Settling In -- Week 2

We are starting backwards this week because today was our first time to attend a regular South African Ward. The people were so wonderful, and it was just like a regular ward back home -- except where it was different.  



The Umlazi W chapel is in a township area south of Durban. The Townships are the areas that were set aside for black-only inhabitants during aparteid. Housing segregation was lifted in 1994, but these areas are still almost totally black and poor. It's hard to overcome generations of traditional segregation.

We live west of Durban in Westville, appropriately. The scale on the map is about 15 km across each side. The other red 'house dots' are other chapels for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Durban area. And there are others that are off the map. Sister Damon drove us to church. She is a single senior Sister who serves in the Office with us as the Housing Coordinator. As a single Sister she is not supposed to go to the Township areas alone, for safety reasons. She has wanted to visit Umlazi, so was glad to have us along for company.

Just like at home, the church members stand around and visit after the meeting is over while the young men clean up the Sacrament table in the front of the chapel. About half the congregation of 100 were under the age of 20, a good sign for the future.







We met Bishop Lekena who presides over this strong ward. It is designated as a Zulu ward because most of the members are of that tribe, but Sacrament meeting was held in English, except for the closing prayer in Zulu. 


Then Sue went to Relief Society and Ken went to Priesthood meeting. Each class studied Elder Gerrit Gong's talk from October 2019 General Conference entitled Covenant Belonging. But each class was a mish-mash of English and Zulu. The Elders Quorum President taught the lesson to 20 adult men, in English. The teachers in both classes would ask a question in English and someone would answer in Zulu. Or the question would be asked in Zulu and the answer would be in English. Comments in one language would be followed by comments in another. It was really quite wonderful. Each could speak in whatever was most comfortable. However, Google Translate didn't quite work in the large room.

We also met the two Elders who serve in this ward.  Elder Freitas is from Brazil and Elder Chifarimba is from Cape Town, South Africa.  






This week we were mostly over the jet lag and started really learning how the office systems work here. We are already comfortable with the Internet Mission Office System, or IMOS (eye-moss) and CARDS for managing mission credit/debit cards and CARS for managing mission cars. The computer systems are the same as in St. Petersburg, but the other pieces of managing the office are different, of course. Elder and Sister Howell are great helps, but they are taking advantage of us being here to do some traveling to parts of the mission they had never seen. They left, with Sister Damon, early Wednesday morning and left us to hold down the fort for three days. It was quiet with everyone gone, but we don't think we broke anything, and we only called them for help a few times.  

Saturday was our first 'real' Preparation Day. The week before we mostly slept off the jet lag. The rules for Senior Missionaries are different in many ways. We have air conditioning and a clothes dryer in the flat. We are allowed to go swimming, and they told us if we wanted to go in the Indian Ocean that we should bring our swim suits.  


Sue, otherwise known as the "born and raised in SoCal water-baby", had to get in that ocean quick. We went first thing on Saturday morning because it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. But the air temperature was already 80F+ and water temp about 77F. She really wished she had a boogie board! The photos of her out in the waves didn't work -- oops. We'll just have to go back sometime.  :o)




Even Ken, normally not much of a beach person, went in and got wet.  

It was only about a 20-minute drive to the beach just north of Downtown  Durban. It's not one of their best beaches, but was close so we could go there quickly and then come home and do all our other P-day activities -- like laundry, shopping, etc. Sue kept the washing going, and managed to have one load finish about 30 seconds before the power went out. It was 2 pm Load Shedding. We'll talk about that another time.

We went exploring to another shopping mall out further west. Sister Lund, who lives upstairs, said she really likes the Checkers grocery store there, so we went to try it. Yes, lots of good stuff. But no fresh fish. We would think someplace on the ocean coast would have more fish. We'll have to ask around about that. We also had lunch at KFC. Not so good. Like the one in Palo Alto that we don't like so well, either. The KFC in Russia was much better than home and here!

Here's a little about our home and neighborhood. 


Our apartment building is 16 units on the side of a steep hill, way down below road level. We live in an area called "Valley of 1000 Hills" and that is such a true statement! In the photo you see the top, 4th floor of our building.  We live on the second floor, to which we walk down stairs. You can see one of our windows just to the right of the black car. To drive into the parking lot from the street, we come through an elecric gate down a very steep, long driveway, so our building is down in the gulley. Then the gulley goes down even further, where there is a tiny, often dry brook. The building on the top of the hill in the back of the picture is across the gulley at the top of another hill. You can see the big building, and to the left just the top of a roof. That is the roof of the Mission Office where we work. It would be an easy flight... But we can't even walk it. There is major freeway on/off ramp construction  off to rhe left between our place and the office, so no sidewalks and lots of dirt. We have to drive it. Too bad.

