and red. Sister Berg, me, Sister Shupe and Sister Wilson. We had a great time in the office together! I will miss these sweet ladies.

The Lombardi's, our Swaziland friends, the most dedicated couple we had the pleasure of knowing on our mission. He served as a Priesthood Counselor in the Branch Presidency and also was in charge of the Elders (missionaries) in that area. She was an instrumental woman in the ward helping the members on a daily basis, plus they both supported and loved the 'La Bomba Boys', a group of young men who went from being a criminal gang to going on missions. They are great examples of love that we will never forget.

Our fearless leaders, Sean and Dianne Donnelly...friends for life. We are so thankful for the things they have taught us and the examples they are to everyone. Thanks friends! They helped us to truly experience Africa and love all parts of it, but especially the beautiful wild animals. They spend their life trying to protect these animals. It's a wonderful selfless service. Thanks for all you've taught us and for putting up with us as your assistants. We will miss our weekly meetings and game drives and fun times together. This is Sean with his wife Diana and below Sean took us out to one of our favorite restaurants Knives and Forks.

Debbie Pinear, an outstanding help to me in all of my efforts at the Area Office. Her title at the SE Area office was unclear to me, but she helped with any office problem we had and became a dear friend. She was born and raised in South Africa and offered  the interesting details a native African would have. I will miss her coming to our office and leaning on the windowsill by my desk where we would shoot the breeze for a few minutes almost daily when we where in the office.

Law Offices which include RQ and Susan Shupe (from PA office) who became great friends: 

The Humphreys, Senior Couple in Rwanda - great friends!

I didn't have time to get more photos, but most are interspersed throughout the blog. We are so happy to have been on this adventure. We felt that we did some good, learned a lot, met many great friends and have a good knowledge of Africa and its inhabitants. We may not meet again, but all will forever be in our hearts. Let this mission to Africa be a testimony of the power and miracles that come from serving as a Senior Couple Missionary. Thanks to our children who helped make all of this possible!

September 2014 trip to Swaziland to introduce Bergs

As we come to the end of our blog, we are sad at the thought of leaving these wonderful people behind, but we know the Berg couple will do great and we will soon be forgotten. I've learned that this is the Lord's work and helps all of us succeed when we are going about His business. Here are the Bergs in our seats at the office...sigh. They look good there don't they? I'm sure they will do well and enjoy their mission as much as we did. Elder Kyle trained Elder Berg on the duties he was attending to, including the time of the Visa meeting, country plans and ongoing projects. I  helped Sister Berg learn about the financial aspect of Public Affairs and how to use the Church finance system. Then we worked on Mormon Newsroom for all the different countries and how to use their web system to post her stories and to edit other stories from the various countries.

Since Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are countries they will be directly responsible for, we planned a trip to Swaziland by car to introduce them to the National Public Affairs director there and to show them how to pass through customs, etc. by car. We had a great time, as we always do in Swaziland. We invited the Senior couple to join us for dinner and it was great learning about what the McEwens were doing with the missionaries in Swaziland. They helped us figure out our way around and Saturday directed us to the bridge the Church Helping Hands group are helping build for community that has no quick way out of their neighborhood by car. He said the bridge would be finished the following weekend, which surprised us because they hadn't started yet. I  hope they succeed, but if not next weekend, we know they will keep at it until it is done. They are not afraid to work hard and he was expecting 150 people to show up and help.This is Sister Berg at Summerfields, a botanic garden hotel that we all love.

Since Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are countries they will be directly responsible for, we planned a trip to Swaziland by car to introduce them to the National Public Affairs director there and to show them how to pass through customs, etc. by car. We had a great time, as we always do in Swaziland. We invited the Senior couple to join us for dinner and it was great learning about what the McEwens were doing with the missionaries in Swaziland. They helped us figure out our way around and Saturday directed us to the bridge the Church Helping Hands group are helping build for community that has no quick way out of their neighborhood by car. He said the bridge would be finished the following weekend, which surprised us because they hadn't started yet. They decided to change tactics and use cement pipes, since their previous efforts at building the foundation for the bridge were washed away. I  hope they succeed, but if not next weekend, we know they will keep at it until it is done. They are not afraid to work hard and he was expecting 150 people to show up and help. These people do not get discouraged, they just keep on trying.

Beautiful peacocks through the gardens at hotel.

Parents visiting Africa with twin sons' mission ending.

Elder Kyle & Jerome Shongwe discussing the bridge.

Decided to use cement pipes so bridge doesn't erode.

Elder & Sister Berg - They are great!

Most babies & toddlers are carried this way.
It's just a piece of cloth wrapped around mom.

August 24th Bedfordview Stake Helping Hands Fair

Grassy Area behind Church building - site of FH fair

On Saturday, August 24th, we headed over to the stake event at Bedfordview. The church has a large grassy area behind it and it was set up with all kinds of booths to help people better understand the Church and what we believe.

Computers are needed for Family History.

There was a booth set up for Family History and run by the family history senior missionaries in the area office. They had lots of information about how to find ancestors and let people know it is all free through familysearch.org.

Sister Barnes manning the Africa Church History display

The Church History senior missionaries also had a booth and had several examples of church history in Africa and loads of photos and take-aways.

Our humanitarian department had a booth as well describing the ways Church Humanitarian Services can help the African people. Sister Kirschbaum made friends with the missionaries.

Sister Kirshbaum sharing shade with missionaries

Cute little girl getting her face painted

There was food and face-painting, plus many other activities. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Young women were selling cupcakes and  a business was there advertising. Hot dogs and hamburgers were being prepared and sold for a nominal amount.



Then they began the program. They had a mic and sound system set up. The missionaries sang, "Called to Serve" and the primary children sang a couple of songs. Then some ladies in the stake sang a native song to everyone there.

The choir warming up with the lady in the middle directing

As the primary finished their song, I gave the Stake Primary President, who was directing the children, a bag of CTR bracelets. Each of the children got one and I let her have what was left to hand out to the children as she visited each ward or branch. She was so happy that she called me Monday at work and asked for more. She said on Sunday they went really fast and some people didn't get one. Darin started it, so I guess I'll have to ask him to make more.

This lady spoke of the Church's donation of wheelchairs

After the singing, they had representatives from all the Helping Hands groups who performed service to the community. One by one they came up and told about their projects and how it helped those in need. One lady in a wheelchair spoke about how they helped the disabled.

This lady spoke about Helping Hands Projects in her community

Others spoke about renovating orphanages or painting schools, cleaning parks or helping individual families with food and clothing. It was obvious how impassioned they were about their projects.

Robin Padoa and his family - his wife works in Area Office

Then our Southeast Africa Helping Hands Director, Robin Padoa spoke about how great the participation was in 2014 and how thankful he was for all that helped others. He promised that 2015 would be even a better year for service with more people getting involved in helping their communities, as well as pairing up with other organizations to accomplish something huge. This is Robin with his family.

This brother is a member of the Stake Presidency and a friend

It was a really nice event and we were happy to be a part of it! On our way out we saw our neighbor at the area office who is a counselor in the Bedfordview Stake Presidency and in charge of our visa/travel department. He is a great guy and so funny!