Busy few weeks

A beautiful amarillis Wayne saw on his early morning walk.

These last few weeks have been busy and mostly very exciting.  We have been able to run away for a few of the weekends, trying to get our last visits at some of our favorite places.  Early in October we were able to return to Swaziland to visit with the Lombardi's and enjoy the beauties of that country for the last time.  It was an action packed time and we enjoyed following the Lombardi's with their busy schedule and even spent some time with President and Sister Zackrison who were there doing interviews with the Elder's.  We were able to visit Lobomba (kind of a township) met some of the Lobomba boys (which we will tell you about when we return home), attend a helping hands project, a baptism, and church before returning back to Durban. 

 This young girl is a recent convert to the church.  She is 16 years old and this is her 3 week old baby.  She lives in this tiny one room home with her mother and two other sisters.  All three girls have babies.  Very humble circumstances, but the sisters are learning the joys the gospel can bring to their lives. 

Saturday morning we headed to a helping hands project that the Elders and community members are helping with.  They are trying to improve a very small bridge that fords a stream running between two hillside communities.  I guess they often lose cars that try to cross the stream and so they are trying to widen the bridge.  They had about three or four of these culverts to roll down this hill to the stream. They were using poles and logs as a brake system.  It was an accident waiting to happen!  

 These two little boys were having a grand time playing in the water as all little boys everywhere do.  Can you imagine letting your children play in this dirty dirty stream?  They had sticks and some string and were pretending they were fishing. 

 Finally one of the community members came along with a very old tractor and they pulled the culverts down the hill and got them to the stream where they will divert the water and widen the bridge.

Later that afternoon we headed to a baptism of two young men.  We were so thrilled to meet up with Elder Lowry (far right).  We were privileged to serve with Elder Lowry in Maseru and he is a fine man and is now the zone leader in Swazi.  He will go home next month as his mission will be completed.  We love Elder Lowry and were so thrilled to attend this baptism.  I got to play the piano for the baptism and it was a wonderful experience to feel the spirit of these two newly baptized members as they bore their testimonies.  Sunday we attended Church with the Lombardi's and then headed back to Durban to be ready to start work again on Monday morning.  We were grateful to the Lombardi's for their kind hospitality (we stayed in their home) and enjoyed watching them in action as they served the members and the missionaries.
After a busy week in the office preparing for the next weeks transfers, we left to Lesotho.  We stopped over in Bethlehem and visited with Elder and Sister Anderson.  The next morning we left bright and early and headed to Lesotho, dropping mail off with the Lerebe Elders and then driving on to Maseru to attend a Seminary and Institute Fireside.  The Wyatt's had invited a great Seminary and Institute man to come and speak to them, Brother Kumbalani.  It was so great to see the young people and Branch Presidents that we worked so hard with at the beginning of our mission.  We so enjoyed the day with them renewing friendships and acquaintances.  We also felt such love and appreciation for the beauties of the country.  However, they have not had any rain since March and so the land is in a terrible drought.  The crops are shriveling up and dying.  Many farmers have just turned the cattle in on the crops as they will never be able to harvest it.

As we drove through Ficksburg into Lesotho this very familiar sight brought back so many memories.  Skinny skinny horses doing such heavy work.  The business of the border crossings and the getting in and out of the car, stamping of passports and on and on.  We were so thrilled to be able to return and relive so many great memories.

Anderson's, Knudsen's and the Holt's in front of the new Phuda chapel.

Sunday morning we drove to Phuda to go to church.  It was their Primary childrens sacrament presentation.  We surprised President Thusi with our visit and he was so thrilled to see us - especially Wayne.  It was great to see the members that we had taught the temple prep classes to, the branch members we had worked closely with and of course the Elders.  The Anderson's and the Knudsen's were also there attending church that morning.  After church we went over to tour the new church building that they have been blessed with and that they held their very first meeting in on October 20th.  The Knudsen's are missionaries serving a second mission in South Africa.  They actually lived in our Ladybrand flat a few years before we arrived in 2012 (before the Dahle's).  When they started visiting the Phuda branch they would meet with about 8 members.  When we arrived we had about 60 - 70 members attending.  That number has gone down over the last 8 months as they had to keep changing locations to hold their meetings and some of the members just stopped coming.  Once the Anderson's started serving in Bethlehem (after we moved to Durban) they managed to get this building leased and remodeled to become the new Phuda chapel.  Wayne and Elder Shumway found this old supermarket, and asked if we couldn't lease it to hold meetings in.  The area office turned them down.  Elder Anderson had worked in the area office prior to serving in this area and knew the right people and got it procured and remodeled.  The branch is so excited to finally have their own building to meet in every week.  We expect great things will happen in this area now.

