EXCITEMENT AT THE OFFICE

 Our office complex is located right next door to the Johannesburg Temple.  There is a special temple fund that makes it possible for people needing some help to travel to the temple.  There are also a few apartments (about 10?) where these individuals or families can stay while in the city.  They are very small and don't have their own bathrooms. 

On Tuesday, a cute couple from DR Congo went through the temple and were sealed along with their darling son (about 3 years old).  They stayed to do more temple sessions, and Thursday about 5 am the mother gave birth to a son in one of the restrooms here in the complex.  Her husband is a nurse and delivered the baby.

Someone came upstairs and asked Sister Lee if there was anything they could use to wrap the baby in.  She just so happened to know we had several humanitarian newborn kits near our office. so she was able to give them several blankets, outfits and diapers.  Pretty handy huh?

Sister Clayton, mom and baby Benedict

But that's just the first part of the story.  Because the baby was born in South Africa, he now becomes a So. African citizen, and cannot travel to the Congo without the proper paperwork, visa etc.  And because the baby wasn't born in the hospital, he didn't even have a birth certificate.  They were told the mother and baby would have to check into the hospital for 2 days for observation, verification and whatever before they could have a birth certificate.

The next problem was that there was no way they could afford a hospital stay.  Our immediate boss is Phillip Moatlhodi.  He is the Area Welfare Manager for the Africa South East Area (a paid Church position).  He was able to give authorization to use  Fast Offering funds to help with the hospital costs.  We saw the husband and son in our little cafeteria each day and I was able to speak with him a couple of times (he's a French speaker).

Today's Saturday and Susan and I worked from 9:30 till 5.  We were happy to be able to do it because it gave us just a little more time to get training from Sister Charlene Lee.  She's been just the best teacher.  Besides all the instruction she's given us, she's spent the last two weeks cleaning up old files (both physical files and computer files), making new files for us to use and making lists, instruction sheets, etc. for us to use.  We'll tell you more about her and her husband, Brent, another time.

HOME SWEET HOME

Before we came to South Africa, we were told we would have a nice apartment but we were pleasantly surprised when we opened the door.  Our kitchen has everything we need, except an automatic dishwasher, but I (Susan), married a good dishwasher and so it's okay.  We have a small washer and dryer in the kitchen, which is very convenient.

The bathroom is nice and modern but it doesn't have any electrical outlets .  It seems South Africa prohibits them in bathrooms. 

 

Our bedroom is roomy.  We have our own closets but they're fairly small.  For now I am hanging  my necklaces with Walt's ties.  At night we open the windows to let the cool breeze in.  We don't have screens on the windows.  Here it is the middle of summer and we haven't seen any bugs or flies, which must be a good sign.

We have felt very safe here.  Our building has a parking garage with a gate and a friendly security attendant.  When we leave the building, there is another security man to let us out through the lobby door.  Also, in front of our apartment door, there is another steel security door. You need to be careful though.  We heard of one sister that closed her apartment door behind her without having her keys, and so was locked between her apartment door and the security door for quite a while.

LOCKDOWN!!

Walt took another picture of our flowers.  They're pretty dead now but he won't let me throw them away yet.

There are 4 buds that have shown up also.  We don't know if they might bloom still

OUR BEAUTIFUL BUT SAD FLOWERS

When we arrived at our apartment last Saturday night, we found that our host (Sister Kinghorn) had stocked the kitchen with all sorts of food items to get us started out.  There was cereal and milk, juice, yummy bread, butter, jam, eggs, plums, grapes, bananas and more.  It was really sweet of her.

About Tuesday I (Walt), noticed there was a vase of beautiful fresh flowere right in the middle of our table.  They're some kind of lilly or orchid or something like that.  I hadn't even noticed it before, just assumed it was a centerpiece of fake flowers or something like that.  Anyway on Tuesday I noticed that some petals had fallen from the flowers.  Every morning I would find that more and more petals had fallen.  Then by Friday, I would find whole, complete flowers had fallen.  It seems so sad to me.  The flowers that are left don't look dry or shriveled, they're just as pretty as they were when new.  This photo was taken last night and you might be able to see that more than half of the flowers are gone.  I intend to keep them until the last pretty petal bites the dust.

