A mid transfer transfer

Once again - this has been a very busy week.  We had one of our Elders in the hospital with sicle cell disease, another Elder very ill in Swaziland, and one of our Senior couple Elders, back down with an infection.  We had three elders coming to our mission on Tuesday that were supposed to go to Zimbabwe, but because of visa problems in that country, they have come to our mission for an

undetermined amount of time.  On the same flight as the three new Elders was our new MLS missionaries, Elder & Sister Herrington.  They will be serving in Newcastle to replace the Millers who had to go home in July.  They are a great couple and will do a good job there.  I found out that Elder Herrington served as the Assistant to the President to Uncle Phil in the Denver Colorado mission just before Uncle Phil and Aunt Nedra were released.  Such a small world!

Elder & Sister Herrington - new MLS Couple serving in Newcastle

 Also on Tuesday we had two Elder's come into the office to be honourably released and then sent home, (one to go to school and one to see a brother who was leaving for his mission a week later and they wanted to see each other before he left).  So, Tuesday morning we welcomed and orientated the three new elders and got them sent off to where they were going to serve, and we started to orient the Herringtons and then took them to their B & B for a brief rest before the supper at the mission home.  We welcomed the departing Elders into the office for their final interviews with the President and then we headed over to the mission home to get ready for the departure dinner and testimony meeting.  I had been asked to bring rolls for the dinner and so I had been up until midnight Monday night getting those ready.

Elder Myer's family had come to South Africa to pick him up and tour some of his areas with him before he headed back home.  It was his Mom and Dad and three siblings who came to meet him and joined us for dinner at the mission home.  They were a great family and so happy to see their missionary son and brother.  Elder Myers is about 6'5".  A giant of a man and he was a great missionary.  The other Elder who was going home was Elder Van Scheltema.  Elder Van Scheltema was also about 6'5" - a real gentle giant.  Elder Van Scheltema was from Cape Town in South Africa.  Both these missionaries were obedient, hardworking Elders and it was such a wonderful spiritual evening listening to them share their testimonies and some of their experiences.  President Zackrison spoke some very kind words to these Elders and told them how the Lord was very pleased with their work in this mission.  These young men were very humbled by the President's words and by his advice to them.  These evenings are mission highlights for us.  It is so hard to say goodbye to the Elders, but it is wonderful to see them come in having served faithful honorable missions, having no regrets about doing things that they shouldn't have, or wishes that they would have done more than they did.  These were two hard working obedient missionaries.  What a delight.

Wednesday we finished orienting the Herrington's and then took them to lunch on the beach.  As we were eating we got a call from the AP's that they had been in an accident.  Luckily no one was hurt, but their van was supposed to be used on the weekend for the David Glen Hatch group that was arriving to perform on Saturday and Sunday.  Luckily Teddy as able to bolt everything together and made it look like new.  He will fix it properly next week.  I spent the day getting the work competed from the transfers.

Thursday morning, Wayne left with the Herrington's to direct them to Ladysmith, where the Wilding's met them and showed them the way to Newcastle.  Wayne had to take the car back to Ladysmith that the Elder's had crashed a few weeks earlier, and then brought back the car the Teddy had loaned the Elders while he fixed theirs.  Thursday late afternoon the President came in and suggested that the office couples take the day off on Friday.  In South Africa, Friday was Women's Day - a National holiday.  We thanked him and then looked at all we had to do and went into work anyway.  It was a good thing too, because we had a crazy busy day.  Also, Bishop Smith from the Durban stake had asked if he could use our office board room for a meeting Friday morning, so someone had to be there to facilitate that.

Friday morning we had Elder & Sister Eggett arrive from the area office in Joberg for a meeting with some government officials, some area church members from Durban and others to help solicit help for this country as more and more children are being left to raise children.  They would like to partner with the church to get some welfare help to train people to help with this situation.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

Then throughout the day we received two or three calls from President Zackrison requesting help with some things that needed to be taken care of.  President and Sister Zackrison were on their way to Swaziland to the District Conference this weekend and he decided he was going to have to transfer one Elder out of Swazi for health reasons and wanted me to get an Elder's paper work ready to send him into Swazi.  It was 7:00 PM by the time we got out of the office Friday afternoon - so much for our day off!!!

We were up and off by 7:00 AM Saturday morning to take Elder Akal to Richards Bay to meet the Zone Leaders there.  They would then drive Elder Akal to the Swazi border where the Swazi Zone Leaders would take him into Swaziland to his new area and companion.

Four hours later we were back in Durban and rushed to get a birthday present for Ethan (Teddy's grandson).  We had been invited to his birthday party Saturday afternoon.  We only got to stay for a little while as we had to head to Chatsworth for the wheelchair handoff.  The church donated 45 new wheel chairs and in partnership with a radio station, the Public Affairs people had a big day planned to advertise this event.

 The Chatsworth youth centre was the place that was chosen to hold this event.  This center was built in this very rough part of the city by Nelson Mandella after a youth was killed because of gang fights. It is a great centre, but because of the miss-use of funds it has been shut down for quite a while.  The Chatsworth Ward came over and cleaned it up and with the use of the this draped fabric it looked pretty good.

