We have to start this week by saying that we are grateful for living prophets. With all the news about the Covid-19 virus, President Russell M. Nelson is uniquely qualified to evaluate the situation. In his 'previous life' before becoming one of the leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he was a well-respected doctor and surgeon.
All Church meetings have been canceled, world-wide! No Sunday meetings, and only very, very small Temple ceremonies in limited circumstances. Couples with scheduled weddings are now limited to 8 guests.
We started the week with admonitions to wash hands and not shake hands. By Friday we knew life had changed, even here in South Africa. There are very few cases here, so far, but we know that will change. We appreciate the clear, concise and reasoned directions from the Prophet we are receiving.
So we had our own Sacrament meeting this morning. President Lines asked the Missionaries to do that, but not invite anyone else. We were the one exception. Sister Damon is the only single Sister in the mission and she lives upstairs from us, so she came down to share our meeting. Ken blessed and passed the Sacrament. He hasn't done that in a long time, so it was a meaningful experience. Usually we rely on the young men in our Church congregation to do that part. And we had our own testimony time, and study of Jacob 1-4 in the Book of Mormon.
It's been about 18 months since the Church announced a change to more 'home-centered, church-supported' Gospel study. Now this pandemic happens and we are ready for it.
Our missionary Elders are still out proselyting, but keeping their distance from those to whom they speak. No quarantines, yet. Senior couples are still staying in place. Last summer we were talking to the Munich Germany Mission office about perhaps coming there to serve. If we had gone to Germany we would be home by now. All Senior missionaries in Europe have been sent home and are doing what they can to support their missions remotely. And our friends in Russia report that the missionaries there are banned from all public transportation--taxis, buses, subway, etc. That mission only owns one car, for the President, so things are curtailed there, for sure. So far no such drastic measures here, but it may happen. There are few buses and no subway here, but our missionaries take lots of taxi-mini-buses.
Now back to the 'normal' stuff.
We started out the week doing 'Boarding Checks.' Otherwise known as Apartment Inspections. There are eight apartments of young Elders in our Stake/Zone, and their apartments are supposed to be inspected every six weeks.
Just so you get a flavor for the international scope of our mission (and most others) we'll put the country of origin after each Elder.
We saw the Molweni Branch's Elders on Sunday morning before church, because we always pick them up and take them to Church anyway. Here are Elders Zimmerman (USA) and Turner (England).
Monday morning we did four boardings (apartments). They were the ones closer in to us. First we went to Queensburgh (pronounced Queensboro). Elder Batista (Brazil) and Furtado (Cape Verde Islands) live there, but we forgot to take a photo. We were glad to have Elder and Sister Howell with us to find them. To drive into it the path is on the back of a mall, past the loading dock, and then there is a gate into their apartment complex. It's a nice place--just hard to find.
Next stop was Kwa Dabeka. Here live Elders Mananga (South Africa) and King (Australia). There are lots of photos with Elder and Sister Howell, because this was their last week in the mission!! Here is Elder King, but that's not his companion. Elder King had someone give him this little bit of Australia for a friend.
We drove to Chatsworth, inspected the boarding for Elders Andrade (Brazil) and Raralevu (Fiji). Then we took them with us to our next stop.
In Umbhedula we met Elders Brunt (Australia) and Krupp (USA. His Mom grew up in San Jose!) These four Elders were getting together because Monday is their preparation day--cleaning, shopping, and getting together to play some rugby.
All that took us most of the morning, but we started at 7:30 a.m. South Africa is an early-rising country. This is hard for Ken, but he's coping. The afternoon found us back in the office doing normal paper-work stuff.
Tuesday morning we did the last three who are farther out west--almost to Pietermaritzburg.
First stop was Hillcrest. Their boarding is amazing!
It sits down in a park with a lovely pond right outside their front door. There are ducks and birds and beautiful flowers all around.
We took a picture of Elders Nichols (USA) and Carvalho daSilva (Brazil), but put this one of just Elder Carvalho for our soccer-loving children and grandchildren.
Second stop on Tuesday was Mpumalanga to visit with Elders Phelps and Whiting (both USA), and the Howells. Their boarding sits up on a hillside with an amazing view over the valley.
And finally we drove all the way out to Imbali. If we were to drive straight there it would take about an hour and 15 minutes. Elders Bingham (USA) and Valerio daSilva (Brazil) are doing well out there!
