We've beaten the Monkeys! -- week 87

The best news of this week is that we finally went to the big hardware store, bought some window screen fabric and put it across our security door.  Every house and apartment here has security bars on the doors.  

The spaces between bars may keep out people robbers but there is plenty of room for monkey robbers to come in whenever they want.  Now that it is summer, we can have the doors and windows open a lot more since we have covered the door with screening.  Hooray!

Elder Alotsa went home to Brazzaville, Congo this week.  He is one of the heroic souls who stayed here all during the pandemic.  Several times he had a ticket to go home when all non-South Africans were evacuated.  But then the border would be closed and the flights canceled.  He has now finished his two years of service and is headed back home at last.

We are getting about 13 new Elders on 29 October--we hope!  It was supposed to be 18, but we know five are not coming, mostly because their visas have not come through yet.  One is from New Zealand, but he is staying there to serve until the country will let foreigners in again.  They need more missionaries there!

So, in preparation, Sue decided to see how many sheets she needed to buy.  The beds in the mission are all 3/4 size--a wider twin.  We give each Elder a bottom fitted sheet, a duvet cover and a pillow case when they arrive.  They take with them each time they move around the mission--usually every six months or so.  Each bed has a pillow and duvet and mattress cover that stays put.  This is a good system, in theory.  But people leave their sheets behind, or they like the pillow and take it with them, or they don't understand the system and take everything.  Or in summer it gets hot and they stuff the duvet up in the top of a cupboard someplace and then they move.  The next winter we hear from Elders that they are cold and need a duvet.  Or they go home and don't take their sheets,but leave them stuffed in the cupboard.

As we do apartment inspections we've started pulling stuff out of the up-high cabinets and have found lots of treasures!  We bring the sheets and clothes home and wash them.  Old and beat-up items go on the curb on trash day.  Most of that gets picked up by people looking for goodies.  Good missionary clothes go into Sister Lines' collection at the Mission Home for Elders who might need help with their wardrobe.  Sue collects the good sheets, etc.  There were piles in the office and she started to sort.  She made 15 good piles of sheet, duvet cover and pillow case.  No need to buy any more for the next transfer.

And there was a pile of good sheets--but only twin sizes.  These were given to the Hubrichs to deliver to the orphanages and care homes that Church Humanitarian Service helps.

Tuesday and Friday we spent running all around Durban doing apartment inspections.  It's fun to go out and see all the Elders.  Some are better at cleaning than others, of course, but they are all great young men.  We mostly forgot to take pictures, but here are the Elders in Molweni:  Elder Hall, Elder Tom and Elder Watkins.

As we were leaving Hillcrest, Ken said, "This is our third car of the day!"  We had driven our usual Toyota Urban Cruiser to the office, but then taken the six-passenger Suzuki to swap cars for the Hillcrest Elders, and then we drove their former Toyota Corolla out to Mpumalanga for that inspection and then back to the office.  Hillcrest and Molweni each have three Elders right now, so with a six-passenger car they can take all six of them together when they need to.

Friday night, we and the Hubrichs ate at the local Chinese restaurant in Westville Village Mall.  The staff recognized us for our badges and welcomed us with open arms.  It had been a long time since Senior Missionaries had eaten there, but they remembered.

We didn't have much exciting on P-day this week.  Ken continued to rest from his surgery and Sue worked on a database project for Ravenswood Schools where she used to work in California.  They needed some extra help getting all the student and staff names and other information into the Library check-out system.  It's a little klutzy, so it was a good project for a Saturday afternoon.

The Hubrichs left early Saturday to go up north to do apartment inspections and attend church in Port Durnford.  We attended Church in the Molweni Branch, and they came back on Sunday afternoon. We all went for a walk together around our neighborhood.  Sister Hubrich really liked the color of this plant--very gray-green.  We also picked up two bags full of trash as we walked.  South Africa needs a bottle-deposit law. 

Oh, and load shedding is back--twice a day for two hours.  Fortunately most events are in the middle of the night when lights are out anyway. 