  The Elders were there and helped get the wheel chairs all lined up in order.  The new owners names were attached to the handles of the chairs and it was my job to get the recipients to sign for the chairs.  Of course, some of them were too handicapped to be able to sign and so the representative of the care centre had to sign for them.  It was a great feeling to see the joy on the faces of the people as they got rid of their old worn out chairs or were able to get rid of their crutches and then get a custom fit brand new wheel chair.

This woman on the left is Adele Walker, she is an amazing woman.  She has turned her home into a centre to help people who are handicapped provide for themselves by sewing, or making handicrafts or whatever.  She just keeps expanding the number of people she helps and the ways that she provides help for them.  This is one of the young people she helps.  She was so excited to get a new wheel chair.

One of the sponsors of the event yesterday was "Nando's", a popular restaurant in South Africa.  They gave all the wheel chair recipients and all the people that helped a chicken dinner.  The blonde lady on the left is Sister Kyle.  She and her husband are the public Affairs couple for Durban and worked tirelessly with the radio station people to get this affair organized and off the ground.

Once the wheel chair donation was over, the David Hatch concert began.  David is a concert pianist from Orem Utah.  He came with 7 of his students and put on a performance of classical music.  It was a fabulous evening of great music.  His performing students were 14 years old, 16, 17, 18 and then one young man leaving on his mission next month.  Then there were two young ladies as well.  Amazing talent.  It was a long but rewarding day and we were very tired by the time we got home Saturday night.



Sunday morning began early once again as Wayne was to be the High Council speaker in the Amamzamtoti Ward.  He gave a great talk on living a consecrated life.  We stayed for Sunday School and then we had to leave to get back to Durban.  The Area public affairs people who were sponsoring this David Hatch Tour had asked Teddy and his family to host a typical "Indian Braii".  So Teddy and Kathy were feeding the tour group lunch on the beach this afternoon.  They insisted that we had to come too.  Timing was pretty tight as everyone was in church till 12:00 and the "Hatch group" had to put on a fireside at 3:00 PM at the Berea chapel. 

We arrived at the beach to find that they had to move the party off the beach a little ways as it was just too windy on the beach this afternoon.  They found a spot that was a little bit protected from the wind and went to work preparing all the meat for the party.  They had steaks, lamb chops, spicy lamb chops, sausages, spicy sausages, and hot dogs.  It was an absolute feast. They also had salads and buns.  Then they served birthday cake for desert and it was one of the nephews birthday that day.

Wayne just checking out how Teddy is doing.  He had about three barbeques going at once and didn't burn a single thing.  He was amazing.

This is Kathy.  She is the sweetest, gentlest, most patient woman.  They are a delightful family and are so good to us.  Yesterday they had this huge birthday party for their grandson Ethan.  I am sure they are very tired tonight.

Teddy was kept busy the whole afternoon just cooking away.  He did a great job and the food was delicious.  My favorite was the lamb chops.  I even tried the spicy lamb chops and the spicy sausages.  Wayne of course loved it all.

The man in the white shirt with the black satchel over his shoulder is David Hatch - the concert pianist.

These are some of the performers.  The young man in the front in the plaid shirt is 14 years old.  The tall man on the left in the suit is the young man ready to go on a mission next month.  The young man in the pink shorts is 16 and a great pianist.  The young woman in the corral skirt is a student at UVSU as well as a musician. 

This is Teddy, Kathy and their family and extended family.  We have so enjoyed getting to know them and love them.  They worked so hard to feed everyone this amazing meal this afternoon. 

After the Braii we headed to the church to an amazing fireside.  As I visited with David Hatch I learned that Bob Taylor is his Doctor in Provo.  Such a small world.  He thinks Dr. Taylor is the very best.


After the fireside tonight, I learned that one of our Elders has been sick for four days, so we headed home to pick up some decongestants, IB Proffin and some juice and then headed over to their flat so Wayne and Elder Davensport's companion could give him a blessing.  It has been a full but rewarding weekend.  It will all begin once again in the morning with a brand new week. 

As I have been working on the blog, I have been baking pans of brownies.  We have zone conference this week on the coast and so I am responsible for feeding lunch to the Zone Conference Elders on Tuesday. 

Now for a little family update:

Rod & Jenn have been performing as "Joseph & Emma" for their 4 day long "Legacy" Stake production just outside of Red Deer.  Their children spent the week in Raymond with cousins.  We are looking forward to pictures to share with everyone.  Rod said it was an unbelievable experience and all enjoyed the experience.  He shared a little of his experiences this morning (your last night) as he drove Inge's trailer back to Stirling.

Spencer shared this picture with us this week of his growing boys showing us their physiques.  Pretty amazing "pipes" boys.  Obviously all that swimming is building strong muscles.  Spencer tells me that we will not even recognize their boys when we get home.  I think he is right.







Jolayne and Dennis have been up in Canada this week on vacation and met Bill and Shannon there and went together to visit Mom.  Sorry I missed your face time call with her, but we have not been home much lately, as you can tell. 

Well, somehow it is midnight here and I am going to have to be up and at em bright and early in the morning again.  In closing, I want to tell you that we are striving each day to "live a consecrated life".  We love the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our testimonies are growing stronger everyday.  We grow closer together as we serve others and each other.  We feel it is such a privilege to serve a mission and thank our Heavenly Father everyday for this blessing in our lives. 

We hope that you are all well and appreciate it when you have a moment to drop us a line and let us know how you are.  Till we see you again.....
Elder & Sister Holt