By-and-large the Elders do a pretty good job of keeping things clean. Sue had to tell them to stand on their heads a bit when cleaning inside the microwave oven. They tend to skip the ceiling. Also, the inspections are by appointment, so they spruce things up before we come.
Wednesday President and Sister Lines went down to pick up their new second passports. They go back and forth between Lesotho and South Africa so often that they are running out of pages in their original passports. But the new ones are only good for two years! President and Sister Lines are here for 2.5 more years, and need to get new South African Visas for their last 18 months. You have to have at least 6 months left on your passport after the end of the visa. This wasn't going to work. Sue's knowledge from all the visa and passport issues in Russia is coming in handy! (But where are Genady and Veronika when we need them?) She wrote an email and explained the problem to the US Consulate. They were very nice and said just to drop off new applications and they'd do four-year passports. No personal visit needed. No extra charges. Bless their hearts! So we can do that this week. (More about visa adventures next week.)
Our sad news this week is that Elder and Sister Howell went home on Friday. We are replacing them in the office, and they did a great job. We got to overlap for a month, so we hope we've learned all we needed to! It's already too quiet around the office. Luckily we still have Sister Damon. But she goes home at the end of May. We need help!!!
We think it is time to do a little commentary on driving here. As a former British Colony, South Africans drive on the left side of the street. It takes getting used to, but we are getting there. We take turns driving monthly. Ken drove in February. Sue is driving in March. We had a Toyota Corolla--steering wheel on the right side, turn signal on the right side of the steering wheel & windshield wipers on the left side. It's so easy to turn on the windshield wipers instead of the blinkers! We have the cleanest windshield in town. Only once did Sue get in the car and actually sit down on the left side, then realized there was no steering wheel. She usually realizes before opening the car door.
We also got a 'new' car on Friday. It's the Howell's Renault hatch-back. It's a little bigger and higher off the road, so that's good. The only problem is that the blinkers and windshield wipers are 'American' even though the steering wheel is on the right. So now Sue is totally confused and turns on the windshield wipers instead of blinkers in that car, too!
We thought you might like to see a few photos of why we can't walk to the office, even though it's only about 3/4 mile away. Major freeway construction project.
That big pile of dirt is going to be an off ramp one of these years.
That's our office building on the left.
You'll notice various people walking IN the streets. They do that all the time. But this is my favorite. It's hot and bright here, and women often walk under umbrellas for shade.
And cars stop anywhere at random times and places. Especially taxis, which are 15 passenger vans. They think they can do anything as long as they put on their emergency flashers.
But you can see below what a beautiful country this is. Green and lush. Our upstairs neighbor came down this afternoon to visit. She's East Indian, but born and raised here. She's worried about the COVID-19 virus. We talked about how everywhere has something to worry about. At home it's earthquakes. Others have tornados or hurricanes. South Africa really has no regular natural disasters! It's an ideal climate with lots of natural resources. The only irritaion is inadequate electric power capacity. Hence load shedding. The regular intersection panhandlers do an excellent job directing traffic at intersections when signals are out and earn their tips. And it was hilarious when a service worker stopped by the office to check for burned out light bulbs during a load shedding hour.
Tonight we hosted a dinner at our apartment of sour cream chicken enchiladas. We were supposed to have them for the farewell lunch for the Howells before they left on Friday. But the cooking had to be delayed due to load shedding that morning.
Here are the Lines (on the left), Sister Damon (enchilada provider), the Lunds (on the right) and us.
Speaking of COVID-19: we watched and listened to the live broadcast of the South African President. National State of Emergency. Schools closed until at least after Easter. There were four cases here a week ago. An hour ago there were 61. He also announced a travel ban from many countries--USA, China, Europe, etc. He said no new visas would be granted and existing visas would be canceled. We don't know if that affects those of us already here, or only those who haven't come yet. We hope to find out tomorrow morning when we take one of our Elders to the South African Visa Office for his renewal request.
This is Transfer Week coming up. Two Elders going home. Eight coming in--if we get the five Filipinos who are due to arrive from the Philippines Missionary Training Center! They are supposed to come on Wednesday, and that's the day the travel ban starts. Not sure if Philippines is on the list. Guess we'll find out soon... The other three coming in are in the Johannesburg MTC. One is South African, so he'll come for sure. The other two are from USA and have only been in-country for three weeks. Not sure about their status.
