It's a "Roller Coaster Ride" that is for sure!
It has been since October that we have posted, but life just
happens. We have been so busy and then
when I have had a little block of time this is what happens to us….................................
Drum Roll Please…… NO
internet, NO water, NO power! Yikes! We
say TIA. This is Africa. We actually have had to completely change our internet
because we lost internet for so many weeks!
It is like we are addicted or something!
(Ya think!) It is not fun to be
detached from your family especially when they are facing so many
challenges. Our daughter was diagnosed
with breast cancer. She had a double
mastectomy on December 30th. It is so
hard not to be home when things like this happen in your family. Cancer has struck twice in their family. Now both our son-in-law and daughter are
battling cancer. But Heavenly Father is
watching over them and we are at peace.
We had a wonderful Senior Couples Retreat in the Nambiti
Game Drive Reserve. What a wonderful
experience it was. We went out on four
game drives and saw so many beautiful animals, especially momma's and babies of
all kinds. We even were blessed to watch
a baby giraffe be born. We saw the lions
every time out and they were so amazing to watch. This reserve was fantastic, even the tents
(they were our rooms) and the food were fabulous. And the best part of the Senior Retreat is
spending time and sharing stories with all the other senior couples in our
mission. Our mission President and his lovely wife are so fun to
spend time with and our meetings are spiritual and enlightening. What a wonderful time to regroup as a couple. We are so grateful for these Retreats.
Our son-in-law Rocky and our granddaughter Abby came for a
visit in October. What a joyous
experience for us to have family here.
It was like Christmas early! We
were like little children waiting for Christmas morning to arrive. They just wanted to do missionary work, so
that is what we did every day. They were
blessed to come when Elder and Sister Palmer were doing a tour of the Durban South
Africa mission with President and Sister Thompson. I was so busy preparing meals that we didn’t
get to play much, but we did get to go to the weavers and hike Thabo Bosiu,
which was so fun. They went teaching
with us each day and loved the Spirit of missionary work. Everyone loved them. Abby made friends with all the people, old
and young, wherever we went. We had FHE
at MaPalesa’s with all of the children on that Friday night. Abby had brought
some gifts for them, so the children and teens were delighted! I think a few of the older boys were
smitten. Our FHE at Palesa’s will always
be in our hearts as our Balm of Gilead!
The children love us so much and we love them so much. We feel like we are on top of the world on
Friday evenings teaching simple lessons about our Savior Jesus Christ and His
plan for us here on this earth. One
night was so rainy and a little cold. We
kicked our muddy shoes off at the door and came in for the evening’s
lesson. One little 10 year-old little
girl that always sits as close to me as she can every week, removed her little
coat and wrapped it around my feet.
Every time I would change positions she would rewrap my feet. I was so touched and humbled by the actions
of this little girl, that I could hardly give the lesson. The experiences of a mission are absolutely
one of the best that life has to offer!
I will be eternally grateful for all we have experienced on our two
missions.
We continue to cook, (me), do dishes (Elder Chandler), be
helpers for our Elders, teach, and prepare others to go to the Temple. ALL things in this Restored Gospel of Jesus
Christ leads us to the temple. We have
gone to the temple with two more families since we wrote last. In November we were blessed to go with our
District President and his wife for three days.
We loved every minute of our time with them. They have become such great friends. The experiences of those couple of
days were amazing for all of us. We
spent every minute we could, two full
days, doing temple work for our ancestors.
We so enjoyed our time in the evenings going out to eat and talking,
which as you all know is what Elder Chandler does best! What a blessing it is for our District to
have this President Semaltane at the Helm!
One of our pictures is of an activity President Samaltane
held at his home for his District Presidency and Elder Chandler and I. It was a team building activity with our
families. We watched and discussed a
Conference talk he wanted us all to focus on.
We played games and ate a wonderful meal prepared by Sister Semaltane.
We laughed and had so much fun with the children. It was a wonderful day and we
all enjoyed it so much. He challenged us
all to go out and do the same thing with the people we had stewardship
for. What a great example.
One of our greatest responsibilities on a mission is taking
care of our Elders here. We have 12
serving in Lesotho now and we love being here with them. Wow!
