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, prescriptions, eating out, internet, personal phone service, clothing, entertainment, etc.

I'm covering some of the details here because many have asked how much it costs to go on a mission. When we first submitted our paperwork you are asked how much are you able to pay per month. This factored into where you can serve because some areas are much more expensive than others. The maximum amount per month for this mission was estimated at $2500. It looks like we will be under that amount by a couple hundred if we watch ourselves.

Elder Courtright had to swap our car out to one of the missionary companionship's because their cars brakes finally gave out and the shop isn't open until the 8th. So we are driving the mission pick-up truck (bakkie) temporarily.

We met Elder and Sister Beale who just arrived last night from the Seattle area. He is a retired attorney, graduated from Yale. They are going to be serving in the Eastern Cape. They previously have served in Malawi, about 1200 km north of here.

We went to Kirstenbosch with them and the Hamilton's and walked through the gardens. We also walked on the 'boomslang' (Afrikaans for 'tree snake') through the canopy on a suspended walkway. The gardens were stunning.

In the afternoon we stopped at "Timbuktu", an Ethiopian restaurant where we had some wonderful Doro wat with berbere spice using Injera bread for eating with your hands. No utensils allowed.

As we were entering our flat we met Shelby and Kyle who live directly across the complex from our flat. She is an american citizen but hasn't lived much in the states due to a divorce by her parents at a younger age. She is well traveled because her grandmother wanted her to see the world with her and all it's diversity before her grandmother passed away. She was studying law, but recently changed, and as such as a great appreciation for all the world affairs and places she's visited. She commented that she is anxious to get back to the states and study the diversity there from east coast to west coast. She gave one example about a wedding she attended recently in Texas and was taken aback by the cowboys all wearing huge hats, cowboy boots, and all packing pistols. She exclaimed "Who does that? The states are just as diverse as anyplace you'll find in the world." Great insight!