General Conference -- week 86

Twice each year in October and April we get to have General Conference.  Instead of regular Church meetings, we receive a broadcast from Salt Lake City, and other places around the world.  We hear talks and music from wonderful men and women inspired of God to teach and lead and help us live better lives and grow closer to and more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

It's a little harder to be in South Africa, because Conference runs on Mountain Daylight time, and we are eight hours ahead.  We see Saturday morning live on Saturday evening.  But we watch Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening sessions streamed delayed on Sunday on our schedule.  Then we watch Sunday morning when it is Sunday evening here.  We will watch Sunday afternoon sometime on Monday.

If you would like to watch General Conference, the sessions are available for streaming.

While watching, Sue was also making cookies for the Elders this week as we go to do boarding inspections.  It must have smelled good outside, because she had an active audience.  There was a monkey mom and three babies.

But it's been a week of strange schedules.  Our son Keith called on Thursday evening and said he'd made arrangements for us to watch his dress rehearsal.  He is in a production of Hunchback at Hale Center Theater in Orem, Utah.  He plays the King of the Gypsies, which is a major role.  We were sad we would not be able to see his show, but we got up at 3am on Friday morning to watch the dress rehearsal zoomed, just for us! 

 

It was wonderful!  If you live in Utah, go see him!  It opens this coming week and runs most of October and November.  He performs on Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday nights.

Tuesday morning President & Sister Lines and Sue sat down to try to figure out the calendar schedule for the rest of 2021.  We'd done this once before, but then things change... .

And all week we had two visitors in the office from Johannesburg--Marc Jackson and Thembinkosi Zwane.

They are Church Tech Support for all of Southern Africa and came to give our office all new computers.  And they also changed our shared folders and files all from Google Drive to Sharepoint/OneDrive.  They are good guys and very helpful, but it is still a painful process making sure everything gets moved and set up properly.  

Wednesday we went flat-hunting down in Amanzimtoti, 25 km south of Durban.  In August we were given two-months' notice that we have to vacate the missionary flat there by 31 October.  We had appointments to see five flats, but really, really liked the third one, so we took it on the spot and skipped the last two.  

It's a very nice place--big and sunny in a good neighborhood.  And a nice view.  It's been sitting empty for two months, because it's up on the third floor with no elevator.  But, our Missionaries are young and spry and don't mind a few stairs.  However, at one of the rentals we visited, the downstairs neighbor expressed a serious interest in finding a church for her young family, so we contacted the young missionaries in the area to visit her. When they learned the address, they exclaimed, "The next-door neighbor is a very strong member of the Church!" 

President Lines' birthday was on Saturday, but Friday morning Sister Hubrich stopped by with a tray of cupcakes, so we all ran into his office and sang to him.

Then on Saturday morning Ken and the Hubrichs got up at 3am again to watch BYU play football against Utah State University.  

Since we'd been up at 3am the day before, Sue had gone to bed at 8pm and slept in until 5am when she came downstairs to watch the second half with them.  

It was worth the early rising, because BYU won.  

They are now 5-0 for the season and ranked #10 in the country!

Saturday we went with the Lines and the Hubrichs to The Mushroom Farm for lunch.  Sue had been there two weeks ago with the Hubrichs, but it was first time for Ken and the Lines.  We had a great lunch.  

We wandered around to the shops, and Ken bought himself a new jacket.  It is beautiful soft leather.

Then we drove around the corner to look at all the metal sculptures Sue had previously seen.  They are really fun.

Last, but not least, we all went back to the Mission Home for one of Sister Lines' amazing cakes!  Happy 65th!

(Yes, that's Sue in the mirror.)

Surgery and catching up -- week 85

 Usually the week after Transfers we sit back and have a calm, quiet, almost-lazy week.  Not this time!

Monday we were cleaning up from Friday and Saturday.  While we were driving home from Bethlehem, President & Sister Lines and the Assistants cleaned out all our paraphenalia from the Pinetown chapel and dumped it into the office.  Things had to be put away and Sue had to go through all the orientation folders.  Ken was paying bills -- as always.