Our building is totally integrated. We've met several of our neighbors -- some black, some white, some east Indian. Just as at home, the segregation that exists in South Africa is mostly economic, with poverty being perpetuated in traditionally poor areas. As a Church, we are working to educate our members to improve their futures.

We do have a lovely neighborhood for walking. The streets are all hilly, but mostly have sidewalks and are dead-ends. There are lovely flowers and trees everywhere. It is mid-summer, so lots in bloom. Since the weather here is so humid and never freezes, the flowers are like Hawaii. Lots of plumeria trees. That's what Hawaiians make leis out of.  There are also familiar plants from home like agapanthas, bouganvilla, and marigolds.





Palo Alto is currently having a 'battle' about a traffic circle at Ross Road and East Meadow Drive, just 2 blocks from our house. The City of Palo Alto put in a very intrusive and expensive traffic circle a while back during our mission in St. Petersburg. Everyone pretty much  hates it, and the number of accidents, particularly concerning bicycles, has gone up! So Ken had to take this photo of the traffice circle near our flat here. It's just that little yellow circle painted in the middle of the street, and each way in has a yield sign in their lane. Yes, we are driving on the left side of the street. (More on that another week, too.)

We are here to support the Mission Office, so that the young Elders and other Senior Couples can carry on with the real purpose of our work here -- preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Someone posted this graphic of God's Plan of Happiness this week. We really like it and want to share. Yes, God loves us, so he planned how we would progress from being spirits in the pre-earth life, through our education and trials here, ALL become resurrected beings, and through the atonement of Jesus Christ, receive our appropriate eternal glory. As you can see, it is a plan of LOVE.

Arrival and New Temple -- Week 1

We are here! And South Africa is as beautiful as everyone told us it would be. We are now trying to adjust to a new rhythm of life.   Here is the whole story in order:

We flew South African Airways on a brand new Airbus A350-900 from JFK in New York to Johannesburg.  They just started this service the end of January. It was a loooong flight.  14.5 hours.







We've since learned that SAA is having major financial difficulties. They are trying to restructure after bankruptcy and have canceled almost all their domestic flights after 29 February.  




The flight was long, and so for our second red-eye, we splurged and upgraded ourselves to First Class. The seats go out to flat, so we got a decent night's sleep! Ken was across the aisle from Sue. The person next to her in the middle was so far away, with tables between, that Sue never even met.




We met two other LDS couples in the Johannesburg Airport who are coming to be Temple Missionaries.  They were on our same flight from New York.  The Harkers are from Canada (related to Sue's Uncle Reed Harker) and the Wards from Oregon. Wards served here as regular missionaries eight years ago, so are glad to be back!

One fun thing is that the new Durban Temple is between the Airport and the Mission Office, so all us new missionaries get to stop by and see it on the way to the Office. It is beautiful, and we were privileged and excited to attend the Temple Dedication today.

Because it hadn't been dedicated yet, we were able to take our own tour around the inside. We just wandered all over and saw it all. It is a very small Temple--about like Helsinki, Finland, where we attended while we were in Russia. For this mission we are quite excited to have a Temple so close by. Helsinki was a 3.5 hour high-speed train ride away, and we only got to attend four times during our two years in St. Petersburg, Russia.  



Home! Here we are in our new apartment--at least long enough to drop off the luggage. The front door comes in through the kitchen and then to the living room. On the left is a short hallway to the bathroom and two bedrooms. It's about twice the size of our apartment in St. Petersburg, and quite nice--with much-needed air conditioning.  

 
 And here is the view out our living room and bedroom windows. Monkeys live in those trees. Durban is very green. It's the "middle of August" here, according to our northern hemisphere mindset.  

 We were laughing yesterday that the temperture here is about the same as St. Petersburg.  There it's mid-to-low 30's, and so are we! But that's counting SPB in Fahrenheit and us in Centigrade. So we are really high 80's F while SPB is just above freezing. And the humidity here runs 85% year around. Walking outside feels just like walking into a sauna.
Hooray for air conditioning!


Next stop, the Mission Office. We are glad to have Elder and Sister Howell, from South Jordan, Utah, to train us before they leave in four weeks. The office is in great shape, and we won't have any trouble taking over their good systems. We also share the office with Sister Damon. She's a Senior Sister from Eugene, Oregon, and she does the apartment stuff--leases, repairs, utilities, etc. We are worried because she is going home in May, and there is no replacement for her yet. The number of senior couples is going down in the mission. We need more!!! If you have any desire to serve a mission, let us know and you can come and join us!!