This morning we attended church again at the Saulsville Ward along with Elder and Sister Lee.  It's 49 kilometers away and takes an hour to get there.  This morning they were having choir practice at 8 am before the start of their 8:30 block.  That means we left by 7 am, and had to get up way before that.
Saulsville is what is known as a Township branch  which means it's out in one of the townships and we are the only white people there.
I can't remember if I told you much about the ward last week or not. We're guessing there might have been 100 people there for Sacrament meeting.  They had Priesthood meeting, (High Priests, Elders and Aaronic Priesthood), Relief Society, Sunday School and then Sacrament meeting.  There were 2 youth speakers first and the young man (about 17) is preparing for a mission.  But he went kind of long.  Then the High Councilor got up and took his full time.  We got  out about 15 minutes late.

On the way back to Johannesburg, I drove the car for the first time when we went home.  It seemed pretty easy driving on the left side.  It was mostly freeway driving though, and there wasn't much traffic Sunday at 1 pm.

AFRICA WEEK #1

It's now 6:55 Saturday evening, local time.  It was just exactly 1 week ago at 6:55 that our plane landed in Johannesburg.  We were met at the airport by Elder and Sister Kinghorn, from Sacramento.  They are our host couple for the first couple of weeks to help us find our way around and get settled in, etc.  They are also the couple we will be working with very closely in the Area office.  As we are beginning to understand, the four of us are the ones who work with the 13 Humanitarian couples in the various countries in Africa to oversee their projects and make sure all the financial aspects are taken care of properly.
     This week, has really been an interesting week.  The Kinghorns and Elder and Sister Lee (they're the couple we're going to replace), put together and presented the training conference for Monday through Friday.  It was every bit as intensive and well prepared as either week 1 or week 2 at the MTC.  The out of country couples flew in and stayed at the Courtyard Hotel here in town.  Breakfast and lunch were provided every day by the hotel as well as snacks and drinks at 10 am and 2 pm.  Each couple was given 2 prepaid Visa cards with enough on them to spend $15 each for every evening meal.  Here in Johannesburg, $15 is enough for a pretty nice meal. Susan and I went to the Fish Monger 2 evenings.  That's a restaurant comparable to Market Street at home.  One evening we spent $46 and the next time we spent $43.  Then last night the whole group ate at Spetada Restaurant.  That was a really nice place too.  We were joined at that meal by two members of the
Africa Southeast Area Presidency.  That tab was picked up by the Area office.  I don't know how much the entire conference cost to put on with air fares, hotels and meals, but I'm sure that we'll find out next week because we're the ones (along with the Lee's) who'll have to reconcile all the charges and balance the budget.

This is the conference room at the Marriott Courtyard hotel here in Johannesburg.  We spent Monday through Thursday in this room from 8:30 till 4:30 (with an hour lunch break).  We learned about choosing projects to do, paying translators in the several countries where the couples don't speak the language, making sure translators are set up as independent contractors, finding partners to work with, getting bids (3) for every aspect of the project, interviewing and deciding on contractors to use, when it's permissible to make pre-payments (it's usually not allowed), entering vendors in CFIS (Church Financial Information System), negotiating and signing contracts, filling out and sending in payment requests, setting up the 5% retention clause, finding site monitors who will go out to the projects on a weekly or monthly basis after the project is finished to see if it is still working correctly, and determining when a project can actually be closed.
On Friday, we met from 8:30 till 2 pm at the Area office and then attended the temple together.  President Cook, our Area President also spoke to us.  President Cook and President Ellis, also attended the temple session with us.

This morning, we went with 3 other couples in one of the Area vans to the Hartbeespoort Dam.  It's about 60 miles from here. We then got on a little tram and went to the top of a little mountain nearby.