The new Branch President's office

 Their very own indoor baptismal font with a geyser that will fill the font with warm water.  No more cold outdoor baptisms filled with dirty cold water.  This is such a blessing.  The Sunday after we were there they met in their building and five baptisms were held in this font.

 This is just one of 7 classrooms in this building.  The classrooms are a good size and the floors are carpeted.  Normally the buildings in South Africa are very cold, but as we toured this building it was so warm inside.  We are so thrilled for this branch.  They are so very blessed.  They have a beautiful Relief Society room and a large kitchen, with a stove, fridge, oven, sink. 

This is their chapel.  Their podium is not quite finished yet, but it will be lovely once it is.  No longer will the missionaries have to haul over the sacrament trays, podium, manuals, hymn books, etc.  They can all be stored in their own building week after week.  They won't have to set out and pick up their chairs before they can start and finish their meetings.  We all shed a tear or two of gratitude that Heavenly Father has blessed this branch.  We are so happy for President Thusi.  He has certainly faced many trails on behalf of his branch.  He has remained a faithful Priesthood leader in spite of it.

We had to say goodbye to a favorite Elder, Elder Gold (on the right) as he got transferred to Bloemfontein.  His companion Elder Brimhall was left in Margate.  This companionship was a powerhouse.  They have done a great work in their branch and will be greatly missed.  They were the funniest looking couple of missionaries as one was quite short and the other very tall. It made me think of Mutt and Jeff.

Primrose, Sister and Brother Mandy, Elder Kyle, Elder Holt

 Last Sunday, we attended our branch in Kwamashu. The Public Affairs representative, Elder Kyle was able to provide a sweet sister, Primrose, with a wheel chair to help her get around.  She is so crippled with arthritis that she can hardly walk.  This new wheel chair will help her so much.  The Mandy's pick her up each week and bring her to church.

This must be the time for new baby monkeys.  We have two or three Momma monkeys with brand new babies.  The babies just hang on tight to their mommas and the momma just runs along.  If they are jumping from tree to tree, sometimes the Momma will take one arm and put it around the baby so it doesn't fall off, but usually the baby just hangs on tight.  The Momma monkey is very protective and does not let anyone get very close to her or her baby. 

The last few weeks we have been very busy preparing and planning for the Couples Conference which took place this weekend.  The reason we were having a couples conference was because Elder Bednar was coming to visit our mission.  We also had Elder & Sister Cook from the Area Presidency attending as well as Elder & Sister Christiansen from the the Seventy.  It has been a weekend filled with fun, spiritual highs and good instruction from our mission President and the leaders from Salt Lake.  The Kyle's and the Holt's worked very hard to get this pulled together and everyone had a great time.
 Thursday morning the couples got together and were on their own to go do fun activities in Durban.  We met Thursday afternoon at the mission home at 4:00 for a wonderful meeting where couples shared sacred mission experiences.  We then had Teddy and Kathy come and put on a Braai for us which was delicious.  After that we honored each mission couple with silly gifts that helped other couples get to know each other better.

Sister Carlile and Sister Kyle

President & Sister Zackrison

 Sister Kyle and I had so much fun shopping for funny gifts and Sister Kyle was so clever in writing it all up.  She composed some original poetry for some of the awards and was so entertaining.  We felt that it was a very successful event. 

The Elders awaiting Elder & Sister Bednar's arrival

This is President's "transfer dart board".  He could throw the darts and if he got the bulls eye, he didn't have to make any changes at all.  Especially none at the last minute.

Friday morning we all gathered back at the mission home for a meeting of instruction from President and Sister Zackrison.  At noon we fed everyone lunch and then everyone worked their way over to the Pinetown Chapel where we met  all the Elder's from the Coastal and Newcastle Zones.  Bloemfontein, Lesotho and Swaziland zones only got to participate by a video broadcast in each of those areas.
It was wonderful to arrive at the church and see all these Elders who had been practicing to perform a special choir number for the meeting.  They did a great job and it really added to the spirit of the meeting.  We then enjoyed a three hour meeting with these apostles, receiving instruction, as the Elder's asked questions and Elder Bednar answered them.  After the meeting we gave the Elder's sack suppers and sent them on their way to return to their homes.  The couples went out for dinner at a lovely restaurant.  We then gathered Saturday morning for a Priesthood meeting for the men and a Women's conference for the women, plus all the Priesthood leaders from two Durban stakes, and three mission districts.  It was a great day.  We met the mission couples for a final goodbye at the office and gave them mail and supplies to take back to their areas.  It was a bitter moment though as we realized that we would not see many of these couples again, as we would be going home.  We grow so close to these couples and we will really miss them.  Truly one of the best kept secrets about serving a mission is the blessing of meeting and working with other great missionary couples.  

