Aug 17, 2016

     HELLO ,  loved ones.    It has been a busy month.  Probably like all of you feel with summer coming to an end.  We are coming to the end of winter in Port Elizabeth.   This first picture is of Elder Johnson's last Saturday, July 30th.  After the seven baptisms we all got together at a members house for a braii (or BBQ).  They cooked a whole sheep.  Head and everything!!!!  The ladies had just finished singing and dancing so we had them stay together for a picture with the Elders.  I lasted over an hour before I had to have Elder Smith take me home.  It smells like something I don't have words for, but Elder Johnson and everyone loved it so it was a great success.  We all are missing Elder Johnson! 

          This next picture is from the same day.  We are bundled up because it was pretty cold and the houses don't have heat.  You can tell I am feeling a little green and the sister I am with wasn't feeling well either.  The little man by me is Spar.  He is one of my best and usually stays with me during Sacrament Meeting and Primary.  He has on three shirts, a hoodie, jacket, and a beanie. He  looks bigger than he is.  I will really miss him when we move to Queenstown next month.

         These are the seven who were baptised, along with the four who were about to baptise them.  It was a great day with alot of special people.  

         This is a picture of Elder Mumba and his new companion Elder McCarroll.  He is from Colorado and is a great missionary.  We feel blessed to get to serve with him in Motherwell for a while.

                            One of the sisters wanted a picture of Elder Smith and I.

                           This is sister Macoba, she isn't a member yet ,but, she says she will be soon.  We have had some great lessons at their house and always feel blessed with the spirit.  She was so excited when I told her that some of the beetroot (beets) and carrots we planted were ready to be eaten.  She
loves her garden and you can tell by the way it is growing.

                           These are some of the momma's from the NU10 soup kitchen and St. John's Church. This picture was taken on a holiday, Women's Day.  Sometimes the people here wear a white powder on their face.  They say it protects it and keeps their skin nice.  They are very nice ladies.

          This is the same day at the same place.  This is Elder Smith holding up the ipad while the kids sing along to primary songs or the ABC's.  None of them are members yet but we hold our little primary every week and we love it.

         We ended up having about 50 kids and the week before about 70.   The field with the cows in the garbage is just around the corner from where we meet with the kids in the St. John's church.  The cows usually eat the garbage.

          I took this picture as we were just leaving the air port in Port Elizabeth.  We flew to Capetown and then drove a car back for some missionaries in Queenstown.  It was great to stay at the mission home and spend some time with Pres.and sister Merrill.  We felt very spoiled.

          This was a picture from our drive back to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town.

                            It was fun to see a bunch of Baboons crossing the street on our drive.

                      These are the little ones we teach English to in NU11.  We went on a field trip this week to see the penguins at the rescue center.   It was so fun and they were so cute.  As soon as they see me they all start singing their ABC's .  I opened the van door to start helping them out and they all started singing.  Made my day.

                      This llittle one is so cute and he has an amazing smile!  I didn't realize I was getting the penguin right on Elder Smith's head.  Cute little model next to him.  Personality plus.                                                  I guess that is all for this post.  Hope you are all well  Lots of Love from South Africa.

July 12, 2016 Post

                           Hello everyone!   This is Elder Johnson giving a sermon about taking care of our bodies and living the Word of Wisdom.  We came here to have an addition meeting but there were alot of people and kids so we just did a couple of talks and prayers and they loved it.  We meet at the same building as we do for the English classes.  It is called the St. John's Church.  They even lit the candles for us.   When we explained a little about the addiction classes we asked if there were any questions.   One of the Momma's said she was drunk right now and needs help.  It was a great meeting and we hope to have many more.

         We had Elder Debeers and Elder Soto , the Zone Leaders over for dinner with our Elders.  They are great Elders and we really enjoy them.  

         Some of the kids that come each week to learn English from the St. John's Church neighborhood.  They get so excited about their papers and getting to take them home to do for home-work.  We copy of about 200 a week for the different English classes and we love doing it.  We had about another 25 join us before we were through.

         These Elder are the two Zones in the Port Elizabeth area.  We all met at Pres. and Sis. Pershing's
     for a barbecue for the 4th of July.  They are good eaters and great Elders.

         It is hard to beat Blue Water Bay Beach.  July is winter here but we have had a few nice days.  It was 80 degrees Monday so we used our P-day and went to enjoy the beach and sun for an hour.  We are usually pretty much alone on the beach, when we go on a week day.   I find real different sea shells when we go and I love them. That is Elder Smith in the picture. We feel very blessed to be serving here and miss you all so very much.
Bye for now.

June 21, 2016

         Hello everyone,   Hope your all well.  We have had a great month and here are some of the pictures and highlights.  Elder Johnson and Elder Mumba found us a soup kitchen and they let us come and give them messages and pray for them.  Last week we gave out alot of pass along cards and booklets.  We are putting in a garden there today and take  them vegetables for their soup.   A lady that helps there took us to another soup kitchen that is letting us do the same there.

 

     Quite a few can't read english so that is another reason we are starting several English classes. They all still wanted a booklet though.  Very humble and sweet people.

