May 30, 2012

We were able to meet up with Sister Dell and give her the microwave.  She was so grateful.  She wanted to give President a hug, but knew she couldn’t, so I got a great big hug and we both got a big thank you. 

In the afternoon, Sister Dell met me at Pick’nPay (one of the local grocery stores) to help me become more acquainted with the products in South Africa so I can better learn how to cook here.  Most of the products I use in my cooking they don’t have here, like stovetop stuffing, brown sugar as we know it, swiss cheese and black beans, etc.

We meet in the Mgadi home for seminary once a week. They have a larger home centrally located in the township and are willing to let us hold seminary there. This evening we were to show the second half of “The Ten Commandments”. The kids saw the first half of it the night we arrived in Port Alfred.  We went to the Mgadi families’ home and waited for the students to show up but no one came. After 35 minutes we decided to just make a movie night out of it and watched “The Other Side of Heaven” with the Mgadi family and enjoyed eating all the popcorn brought for the students. We will try again next Wednesday and see if we can get through the second half or just have another movie night with the Mgadi family. I’m going to bring some really good eats so either way we will have a good time. 

May 29, 2012

The missionaries introduced us to pap.  It is pronounced “pop”.  The people in the townships eat this a lot because it is filling and cheap.  It really isn’t bad.  It is corn meal cooked to a glue-like substance and let it cool.  You eat it with your fingers.  Take a blob and then dip it into a gravy-like broth and eat.  We only had cream of mushroom soup, but we were able to get the idea. 

May 28, 2012

Today we decided to go into Port Elizabeth. It’s a nice drive.

 

They have a Makro store there, which is similar to the Costco stores back home. They have lots of stuff.  I have been looking for a GPS (needed for the townships so we don’t get lost all of the time) a back massager (didn’t bring ours and after carrying all that gravel no price would be too much to pay) and look for some gardening tools.  We picked up some food, the GPS, the massager and also bought a new microwave for Sister Dell.

Ever since our Elders told us about how good one of the local delicacies were, Janet has been looking to find some and try it herself (ha-ha-ha).

 It seems that here in South Africa if people normally don’t eat something, they sell it as ethnic food. This was one of those times.

When we learned that we would be going to South Africa, we made a commitment to try all kinds of different foods while we were over here, but needless to say we have not, nor will we try this one!!!

 On our way we stopped at a Farm Stall (I think it is an old farm that now has a store, bakery, restaurant in it) and purchased these rolls that are baked on a Braai (BBQ).  They are warm and we have them sliced open, butter and jam put on them and eaten like a hot sandwich. They were wonderful.  We learned of these when we went to Port Elizabeth with the Fowers for the BYU Ambassadors. All in all we had a pretty nice day.

May 27, 2012

 Another Sunday has arrived.  This one will definitely go better than last week.  Prayers assigned, blessing of the sacrament taken care of, hymn numbers are received on text (or SMS as they call it over here) extra time if speakers don’t use all of the time, is prepared for.  And all went well.  I spoke on how to have successful families and Brother Nobebe one of Rick’s councilors spoke on service and then Rick had to fill about 10 more minutes, which he did quite well.  The scheduled prayers didn’t actually show up so two spur of the moment ones did it, however.  After sacrament we both went into primary to help out and we actually separated the Jr. and Sr. primary today.  It helped, but we had the 4 children in Jr. Primary, and, boy what a job.  Two of the children come from the same family and they have got to be ADHD or something, especially the little boy.  Rick took him over.  We decided it just needed to be a nursery class rather than trying to teach Jr. primary age children. So, color, toys, one story, run around outside, more toys, etc.  Next week has to be better.  The primary needs help!!

After church we went over to Sister Helen Dell’s home for lunch.   

 

She is like the mom of the branch.  She tells you like she sees it, but is very giving and caring.  She is a very nice lady. The Relief Society president and her husband were there also. They are great people.  She made a lovely lunch which included fish (hake) with onions and not sure what else wrapped in a crust, mashed potatoes, corn, peas and a wonderful salad.  Very yummy!   For dessert she made a pudding with crapes, bananas, custard, and cinnamon and whatever.  Served warm with ice cream and it also was yummy.  I have had some really great desserts since we have been here, all of which we have never had before.  Embracing the culture can be great! After the Cockbains left, we had a really nice visit with Sister Dell.  She liked how Rick sparkled her kitchen. (he washed the dishes) She told us about her life. She joined the church when she was thirty and has worked as a nurse most of her life. She has never married, speaks with a lovely British accent and loves to talk. It was a great visit. Rick looked at her microwave, it has been broken for around 8 month to see if could be fixed.  It is quite old. 

