Out of Africa Week 4

This week we were busy greeting the senior couple, the Kimball’s, who is being assigned to Botswana office.  They had quite an experience getting here.  They were stuck at the Atlanta Airport for 8 hours with mechanical problem and flight crew schedules.  They spent most of that time stuck on the plane.  With a 16 hour plane ride and a 4 hour flight from Salt Lake, they were travelling for 28 hours.  The Oborn’s were picking them up from the airport.  They left the office at 4:45 pm and got home at 4:30 am the next morning after delivering the Kimball’s to their hotel room.  We spent most of the week training the Kimball’s and getting them ready to travel to Botswana. They left with the Oborn’s on a 6 hour drive from Johannesburg to Botswana. 

This week was frustrating for me since the Hendrichsens left for the States and me trying to remembering how everything is done to keep the mission running.  Sister Nichols also had quite a time performing her duties too.  It will take a few months to get comfortable in our new responsibilities. 

This Saturday we went shopping for groceries and visited the church for a social of the ward.  They were having a Potgeir kos contest.  Basically, this is cooking in a round Dutch oven that has long legs.  The early Dutch settlers used this method of cooking.  They would hang the pot under the wagon as they travelled.  The method of cooking is to place oil in the bottom, brown meat and sauté onions.  Then layers of vegetable are added with spices.  They were using some propane heaters, but the tradionalist used a fire (mostly charcoal).  When the dish was cooked in a few hours, they added cream to the mix to thicken it.  One brethren was trying his new solar cooker to make rice in the dutch oven.  We didn’t stay for the tasting, but I wished we had.  Sister Nichols and I went on safari and visited the Rhino and Lion park that was about 20 plus kilometers.

I was a very interesting park to visit with many of African animals.  We saw Sable Antelope, warthogs,Ostriches and zebra when we first entered the park.

Just down the path at the waterhole we saw a number of exotic birds and animal drinking.  They were feeding a lot of the animals, so we got to see waterbucks, zebra, sable antelope all feeding together. 

                                                        Cheetah feeding on a new kill.

                                                                    Zebra feeding

 They seem to burn of lot of the grassland in hopes of a brighter green when the rains come again.

                               A herd of Blue Wilderbeests march in line, moving to better pasture.

                                                 Porky pig never had such big tusks.

                                           We saw three rhino and one baby with its mother.

                                                                   Ostriches grazing

                                                These are some of the very rare white lions.

Out of Africa Week 3

Well, this has been the last week in our orientation with the former couple, The Henrichsen’s, as they are departing for the States on Sunday.  I suppose we both have a dozen question to ask them on how some tasks are done, but now it is on our shoulders to solve.  It has been a long hard learning lesson.  It is so stressful trying to remember how things are to be done to keep the mission going. 

We had a 4^th of July celebration picnic indoors due to the cold and said goodbye to the

Hendrichsen’s and Watt’s, our two leaving office couples and welcomed the new mission president and wife, the Omer’s.   We had boerwores (sort of a hot dog) that was grilled over a pit on a long strange bun with a very unusual local chilly sauce that was delicious.  We had salads and chip with Stony soda (a very strong ginger ale) and other soft drinks.  To top the evening we had fireworks that was recorded from Boston last year on the television.   Not the same as being home.

This past Saturday we decided to get out to try and see something other than city in Africa.  We drove a lot and finally arrive at the Johannesburg Airport.  We were using our GPS to find a site, but we were disappointed after travelling so far to just see city and the airport.   We decided to return home and did a little shopping at the charity shop and picked up a few kitchen things and some native carved mirror frame and coat rack.  Now we have to find a glass shop and get them set up.  After shopping for a few groceries we decided to go to the mission office and met the Elders who were meeting with the Mission President.  They helped us to locate a place to see some sites.

We decided to travel to Rustenburg which was about 1.5 hours north of Johannesburg.  We were a bit disappointed not seeing many African animals, but it did seem familiar country to our beloved Kenya.

