Email Update - April 12, 2009

This was an interesting week. As I noted last week we lost the country directors for South Africa. We are now trying to do some of their work until a new couple arrives. In some ways we are looking forward to the additional work. As a result of the change we have been pretty busy this week. It makes the time go much faster. We will probably attend the “hand over” ceremony in Botswana on the 28th---we will officially “hand over” 500 wheelchairs to the Ministry of Health for distribution to those who need one. We hope to get some good pictures. There are also some measles campaigns later in the year in Namibia and Swaziland as well as NRT in other countries. We hope that will get us “out of Dodge” and let us see some of this country. It also looks like we will go to Zimbabwe early in May to train the new couple. We have looked forward to a trip to Kenya but, the “war stories” we hear about traffic in Nairobi make us less anxious to go there. Maybe we get out of the city shortly after we get there. We also may be involved in getting help to the people in northern Namibia (one of the countries served by the country directors for South Africa---here are some major floods in some parts of Africa.

We had our first Branch Presidency meeting in Soshenguve this morning. I have a much better feel for the branch and the problems but, there is still a LOT to learn. I helped do the finances after church. That was an “eye opener”. Greg probably earns more in one or two hours than some of the brethren in the branch make in a week. I have never done finances in the way it is done in the branch---everything is written out by hand. The record is then faxed to the area office where someone here enters the information (names, amounts for each category, etc) in the computer.

One night Judy, Sister Wells and Sister Davis went to dinner at one of the restaurant’s in the mall. When they went to leave the machine was down so they could not pay with their credit cards. They did not have enough rand (cash) to pay the bill. That would normally mean trouble. But, the waitress went back to the manager. He indicated that they could leave anyway. He said. “Those people come in here all of the time. They can be trusted. Besides that if they do not come back and pay, I will not call the police or anything. God will take care of them. He will send them to hell.” So to say the least Elder Wells and I were in the place early the next morning paying the bill.

We have been trying to get to the temple on Tuesday afternoon. That is when the missionaries from the MTC go to the temple. It is so neat to be with them. The 6 black elders this week were going through for the first time. It provides us (men) a good chance to help them. A large portion of these brethren have lost their parents. President Cannon (MTC mission president) has them go through the temple one week. They are then to prepare the genealogy work for their parents during the week and do the temple work for their Father the next week. President Cannon and his wife then stand in as proxies for the elder’s parents while they are sealed to their parents. I guess they have had some pretty special times when this work was being done.

We really shocked an elder this week. We went into the distribution center for a moment. There were two elders standing there. I looked at the name tag and said “You are Elder Younker from North Logan.” (Gordon Younker’s son). The look on his face was something to behold---like who are you and how do you know me/my family. We then told him that we had dinner with his Dad the less than 10 days before we went to the MTC and about 2 days after he got on the plane for South Africa. It was fun to visit with him.

I also have to tell you about the one Brother Elks got off on us on Thursday. Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays in South Africa. We were kidding him about all the days off. His response is that at least South Africans celebrate the important Christian days while Americans celebrate pagan holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s day. We did not have much of a response. If my memory is correct there are about 6 national holidays during April in South Africa. The others include election day (a holiday so everyone can vote), and several others. The South Africans take holidays seriously because the town nearly “dies” on holidays.