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