 The Lombardi's came back to our house (after we picked up some groceries) for a bite of lunch and then we invited the AP's for supper so that they could also visit with the Lombardi's.  Both the AP's had served in Swaziland with them and they had a great time reliving memories shared together.

 Today was another full day of meeting with apostles of the Lord as we attended a special conference meeting and then a Young Men's/Young Women's fireside with Elder & Sister Bednar and Elder & Sister Cook.  We truly have been spiritually fed. 

This is getting very long, and I will close very soon.  I just wanted to share a few photos that have come my way in the last few weeks.  Mealii participated in a soccer tournament two weeks ago and this is what she ended up with.  She and a competitor both went up to head a ball and Mealii got the ball and a black (purple) eye. 

 She spent the fall break visiting the University of Utah, BYU and University of Colorado campuses.  She has some big decisions to make in the next couple of years as she prepares for University.  She has always wanted to go to BYU, but she thinks that the University of Utah has a fabulous library and campus.

She celebrated her 16th birthday this week and got her drivers licence and had her first date. 

We are looking forward to watching her play soccer in the near future.

 Le'olani is growing up way too fast.  It must be the influence of all the teenagers in the Enos household.  She has also been playing soccer and we can't wait to watch her play. 

 Kalani attended the homecoming dance with this lovely young lady this last month as well.

This is our beautiful Mealii without the black eye.  She and a bunch of girls from her Seminary class attended the Homecoming dance and then they all came over to the Enos house for something to eat.













Thanks for putting up with this extremely long blog.  Thats what happens when you don't do it for a long time. 
Today, Inge face-timed us from our home.  She gave us a virtual tour of our home and it was so fun to return to our kitchen, family room, living room, etc.  We have lived the last 17 months so thoroughly immersed in where we have been that we have hardly missed what we have at home.  We have certainly missed our family and friends, but don't think much about what we have given up in terms of comforts and conveniences.  Thanks Inge for that opportunity.

We love you all, and can't wait to be altogether for Christmas.

Love Wayne and Barb

A "Jinxed" week

 Just one more sign that summer has arrived in Durban.  These beautiful purple flowers don't last too long on the trees and when they start to bloom they are very light purple and just before they fall to the ground they turn this beautiful dark purple.  When they fall on the ground they make a purple carpet.  It is quite spectacular. 

Last week I made the mistake of mentioning that there had been no accidents that week.  Well......Monday morning President and Sister Zackrison came in and said that when they were in Richard's Bay they came out and saw that the passenger side of their van had some "small" scrapes.  They had no idea how they got there.  We told them that that is what all the Elder's say and we thought they could come up with a better story than that.  Wayne went out to look at it and there was more damage than just the one side.  So, that was the first car that needed to be repaired and then we had two more calls that day about accidents.  Gratefully, none were serious and no one was hurt.  It also gave Wayne lots to do filling out and sending in accident reports and then arranging for all the repairs to be done. 

This is a car that we saw Saturday at the store when we went to get groceries.  We thought we should bring one home for Kalani and Mealii.  What do you think?

I am going to tell this weeks adventures a little out of order.  I am going to tell you about what happened this afternoon first.  That's right!  You can tell I have a monkey story.  We had just finished a delicious lunch and I was looking out the window and in the trees were two monkeys.  We were watching them and all of a sudden we heard some loud noises from the Stark's apartment upstairs.  Stark's had been away all weekend and we knew they were not back.  We thought we had better go and check on what was going on, because sometimes the Stark's will leave their kitchen window open a little bit, and we know what can happen when the window is open just a little and there are monkey's about.  Wayne went upstairs and sure enough - the window was open and when he looked in the window - there in the kitchen were two monkeys, helping themselves to some bread on the cupboard.  So he banged on the window and the door hoping that they would get frightened and leave the same way they had come in - through the window.  Then he tried the inside wooden door and it opened.  Then he scared the monkeys out through the door.  He pushed the kitchen window  and the door closed and came back down to our flat.  When he tried to come into our flat - there was a very angry monkey sitting on our ledge.  You can see him in the picture above.  He would not let Wayne come in.  He kept charging him.  I was washing the lunch dishes and there were monkeys all over.

