Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field   31 DECEMBER 2017 Day 22 Sunday (New Year's Eve) This morning we drove to the Langa township (10 minute drive) to meet with the members in that branch. After a couple of wrong turns we found the Nolukhanyo Pre-school where the members meet. The entry rooms were bare and dark and the large meeting room was lit with a dozen or so members when we arrived at 9:02. We greeted several people and met Sister Nomieao Zimase "Gertrude" who seemed to light up everyone she greeted. The meeting started around 9:15 and by this time there were about 100 people. We had some wonderful talks and testimonies. Everyone sang without music accompaniment and with gusto, especially the chorus of each song, which was full of praise. About halfway through the service the power went out but the speakers just elevated their voice for all to hear. They opened the shades at the front of the room to let some light in and expose the wire mesh covering the windows. It was ...

Cape Town Mission Field   30 DECEMBER 2017 Day 21 Saturday This morning we walked to the shopping center near our apartments. Sister Courtright found a wonderful hair dresser and Elder Courtright was able to deposit some cash into our Standard Bank account that was opened up for us when we arrived that will be used by us to pay off our monthly petrol (gasoline) bill on the church vehicle that we are driving. We use a church issued Fleet card to pay for the gasoline we use then reimburse the church for that expense at the end of the month. We pay our monthly rent on the apartment ($650) and vehicle ($150) directly to our home ward. Our monthly premium for health insurance from Aetna, which is church sponsored, comes out of our home checking account automatically at the beginning of each month. Which is around $500 for both of us. This covers 100% of all health costs when you're serving a foreign mission. The rest of what we pay for on our own is for incidentals like food, pre...

Cape Town Mission Field   29 DECEMBER 2017 Day 20 Friday Today was another full day at the office. Sister Courtright had a wonderful visit with President Lebethoa. Elder Courtright helped fix a stuck gas cap cover door on the mission van. We can now fill it up. One set of missionaries had a blow out and needed some help since the tire store had just closed. Hopefully I don't get a call early on Saturday morning asking for more assistance since their spare has a slow leak. Cross my fingers. This evening we went to the Grand West Casino for dinner. The seared tuna taco's were delightful. This place reminded me of Las Vegas. They even have a huge in-door ice skating rink. We had a wonderful waiter whose name was Bolanga (from the Congo) who had investigated the church several years ago. So we had a wonderful talk with him and presented him with a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets on the restored gospel with our missionaries contact information on the back.

Cape Town Mission Field   28 DECEMBER 2017 Day 19 Thursday This morning we did some flat inspections and vehicle inspections. We were very impressed by the efforts of the elders we visited. They've done a wonderful job despite some areas in their flats that need maintenance. This has inspired me to get some things fixed around their flats to recognize their good efforts. We worked a bit late tonight and took this picture out the front door of the mission office. It is Devil's peak on the east end of Table mountain. Several Elders climbed to the top on Christmas day starting at 5:00 AM.

Cape Town Mission Field   27 DECEMBER 2017 Day 18 Wednesday Today is our Grand-daughters 18th birthday, happy birthday Sage. Woo Hoo! Today we made a run for office supplies at the Makro store, local version of Costco. These are used to restock the elders flats or items we run out of around the office. We made it there and back on our own for the first time. Woo hoo! They didn't even blink when I used Elder Hamilton's church credit card since mine has not arrived yet. We also picked up some sleeves of Oreo's as rewards for the elders when they show a very clean flat during our housing inspections.

Cape Town Mission Field   26 DECEMBER 2017 Day 17 Tuesday Today was a typical day getting back to the routine at the office...however... it is the 'Day of Goodwill' here and everything is closed for the holiday so we were able to get caught up on reports and such at the office. No wonder there was no traffic... History lesson: Prior to 1994, this holiday was known as Boxing Day. The Day of Goodwill is celebrated on December 26. It is the third public holiday that is celebrated in the month of December. Unlike many of South Africa’s other holidays, the Day of Goodwill is a simple holiday for compassion and relaxation. There are only a few festivals and public events that are celebrated on December 26 in South Africa. In 1994, South Africa’s new government replaced Boxing Day with the Day of Goodwill. While the holiday’s traditions did not change, the change was quite symbolic. Many South African officials viewed the creation of the Day of Goodwill as an indicator t...

