Merry Christmas again! Week 98

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It was good to be with friends here, and to talk with family on video.  We love this technology.

But we need to back up a little.  

Ken made two more videos this week, despite some significant challenges.  While working on the first video three weeks ago, his 2011 Mac Mini internal power supply failed, so he took it into the local Apple repair shop.  They couldn't fix it so they pulled the SSD (drive) and shipped the box off to Johannesburg for repair.  It was to be a two-day turnaround.  Well, the computer and one other package in the custody of the courier company have disappeared on the return trip.  Probably stolen.  

The salvation is that President Lines had an old, unused Mac Pro tower available.  He has simply gifted this powerhouse to Ken.  So the shop has lent Ken a case for his SSD to use it as an external drive, and he has made all these videos on the Mac Pro.  He hardly lost a beat.  Meanwhile the shop has another Mac Mini that can replace the missing one.  All is well. 

This Wednesday evening we had a Mission-wide Zoom devotional.  It was the substitute for the Christmas Tour that did not happen.  Monday morning we were all supposed to leave for a long-anticipated three-day trip to Ladysmith, Bloemfontein and the country of Lesotho.  We were going with President and Sister Lines to have a Christmas Fest with each Zone, then come back to Durban for a similar gathering with the Durban, Hillcrest and Richards Bay Zones together on Thursday.  But COVID is having a big spike in South Africa right now.  We are almost as bad as California!  It was decided, for safety's sake, to cancel the gatherings--even though all but two of our missionaries are vaccinated.  It turned out to be a good choice.  We now have five Elders who tested  positive last week.  All are vaccinated.  All have very mild symptoms.  But we don't want to take a chance that some might get it badly.  

Ken had made this first fun video with photos and videos contributed by many of the Elders on the "new" Mac.  As part of the Zoom Conference we showed the video to the whole mission, and then President and Sister Lines told the Christmas story, and we sang lots of Christmas Carols.  It was OK--but not as good as being together.

On Monday President did drive four hours west to Bethlehem to meet others and pass off the Christmas boxes for all the Elders out west and in Lesotho.  The Office was looking like a shipping warehouse--boxes stacked everywhere.  

Thursday we were supposed to have 60 people from the three Zones all together in Durban.  We still needed to deliver gifts from families to all of them, and we also had ordered lunch for 60 people and hated to cancel the caterer on three-days' notice.  So we asked him to box everything into packages for two people and deliver to the office at 11:00 on Thursday morning.  We divided up the Zones into four groups, gathered food boxes and gift boxes for each groups and took off driving.  Elder and Sister Hubrich picked up a dozen meals early and headed north to Richards Bay.  President and Sister Lines went west again to do the west side of Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and out half-way to Ladysmith where they met Elder & Sister Lyon to pass on gifts for Newcastle Zone that had arrived since the Monday delivery.  Andre and Vanessa Slabbert, our local Service Missionaries, covered the five apartments around central Durban.  And we took food and packages to the Elders on the south side of the mission.

Because of COVID, we left items at the curb or on the driveway and waved to the Elders.

 Then we stood back while they picked up their goodies.  

These two actually both had COVID, so we stayed far away.

Elder Tom had one very, very heavy box.  Weight set we were guessing?  He's South African, so maybe he'll be able to get it home with him.  Nope--we talked to him after Christmas and it was all groceries!  His family sent all his favorite foods.

President and Sister Lines sent a Santa hat for each Elder--and us Seniors, too.  She asked them to send her a photo with their hats on.  

We had hoped to all wear them for the Zone parties!

But, since we didn't have the parties, Ken collected all the photos and on Christmas Day put them into a fun video that you can now watch here:

The Elders in Amanzimtoti, about 25km south, live just down the street from the local rugby club fields.  As we drove by, we had to smile at the very African method of keeping the grass trimmed.  Notice all the cattle all over the field!  

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Lines and the Hubrichs at the Mission Home--turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad, and brownies with whipped cream for dessert.  So yummy, but best of all was the good company.  Being far from family is hard, but good friends make it easier.  

And we admired the Lines' gift to themselves.  They've always been talking about getting a zebra skin to take home, and so they finally bought it this week. They had to get the proper certificates about how it died naturally, and it is the species with brown in the fur, too.  The all black/white ones are endangered, so their skins cannot be imported into the USA, nor sold in South Africa.

