Durban South Africa Temple Ground-Breaking

Beautiful Zebra in South Africa!  We saw them on our way home from Durban.

The ups and downs of a mission are never-ending!  You never know what you will wake up to in the morning.  Every day is different that is for sure.  We are helping a young man who has a mission call to Botswana Namibia Mission and a young woman who has her mission call to the UK, to get their Visa’s.  Getting all the necessary shots and medicals is an exciting run.  You go from one clinic or pharmacy to another just to find out “No! We are out of that vaccine at the moment.”  So in our running around Elder Chandler parks, (only for a minute) in a taxi -loading zone! The cardinal sin for sure. Right? Yes! You guessed it. They arrested him!! They insisted he go to the police station, but he had to drive himself, because they were already driving someone else’s van that they were arresting.  It was so comical and we lost an hour of precious time hunting for vaccines!!  Our good friend and counselor in the District Presidency has a high position in the police department (Big Guy over many little guys, like the ones arresting Elder Chandler).  So when Elder Chandler went into the police station, he knocked on the President’s door.  He had a meeting full of officers, but came out to see what help Elder Chandler needed.  He eyes about bugged out of his head, when he heard he had been arrested.  “What did you do?!” he said.  When he found out he parked in a taxi zone for a couple of minutes he just rolled his eyes and had the young officer go into a room with him.  He told him something in their language and the other officer came out and told Elder Chandler he could go.  Elder Chandler said, “I need my license back.” So he went and found the other officer that was with him and came back with his license.  Then he did an unusual thing.  He asked if he could have Elder Chandler’s name and his phone number, because he wanted to learn about the church.  I am not kidding.  Like I said, you never know what will happen when you get up in the morning.

Accidents do happen here, just like they do at home, but they are a lot of work wherever you are in the world!  In cleaning one day, I accidentally bumped the drain hose from the washer out of the shower and came into a nice spring cleaning opportunity!!  YIKES! Anyway, Elder Chandler spent 45 minutes with our tiny little shop vac sucking up water.  Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful to have a washer and dryer in our apt, even if it IS our decor for the bedroom.  If you remember right, you have to hook up the water to the sink in the bathroom, then you CAREFULLY place the drain hose into the shower and quickly close the shower doors to put pressure on the hose, so when someone might accidentally bump it, it will not fall out.  I forgot to quickly shut the shower doors to hold it snug.  On the bright side, what a way to get your husband to move the heavy things around and clean under them, right!?

Speaking of accidents, I also had a vehicle accident.  I about ran over a drunk pedestrian at night! Instead, I jerked the wheel and bumped another cars fender.  Hardly did anything to our Bakki, but crushed her fender.  I was so grateful I avoided hitting the man.  I thanked Heavenly Father so many times for that blessing.  It is so scary to think about running over someone.  But this guy lives on to drink another day.

It feels wonderful to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in bringing a few of his children to the temple to be sealed as families.  Lucky and Matsiu went to the temple on March 14^th. They were so excited.  Lucky proceeded to the MTC on the 31st of March without his visa.  When he received the news he was so happy he was laughing and shouting and was going to run to Matsiu's work and tell her the great news.  He thought he had to wait for the Visa, which would take several months more before he could go. It was a bitter sweet for us as we took Lucky to Bloemfontein for the Mission President to set him apart for his Botswana Namibia Mission calling.  It was an amazing setting apart.  Heavenly Father has such a work for him to do and he is so ready.  I know he will have many challenges even visas etc, because we were not able to get him either Botswana or South African visas before he left.  Both are so hard to obtain, but I guess the mission has that all figured out.  Then 3 weeks later Lucky came back to Lesotho to serve his first transfer or two in the Durban Mission, because he has to have that that SA visa for his mission in Botswana. (He has to be in Lesotho in order to receive it).  He is doing great and things are going smoothly to get the visa this time.  Maybe he was supposed to come here and serve for a few weeks.  Someone must need to hear his voice.  We were excited to be able to have orientation with him and feed him a couple of meals. 

We are taking the two young missionaries we were telling you about above, Thabelo Matlanyane & Sibongile Magumela to the temple next week.  Neither of them have families to go with them.  There are some medicals they cannot get here for their visas, so they are going to fly to Johannesburg Monday and we will meet them at the temple and go through with them the next day.  They have never flown before, so they are thrilled at getting to fly.  We also are going through the temple with the Makura family on May 10th^th.  What an absolute miracle for us to be able to go to the temple with these wonderful families!!  Then we have two more families we have been teaching for months going through the temple to be sealed as family’s in June!!  It is such a blessing in the life of a senior couple to have the opportunity to go with the families you teach to the temple.  It is absolutely the “icing on the cake”!!

In March we took our new District President to Leribe for several Sundays.  He will lead the people here with great love and wisdom.  When we go to Leribe I get to teach primary both hours, because they do not have a primary.  We have so much fun.  I have about 12 primary children, but 3 or 4 extra older young women and young men over 12 come in because there is not a YW or YM either.  One week after church we had a baptism of a mother and her 9 year old little girl.  It was so exciting to see one more of God’s children follow the Savior example and enter the waters of baptism.  Another week the Makura families youngest was baptized.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures on FaceBook of the Moshoeshoe Cultural Celebration at the Branch also in March.  The dance and story telling was so delightful to watch.  The little children, big children, and adults had so much fun.  The Braai, however, was a different story!  They killed two young lambs, around 6:00 in the morning.  Skinned and dressed them out to eat.  Here they eat absolutely everything (head, feet, ears, tongue, you understand).  That stuff you saw in the dutch oven were the lungs, stomach and intestines!  BLAHHCKK!!!  Then of course they roasted some of the lamb on the Braai, so Elder Chandler and I are thinking we will eat some of that, but nooooooo.  They mix some of it together to make it go further!  Yikes!  We thought they were running out of food, so did not eat!  Just to be nice, you see! I felt so bad we didn’t get to eat, when later I found out they had plenty of food.  I did taste some lamb from Matsiu's plate, however.