Cape Town Mission Field   25 DECEMBER 2017 Day 16 Monday Christmas Day We spent some time in the office supporting the local missionaries who came in to make phone calls or Skype calls to their families for Christmas. This started about 4:00 PM and ended around 9:00 PM. As most missionaries in the western parts of the united states were just getting up for Christmas morning. We went back to our flat and was able to Skype Jackie and Jake and the kids, then we Skyped Stephanie and Jim and the kids, then we phoned Kirk and Kerry. It was good to see and talk to everyone on Christmas. Just makes it hard being so far away. Elder Lesch sent us the photos he took last week at the Mission Presidents home. We are here with the missionaries that are leaving (except us), including Elder and Sister Hansen, who are now back in St. George and have already been to the temple there again.

Cape Town Mission Field   24 DECEMBER 2017 Day 15 Sunday After attending the Mowbray ward services in the morning we took a drive to Simon's town which is along the coast of False Bay. There we saw the local penguin colony and their bedding grounds along the beach. Christmas Eve with Penguins in South Africa! Woo Hoo! In the evening we went with the Hamilton's to downtown Cape Town and drove through the main street that had some overhead lighted electronic banners across the street (about 8 in all) which comprised their Christmas decorations for the city.

Cape Town Mission Field   23 DECEMBER 2017 Day 14 Saturday Today we had a 'personal day' to do with what we wanted. We had heard that this time of year the berries are on in Stellenbosch and others said that the additional drive to Franschhoek would be worth the effort. So we decided to hit the farthest point first and work our way back. It turns out that Franschhoek is really only a little over an hours drive. We took this time to have Sister Courtright drive on the freeway to get her used to driving on the left side of the road. The village is surrounded by gorgeous mountains and the valley is covered with wineries. The Huguenots (reformed protestants) settled the area in 1688 seeking refuge from religious persecution in France. Sister Courtright met some wonderful people at galleries and the Africa open air market. One individual invited her back to show her how he makes the beaded wire-framed animals. Placed the beads on the wire was amazingly simple using his hom...

Cape Town Mission Field   22 DECEMBER 2017 Day 13 Friday The Hamilton's and the Courtright's joined Elder Dove and his companion who set up a sidewalk meeting in downtown Cape Town at the Company Gardens. We set up outside the parliament building. We sang Christmas carols, handed out pass-along cards, pamphlets, and Books of Mormon. The President, his wife, and children joined us. All together there were about 20 of us. Sister Courtright handed out 3 Book of Mormon's and brought about 10 referrals to the Elders there of people who wanted to know more about the church. We received 50 contacts from people we met today.

Cape Town Mission Field   21 DECEMBER 2017 Day 12 Thursday Today Sister Courtright was her baptism record entry day. She entered 23 new baptisms for a total of 50 for the past 3 weeks. Elder Courtright was busy updating the mission roster for the month (updated after transfers take place) to include updates to vehicle assignments using the Church's IMOS computer system.

Cape Town Mission Field   20 DECEMBER 2017 Day 11 Wednesday Today was a very hectic packaging day for Sister Courtright trying to be Santa ensuring all the packages get sent to where they need to be so the Elders can enjoy their Christmas packages from home. She also is busy preparing the supply boxes for the 3 zones that pick them up in the office. Elder Courtright reviews the bidtrack report every morning which is a report generated automatically from data sent from every missionaries car showing where the car has been and how fast it was going. He had to suspend a missionaries driving privileges for exceeding the mission mandated maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour). He was going over 100, but it wasn't kilometers per hour.

Cape Town Mission Field   19 DECEMBER 2017 Day 10 Tuesday Today was transfer day and we gathered up some lunch items and put them in the back seat of the bakkie (truck) and drove out to the Gugulethu Branch where all the missionaries met and the new missionaries arrived from the airport (which is only 5 minutes from the church house). While Sister Courtright help set everything up and sat in on the President's training session Elder Courtright drove to the Strandfontein flat where the Elder's helped load up a refrigerator. Elder Courtright returned to the church house and Sister Courtright traveled with him to the Somerset West Elders flat to drop off the refrigerator. We first had to fumigate it because of all the cockroaches that came out from underneath it. Elder Courtright is going to contract with an exterminator and have the two boardings in Strandfontein and Somerset fumigated. We returned to the office after having stopped for some lunch at the nearby mall. El...

