A short break in a beautiful spot of Africa!

This has been a very full week.  We had the opportunity to have a little get away for Tuesday and Wednesday and we went to a place we have wanted to visit since last December.  We went to the Drakensberg Mountains.  It is only about 2 1/2 hours away from Durban.  The Wyatt's were going to be there as well, staying at the Cathedral Peak Resort.  We, however, stayed at the Drakensberg Sun Resort which was about 45 minutes away from them.  Once we got checked into our hotel, we drove over to visit with the Wyatt's.  This is the view from their resort.  We spent the afternoon just walking around and having lunch, visiting and relaxing.  We invited Elder and Sister Cluster (Employment missionaries) to come with us and we had a great time together.  We hadn't seen the Wyatt's for quite a while so it was so fun to catch up on what they have been doing and experiencing. 

 Clusters on the left, Wyatt's and myself.   It was such a beautiful warm day.  You are high in the mountains and so you are very close to the sun and it was probably about 30 degrees at least.  It was also a real treat to be out of the office for a couple of days.  However, the whole way up and all the rest of the day Wayne's phone rang non-stop, so we didn't really feel like we had been too far away from business. 

Just to prove that Wayne was there too, I put this picture in. 

This is the dining room where we ate supper that night.  They served a magnificent smorgasboard and we spent about two hours, eating supper and visiting.  It was extremely restful and we thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery and schedule.  They have a "Canopy Tour" (zip line" ride through a mountain pass up there and we wanted to do it.  However, Sister Cluster didn't bring any pants, and I didn't think they would be able to walk up out of the bottom of the pass once it was finished, so I didn't think we would be able to do it.  I phoned to see what time they opened and how long it would take to do it - just to check.  They told me it would take 3 hours.  I said thanks, but I couldn't make everybody wait all morning while we did it and so decided not to go.  We got a call the next morning and they said we could come at 8:00 AM and they could have us through in an hour and a half - so..... we said we will be there.

 We could walk from our hotel over to the place where they get you hooked up in the gear etc.  This is a little lake that we walked past to get there.  It was so still and calm, the reflection of the trees and the mountains in the water was stunning.

 Junior on the left, Wayne, I and Domonic were in it for the long haul.  They got us all suited up and ready to go.  We then loaded up in a big truck and drove to where we would start the climb to the first platform.  We were so excited to fly through the trees in the air and see the beauties from a whole new perspective. 

Here we are at the first platform, all tethered in and ready to go.  Junior always went first, and then myself, Wayne and Domonic followed up in the rear.  The first "zip" was just a short, easy one to get us geared up and ready for what was to come.  We had a ball and were so glad we took advantage of the experience.  They took video footage and we have a copy of it that we
 will bring home and share with everyone, just to prove that we really did it.  Once we finished with all 12 zips, we then had to "climb" back up to get back to the truck to be taken back to where we started from.  It only took us about 20 minutes to get out though, but it was a strenuous climb.

 We hurried back to the hotel, got cleaned up, checked out and met up with the Wyatt's and the Cluster's to do some sight seeing, tourist shopping and then had lunch at a delightful bakery restaurant outside - enjoying the beautiful day.  That afternoon we went to the Drakensburg Boy's Choir school.  This school was located very close to our hotel.  The choir performs every Wednesday afternoon from 3:30 till 5:30.  This is the view from their school room.  This school is only for boys - grades 4 through 9.  They spend part of their day doing academic studies and then the rest of their day they focus on music.

I wish I could portray to you how beautiful their music is.  I have bought some of their CD's so when we get home you will be able to hear.  They have a beautiful concert hall that seats about 600 people for their performances.  At their intermission, a group comes out and performs on the school grounds and then they pass a hat for donations.  Some of the boys look so young, way too young to be living away from family for a school semester.  But they do, just so they can get an education and improve their talents.  This choir tours and performs all over the world.  Next week they leave for a tour in Germany and Holland.  It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon and we left feeling thoroughly entertained.  We left as soon as the performance ended and headed back to Durban as we had to be in the office bright and early the next motning. 

Thursday brought a mountain of work that needed to be done - being gone from the office for two days and plus transfers occurring on Monday and Tuesday of the next week.  We worked a very long 12 hour day without a break on Thursday and then again a long day on Friday. 