           When we were taking in the vegetables we noticed that the bag of carrotts said "Jesus Saves"
    The young man next to Elder Johnson we call "X".  His name is Xolani or something like that but
     his mom is Sister Oliphant, the primary President that I talk about and love.  He goes with the
     Elders as their fellowshipper almost everyday.  He should get his call to serve any day now and he
     will be an amazing missionary.  He is 18 and has loved the gospel since the first day he heard
     about it.  They are also letting us use this building for the addiction recovery meetings.  YEA!!!

          This is Sister Oliphant with five new primary kids that we were welcoming last week.  I think
    we had about 25 kids.  No one mentioned Father's Day until I did in Primary and had them make
     a card for whoever they wanted to give one to.  About half don't have Dads in their lives.  Other
     than that Farther's Day wasnt mentioned.

          This is Elder Smith helping me with his phone and speaker to play the songs that we sing for Primary.  He usually has to stand because he has so many little curious ones who want his phone.

          Elder Johnson gets a kick out of me and my nursery class that I take outside so the other two
     classes can share our one primary room without too much distractions.  It is getting colder here
     now so it makes it harder to go outside.  Such cute little boys.  I also try to help them with their
     English.

         This is Mihiali Njezula the night before he left for his mission in Uganda.  That is his mom with
    us on the couch.  She isn't a member yet.  We were so excited when he got his call.  He had been
    doing all the paper work etc... for almost a year.  HE also went out with the missionaries some each
    day and will be a great missionary.  We love him.   After we took him to Walmer to the Stake
    House to get set apart they had Elder Smith give him a fathers blessing and it was nice for us to be
     a part of that.

          This is a picture of President Hamilton on the left and Elder Merrill's  cousin and secound Counselor, Elder Pershimg.   He came to tour our Mission for a week.  He just replaced President Cook.   He also did a few training meetings that we were able to go to.  We were at dinner when I took this picture.   We learned alot from him and really enjoyed getting to know him, he is doing an
amazing job.

                           Here we are with the Makoba's.   We have been teaching them together for
                      awhile now.  They are great people.  We hope they get baptized soon.  They
                      love their garden.

                            This is a pre-school across the street from the park where we go take pictures of the kids and give them pass along cards.  She came out and met us and told us she has about 30 little ones who come Mon-Fri to her pre-school.  she is letting us come now and teach them English and some primary.  The children are darling .

         This is a very sweet sister who got one of our pass along cards and asked for the video and loves the gospel.  She walks over two miles each way to the church with her two year old and five year old.  She is twenty five and asked when could she be baptized.  She has a very wonderful testimony.  The work here is so humbling and we feel so blessed to be a part of it.   Hope you all have a great week.

May 23, 2016

            Hello everyone,  We were blessed to have the Wall's come and visit over Mother's Day weekend.  We went to some of our favorite  places and here are some of the pictures we took with them.

                             I was right next to this monkey and he was just busy eating and didn't
                      care.

          It was fun watching the girls be brave enough to pet some of the birds.  when we were at the bird sanctuary.

           This ones color was so vibrant it was amazing

                           This thing was like a grasshopper, but huge. With lots of other thing on it that the grasshoppers back home don't have. It was as long as the width of my foot and they are pretty wide.

            Two Grandpas walking the Kenton on Sea beach together and catching up on things.

                                Thought my grandkids would like to see that Grandma's neck and back are feeling better so I was able to have fun doing cartwheels at the beach while we were there.

           It was a little cool and windy that day but better than we expected because here is was like the second week of November for you.   We had a great time with them.

            Our first District Meeting with the new Elders in our District.  I was trying to get Elder Ezom to move over to get in the picture better , but it looks like we are holding hands. (not).   Elder Johnson that lives by us and works with us in Motherwell has his arm on his new companions shoulder, Elder Mumba who is new and from Zambia.  The third Elder from the Left is the first Elder from Mexico to come to South Africa and he is new also.  He is Elder Hernandez.

         P-day for the happy Elders.

                            This is the Wonci family and about half of the family are members.  This little girl will turn six the same day that I turn 60 so we are going to celebrate together that week sometime because our birthday is on a Sunday this year.  Her mom is next to her and she almost died last year when she got TB.  She takes about 15 pills a day for 18 months and has lost about 40 lbs but we are thankful that she is on the mend.

                           This is a picture from a place we drove to last week,  it is Knysna.  We were only there for a few hours so hope to go again sometime.  It is a little over three hours away from where we live.  Because we have fewer missionaries than they used to have we don't have any missionaries serving there right now.

                            Last Saturday Sister Mashiqa got baptised.  She is the mom of the boys who got baptised last month.  We are working with the Dad now.  He is a great guy but has a drinking problem like most of the Males in Motherwell.

           This is part of our Motherwell primary.  We try and learn a new song most weeks.  The little girl in the back thought she needed to stand by Elder Smith and help him with the music that he plays off his phone for us because we don't have a piano.

          This was Sister Makoba's first week at Church and she loved it.  We are teaching them with the Elders.  They have a 16 year old son and a daughter at college as well.  She said she could feel the love in Relief Society.

                           This is Elder Johnson's flat .  We got a call last month at about 6am on a Sunday morning to see if we knew how to shut off the water that was spraying out of a leak from the water heater .  They are up in the attic and it had busted a hole in the ceiling.  They have hot water now but the ceiling still isn't fixed.  Waiting on the insurance company.