Cape Town Mission Field   18 DECEMBER 2017 Day 9 Monday Today was the beginning of a transfer week where we had to prepare everything for transfers starting on Tuesday. It was also our last day with the Hansen's to give us some final teaching moments. In the evening we all went to dinner with the Mission President at Villagio's. There were 12 missionaries and 3 couples. It was a welcome and farewell dinner. Afterward the Hansen's went to the airport and my parting words were "buy a donkey". Which when pronounced to just as it looks means "thank you very much" in Afrikaans.  

Cape Town Mission Field   17 DECEMBER 2017 Day 8 Sunday Today we attended two services with the Hamilton's. The first was with the Langa Branch and the second was with the Gugulethu Branch. We met some wonderful saints and heard some great talks. One brother spoke on the importance of the church's Self Reliance program and shared an interesting story comparing how fear and lack of trust can paralyze you from moving forward in the direction the Lord wants you to go. He related this to a woman who was faced by a water buffalo and her fear and lack of trust in her husbands ability to hold it down while she was to kill it with a knife ultimately led to her husband being killed by the water buffalo when it broke free from her husbands grasp. This evening we attended a dinner party at the Mission President's home to welcome the incoming Elders (5 of them) and say good-bye to the departing Elders (3 plus a senior couple, the Hansen's returning to St. George).

Cape Town Mission Field   16 DECEMBER 2017 Day 7 Saturday We drove to the furthest boarding in the Western Cape to see where the Elders live in Hermanus. This was a 2 hour drive through a mountain pass and through vineyards. Hermanus lies along the coast and is a beautiful town with a rocky coast and some sandy beaches on the far side of the bay. We returned to Cape Town and drove around Lion's Head mountain, just south of Table Mountain (see photo), to the Waterfront area of downtown Cape Town. There was a fire on the side of Lion's Head and 3 helicopters were flying overhead picking up water from the bay and dropping it on the fire.

Cape Town Mission Field   15 DECEMBER 2017 Day 6 Friday  We had an inspection visit to the Elders in Plumstead to inspect their flat and car then finished up work at the office. In the evening the Hansen's and Hamilton's took us to the Christmas concert at Kirstenbosch Gardens which sits behind Table Mountain. It was a wonderful concert that included everyone singing Christmas carols.

Cape Town Mission Field   14 DECEMBER 2017 Day 5 Thursday  This morning we visited the Elders apartments in Somerset to do flat inspections and car inspections. We noticed some Weaver Bird nests outside their apartment. Apparently, if the female bird doesn't like the nest that the male bird builds during their courtship she will tear it apart and he will have to start all over again. We had our welcome interview in the office with President Lebethoa. He had some wonderful advice and vision for the mission including focusing on teaching repentance and becoming converted to Christ to sustain a solid foundation of multi-generational saints.

13 December 2017                                 Day 4 in the Mission (Wednesday) Had another packed day learning how to enter records, take care of packages, fill-out reports, and manage unplanned events (accidents). Also went driving again through some crowded streets of Clairmont. Many things to adjust to; the metric system, 24 hour clock, new time zone, driving on the other side of the rode, new money and conversion rate (Rand), etc. Cape Town has many townships (suburbs) all totaling about 3.5 million people. Sister Hansen has prepared ties for departing missionaries using a fabric with some unique South African history; see story attached. We went with the Jensen's to Century City and walked the Canal Walk Mall. This is a huge mall with over 400 stores on two levels, see the picture. This was built around 2010 at the time of the World Cup that was played here. Check it out on Google. It ...

12 December 2017                                  Day 3 in the Mission Field Today we continued our education. Elder Courtright has been learning to drive (on the left side of the road) in order to get qualified to drive here. He's been visiting vendors and stores for supplies, including picking up the mail and packages from the post office. He is also learning the computer software that tracks vehicles, enters invoices, and schedules inspections. Sister Courtright prepared an inventory list and visited a large "COSTCO" like store for missionary supplies. Came home after dinner to find the apartment complex was having a Christmas concert/celebration in the center courtyard. Here's a view down the apartment complex from our end.

11 December 2017                                        Day 2 in Cape Town We arrived at the Mission Office at 8:30 AM and began our training for the week. The mission office is in Observatory, so named for the national observatory that is just down the street. Which is only a couple of miles away from where our flat is located in Pinelands. Pinelands is an old settlement in the Cape that was founded around 1910 by mostly Dutch. There are still some historical houses with thatched roofs. (I'll send you a picture of one of them soon). Elder Hansen is working with Elder Courtright to understand the management of the fleet of cars and 'flats' leased by the church to support the missionaries throughout the mission. The mission is about the size of Texas. We are focused on the West Cape while another group of senior missionaries focuses on the East Cape. We have about 60 cars to maintain....