Do we ever have a solid core of hard working young men serving here
now. At Christmas time they get to call
their families, so we had them over to our home to Skype, FaceTime, or call
their families. We cooked a big dinner
for them, but most of them had been eating all day at investigator’s and
member’s homes, but somehow most of the dinner was gone before they left! Tee Hee!
That’s boys for you! Thanksgiving
day was a feast, for sure. Traditional
Thanksgiving meal for the American Elders, and the other Elders were just happy
to be along for the ride. It was such a
fun day for us to celebrate with these wonderful young men. How much we love them.
We got to share our testimonies about the gospel at Dr.
Mary Eko's graduation ceremony. She is one
amazing women. We met her when she
returned from her university studies in Cuba to become a Doctor of
Medicine. She left when she was 16 on
scholarship. It was very important to
her to earn her Young Woman Medallion before she left, so her and her YW
leader, who she considered a 2nd mom, worked tirelessly to get it
completed before she left. That YW
leader is MaLucy of whom I have told you about several times in our blog. I am sharing with you Mary's story from Sister
Thompson’s (Our Mission President’s wife) blog. Dr. Mary Eko is an amazing
young woman with high moral character and integrity. Here is just a part of her story. Quote.
I love the beautiful stories of the people in Lesotho and
South Africa. The young woman wearing white read the Book of Mormon and started
attending church as a youth. She really wanted to go to girls camp and a temple
recommend was required. Because she has been working on the Strength of Youth
and working toward earning her Young Women's medallion, it was assumed she was
already a member. When she went to the branch president to get the recommend,
the president discovered she had not been baptized. He told her that in order
to get the recommend, she must be baptized. She said "okay, I want
to be baptized very much". To be baptized, she needed to take the
missionary discussions, which she did, and in two months she was baptized in
2007. She also earned her Young Womens medallion. She decided to study medicine
and went to Cuba. Because it was against the law to proselyte there, she
wondered if there were any church members. She desperately wanted to attend
church. So, she put up several flyers in the hallways of the school
asking "if you are Mormon call" this number. She got a phone call
from a young lady that was a member, and she had one other friend that was a
member. They got together every week for a few months to study the Young Women's
theme, and read scriptures, and study the gospel together. One of her friends
fell ill and had to go to the hospital. She was reading the Liahona (like the
Ensign) and one of the male workers saw and said he was a Mormon. He told her
that he attends church with about ten other members. Soon it was thirteen!!!
The young woman pictured above always wore her Young Women medallion and was
asked by several people what it meant. She had the opportunity of answering
lots of questions! She was able to get her doctorate degree in medicine. She
was considering a specialty when she had this nagging feeling that she needed
to go home to South Africa, but didn't k now why. She decided to listen to the
holy ghost and go home. She had some difficulty with her passport and needed to
submit a birth certificate. Her father had died and she'd been raised by her
step-father, but there were lots of issues because of this. As a consequence,
she decided to start searching for some ancestors. She discovered a man in his
fifties and contacted him. His family had been looking for her as well.
He introduced her to a young man that turned out to be her brother. Her
brother had been looking for her for a long time! They met at his car. He told
her that he wanted to show her something in his trunk. He opened it and gave
her two journals of her great grandfather, and several papers of genealogy with
hundreds of names. She immediately knew the reason she had been prompted
to return to South Africa! She is preparing the names of her ancestors to send
to the temple, she worked things out for her passport, and she said she KNOWS
she is extremely blessed to have the holy ghost and gospel in her life. She is
currently working at a nearby hospital as a doctor and hopes to specialize
soon. We are blessed to hear these kinds of stories all the time - and we
are privileged to hear the enormous appreciation for the gospel from the people
who live here. Imagine the enthusiasm of someone winning a large lottery, and
that is the type of enthusiasm and gratitude the humble people of Lesotho and
South Africa feel toward the gospel in their lives. After all, the greatest
treasure on earth is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and its wonderful that the
people here grasp that!
