Repeat?? -- Weeks 3 and 56?

We have been serving this mission -- here and in California -- for over a year, and we are starting to repeat ourselves.

Our blog post from 1 March 2020 is titled Zone Conferences and Marine World.  Guess what we did this week?  But the most amazing repeat is that we picked up Elder Alviana from the airport that week a year ago as he began his mission here in Durban.  He went home to Brazil last year on a COVID evacuation flight with so many others.  But this coming Friday we will pick him up at the airport again! He is coming back, and we are thrilled.  But more about all that next week.  

We love the opportunity to get together with our young Elders at Zone Conferences every six weeks.  We learn from them as they learn from President & Sister Lines and each other.  So many of these conferences over the last year have been over Zoom, but now that we can get together, it is a blessing.

One of the hard things at Zone Conference is when those who will be going home soon speak to the group about their experiences.  This week we heard from Elder Netshiheni.  He is a wonderful missionary and we will be sorry to lose him back to his home near Johannesburg on 2 April.  He talked about how much he has learned by teaching.  We are all that way -- we all learn and remember better when we have the opportunity to share with other people.  Especially when we can share things of the Spirit.  

One other comment we liked from Zone Conference -- "We don't have to be perfect, but we should be deliberate."  It reminds us to think about the choices we make.

We had Durban Zone Conference on Wednesday at the Berea Chapel and Hillcrest Zone Conference on Friday at Hillcrest Chapel.  We are in Hillcrest Zone, but we went for the beginning at Durban.  

One of Ken's responsibilities is vehicle inspections.  He stayed outside (in the heat) and checked vehicles for cleanliness and proper paperwork while Sue set up pre-conference snacks.  She was done sooner and was sitting with Sister Lines in the chapel waiting for the meeting to start.  We both felt so warm, but could hear the A/C blowing.  Sister Lines went looking for the control box, and found the temperature set to 82F!  No wonder we were so warm.  She turned it back down to 74F and all was well.

Most of the conference is discussions and PowerPoint slides, but we had one fun activity in Hillcrest.  Two Elders set up an obstacle course with tables and chairs.  Then they ran a string through it.  They blind-folded the Zone Leaders.

Some of the other Elders were told to give proper instructions on how to follow the string.  Other Elders were told to give bogus instructions.  Lesson:  It's hard to hear the True Voice when there are lots of other competing voices around you.  But you can always count on "the iron rod" (or string).  

(See Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 8 and 1 Nephi 11.)

Elder and Sister Van Heerden came from Ladysmith for the Hillcrest Zone Conference.  They decided to come in Thursday evening, rather than drive so early on Friday the three hours from Ladysmith.  We invited them for dinner on Thursday and to stay a bit and help with the jigsaw puzzle we started at Christmas.  Sue is really stuck on that elephant.  We all three worked for about 90 minutes and got a few more square inches, while Ken (who has a sore back) did the dishes.

Thursday night things broke.  Ken was in bed.  Sue tried to turn on the bathroom light and the switch just pushed back into the wall!  Something inside the switch had snapped.  Then in the middle of the night Ken had a nightmare and flailed out his arm and set his cell phone flying off the nightstand, resulting in a broken screen.  But now all is well.  After Zone Conference on Friday we stopped by a huge hardware store and bought a new switch.  Then we dropped off Ken's phone at a repair shop in the mall near our apartment.  We found we didn't even need the new switch.  We just needed to clip the old one back together again.  And Saturday after the aquarium Ken picked up his better-than-new phone.  It now has a double screen.

We had all decided that the Van Heerdens may as well stay over on Friday night, too, and we could do something fun for Saturday outing.  President and Sister Lines had never been to uShaka Aquarium, and Van Heerden's hadn't been there in years, so it was a good day to go.  We went early and were there shortly after opening at 9 a.m.  

 

Seniors at uShaka Aquarium 6 March 2021 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

We saw the dolphin show and the seal show and wandered all through the aquarium.  It has very well-done exhibits.  We noticed a few COVID-related changes since our visit last year.  There are no more park maps with show times.  Now when you arrive, they assign you to a specific show time, as the audience is limited.  Last year they had audience-participation activities, and Sue got to go down and get kissed by a seal.  Not this year.  That part of the show is skipped.  Too bad.

They did have the seals kiss each other, however.

The dolphins are amazing -- so graceful.  

And we loved all the aquarium fish.  The tanks are huge and you can walk right up to them.  You can even go down in the shark tank in a cage, if you want.  We skipped that part.

After the Aquarium, we found ourselves in the neighborhood of our favorite Mexican restaurant.  We all went to La Rosa for lunch and introduced the Van Heerdens to Mexican food.  We explained all about the differences between burritos and tacos and enchiladas.  They liked it!

To get to the aquarium entrance you walk through a long mall full of restaurants and touristy shops.  One was advertising short batik caftans for R19.  That's $1.25!  Sue can never resist a bargain -- especially if it is her favorite color, orange.  But by the time we got home, she was falling asleep while trying to do the Saturday NYTimes crossword.  That's the hardest puzzle for the week always.  So she gave in and had a nap.

This Sunday morning we went back to Berea Chapel for Church.  It is the Durban Stake Center, not too far from downtown.  A good group there, and lots of good testimonies.  We got to meet Brad Bricknell.  He is the Physical Facilities Manager for the Church here in this area.  We've done lots of emailing back and forth, so it was nice to put the face to the name -- or rather half a face to the name.  We all wore our masks, of course.  And Berea chapel physically moved all the pews so they are farther apart instead of marking every-other one unused.  That's a lot of work!

Our other treat this week was watching our grandson, Lucas Allen, play in a basketball tournament in Arizona.  It was fun to get to participate a little -- even on a small screen.  He does a good job and plays hard.  We have such wonderful grandchildren!!