10 December 2017                                      1st Day in the Field (Sunday) The Hansen's (from St. George, Utah) picked us up at 8 AM and we went to church at the Mitchell Plains chapel. Small group but great in spirit. Brother Frank gave a wonderful priesthood lesson on the importance of the temple. The Hansen's are leaving next Monday, this is their last week in the field after 18 months. They have already accepted a new mission assignment as a Trek couple serving on the youth treks through Wyoming next summer that get to experience some of the early pioneer challenges crossing the plains. I seem to recall (my mind was still recovering from the 3 days of sleep deprivation) that we all went to the Hamilton's (from Twin Falls, Idaho) for a wonderful afternoon dinner. The Hamilton's have been out on their mission for four or five months now. We all then left for the Stake Christma...

8 and 9 December 2017                                     Departing for the Mission Field We didn't get much sleep last night (1 hour) due to last minute packing, weighing, un-packing, weighing, etc. It's an interesting exercise to try and get 2 years worth of living into 2 bags (50 pound limit each) and one carry-on. You ought to try it sometime. In the end, we arrived with 4 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons, personal bag and our CPAP machines. We ran into Elder and Sister Boyer (Johannesburg) at the airport along with Sister Jensen (Durbin) where we were all to take different flights to Atlanta and leave on the same 18 hour flight to Johannesburg. Well guess what, it snowed in Atlanta (?). Yup. Which messed up everything. We went to Minneapolis and were diverted to Paris to catch a direct flight to Capetown, no more Johannesburg stop. We left for the airport at 5 AM on Friday and arrive...

7 December 2017                                   MTC Week 2 Thursday Today was our last day at the MTC. This week was packed with training on media tools and spreadsheets and church based software to help the mission run efficiently. We were taught by 'babes' who really knew their stuff. Here are some pictures of them... Brother Heaton and Brother Barnham Brother Brown  Sister Fowers Brother Foutin (from fleet management)

6 December 2017                                       MTC Week 2 Wednesday Sister Hansen from the Cape Town mission office shared this 2015 video of the growth of the church in Africa: http://mediasrv.lds.org/media- services/ML/size/ 5403466822001/1280/720/1518994

6 December 2017                                       MTC Week 2 Wednesday Happy Birthday Sandy!!!! Had some more fantastic training. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Sister Courtright in class today. Sister Hansen from the Mission Home in Cape Town sent Sandy this lovely birthday wish. Saw a beautiful moon between the canyon walls hovering over the Provo temple on our way back from the store while picking up some last minute items for our trip to Capetown.

5 December 2017                             MTC Week 2 Tuesday Had another interesting day learning about the PC tools we'll be using in the office. It's amazing all the logistical support that goes into running a mission. Met some good folks (The Robinson's) heading to Portland for medical support (he's a retired surgeon from Cedar Cove). We had a wonderful devotional this evening from Elder and Sister Hugo Martinez of the quorum of seventy. His message was simple but pure. We included a picture of him and the lights along the pathway outside the administration building. Elder Hugo Martinez

4 December 2017                                       MTC Week 2 Monday Entered into Office training this week learning PC tools for use in the mission. Learned some new tools and tips in Word and Excel. Getting some great advice from Sister Jensen whose served in South Africa before. We'll be traveling with her and Elder and Sister Boyer to Johannesburg. Romans for sweet chili chicken and King Clip fish.

3 December 2017                                           Sabbath Day Had a wonderful day at church and Jackie (our daughter) and Jake (son-in-law) were called to be ward missionaries; woo hoo! Check out the church Christmas devotional:   https://youtu.be/-4lgt0xQgYA

2 December 2017                                       Personal Day Today we celebrated Christmas early with Kerry and Jake and Jackie and the grandkids. We received a wonderful blanket with all our kids and grandkids name on it. We went to temple square and the grandkids were able to participate in the Light the World activity by donating to local food banks through the kiosk the church set up in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. #LightTheWorld The nativity scene was great, as always.

1 December 2017                                        MTC                                                       Fifth Day District 18 Our classmates: L-R (back row) Slocombe's, Butter's, Sister Nelson (instructor) L-R (front row) Courtright's, Sister Nield, Sister Edwards More Senior Missionaries from our larger group being sent all over the world; Philipines, Russia, Italy, South Africa, Salt Lake City, Tucson, etc.