Elders All Departed and Arrived! -- week 72

We've had quite the week of arrivals.

Monday we went to the airport and picked up Elder Wynn and Sister Bette Hubrich.  They are from Utah, just north of Salt Lake City, and are here to manage Humanitarian projects for the Church.  They will live just downstairs from us, so we are glad to have more 'adults' in the area.  We went out to lunch with the Lines and the Hubrichs.  Then we took the Hubrichs to get their car, see their apartment and go grocery shopping.  We saved orientation for Tuesday.

The other exciting news on Tuesday was the installation of a fiber Internet connection in the Hubrichs flat!  We steal their WiFi through their ceiling and our floor.  It works fine, but used to be so slooooow.  It took Ken about 13 hours to upload a 1-hour YouTube video.  We had about 5Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.  Here is Ken's screenshot of the new speedtest.  So much better!  Especially now that we really do have to share.

We also had some departures this week.  First was Elder Hulley from Johannesburg, who finished his MTC training in the office on Tuesday.  He's been around the office this week still, because his companions are the Social Media Elders, but tonight after dinner he will find out where he will be serving going forward.  

On Thursday night we had three Elders come to the Mission Home for their last dinner with President and Sister Lines.  We came just before the dinner to help Elder Gore with his final paperwork for the process of getting into England and quarantine.  It had to be done no sooner than 48 hours before his arrival in England, which would be 4:15pm on Saturday.  It was supposed to take 20 minutes, and took 90 minutes!

But now Elders Gore, Chifarimba, and Tiyiwe are home--well almost for Elder Gore. (He's in quarantine at Heathrow for two weeks.)

Thursday night about 8pm we got the first texts from the new Elders.  They were arriving in Minneapolis (three of them) and in Atlanta (the other eight.)  There was some confusion about needing an instant COVID test at the airport, but we got that straightened out.  (No longer needed.)  Text at 10:48pm our time:  All eight are in Atlanta.  Whoppee!  That means all eleven are really coming.  By past experience, that's a total surprise.  We went to sleep knowing all was well.

Friday morning text from Amsterdam:  "All Durban travelers from Atlanta and Minneapolis are here and well in Amsterdam."

Besides our eleven on that flight, there were fourteen going to the Botswana/Namibia Mission and thirteen going to the Johannesburg Mission.  And the flight was so empty that nearly everyone got a row to himself, so they actually got some sleep.  Which was a good thing, because they got to the hotel in Johannesburg at 11pm Friday and had to get up before 5am to catch the 6:50am flight to Durban.

We knew that Saturday would be an all-day marathon with Elders arriving, so we had our P-day on Friday.  We took the Hubrichs to three of our favorite places in Durban.

We started with a session at the Temple.  When they arrived on Monday, we just drove by for a photo-op, as the Temple is closed on Mondays.

It is so beautiful, and the spirit flows.  

Second stop was our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Rosa.  We all enjoyed nachos, enchiladas, and wet burritos.  

We sat outside and enjoyed the view.  That's the Indian Ocean just past the palm trees.

But of course we couldn't be that close to the beach and not go there.  Third stop was the beach.  First we had to walk along the promenade.  We laughed at this sign.  The day before, the Hubrichs had put a piece of banana on their porch railing because they wanted to see a monkey.  It only took about five minutes for one to show up and claim it.  Now their flat, as well as ours, is marked forever as good foraging ground for the vervet varmints.

We all agreed that one day soon we will come back and rent bicycles and ride along the beach.  

Sister Hubrich and Sue are kindred spirits.  They both need to put their feet in the water everywhere.  The husbands didn't even step onto the sand!  But Elder Hubrich and Ken have something in common, too.  Elder Hubrich sold his Porsche convertible before he came on the mission.  He has an interesting story--born in East Germany, escaped out with his family at age eight, moved to the US at age 10.  So his love of German cars is in-born.

Saturday was something else!  Out of the flat by 6:45am, Sue driving a bakkie to the airport.  We meet up with President and Sister Lines also in a bakkie, and the Assistants in a nine-passenger van.  Oops--plane is delayed by an hour.  