 

She has a wonderful garden with all kinds of fruit trees. The lemon tree in her yard and it is loaded with lemons of which she gave us some along with, grapefruit, guava, and granadillas’ which she grows at her place. We left feeling we had spent time with a truly great lady.

May 26, 2012

 Today Janet doesn’t really have to leave the flat at all.  She will be working more on the talk I have asked her to give tomorrow in Sacrament meeting. She also plans on baking some cookies, rolls, bread and get some primary pictures and sharing time stuff together for the primary president.  I will be helping at the church on a service project spreading gravel around the front of the building and then off to a members home to put gravel in their walk area. It seems that the theory about water running down hill is alive and well in South Africa. The people who live higher up on the hill have it better than those lower down. All the wash water, outhouse drainage and anything else liquid they have ends up in the neighbors place downhill which is exactly where this member lives. The only thing we could do about it was to bring in some fill. Back home you would order up a load, have it delivered and then just spread it out. Not so here. First of all, you can only get to his place by walking and second if you had a load of gravel delivered near his home out on the road, it would be gone as fast as it hit the ground. What we did was have it delivered to the church and then loaded it into buckets, putting them in the boot of ours and the full time Elders car (nobody in the branch owns a bakkie or pick up). We then drove as close as we could, parked and packed it in by hand to his house, then back for another load till it was all hauled. They save a lot of petrol by doing things this way but I can’t say that it’s the way I prefer to do it.

At 5pm I meet with my councilors in our first presidency meeting to work on training them in some of their responsibilities.  They are so new in the church and very unsure of what they are to do.

May 25, 2012

 District Meeting was the first thing on our agenda today. As always, it was a good meeting and afterwards, we took the missionaries for lunch at Guido’s and ordered the same thing we had yesterday with the Nye's.  The missionaries love fish as well as us and for just over $20 we fed four people very nicely.  After lunch, we decided to search out the back way to our boarding as the way through town can get a little busy at times and you travel farther than needed.  Success, we found it!  After a short break at our flat we met up with the missionaries for more visits and lessons.  

 The first sister we visited was Sister Kutloano Sebetlela. We call her Sister Kay. She is a member but had been inactive for some time now and weak in the gospel but very desirous to get back on track.  This sister is very sharp. She is attending flight school, has her certification to fly fixed wing single and multi-engine aircraft and has been recruited by the police force to fly helicopters for them, an almost un-heard of thing here in South Africa.  She asked for guidance on what to do about a friend that was driving her crazy. This gave us a chance to do some counseling and share gospel principles with her that will help her deal with her.  It worked out great. She felt encouraged having some ideas on how to deal with this problem and we had an opportunity to show her that most, if not all, problems can be solved by learning and then applying those principals.  It’s amazing how the principles of the gospel have answers for all of life’s problems. 

Next we visited an investigator who is progressing quickly in the gospel and wants to be baptized and wants her husband and son to be baptized, as well.  However, her husband is on the stubborn side and has only been to two lessons out of six. He does well when he is there but finds every reason to not be there when the missionaries show up. The missionaries feel he will be a great member, as soon as he decides the Gospel is a good thing and wants it in his life, also.  At the end of the discussion she said the closing prayer. It was a very humble and sincere prayer about her family listening to the message of the gospel.  She didn’t just ask God for things, she talked to him as a friend. 

May 24 2012

 Each Thursday is the day our cleaning lady comes to clean our flat.  It is so weird to have somebody come to clean our flat. My first instinct is to clean the place up before she gets here. That’s what we have always done, clean up before people come. Her name is Ntombiyakhe Dayile. 

She worked for the Robinsons while they were here, is a single mom with 2 children, is very nice, works hard, does a great job and really appreciates the employment. 

We met today with Elder and Sister Nye now serving their mission in Grahamstown.  They are a great couple from Oklahoma and he is also serving as a branch president there. I needed some financial clerk help and he was able to provide it.  We went to lunch at Guido’s, kind of an Italian restaurant here in Port Alfred.  It serves pizza but also has a good seafood menu.  We all had hake, which seems to be the basic fish here.  They give you two large fillets of hake, squash, cabbage salad and chips (French fries). It’s a lot of food for only R44 about $5.22.  Not bad!  It was nice to visit with another couple for a while and learn from them and get ideas on how to better serve.  Sister Nye will be sending seminary information as I will be teaching it for now.  We only have it once a week here because of the burden it places on families who have no transport, so that won’t be too bad.  The only thing is that we are studying the Old Testament, and Janet has a hard time understanding, let alone teaching Old Testament.  Guess she will learn along with the class.  We will be going out with the missionaries again tonight for some more lessons. Our days really seem to be full.