 This monkey was on the stairs, just watching me through the window.  Wayne was trying to get back in the flat, but the monkey above just was not having any of it.  Our screen door was open, and the monkey just reached over and was going to open our wooden door.  Wayne hollered at me to get something to chase the monkey's away.  Since I didn't have Grandma Holt's shot gun by the back door, I used the next best thing and ran for the broom.  I opened the door and chased about 4 monkeys away so that Wayne could come home.

 I think the monkeys could smell the delicious dinner that we had just eaten and they wanted to come in and have some too.  I however, was not willing to cleanup after them.  When the Stark's got home, they had a mess in their kitchen to clean.  We went up to explain what had happened.  They had been mopping, and wiping down cupboards etc.,  even though it was the Sabbath.  I think the "monkey's were in the kitchen" or the "ox was in the mire" or something like that. 

We also found a gecko in the bathroom this week.  Wayne chased it around and round trying to catch it and get it back outside where it belonged.  However, it was faster than he was.  It finally settled on a shampoo bottle that was green and I think he felt safe there and it just stuck on the bottle as Wayne picked it up and carried it outside where we set it free to eat the bugs outside our flat.

We discovered last weekend that Wayne had picked up some ticks when we were in Tembe Elephant park and he began to feel feverish, achy and flu like.  We were worried that he might have "tick bite fever" and so Monday he went into the doctor and sure enough - he had 4 ticks that were visible.  The Doctor gave him some tetracycline and after 24 hours he was feeling much better.  We have seen the appearance of a couple more since, but since the round of antibiotics they were not going to fester like the first ones did.   

Monday morning was  busy and hectic as we had lots of Elders in the office - "treat" day - of course, and then later in the afternoon we had a staff meeting to go over some much needed concerns of upcoming events.  We thought we were going to get 6 Kenyan Elders on Wednesday and there were some decisions that had to be made about that, as well as the upcoming Elder Bednar visit.  As it turned out we did not get the 6 new Elders, but we did get some other business taken care of.  Monday night was FHE at the Clusters home, where we learned that they are being transferred to Newcastle.  They are in our mission, but they are under the direction of the area office and they want them to do PEF and Employment in that area of the mission.  There will be another couple come in to work in Durban doing much the same thing.  The McEwan's will arrive in October. 

The mission couples that we meet and work with on a mission become such great friends and I hope that after we all return home that we will find opportunities to get together and share further experiences and memories.  Being in Durban has given us opportunities to work with and serve more couples and missionaries.  This is one of the many blessings that have come in the 2nd half of our mission.

Wednesday Elder and Sister Wilding came to Durban to pick up a mission call that had come for one of their members in the Ladysmith area.  He had been waiting for a very long time for it to arrive, so Wilding's came to get it so they could deliver it to him directly.  We had a lovely supper together that evening, enjoying one anothers company and then the next morning, Wayne watched the office while I took them to Victoria Market for a few hours.  We had a great time together. 

Thursday and Friday were much quieter as the Stark's were out of the office (went to Joberg for the weekend), the President was gone and we were alone.  It was a nice end to a week.  However, tomorrow morning will come with a bang and things will hop again.

Now for family news......

 Kalani as a senior, must choose and carryout a senior project in order to graduate.  For his senior project he is coaching the Platte River cross country team.  Here he is with a couple of the members of the team that he is coaching.  Obviously they are winners - by the ribbons they are sporting on their shirts.  I am sure he will do a great job and we can't wait to hear how his project finishes.  Michelle and Mealii are in St. Louis this weekend, Michelle is chaperoning the soccer team.  I haven't received any pictures or reports on how the team has done.

 Last Sunday, we received a smile box from Rod, with many fabulous pictures from their Stake "Legacy" experience.  I thought I would share a few of them with you all on our blog. 

 I absolutely loved this picture of Jenn.  You look so beautiful Jenn!

You can see Jenn (Emma) has feinted as Rod (Joseph) has just been tarred and feathered.

 I have just included a few of the pictures.  Each one of the pictures were amazing and I could feel the spirit of the event.  I know that the youth of the Red Deer Stake have had their testimonies strengthened as they re-enacted the experiences of Joseph and Emma and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Such a handsome couple!