We did experience a little miracle on Friday I would like to tell you about.  I had been working hard to get six Elder's ready to go into Swaziland with this transfer.  I must get medical forms signed, passports certified and two passport sized pictures for each elder going.  On Thursday I had compiled three of them and they were ready to go.  When I went to get them to add to the others on Friday, they were missing.  I could find them nowhere.  I was panic stricken, I didn't know what I was going to do.  I had turned my desk upside down and inside out looking for those papers.  We went home for lunch Friday and while we were preparing to go back to work I told Wayne what had happened.  We had a prayer, asking for Heavenly Father to help us find them.  We knew He knew where they were and we knew He could help us find them.  I went back in the office and decided that I must have had them on my desk with some other files, and somehow they got put in a file and then put back in the file cabinet.  I was going to have to go through the cabinet to try and find them.  I went to the file cabinet and opened the top drawer, I opened the first file and there were all the papers I needed.  I was so thankful to my Heavenly Father for His answer to my prayer.  This work is important and He wants it to go forward.  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who answers our prayers.

We will be saying goodbye to 11 Elders tomorrow, Elder Steed, our AP is one of them.  We served with Elder Steed in Lesotho (he was our zone leader) and then he has been our AP since we came into the office.  We will miss him so much.  He has been a most obedient missionary, with a very kind and tender heart.  We had a new AP come into the office on Thursday afternoon - Elder Kwanatsoka.  I know that we will love him just as much as we love Elder Steed.  Elder Gideme and Elder Kwanatsoka will set a great example for our missionaries.

On Tuesday we will welcome 15 new Elders into our midst.  They look like a strong and mighty force.  This is the most missionaries we have had arrive at one time, so I am sure it will be a very full and busy day.

Well, it is time now to put on my "CES" missionary hat - (cooking every second) and get ready for the Monday morning onslaught of missionaries that come to visit us in the office.  They walk in the office and the first thing they do, is look to the right - to check to see if there are treats on the counter.  Their faces light up if there is a big batch of cookies, or a tray of brownies, or whatever.  I also want to have treats to send with Elder Steed, Elder Bingham and Elder Shaw - three Elders leaving to go home.  These were all missionaries who were in our zone when we first came into the mission field.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show of our family this week.  Everyone has kept too busy with school etc. and so we have not received any pictures.  We did receive a video of Anne and Ty playing a piano duet, and if I could put this on our blog I would.  They played so well and we have enjoyed watching it over and over.  Thank you for sending it.  Rod has just returned safely from a week in Trinadad yesterday, and then turned around and headed to Raymond.  Jenn's family have all gathered to commemorate the 1 year anniversary of Mark's passing in Raymond this weekend.  The boys all worked hard to help Marilyn get her yard finished and ready for winter.  What would we do without family!

We love you all, miss you tons and are so thankful for your prayers, calls and concerns. 

P.S.  Thanks Anne, Ty and Brittany for the letter.  It came on Friday and it cost me a pan of brownies to get it from the AP's.  It was worth it.  I have written you back.  Watch for it.

Love
Wayne & Barb

Last Zone Conference?

The week of August 12th was Zone conference here on the coast and in Newcastle.  It hit me kind of hard that this could be the last zone conference of our mission,  depending when President Zackrison holds his next series of zone conferences and when we actually go home.  It was just about a year ago that we attended our very first zone conference. 

Zone conference is a busy time for us as we are in charge of getting the lunch ordered, set up, served and cleaned up.  They always have pizza, fresh fruit and then brownies, cookies, etc. for desert.  Elder and Sister Cluster, the couple on the far right,  came and helped us.  They are the Employment and PEF couple serving in Durban right now.  President and the AP's put on a great zone conference and I think the Elders felt motivated and encouraged to recommit themselves to moving the work forward.  President has an ability to let the Elder's know that he loves them and is concerned for their welfare. 

 This is Elder Dutson.  Elder Duston served in Phuta the first few months of our mission.  He will go home in October, having completed his mission.  He has been a good hard working Elder.  I did not realize it when I first met him, but his mother died just a few months before he came in the mission field.  He told me that his Father has just remarried and so when he goes home he will have a new Mother and a step brother. 

