Where is Windhoek, Namibia

Couples Conference and Namibia

Dear Family:

Sorry we did not write you a family letter last week, but we just ran out of time. The new boarding was just finished last Saturday, we did a little cleaning and moved furniture in on Monday, then had another missionary couple here on Tuesday, then left early Wednesday morning for Couples Conference which was held in Knysna, a resort town 6 1/2 hours' drive west toward Cape Town. It was a great conference. Tell you more--with pictures--next letter. We had to have the boarding somewhat ready because transfers are this Tuesday and Wednesday, and we still have to do inspections.

We just want you to know that we are alive and well!

Do you remember a few letters ago when we said our plans for the day depend on the first call we get in the morning? W-e-l-l-l-l, we received a call from our Mission President which will change the course of more than just a day--how about the course of our whole mission!!! President Egan has given us a new assignment which will begin in early June. We will be transferred to Windhoek (pronounced vindhook) Namibia, but we won't have to live in a hut! In fact, our apartment has air conditioning which we don't have here! Windhoek is the only area where there are missionaries in Namibia. There are 16 elders in 2 branches. Windhoek is about 1,000 miles north of Cape Town and in a completely different country. Because of this distance, Dad will be 2nd Counselor to the Mission President and oversee the missionary work and the 2 branches. As far as we know, Dad will be the only High Priest in the entire country. Mom will probably do a lot of leadership training with Primary, RS, and YW leaders. We will tell you more about it as we learn more.

We appreciate your emails and blogs. Keep them coming.
Love you all, MOM and DAD/Grandma and Grandpa/Stan and Karen

Xhosa Culture

Dear Family:

April showers may bring May flowers in your part of the world, but here they bring signs of fall. Since the native vegetation is of the jungle variety, leaves do not change color, but the wild grasses have seeded out and become a golden yellow. The greens are not quite as vibrant either. Although some flowers are still blooming, most are not. The nights are actually cool enough to sleep under a blanket and most of the days are comfortable, but we still can have hot days too. It is really kind of funny, on the days that we think are MARVELOUS, the native Africans think it is cold and you see them in sweaters and hats. Ah well, guess it is just what you're used to.
Elders' support can be summed up in one word, transport!

One more bike story--Elders Hadley and Cobia picked up their bikes from the shop, were in the process of riding them home when the front wheel came off Elder Hadley's bike and he tumbled over the handle bars to the ground! Luckily, he wasn't hurt. At the same time Elder Cobia's handle bars fell off his bike! Somehow they got their bikes home and threw them in a heap on the floor of the shed. So ends the life of a bike! Another car story--one companionship was in their car on the way to church when they turned on the defroster, smelled smoke, and then their back window completely shattered. They took care of it themselves. All we have to do is pay the repair bill!

Participation in our classes just keep getting better and better! The temple preparation class had 2 new people come, both young adults. One will be getting married in the Johannesburg temple in 5 weeks, and the other one just wants to learn about the temple. The Insitute class also had 2 new students come this week. John (obviously his English name) is the Elders Quorum President and learned about our class from another class member who rides the train to work with him. The other new student, Siviwe is investigating the church and says that she wants to continue coming. We have a couple of missionary companionships that are on fire about sending their young adult investigators to our class! Mawanda (Mah-wand-aw), Thando (tan-doe), Mzingisi (mm-zin-hard gee-see), and Siviwe (see-vee-way) have all found our class thanks to the missionaries. It's great because when they join the church they already have a social group. Mawanda and Mzingisi are baptized and Thando is getting baptized this week.

This year marks the 35th annivsary of CES in Africa--of course for the first 5 years only the whites could come. The CES director in our area decided that to celebrate this milestone, the teachers should set a goal of 35% increase in enrollment and 35% increase in completion. Since NU 1(Mdantsane is divided into Native Units, kind of like zones) did not have Institute last year, only 4 students would have met and exceeded our enrollment goal, and we have 11! The completion percentage may not be as high because the students can only miss 4 classes, but we should have at least 6 complete the required attentance.

