AllensInDurban: 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!!