On the left are Brent and Charlene Lee from Idaho, second from right are Larry and Debbie McMurdie from Green Bay Wisconsin (at least somebody's team is still in the playoffs).  On the right are Bruce and Melinda Kinghorn from Sacramento. 

Neither the tram, reservoir, nor dam were very interesting, but the real reason we went was so the ladies could go shopping.  There is an area nearby called Chameleon Village where you can buy just absolutely any African item you could imagine.  There are dozens of shops, vendor stalls and restaurants, plus a building that must be 30-40,000 square feet with literally hundreds of 10' X 10' booths with every hand-made item you can think of.

 

 

This is one of about 8 entrance aisle ways to the craft building.  Each aisle goes back a couple of hundred feet.

We got back to Johannesburg at 4 pm, so McMurdies could catch their flight back to Zimbabwe where they are serving.  This was the hottest day we've had since we got here.  The forecast last night said it was supposed to get up to 86.  

 

GOODBYE FAMILY, HELLO AFRICA

After 20 hours in the sky, we finally landed in Johannesburg.  We were met by the Kinghorn's, a senior couple from the Area Office.  After stopping for a hamburger, they drove us to our apartment.  Our apartment is nice and roomy. Considering we have no air conditioning, it stays pretty cool.  We are in a complex called 'Dukes Court' with about 20 other senior couples.  About 10 of the couples are here on a temple mission and the rest have various jobs in the Area Office.
On Sunday morning we went to church. Our ward is 49 kilometers away and it took us about 50 minutes to get there.  Since we don't have a car yet, we are riding with Elder and Sister Lee (whom we will be replacing in a couple of weeks).  We were greeted by everyone and we  felt very welcome.
Instantly I fell in love with all of the cute little children.  Besides us two missionary couples, there were no other white people in the ward.  The reason our ward is so far away, is that they divide up the couples who have cars and send them to various wards in the area so all the white folks don't end up in the same building.
The past two days we have been in meetings with the other 13 humanitarian couples that are working in other countries in Africa.  There have been a lot of new things talked about.  It gets very complicated when talking about choosing projects, getting bids, getting contracts signed, arranging for contractors, site monitors to go back and check up on the projects, when to be able to close out a project and so forth.  I never thought before about all the nuts and bolts of doing a project, some of which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.




Our living/dining room






Our bedroom



Thursday night we said goodbye to all our family.  That was just about the hardest thing we ever had to do.  We've sure got a great family and we love them all so much. 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll miss you too, James

It's still hard to know.

Here's our house-sitters--Welcome!
 

MTC WEEK # 2

Our second week in Provo consists of specific Humanitarian training.  There are just 3 couples from last week's group who are serving humanitarian missions.  This training has been great and we've learned so much about what humanitarian missionaries are trying to accomplish.  Even though humanitarian missionaries fall under the Welfare Services department of the Church, there is a distinct separation.  Welfare services are primarily for "members" of the Church, and humanitarian services are for the world at large without regard to religious affiliation.


Lunch at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Monday

To the left are Elder Donald and Sister Leslie Peterson.  They are going to Beijing, China, and have served 2 previous missions including one to South Africa.  They moved out of our Sandy Ward (Ida Lane) in 1988, just one year before our family moved in.  Next to them are the Sellers from Layton, Utah.  They are going to the Dominican Republic, and have also served one other mission to Mexico City. 

Our MTC District

Here's our great district from the MTC.  On the left is our instructor, sister Kacher who served her mission in Thailand.  In the middle are the Watson's, from Alberta Canada, going to the Philippines.  Next are the Gustins, from Duchesne, Utah who are serving a stay at home in their stake in Duchesne.  On the right is sister Frandsen who served in Russia.  Her grandfather is Dean Frandsen from our own Sandy Alta View Stake.

PHOTO OBLIGATOIRE

Everyone has their picture taken in front of the big map at the Missionary Training Center in Provo