We had quite the Xhosa cultural experience this week. On our Monday P-day we took a tour of a Xhosa village. A village is different than a township in that it is where people chose to live and had it origins generations ago. Townships like Mdantsane came about when the people were forced off their land by the whites to work in the cities, but could not live in the cities so they built the townships. They are relatively new compared to the age of the villages. Anyway, one of the families or clans in the village we visited decided to live according to the traditional ways and to teach others. The head of the family and village guide is a 90+ "mama" (title of respect) who talked to us (using good English) about Xhosa traditions, superstitions, religious practices, family structure, clothing, social mores, etc. Some young girls did many dances while a young boy beat the drum and young adult and middle-aged women sang. They really boogied down! It was obvious that they were having a good time, and so did we. We were served an authentic Xhosa meal of lamb stew, beans, maize meal, butternut squash, and cabbage. It was yummy. The women of the family showed us their hand-made Xhosa crafts, mostly beaded necklaces and cloth bags, for sale. We learned a lot and can see how some of the "traditions of their fathers" are alive and well in the modern Xhosa.

Another Xhosa cultural experience was when we participated in a "memorial meeting" at the home of a member, Florence, who had died last week. She was older, has had diabetes and other ills for a number of years. Since we had visited her and her husband, Baldwin, a couple of times in our getting-acquained-with-part-member-families effort, we wanted to give our condolences to him. It is Xhosa tradition it have a "prayer or (memorial) meeting" every day from the time the person died to the formal funeral--even when the deceased is a Christian. When we went to the home, we had no idea who or how many people would be there or what we should do. But Dad had prepared a short "service" about the resurrection using Book of Mormon passages just in case that would be appropriate to do. Five members of the ward went with us. When we arrived, we were greeted by Florence's sister, her sister-in-law, and 4 various other female family members. They just sat on the couches and looked at us. Baldwin was not home, but we decided to go ahead with the message Dad had prepared. We sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives", had a prayer, read from Alma 11:39-46 about the resurrection through Jesus Christ, bore testimony regarding the Atonement and closed with another song and prayer. Florence's sister-in-law thanked us for our message and said it brought comfort to them. She asked Dad if the Book of Mormon is the Bible. He explained to her that it is another Testament of Jesus Christ. We were using a copy of the missionary edition and he gave it to her. She requested representatives of the church come to her home to tell her more. We will give her name to the elders whose area she is in. The family served us refreshments and we left, intending to go back sometime when Baldwin is there. Florence was buried on Saturday.

What a contrast that family's perception of death, resurrection, and post mortal life is from that of our family who also experienced a death recently. Bev emailed saying that she is doing fine, feels a real sense of preace and comfort. So do we, which comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lots of love from Africa,
MOM and DAD/Grandma and Grandpa

Highs and Lows

Dear Family:

We experienced the highs and lows of proselyting work this week! We were disappointed when a new convert failed to meet us for an appointment to discuss being confirmed. She was baptized shortly after we got here and bore a sincere testimony at the baptismal service. The next day (Sunday) she was sick and could not come to church to be confirmed in Sacrament Meeting. She has not been back to church since. Apparently she is not listening to her mother who was baptized on the same day and has remained faithful. The missionaries have talked to her when they happen to catch her because she seems to be avoiding them. The Bishop was going to talk with her, but we're not sure if he has or not. So the elders asked for our help. We dropped by the house last week and she was there. When we mentioned we needed to talk to her about her confirmation, she said yes she would like to have a conversation with us because she has "fallen off the wagon, so to speak"--whatever that means. We made an appointment to come back a few days later and were hopeful that we could teach her the importance of being confirmed and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We want to help her understand how much the Holy Ghost can help her be strong to deal with and overcome her problems that are stopping her from progressing in the gospel. But she stood us up. Undoubtedly all of you had similar experiences on your missions. Anyway, we will keep trying, and Dad did have the opportunity to teach her mom the beginnings of family history work, which she is extremely interested in doing.