We had planned to have brunch about 10:30am or so at the Mission Office, and the Hubrichs were buying 40 Egg McMuffins from McDonalds.  Now it was looking more like lunch, so we called them and asked them to scratch that plan and order pizzas for noon instead.  We were so glad they were around to help, and willing to be flexible.  

None of us had eaten breakfast, so we decided to wait in the airport restaurant and have something to eat.  As we were leaving, one of the servers came up to our group and was asking President Lines what church we were from and why we were there.  He explained that we were at the airport to pick up missionaries coming to teach the people of South Africa about Jesus Christ and His restored Church.  She thought that was wonderful, and wanted to pray for us.  She gave us the most wonderful prayer, standing around right there in the restaurant.  President Lines gave her a card with information about contacting the Church.  We love the people of South Africa!  

The plane was only half an hour late.  The Elders said they got on their plane, and then the pilot announced there was something wrong, so they pulled everyone off and put them on a different plane.  Then they got out of baggage claim in record time.  There was hardly anyone else on the flight, and no luggage got lost.

We were speedy out of the airport.  Next stop is always the Temple.  We took the group photo with the sun behind the steeple.  Ken also took individual photos of each Elder with President and Sister Lines.  Saturday night Sue sent these to the individual families, along with the group photos at the airport and temple.  We call these the "proof of life" pictures (named so thanks to our daughter Rachel).

Next it was to the office.  Let the fun begin!  Sue had a whole rotation schedule set up for orientation, starting at 11:20am.  Four groups of three Elders going to five stations for 20 minutes each:  

Secretary (Sue)

Finance (Ken) 

Safety and phones (Elder Mbaki, Assistant)

Social Media (oops, no photo)

Driving test (Elder VanOrden, Assistant).   

Even with the late plane, we were at the office before 10am, so things changed a little.  President started doing his personal interviews.  They take about 30 minutes each, so with this big group, that's an all-day process. 

Sue collected everyone's passports and driver's licenses to make copies.  Then we decided to start the rotations an hour early.  That part worked well.  

We did four of the five rotations, and then the Hubrichs showed up with pizza.  We took a break and had lunch.  

Earlier, President Mkhize showed up.  He is Counselor in the Mission Presidency and is a lawyer.  We had trouble a few weeks ago with an Elder getting arrested for not having his original passport and visa on him.  (See Week 68, 30 May.)  President Mkhize helped get that straightened out, and now has written a letter in legalese that each Elder will carry.  We needed new certified copies of each passport and visa on one side, and this letter on the other side.  Sue had made the new copies for everyone on Thursday and for the new Elders on Saturday morning.  President Mkhize came to stamp and sign the certifications on all the new copies.  He had to do two copies each of 64 pages.  Going forward he will just need to do the new Elders arriving.

We finished all the orientations quickly, and President Lines was almost finished with his interviews, so the Elders sat and visited.  

Earlier in the week President & Sister Lines, with consultation from the Assistants, had decided who was going to be transferred where.  The new people are just designated as "N" or "T".  N is the new Elders who have been serving for six or ten months in the USA--we had three of those.  T is for the new Elders who needed further infield training.  This is what the Transfer Board looked like on Friday:

Anyone with the picture askew is going to someplace new.  Anyone without a companion is getting someone new.  But President Lines doesn't decide which will go where until after the interviews.  

The new Elders all spend Saturday night in the bunk house behind the mission home.  Sunday they are having their own church services at the mission home.  With congregations limited to 50, there is no ward where they can just drop in with an extra dozen people.  After dinner they will find out who their new companions are and in what area they will be serving.  

Sunday morning we went for a walk around the neighborhood.  There were people working on the McDonalds driveway grading at 7:30 on Sunday morning!  We think they are behind schedule.  We also took some photos of the big intersection.  It looks finally finished!  

Except they just skipped paving the final layer on a whole big section in the middle.  We may send some photos to the city roads department.....

Sunday we went to church as usual in Molweni, and we took the Hubrichs with us.  They will be permanently assigned to another congregation, but President hasn't finalized that yet, so they came with us today.  

After church was the baptism for Amy Chipara.   She is eight years old, so very excited to be baptized.  She asked Elder Banda to baptize her, and he was glad to do so.  

After church we took this photo of Amy, in the white dress and black coat, with her family and us missionaries.  It was a wonderful day.