This scene was the martyrdom of Joseph Smith.  This was just when Joseph watched his brother Hyrum being shot.  

Thanks Rod for sending all these photos and I am awaiting the video clips that you will send later.

I almost forgot to tell you about the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation today in the KwaMashu Branch.  They asked me to play for the primary children to sing.  I had never practiced with them singing with a piano and I had no idea what songs they were singing until it started.  However, like all Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentations, they always turn out and the spirit is amazing as they share their testimonies, their experiences, their beliefs and their singing.  I felt privileged to be a part of it.

We continue to be blessed as we serve in this part of the world.  We are so grateful that our family is blessed as we are so far away.  As I spoke with a member of our Home Ward Bishopric this last weekend about a dentist appointment for Mom, I reported to him that we would be home early in December.  He asked us which Sunday we wanted to speak in Sacrament meeting and I chose the last Sunday, as all our children should be there.  So, December 29th will be when we report in our Home Ward. 

We love and miss you all.

Mom and Dad

Another week flown by!

I cannot believe that another week has come and gone and I am back at the computer doing yet another blog.  Each week goes faster than the one before.  It came time this week to request our travel plans for going home.  So..... I submitted our request and two days later our flight itinerary arrived.  We will arrive in Calgary on December 1st at 5:30 PM.  We look forward to meeting Rod and whoever else wants to come at the airport.  Rod says that he will meet us and drive us home that night.  We are very excited and looking forward to that day.  However, we will be leaving a part of our heart here in this very beautiful country with these wonderful people.  We feel so blessed to have the Lord trust us with this work here and will remember with great love and affection our time here.  The first half of our mission taught us so much as we served with the wonderful saints in Lesotho and the free state.  We learned to step outside our comfort zone, to do things we didn't think we could do, to give of ourselves as we never had before.  Then we had the opportunity to move to Durban and had a chance to grow even more as we learned to work in new capacities with new people.  However, each step we took and each place we went the Lord was watching over us, directing us and helping us as we helped his children.  A mission teaches us so much! 

This has been a hallmark week - no accidents!  Now I know I am tempting the fates when I state that, but it has not been without incidents.  We had two elders held at knife point and they were told to hand over their cell phones.  Normally a set of elders only has one phone, but for some reason this set of elders had the other set of elders cell phone too. (they live in the same flat)  So, the thieves got two cell phones, and when they were running away with the cell phones they turned around and yelled "these are junk phones".   However, they took them anyway and so Wayne had to arrange to get two new cell phones and then get their cell phone numbers swapped to two new sim cards.  That was a very frustrating few days for him as he fought with Vodacom and the area office.  Wayne will not miss this headache when he goes home - for sure. 

We have spent a busy week preparing for the arrival of Elder Bednar next month.  The mission president wants to bring all of our missionaries in (140) to Durban for this meeting.  The logistics of this are huge and so we have been busy pricing out charter busses, etc., how to feed 140 elders and 30 mission couples, etc. etc.  We are still trying to get permission from the church to even do it as we were given the directive that only the Elders on the coast could come, but......

We have also learned that we are going to receive 6 new missionaries this Wednesday that were supposed to go to Kenya, but now they are coming to Durban.  We have to find 6 new trainers, three new flats, three new phones, 3 cars or 6 bikes, and on and on.  Next month, two weeks after our regular transfer, we will be receiving 4 more new elders that were supposed to go to Zimbabwe that do not have VISAs.  Life in the mission field is never boring. 

Summer has arrived in Durban and we see new flowers and trees in bloom everyday.  This little bush in our front yard has white and purple flowers on it.  It is starting to get quite warm and we are soon going to have to work harder and harder to keep our apartment cool.  Gratefully this flat has an air conditioner in the bedroom, so at least at night we can be cool enough to get a good nights sleep.  It is getting light earlier and earlier in the morning and stays light a little longer into the evening.

 We were invited yesterday to Jordan's 20th birthday party.  He still lives at home with his Mom and Dad and they were having a braii for his birthday party.  We arrived at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  There was such a flurry of activity going on - there were painters painting the outside of this house, the cleaning lady was cleaning the inside, they have been redoing the kitchen in this house and painting the whole inside as well.  Everything was turned upside down and yet they were still having a party for a large group of people.  Poor Kathy (the mom) was almost beside herself, trying to host this party and deal with the mess.

 This is a group of Jordan's friends and cousins.  They were all there having a great time together and enjoying some good food and fun.  Jordan had his girlfriend Davina there as well.