 These are some pretty "GQ" missionaries.  The middle three Elders will go home September 3rd and Elder Gideme on the far left will go home in November.  Elder Luddington, Zsembery and Condie have been good elders and are currently serving as Zone Leaders.  They will leave a big hole in the leadership pool once they go home.

I do believe that spring (summer) has arrived.  I was told by a native Durban resident on Thursday that winter is over and summer is officially here.  It was 29 degrees on Thursday afternoon.  As Wayne was busy rescuing Elders etc. I got to walk to and from work that day at lunch time.  It was a beautiful day for a walk and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I am afraid however, that as summer gets more firmly entrenched that it is going to get very very warm and humid. 

 Saturday, August 18th was "Helping Hands" day.  We went to Stanger and gave our helping hands to the Elders there and put up curtain rods and curtains for their flat.  It had been painted a few months ago and nobody had put the curtains and rods back up.  It took us all morning to get that done.  As we pulled into Stanger, on the way to the Elders flat we saw this site - this is a church group called "the Zionists".  Their church is outside.  This is a field that is encircled with white painted rocks.  This is their "temple" or church.  It was quite interesting to watch.  Some of their members were inside the circle and some were left outside the circle.  They sang, and had someone speak.

 Once we got back to Durban, Wayne got a call that some Elder's had locked their car keys in the car, would he please bring the extra set and help them out.  So he went all the way out to Mpumalanga and rescued them.  This is their church building.  It is a beautiful church building out in the middle of a field in a township.

These cows were right next to the church building, enjoying a lunch of somebodies garbage.  You can see part of the township in the background. 

 This Mpumalanga Ward took on quite a huge "helping Hands" project.  They knew of a brother and sister who live in the township who have lost both their parents.  They are not members of the church. Their house was in a terrible state, so the ward decided to help them out.  They painted the outside and inside of the house.  They did repairs to things that were falling apart.

 In order to paint the inside they had to take all of their belongings outside in the yard.  This is a ward member and his child.  They all came and worked hard all day on the project.  They also were working on getting a good fence surrounding the house.

These are three Elders who were assigned to do the outside clean up work.  Elder Luddington, Elder Whiting and the Bishop worked hard making the yard look good as well.

 This is a Relief Society Sister, who was fixing and hanging curtains in the freshly painted room.  The ward members worked so hard to help these two young people have a nicer place to live.  The ward was having a great time serving their community, working and playing together.

 This week has been a sore trial to Wayne.  He has had to deal with three accidents.  This was the worst one however.  Three Elders were headed to a DDM and the one elder was driving a little too fast on this windie dirt road to get to the church.  The back end skidded and he applied the brakes, skidded and promptly rolled the car.  There were many miracles that day.  The Lord was looking out for those Elders and no one was hurt.  Teddy, the man who looks after all of our cars, just "happened" to be in the office when I got the call about this accident.  He was not going to come into the office, but he said "I just had the feeling I needed to come in" and so he was there and able to accompany Wayne to the scene of the accident, to get the tow truck there and get it towed in for repairs.  The young man who was driving the car, has been having some health issues and has been seeing a Dr. for the last  month.  The Dr. had him on some medication and sees him on a regular basis.  Right after the accident happened, Dr. Wilford just "happened" to call him to see how he was doing (having no idea he had been involved in an accident) and was then able to talk to the ambulance attendant and tell him what medication he had him on.  They had to take this Elder to the hospital because after the accident he went into shock and was non responsive, he could not talk or move.  However, in the end no one was hurt, and they all went home later that afternoon. All three elders were wearing their seat belts - another miracle.

Wayne has had all kinds of problems with the Elder's telephones, and had been struggling with the area office and the telephone company to get them worked out.  We had to run out to Richard's Bay one morning this week to take passports to an Elder who has no VISA and so he will have to leave the country (go into Swazi) and then come back into the country and then get a 30 day stamp and then apply for a VISA.  It seems that between all the accidents and incident reports, stolen bikes, purchasing new bikes, telephones lost, stolen, or broken, lost keys, insurance forms and on and on, Wayne is getting very ready to walk away from this "fun".