Ken's desk is just to the left of the photo, and Sue's desk is behind her, with Sister Damon between at her desk.




And here is the view from our Office window looking toward the big university on the hilltop. The Mission office is in a regular office park--not in a Church building like we had in St. Petersburg. We'll miss seeing the Church members and missionaries who dropped in regularly there because they were at the Church.






President and Sister Lines were out of town on the day we arrived, so we met them on Thursday when they returned. They travel a lot. There are seven Zones in the mission, and most of them are far away. One is an eight-hour drive. There is no public transportation here, except taxis, so they drive a lot! Doing Zone Conferences takes two weeks. That's so different than St. Petersburg, where it took two days, and everyone came to the Office.  




We got two presents in honor of the Temple Dedication. First, a small vial of dirt from the ground-breaking three years ago. The dirt here is quite red. (Ken put his Russian temple recommend in the photo for a size reference.)  





President Lines has a friend who owns a silk tie company in China. He made white ties and handkerchiefs with the Durban Temple etched on them. They are really beautiful, and will be a long-time souvenir of this occasion.


Here we are at the Temple with the other senior couples in our area.  Going around clockwise:  Sue, Sister and Elder Lund, Sister Damon, Sister and Elder Howell, and Ken.

Durban South Africa Temple Open House with Sue, Sister & Elder Lund, Sister Damon, Sister and Elder Howell, and Ken 16 Feb 2020 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

The Temple Dedication Ceremony was wonderful. No photos allowed in the Temple, of course. But here is one of the stained glass windows from the outside. It's a protea blossom on a sugar cane stalk. This same motif is used throughout the building as symbols of South Africa.

 For those who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a bit of information about Temples. They are not our regular Sunday worship meetinghouses. They are special buildings specifically dedicated to ordinances and covenants made with God. The main purpose of Temples is to tie each of us to God, and to tie families together for eternity.  

There are only 168 Temples in the world. Fifty years ago, when we were married in the Los Angeles Temple there were only 12 Temples! As the Church has expanded around the globe, so have Temples so that they can be closer to the Church members. This is the third one in South Africa, and those who live in Lesotho ("Loosootoo") and Mozambique will also come to this Temple.  

Before a Temple is dedicated, there is an Open House where people of the general public can come and visit to see the building. After the dedication only observant, active members of the Church may enter. Yesterday the King of the Zulu Nation was one of those who came through on a tour of the Temple. He felt the spirit that was there and expressed his wish that others could feel that way, too.

Above the front door of every Temple is inscribed "The House of the Lord" and "Holiness to the Lord." To us, these are the most sacred places on earth. We enter to learn and to make and renew covenants with God that we will try to live our lives according to His Gospel. So much of what we learn there is to remind us of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The Temple sits on top of  a hill with beautiful views. On the left side of the photo is the N2 Freeway that runs North near the coast of the Indian Ocean. So, the Temple can easily be seen by those driving on the freeway, especially at night when it is lit up. The Church tries to be a light to the world. (See Matt 5:14-16)

On our way home from the Temple Dedication we drove along the highway that parallels the beach just north of downtown Durban.  This is just a smidge farther east than the N2. 



First we saw the big soccer stadium near downtown.










There is a 10 km stretch where you can walk the beach uninterrupted. (We may have to do that one day.)  It's another sign that God created a wonderful planet for us.

Great surfing waves of the Indian Ocean.

Preparations!

The Lord has said "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear."  (Doc & Cov 38:30). And just after that He says in v. 33 that people will be called to spread His Gospel all over the world. This revelation was given in 1831, but these many years later it applies to us.

So, we are preparing.

We started with a family reunion in La Jolla near San Diego with almost all our children and grandchildren. (Julie wasn't able to come.) The weather was great and we enjoyed beach and games and good food, and mostly time together.

Left 5 people are Rachel's kids.  Tall in the back is Spencer, just turned 18.  Dark-haired girl is the oldest, Ashly.  She just finished Cosmetician school in December and is working in American Fork.  Blonde is Megan, just returned from mission in November and is going to UVU.  Two younger boys are Rachel's step sons, Dawson (14) and Ryan (12).    Then Rachel and her husband Dave in the back. behind Ken.  They live in South Jordan, Utah.

Next group is Reed's family.  Reed and Jen in the back, Lucas and Lilly, age 13.5.  He's gotten so tall!!  He was always an inch or so shorter than Lilly.  Blonde in front of Lilly is Myra, age 6.5.  They live in Henderson, Nevada.