We feel like we are writing a serial where the plot changes mid sentence and this is the cliff-hanger. Will we still be here in a week?
Stay tuned, read and find out!
All Church meetings have been canceled, world-wide! No Sunday meetings, and only very, very small Temple ceremonies in limited circumstances. Couples with scheduled weddings are now limited to 8 guests.
We started the week with admonitions to wash hands and not shake hands. By Friday we knew life had changed, even here in South Africa. There are very few cases here, so far, but we know that will change. We appreciate the clear, concise and reasoned directions from the Prophet we are receiving.
So we had our own Sacrament meeting this morning. President Lines asked the Missionaries to do that, but not invite anyone else. We were the one exception. Sister Damon is the only single Sister in the mission and she lives upstairs from us, so she came down to share our meeting. Ken blessed and passed the Sacrament. He hasn't done that in a long time, so it was a meaningful experience. Usually we rely on the young men in our Church congregation to do that part. And we had our own testimony time, and study of Jacob 1-4 in the Book of Mormon.
It's been about 18 months since the Church announced a change to more 'home-centered, church-supported' Gospel study. Now this pandemic happens and we are ready for it.
Our missionary Elders are still out proselyting, but keeping their distance from those to whom they speak. No quarantines, yet. Senior couples are still staying in place. Last summer we were talking to the Munich Germany Mission office about perhaps coming there to serve. If we had gone to Germany we would be home by now. All Senior missionaries in Europe have been sent home and are doing what they can to support their missions remotely. And our friends in Russia report that the missionaries there are banned from all public transportation--taxis, buses, subway, etc. That mission only owns one car, for the President, so things are curtailed there, for sure. So far no such drastic measures here, but it may happen. There are few buses and no subway here, but our missionaries take lots of taxi-mini-buses.
Now back to the 'normal' stuff.
We started out the week doing 'Boarding Checks.' Otherwise known as Apartment Inspections. There are eight apartments of young Elders in our Stake/Zone, and their apartments are supposed to be inspected every six weeks.
Just so you get a flavor for the international scope of our mission (and most others) we'll put the country of origin after each Elder.
We saw the Molweni Branch's Elders on Sunday morning before church, because we always pick them up and take them to Church anyway. Here are Elders Zimmerman (USA) and Turner (England).
Monday morning we did four boardings (apartments). They were the ones closer in to us. First we went to Queensburgh (pronounced Queensboro). Elder Batista (Brazil) and Furtado (Cape Verde Islands) live there, but we forgot to take a photo. We were glad to have Elder and Sister Howell with us to find them. To drive into it the path is on the back of a mall, past the loading dock, and then there is a gate into their apartment complex. It's a nice place--just hard to find.
Next stop was Kwa Dabeka. Here live Elders Mananga (South Africa) and King (Australia). There are lots of photos with Elder and Sister Howell, because this was their last week in the mission!! Here is Elder King, but that's not his companion. Elder King had someone give him this little bit of Australia for a friend.
We drove to Chatsworth, inspected the boarding for Elders Andrade (Brazil) and Raralevu (Fiji). Then we took them with us to our next stop.
In Umbhedula we met Elders Brunt (Australia) and Krupp (USA. His Mom grew up in San Jose!) These four Elders were getting together because Monday is their preparation day--cleaning, shopping, and getting together to play some rugby.All that took us most of the morning, but we started at 7:30 a.m. South Africa is an early-rising country. This is hard for Ken, but he's coping. The afternoon found us back in the office doing normal paper-work stuff.
Tuesday morning we did the last three who are farther out west--almost to Pietermaritzburg. 
First stop was Hillcrest. Their boarding is amazing! It sits down in a park with a lovely pond right outside their front door. There are ducks and birds and beautiful flowers all around.
We took a picture of Elders Nichols (USA) and Carvalho daSilva (Brazil), but put this one of just Elder Carvalho for our soccer-loving children and grandchildren.
Second stop on Tuesday was Mpumalanga to visit with Elders Phelps and Whiting (both USA), and the Howells. Their boarding sits up on a hillside with an amazing view over the valley.
And finally we drove all the way out to Imbali. If we were to drive straight there it would take about an hour and 15 minutes. Elders Bingham (USA) and Valerio daSilva (Brazil) are doing well out there!
By-and-large the Elders do a pretty good job of keeping things clean. Sue had to tell them to stand on their heads a bit when cleaning inside the microwave oven. They tend to skip the ceiling. Also, the inspections are by appointment, so they spruce things up before we come.
