The Lyons in Africa -- week 91

 No, we did not spell the title wrong.  There are lots of lions in Africa, but this week we got two Lyons.  Elder and Sister Lyon from Firth, Idaho, arrived to serve here with us.  Elder Lyon is a professional artist.  He had a gallery in Arizona and now sells his paintings online: dustinlyon.com

We are so excited to have more senior missionaries!  They served a mission several years ago in Ghana, so they think South Africa is a new and modern country -- which is really is, mostly.  They will be living in Ladysmith, as the Van Heerdens have moved from there to Lesotho.

They arrived on Monday morning, having spent the night in Johannesburg at the airport hotel, as everyone does.  So we had orientation right away.

Monday evening we went out to dinner with the Lyons, Lines, Hubrichs and us to Lupas -- local Italian restaurant that we all like.

Then Tuesday was P-day -- and this time the P did stand for Play, not preparation.  We took the Lyons, with President & Sister Lines, to see the best parts of Durban.  We went to the beach.

The beach in Durban goes on forever.  Below is looking north.

And here is looking south towards downtown and the harbor.  

And Ken brought along his official NCAA football and played a little catch with President Lines.

We all went to lunch at La Rosa -- best Mexican restaurant in Durban.  But we forgot to take photos.  Well, we've been there before and posted pictures.

While we were on the beach, Sue got a phone call from the Durban Temple with a question about the group that was coming on Tuesday evening.  Long-story short -- there was a big mix-up on who was coming and what day and how many we could have in the session.  After lunch we went back to the office and Sue spent the afternoon re-doing the Temple schedule for the next two weeks.  She thought we had reservations for 22 people each in three sessions.  The Temple hadn't seen that, and still had us for 15 people each in five sessions.  So everyone is getting in, but not always on the same date they were told to come.  It all worked out.

We were able to go with the group on Wednesday evening.  We needed the peace the Temple brings after a hectic ten days.

Friday we spent most of the day in Pietermaritzburg.  It is about one hour west of Durban and is the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province.  The downtown has wonderful old Victorian-style buildings.  But we were there looking for a new flat for missionaries.  We are all filled up with what we have now, and we have 15 more Elders coming on Dec 9, so it's time to find more space.  Besides that, we currently have about eight triples.  Missionaries usually are in pairs, so these will need to be spread out, too.  The new flats will be all over the Mission, and other senior couples are looking for places in other cities, too.  We don't have to do the finding, but once found, we have to do the paperwork with leases, getting landlords approved for auto-pay, etc.

The jacaranda trees all over Pietermaritzburg are blooming and the city looks beautiful.  We looked at one flat on the 12th floor of a building.  We didn't rent that one, but loved the view.

The one we decided on has a nice view, too.

This is the flat entrance, kitchen and part of the living room ("lounge" in South African).

While there we stopped by the Church, just to see where it was.  Nice building.  The security gate code is the same for all the churches, so we could get in to the parking lot OK.

Thursday was Diwali -- the Indian Festival of Lights.  In Palo Alto there are lots of east Indians, so we see some celebration there, but in Durban fireworks are legal everywhere, so we loved hearing and seeing all the lights in the night sky, and even some well-decorated homes. 

 

Saturday and Sunday we stayed home and were mostly lazy.  We've been so busy!  This weekend was Stake Conference for Hillcrest Stake where we attend Church.  In times past, that means all of the ten congregations gather together for special meetings.  But in this COVID time, we stayed home and watched the proceedings on Zoom.  It's not as good as being there.  But there were some powerful messages.  President de Wet is the Stake President.  He spoke on Saturday evening about dealing with adversity, and how hard the last 19 months have been.  He had a very bad case of COVID, was in the hospital, and on oxygen after that.  He is a surgeon by profession, so he saw up close the problems in hospitals, etc.  Then this morning he spoke again, this time about the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand.  President de Wet's house is on a hillside (as is nearly every house in Durban area), and it was slipping!  They had to bring in engineers and put in more pilings along the foundation to keep the house stable.  So he's had quite a year.  But he reminded us that the rock-foundation that we all really need is our Savior Jesus Christ.  If we keep our faith and trust in Him, the trials we face, be they health or house or anything else, will be manageable.

COVID in South Africa is just about gone.  The country is averaging under 300 cases/day for a population of 60 million.  California has 40 million people and averages 6200+ cases/day.  Utah has 3.2 million people and 1500+ cases/day.  In South Africa everyone always wears a mask in public.  Stores require them, and have hand sanitizer at every entrance, with sanitary wipes for grocery carts.  Restaurants take your temperature before you come in.  Social distancing is required for all meetings and gatherings.  The vigilance is paying off with very low COVID rates, and that is a good thing!  Ignoring it does not make it go away.  People are worried about another wave in December/January like last year because families gather for holidays.  We are all praying that the vaccinations will counter that trend.