Time Heals and Prospers

This is one of our favorite assignments, teaching a Security presentation at the Johannesburg Missionary Training Center (MTC) every third Thursday. Each group is at the MTC for three weeks prior to going to their assigned country. This was one of our largest groups, with 25 elders. The current one is quite small with 10 elders and 5 sister missionaries.

Although not used much for current construction, many traditional homes were built of brick with a thatch roof and metal cone at the peak. Skilled craftsmen keep these roofs in good repair.

The past two Sundays have been very thought-provoking for us. We attended two wards in the Soweto Stake which meet in beautiful brick buildings with well-manicured landscaping and surrounded by attractive metal and brick fences. The leaders of these wards are seasoned first-generation African members who serve with faithful, welcoming ward members in thriving congregations. Today the Gospel Essentials class (totalling 29 people) consisted of 13 investigators, a newly-baptized convert, 4 missionary elders, 3 Senior Missionaries, a Bishopric member and 7 member friends. Recalling historical events that happened in this township in the late 70s and 80s, one is sobered by the peace and power that have come into people's lives here through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is the entrance to a major mall and a typical street market we passed on our way home.

Lessons in History

With our Area Office quiet for the New Years holiday, we began 2010 learning about some of South Africa's history. With Senior Missionaries we visited the Nelson Mandela home in Soweto and visited the Apartheid Museum. We stopped at Pozzy's for lunch which is a house of the same time period as the Mandela home in a township neighborhood.
Near Pretoria we strolled around the Voortrekker's Monument which commemorates 1850-60's pioneering movements into this area. On a nearby hillside we walked through restored 1897 Fort Schanskop from the Anglo Boer War.














Saturday, 9 January we visited nearby botanical gardens which included beautifully landscaped native plants, wooded streams, large grass areas, dry veld shrubbery and a waterfall down a mountain cliff with eagle nests built against the high rock face. We even saw an awesome tortoise on a hillside.

This is a sweet investigator I met Sunday, 3 January who was attending church for the first time with her two LDS granddaughters.

We were given a second assignment by the Area Presidency this week regarding missionaries in Democratic Republic of the Congo. We interviewed three people here, telephoned three people there and worked in our office on our report until 7 p.m. Thursday. Our completed report was submitted on Friday. This incident engaged our interest and our week went quickly.

Today I assisted in Primary in an African ward in Soweto. During meetings in many wards the members move easily between speaking in English and native languages of Tswana, Zulu and Xhosa. It is a delight meeting these members of great faith and insight into gospel principles.

Viewing African Wildlife

After a week and half of typing, reviewing digital interviews and finalizing our recommendations, Ron and I turned in our Kenya report to the Area Presidency on 29 December. The next day we we drove 30 minutes northwest of Johannesburg to a wildlife preserve.

With a CD narration in our car, we viewed zebras and other herbivores grazing across a hillside, then through four enclosures shaded by trees and bushes where we were awed by groups of lions. In the main entrance park area we fed grass pellets to ostriches and giraffe. The giraffe are gentle creatures which nuzzle one's hand for food and have long dark blue tongues. The native animals of Africa are preserved in parks such as these across the continent.

Notice the skyline of Johannesburg in the background behind the grazing zebras. We noticed the companionship of various animals hanging out with one another, like ostriches with giraffe and impala and stork-like birds practically sitting on Gemsbok.