Tuesday morning we did more orientation -- this time for Elder Black.  He's the one who didn't arrive until Saturday morning.  He was sent immediately out to his area to serve, but President did assign him to someplace in Durban so he could easily come to the office and do all the paperwork, driving test, etc.  The fun thing about Elder Black is that he is from Pleasant Grove, Utah, and was friends with our grandson, Spencer Mills, who is currently serving a mission in St. Louis, Missouri.  We took this photo and sent it immediately to Elder Mills.

Tuesday afternoon Sue was supposed to go out to Hillcrest Hospital to do the pre-admissions stuff for Ken's hernia surgery, but that all got sidetracked.  A triple of Elders way out west in Thaba Nchu (ta ban' chu) was in a car accident.  They ran a non-existent stop sign and t-boned a woman.  They are all new in that area and had not yet learned that the town just writes STOP on the street.  Stop signs get knocked over all the time and the town was tired of replacing them.  The Elders were telling her it was her fault, and she called her husband who came and took their car keys away!  It wasn't a bad accident -- cars still drivable, no one hurt.  But we had to call the fleet manager in Johannesburg.  He drove down there the next morning and smoothed over everything and the Church is paying to fix the woman's car. 

Wednesday morning we were out the door at 5:30am to get to hospital admissions by 6:00.  Sue got off at the wrong offramp from the freeway, and then went the wrong way when she got back on.  We were only about 10 minutes late.    Then there were problems with the pre-admission stuff that should have been done the day before. Hillcrest is a beautiful modern hospital about 25 km west of where we live. We have Aetna medical insurance through the Church, but almost no one in South Africa will accept it.  So we pay with mission credit card and Sue has to do the paperwork each month to get all the medical bills reimbursed.  But we forgot that we have a $2,000/day limit on our card.  Hospital bill was more than that. We put 1/2 on the mission card and 1/2 on our personal card.  That's going to be a reimbursement mess that isn't even started yet!

Ken was due for his hernia surgery at 7:30, but missed that, and went in finally at 8:30.  

Sue went to the hospital restaurant for eggs benedict.  He was back in his room before about 10:00.   It all went just fine.  

Laparoscopic surgery is amazing.  Just two small band-aids on his stomach, and all is well.  Then it was just wait time.  He had to keep down liquids and urinate before he could go home.  That all took awhile.  The doctor finally showed up after 4:30 and discharged him. 

 Funny thing of the day.  Before the surgery the nurse (a "Sister" in South African) was asking Sue all the standard questions -- any allergies, what drugs does he take, height and weight.  I said 5 foot 9 and 170.  She looked at me wide-eyed.  170??  Oops -- that's  pounds.  Everyone here measures in kilograms.   I guessed about 75.  He's actually closer to 77kg, but 75 is close enough. 

Ken stayed home and convalesced on Thursday and Friday.  Sue went to the office, and it was just busy!  No idea why.  She went to the post office on Thursday -- had to double park, dashed in to get whatever was in PO box.  Back at the office realized there were two packages to pick up.  One for an Elder in Bloemfontein.  Good timing.  President is going there on Saturday.  Sue will get it from the PO on Friday.  Oops!  Friday is a national holiday -- Heritage Day.  

So, back to the post office.  Sue noticed the women tellers were all dressed in beaded and/or African dress.  And a woman in line had on a wonderful fancy sari.  Of course!  For Heritage Day! 

Friday Sue went to the office -- just for a couple of hours as it was a holiday after all.  Ha!  She had three projects to finish -- baptism form entry for the week, submit Aetna claims for August, write mission History for August.  Baptisms are supposed to get done on Wednesday each week.  The other two are done monthly -- theoretically before the 10th.  She left the office at 4:30 with the baptisms done and Aetna claims started.  Those got finished at home on Saturday.  History is barely started....

But we did celebrate Heritage Day on Friday night.  We were invited for dinner at the Hubrichs downstairs.  We usually go out on Friday night, and often together.  But Ken wasn't really feeling up to that, so Hubrichs invited us just to their flat.  They made tacos and we brought root beer.  Those are definitely our heritage!  And Elder  Hubrich wore his new African shirt.