                                            

It was nice to see the locals playing soccer ball and having picnics on the way.  We saw a number of people begging for a ride.  They do this by holding their arm out and hanging their hand down.  We use the thumb.  This is the way the hail a taxi or a lift.  We did see one monkey and a couple of antelope on our long journey but not much else wild life.  As we came nearer Rustenburg, we came closer and closer to a long range of mountains which you can start to see in the above picture.

 The countryside with rolling hills and lots of grasslands.  Often times they are burnt in hopes of green pastures when it starts to rain in November.

 We stopped at a reservoir and dreamed of sailing our Sunfish, but just took a moment to enjoy the scene and absorb the weather and waves. 

                               On our way home we caught this picture of a very interesting cacti.

This was a mountain range that arose out of the horizon.  This is a designated preserve with native vegetation on it.

Week 2 – South Africa

Week 2 – South Africa



This week started with a devotional meeting.  Each day now we will start our day at the office with a devotional and prayer to invoke the Lord’s help and blessing on our work here at the Mission Office.  We are now preparing for mission transfers and the arrival of  12 new elders.  We will receive another office couple, the Oborns.    Sister Oborn  will be doing medical, housing, and utilities and Elder Oborn will be doing cars.  It will be a big job for them to keep 180 + elders in apartment, well and with transportation.  This month we have had 13 accidents with cars. This mission has more cars than most because of the distance from living area and teaching areas.ere is a pictured of our mission offices

                                                         Roodepoort Chapel

This is our mission office sign and the chapel for the three ward that meet there Sunday.  We had a nice Sunday visiting the ward at 10 am.  The chapel was quite nice, but cold.  Everyone wore coats since they don’t heat the buildings. 

We are still working with the landlord to keep our electricity going.  It has went out 4 times now.  It is hard to cook and heat the flat when the electricity goes out. 

                    Well, the Oborns and Mihu couples came this week.  It has been an interesting and busy week with a missionary transfers.  With about 180 + elders, missionary families picking up elders, senior couples, new arriving elders and senior couples, it has been an exciting week and exhausting.  We had the most spiritual transfer meeting where everyone was greeted and inspirational council given by departing missionaries and departing mission president.

                    It was interesting to hear Sister Mihu’s testimony since her grandfather came to South Africa in 1846 and met the missionaries when they started the mission here in 1855.  Both her family, the Bodily family and 50 saints boarded a ship in Port Elizabeth and sailed to Cape Town where my family, the Bourne’s and Day’s got on board to sail to America and crossed the prairie to Salt Lake.  Sister Mihu was able to share more details of this adventure than I had about their time here in South Africa than I had.  I will share it with my family when I can.

                    With all the Elders here for the transfer meeting, the office which is already crowded, it was pandemonium.  I got to exercise my calling by giving out information to the new Elders on the use of their allotment cards and getting them started on their missions.  It was great to meet such wonderful young Elders who have come from all over the world to serve the Lord.  The new Elders were from Riverton, Panguich, and Sandy Utah, Tazmania, New Zealand, Manchester, England, etc. 

                    We finally were able to go to the temple here in Johannesburg.  The temple is the same design as the Chicago Temple, but we noticed that the rooms seemed much smaller.  We were fortunate to catch the last session on Sat.  We did not understand that the temple closed early on Sat.  We hurried around the ground just before the gates were locked. I suppose we need to go early to enjoy all the sights.

                    It was good to go to the temple after a hectic preparation day trying to buy drapes for our flat.   We had a lot of trouble again getting our credit card to work since it was a large purchase.  With our electric heater going out and extreme cold morning which froze and broke our plumbing, it was challenging.  I believe it was the coldest morning for us here in Africa.  The car was completely frosted over.  As I mentioned previously, we have no central heating in the flats and rely on small electric heaters.  Sister Nichols and I have to huddle a lot around a heater to survive.