Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field   30 March 2018 Day 111 Friday Happy Birthday to our granddaughter Alena who turns 7 today! What a cutie in her new flower print dress. Today is "Good Friday", a national holiday so we decided to stay home and take it easy. It was a good thing because Elder Courtright went downhill today and needed some rest. He's feeling very achy and has lost 10 pounds in the past 5 days. We skyped our grandkids to wish Alena a Happy Birthday. Otherwise we just vegged out on the sofa and binged watched the first season of Designated Survivor. It was quite engaging.

Cape Town Mission Field   29 March 2018 Day 110 Thursday Today was our Zone Conference at the Meadowridge Chapel for the Cape Flats and Cape South zones. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up the deserts that Sister Courtright ordered (custard filled croissants). I took a picture of the meat pies, I'm going to try one of the steak and kidney pies once my system recovers from the intestinal flu. Some of the elders stopped in after the conference to drop off one of the spare cars they've been driving while their car was being repaired. Elder Milne also stopped by after seeing the doctor. He's also suffering from the intestinal flu. The doctor gave his something to try and said to return in 5 days if things don't improve. I asked him to keep me appraised of his progress. If whatever he takes improves his condition then I'll go in and get some too. Elder Gwebu on the left (our newest missionary) and Elder Dove on the right (he's not smiling becaus...

Cape Town Mission Field   28 March 2018 Day 109 Wednesday Today we had the Facilities Management group return and install the new LED lights on the upper perimeter of the building. We made arrangements for an appliance repair company to take a look at the washing machine in one of the Somerset West flats. We also have to take a vehicle into the shop, it appears to be just a dead battery. Sister Courtright is shipping packages today. And Elder Courtright has lost 5 pounds due to the intestinal flu that is still plaguing him.

Cape Town Mission Field   27 March 2018 Day 108 Tuesday Elder Courtright made it to office after sleeping in a bit. He struggled through the day but was able to get a lot of items cleared off his desk. Sister Courtright is busy making other mail arrangements for the East Cape folks due to the Senior Couples that are leaving that area. She believes Post Net will be the answer versus Globe Flight for our package pick up and delivery to the East Cape. We made a mail run to the Post Office then to the Makro store (Costco like store) for missionary supplies. We found a biscuit (cookie) and cheese wholesale outfit near our flat and picked up a couple of items to give a try. The prices were quite good.

Cape Town Mission Field   26 March 2018 Day 107 Monday Today was a typical day at the office. Busy with lease renewals and some boarding closures for the senior couples that are leaving or have just left (The Watson's just left and the Peterson's are leaving next week). We also moved some Elders from Despatch to Blue Water Bay due to some break-ins and lack of security at that boarding. So we have to close that one now too. Sister Courtright is busy arranging for catering for this week's zone conference. We also had some elders drop in to pick up some cleaning supplies.  Clive from the Facilities Management group stopped by to take a look at the upper lights around the perimeter of the mission office. None of them are working so I asked them to come out and take a look. It turns out they are all burned out and haven't been replaced because they are an odd model. So they are going to replace them all with LED floods. This evening Elder Courtright came down wit...

Cape Town Mission Field   25 March 2018 Day 106 Sunday This morning we drove to the Paarl ward which is about an hours drive northeast of the city. The ward house is very beautiful but not on the map that we just created. So we will have to update those. They had a confirmation of two new members and we were able to bring a new set of scriptures for Elder Gwebu. He's new to the mission. He's been out about 6 weeks and he left his book bag sitting on the boot (trunk) of their vehicle while talking to some people and it was stolen. Not a nice introduction to the mission. We took a different root home, but it turned out to not be as scenic as we had hoped for.  This afternoon we went back into the office to take care of some records and leases for this week. We finally left around 10:00 PM. We got a lot accomplished.

Cape Town Mission Field   24 March 2018 Day 105 Saturday Today we got up early and headed for the Tram at Table Mountain. It was overcast but the top of the mountain looked clear so we took a chance. There was hardly any people compared to other times we made the attempt. There really was little to no queue (line). We took a guided walk then continued on the upper trail over to the Plattekloof gap (where people hike up the trail to the top bypassing the tram). There's a Gap Challenge where people go up the gap take the tram down then repeat the process in a 12 time limit. The record is 17 runs. We then headed back to the tram while walking through the mist as a cloud rolled in. So we timed the morning just right. We then met Andile (our trail guide we met several weeks ago) and he took us on a township tour. We drove through Nyanga (the Moon), which is across the freeway from Langa (the Sun) which was the first township settlement after the blacks were bull-d...

Cape Town Mission Field   23 March 2018 Day 104 Friday Today was the Cape Town North Zone Conference held at the Bellville chapel. We attended the lunch only to see how the caterer Sister Courtright has selected is doing in their meal presentations. Most of the Elders were excited to see the change in food quantity and quality. We weren't too impressed by the main entree (chicken schnitzel) it seemed a bit tough. But if everyone else was happy with it then we will continue to use them. Sister Courtright is preparing for the South Zone conference next week on Thursday at the Meadowridge Chapel. Otherwise it was a fairly quiet day with a large family of Guinea Fowl roaming the Mission Office property.

