Typical Week?

   Tonight is Sunday and of course to  time to get caught up with blogging. Is this a typical week?  Maybe, time will tell!
   On Sunday, Sept 4 we went to Eskaheni Branch and met the young 26 year old single Branch 'Pres that previously went on a mission to Joberg.  I got to teach Scripture power and teach the leaders where to find the song.  There must have been 50 kids crammed into this tiny room.  This is a huge branch with mostly teenagers and kids.  The Pres. pulled us into the office and asked us to pay for Sis. Shabalala's way to the temple at the coming up ward temple trip, with Sis Shabalala sitting there. He said the way to handle this was to have Sis Shabalala to our home and work as our maid.  The Taylor's funded most of her outfitting for her coming- up mission this way.   We just needed to finish the job. We knew the Taylor's had done a lot for this branch but had no idea yet to what extent.  The expectations for the next senior missionaries are great and they were just waiting till we got there to start asking or more like telling us the way it would be.  My children will already guess where this is going-- but don't worry.   I again was blown away by the Africa ways, and mildly went along with the plan of the maid.
   Elder Smith has been sick with something similar with what I had so I gave him some instructions and bland foods.
   That Monday was my first study day for Institute with  Leviticus.  The material was tough for me and I stumbled through the next day with 2 attendees.  Our drive is one hour each way to Dundee. They are working on the road and they stop traffic 2 times on this 2 lane road.  We can only seem to make this a full day deal.  We pick some kids up at school across town so we leave home at least 2 hrs before we teach.  We have had something each day before we get ready to go home and end up home in the dark.  Those first few times driving home in the dark were frightening.  It is really dark all the way with no towns to go through.  It's very dark in Africa out in the country--and there are still walkers. Needless to say --finally the whiteknuckling has subsided with time.

   Wednesday was ZTM (zone training meeting)and back to Dundee  that very next morning and lasted until 4. Sister Hind provided most of the meal while I got fruit and drink and cups. We waited for Elders from Bethlehem and Potajab...to get there and finally made contact.  They were lost and had a dead gps and limited phone service. They lived 4 hours away so we were concerned.  They were over 2 hours late and we decided to start without them when they finally pulled up.  Such drama!  Our boys from Dundee did a good job at training and I know all of our  20 Elders needed the upper.  We took pics cleaned up after a 3:00 lunch and headed home again on our well traveled road.
   Thursday was maid day and my big study day for Friday's teaching.  It turns out that Sis Shabalala(fun to say) is a good worker, but my little house only has so much flooring and toilets to clean.  It is hard to keep her busy and we really needed to be studying  in the middle of her work area.  I like a clean house, but not at the expense of our privacy and life. She is leaving in a month and we will need to rework the maid deal after that.  (this is a funding tool for this Branch President and he expects it)
   Friday is back to Dundee to teach and for me no one shows.  One student shows up at the end of seminary but we didn't have institute class. (Another thing students expect are snacks and baked goods every class for 12 people.)
   Sat. was like a P day with shopping but mostly looking for hardware things like a water purifier for our kitchen faucet.  I now only drink bottled water even with toothbrushing.  We spent most of our day looking for things we needed that were bugging us.  We found a few things at Game. That is supposed to be a subsidiary of Walmart without fresh food and most recognizable things that you would see at Walmart.  Almost nothing is an import we have found.  It has to be at least packaged here even if we recognize something about the product.  Magnum ice cream bars are here because they have a  factory in South Africa.
   Kent started calling all of Institute and Seminary teachers that we are in charge of.  The end of the school year is the end of September  and Old Testament assessments need to be handed out in our 2 districts we are in charge of.   Richards Bay people have computers thankfully, so we can send. They are the furthest away at 4 hours.  Most of our teachers,mostly seminary, get their assessments hand delivered by us and we finally meet most of these people.  We start Sunday!  
  
   
  
  

Golden Gate Highland National Park

 

The illness that required a couch on my back for 3 days(and bathroom close by), sadly caused us to be late for our big S and I meeting at the National Park in the Drakensburg mountains. We were in the park at the Golden Gate Lodge and Chalet.  It was beautiful but hard for us to find. It reminded us a little of Zions but less red.