 This is Teddy, the braii master.  He cooked up a storm yesterday with mutton chops, steak and of course sausage.  Kathy had made potato salad (more like mashed potatoes) and then a carrot and onion salad as well.  Then they had spicy beans to go with it.  All of this was eaten with your hands.  They asked me if I wanted utensils and I asked them if they were going to use them and they said "no" - so I said "no" too.  You would have been so proud of me - eating everything that was offered - and with my fingers!

 This is Kathy and her sister Rhumba.  Rhumba lives right next door to Kathy and Teddy.  How lucky is that - to live next door to your sister!  Rhumba has their Mom living with her - as well as Rhumba's son, wife and their son.  They are lovely people and we have so enjoyed getting to know them and spend time with them.

Here is all the young people enjoying the good food and fun.  Jordan is standing behind his girlfriend on the right.

As we were driving home we passed the local muffler shop.  These are all your choices of mufflers available that day at this shop.  You pull in and they go to work replacing your muffler.


Only if Africa!

Today at church we had to say goodbye to one of the sisters in the KwaMashu branch - Sister Kamayou - she leaves this week to go into the mission field.  I didn't get a picture of her, but she is one very sharp young lady and will be such an asset in the mission field.  Sister Kamayou is so talented, she sings and conducts the music in the Ward very well and she teaches Institue class and a class in Relief Society.  Very capable!  This young lady on the right is our Sunday School teacher in our branch.  Her name is Sister Chloe Msali.  She is the mother of a 16 year old son, but is not married.  I think she is an amazing woman.  She teaches a great Sunday school lesson and is so strong in her testimony and her commitment to the gospel.  I just wish I could find some work for her.  She is a beautiful woman inside and out!

Today as we arrived at church I was so pleased to see the six elders that meet at our chapel out waiting for their investigators to arrive.  Since we have had a new district leader in this area (Elder Stephenson), things have improved greatly.  The companionships are more unified, the Elder's are much more obedient and I can see the members are working harder to support them - they trust the Elders more.  We had such disobedient elders in these two branches for a while, but I am glad to say that things are changing.  Hopefully these two struggling branches will start to grow and strengthen. 

Now for a little family news....

 Over the labor day weekend, Spencer and his family went to the Oakland temple. Spencer and Ike did baptisms for the dead and the others waited outside the temple for them. 

Later this month the kids are going to participate in mini-triathalons.  Spencer and Ike are going to do one together, and then Ty and Anne are going to do one as well.  I think Britt runs in a race this coming Saturday.

Never a dull moment!

They are making good use of the pool in their backyard and enjoy family time and fun out there on a regular basis.

Mealii is working hard, practicing her driving skills so that next month when she is 16 she can take her drivers test and be a legal driver.  Good luck girl!  I know you can do it.

Kalani has been doing a "mini mission" this weekend.  For 24 hours they live the life of a missionary in their stake.  They  live with an assigned "companion" at a members home, do service projects and then go teaching to members homes, giving the discussions.  This will be great preparation for the young men of this stake when they have the opportunity to enter the mission field.

Mealii and her Mom head to St. Louis Missouri this coming weekend for a big soccer tournament - good luck Mealii

Keola and Le'olani are busy with basketball and soccer as well.  The Enos household is hopping with activity!

Even though I didn't get any pictures from Rod and his family, I know that life is busy for them as well.  Rod's church assignments are keeping his busy to say nothing of his work schedule.  Even with all of that he still finds time to make fresh peach pie and yesterday when we talked he showed us his Bumbleberry pie baking in the oven.  I could practically smell it it looked so good!  The kids are all enjoying school.  Gracey is now in middle school (with a locker and everything).  Her school is just across from where Rod works and so she can have lunch with him on occasion.  Sid and the twins are still in the same school and are loving school.  Jenn has been taking more classes to learn new techniques to teach her clients.  She is still working out with Rod and trying to keep everyone fit. 

Well, we have come to the end - yet once again.   We are gearing up for another busy adventure filled week.  We love serving the Elders, the President and the Couples, as well as our assigned Stake responsibilities.  Life is good.  I have finished baking the treats for the Elder's that come into the office on Monday to pick up supplies and whatever else they come for.  I wish I had kept track of the number of bags of flour, pounds of butter, packages of chocolate chips, pounds of sugar etc. that I have gone through on this mission.  Perhaps its better that I didn't.  So, until next week.....