Wednesday President and Sister Lines went down to pick up their new second passports. They go back and forth between Lesotho and South Africa so often that they are running out of pages in their original passports. But the new ones are only good for two years! President and Sister Lines are here for 2.5 more years, and need to get new South African Visas for their last 18 months. You have to have at least 6 months left on your passport after the end of the visa. This wasn't going to work. Sue's knowledge from all the visa and passport issues in Russia is coming in handy! (But where are Genady and Veronika when we need them?) She wrote an email and explained the problem to the US Consulate. They were very nice and said just to drop off new applications and they'd do four-year passports. No personal visit needed. No extra charges. Bless their hearts! So we can do that this week. (More about visa adventures next week.)
Our sad news this week is that Elder and Sister Howell went home on Friday. We are replacing them in the office, and they did a great job. We got to overlap for a month, so we hope we've learned all we needed to! It's already too quiet around the office. Luckily we still have Sister Damon. But she goes home at the end of May. We need help!!!
We think it is time to do a little commentary on driving here. As a former British Colony, South Africans drive on the left side of the street. It takes getting used to, but we are getting there. We take turns driving monthly. Ken drove in February. Sue is driving in March. We had a Toyota Corolla--steering wheel on the right side, turn signal on the right side of the steering wheel & windshield wipers on the left side. It's so easy to turn on the windshield wipers instead of the blinkers! We have the cleanest windshield in town. Only once did Sue get in the car and actually sit down on the left side, then realized there was no steering wheel. She usually realizes before opening the car door.
We also got a 'new' car on Friday. It's the Howell's Renault hatch-back. It's a little bigger and higher off the road, so that's good. The only problem is that the blinkers and windshield wipers are 'American' even though the steering wheel is on the right. So now Sue is totally confused and turns on the windshield wipers instead of blinkers in that car, too!
We thought you might like to see a few photos of why we can't walk to the office, even though it's only about 3/4 mile away. Major freeway construction project.
That big pile of dirt is going to be an off ramp one of these years.
That's our office building on the left.
You'll notice various people walking IN the streets. They do that all the time. But this is my favorite. It's hot and bright here, and women often walk under umbrellas for shade.
And cars stop anywhere at random times and places. Especially taxis, which are 15 passenger vans. They think they can do anything as long as they put on their emergency flashers.But you can see below what a beautiful country this is. Green and lush. Our upstairs neighbor came down this afternoon to visit. She's East Indian, but born and raised here. She's worried about the COVID-19 virus. We talked about how everywhere has something to worry about. At home it's earthquakes. Others have tornados or hurricanes. South Africa really has no regular natural disasters! It's an ideal climate with lots of natural resources. The only irritaion is inadequate electric power capacity. Hence load shedding. The regular intersection panhandlers do an excellent job directing traffic at intersections when signals are out and earn their tips. And it was hilarious when a service worker stopped by the office to check for burned out light bulbs during a load shedding hour.
Tonight we hosted a dinner at our apartment of sour cream chicken enchiladas. We were supposed to have them for the farewell lunch for the Howells before they left on Friday. But the cooking had to be delayed due to load shedding that morning.
Here are the Lines (on the left), Sister Damon (enchilada provider), the Lunds (on the right) and us.
Speaking of COVID-19: we watched and listened to the live broadcast of the South African President. National State of Emergency. Schools closed until at least after Easter. There were four cases here a week ago. An hour ago there were 61. He also announced a travel ban from many countries--USA, China, Europe, etc. He said no new visas would be granted and existing visas would be canceled. We don't know if that affects those of us already here, or only those who haven't come yet. We hope to find out tomorrow morning when we take one of our Elders to the South African Visa Office for his renewal request.
This is Transfer Week coming up. Two Elders going home. Eight coming in--if we get the five Filipinos who are due to arrive from the Philippines Missionary Training Center! They are supposed to come on Wednesday, and that's the day the travel ban starts. Not sure if Philippines is on the list. Guess we'll find out soon... The other three coming in are in the Johannesburg MTC. One is South African, so he'll come for sure. The other two are from USA and have only been in-country for three weeks. Not sure about their status.
We feel like we are writing a serial where the plot changes mid sentence and this is the cliff-hanger. Will we still be here in a week?
Stay tuned, read and find out!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.