And Then There Were None... Week 66

One thing we are learning on this mission is flexibility.  Every six weeks there is a Transfer.  The arrivals used to be on Wednesday:  Pick up at Airport, orientation, dinner and sleep at the Mission Home bunkhouse.  Transfers were on Thursday when everyone who was moving did their move.  Thursday night those going home had dinner and were in the bunkhouse overnight at the Mission Home.  Then they would fly out on Friday.

No More!

Departures are still on Friday--usually.  "Left-over" companions move in with others for the weekend.  But now because of COVID-test flight rules and less-frequent good connections, arrivals are now on Saturday.  Orientation and dinner in the Mission Home are on Saturday night.  Elders hang around Durban with other Elders all day Sunday for Church so as not to have to travel on Sunday.  Monday is thus Transfer Day.  It stretches a two-day process out to four days and complicates a lot of things.

We have lists of who is coming and when, way ahead.  Elders generally get their Call Letter (telling them where and when they are going) four to six months ahead.  Lots of time for planning, right?  We wish!

Sue keeps a spreadsheet of all this.  She needs to know who has received their Welcome Letter, with information about what to bring.  She also needs to know who has sent back needed information about driving record, etc.

Just for fun, here is the spreadsheet for the last few months.  (Thanks to G-Sheets version history.)  We were originally supposed to have ten new Elders arrive on 15 May.  But no one actually came!  Hence the title to this week's blog.  (Sue is a big Agatha Christie fan, and that is also the title of one of her most famous books.)

March 1:  a good big group coming in May!  A few unknowns, and just one in June.

April 1:  We had lost those who are not from USA.  Visa issues...  But we picked up one more for a June Transfer.

May 1:  Oh dear!  Most of the May group did not have visas yet, so they got put into the unknown/postponed group.  But we are now up to five for the end of June.

May 7:  We are down to just one Elder coming on May 15.  But several of the others now have visas and will come on 26 June.  There is a three-week lead time between getting visa and being able to come.  And we have a whole new group coming on June 1.  Two are South African, so will come to our office to do their three-week Missionary Training on-line before really starting with the official group on 26 June.  Two others are from Kenya and Uganda, where they have been serving in their home country until their South African visas come through.  Most of those coming to us from the USA are also serving in other USA missions while waiting for visas.

May 11:   Our one last hope for an Elder arriving this Transfer did not happen.  He got his one-dose COVID vaccine on 10 May, but he is not allowed to travel for seven days after that.  He is now coming with the big group in June.  Since we had no one going home this Transfer Period, there was no Transfer at all.  Everyone is staying where they live now with their current companions.  

This all turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise.  One Elder from the Durban area came home from his mission on Wednesday morning.  His mother and sister picked him up from the Durban airport about 8 AM and brought him to the Mission Office about 9 AM for his exit interview and official release from President Lines.  The family was glad to be back together after two years.  The Elder spent about 30 minutes with President Lines while the mom and sister waited in the office.  She said the cousins were all excited and texting her about when he would be home.  It is so wonderful to see these young people when they come home from their missions.  They have grown in so many ways.  They have learned a pattern of Christ-like love and service that will serve them well  their whole lives.

Later that evening while we were home, President Lines called.  He told us to be sitting down.  It turns out that the returning Elder had spent the previous day, dinner, and overnight in Johannesburg with three other Elders also going home.  One of them was flying to another country on Wednesday, so he had to have a COVID test--which came back positive!  Another got home and had a COVID test, which was also positive!  We have been on lockdown at home since Wednesday night.  It is a really good thing that we did not need to pick up 10 new Elders at the airport on Saturday!

So here are our photos from this week:

We are perfectly healthy to this point but will stay home from the office one more day.  Sue can still work from home. We did it for eight months last year.

Ken has another problem.  The graphics card on his beloved tricked out Mac-Mini decided to go flakey on him.  He did sneak out of the house to deliver it to a repair shop just up the road.  So he is limited to what he can do on his phone.  Which is not much!  He is reading and listening to a lot of scriptures.

Sue didn't spend all her time working hard.  She finished another audio book and two knit caps.

The office was fumigated on Thursday, and after that we sent the Elders who live upstairs back to the office to bring us a few necessities we had left there.  Ken put his stash of licorice ropes 

on the list.

Like so many other stuck at home on COVID quarantine, Sue cooked.  That meant Ken had more dishes to do.  He's great at keeping the kitchen clean after Sue makes a mess.

Actually the beginning of the week was fairly productive.  Tuesday we drove up to Stanger to open a new boarding (apartment).  It is about one hour north of Durban.  The Van Heerdens pulled a trailer full of furniture the three-hour drive from Ladysmith.  They have two large one-car garages, so get to store furniture every time a boarding is closed.  

There we met them and the two Elders who live about 30 minutes from Stanger who came to do the heavy lifting.  Here's the apartment from the outside.

It's nothing fancy, without a stove or refrigerator or washer, but it's in a safe area just a few blocks from the Church building.  The Elders will probably not need a car, which is a good thing as we get more missionaries coming.  (If they ever really show up!)

Wednesday afternoon (after greeting the returning Elder, but before we knew about the COVID problem), Sister Lines and Sue spent a couple of hours at Makro.  That's the local equivalent of Costco.  We had to buy more items to finish furnishing the Stanger apartment.  Ken and Sue will drive back up to Stanger one day this coming week to finish all the set-up.  We thought we needed it by 15 May.  Now the Elders who live 30 minutes south may move in next week, and their current apartment will be empty until the end of June.  That's not bad.  We have a few empty apartments for which we have been paying rent ever since everyone left the end of March 2020.  We closed a lot, too.  But we keep thinking that "next month" we will need more!  We hope.