Sister Hubrich is a very clever, creative woman.  She saw someone with a T-shirt one day that said "South Africa is not for Sissies."  She liked the saying, so designed and had made these T-shirts for all of us.

The ones for the women have a woman with pot on her head and the flat-topped trees so typical of South Africa.

The ones for the men have a Zulu warrior.  

Christmas morning found us downstairs at the Hubrichs for "golden browns."  That is their family name for large pancakes--and they always sing the name: "Gooooal-den Browns!"  The Assistants came, too.  Elder Mokhoanatsi managed to eat quite a few.  We had lots of toppings--maple syrup, coconut syrup, jam, whipped cream and Nutella.

After breakfast we went Christmas caroling to the apartments in our building! 

You can tell it is the middle of summer.  Gardens are lush and green, and neighbor Sean is sitting around in his shorts.  It tends to be hot in the morning and then get cloudy and cooler in the afternoon.  But humidity is 85%-plus all the time.

Santa made it to our apartment, too.  But it was a small and mostly consumable Christmas.  However, Sue also made a video today of Ken playing with his new Christmas toy.  He got a mini-drone.  It doesn't do anything but fly around, but he can make it buzz Sue's head.  Only once did it get lost under the couch.  And he's kept it away from the ceiling fans.

Merry Christmas! Week 97

 

Here is the Christmas Story, as done by the Port Durnford Branch.

This is the last letter before Christmas, so we'll wish you all a wonderful Christmas.  It is good to have this time of year to especially remember the amazing gift from a loving Heavenly Father of His Son.  Jesus was born a mortal man and lived among normal people.  But he was also the son of deity, and so could live and do miracles and then suffer and die for our sins.  But he was resurrected to live eternally, as we will also all be.  It is an amazing story, whose beginning we commemorate at Christmas time.

And we finally decorated our apartment today.  Life has been busy. Which is why this blog is a day late.

The week after Transfers is usually pretty calm and quiet.  Not this week!  

Sue likes to keep her desk neat and organized and pretty empty at the end of each day.  This is what it looked like when we came in on Monday morning.  It was full of stuff just dumped there after Transfers.  She had to start organizing.....

...while Ken went outside in the rain to fix a piece of trim on the mission van.  He ended up just removing it.  The  gray trim piece just in front of the wheel on the right (driver's!) side was popped off just a little bit, but it kept the big sliding door from opening.  One of these days when there is time he will take the van to the dealer and have them put on a new piece.

Tuesday we started off very early to take Elder Kortjas to the airport.  He came to us in August to do his Missionary Training Center (MTC) time because the formal MTC in Johannesburg was still closed due to COVID.  Then he stayed with us for two Transfers (12 weeks) waiting for his visa to serve in Nairobi, Kenya.  It finally came through and he is now there.  He is from Durban, so he served his time with us way out west.  We had to stop at the Ampath Lab on our way to the airport to get a print-out of Elder Kortjas COVID test so he could fly internationally.  Usually we get that on line, but whoever put the phone number into the system left out one digit, and so I couldn't get the PIN for registering.  He had an 8:30 flight, so we were at the Lab closest to the airport at 7am when they opened.  

The airport was very crowded.  It is summer tourist season in Durban, for sure.  Santa is there and ready to welcome the visitors to the beautiful beaches.  Check out his flip-flops, shorts and sunglasses.

We took Elder Kortjas to the airport instead of President because Tuesday and Wednesday was the Mission Tour with Elder Cristofell Golden.  He is the Area President for southern Africa.  We met him four years ago when he was serving in Moscow and did a Mission Tour to St. Petersburg!  He is South African, so is he glad to be back closer to home now.  The Tour would normally really be a tour -- travelling around to each Zone.  But COVID has changed that.  It was all done via Zoom, sadly.  

We had three hours on Zoom each day.  The Mission Leadership Council had an extra hour each day, also.  Sue's job was just to take lunch each day to the Lines and Goldens at the Berea Chapel from where the Zoom was originating.  

Wednesday evening we went to a session in the Durban Temple with the Lines, the Goldens, President Siya Mkhize, and the Hubrichs.  It was a blessing and privilege to be there with these wonderful people who serve well. 

We wanted to get a photo together after the session, but it was pouring absolute buckets outside.  We stood around inside the temple for about 30 minutes waiting for it to let up.  (No photos allowed in Temples.)  It stopped pouring, but was still very, very windy.  We ran across the grounds about 50 meters to the entrance to the Patron Housing and stood under the portico to get a photo. 

