One Month Milestone

Dear Family:

Yesterday was a milestone in our mission! One month ago we set foot in South Africa and have been going full steam ahead ever since! We are not counting the days, really, but just took note of the day because it does not seem possible to have learned so much in so little time. Dad is quite the expert in driving on the left side of the road and we have had only a few "American moments"--only one of which left a little rubber on the road as the other driver stopped for us; nothing serious. We are continuing to get acquainted with the area.

We leave our boarding each morning armed with a map, and now can easily find our way to all the supply stops for missionary supplies, the grocery stores (we patronize 3), the mall and all 15 missionary boardings. Most of them are pretty nice, but there is one real "hole in the wall" but the elders don't seem to mind! The mission office "boarding czar" will not replace it because it is the cheapest boarding rent wise. We found the doctor's office that services the missionaries and the hospital where they go for immunizations that they didn't get before coming "on mission" as they call it. Upon leaving for home they must get a TB test which is also at the hospital.

Our next challenge is finding our way around Mdantsane. The roads are not marked with names, most of the houses do not have numbers, and according to the map the elders gave us, the numbering system doesn't make sense anyway! But if we are to look for inactive members, we need to know more than how to get to the church, the Bishop's house for Institute (past the open market from last week's letter), and the new church. We have also done a little exploring along the tourist route by the Indian Ocean in this area. There is a wild animal reserve about 20 minutes out of Gonubie which we haven't been to yet, but part of it is visible from the road and we saw zebras, wildebeasts, and springbok. Check out their website at www.inkwenkwezi.com.
We didn't get any good pictures because the animals were too far away for our camera.

This week we had the opportunity to be laundress, mail carrier, and physician! It was transfer week, our first one, and it was a big one. Monday was homeward bound day--we had one missionary returning home. Tuesday was transfers between areas and also within areas. We had 12 missionaries transfer in from other areas and 3 transfer between East London, Mdantsane, and King William's Town. Wednesday new missionaries arrive and spend the day/night in Cape Town with President and Sister Egan in the mission home and go to their area on Thursday. We had 1 new elder come. Interestingly, he is from the states but went to the Johannesburg MTC. Sister Egan feels strongly that new elders and those changing areas should have a clean duvet insert which meant that we had to go to the boardings and gather up the used ones and leave clean ones. Since we only had 5 in reserve at our place, it meant leaving them and picking up the used ones and laundering them, and doing the same process the next day and the next. Our little washing machine can only wash 2 at a time and the dryer only 1 at a time, so it was quite the process to do 15!

As for the mail carrier part, we were one our way to the airport with the Queenstown post (mail) because it was sent to us by mistake and we were to meet the zone leaders from there who were bringing their elders who were transferring by airplane and give them their post. We received a cell phone call from the elders in the mission office saying that they faxed some immigration forms for one of our elders who was flying to Namiba and needed them before he boarded his plane. We didn't have time to go back home to get the fax and still meet the elders with their post at the appointed time. So we continued on to the airport, Dad dropped me and the post off, and went back home (takes 1/2 hour), picked up the fax and drove back to the airport (another 1/2 hour) with 10 minutes to spare before Elder Armstrong boarded his plane!

This is our list of elder's ills call to Dr. Allen, DVM: broken glasses, chicken pox-like skin outbreak, epilepsy meds, pain behind the eyes, lack of energy on Fast Sunday (duh), foot fungus, eye strain on bright days (again, duh), vomiting and upset stomach after eating half-cooked meat and old pizza, both out of the fridge, flea bites, as well as immunizations and homeward TB tests. The list will undoubtedly get longer!

Only in Africa (OiA)-- (continued)

• ...do you see so much hitchhiking. It is the blacks that hitch. It is not against the law, and in fact, it is the only source of rides for some people because they are too poor to own a car or to afford bus or taxi fare. People of all ages hitchhike on city roads and freeways. They do not hold up their thumbs like at home, but they have different hand signals meaning different things, which we do not know. Or they hold out a little sign with the initials of their destination on it. For example, a sign with KWT means they are looking for a ride to King William's Town.
• ...do you see individuals with shopping carts from supermarkets going along the highways gathering up anything that can be recycled and sold, from plastic bottles to metal of all kinds. Last week a guy was pushing a cart along with an old rusty refrigerator in it.
• ...do you see "informal shops"--tables set up on the side of roads or on the sidewalks in town with someone selling a few plastic bags of homemade breads or a small quantity of homegrown veggies--anything to earn a little money. They do not worry about business licenses or such.

We miss you all, but we have a testimony that the Lord needs us here and has a work for us to do. We know that President Monson has been chosen and called by the Lord at this time, and that this is His true church.

Love to all,
MOM and DAD