The 30 hour Trip

On June 18th we managed to get Jolayne up at 5:45 AM (truly we did) to take us to the Salt Lake airport for our flight to Durban South Africa.  We are very grateful for Jolayne's supreme sacrifice.  We arrived in plenty of time to get checked in and to find our gate to await our flight.  The first leg of our flight took us to Atlanta, Georgia.  While awaiting our 7:30 flight to Johannesburg we went to Chiles for Lunch.  We sat next to a young man who was sitting alone eating his lunch.  He started a conversation with us and mentioned that he lived in Provo.  He is doing a practicum out East and has to travel back and forth from time to time.  We had a nice visit and then he left.  When we finished our lunch we asked for our bill and the waitress said that the young man next to us took care of our bill.  Let me tell you, this little badge that we wear is a little bit of magic.  While we were walking through the Atlanta airport another young couple stopped us and asked us where we were heading on our mission.  The young man had just graduated from dental school and the young woman was a return missionary.  They were taking a little vacation.  Again the badge is an invitation for conversation.
While we were sitting in the airport trying to use our computer (no internet connection) to call and wish Ike a happy birthday we purchased a prepaid phone card.  We used a public phone to try to call, but every phone we tried would not work.  We called Keola, and we could hear Kaleo on the phone but he couldn't hear us.  We tried every phone we could find, but none would work.  A young man watching us, asked if we wanted to use his cell phone.  Again our badge was magic.  We used his phone but could not get hold of anybody.  It was just not meant to be I guess.
Then began our very long 15 hour flight to Johannesburg.  Sitting next to me was a preacher from Zimbabwe.  He had been over to a funeral and was just returning home.  We had an interesting conversation.  We did not talk religion. 

The mission president and his wife, President and Sister Von Stetten met us at the airport that night and took us to the bed and breakfast that we would stay at for the next three nights. This is the bed and breakfast where we stayed and this woman was the owner of the "Little Haven", her name was Grace Rawlings.  In visiting with her the next morning we learned that she was the Gospel Doctrine Teacher for Mark Smiths investigators when he served his mission over 40 years ago in Durban, ZA.  What a small world.  We e-mailed Mark and he sent a picture of he and Diane, which we forwarded to Grace. 
The next morning the office couple, the Olsen's picked us up bright and early and took us to the Mission office where they got some needed information from us so we could get a JP Morgan credit card and a bunch of other informatiion and then they took us out to lunch at a huge mall in Durban where we picked up a few essential items.  After lunch they took us back to the church where we picked up our Baaki, and then it was Wayne's turn to drive.  Remember this is on the left side of the road, in a huge busy city, narrow roads, lots of traffic and a standard transmission.  They gave us a GPS with the address of Grace's B& B in it and sent us on our way.  We drove round and round and round with the GPS going crazy "recalculating", "recalculating", "recalculating".  I just wanted to close my eyes it was so scarry.  We didn't know which was not working, the GPS or the operator (me).  After much prayer and way after dark, we finally made it back to the B&B where we had about 3 hours sleep and then spent the rest of the night looking at the ceiling.  Our internal clocks were completely turned around.

Needless to say, we were ready in plenty of time for the PEF mission couple to pick us up to take us for some sight seeing.  The Gundersons from Bend Oregon were a delight and we spent a fun morning with them. As you can see we went to the beach and watched them make these fabulous sand sculptures, we went to see the stadium that you want to jump off of Rod, and we went to a little area where they had an aquarium and some touristey shops.  After a great lunch at the wharf, we went back to meet with the President for a few hours to find out about our area and assignments.  Elder Olsen was kind enough to take our GPS out to see if it was the fault of the operator or the GPS that we could not make it work.  He came back a while later and said he couldn't make it work either and the President asked him if the antena was up?  We didn't even realize it had an antena.  Once the antena was up it worked just fine.  We then followed the president to the Mission home for a lovely supper with he and his wife.  He asked us what we had done that morning and we mentioned that we had been by the stadium where our son wanted to bungee jump off the top.  I casually mentioned that I too wanted to jump with him.  He gave me a very sly smile and said "you son is welcome to jump if he wants."  End of subject.  Sorry Rod, I tried.
The next morning, we were up and out of Durban by 8:00 AM and made our way to the township of Ladybrand.  We stopped off in Bethlehem to pick up a few groceries.  In the grocery store, again that little magic badge brought a young man (about 14 or 15) and his mother up to us.  They asked us where we were from and if we called each other brother and sister.  We said yes we are all brothers and sisters in the gospel.  They asked us some questions about the church, which we answered.  They said their husband/father was working in Illinois (farming) and that they had just come back from visiting him.  They were trying to find a way to move to America.  They left and a few minutes later the son came back and asked us if we had a cell phone, we told him yes and he phoned us so that we would have his number in our cell phone in case we got into any trouble and needed help.  What a sweet little family.
We arrived about 4:00 in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day getting unpacked and familiar with our "flat".  We think we will be very comfortable here and it is starting to feel like home.   This morning we were up and getting ready for the day when the power went off.  It was off for a few hours and then came back on.  In visiting with our neighbor we learned that this is not an uncommon occurance.  The zone leaders came over from Lesotho this morning and introduced themselves to us.  After visiting for a bit they showed us how to cross the border into the country of Lesotho.  This is quite an experience.  Next week we will apply for a visa so we can expedite this experience.  It can take as little as 15 minutes or as long as 3 hours to cross this border.  They showed us where the church building is (we will go to church there tomorrow AM) and then we took them for lunch.  It has rained on and off all day with some thunder and lightening.  We are looking forward to meeting the Branch President tomorrow and the Branch members. 
We love you all and hope you are all doing well.  Keep us in your prayers.
Love Elder and Sister Holt