Thursday was the Molweni Branch Christmas Braai (BBQ).  We went for a bit.  Ken played some ping-pong.  Sue watched the girls playing basketball.  

Sue loves the flowers in the garden around the Hillcrest chapel.  Gorgeous, huge hydrangeas.

The braai was very slow getting going, and we needed to get back to the office, so we left after about two hours and didn't get any food, sadly.

We did make a short stop at the hardware store around the corner from the church to buy some plants.  It is Sue's favorite plant nursery.  We bought some for the pots outside our front door, and some for the pots in the stairwell at the office.

We also bought our "white elephant" gifts for the upcoming Zone Christmas fests -- a 16-way utility knife, and an electric mosquito zapper that looks like a small badminton racquet.

Friday we had tickets with the Lines and Hubrichs on the Umgeni Steam Train.  This is an historic train that runs from Kloof, about 15 minutes west of us, up to Inchanga, half-way to Pietermaritzburg.  The trip is about an hour each way, with a stop at the end for food and craft market and group Christmas Carol singing.  The train usually only runs on Saturday and Sunday mornings of the last weekend of the month.  But they put on extra runs for Christmas vacation.  There were lots of families with little kids. Santa was there with his elf, handing out candy.  It was cold and rainy!  It's the middle of summer!!  But so much fun.  

The Hubrichs brought us a yummy pineapple they bought from a roadside stand.  We cut off part and ate it for breakfast on Saturday.  The remainder was sitting on the kitchen counter.  Our neighborhood monkeys have an amazing sense of smell.  We are so glad for the screening on our door that keeps them out!  This one did a stare-down with Sue, until she shut the solid door and then he went away.

Saturday we drove to Mtunzini and Port Durnford with the Hubrichs.  That is the Branch that they attend.  Saturday afternoon was "Spring Cleaning" at that tiny humble chapel.  

We had some great help from even the little kids as we washed all the plastic chairs.  

There was also time for the children to practice their songs for the nativity program on Sunday.

Port Durnford is an rural area south of Richards Bay.  The chapel is down a dirt road off the main highway. 

The baptismal font is outside.

And the neighbor's chickens run around the Church property, too.

We stayed at a B and B on SeaView Drive.  That's the Indian Ocean on the horizon.  No time to go swimming.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at De Hof Cellar -- a German restaurant!  But the food was more African than German.

Sunday morning the Church had a regular Sacrament service, and then right after they enjoyed the Nativity Program (top of this page).  It was wonderful!!  

The Flamboyant Trees are in bloom, and they are so gorgeous!

Merry Christmas from Durban!

Transfer Week yet again -- week 96

Every six weeks we get all-consumed by Transfers, and this week was no exception.  Except this time we are also opening four more apartments across the mission.  And sending out all the cars except the one big van.  We've had extra cars stacked at the Mission Office and Mission Home since we returned back a year ago.  When the evacuation started the mission was at 106 young missionaries.  When we came back in December 2020 there were 24, but 11 more came back the week after we did.  As of today we are at 104, with also 10 of us senior missionaries.  But two young Elders are leaving this week.  One is from Durban and was here waiting for his visa to permanent mission in Nairobi, Kenya, so it is a good thing that he is leaving us.  The other has some medical issues that need him to go home temporarily.  We hope to have him back in a couple of months.

The Mission grew very slowly from January to September 2021.  We crept up to 62.  Then we got 23 more on Sept 15, 17 more on October 30 and 12 more this week, with very few going home.  We feel badly for the mission president in two years who will have almost half his mission leave within three months.

Friday morning we packed the van and a bakkie (pick-up) with all the packages and other items needed for orientation and set-up in the Pinetown Chapel.  Then it was time to go to the airport.

Ken did a video of the arrivals again to share with their families.  You can watch it here  

Did we mention that the temperature on Friday and Saturday was in the 90's?  With 85%+ humidity?  The Elders coming off the plane felt like they were walking into a sauna. Most of the suit coats came off right after the photos!

After the airport it was back to the Pinetown Chapel for the usual orientation.  This was rushed, as they came on a flight that arrived in Durban at 1:30 p.m., instead of the usual 7:30 a.m.  But we got through it all, picked up a new vehicle from the dealer and then sent them to the Mission Home for dinner and overnight in the Bunk House.  With only 12 of them, and good weather, it worked to have the dinner there.  If it is more than 12 we do dinner at Pinetown Chapel, too.