We do have a lot of fun right outside our window however, and Saturday morning there was the "troup" of monkeys visiting us.  We fed them apples and bananas and they do enjoy the treats.  There are moms and dads and some cute little babies that come to visit us.  As we were watching them, Spencer happened to face time us and we were able to show Ike and Josh the monkeys antics.  Josh wanted to know if we could bring one home to him, but when I told him they were very "naughty" he decided maybe it wasn't a very good idea.


Now for the family update.....

 Rod and Jenn played the lead role in their Stake "legacy" experience.  They spent 4 days with their Stake's youth and leaders enacting the history of the restoration of the gospel.  They did a great job and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  Many lives were touched and testimonies strengthened as they learned about the trials that the saints experienced as they were persecuted for standing up for what they knew to be right and true.  Rod was tarred and feathered, remained unbeaten at the "stick pull" and then ultimately martyred, among many other experiences.  These are the only two pictures that we have seen so far and we are looking forward to a blow by blow accounting of the experience.

 Rod ( brother joseph) with  Brother Darby playing Orson Pratt (I think)

Rod and Jenn got home and worked for a week and then headed with their family to Waterton for a great time going for ice cream, fishing, swimming and hiking.  Jen's brother's family joined them up there for the week and they had a great time together.  Inge went up as well for a couple of days and they had so much fun with her. 

Of course, a good trip to Waterton would not be complete without a good bear sighting.  I guess the bears are plentiful in Waterton this year.  This is the Moma bear and I guess she had two cubs as well.  They found her on the side of the road going up to Red Rock Canyon.

 School has started once again for the Colorado kids.  This is Kalani's last year of High School and Keola has joined with Mealii and Kalani at the High School.  Le'olani is keeping Michelle company for a little longer at Platte River. 

 The California Holt's are all checked out and ready to head back to school as well.  Josh is finally able to go with all the rest of them to school as he is now in Kindeergarten - cause he is 5 years old you know.

Ike had his first dance instruction night at Young Men's and Young Women's.  However, it was only line dancing - so he didn't even get to dance with a girl.  It will come soon enough Ike!


We are so grateful for family and friends who continue to keep in touch with us, updating us on happenings in their lives.  We were grateful to hear from Ed & Leann that they have been blessed with some miracles with Leann's health challenges and that she is continuing to improve and feel better.  Thanks for the e-mail Ed.

The Lord continues to watch over us and bless us everyday.  We feel blessed to be able to serve in this beautiful country.  We feel grateful for the people that we serve with in the branches, wards and stake.  The members here have a love of the gospel and strong testimonies.  We love to rub shoulders with them Sundays and feel loved and accepted by them.  We will miss them when it is time to return home.  We continue to get e-mails from our friends in Lesotho and miss them dearly.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf.  Until next time.....
The Holt's

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

Sad Farewells

On July 22nd, our 43rd wedding anniversary, we spent the day saying goodbye to some favorite missionaries and some very dear friends.  This day began the departure of some fine missionaries - we had to say goodbye to Elder Daines, Manning, Preslar, Redford, Shumway and Munson.  We were privileged to work closely with all but two of them and how we loved them.  Saddest of all for us was having to say goodbye to our dear friends Elder & Sister Shumway from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  They were having such mixed emotions - anxious to see their family back home, but so sad to leave this marvelous work.  Shumways were going home to new grandchildren they had never met and a daughter-in-law that they have yet to meet.  The Shumways set such a great example to every mission couple in our mission.  They were hard working, loving, charitable missionaries with strong testimonies that they were anxious to share.  We look forward to seeing them again when we  return home.

After a busy day at the office preparing to welcome 10 new missionaries the next day, we hurried over to the mission home to serve dinner to the departing Elders.  This meal is catered, but we serve it and clean up after.  This time we served lasagna, bread, tossed salad with a cobbler and ice cream for desert.  Everyone enjoyed the meal.

Departing Elders enjoying the company of the President and Elder & Sister Shumway.

Back row, Elder Redford, Munson, Manning, Shumway, Munson and Preslar

After the dinner we gather in the living room and begin the meeting with an opening song and prayer.  President and Sister Zackrison speak and then the Elders and the Shumway's have the privilege of bearing their testimony.  It is a powerful meeting and a wonderful culmination to two years of service to the Lord.  It becomes evident which of the Elder's have given their all in their service and those that have coasted or have been negligent in their service.  For the most part this group of Elder's were valiant servants.  We closed the meeting by kneeling together in a circle and having prayer.  Such a strong spirit!

