Our Congregation Assignment and Load Shedding -- Week 4

Another great week in South Africa. As usual, most of the week is spent in the office learning all our new duties. Here is a photo of the building from down under. Our office is on the top floor, but we usually drive down  under and park next to the white car on the right. That will actually be our car after Friday. Now we have a Toyota Corolla small sedan. The Howells have the larger Renault hatchback, which is diesel and gets great mileage, so we are going to take it over when they go.

Ken sits next to the left end of the right-side window.  Sue is back farther in the room because she greets visitors who come in the door on the other side.





We had to find the best Mexican restaurant in Durban right away. It's called Four15 Mexicana. When we were driving over there Sue wondered out loud where the 415 came from? Telephone area code from home? Once we arrived we asked the manager, and she was right! The owners had lived in SF for a time and grew to love Mexican food there. The food was pretty good, and we'll go back sometime for sure.  

On Saturday Sue went shopping by herself. We've both had bad colds all week. Sue is mostly on the mend, but Ken was still dragging--and he was watching the WCC basketball tournament games on BYUTV.org. She first found a huge place called Craft Centre. She was looking for stuffing and cotton yarn and found both. There were also fabrics and scrap-booking supplies and lots of other such stuff. Very fun. She was going to take a photo, but left her phone in the car where it sits giving directions out loud to anywhere. (Google Maps is amazing!!)

Next stop was another yarn store, just to see what they had. Its website said it was open until 5pm, but the door sign said it closed at 12:30 on Saturday. She'll have to try it earlier another day.


Then out to Pavilion Mall. This is a huge mall about 4 miles west (inland) of us. It had another store that was supposed to have yarn, but the selection was very small.

However, the first store Sue saw when she came in the mall door was a bit of home. She bought a couple of doughnuts then walked around the mall just exploring.  











There was a sign for a Cinema downstairs, so Sue went to check it out. Twelve theaters showing lots of regular movies. But she had to laugh at this sign outside.  






The first day we were here and went shopping there was a sign in the mall "For your safety escalators are turned off during load shedding." What is that? South Africa doesn't have enough electrical generating capacity on really hot days when everyone is running their air conditioners. So, there are planned power outages, done by neighborhoods, and they are called Load Shedding. And there is an App for that! For some reason, the term "brownouts" never caught on here.



Today there was no load shedding, so all is well. There are different stages. The higher the stage, the more neighborhoods are turned off. On Sunday night we'd have load shedding at 10 pm if it's to stage 2. On Monday morning we'll have load shedding at 10 am if it's stage 1, and again at the other times if it gets up to stage 4 or 6. It really is a very efficient system. The most we've seen since we got here is a few days of stage one and one day of stage two. At the office it's easy because we have battery backups on the computers so we just keep working. The printer doesn't work, but that's OK. We were at the gym one evening when the power went out, but in about 30 seconds the generators kicked in so we just kept going. And obviously the movie theater will keep showing the movie, too.


Sue hit the CVS/Walgreens equivalent, called DisChem. (It's also all out of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.) Then she did the grocery shopping at Pick 'N Pay. When it came time to leave, pushing a trolley (grocery cart) she was lost. She stopped to ask at a kiosk which way to Krispy Kreme. The girl told her, and then, looking at her missionary name tag, said "Which ward are you in?" She was also a member of our Church and is part of the Pinetown Ward (congregation.)  

Sunday morning we finally went to the Church congregation that will be our permanent assignment. It's called Molweni Branch, and it's in a rural Zulu township in the highlands about 35 km (21 mi) from our home and to the northwest of Durban. The people are wonderful! Everyone was so nice to us. They meet in a school building in the middle of a township neighborhood. They transform a classroom into a very nice chapel, even with a sign temporarily hanging on the outside wall.


Elder and Sister Howell have been meeting with them for their 18 months here, and President Lines wants us to take over for them in the same place. A Branch is a small congregation, so they can always use extra help. They usually have 40-60 people who come, including many locals who have served full-time missions in the past. That's very impressive for a small Branch!








We will be serving there with two great young men, Elder Zimmerman and Elder Turner.









We often say "The Church is a Dorf" (a very small village in German.) We had another one of those experiences today. The guest speaker in Church was President Austin of the Hillcrest Stake Presidency. When he mentioned he had a missionary companion from Palo Alto, Ken asked his name: Taylor Giles. Of course we know him!! He grew up around the corner from our house, and his parents still live there. He and President Austin were missionary companions in the Johannesburg Mission for six months about 25 years ago! He gave a great talk about the blessings that come from paying tithing, comparing that to the parable of the 10 Virgins. Blessings do come to those who keep God's commandments.






Because today was the Howells last Sunday in Molweni, the Branch put on a special lunch afterwards. Everyone enjoyed sandwiches and juice and biscuits (cookies).























And we had a good time visiting and getting to know some of our new congregation friends.  








After church the Howells took lots of photos with their friends. This was a favorite. The Branch has about a dozen little boys, and a few girls. The youngest ones don't understand English quite yet. And they all sit so quietly and reverently during church. It is amazing! There are also teen-age boys: two are named Mosiah and Alma. (Book of Mormon names.)

There are only about four vehicles among the Branch members. Many walk up to 45 minutes each way, rain or shine, to attend church. But Brother Roko has this truck, and so he'll drive some of them home. We see lots of pick-up trucks packed full of people sitting on the sides of the bed traveling down the freeways doing 100 km/hr! Fortunately there are no freeways in this hilly backcountry.



After Church we went with the Howells out to visit the Branch President Vuzane's home. His wife had a baby two weeks ago, so wasn't at church, and the Howell's had a baby present for her. Their son is Nephi (another Book of Mormon name) and the daughter is Emma (as in Emma Smith). We love the names here. Most people have a Zulu name and a Christian name.  here are members of the Branch whose Christian names are Prosper, Precious, Princey, Blessing and Rejoice. Wouldn't you love to be named Rejoice?

The Vuzane's live in a small lovely home on the top of a hill, up a dirt road and narrow windy dirt trail a kilometer or so from a paved road. Interesting trip in the big mission van!




This is the view from their front yard, with their own corn and berries growing below and overlooking the far hills above this beautiful reservoir behind Inanda Dam. It's a view to die for.







This is such a beautiful country! Everything around Durban is lush and green from the summer rains. As we drove home this afternoon we saw much to enjoy and be thankful for.