  This greeted us in our room, so we were on high alert baboon watch from then on.

   We went on Wednesday instead of Tuesday and totally missed the Doctrinal Mastery roll playing activity and are still lost with regard to that new program.  The meeting was inspirational, for we were invited to a meeting with other coordinators.   2 area Seventies attended and spoke and were also coordinators I think.  They were all employees of CES except we 2 sets of Senior S and I couples on missions. There were guys from Mozambique to Botswana. We were out of our element quite a bit but loved to rub shoulders with these great men.  We had meetings till  Friday and  then had an orientation meeting with us couples till noon because we were so new. We have a  bit more knowledge now .  But I confess  that I'm so into the Old Testament finishing out my institute class, that Kent's taking the lead in this administration stuff has been a blessing.  We have so much to do, besides teach, that we are overwelmed.

    Good news!  We did get to go to an operating Besotho village during a break.  They give you  a tour with real (Witch) Dr.s and fiddlers and they keep up the village like they would have in the 1800's.

The Fiddler is on the roof warning of approaching visitors.  Man or beast!

Elder Roberts ( left) is shaking the bones of the medicine man to see what's wrong with him.

This is a real chief (right) and he is wearing his decision hat to decide if we should stay or leave. 

    Besotho is the name of the people, and Lesotho is the name of their country that is in the middle of

Africa next to the Drakensbergs.  (kind of like America and Americans)  We just happen to live very close, not many km, to all this.    
 Besothos have a totally different language than the Zulus, with a few similarities .  Queen Victoria came over in the late 1800's and made them there own country and fell in love with this people .

 They sent beautiful blankets over to the people and they still revere the blankets and still get them from England.  English was established as the national language and the Accordion was established as the national musical instrument.  It is still played today and they played for us, but not with the buttons -Kent observed.

1800's home looked much like 1700's home.  Shape changes in the 1920's.  They showed examples for all 3 centuries of real used homes.  A single compound would have a husband house, guest house and as many wives and their children houses as was needed.  Wives go to husband's home never with children.  Polygamy is still practised  in some homes, both Bosotho and Zulu.

   Sister Roberts modeling 18th century ladys garb and native showing dress of 20th century.

This is Santee (my favorite) that sat next to me at conference and kept me on tract.  He is from Botswana and speaks perfectly and slowly so us gringos could understand.  The Pic shows a compound.

People were short!  The plaster and floors are constantly being refurbished with a combo of mud water and cow or horse dung.  It smelled great, but it was like great cement and plaster.  Pine-Sol where are you?

Early 1900's houses became rectangle --notice what's by the door, Carrie.

      

Firsts

Sept, 18
Firsts
   We did our first Boarding checks with the Ladysmith  Elders on Saturday the 20th.  There were transfers Wednesday and this was a gross job, but is done by the Sr couples every 6 weeks.  Kent has to check vehicles and I go through the fridge and cupboards and check for clean.  Their water had been turned off that day because of the drought so I gave them a bit of a pass.  We send the report form to Durban.
   We had our first Sunday at Ladysmith Branch on Aug 21,  The branch has been struggling because the Branch Pres., Primary president, 2nd councilor in the District Pres and a few others work for Donlop tire company- a big employer here.  They were recently bought up by the Japanese and they started working everyone on a 7 day schedule.  They only get 1 Sunday per month off and it has been hard for this small branch to cope.  I started to teach our Primary "Scripture Power",  since nothing was prepared.  They will get a follow up lesson.  There are 10 -15 children that come on a regular basis.
   We went with our elders to our first visit a family this  Sunday, the Chingwena family.  No pics were taken because we were in shock at being in our first home in a township.  This family lives so far out that they must pay a taxi to come to church and sometimes not all can come.  Sometimes they walk but it would take 2 hours.  She is the Gospel Doctrine teacher.  This is yours, mine, and somebody- elses- family.  That just means that this family inherited children and they don't have theirs yet.  They don't have steady employment yet either, which is the case with many. Family relationships are all different with children from other family members living under the same roof.  Aids is partly to blame and unemployment is another reason.  We just visited and noticed how tidy the home was even though there was no water.  They had electricity and Sat TV.  A huge chicken coop that would have made Carrie proud.  The Zulu people never go hungry even though they have so little.  They also won't let their family go homeless.
   Monday brought the 4 Elders for our first P Day to do their internet stuff because the church system was down.

