November 29, 2012

 We left at about 7 am this morning to pick up the YM and go to the nursery plant farm towards Bathurst.  

 We made breakfast burritos for the boys.  They enjoyed the breakfast, however, on the away home I was going to collect the garbage, but when they were finished, they let me know they had  thrown it out the window!!!  The people in the township do it that way.  They are used to throwing their garbage on the ground no matter where they are. Not a big deal to them but it was for me.  I kind of chewed them out for that and told them they should throw it away, not on the ground!!  They just smile!!! Crazy white lady !!!

 They seemed to enjoy the visit and we purchased a few more seedlings for the garden at church.  We went to Grahamstown to visit with the Nyes and mark important places on our GPS for the new couple who will serve there. They are going home to Oklahoma on December 11. 

November 27, 2012

 Today we are back on our visiting and lesson schedule.  Sister Dell is in the hospital so of course we visited with her.  She had originally stepped on a needle that went into her heel.  It had been taken out, but wasn’t healing properly, so she had to go back in to get it cleaned out.  In the hospital here, there are 3 visiting times and for only ½ hour.  When the ½ hour is up, the security people come in a let you know time is up.  It’s very weird.  I never want to be in a hospital here.  Very cold feeling!

 

November 26, 2012

 Today Rick purchased his much anticipated and long awaited for trailer.  Yes, a trailer to be pulled behind our mission car that he was able to have a hitch put onto.  Now he can load Brother Hola’s pig food, Tunye’ bricks, Canny’s sod, Nteyi’s wood and Vulindlu’s brush in the trailer instead of the boot of our mission car.  Yea!! No more bad smelling dirty car!!! Yea!!!

November 25, 2012

 The primary presentation is the Sacrament program today.  It went OK, but I was glad for it to be over.  A new YW and primary presidency were put in today.  I think it will be a great uplift for the branch. 

We really enjoyed Elder Scicluna’s and Elder Grows visit. 

 They could only stay for a couple of hours, but it was very nice.  We had our Elders here for dinner a little later, as well, for their usual Sunday dinner. 

November 24, 2012

 We left Cape Town at 6 am.  We traveled with the Nye’s, they in their car and us in ours.  We stopped in Heidleburg  for breakfast at Wimpys. 

 I don’t think the waitress got anything right with the order.  She must have been new and understanding our English also probably played into the equation. We arrived back in Port Alfred at 4 pm to a welcome home greeting from our Elders. 

November 23, 2012

 Our conference today started with the mission president playing a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland on divine companionship which means having the Holy Ghost actively in our companionship's, followed up by President Wood giving more instructions. The Fowers next presented how they structured a “rescue mission” of the inactive members of one ward in East London Stake. There were around 750 members that had not had contact with the church in a number of years.  Lunch was next which were leftovers from Thanksgiving and just as good the second day as they were the first.  The afternoon session was a testimony type meeting where all of us told about the joys and challenges of our missions.  It was helpful for us to hear that those we viewed as having it altogether were dealing with some of the same type of challenges as we are having.   After the meeting, we went with the Henderson’s and some of the other senior missionary couples to a final exam recital of a young  man in Henderson’s  ward who was finishing his university degree.  He did a great job and shows a lot of talent. Even though we are not that excited about classical music, it was good.  After the recital we were invited to go to dinner with the Henderson’s and this young man and his family.  We went to Pickwick, which is a funky little restaurant with a bar on the bottom floor, a narrow winding stairway leading up to a kind of loft where there was an eating area and a makeshift stage. It reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of the 60’s clubs in Greenwich Village.

The food, however, was great.  The best hamburgers we have ever had. 

Sister Henderson and her hamburger

Ricks hamburger

The only light was candle light

 We also had a lot of fun with our new found friends.  Rick let the wife of the young man order for him as she is known as a food snob and would know what to order to make it a most memorable meal and Rick was not disappointed. It was a great evening.