The next morning began bright and early as Wayne got to take the Shumway's to the airport to see them off, the AP's took the 6 departing elders and then picked up the 10 incoming elders.  This was a fine group of Elders.  Normally when new Elders come in there is a "deer in the headlights" look in their eyes, but this group came in confident and ready to go to work.  We had two African elders, one from Great Britain and 7 from America.  They took them directly to the mission home where they begin orientation with the President, and the office staff.  I collect all of their passports, visas, drivers licenses and temple recommends and head to the office to make copies and then bring them back to the Elders.  It is always a very full busy day with much to do.  All in all I think the transfers went fairly well for the President's first.  The AP's, Elder Steed and Gideme did a fine job of orchestrating it all and they should be very proud of themselves.  They worked almost all night the weekend before transfers began.  They were exhausted.  Wayne had to do drivers tests with a couple of the Elders who were heading out to the outer regions to make sure they were ready and capable of driving in this country.  I think he should get extra hazard pay for this - he literally takes his life in his hands sometimes.  He said these Elders were pretty good drivers.

The rest of the week is spent cleaning up the details of the transfer.  Sending in reports to the area office, closing out files, etc.  It keeps everyone pretty busy.  Wayne was kept running that week.  He had to deliver a car all the way to Virginia (one of the ones that got crashed) and then the next day he had to turn around and drive all the way to Ladysmith to deliver a passport that got forgotten at transfer time, so that an Elder could get into Lesotho.  Good thing he loves to drive and is used to spending so much time in the car. 

Wednesday afternoon Elder & Sister Carlile were supposed to arrive from Salt Lake.  They did not actually make it in until Thursday, as they had delayed flights, lost luggage and all kinds of problems.  Sister Carlile had her coat stolen in Johannesburg, and then finally all their luggage arrived on Saturday morning and they headed out to their area of service in Bloemfontein.  They stopped over night in Bethlehem and left two small suitcases in the backseat of their car, only to wake up Sunday morning to find their car window smashed, their suitcases riffled, medications, i-pod and jewellery stollen.  What a horrific first week in the mission field.  They were so grateful to finally get to their new home in Bloemfontein Sunday evening.  They are making the adjustment now and doing fine.  I think Sister Carlile was ready to turn around and head home for a while.

 Because we didn't have time to celebrate our anniversary on Monday, Friday night Teddy and Kathy took us for dinner on the beach.  It was a lovely evening.  Teddy however, had spent two days in the hospital that week as his blood pressure was sky high and his diabetes is completely out of whack.  He is not a well man and the doctors told him he had to make some major life changes to his diet and lifestyle.  He has been taking it much easier and takes time to go fishing for a while everyday to help him relax.  

 

 Saturday morning we headed over to the Stake family fun day.  The adults, children and teenagers were all having a grand time enjoying all of the activities that were there.  There were lots of team building activities as well as frisbee, soccer and just good old visiting on blankets.  Lunch was served as well.

 Aren't these two of the cutest little boys you have ever seen.  They were having a great time.

 This was the first time I had seen a sack that holds two people for a double potato sack race.

 These are two single adults in our KwaMashu Branch.  The girl being pulled is probably 6' tall.  She has a huge crush on the Branch President's very handsome return missionary son.

 Look at the concentration on these two cute girls faces as they try to master this task.

 They had a man with a cart full of popsicles.  The kids could have all they wanted.  As you can see this little cutie was thoroughly enjoying hers.  I think I saw her eating at least two or three.

 They had three of four of these big blow up activity centres and the kids had a great time playing on them.  There was lots of water activities and it was a gorgeous hot day so being wet was not a problem.

The old folks sat around and visited on the side lines, the Elder's played frisbee and soccer and everyone had a great time.












Monday night we had family home evening at the Kyle's house.  When we got there they had a big screen set up in the living room.  They had bowls of popcorn, home made nacho chips with salsa and drinks.  We watched "17 Miracles" and enjoyed a movie night for family home evening.  It was the Sutherland's first FHE experience in Durban and they enjoyed getting to know everyone.  After the movie Sister Kyle served a cobbler with ice cream and everyone went home feeling fed physically and spiritually. 