With all the Elders off to dinner, we went out for date night to dinner with the Hubrichs at the Cape House Cafe.  It's just down the street from the Mission Home, in a residential neighborhood, and  it has lovely outdoor seating, perfect for a hot night.  

Saturday morning we are back at Pinetown by 6:45am to pack the cars and head west.   It was too early in the morning.  We'd had a later dinner and didn't sleep so well.  

People grabbed fruit and muffins and a bag of snacks for the trip.

They also found their packages.  These are the ones for those staying around near Durban.  The ones for the Elders going west were already packed in a bakkie to be distributed at Ladysmith or Bloemfontein.

We drove the van with four Elders to Ladysmith.  That is theoretically 2.5 hours, but it took almost three hours.  The Hubrichs each drove a bakkie, with three Elders in with Elder Hubrich, and all the packages and some furniture for a new boarding in the one driven by Sister Hubrich.  Young Elder Black with his new companion, Elder Lawlor, drove a brand-new Nissan Magnite--a small hatchback.  They are moving all the way to Kimberly--home of the largest diamond mine in the world.  It's the farthest part of the mission, about a nine-hour drive. They spent the night in Bloemfontein with other Elders so they didn't have to find their new place in the dark.

The first stop was about 20 minutes down the road.  Elder Black called to tell us that his fuel light was on.  This was a brand-new car, and no one had ever filled it up!  Too many other things to worry about.  It was the one that had been to the dealer on Thursday and Friday because it wouldn't start.  We had the local equivalent of AAA come and jumper it.  Ken drove it 5km up the freeway to the dry cleaners, and when he came out it wouldn't start again.  Had to call AAA to come again--but they came to the office where they'd been before. Then they drrove all the way to Pinetown, being totally lost to where Ken was.  Oops.  Two hours later when it got started Ken took it straight to the dealer.  They declared it had faulty battery.  Duh!  Since Ken and the Assistants had to go pick it up Friday afternoon, it made the orientation time even more crunched.

Our second stop was in Pietermaritzburg.  After the Elders arrive Sue makes a photocopy of their passport and visa for them to carry.  Originals go in the office safe.  We get our Mission President Counselor President Mkhize to stamp them as official certified copies.  He's an attorney and has the Notary stamp to do that.  But because this was all so late on Friday he wasn't around to do the stamps.  But we were leaving so early on Saturday morning!  The Elders going west needed their certified copies.  He had a brilliant idea.  

He lives in Pietermaritzburg, and we had to drive through there.  We met at the same place where we'd handed off the passport for our briefly-jailed Elder Alviana last May.  President Mkhize did all the stamps in just a few minutes while the Elders and Hubrichs all stretched their legs, and then we were on the road again.

We arrived in Ladysmith only 45 minutes late, and were met by quite a crowd.  Ken commented that this group was more than we used to have in the whole mission!

We climbed back in our van with four different Elders who were moving east--but we had a luggage problem.  There is not room in the back of the van for two big bags and one carry-on times four.  One of the bakkies that had come with us was going on further to Welkom.  The Hubrichs were coming back to Durban, but not until later that night who were involved in a "Light The World" service project.  We had the two Elders who were moving closest to the Mission Office put their bags into Hubrichs bakkie--along with parcels that had accidentally been loaded to come west when they didn't need to.  Considering that we have seven zones and 10 to 24 Elders in each Zone, we were lucky to get most of the packages to the right areas!

We arrived back at Pinetown about 2pm, just an hour late.  We sent all the Elders we had in our van to go off with their new companions.  It was a long but productive day.  We came home, had a dish of ice cream and a quiet, lazy afternoon.   Hubrichs arrived home about 6pm, so we were able to get the luggage to the Elders in Berea and Pinetown.  Then Elder Hubrich came to our flat about 8pm to tell us that the BYU v. Creighton basketball game was on TV!  We went down to watch the second half.  Ken stayed until the bitter end, but Sue only watched a little.  Then the TV internet connection failed, so they just listened on KSL radio.  But it was a bitter end.  BYU lost by 16 points.  Ouch!

This afternoon, Sunday, we began teaching a Temple Preparation class for two wonderful young people in Molweni Branch, where we attend church.  They are both preparing to serve missions in early 2022, and they will make terrific missionaries!  We'll post a photo of them another week.

This coming week should be less stressful--don't we always think that?  It's Mission Tour Week--done via Zoom--with the Area President Elder Golden.  Oh how we love what we are doing!