Transfer Week again -- week 90

We are totally beat.  This was Transfers -- lots of Elders coming in.  Seventeen, to be exact.  Our two who would have gone home this week went on 7 & 20 October because their visas ran out early.

But first, on Wednesday morning we drove an hour west to Pietermaritzburg, which is the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province where we live.  We went to help with a food-distribution service project.  The Church Humanitarian Department has donated enough food for 6,000 packets to be distributed to needy families in KZN.  They've done similar projects in other provinces.  But it was in pallets by item, and needed to be packed into bags for families.  We worked all morning and helped do almost 700 bags.

While we were waiting to gather, Elder Phipps was showing us that he can jump up and touch the ceiling of the parking garage -- at least 10 feet up.  He's 6ft 6in tall, so has a head start.

Action Development Agency is the local equivalent of Second Harvest Food Bank. 

Pallets of rice and maize and beans and oil and flour and sugar and.....

We packed it into bags.

And then the bags back onto pallets so that local groups could come and pick up to distribute to families.  

We had a good crew that worked all morning, and another crew came in for the afternoon.  We also had two crews there on Tuesday.

And after our four-hour shift, they even fed us lunch.

On a more personal note, our big news for this week is a new geyzer!  That is South Africanese for a new hot-water heater!  It hangs on the wall above the bathroom sink.  The old one gave us very little hot water pressure.  

This is the nicely typed and laminated page we found in the bathroom when we first moved in.  We thanked the Lunds who had lived here before us, but they said it was already here when they arrived.  The kitchen hot water pressure was also very poor.

We finally decided it was time to do something about this before the Taylors arrive and would also have to deal with it.  We called our wonderful handy-man Andre to come and look.  He said there is a pressure valve inside that is so old and corroded that nothing could be done.  We told our landlord, and he sent over his plumber who said the same thing.  So now all is fixed.  We got a new shower head, too.

And the plumbers also replaced the handles on the kitchen sink.  It is no longer necessary to turn each one three times around before the water starts to flow.  Marvelous!

Friday we had 15 of the expected 17 Elders actually arrive.  (The other two came on Saturday and Sunday after late COVID tests and delayed flights and missed connections.)  We managed to get them and all their luggage into vans and bakkies at the airport. 

We stopped at the Durban Temple for a photo.

Then to Pinetown Chapel for breakfast snacks.

They rotated around to the six different stations for orientation.

We had pizza ordered and took it outside in the sunshine to eat lunch.  

Sue took their passports back to the office to get copied so the Hubrichs could drive them to the attorney in Umhlanga to be certified.  Ken kept working on receipts...  The never-ending project.

We had dinner with everyone back at Pinetown, and went back to the office to prepare for Saturday.

We drove the Mission's nine-passenger van on an eleven-hour round trip drive, starting at Pinetown at 7am with four Elders in the car who needed to go 2.5 hours west to Ladysmith.  We were greeted by a big group who were there to pick up new companions.

After about 20 minutes there, we had Elder Masenya join us in the van and headed further west, another four hours to Bethlehem.  Elder Masenya was also coming back to Durban, but we needed to go to Bethlehem to pick up others, so he had to come along for the ride.

This was the group in Bethlehem, some down from Bloemfontein to pick up new companions, some gathered to transition to the country of Lesotho.

The Mission is finally opening up Lesotho again!  There have been no missionaries there since the borders closed on 22 March 2020.  It finally re-opened just a few weeks ago for free travel -- with a negative COVID test in the last 72 hours.  It is rugged terrain there, so all the Elders drive bakkies. We needed to get four bakkies and a van out west.  The van is staying in Bloemfontein for use by that side of the mission.  The Hubrichs drove one van and one bakkie, so they needed a ride home again.  

We packed the back of our van full of luggage for three Elders coming east and drove back to Durban.  We rolled back in to Pinetown about 6pm to drop off the Elders and meet their new companions.  Long day!

• Ken made these videos of their arrival and dispersion (copy and paste):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agPYyQ-72GU&list=PLI4JonDzDT24-nKA4zdoLRM3d4Lo60jXt&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ymp0CsfU-A&list=PLI4JonDzDT24-nKA4zdoLRM3d4Lo60jXt&index=1

We had rain the first hour out of Durban -- both going out in the morning and coming back in the evening, but after that it was a gorgeous day on the high plains of central South Africa.  Good roads, blue skies, fluffy clouds and majestic mountains.  Sue was driving and Ken was watching the altimeter on his phone.  We went over many passes above 4,000 feet high, and a couple over 6,000 feet high.

Sunday we were ready for a quiet day at home.  We went to Church with Molweni Branch, as usual.  

Sue went for a walk in the late afternoon -- the usual route down our dead-end street and back up the hill again.  When she started down she noticed this bird standing on top of a car in someone's yard.  When she came back up about 10 minutes later it was still just standing there, so she had to take a photo.  We don't have birds like this in our Palo Alto neighborhood.

Tomorrow is a holiday in South Africa for election day.  There are posters up all over.  We are hoping the demonstrations will be peaceful.