Friday was a holiday, but the workmen were out putting up the traffic signals in our neighborhood.  They are called traffic robots in South Africa.  We've talked before about the long-long time it has taken to finish this intersection.  It's been all done with stop signs everywhere for a couple of months.  We actually like that.  It's such a crazy intersection that everyone knows they have to slow down and take it carefully and watch out for others.  We don't think we are going to like it when they turn the robots on.  There will be four lights between the office and our flat -- in less than 1 km.  We think it will just slow down the commute.  And McDonalds isn't open yet, but there have been regular non-construction employees seen in the neighborhood.  It could happen any day soon.

When Sue woke up on Saturday morning there was a message on her phone from 6:20am.

Hey Sister Allen, looks like  we need a new mattress and a plumber. At about 4am we woke up to half inch of water in parts of the boarding. A hose between the wall and the sink burst. We got the leak stopped and the standing water cleaned up. The mattress we had on the floor got soaked and we don't have water to our bathroom sink. Sorry for the trouble.

 

Sue called Andre.  He is our handyman and salvation.  He will go anywhere in the east side of the mission and he can fix anything.  He called back later in the evening to say the plumbing was all fixed, and the Elders also told him that when they use the toaster the circuit breaker trips.  Andre looked at the electrical panel and said it was all wired wrong, so he fixed that, too.  He is fabulous!  And his wife cuts our hair, besides.  

They had a mattress on the floor because they are in a temporary triple companionship.  We have eight of those right now!  That's not the usual plan, but with so many new Elders we didn't have enough trainers.  Some are one Elder training two newbies.  Some are two Zone Leaders training one newbie.  

We have spare mattresses in the MTC flat, so I called the Assistants to deliver one up to the aptly-named Waterloo flat.  They said they could do it late-afternoon.  All is now sorted -- as the South Africans would say.

Saturday for P-day outing Ken didn't feel like walking around, but Sue and Hubrichs went to "The Mushroom Farm."  It's an area with 15 or 20 small shops and a couple of restaurants that is just across the highway from the Hillcrest hospital.  One of the restaurants is a bakery with terrific kinds of breads.  We had lunch and wandered the shops.  

Then we went up the road to an amazing place full of metal sculptures and stone carvings.  Lazarus is the owner.  He does the metal work and his father does the stone carving.

This is a made-from-junk Harley Davidson replica.  President Lines is a huge motorcycle buff.  We think he should take this home with him.

Sue would prefer a life-size T-rex in her garden.

Or maybe a Cinderella coach?

Sue came home and finished on the above-mentioned medical reimbursement work.  Progress!

Sunday morning Sue went for a walk.  It's been a while!  Spring is definitely here.  It was 80F today and is supposed to be 89F tomorrow!  The flowers are so beautiful.

We have two big bushes like this in the yard of our building.  They have the most amazing smell.  Walking through the parking lot the smell is so strong.  You don't even have to walk up to the bush.  And the flowers are either white or purple -- all mixed together.

Walking down the street, the jacaranda trees are blooming.  This is strange, because at home they bloom in July.  That should be January here. 

And there are more beautiful azaleas.  This bush had the densest flowers ever seen.   

Sunday we got to go to Church again!  It's been a long time.  We think it was mid-June when we last went.  It was a small-but-happy group of Molweni Branch that met in the Hillcrest chapel today.  

It's a 30 minute drive from their area, but COVID kicked them out of the school building they were renting.  They have land purchased to build a chapel in Molweni, but that will take a while.

We have an emergency group of 5 Elders living in the MTC apartment this weekend.  The Hubrichs fed them dinner last night.  We sent over cereal and milk for breakfast, and PB&J for lunch, and then invited them to our flat for dinner, and the two Assistants, too.  Sue made a huge pot of macaroni and cheese.  We just barely have room for 9 around the table and sitting on the couches.  

But the best was dessert -- root beer floats!  It was a new thing for our African Elders.

New Elders! -- week 84

It has been quite a week!  We received 25 new Elders on Friday and Saturday.  We were scheduled to get 26, so only having one not make it is one of many miracles this week.  The most we have ever had arrive at once before was 11.  This took things to a whole new level for preparation, organization, orientation, and logistics.  Twenty-two of them arrived on Friday morning.  Two were already here because they are South African and did MTC with us.  One more had COVID test problems and so arrived on Saturday morning and missed all the hoopla.