November 22, 2012

 Today is Thanksgiving Day in America and we are celebrating here in Cape Town at the mission home with all of the senior couples, ahhh a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings.  Our contribution is green beans with bacon and onion in it.  We wanted to bring the traditional green bean casserole, but you cannot find the French’s Onions that is needed.  The meal was wonderful.  After cleanup was done, we all went to a garden famous for the trees planted in the 1800’s.

Then back to the mission home for a discussion on what we felt our errand here on mission is.  Not everyone spoke, maybe half but it was a very spiritual time.  President Wood wants to hear from everyone else in our discussion tomorrow.  After that, dessert, and lots of it… very good stuff.

November 21, 2012

 Today was like another p-day.  We met up with the Nye’s and proceeded to the waterfront area of Cape Town where we got on a city tour bus.  They are double decker and you want to sit on the top because it is open air and a great way to see everything. 

Table Mountain from Downtown

The Old Part of Town

These trees grow straight out of the ground, most trees grow straight up.

 They issue you little earphones that you plug into the side of the bus and it tells all about the different places as you travel through.   We traveled through the city for quite a while and eventually arrived at Table Mountain, which was our main goal for the day. 

View from Parking lot

 
 We waited about an hour in line to finally be able to ride a cable car to the top of the mountain.  What a view!!  

In Cable Car Heading Up

In Cable Car at Top Looking Back Down

Cape Town

Cape Town

Lions Head

 It was sunny out and also very windy which made it cold.

We got back down the mountain right before they shut down the cable car because of high winds. Back on the bus we finished the city tour but got back later than we expected, so we didn’t make the couples meeting for a planned garden tour.

We Would Have Been on Time If We Would Have Taken This Tour

We had just enough time to meet at the  Braza Restaurant where all of the couples came together for dinner…12 couples…24 people.  The food was great…Rick especially liked his steak.  He hasn’t been able to find a good steak in South Africa…he did this night.  The mission paid for all of the dinners… it was a Christmas present from President Wood.  It was a great day. Rick got especially sunburned…so did I, but, strangely he got burned more than I did!!!  We were really tired after our days adventures.

November 20, 2012

 We went to the “heads” in Knysna before leaving for Cape Town.  Very beautiful.  

 We had our first Wimpy’s ice cream cone.  It was the best ice cream in South Africa so far.    We also arrived in Cape Town today and are staying with Elder and Sister Henderson. 

November 19, 2012

 Today is the day we leave to go to Cape Town.  We are so excited to be able to “get out of Dodge” for a little while.  It will be a nice break.  We are traveling with the Nye’s.  We stopped at Monkeyland and the bird sanctuary before going into Knysna to our B&B.  It was a nice day.

November 17, 2012

 Today was the branch Christmas party.  We are having it this early because after school lets out for holiday break a lot of children go away to visit family and we wanted to include them. Primary was put in charge of the game which we would have first, followed by a braai and finishing up with a Christmas pageant, of sorts.  As always here, things start slow which means late.  We were ready with our part to begin at the announced starting time of 12:30, but the only ones there were the new members, Relief Society Presidency and us and one uninvited guest.

If it was Sacrament meeting I would have started on time even if we were the only ones there, but seeing this was a branch party I felt it best to wait till more of the branch showed up. People started slowly showing up and at 1:30 one of the Primary presidency finally showed up, but she had no idea what games the Primary President planned to play. We knew what was planned, so with a little bit of our help, games finally started around 2:00 followed by the braai and potluck salads which all the families brought.  

Sister Dell wrote a program about the birth of Christ, which included a lot of the people in the branch and a lot of hymns.

 It went fairly well considering five players didn’t show up. I invited the owners of the building we meet in, and they seemed to enjoy their time.  Since Sister Tunye, the primary president, didn’t make it to the party, we took a bunch of leftover food to her.  When we got to her home, there was a group of people walking past. As we got out of the car two of the young children came running to the car, converging on my side of the car grabbing at things in the door storage. While I was fending them off, one of the mammas who happened to be drunk came over and gave Janet a big hug, slobbering on her neck, I wish I had a picture of it to include.  It seems like when any of these people get drunk they have some things in common. They love everyone and they all say that they are coming to church this Sunday…joy… more drunks at church!!!