Sunday morning we arrived at church to find the Olson's with their son, daughter-in-law and sweet granddaughter.  We invited them to come for dinner on Tuesday evening so that they could see where their Mom and Dad used to live.  They were delightful company and their little granddaughter was so fun.   (She loved Wayne) Tuesday afternoon Elder & Sister Peterson (Humitarian couple from Joberg) and the Knudsen's (also a couple from Joberg who served in Ladybrand before us) arrived to deliver the Miller's car to us.  We invited them to come over also on Tuesday evening for a visit.  The Peterson's were the couple that we worked with during the Berea disaster, buying the 400 blankets and putting together 200 hygiene kits.  We had such a good visit getting acquainted again and getting caught up.  The Peterson's go home in three weeks.  Also on Tuesday afternoon the Lombardi's arrived in Durban.  One of their missionaries was having a bit of a breakdown and they had to bring him in to see a Dr. here in Durban.  We didn't get to see too much of them though as they were busy with the Elder and sister Zackrison.  Oh well, we will get to spend more time with them in early September as we have booked a few days in Tembe Elephant Park together.   Then on Wednesday afternoon the Wilding's arrived from Ladysmith.  They came to Durban to pick up a mission call for one of the young men from one of their branches.  They made a two day stay in Durban out of it and it was fun to go for supper with them on Wednesday evening.  They are such a great couple and are doing great things out in Ladysmith.  However, now they are also having to cover Newcastle area as well as the new mission couple for that area does not arrive until this coming week.  Mission couples are such an important part of a mission.  They fill such a need and perform such great service.  With such vast boundaries in our mission, a mission president could not possibly fill all of the needs in this mission for the Elders, members, leaders, etc. without the mission couples. 

I have come to realize over the last few months  as we are so involved with so many facets of this mission, that when Elder's are disobedient to the mission rules or the commandments, they not only hurt themselves, but they cause such problems for their companionship, area, branch or ward, mission president -  and the repercussions are costly - not just in lack of growth for the Elder,  or in all the time the President has to spend cleaning up the problems, but also in dollars for the church.  That money then comes from the tithes of the church.  A word of caution to my grandchildren or anyone preparing to go into the mission field - set a goal now - that you will strive to be completely obedient to all the commandments and mission rules while serving the Lord.  However, if you have not set obedience as a habit everyday - it is not likely that you will be able to do it just because you are a missionary.  So, be wise - prepare now! Today!

 The last two weeks the Enos family has been playing basketball in Vegas, soccer in Utah and then Inge picked up the two Enos girls and brought them to Remington's in Utah.  Ice cream and fun was had by all as they had a great time together playing out at the Remington ranch.

 Kalani tried reliving his childhood and got himself stuck in the fisherprice car.  They had to grease him down like a pig to get him out - just kidding!  But it was a challenge getting him out of that little tiny car.

 Then they made a human oreo out of Inge.  They went pottery painting in Provo, four wheeling on the mountain, swimming in the pool, tennis on the court, you name it, they did it and had a great time together.

 Keola got to go shopping for some new school clothes as she will be attending high school this fall and will not be wearing "uniforms" for the first time since kindergarten. 

 Sorry I didn't get this picture turned the right way,  but Leo'lani got to go to the M&M store in Las Vegas.  I am sure her Dad let her buy a few as well.

Then Mealii and her friend Brenna enjoyed the week at the BYU soccer camp.  I understand that Mealii did very well.  Michelle and the others went to watch her play a little bit too and cheered her on.








We miss you all and are glad you are enjoying your summer holidays.  Rod & Jenn have a big week coming up this week as they are preparing to do "Legacy" for their stake youth.  Rod is Joseph and Jenn is Emma.  We are looking forward to hearing all about it and hope we get a few pictures as well.

Thanks for your phone calls and e-mails that keep us up to date on whats going on in your lives.  We hope that Sylvia is getting stronger and that her new knee continues to heal.  The Lord continues to bless us with safety and health and we are ever grateful. 

Love
The Holt's