We are concerned about the state of COVID in South Africa.  Particularly around Johannesburg and its province it has gotten very bad.  Our church has closed the Temple there, the Area Office, and cancelled all church services for the next month.  

Here is the graph of COVID in South Africa as a whole since March 2020.  The worst was early January at about 20,000 cases/day.  We are almost there now.

This is Gauteng Province -- Johannesburg and area.  They are doing much worse than January.

This is Kwazulu-Natal, the province that contains Durban.  So far we are doing well.  We hope it continues!    

The two provinces are each about 20% of the population of South Africa.  

We post-poned sending out this blog until later tonight because President Ramaphosa did a nation-wide TV talk at 8 PM.  We are now on modified level-4 lockdown.  No social gatherings indoors or outdoors, no church meetings.  Offices and stores are still open, but people should work from home if they can.  No alcohol sales anytime or anywhere.  Restaurants can do take-out or delivery only.  Masks are mandatory everywhere.  Parks and beaches are open, but no gatherings at them.  President Ramaphosa will speak again in two weeks and see how things are going and decide what to lift.  

Only 2.6 million people are vaccinated out of 60 million residents, and the Delta variant is much more contagious and is showing up here.  It's the one that devastated India last month.  So far it has not hit our province of KZN, but who knows when it will -- not if.

The missionaries are sad that they have to go back to teaching only on zoom or telephone.  They can no longer visit people in person.  That is hard on them.  But we are so grateful for the technology that does allow some teaching to continue.  

When we went home in March 2020 we thought for sure we'd be back by July, or August at the latest.  Now it is a year later and things are still bad.  

Quiet week, lovely hike -- Week 71

Mostly a quiet week at the office, as we prepare for about a dozen new missionaries next Saturday.  Of course the number coming changes almost daily.  One drops out, another comes in, another drops out and then comes back... .  We'll see who really gets on the planes.  They all have COVID vaccines but still must have the test 72 hours ahead of the trip and sometimes the results come back too late to fly.  They all leave the USA about 6 p.m. on Thursday and then we'll know who is really coming.  

Newcastle Zone came to Durban, half on Tuesday and half on Friday, to go to the Temple with President and Sister Lines.  The Van Heerdens took advantage of the trip to exchange their bakkie for a brand new one.  The old one is perfectly good, but it has reached the end of its life in the Church fleet and will be sold. The new one was brought here on a truck so only had 38 km on it.

With all the new Elders coming next week, we need to get some of the stored cars out and working.  Ken wanted to take this Suzuki to get a new battery, but it was so dirty from just sitting that it needed a good wash first.  Luckily this was Thursday and our friend Nick was doing his car washes in the office parking lot.  Sue missed the photo with Ken squirting the hose.

Friday and Saturday we had a hard time.  Elder Gore is going home to England next Friday, after completing his mission.  But England requires a 11-night quarantine in a hotel at the airport for anyone arriving from South Africa (and a bunch of other countries.)  We tried to make the reservation online, but it wasn't working.  Sue did it Friday, and got no confirmation email.  She tried to email the quarantine hotel, but got a canned response.  She called the phone number -- long distance to London.  Fifteen minutes on hold, then live person who took her info and put her on hold for 'a few minutes.'  40 minutes later she hung up.  Sue asked Elder Gore's Mom to try calling, because at least for her it wasn't a long-distance international call.  She said it would ring and ring and then hang up.

Saturday Sue called the bank and no charge had gone through on her mission credit card.  So Saturday we tried again, using Ken's mission credit card.  We got confirmation email.  Hooray!!  Then three minutes later another email -- payment denied.  Reservation cancelled.  Now what?  We called the credit card bank. We each have a $2,000 per transaction limit.  Eleven days in a London hotel for room and all meals is about $2400.  Nuts!  We called President Lines and got his credit card number in hopes he has a greater limit.  He does.  It all worked!  Elder Gore has his reservation, but is not too happy about getting back to England and spending 11 days in a hotel room by himself.  He's not the first one.  We've had other Elders spend 3 or 4 weeks in quarantine going  home to Pacific Islands.

Saturday morning we took a break for a hike in the hills along the Molweni River.

