Elephant Kiss

The interim seminar (every six months) for ten mission presidents and their wives to receive instruction and comraderie from the Area Presidency and their wives was a full four days. As Security Senior Missionaries we presented to them recently approved and updated documents regarding the safety of missionaries. We were also invited, along with two SLC security managers, to some of their activities; the most unique of which was an elephant experience at Plumari Big 5 game reserve.













After an hour long presentation about the anatomy of elephants, the reclaiming of them from destruction and safety instructions to us, we met two elephants up close with their handlers. We each "fed" an elephant three orange segments: one he took with his trunk from our open hand, one we placed in his open mouth onto his smooth tongue, and the third he gently lifted with his trunk from being held between our teeth! I ended up with wet smudges on my nose and chin.



Notice the trainer nearby and safety strap on the elephant's rear foot.














Saturday we met with two women in our Sunday School family history class at the Family History Center and input their African family names into new.familysearch for a couple of hours. It is a remarkable experience to sit next to them at a computer and see their excitement in grouping families together by their own keystrokes. Today this second class concluded our lessons together with a temple baptismal session set for the ancestors whose names they have identified.

Toothy Future

This week was especially notable for our son-in-law who graduated yesterday from dental school. To honor him and his four years of hard work we are sharing some of our favorite up-close-and-personal dental photos we have snapped in the past six months. We are not necessarily saying these are symbolic of future patients he may encounter, but they may be. We are very proud of your accomplishments, Nick!












Our week was full as we wrote security assessment reports for two mission homes and an office complex, attended a physical facilities committee meeting for area-wide security concerns and training, and prepared for this week's security assignment with ten visiting mission presidents from the Africa Southeast Area during their semiannual training with the Area Presidency.

We met three of our Family History class students yesterday at the FHC and spent three hours inputing their African ancestry into new.familysearch. What a joy it is spending time with them in front of a computer and in our Sunday School class.

Kingly, Creepy and Crawly

Ok, so this is the deal. With our current SLC Security Manager here for just a month he wants to see all he can on the three Saturdays he is here in South Africa. Last weekend it was mostly pouring rain so he was on his own in museums around the city. Yesterday we joined him touring a nearby Lion Park where massive lions, sleek cheetahs and sinister hyenas abound in gated acres near open grasslands holding grazing zebra, wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, springboks, kudu, gentle giraffe and lanky ostrich. When this lion passed by on our right he was on a bank and seemed as large as our car, very awesome.



Next we crossed the street to a Crocodile Farm. Here I held a 6 week old Nile crocodile (notice the handler very close at hand) and observed what it will look like in 40-60 years. We learned that an adult with its mouth open is cooling itself down. Ron held a harmless Milk snake and Chilean Rose tarantula. It was not my favorite outing but admittedly very interesting.

Botswana Book Tour

When Ron and I arrived in Johannesburg we were pleasantly surprised to find a library at the Area Office containing a wide variety of history books, particularly about our current continent. As a break from deeper historical reading, we have completed nine of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series which are set in Botswana.

With all offices closed this past Tuesday for a public holiday, Ron and I were invited by another senior missionary couple to drive five hours west to view some of the landscape and sites mentioned in the series. This was a delightful tour in Gaborone and the village of Mochudi. Along the road we passed a family of small monkeys frolicing together. Our first afternoon we visited Zebra Way, Kgale hill, President Hotel and Riverwalk mall. Botswana is a pastoral country with cattle and goats grazing undisturbed at the border crossing, on main streets of the capital city and along roadsides.



The next morning we drove northward to Mochudi through a countryside of green grassland with trees. We found the hillside road closed which would take us to Phutadikobo Museum so inquired of the woman and her daughter walking toward us of an alternate route. The daughter directed us about six blocks back where we parked near the Kgotla or traditional court of Tswana tradition with Kgosi or Chief at its head. We walked a dirt path past some dwellings to a hillside where we climbed up stone steps cut in rock to the museum at the top. About halfway up the hill a baboon jumped from an adjacent tree to boulders alongside us and was gone.



In a former school dedicated in 1923, the museum contains remarkable historical displays, traditional life utensils and tools, and tribal relics from the 1800s. Our tour guide was a graceful, articulate 29 year old woman who shared some of the history of the Bakgatla-gaga-Kgafela people who migrated in the late 1800s to Botswana from South Africa. Returning to our car a woman tossing water from a basin into her dirt back yard smiled and waved at us as chickens scratched in the scruffy grass. It was a wonderful interlude among trusting and helpful people.












At a craft market of exquisite baskets we found this display of materials used by the artisans.



Autumn is upon us as nights get colder and days consist of sweater weather. This week found us again teaching missionaries at the Johannesburg Mission Training Center following a security assessment of the mission home.

Today in our Sunday School Family History class Ron completed registering three of our five class members into new.familysearch.org on a laptop with a 3Gcard as I worked with them on individual questions. These five women are in our age range with little or no experience on the computer. They are excited to be inputting the names of their parents and grandparents for temple ordinances to be completed for them.