General Conference was outstanding! What a privilege to participate in a Solumn Assembly to sustain a new Prophet and President of the Church. It was interesting to contemplate that while you were watching the Saturday morning session live, half way around the world we were watching the Saturday morning session live at 6:00 in the evening via the church's satellite system! That's all the conference we had on Saturday. Our Sunday schedule was: 11am - 1pm, General Priesthood session (delayed broadcast) in East London. Mom sat in the RS room and worked on the Institute lesson for next week. 2-4pm, Saturday afternoon session (delayed broadcast) in Mdantsane. 5:30-6pm, Music and the Spoken Word then 6-8pm Sunday morning session live back in East London. 10-midnight Sunday afternoon session live--we did not stay for this one! We'll have to read all about it in the Ensign! All the broadcasts were in both EL and MD but we rotated between the two buildings so we could spend time with the elders from both zones.

We had our own little humanitarian aid effort going on in Mdantsane. The last time we visited Preacher Cecil, of the outdoor church, he told us that he was "suffering" and was praying to God three and four times a day but felt God was not listening to him nor answering his prayers and he didn't know why. We later learned that his suffering was because he had no food at all in his house. We decided to take him a box of food which included maize meal, rice, cooking oil, canned beans, canned milk, canned fruit, and canned meat. We don't think he has a frig so we didn't take anything perishable. He was very, very appreciative. Maybe he will think we were the answer to his prayers, but whether so or not, we felt it was the right thing to do.

Except for another bike issue, not much else has happened in the elders' support part of our work. No sooner had the Elders Hadley and Cobia rode their bikes home, luckily not far from the bike shop, than they had trouble with them again. They called us, Dad said to take the bikes back to the shop and we would meet them there when they were fixed to pay the bill. We did, they rode the bikes home, all was well we thought. Next morning they called again and said that the brakes went out even before they got to their boarding. Dad said that the bike shop should fix the brakes for free since they were just in the day before for a brake job. As of now, the bikes are still in the shop. The bicycle saga is coming to an end, however, because either the bikes are fixed and can be used or they are beyond permanent fixing and will be put back in the shed never to see the light of day again! After all, four visits to the bike shop is enough, already! What seemed like a good thing has turned out to be a money pit! One blessing of this whole bike ordeal is that while the elders were waiting for their bikes to be fixed the second to last time, they went tracting to the few houses that were in the area of the bike shop. Since it is mostly just businesses there, they didn't realize there were some homes, too, and would never have thought to tract there. They found a father-led family who has been taking the lessons, reading everything the elders leave for them, and keeping commitments. What would be called a golden family in the "old days". God does move in mysterious ways!

We appreciate your letters and blogs. Thank you for going to Uncle Lynn's memorial and burial services in Lewiston in our stead and for the all the other things you did in regard to his passing.

We love you all very much.
MOM/DAD, Grandma/Grandpa

Green Houses

Combination = 1830

Dear Family:

"Busy" seems to be a word that investigators use often when the missionaries try to make appointments. We have the feeling that it can mean everything from "I'm not interested" to "I really do have something else at that time and can't meet". Anyway, our past week has been BUSY with elder support, visits to less active members, and studying/preparing for teaching assignments.