Love the Holt's

Transfer Week - eeish!

Monday morning - the beginning of Transfer week!  Elder Kuwanatsoka, Elder Steed and Elder Gideme - all hard at it, trying to get everything ready.  They all worked so hard to get all the details worked out, the bus tickets bought, everyone where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there.  However, there were a few glitches in the plan that created a lot of havoc.  Gratefully, everything worked out in the end, but the stress in the mean time was pretty high. 

Elders Bingham, Maring, Holt's, Shaw, and Steed

These were the departing Elders that we had served with in Lesotho during the first half of our mission.  We feel so privileged to have worked with them.  The departure dinner was delightful and the testimony meeting following was as usual a mission highlight.  This group of elders had some amazing leaders and very talented, hard working elders.  There will be a big hole left while the remaining Elder's learn to step up and fill their shoes.





We didn't get home Monday night until about 10:30.  There was a lot of clean-up to do from feeding 26 people.  The Condie and Simkins family joined the Elder's and it was great to meet these elders family.  We were so tired when we got home and arrived to find that our bedroom window got left open Monday and the monkeys came visiting while we were away.  Wayne had slipped home earlier in the day to find them in our apartment.  He chased a moma and a baby out the window but didn't have time to clean it up.
 

There were banana peels and orange peels all over the floor in the kitchen. The cupboards were covered with juice and slime.

We found a trail of banana peels and orange peels all the way into our bedroom and up onto the window sill and down the walls.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper having to clean up this mess when I got home.  Wayne washed off cupboards and walls and I picked up the peels and vacuumed and washed the floors.  I hope we learned a lesson and will not leave the window open again.  I was particularly annoyed because we had just bought bananas and oranges and they were so delicious.  I guess it was thoughtful of us to share them with the neighborhood monkeys.

Tuesday morning was a very busy day.  I dropped Wayne off at the mission home so he could drive a bakki out to the airport to pick up arriving Elders and their luggage.  I went into the office to prepare for the 15 arriving Elders.  I got a phone call about 9:00 AM that two of the Elders who were leaving to go home were at the airport and the airlines had no record of their flights.  They had their flight itineraries with them, but the airlines couldn't find them on their computers.  I quickly phoned Salt Lake City travel to find out what went wrong.  I got some one out of bed and she checked and couldn't find their flights either.  About an hour later, she was able to rebook their flights for that afternoon and they flew out about 4:00 PM. They were still able to arrive home at the time their parents were planning to pick them up at the airport (gratefully) but that was not a great start to our day.  Wayne spent the entire day running passports, visas, drivers licenses and temple recommends over to me to photocopy and then back and forth to the mission home as we oriented new elders and got elders tested so they could drive, etc. etc.  We realized that with some last minute switches that President Z had made, we had two non-driving Elders in a car area and so that had to be changed out.  We had one elder transferring into Leribe that did not have his VISA situation worked out, so he couldn't go into Lesotho.  That entailed switching some other elders around.  President took so long interviewing in-coming Elder's that the Elder's leaving to go to Swaziland didn't leave until 5 PM, making it midnight before they got where they had to go.  We didn't get home that night until 8:00 PM as we had to take some Elders to the bus station to catch a bus to Bloemfontein and Bethlehem.  What a very very long day.  We were just so grateful for all the mission couples throughout the mission who worked so hard to get everyone where they needed to be, and didn't complain when everyone was 4 or 5 or 6 hours later than they were supposed to be.  The couples work tirelessly to get the job done.

Wednesday we worked hard to get all the transfer details worked out, all the paper work done and all things in order so that we could get away for two days.  We were so ready!

We met the Lombardi's at the Tembe Elephant Park for a few days of R & R.  We were greeted at the Lodge by a group of beautiful young girls singing a welcome song.  We left that afternoon for a game drive with Vossi our game driver.  Tom was his tracker and we  were joined up with another couple from the Durban area that we had never met before - Adele and Tom. 

This is the whole crew.  Holts, Lombardi's, Tom (tracker) Vossi (guide), another fellow from Capetown who joined us Friday afternoon and Saturday, and Adele. Adele's husband Tom is standing on top at the back.  Adele would provide wonderful treats at our stops for refreshments.  She had cheese, crackers, nuts, billtong that Tom had made himself.  He is a hunter and he made Kudoo biltong and beef billtong.  We had a great time.