We walked the red trail, taking the short side-trail from point 16.   This map doesn't do it justice. That little trail is almost straight down the cliff side.

But the waterfall at the bottom is worth the hike.  We took Elder Hulley with us.  He from Johannesburg area, but is currently doing Missionary Training Center by himself in our office -- on Zoom all day long every day with the MTC in Johannesburg.  Not so fun.  He is in a strange situation.  P-day for the MTC Elders is Saturday, but P-day for the rest of the missionaries -- including his two companions -- is Monday.  So, they would take him grocery shopping but then he would spend the rest of the day with them doing regular missionary work.  We said we'd take him for the day on Saturday and let him have an outing to get a little exercise and fresh air.

Ken took this panorama photo.  You can scroll L-R and up/down to see the whole thing.

The view to the top of the gorge.  That's how far down we hiked.  It was so steep going down, but we made it.  Coming back up Ken 'fell' a bit and bruised a shin.  And he lost his glasses, as they fell out of his pocket somewhere.  But he has an extra pair.  

We started walking along the top of the gorge, thinking we would get to another falls, but we wore out and turned around after awhile.

The plants alternate between dense jungle and open fields.  

And of course Sue had to put her feet into the river.  This time of year this is a small river, but it's easy to see how much higher the river would be in the summer when it is the rainy season.

South Africa had an earthquake this week!  Did we bring it with us from California?  We were told that South Africa doesn't have much in the way of natural disasters -- no hurricanes or tornadoes, no earthquakes, etc.  This unexpected earthquake was at 4 AM on Thursday morning.  We both slept through it.  We came into the office that morning and President Lines said he felt it.  It was about a 3.8, so not huge, but enough to be felt -- if you are awake.  They don't have monitoring equipment here, so the scale rating is a guess.  The big worry is that most buildings here are made from unre-enforced brick or concrete blocks.  A serious earthquake would destroy most of the homes and stores in Durban.

One of Sue's responsibilities is to write the Mission History.  She usually puts together a few pages each month about departures and arrivals of Elders, people baptized, special Mission activities, etc.  But 2020 was different.  It just didn't happen.  It needs to be done, and the Church is asking for 2020 histories to be submitted by 30 June.  Last week when we were driving the 2-1/2 hours to the Drakensburg Mountains, Sue took her computer in the car and interviewed President and Sister Lines about the lockdown and the mission situation during the eight months that we were away.  Ken turned on his phone recorder and also recorded the conversation.  The Church also likes to record oral histories, so today he edited that into something coherent and we will submit it to the Church History Library, too.

We are excited each weekend when there are baptisms in the mission.  We see many people making covenants to follow Christ and strive to be more like him.

But this week we had one of the best baptisms ever!  We were there only by FaceTime but were so pleased to see our granddaughter, Myra Cate Allen, be baptized in Henderson, Nevada.  

She shared the service with one of her good friends, and for part of it the girls and their mothers sang 'Teach Me to Walk in the Light" with our son Reed playing the violin.  

After Myra was baptized, Reed confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bestowed on her the gift of the Holy Ghost, and gave her a wonderful blessing for her future. 

We got jabbed! Week 70

We got our first COVID vaccine this week.  In South Africa it is not a "shot."  It is a "jab."  We finally got the SMS text telling us when to come -- at times when we couldn't be there, of course.  

President & Sister Lines had the same problem.  So on Thursday afternoon we just drove to the place and got in just before closing time.  There were exactly four doses left.

Now to back up to all the fun stuff this week!  Tuesday the second half of Durban Zone was scheduled to attend the Temple and have lunch first at Roco Mama's.  We were not included, as we went last week, but at 7:30 AM President Lines called and said they had a missionary with a medical emergency, and they didn't know if they would make it to lunch or the Temple, and could we fill in?  Of course!  So we put our quiet day in the office plan on hold.  We got to the restaurant on schedule before 12:30.  President and Sister Lines showed up about 1:00, so all was well.  We did stay for lunch, because who can skip all that good food?  But then we sent everyone else off to the Temple and we went back to work.  