Yes, I cook so much here.  We have opportunities to cook for those we are working with here in the mission and also our wonderful Elders.  So ‘Cooking’ is my middle name.  We had such a wonderful dinner with the Elders for Easter.  We found a prime rib the week before Easter and it was so cheap, 1/2 of the price of a ham.  It turned out absolutely delicious and they were loving every bite of their dinner.  Their menu was a bit American however: sweet potatoes, several salads, corn, homemade rolls and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. 

Sister Moorsi came over for practicals (that what she calls it) a few weeks ago to learn how to cook American dishes.  (She just happened to come over on a Saturday when President Zackrison had asked us to prepare a meal for him, Sister Zackrison, and the District Presidency and their wives.)  We have such fun together when she comes to cook with me.  She is truly a dear friend.  The dinner was fun and I so enjoyed Sister Moorsi’s help in preparing. Her husband is in the Presidency so she got to come and eat her own cooking!  Tee Hee!

We continue to have the most amazing FHE’s at MaPalasa's!  Attendance seems to be about 14 children, 5 teenagers and, 3 adults, 4 missionaries.  All seated in one tiny little room!  Those little children absolutely love FHE!  We sing and talk about things like honesty, obedience, kindness, and following the prophet.  The little cartoon videos are perfect for them and even the adults and teenagers love the lessons.  It is one of the most rewarding times of the week for us.  Being surrounded by these little black children with so many hugs and loves!  Wow!  You just cannot beat it.

We have been blessed with the opportunity to teach a morals class at an EMT college.  The CEO of the college approached a set of our missionaries at the Mall on a P-day and inquired of their desire and ability to teach at his college a morals class!  Oh course they said yes and have invited us to participate with them.  So we teach about 50 students once a week.  They love learning and they have such love and respect for us!  It is a joy to be with them every week.  One week we were in Durban for the temple ground-breaking, so the Elders taught without us.  When they saw us the next week, they were so excited and happy!  Actually we were surprised at their warm welcome again.  We have taught the Plan of Salvation, Physical and Emotional Health, Honesty, Integrity, & Trust & Choice & Accountability.  It has proven to be an enjoyable experience thus far.  No religious restrictions here barring us from teaching from our hearts and the students are grateful.  We give them simple assignments each week and then make simple remarks back on their papers.   We are now teaching a couple of students who have come and asked us if they could learn more about the Church. 

We had our couples Retreat in Durban including the Durban Temple Ground-breaking ceremony.  What a wonderful few days to be with friends and hear about all the wonderful things they are doing on their mission.  Also to hear about President and Sister Zackrison’s miracles that have happened in their 3 year mission and being the lawyer in the Rome Italy temple beginnings.  Wow! What stories we were blessed to hear!  Then at the ground-breaking we got to have saints write in a little notebook about how they felt having a temple in their home area.  For several hours we took pictures and had saints write their feelings.  It was a tender experience.  Oh the blessings of a mission!

Our mission continues to have all the ups and downs just like life at home.  Everyday is a different day.  We love the blessing that serving a mission brings to our lives.  We are missing so many family events at home.  Like; our first granddaughter returning home from serving her mission in Orlando Florida, graduations, eagle scouts, mission calls, endowments for a grandson who has his papers in, baptisms, birthdays etc etc.  Oh my, we do miss home! 

We love you all and hope all is well with all of your ‘ups and downs’ of life.

Hint! Hint!  We love letters from home! 

Elder and Sister Chandler serving in Lesotho Africa

Elder Chandler's sucking up the water with the shop vac!

Chicken feet at our local supermarket meat counter!  Yummy!

MaPalasa.  Our favorite place to have FHE!

MaPalasa's brand new granddaughter with the middle name of Ruby! 

President Makura at the baptism of his daughter Lerato.

Sister Chandler teaching at the EMT college

Part two of MaLucy's self reliance pig project! 

She picked a perfect little girl (in the sack) to take home.

Elder Chandler telling his super-glue story at Moshoeshoe Cultural Celebration

Yes!  Those are the parts of the lamb we do not eat in America!!

A little disbelief of what I saw cooking out back!

Elder Chandler stirring the intestines and other delicious parts!

Lucky at the Johannesburg temple after he went through the temple!

I couldn't resist this picture of a beautiful couple after being sealed.

Lucky and Matsiu at his farewell get together at their home.

Elder Khophoce's (Lucky's) setting apart at the home of the Roberts

Celebrating Matsiu's Birthday with Bridget at our home!

The fun personalities of Matsiu and Bridget

In the jaws of the shark at Couples Retreat in Durban!

Our fabulous Senior Couples being taught by President Zackrison.

What beautiful couples serve in this mission!  They are all amazing!

Elder Cook at the Durban South Africa Temple Ground Breaking

Beautiful choir at the Durban South Africa Temple Ground Breaking

They sounded like Angels at the Durban South Africa Temple Ground Breaking

Momma and baby girl sat in front of us at the Durban South Africa Temple Ground Breaking!

Elder & Sister Chandler!  Yes, I have gained a little weight! OOPS

Beautiful group of sisters at the Durban South Africa Temple Ground Breaking

The Indian families at the Durban South Africa Temple Ground Breaking

Elder's Woodland and Tsumi chillin after Easter Dinner.

Elder Odiambo happy happy after Easter Dinner

Just kicking back, Elder Reed and Elder Dean after dinner.

Elder Odama enjoying some time laughing after dinner!