May 23 2012

 Some of our members live a ways from Port Alfred.  Jack Barris and his wife Edith live 50K out of Port Alfred in a town named Alexandria. We are one of the few in the branch who have transport so we are their home and visiting teachers.

The missionaries showed us the way to the Barris’ home where they served all of us a lunch of roasted potatoes, rice, pumpkin, cauliflower, green beans, mutton and gravy and then the missionaries gave them a spiritual message.  We had a good time and learned a lot about them.  Sister Barris is German and Brother Barris is English.  She is 75, born in Namibia and has traveled all over the world. He is 84 was a die and tool maker by trade and worked for many different companies and for the South African Navy.  He is a collector of vintage motorcycles and an inventor. They are very interesting people and have a lot of memories of the past; you know, the way it used to be. 

On our way back to Port Alfred, we then visited some investigators and taught additional lessons.  One sister the missionaries have taught is Pumbla. 

We think she might not have it all together because she has so much trouble connecting things together. It’s not likely that she will be able to understand enough of the gospel to be baptized. She seems to have a lot of mental limitations.

The next to be visited is an inactive member, Sister Sinawo who lives in Grahamstown but often stays in Port Alfred and her non-member boyfriend Thabo Mahlangla. 

The Elders have taught them most of the lessons. He wants to know more about the gospel and be baptized while she is really hanging back on things. He is a pretty good artist, draws with pencil and is trying to get sponsored so he can show his work at better art galleries. The last visit the Elders had with them we sent some cookies for them. I guess they fought over them big time. The Elders thought that it might get physical for a while, but things calmed down before that happened.  I guess they have a hard time sharing so next time we will send two plates of cookies, one for each.  

May 22, 2012

 Today we met the people of our FM (facilities management) group at the church to go over things needed at the building and it seems they will do all we want done!!  More primary space, chairs, tables, paint, TV and sound system in the classroom off the chapel to give more room for people for sacrament meeting as we are sometimes maxing out our present chapel area. 

We also went with the missionaries to a few investigators homes today to help to get to know them and bear testimony that what the Elders taught was true.  The first investigator we went to, Sister Vuzivdlu,  knows she wants to be baptized but really wants her family to join her. So far they show little indication that they desire the Gospel in their lives.  There was a great spirit present as she prayed to have her family desire the Gospel in their lives, we all hope for this too.

The Moore family was next. 

The Moore Family

They have been investigating the gospel for some time now. They had some problems that needed to be overcome before they were ready to progress. They are making great progress and I think they will be baptized soon.  Unknown to us they had prepared dinner for us, as a birthday present for Elder Scicluna.

The custom here is to have the guests of honor sit down and eat while the host family waits. This was very uncomfortable for us but we honored the custom. They are very sweet people and will be good to have in the branch.  We didn’t actually get to teach the lesson though because the time was gone and we needed to go to our next appointment.  We then went to a couple of  member’s homes just to get better acquainted with them and for them to know more about us.

The Nteyi family is the first members of the branch to be sealed in the temple as a family. They did this in April of this year.







Next we visited Nomvula Chambala. She is a 12 year old girl who was abandoned by her mother and living alone.

 

President Robinson found out about it and arraignments were made with the Ngcibi family to have her board in their home.

 
She was very frightened living alone as can be expected but is now doing much better. I asked her to speak in Sacrament meeting three weeks from now and she accepted with a promise from me that I would help her if needed.

May 21, 2012

 Went to the local newspaper, Talk of the Town, and turned in a news article about the change in the Port Alfred Branch presidency.  The Robinson's suggested we do this as the newspaper has done several articles on the branch.  So we did, and had our picture taken as well as interviewed. 

May 20, 2012

Well, we have been here in Port Alfred for one whole week all by ourselves.

Sunday was my first ever experience at presiding in a sacrament meeting. It went fairly well except for a few things. I welcomed everybody to church, introduced my new councilors, had an opening song and prayer and since there was no branch business went immediately to the sacrament song. The members here sing well and it was a lovely song, I enjoyed the spirit it brought. When the song was over I got the sacrament prayer card from under my seat that I had so carefully placed there before the meeting started and waited for the prayer to start. There was only one problem, it didn't. I had forgotten to have priesthood assigned to administer the sacrament. No problem, I have two councilors, problem solved. We waited while they broke the bread which gave us (me) more time to reflect on the need of the Saviors help in our lives.