First, before the arrivals, we had to sadly say Goodbye to three wonderful Elders who have completed their two years of service.  

Elder Jordan Russell came back shortly after we did last December and took the Mission's use of Social Media to a whole new level.  That has kept the Mission going during all the lockdowns and restrictions of COVID times. 

 

Elder Jerrick Stastny also went home with us on the evacuation flight and came back in December to serve in Durban, and then out in Dundee, and back south of Durbin.  He stayed strong in some tough times and places.

Elder Siyasanga Mananga was one of our heroes.  He is South African, so  he stayed here during all the lockdown times.  He is an orphan, and the only Church member in his family.  He is a little older than most of our missionaries, who are 18 to 21 years old.  Elder Mananga will be 27 today.  Happy Birthday!!  He is the one who did so much of Ken's job, and worked with Ken over Zoom during the eight months that we were home in 2020.  He is a great young man!

Seeing these Elders go home is always hard.  We do grow to love them all!

Most of this week was spent preparing for Departures and Arrivals.  Sue printed all the paperwork needed for orientation.  They are all so tired by the time they get here.  We tell them lots of things and give them a folder to collect all sorts of papers.  Then we tell their Trainers to go over it again during the next six weeks.  Each new Elder is assigned to be companion with an experienced missionary for at least twelve weeks for training.  That system works well.  

Thursday afternoon we went to the Pinetown chapel to set everything up.  

That is about 20 km (14 mi) west of the Office.  We usually do orientation at the office and dinner at the Mission Home, but there just isn't room in the Office or the Mission Home for that many people!  We had the Elders serving in Pinetown area come and help us set up tables for orientation and for meals.  It all looked pretty good!

The arriving Elders leave their location in the USA sometime on Wednesday morning.  Ten of them were coming from the Provo Missionary Training Center.  Two were already here in Durban doing MTC training remotely.  The other 14 were in temporary missions around the USA.  They were all supposed to meet in Atlanta for a 7pm red-eye to Johannesburg.  They arrive there too late to clear customs and get the last flight to Durban, so they stay overnight at an airport hotel and take a 6:30am flight to Durban.  That's the theory.  It actually happened that way for 21 of the 24 coming from the US!  Not bad.  Two Elders coming from Tacoma Washington had their travel-required COVID tests not come back in time, but they went to Seattle airport and got a test there and were put on a flight from Seattle to Amsterdam to Johannesburg.  They only arrived a few hours late and still stayed in the hotel and arrived with the others on Friday morning.  Whew!  We had one Elder who wasn't able to do that, but he did get his COVID test and flew one day late, so he arrived on Saturday morning.  He missed orientation, but President Lines assigned him to an area close to the Office, so we'll do his orientation on Tuesday.

So we were out the door at 6:30am on Friday and at the airport to greet them from their 7:30am arrival. 

We took two 8-passenger vans and three 5-passenger bakkies and the Mission President's 6-passenger SUV.  Ken is in the foreground with his video camera going, of course.

 It took all that space for people and baggage.

Ken made a video of the arrivals and first transfers, which you can watch here:

Sept 17 New Missionaries

And then we stopped by the Durban Temple for another photo op:

Hurrah for Israel!!

Then we went to Pinetown Chapel for the day.  

The Elders all arrived starving, of course.  They had checked out of their hotel rooms at 5am.  It was now 9:30am, so the first order of business is breakfast -- muffins, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, juice boxes, fruit.  All done ahead by Sister Hubrich and sitting out ready to grab.

Sue had divided the Elders all into groups of 4 or 5 and set up a rotation around six stations:

• Secretary stuff -- Sue

• Medical, housing, nutrition stuff -- Sister Hubrich

• Financial/vehicles stuff -- Ken

• Driving test -- Elder Hubrich.  ("Remember to signal with blinkers, not with wipers, and stay on the left side of the street!")  At least he let them do the test in the Corolla, and not in a bakkie or van.