This past week we had the blessing of going to the temple
with the Makotoane family. We have been
teaching them for months and have become very close friends. They set the bar high for doing missionary
work. They have brought, I believe, 11
people into the gospel in the short couple of years that they have been
members. They love the gospel and love
even more sharing it with friends and loved ones. Elder and Sister Palmer were so impressed
with their story when they came in October for the Tour of our mission. They became quick friends in just a couple of
days. Sooooo Elder Palmer surprised this
amazing family in the Johannesburg temple by coming to share their temple
experience with them. He even performed
the sealing for them. When their little
boy came into the room, Brother Makotoane could not believe it was real. He so looked and acted like a sweet little
angel. He said that image would never
leave his mind! He was elated to have
their precious son sealed to them forever.
What a blessing serving a mission has been for us, as we too get to
experience the happiness and joy of these wonderful people.
We are on our winding down months. Only two left before we head back home. Time has gone so fast. We have learned so much together, especially
about how to get along together as we are aging and becoming so forgetful. We have found that kindness is the key. We must lift and support each other as we
age, so we can do it gracefully together.
We are grateful for a mission to help us practice this patience and kindness,
so when we get home we can be an example instead of two cranky old people. Pray for us, because we are still
practicing! We haven’t mastered it all
yet!! It is hard growing older and not being as on top of things
as you used to be and in a way, it hurts some!
You feel a little ashamed and embarrassed, but what are you going to
do? Take a pill? Tee Hee!
Wish they made one that brought those twisted messages in the brain back
to clear sailing messages.
We will write one more blog before we leave this beautiful
land of Lesotho, so stay tuned, one more time.
We love and miss you all
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| Are those baby feet sticking out of the back of that Giraffe |
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| Watch this little guy be born. It is awesome! |
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| A few of our couples serving in the South Africa Durban Mission |
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| What fun to see all these different types of animals. |
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| This is the Mother of the group. |
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| This is the papa of the group. |
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| President and Sister Thompson |
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| Our wonderful friends, Elder and Sister Roberts! |
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| Many baby elephants |
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| Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. These guys look like they sat down on a wet painted toilet seat. |
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| No comment! Because this is me after a mission! |
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| The beauty of it all. |
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| This is Elder Chandler's favorite photo. They sense the lions in the gully. |
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| Hey, Guys, can you move on? I am tired here!! |
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| Abby and Nicole making friends with Matsiu and Bridget. |
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| The Palmer's with President Semaltane and a YSA brother |
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| The youth loved snapping photo's with Elder and Sister Palmer |
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| Lesotho missionaries with Elder and Sister Thompson and Elder and Sister Palmer. |
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| She spins all the wool for our weavings. I can not wait for you to see them. |
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| First Vision |
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| Singing and dancing with the weavers, the Thompson's and the Sorensen's. |
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| Another beautiful weaver. |
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| Rocky, Grandma, and Abby on top of Thaba Bosiu Mountain |
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| What a fun girl this Abby is! Thank you for coming. |
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| Elder Chandler and the guide headed up the Mountain. |
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| Rocky's the man! |
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| President Semaltane's Team Building Get Together! What fun! |
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| This couple is amazing. President and Sister Semaltane at the Joberg LDS Temple. |
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| Elder Chandler with the Semaltane's |
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| Can you tell what time of the year it is at the temple? |
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| Oh, Yah! Thanksgiving dinner for Elder Moore! |
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| You can cook a feast even in a little kitchen! |
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| Traditional Thanksgiving dinner. |
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| Happy are we!! FOOD!! Elder Deihl |
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| President and Sister Thompson with daughter Nicole and Dr. Mary Eko. |
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| Dr. Mary Eko's graduation ceremonies where Sister Chandler was asked to speak! |
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| The village at Dr. Eko's Uncle's home where her graduation was held. |
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| Dr. Eko and another Bosothoian girl getting accolades for years spent in Cuba. |
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| The Makotoane Family with us and Elder and Sister Palmer. |
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| We are a happy family! Makatoane's + one due in February |
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| Oh, how I love this family! |
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| Sister Makotaone and President Thompson showing their best manners. |
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| They are absolutely the cutest couple! So very happy!! |
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| Sister Makatoane and Sister Palmer at the Mission tour in Maseru |
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| MaPalesa and her daughter with granddaughter Ruby! Yep, named after Sister Chandler!! |
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