Before then, on Wednesday and Thursday we were off to the mountains.  The Mission Leadership Council meets monthly.  It is the two Zone Leaders from each Zone (We currently have three Zones.), the two Assistants to the President, and President & Sister Lines.  (In Russia we also had two Sister Training Leaders in each Zone, but there are no young Sisters at all in this mission.)  Way back a year+ ago President wanted to take this group on a retreat to the mountains.  COVID postponed it, but it finally happened this week.  

We stayed at Khotso Lodge and Horse Trails, west of Underberg in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains.  The ridge line of the tops of the mountains is the border between South Africa and Lesotho. 

We drove up in the morning, had our picnic lunch in the yard of the lodge, and then drove up to Lake Naverone to start our first hike.

These are the eight Elders who are the mission leaders.

While President Lines was paying for the hiking permits, Sue was looking at the weather station on the wall outside the building.  (We need one of these when we get home!)  All you have to do is look at the hanging stone.

The plan was to hike up to Three Pools and back -- about 2.9 km each way.  

The ground was black for the first part.  The land owners are required by law to do an annual burn to keep down the vegetation overgrowth.  But they must put fire retardant on the path?  You can see some of the Elders already far down the road.  We told everyone they had to be back at the cars by 3:00pm.  

All us old people went a little more slowly.  We didn't make it as far as the pools, but all the young Elders did.  Notice President Lines is wearing blue jeans and sweatshirt!  This is the first time we have ever seen him dress-down!  He wears a suit, white shirt and tie always!

We all made it back to the cars on time. 

And then the Elders did the braai (barbeque.)  

We had chicken and steak and sausage from the grill, with corn on the cob and baked beans from the kitchen.  And peach cobbler for dessert.   It was quite the feast.  

Elder Chifarimba was the Braai Meister.

Elder Van Orden helped with the corn.  

After dinner was the regular three-hour Council meeting -- except there was load shedding, so we did it by lantern and firelight.  It was a good meeting, with discussions about teaching and goals.  The spirit was wonderful among these young men.

After the meeting we had s'mores and hot chocolate.

Thursday morning we got up early and went for a pre-breakfast hike just as the sun was coming up over the hills.  We hiked up to the top of the hill in this picture.  The views were spectacular.  Valleys to the east and the tall, tall mountains full of snow to the west.

On top of the hill at Khotso Lodge west of Unterberg in the Drakensberg Mountain foothills with Durban Mission Leadership Council 10 June 2021. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

     

A full westward 180 deg. pan from south to north. 

(This is a pi (radians) pan.)

It looked like fall and felt like fall.  The temperature overnight was about 2C (36F).

The Elders loved the hiking, and especially Elder Manamela, in the back.  He is from Johannesburg and this was his first hike ever!

We stayed on top of the hill until the sun came up enough to put the lodge in sunshine.  It's the building where we stayed.

This stream runs along the side of the lodge.  The sky was reflected in the still water.

After the morning hike, the Lodge prepared a wonderful breakfast for us.  Then everyone got showered and dressed back in missionary clothes for the drive home.  

President Lines really, really liked the Lodge's dog.  It loved to catch sticks.  

MLC:  Elders Christensen, Mokhoanatsi, Mbaki, Alotsa, Sister Lines, President Lines, Elders Pettijohn, Chifarimba, Van Orden, Manamela, Sister Allen, Elder Allen.

We arrived home about 2:00pm, unpacked, and then the Lines picked us up to go get jabbed.  (See above.)

Friday was quiet in the office -- which we needed!

Saturday we had the privilege of going with Sister Lorraine Willer for her first time to the Durban Temple.  She joined the Church just one year ago, and has been looking forward to this day.  Because of COVID restrictions, only 15 people are allowed in one service.  They were all her invited guests and we felt blessed to be included. 

The picture is more than 15 because it also includes some of the Temple workers who helped her that day.

Elder Russell was the first missionary to start to teach Lorraine, but then he was evacuated back to the USA for eight months.  Elder Mbaki did most of the teaching of Lorraine before she was baptized.  These two wonderful missionaries were able to see Lorraine take the next step down the covenant path.  

After the Temple session, we had to take pictures, of course.  Ken will do anything to get the perfect shot!

 

Sister Lines made a beautiful cake in honor of the occasion, and we enjoyed some time to share together in the Temple Patron Housing kitchen.

Thus ends Week 70.