 Being a little un-nerved I proceeded to announce the rest of the program. The two full time Elders were speaking and I thought, good, things are now under control. I can sit back and enjoy the Spirit and be taught, and I was taught but not as I had anticipated. Sacrament meetings are to last 1 hour and 10 minutes but the Elders were done leaving 15 minutes of time. Lesson #2 ALWAYS be prepared with a message to share no matter who is speaking. I arose, bore my testimony of the truth of what had been shared and closed in the Lords name. I then looked to see what the closing song should be and noticed I had forgotten to announce and therefore sing the intermediate hymn, which would have come in handy to have done. All worked out well though. I'll take what I can get. Anyway it gave me more time to visit with the investigators and members of the branch. At least we didn't have a drunk come in during sacrament like last week and start asking people for money. I think the Lord must have known my plate was full and He extended one of His tender mercies.
It's a good thing I have people praying for me or things could have gone badly. Keep praying for us. I know with your prayers and ours, the Lord will help us be a better example of how the church programs should work.

Next week will go better.

Janet helped in primary as one of the councilors, who was to give the lesson, did not show up.  So she winged it for about 20 minutes. All those family home evening lesson we gave our children came in quite handy. You sing, play, and sing, play and time to go home comes before you notice. I think Janet has finally started her exercise program, head, shoulders, knees and toes numerous time as fast as you can is a good start.

 She surprised herself as it turned out fairly well.  Their primary is so small that they only have a president and one councilor and she only comes half of the time.  Today there were 10+ children ranging from 3 to 12, (some of them were moving too fast to count) and it is kind of hard to hold the attention of everyone because of the different ages and attention levels.  President Stumm is planning on splitting the primary into two classes, which should help quite a bit.

May 19, 2012

 President Stumm went with the missionaries to a service project to help an investigator take out a tree. (Actually it turned out to be a gnarly tree/bush that scratched him up pretty good!!)  While he was helping others, I went shopping. We needed a few thing and the young Elders were in need of cleaning supplies which we purchase and then get reimbursed by the mission.  When I returned home, I thought I had turned off the security alarm, but I was so wrong. It turned out that no matter how much you want to silence the loud, annoying alarm it’s just not going to happen once you set it off. I called the alarm company and told them about the false alarm but before I could finish the call the building security was calling on the other phone. When I want attention I know now how to get it. The guards showed up and showed me what I did wrong.  You have to hold the button down until the light on the device comes ON and then the alarm system will shut off.  Me and alarms just don’t get along!!!!!  What a day.

Ricks day was a little different.  He and the Elders had a service project taking out some brushes and trees for and investigator because they didn’t have the money to hire the job out.  The Elders said that they could get it done in a couple of hours, but Rick was highly suspicious of that.  The only tools the Elders came up with were a couple of machetes, an axe and a small bow saw.  The axe was pretty sharp, but the edge of the machetes was about like the side of a 2x4.  They tried bludgeoning the bush with the machetes for about 20 minutes. Great exercise and the bush didn’t seem to mind, in fact when they were sitting down sucking wind the bush showed no signs at all of giving in. Seeing that they were having no success in falling this mighty bush, Rick headed off to the hardware store for something to sharpen the machetes with. He also was going to contact some members and pleaded for some mechanized equipment to even the odds against this devil bush.  No luck, I guess here in South Africa people would rather work all day with a machete rather than an hour with a chainsaw.  He has found that nobody seems to have any tools. When working on a few things at the chapel, he had a hard time coming up with a pair of pliers and a screw driver.  He is going through withdrawal.  He has decided he really is a tool junkie!!  To make matters worse, it seems like this bush had the ability to reach out and get you with its thorns, even if you didn’t touch it.  He came back looking like he had been in a cat fight and lost!!! 

May 18, 2012

 Today is District Meeting, where we are taught by the district leader, Elder Scicluna.  He is a very good teacher and I bet someday he will be a great stake president.  He is very precise and very much on track of what is to be done.  After the meeting we took the two elder to lunch at a fish and chips place.  The fish was really good.  While there we also purchased a cob salmon, whatever that means.  You purchase it whole and they filet it. 

 We then had the missionaries take us to a few members’ homes, to get to know them better.  A couple of them were less active and we encouraged them to come to church on Sunday.  They said they would.  I hope so.   