• Missionary purpose, daily schedule emergencies & phones -- Elders Bascom & Mokhoanatsi (Assistants to Pres. Lines)

[Oops -- missed the photo]

• Social Media in the Mission -- Elders Hill & Kholobile

Each station got 20 minutes, and all during that President Lines was also taking each one for a ten-minute personal interview.  He usually likes to do 30-45 minutes, but that can't happen with 22 Elders!  

Then it's time to eat again.  Pizza delivered, of course.  Except the driver got lost and couldn't find us.  There is another church on the same street that comes before ours, and he was trying to go there.

In the afternoon the Elders had a little down time to do some writing, some personal study, and to call their families!  They were supposed to wait until it was 7am at home, but they got anxious and called too early for some families!

We may think it's 2pm, but to these Elders it is still 6am, and they have been up all night.

We suggested that they take their chairs outside and enjoy the beautiful day -- especially because sunshine is one of the best ways to get your body-clock reset to South African time.  We are GMT +2, so nine hours ahead of California.

While they did that, President finished up the interviews, and then he and the Assistants decided who would be assigned to what area of the mission.  He doesn't like to do the assignments until after he has met the new Elders.  

Sue went back to the office to copy all the passports and visas so that they could get certified as true copies by President Mkhize (Mission Presidency counselor and an attorney.)  We keep the passports in the office, and the Elders carry the copies with them.  She also scanned all their COVID immunization cards and Driver's Licenses, if they had not sent copies earlier. 

Ken and the Hubrichs took the two mission vans and rented trailers to pull behind them on Saturday for Transfers.

We had all the Elders pull their suitcases out of the various vehicles and line them down the halls of the church.  Then later Sue made signs for the walls listed by area of service, and the Elders put their baggage there, sorted by area, so we could pack the trailers, bakkies and vans quickly in the morning.

We all met back at Pinetown with the Elders about 5pm and they were told to which area they would be going.  There is a big map on the table and they all sit around so they can get some sense of where they are going.

Then it is time to eat again!  We had our near neighbors, Amiena and Fahdli Toyer do the catering again.  Roast beef, garlic potatoes, butternut squash, salad.  All very yummy!

And Sister Lines made her famous cakes.  For this crowd she did three of them.  They are absolutely amazing.

After dinner there was a testimony for all of the Elders -- but only two minutes each or it would have taken all night.

Six of the Elders came and stayed overnight in the MTC apartment in our building.  The other 18 stayed in the bunkhouse at the Mission Home.  It has 20 beds, but we decided to split up the group.

At 5:45am Saturday morning we piled the Elders staying by us into the one van the Hubrichs were driving and the bakkie we were driving and headed back to Pinetown to start Transfers. 

It turned out we were one seat short in the cars, so we took President Lines 6-passenger car and left him with the bakkie for the day.

We drove the car with three Elders and a lot of baggage to Ladysmith (2.5 hours west), needed to pick up one more Elder there.  Then we were on to Bethlehem (two more hours west).  We followed a van carrying seven Elders and pulling a small trailer full of more baggage.

This is the crowd we had at Ladysmith.

And here are those who were at Bethlehem.  Elders Viviers and Naisbitt drove down from Bloemfontein to pick up the Elders who will be serving up there.

Two hours behind us, the Hubrichs left Pinetown in a van pulling a trailer and arrived in Ladysmith to meet up with those going up to Newcastle.  This is the group then.

On the way home we stopped west of Durban in the township of Mpumalanga to deliver a bike helmet for big Elder Wardlow, which had been brought from the US because we couldn't find one large enough in all of Durban.

It was a lot of driving.  Sue did nine hours behind the wheel.  But we enjoyed talking with the new Elders, finding out about their lives, and telling them about life in South Africa.  They will go on to do good things.

Ken and the Hubrichs then got up at 4:15am again on Sunday to watch the BYU v. Arizona State football game.  Sue joined them to watch for the 4th quarter about 7am -- a much more civilized hour. It was another BYU victory, 27-17.  Notice the goodies to go with the game.  Sister Hubrich made chocolate chip cookies, and Sue found A&W root beer at Takealot!  Ken is a real root beer fan, and it is not to be found in regular stores here.  But we've now found him a good supply going forward.