Elder support mostly had to do with transportation and medical issues. A couple of weeks ago one of the elders was getting out of his car and the window just shattered as he opened the door. It was finally replaced with some additional repairs done on the internal workings that operates the window up and down. We took the elders to the repair shop, inspected the car to make sure everything was in working order, paid the bill and went our way. One of the companionships, who does not have their own car but are dropped off in their area by other elders, found 2 bikes in a shed behind their boarding. Asking around, they found out that these are missionary bikes but hadn't been used by the previous several sets of elders. The bikes looked almost new, so they decided to use them but needed 1 more helmet because they could find only 1 with the bikes. They called us, and luckily, we had a helmet in our garage with the other surplus stuff we have stored there. Off we went to take it to their boarding. The helmet was too small for either elder so, of course, that necessitated a trip to a bike shop. The elders had also found a bike lock which was a cable with a combination link to put it together. It was locked and the sales person at the bike shop there was no way to "detect" what the combination would be. The shop sold the same kind of lock so we were going to buy 2. The instructions said to decide on the combination and set it yourself. Elder Hadley, who was holding the old lock began turning the numbers and--lo and behold--the lock opened! He said that when he heard that the missionaries had selected the combination themselves, he just knew it must be 1830, and it was! We ended up buying only 1 new bike lock. We took the elders back home and left to do our own thing. The next day Elder Hadley called again and said that when they took their bikes to the "garage" (service station) to get air put in their tyres (note the spelling), the attendant put too much in and blew a big hole in the tyre and the inner tube. The force was so powerful that it bent the rim also. We got a small tyre pump that the mission office had sent us, unsolicited, a few posts back (divine inspiration, maybe?) from our garage, picked up the elders, and went back to the same bike shop and purchased a new inner tube, tyre, rim and a repair kit. We took the elders back home and went about our business. The next day Elder Hadley called again and said that when they went to take their bikes to their area the brakes didn't work. We told them to get them fixed, let us know where and when they would be done, and we would meet them to pay the bill. We jokingly told them that if we see their phone number when our phone rings, we won't answer! They were very appreciative of our help, and assured us that they will use the bikes to good advantage to help them be more effecient in their missionary work. Elder Hadley is a hard-working missionary and, before the bike episode, asked for so little from us. He is a good trainer for a greenie, Elder Cobia, from Idaho.

Our medical issues have moved from the physical (although we still get the ocassional call concerning those) to the mental health/depression problems. On Friday, President Egan called about one of our elders who is feeling that others are picking on him and he is discouraged to the point of wanting to go home (He's been out 18 months). Apparently he has had these kinds of feelings since high school. The President advised Dad to talk with the elder and try to give him some help until Monday evening when President Egan has arranged for him to talk via phone to a counselor in SLC. Dad spent the whole District Meeting time (1 and 1/2 hours) talking with the elder, then we invited him and his companion to lunch at our place. After lunch Dad talked to both of them while Mom was invited to go into the other room and study for awhile. When asked how we could help, the elder asked Dad to call him each morning around 8:00, which Dad has done. He has appreciated that, but Dad agrees with the President that he needs professional help.

Sunday began by picking up Cecil (can't pronounce his last name), the preacher of the outdoor church, to take him to church. We thought it best to take him to just a Sacrament Meeting instead of the whole block for his first time. We decided to take him to the MD 2nd Ward so we could focus our entire attention on him instead of being distracted by our concern for the temple prep class in our Ward. Cecil's wife could not come because she was working, but her friend did come with Cecil. Although the entire meeting was in English (which is unusual), they both said that they understood what was said. They speak Xhosa, very little English. She commented on how nice the building is and how beautiful the singing was, and said "They (those who bore testimonies) really believe in God". It was a great meeting to take investigators to0! A newly baptized convert was confirmed and a baby was blessed, so they were able to see 2 ordinances take place. It was a testimony meeting and everything that was said was just right. There was a very good spirit present. The elders from our ward who cover the area where Cecil and the friend live met them after the meeting and made an appointment to go to his house this week. We'll see if anything comes of it.

We were invited to our first DA (dinner appointment) on Sunday evening. We went to the home of former Stake President Van Heerden who is now Ward Mission Leader in the EL 1st Ward, which is the ward where our boarding is. His entire family was there also and we had a nice time. We left an inspirational thought and a prayer before returning home.

This week ended with a shock when we read our email from Bev about Lynn's sudden and unexpected death. Sadness mixed with shock (no other word describes it) are still what we are feeling. Our Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation, which we teach of and talk of so much as missionaries, has certainly taken on a personal dimension for us. We are grateful and we feel blessed for our knowledge and testimonies of the Atonement and life after this. It is comforting to know that Lynn is having a wonderful reunion with Sharon and Jeff and Grandma and Grandpa Tanner.

So long for now. We enjoy reading your emails and blogs.

Love, MOM and DAD/Grandma and Grandpa A./Stan and Karen