This has been an eventful week! The news of President Hinckley's death came on Monday rather by happenstance. We received a phone call from the senior sisters companionship about another matter, and in the course of the conversation told us the news which they heard from Utah emails. The news coverage here on President Hinckley was zero. We are saddened by his death, but recognize that his life has been very productive--all 97 years of it! Saturday evening we watched the funeral over the church satellite system at the East London Ward.
We enjoyed reading your comments on your family's blog, Scott. You asked for our mailing addresses: for letters send them to us in care of South Africa Cape Town Mission, P.O. Box 181, Observatory 7935, SOUTH AFRICA For mailing packages send them to us in care of South Africa Cape Town Mission, 2 Liesbeek Avenue, off Liesbeek Parkway, Observatory 7925, SOUTH AFRICA
During the week we made preparations for our Institute class which we taught for the first time on Saturday. Five students enrolled, and there were two students on summer break from college and the Bishop's wife who sat in as well. We introduced the course which is Doctrines of the Gospel, and then had each person present share with the class something meaningful which they remember about President Hinckley. We felt the spirit as each student bore testimony that they know President Hinckley was the Lord's Prophet and they felt such love by and for him. Here are the first names of our students: Vuyo, Mthobel, Methembukazi, Sipha, Thobeka, Avis, and Nomfundo. Besides pronouncing their names, would you like to guess which are boys and which are girls? OiA=Only in Africa!
Also on Saturday we attended the baptism of four individuals--a mother and her young adult daughter, a middle aged woman, and a young adult male. They will be members of the ward we are attending (Mdantsane 1st.) The young adult daughter has asthma which caused her to inhale the water as soon as it covered her face and she came up out of the water before being completely immersed. It took 4 tries before she was baptized. At the conclusion of the baptism all four shared wonderful testimonies with those who attended. The young sister must have swallowed quite a bit of water because she was ill today and was not able to be confirmed in Sacrament Meeting.
Another special event on Sunday was the two wards in East London were realigned into three wards. The Stake President said that it was 17 years ago when the very first ward was organized in EL. It is our understanding that nearly all the growth of the church in recent years has been by the conversion and baptisms of native Africans. We have met quite a few of them now. They are faithful, they understand the gospel, and will be a great strength to the church in the future. There are several teachers in our ward who are returned missionaries of about 22-26 years of age and they give VERY, VERY doctrinally sound lessons.
The highlight of our week, however, did not occur in Africa! We were delighted to hear from both Julie and Scott early Thursday morning our time that Stella had arrived in good health. We are also thankful that it was an easier delivery for Julie than Claire was. We wish we could have seen her, but Matt sent some wonderful picture, 4 of which we made into 8x10s which now adorn the bookcase in our livingroom. Thanks so much, Matt, for emailing them to us. We hope Stella's jaundice can be managed without serious consequences.
We have been busy this week providing elder support including buying and assembling fans for several of the missionary boardings. Some days here are unbearably hot and humid, some are hot, humid, and windy and are quite nice, but the best of all are the overcast breezy days. Life is tough in the palm tree zones of the world in December! The African sun is especially intense, but the orange sunsets are remarkably beautiful.
In the movie "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy say, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore". Daily, we are reminded that we're not in Utah anymore--OiA=Only in Africa---
- would you see a sign in a residential area which reads "Caution Childrens, Dogs, and Bunnies at Play" or "Children Roaming" [could this mean "Caution Children at Play"?]
- do you see ant hills about 3-4 feet tall and 3-4 feet in diameter. Some fields will have dozens of them, but we don't have giant ants at our house.
- would you see an open market where fresh pineapples and fruits of every kind are being sold next to a booth with piles of meat, whole chickens with claws, and intestines with the seller waving a mop-like thing over the fresh??? meat to keep the flies off, sometimes unsuccessfully. We will pass on the meat, but the fruits look great!
But we love it here. We are healthy, very busy, and we are enjoying the work. It's great to hear from you. Love to all, MOM and DAD
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