Every year the senior missionary couples plan and cook a Thanksgiving dinner for all the couples, Area Presidency and wives, and some invited guests. This year we cooked for 72 people. The only place large enough to accommodate this size crowd is the 3 car garage of the White House, where the Area Presidency lives. We lovingly call it the basement. We had so much good, traditional Thanksgiving food that we invited some of the workers to come and fill a plate for themselves. We had beautiful decorations made from twig trees, rolls of toilet paper decorated up like pumpkins. Elder Egan said it best when he described our lowly mission Thanksgiving in a garage with twigs and toilet paper rolls as decorations. It sounds a lot worse than it was. In fact it was perfect! It was also time for the Primary Program in all the units. Since it was a warm spring day, the Primary Presidency in Cosmo City provided watermelon in gratitude of a job well done. With the heat of the days and the use of high volumes of electricity, load shedding is a constant. One beauty salon at the mall got creative and came out of their store to use the plugs that were on the generator to finish the hair of their clients. It is so fun to serve here!
Sunday, December 13, 2015
The Joy of Mission President's Seminars
Mid-November all the mission presidents and wives in the Africa Southeast Area converged on Johannesburg for their semi-annual Mission President's Seminar. We had three days of wonderful, enlightening, spiritual instruction and sharing. The last day we visited Croc City and the Lion Park. Both are within half an hour of downtown Jo'burg. It was fun to get out of the city and enjoy the wonders of this beautiful country. We saw baby crocodiles, an albino boa constrictor, and big old crocodiles. Chuck was brave enough to hold the boa as well as President and Sister Dunn who are friends of President and Sister Knudsen and serving as Mission President in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission. We also got to pet the baby lion cubs. Word of advice, they are still wild animals and they are babies, so they do bite! Sister Merrill, from Angola, and Liz found that out the hard way!
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Our First Visitors - Dennis and Cindy Lange
Combining business with pleasure was a perfect way for us to visit with Dennis and Cindy Lange who came into town. We didn't get much time with them, but it was a joy to take them to Soweto for church on Sunday and to stop by the Soweto home of Nelson Mandela and family. Thanks for taking the time to visit with us Dennis and Cindy!
Weekly Happenings
When you go to the pharmacy, called Clicks, they put your prescription in a cage. You then have to take it up to the till to pay. The cage keeps you from stealing the RX. While in the Killarney Mall, across the street from our flat, this group of women always seems to be resting themselves outside the Pik-n-Pay store. They are thoroughly enjoying their time together.
First Online Missionary Application in the History of the ASEA!
This is huge. We had an young man fill out his missionary application online. Then Stake President Msiza came to our office to finish his portion. Once the Stake President finished his part, the Area Medical Adviser reviewed all the medical pages and we submitted the first ever online missionary recommendation to SLC! Now we need to train the local stake clerks on how to fill in their portion and we are on our way to submitting missionary papers like many of the other areas of the church!
Constitution Hill
On the top of a city center rise is Constitution Hill. Back in the early days of Johannesburg city it was a fort. It was then turned into a men and women's prison. This is where native resident, Gandhi spent many years for his outspoken ways and peaceful demonstrations. Both Winnie and Nelson Mandela were held here too. The bus driver negotiated the busy, crowded, taxi strewn streets to deposit us to this stop on the tour. We felt the inhumanity and reverence of this significant piece of world history.
Red Bus Tour in Downtown Johannesburg
One of the best ways to see Johannesburg is by taking the Red Bus tour. There are many unsafe places downtown. You don't have to get off at any of those places but are still privileged to see what the city center is like. Graffiti here is not criminal in nature, it is artistically done and left for all to enjoy.We found the sides of these building so much more beautiful sporting zebras and elephants. There is also iron work South African style on the balconies that is reminiscent of New Orleans. Because this wonderful city was built around gold mines, there are a lot of hillsides all around the outskirts of the city of the leftover tailing's from the mines
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