In the back is tall Tim Schmalbeck and his wife, Shelby.  Tim is our foster son that we share with Hank & Colette Taylor.  The girls in the back are Tyra (14) and Eve (16).  In front L-R are Hazel (6.5), Nia (12), Leona (9) holding Sarai (2.5), and then Teus (4) in the front.  They live in Lehi, Utah.

And Keith on the right end.  He lives in Lehi, too.
Julie is working as a traveling nurse, living here, there, and everywhere.

Office building location of South Africa Consulate on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles

We went to Los Angeles (on our way home from San Diego) on January 6th and spent about 45 minutes in the South African Consulate. We turned in our passports, and less than a week later we had them back with shiny new Visas in them. Whew! And this is the only visa we'll need. After getting a new one every three months on alternating passports in Russia, this is a breeze.


We noticed just down the street this interesting building. It's the Peterson Auto Museum. We thought we'd stop in for an hour or so before we drove home to Palo Alto. It was four hours later that we peeled ourselves away. It's a fascinating place! Lots of old cars, famous cars from movies and TV shows, and historic cars, like limos from FDR and Chairman Mao!

This week Ken picked the last tomato of the season! We never had a frost yet this winter, but the plants were looking pretty scruffy, so he picked this green and let it ripen on the sunny windowsill. He said it still tasted better than store-bought.















Now we are packing the house.

The book cases are empty.

But the books are all piled in Ken's study, along with the boxes of stuff from Sue's study. (We each have a little 5x8 ft room we call our 'study.' Great places to stack stuff!)














And the kitchen cupboards are all empty and packed in boxes. It helps a lot that we've done this twice before. Each time we pack up we get rid of more stuff, and then we come home and unpack and find things we know we can live without.

The suitcases are spread out on the spare-room bed. Sue weighed hers this afternoon and has 6 lbs to spare, so she bought more brown sugar. It's one of those things that is different in the USA than in other places, and only our kind makes the best chocolate chip cookies.  :o)

We are renting the house mostly furnished, so didn't need much help with moving this time. But there were two cedar chests, a queen bed and a dresser that needed to be moved by muscles younger and sprier than ours. Thanks to the Wiener and Jest families for lending their strength yesterday!











And we are saying farewell to many wonderful friends. We were able to see many people at Church today, but earlier in the week we went to visit Jean Gong. She turned 94 on Wednesday! She's not feeling up to coming to Church these days, but we wanted to wish her our best while we are gone.

Sunday night President Dow Wilson and his wife, Lynne, came by and he set us apart as Missionaries in the South Africa Durban Mission!! We forgot to take a photo while they were there, but got this one later. We now can officially wear our missionary badges.


Our foster son, Tim Schmalbeck flew in to pick up our car. He's taking it home to Lehi, Utah to share with his 16-year old daughter, Eve. She's the oldest of 7 kids, so their family will be glad for some extra wheels. Unlike the old T-Bird which is up on blocks for the duration, this car is a C-Max Hybrid, so it can't just sit for two years. Our son, Reed, drove it while we were in Russia.

We went out for farewell dinner at Sanchos Taqueria in Midtown Palo Alto. It was either that or Chinese, and we figure there are probably a lot more Chinese restaurants in Durban than Mexican ones. And Tim is also hauling 7 banker's boxes of stuff for organist Jim Welch to Utah. [Jim and Deanne just got their official assignment to the BYU Jerusalem Center for 18 months starting in August. Hoorah!!]

It's late evening February 10. We are now at the San Francisco Airport booked through to Durban, South Africa. Friend Andy Chiang had brought his mini-van with the 3rd row of seats gone so we could get all the baggage in. Sue's bags each weighed in at 49 lbs. Perfect! Ken's were a light-weight. His were only 45 and 47 lbs. If Sue had known that earlier she would have thrown in a few more pounds of brown sugar. That and Taco Seasoning and chocolate chips are the 'necessaties of life' that are not easily purchased in Durban. We've been told everything else is easy to come by. Just like our last mission in Russia. And luckily they don't weigh our small carryon roller bags or backpacks with our computer gear.

So the preparations are over and we're on the road. In about 36 hours we'll be in our new home for two years. It should be a wonderful, spiritual, exciting adventure. Thanks for sharing it with us.  We're on the Redeye to New York, then another 14.5 hour over-nighter to Johannesburg.  Lastly the short 1-hour flight down to Durban.   Photos of that next week!

Love,
Ken and Sue aka Elder and Sister Allen