We stayed in 5 star tents.  The accommodations were really quite grand.  You really felt you were right out in the middle of the wild.  You could hear the animals in the night and the birds woke you in the morning.  You showered outside in the open air (surrounded by a wooden fence).  There was much of nature inside the tent (spiders, moths, bugs and more bugs)  Its just a good thing that bugs don't bother either of us.

The elephants were really quite wonderful.  They have some of the largest elephants, with the biggest tusks in Africa.  This day at this water hole we counted 20 elephants that came and went after a drink and a bath.  Along with the elephants there were nalla, kudoo, and impala all coming for a drink.  We even saw some warthogs that joined in the party.

Some of the elephants got right into the water and submerged themselves right in.  We decided these were the young bucks getting ready for their Friday night dates (getting themselves thoroughly cleaned up.)  They would get all wet and then come out and go over to the sandy dirt, snuff some up their trunk and then throw it over their back, legs and stomach.  Once they were all powedered up with dirt they would wander off - I think they were going cruising for the good looking girl elephants.

The next day we saw giraffe at the water hole.  They are still my favorite African animal.  They are so graceful and beautiful. 

 The park held some pretty impressive Rhino that we managed to find late one afternoon just before the sun started to set.

 This was the sun setting just a few minutes later.  We managed to find some lions about this same time, but it was too dark to get very good pictures.

This lovely lizard was sunning himself on this branch, just hanging out having a little nap.  We found him on this same branch one other afternoon a few days later. 

It was delightful to be able to wear casual clothes, only have to answer the phone 6 or 8 times a day (rather than 38 - 40 times a day) and just be able to relax and hang out for a few days.  I am sure this will be our last break before we go home and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

 These are some of the girls that served our meals, and treated us so nicely.  The staff at the Lodge are all local people and they were so delightful and friendly. We wanted to take them home with us.  The lodge provides a means for the people in this community to support themselves and their family.  There is not a lot of industry to provide employment for the people in this part of Africa.

 Every night when we got home from our game drive we would gather around the fire and visit till they called us for supper.  The meals were delicious.  Each night we were served some sort of local game like kudoo, impala and wart hog.  They were very tender and tasty.  I don't know if I am just getting more adventuresome or if this cook was especially talented, but I tried and enjoyed everything that was served.

Saturday night after supper we had some special entertainment come to put one a show for us.  One of the workers started by telling African stories around the fire till the singers and dancers arrived.  He was such a delightful story teller - he was even almost as good as you Spencer!  Then this men's choir came and sang local folk songs, dancing as they sang.  They harmonized so beautifully and we had a great night before we had to head home in the morning.

 We got up early Sunday morning and got packed up and right after breakfast we headed to the Kosi Bay Group.  This little group of Saints are just south of the Mozambique border. They meet in a tiny tiny little building behind a garage.  There is not usually any Priesthood holders here, so we came prepared with bread and water so that they could have the sacrament.  (The group leader was killed about 9 months ago and now they only get to have the sacrament when the Elder's or the Sr. couple from Richard's Bay come up.  Today, however there were two Priesthood holders there, one of them being a visitor from Pietermaritzburg. 

This is their chapel.  It really is as small as it looks in this picture.  Counting us, there was 12 in attendance.  Wayne conducted, and he and I both spoke.  Then Wayne taught the Sunday School lesson.  He did a great job.  We had also brought treats for the five little children that were there (and the big children too).  There was a sweet spirit there and the scripture that says "Where there are a few of my saints gathered, there will my spirit be also", came to my mind.  Before we started the meeting we had to dust off the chairs and sweep the floor to get the room ready.  The women that were there were strong and so happy to be able to partake of the Sacrament.  We really do take this sacred ordinance for granted each Sunday.  We just expect to be able to go to church and have it there, prepared and ready for us to partake.  This little group meets Sunday, whether they are able to partake of the Sacrament or not, so when they can have the Sacrament it is an especially nice Sunday for them. 

Well, it is late and I will close this weeks "blog" with a little bit of family news.  We received a phone call from Rod today when we got home letting us know of his new church calling.  He has just been called to serve as the Stake Young Men's President.  He will continue to serve on the Stake High Council, but he will be responsible for the Young Men and Young Women rather than for Missionary Work.  Life just gets busier and busier - right Rod?

We love you all and are so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to serve a mission in this beautiful country.  We are mindful and thankful for the blessings the Lord continues to pour out upon us daily.  We are grateful for family, good friends and mission friends who bless our lives and teach us good lessons.  Thank you for staying in touch!

We love you all

Wayne and Barb