We also participated in a couple of investigator lessons.  One sister is the wife of Neebazakhe Hola, the 2^nd councilor in the branch presidency.  She is very quiet and it is hard to tell if she understands what is being taught as she doesn’t speak English very well.  However, after we all bore our testimonies of the restoration she was crying. I think she felt the spirit.  She agreed to prepare to be baptized in July.  It was a great day.  It is the first day we felt we were actually doing missionary work!!

May 16, 2012

 The show was wonderful.  We wished we could have brought all of the youth from the branch to see the performance. I think it would have opened up to them a new world of possibilities and potential.  This is such a poor branch.  Most of the members live in the township, which is a really sad, poor place. 

May 15, 2012

 Today we will be picked up around 1 pm by the Fowers who are a missionary couple living in East London and  headed to Port Elizabeth where all of the regular missionaries and senior couple missionaries are going to see a production of the BYU Young Ambassadors.   President Wood doesn’t like missionaries driving the highways after dark if possible. The drivers here sometimes get a little aggressive after dark it seems so  we will be spending the night with the VanSickles, a senior couple serving in Port Elizabeth. 

Elder Fowers is the 1^st Councilor in the mission presidency and takes care of the East Cape area for President Wood.  President Woods 2^nd Councilor lives in Namibia. The Cape Town South Africa mission is the 2^nd largest mission in area in the world.  It covers a lot of territory.  

While we were on our way with the Fowers, we stopped at a Farm Stall, which has a restaurant, a gift shop and they sell local foods and breads.  Here Elder Fowers introduced us to a wonderful roll type bread that they "bake" on a grill.  They cut it open lengthwise and just put butter and jam on it then put it back together like a sandwich.  WOW is it yummy!  They also had some unique lighting fixtures made of canning jars.  Very cool.

May 13, 2012

Not only was today Mothers’ Day, but today Elder Stumm became President Stumm to serve as branch president over the little Port Alfred Branch.  We have been taught and guided by the out- going President Frank Robinson and his wife, Sister Dian Robinson.

Today they will begin their journey back to their home in St. George, Utah.  They left us large shoes to fill.  We have decided we need to find out what we are to bring to this branch while continuing the good things the Robinsons did.

After the branch meeting block, there was a get together outside to wish the Robinsons well on their journey back home and welcome the “new guys” to the branch.  A picture of most of the branch was taken which is included here.




 Here are a few pictures of our little branch building. 

Relief Society Room

Chapel

Primary Room

Front of The Church

Baptismal Font

 

Branch Presidents Office

Branch Presidents Kitchen

Back Yard and Branch Presidents Beloved Avocado Tree

Although we have no Elders Quorum Presidency or Young Men Presidency We have a strong Relief Society, a good Young Women President who is a senior in high school, a  Primary President and I have two councilors.

Elder Robinson, 1st Councilor Canny Nobebe, 2nd Councilor  Ncebazakhe Hola, President Stumm

Neither of my councilor have ever held a leadership position, never touched a computer, never conducted a meeting but I am so thankful to have them. They know the members and are so very willing to learn. With time I can teach them the things they need to know.

We are officially on our own now and thankful we have the full time Elders helping us along the way until we get our footing.

We were invited to the Relief Society Presidents home for lunch. Her husband is not a member; however, he supports her in everything.  That will be one to work on.  The missionaries were there as well as the Barris’. They are an older couple, the husband very English and the wife very German and they make a cute couple.  One of the dishes we were served was wart hog.  They may look rather ugly but served with Sister Cockbain’s special cherry jelly of some sort it was rather good.  We are beginning to experience at least a little of the local cuisine.  A couple nights ago we also had malva pudding for dessert, which is something they serve over here and it was very good.

After our lunch, we were then able to move from our temporary boarding into our new flat. Everybody in the mission has made such a fuss over how nice this flat is but I don’t understand all the fuss. It’s just your ordinary 4 bedroom, 4 baths, half again as big as our house back home, 50 yards from the beach “castle on the sea” as we call it.

Castle on the Sea

 It is a beautiful 2^nd floor flat with a beautiful large balcony off of the living area and the master bedroom that overlooks the ocean and two smaller decks off two other bedrooms.  This house may be the envy of the mission, but it is a little over- powering to us.

Front Room

Our Small Bed

Our Bedroom

Hall Way

Our Bathroom

Dining Room

From Our Bedroom

On The Balcony

Ocean View From The Balcony

Beside us is a golf course but we like to call it our private game reserve because of all the animals on it.