 Baumgarten and Knutsen left with the Transfers.

  

They stayed a long time and I was getting so ansy because we were teaching the next day.  It is a 4 day process for me to teach and get to Dundee 2 days a week and Tues was our First time.  We leave 2 hours before class because we have road work and stops and starts.  We also went with the Elder's from Dundee to the Ladysmith hospital for Dr. apt for Elder Deihl's  ingrown toenails on that Monday.    A couple of hours and with Surren's help we got an appointment for surgery for that Thursday.  Mean while on that Tues my Old Testament went terrible.  Need to regroup!
   Surren Ramraj had us and the Elders over for dinner for Chicken Curry on Wed and it was very good.  He works at the good hospital.  He's a single man that is in about his 40's and is Young Men Pres.  He has a good handle on the things and has lived in Ladysmith for 20 years.  He's from Nepal and that's not India (he will point out).  It was a fun evening-one that we would repeat.
   Thursday came and Kent opted to go with Elder Deihl and Martin to the hospital to work out payment.  He stayed with them for 5 hours just waiting for the surgery.  I was home working on my lesson.  (Liviticus is not my thing it turns out!)They ended up staying at our place overnight because he was the driver and was in a lot of pain.

     

He is still wearing those flip flops a month later.

Friday morning they leave for home in Dundee and leave their boarding keys and half their clothes at our place.  No prob we were going at noon anyway for our first Friday class, in Dundee.
 

   

At some point we had a first with the Elders eating with us, but I think it was that First Thursday in our boarding on the 18th.  We barely had food.  It took us a few trips to fill up those cupboards.  Did I mention that first store trip was about 21/2 hours long ?  We saw the Elders a lot that first full week!

Sometime on Saturday after our shopping, I got sick.  It's called the travelers disease.  I could not leave my toilet for 3 days.  I missed church and was in danger of wrecking the next weeks fun.  Poor Kent has to stick with me.  I really was the ball and chain for a few days.
 
     

Sept 14,
   I'm still trying to play catch up and am still about a month behind.  Each day goes so fast!
Kent is still the desig driver because the walkers freak me out more than him.  I will drive soon.  We arrived in Ladysmith noonish and snacked all day cause we didn't know where to go and we were busy unpacking.  The Hinds met us at our home and took us out to dinner at the Spur in Ladysmith.  It was hamburgers and frys but not very good.  They are dear people and they drove home to New Castle in the dark .  We thought they were so brave, and kind to greet us.  Elder Hind is in the mission Presidency with President Thompson and takes care of all the temple interviews and District callings that have to be made.  The District is manned by the Mission President and it is huge!  They are always driving.

   The next morning we had to explore and put on our name tags and go grocery shopping.  It took us 2.5 hours at our local Pick and Pay.  We spent over 1000 Rand and we had to go back the next 4 days for things we forgot or could not find.  But the good news was that we stuck out like a sore white thumb-apparently.  We had 5 people stop us and talk to us about the Taylors or the missionaries they lost contact with.  2 people were active members and helped us find things or just wanted to be friendly.  We got 2 referals for the missionaries and hopefully we will be able see those people join.  The missionaries have lots of people they are teaching and even committed to baptism but our Ladysmith Branch has a problem in that Dunlop tire has our Branch Pres, our Primary President and some other key people working on Sunday because they have gone to a 7 day work week.  The numbers have gone way down and sadly things seem very disorganised.  We have only been able to attend 2 times because we've been traveling also, going to other Branches to visit our S&I teachers. I Think we are supposed to be going to Ezakheni Branch and Ladysmith equally but it is up to the District President and we haven't heard yet.
   Our home is large in a small condo (10 units) complex that is gated and very secure.  Wherever you go there are dogs behind high spiked gates and fences, but not in our complex.  The gates are remote controlled and topped with spikes and barbed wire.  We have 2 garages but only use one while the other one stores junk that has been left by the previous.  We have a back patio with 4 bedrooms, all outfitted with beds except our office.  We have 2 bathrooms with one having a shower and one having a tub.  We have a small kitchen with the regular stuff and in a addition we have a side patio off the kitchen, livingroom and dining area with a big table.  I'd say about 1600 sf in total.

