Zone Conference and Cars -- week 62

We enjoyed seeing so many of the young Elders at Zone Conferences this week.  These are remarkable young men who donate two years of their lives to serving Christ and spreading His Gospel.  Their spirits just make us glad.  We mostly do the paperwork for the mission, but we are supporting those who get to teach the Gospel to wonderful people in South Africa.

Other than that it was pretty quiet.  Ken pulled a muscle in his back, so our plan to rent bikes and ride along the promenade at the beach will have to wait for another time.

Monday Ken held down the fort at the office while Sue ran around and did a lot of shopping.  From our boarding checks the week before, and also from the ones that President & Sister Lines did, there is always a list of needs.  Sue bought an iron, a microwave, some pots and pans, etc.  She also bought morning snack for the two zones -- that's muffins, fruit, and box drinks for 45 people.

Tuesday we went for the beginning of Durban Zone Conference.  We needed to deliver the snacks and boarding stuff.  Ken also needed to finish checking a couple of the cars that he did not check the week before at the boardings.  We didn't stay long, and then came back to regular office work.

Many of our boardings have pre-paid electricity.  That is, there is a box on the wall that has a meter number, takes a 20-digit PIN input.  Sue can go to the grocery store, give the cashier the meter number and buy electricity.  The receipt has the PIN.  She usually buys R1,000 ($70) and it lasts five to six weeks.  She keeps one ahead for each boarding in a spreadsheet so they can call at 9:00 pm and be all out, and she has a PIN to give them.  Then next time she goes shopping she buys more and stores it in the spreadsheet on her smartphone.  The system works well.

Except -- we've had trouble with one landlord.  He didn't pay his monthly property taxes or HOA fees for three months, so the city blocked his electricity purchases.  We've been working on this for a month.  We finally paid the fees ourselves and will deduct them from next month's rent.  But those Elders were down to about two days electricity when Sue was finally able to buy more.  She bought two sets -- one for immediately, and one stored in the spreadsheet.  Whew!

Here are the photos from Durban and Hillcrest Zone Conferences.  We have such wonderful Elders here!

Durban Zone, 13 April 2021

Hillcrest Zone had an activity where part of the Zone had to find references on a scripture topic while the other part of the Zone tried to see how many "baskets" they could make with a soccer ball into a plastic bin.  

Hillcrest Zone, 14 April 2021

Elder Banda is taking the photo.  But he sets the timer and then runs over to join the group.

The Mission has grown so much that there are now three Zones.  President and Sister Lines traveled out to Newcastle -- about four hours west by highway -- for another Zone Conference on Friday.  The Van Heerdens helped them with the food and logistics for that Zone.  Before the evacuation in March 2020, the Misson had 110 young missionaries, six senior couples and seven Zones.  We are now up to 50 young missionaries, two senior couples (with two more coming soon) and three Zones.  Progress!

As mentioned above, our Saturday plans changed.  We drove down to KwaMashu in the morning to deliver some books and papers they needed and to look at their garages.  They didn't think they had a garage with the two boardings there.  One set of Elders has bicycles and has had trouble with kids vandalizing them.  Sue asked the landlord what it would cost to get a garage in the complex and found out each boarding already has a garage assigned!  But we have no keys.  It's a strange-looking keyhole -- the key must be Phillips-head-screwdriver shaped.  We'll probably have to call in a locksmith.

We came home and had a lazy afternoon.  Ken rested his back.  Sue knitted and listened to an audio book.  It was such a beautiful day!  Sunny, 75degF, humidity down to 55%!   Sue finished this hat.  It was about the end of the gray yarn.  

The photo below shows a huge ball of pink yarn.  Sue had a gray one the same size.  It knit almost nine hats!  She is going to donate them to a cancer hospital for people who have lost their hair.

Sue had the door open while she sat on the couch -- too nice to run A/C.  But, then there was movement by the doorway.  A little monkey started to come in!  Sue had cleared off all the food from the counters, but this little one still wanted to come in.  She chased him out.  But he sat on the windowsill.

This looks like Mama was giving the little one tips.

Others gathered.  There are three on the railing, one on the railing at the top of the stairs, and there was one more to the right out of the photo.

For a few months there has been construction at the top of our street.  A couple of weeks ago Sue asked one of the workmen what they were building -- a McDonalds!  This week the sign went up, so it is official.  Hard to see behind the building, but this is our view as we go to the office.

Saturday afternoon Sue also went back to the office for a few minutes to receive two new cars for the mission.  The one on the left is a Renault Triber.  Very pretty color -- but a gutless wonder.  It seats seven, theoretically.  It has a three-cylinder, one-liter, 53 hp engine.  We'll see how often it gets stuck going up some Durban hill.  The other is a standard Toyota Corolla.  The Mission has a few of those.  On Sunday after Church, we drove north to the Temple and picked up a new Ford Ranger bakkie (pick-up truck.)  It had only 750 km on it, and it was nearly out of fuel.  It had been driven down from Johannesburg on Friday!  That's about 600 km, so this is a very new bakkie.

Sunday we went to church in Bluff.  It is a beautiful chapel with a strong ward up on the peninsula between harbor and sea.  

It was the homecoming talk for Sister Sithole.  She served in Durban while we were in California, and we worked together over Zoom to start the first social media pages for our Mission in Sept., Oct. and Nov. 2020.  She had interesting mission service for 18 months.  She started her Missionary Training Center in Accra, Ghana.  Then she was assigned to the Uganda, Kampala Mission.  They were splitting that Mission and told her she would be moving to Ethiopia.  Then COVID hit, so she was brought back to the South Africa Johannesburg Mission and served part of the time there in Eswatini (Swaziland.)  Then four Sisters from Joburg, including her, were sent down to Durban.  They lived in the Temple housing and worked on Social Media.  When things opened up again in November, Sister Sithole went back to Ethiopia to finish her mission and learn the language.  That's missions in five countries in 18 months!

The other speakers for the meeting were several of the teen-agers. They talked about their experience on Saturday of going to the Temple to act as proxies in baptisms for the dead. (See I Corinthians 15:29.)  We know that baptism is an earthly ordinance, and it is important because even Christ went and was baptized by John.  We can do baptisms for those who have passed on in Holy Temples.  These youth spoke of the Holy Spirit they felt in the Temple and how it affects their lives.

One of Sister Sithole's friends in Bluff Ward is getting ready to go on a mission soon.  Sister Auth is scheduled to go to Leeds, England, on 2 June, if she can get a visa.  

We also had to take a photo with the Elders serving in Bluff -- Elder Lowder and Elder Naisbitt.

After Church, the members all stand around outside to visit -- just like home.  It's good to be together.

After Church, we drove around a little to see the views in Bluff.  Here is the ocean side.

And Sue took a 360-photo from the top of one of the hills.  If you zoom in on the side with the car, you can see the harbor, and to the right the high-rises of downtown Durban and the entrance to the harbor.  

Durban Harbor from Bluff, and spin around to see the Indian Ocean on the other side. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Durban has a geography that gives it a protected natural harbor.  We live at the top of the map in Westville.  The church we attended was out on the Bluff.

While Sue wrote the blog on Sunday afternoon, Ken was working his magic on a training video for the Social Media Elders to share with Church members on using Facebook to share the Gospel.  He has been glad to be able use his video-editing talents to help in the Mission.  It's something he can do with a bad back, and it got him out of doing dishes for once.