 

   We are in Spring time right now -with chilly mornings and maybe as high as the high 80's in afternoons.  Things are greening up because in summer we get rain.  They have had 3 years of drought and so we are hoping to have a rainy season.  December and January are the hottest months and we are headed into summer vacation 2nd of October and start up with Seminary mid January.

   We met the Hinds in Dundee 1hr and 15min a away, because we needed to teach our seminary and institute classes.  We sat in and saw how darling and excited about learning they all are.

  They meet in a fixed up house that equals classrooms and kitchen.  We have not been to Sacrament mt that is actually set up in the garage.  Dundee is smaller than Ladysmith but it has a better feel.  We love the students.

 Kent has eight or nine students that at least come 70% of time and I have 2 Institute students that come most of the time. We are both finishing out the Old Testament courses.  We pick 3 students up before we get to the building so we leave 2 hours before class to make it work.  We don't generally take kids home, but, we do when it rains.  It takes some students 1 1/2 hrs to walk home.  They live far out in the townships.
  This is where our students and branch members live.  They live so far out that they sometimes need to pay for Taxis or walk for 2 hr to get to church.  Transportation is a real problem.

  They usually have electricity and tv but many have no plumbing or water.  A water pump may be in the middle of the block and they carry it on their heads.  The round buildings are still built new for their ancestors or wives and children, special rituals or company.

These people are so clean and I have never been in a public facility that isn't spotless.  I find it amazing and inspiring.  They always look decked out and fine  for Church.  Pics are blury because we are driving and stopping.  There are so many people walking usually.

Aug 6, 2016

Our first week of the MTC is in the books.  What an experience this was!

 On Monday Aug. 1, we arrived at the Mission Training Center along with about 60 couples.  Young elders picked up our bags and we trouped upstairs to our new apartment with shower and bed and no TV or fridge.  We didn't miss a thing because we were so busy..

Dean and Annette Burgess the MTC Pres.

We were set apart by Dean Burgess, Kent's old high school friend and  college roomate, and invited available family that first night to come for the setting apart.  We had such fun lunches with Dean and Annette.  We reminded them of fun double dates we had in college and they reminded us of some.        

   We went  to about 2 firesides and 1 devotionals.  Elder Anderson was one .  Elder Holland's son was one of the speaker's and very amazing.  His talk was on the Prophet Joseph's First Vision and other historical facts.  History is his forte.

These Sisters just arrived and needed room assignements.  They were so colorful and fun to watch.

Distict with Sis Clark and Elder Stahli(Squires,...)

The music  at those meetings was amazing because everyone wants a seat.   They join the choir and practice and get a good seat.  The choir basically makes up the whole audience.  We met so many inspiring sojourners that were going on their 2nd and 3rd missions.  Most were like us  though-green as green.
   It was busy with teaching and classes and  learning about our responsibilities.   Our  inservice with "S and I" was amazing.  They gave us tips on studying the scriptures.

    It seems that we did nothing but eat, and the laundry was picture worthy, it was so big.



There can be over 3000 missionariesin the MTC at any given time.  Young and old teachers and our districts were notable so I'm including pics.  It was so intense and tiring.














 We  went to Ty's that first Weekend to finish packing.  This is our last supper at a Thai Restaurant in Provo with Todd and Tyler's family.

Tried to go to the temple but Monday was our only day so we just hiked  around instead.!

We left on the following Thurs the 11th from the MTC in a shuttle.  The driver asked us why it seemed so busy on Wed.  (We had our first discussion about the church and what goes on in the MTC).  There's always missionary opportunities!
   The plane left for Dallas at 3:30PM.  We thought it interesting that the church had our flight plans when we arrived  with British Air and American and not Delta.  The day before, 20 Elders came back from the airport  because of a huge Delta computer glitch.  On to Africa!