Cape Town Mission Field   22 March 2018 Day 103 Thursday Today was boarding inspection day for the Guguletu Elders (Lillback and Barnabas). We installed a smoke alarm/CO monitor (because they were without one). Sister Courtright helped them to understand the bed room cleaning necessity and frequency to eliminate bugs. Elder Courtright screwed back on a kitchen cabinet door. And after unsuccessfully trying to clean out their vacuum cleaner we brought in a new one from our car. With the right tools anything is possible. We then went to the Meadowridge Elders (Lane and Makwakwa). They moved into the Rhodes view apartment while theirs was being renovated. Sister Courtright taught them how to rehang their living room curtains. Elder Courtright tried to rehang a kitchen cabinet door but the hinge was broken so he removed it and will bring back a new one. We stopped for lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant and Sister Courtright asked the chef to teach her how to make the carrot fl...

Cape Town Mission Field   21 March 2018 Day 102 Wednesday Today is a national holiday called "Human Rights Day". This is to recognize the efforts of all those who have campaigned and sacrificed so much in defense of personal freedoms. The Cape Town South Stake brought about 200 youth to participate in some games on the mission office grounds and have hot dogs and fresh fruit for lunch. Elder Courtright put the covering back on the truck bed to clear out the bathroom in the shed for everyone to use, including re-hanging a mirror. The main activity was "Derby Car Racing". They set up a course and each ward had a derby car they entered with a driver and pushers. They had several heats. They then set up a "Tire Pull" where each ward sent in a numbered puller when their number was called out. They had to run to the center of the field and attempt to bring the tire to their starting point. Everyone would grab hold and a four-way tug-of-war would ens...

Cape Town Mission Field   20 March 2018 Day 101 Tuesday Today we went to the Post Office and Sister Courtright ran into the Pick-n-Pay grocery store and found...guess what...corned beef. So we put it in the Crock Pot once we got back to the office. Elder Courtright did some cleaning up in the shed where the South Stake is going to set up some food preparation tomorrow for the holiday celebration. He also took in the van to have a flat repaired. And while there had them replace the headlamps because one apparently only works occasionally according to Elder Huang. The repair man noticed the insert was messed up so he played around with it for awhile until he was satisfied it was corrected. Back at the office Elder Courtright trimmed some low-hanging limbs from a thorn tree that you have to go under when entering the parking area in front of the office. The limbs were dragging along the top of the truck and van since they sit much higher than the elders cars. This type of...

Cape Town Mission Field   19 March 2018 Day 100 Monday We left early this morning to the Cape Town Open Air Market to get some fruits for a salad for this Wednesday, which is a national holiday. There will be about 200 people from one of wards or stakes in the area using the Mission Home grounds for a picnic. We spent the day catching up on usual paperwork around the office; leases and vehicle problems for Elder Courtright and orders and the Annual History report for Sister Courtright. Culture phrase for the day spotted from a freeway warning sign: Car Alight = Car On Fire.

Cape Town Mission Field   18 March 2018 Day 99 Sunday We went to the North Zone Stake Conference today at the Bellville chapel. The speakers focused on Faith and all talks were wonderful. Afterwards many stayed and ate a sack lunch. We met Jordan who was quite the character. He has been practicing card tricks and he showed us several. They were very impressive. We then went back into the chapel to hear speakers from the Church's area on the Self Reliance Program. These 2 gentlemen covered all of South Africa and were encouraging those needing to improve their circumstances to get involved with the Pathways program or the Perpetual Education Fund to receive grant money to improve their vocational or technical skills. We went back to the office later in the day so Sister Courtright could send out the CREST Newsletter for the Elders to read on their P-Day tomorrow. Elder Courtright delivered a spare set of keys to the Brackenfall Elders (Dove and Milne) who lost their car...

Cape Town Mission Field   17 March 2018 Day 98 Saturday Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! We were a bit disappointed when we couldn't find any corned beef in the grocery store. But, we'll survive. We went into the office so Sister Courtright could finish the CREST. This is the mission newsletter that goes out right after transfers take place. She's adding some more personal flavor to it with pictures and stories from the elders and some historical documentary. We were supposed to go on a tour of one of the townships with our good hiking friend, Andile, but his meeting ran late so we are going to plan on it another day. Elder Courtright received a phone call from the Somerset Elders reporting that they left their bikes unchained outside their flat and they went missing. Hmm, imagine that. Elder Courtright spent a lot of effort hauling the bikes to a repair shop, getting them fixed up, hauling them back, then hauling them out to Somerset on their way to Hermanus fo...

Cape Town Mission Field   16 March 2018 Day 97 Friday Today the Hamilton's and Watson's and ourselves were going to Robin Island to see the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. While looking through an African gift shop we received a text that the tours were canceled that day due to high winds. I guess the boat ride over and back was a bit to rocky for the high winds. Sister Courtright was ducking under a large metal sculpture of an Elephant at the gift shop when it bit her on the top-front of her head. Actually, she ran into it because the sun was so bright she had a large hat on and was unable to see how low the elephants mouth was. She was a bit unsteady for a while. We decided to have lunch on the waterfront then head back to the office while the Watson's visited some of the Elders that they served with on the East Cape. We met a wonderful Xhosa lady at the restaurant and she volunteered to go through some of the Xhosa language sounds they use in the...

Cape Town Mission Field   15 March 2018 Day 96 Thursday Today was a typical day, thank goodness. The transfer chaos is over and it's back to a normal day. Sister Courtright is busy putting the final touches on the Annual History report for the Mission for 2017 with President Lebethoa. We went shopping at a couple of new places for Sister Courtright to locate packaging supplies for the mail room. We had a late lunch (or early dinner) then went back to the office and wrapped several items up there and left around 9:30 PM. It was very cool and windy and we passed a couple of homeless people at the corner. We felt impressed to turn around and offered them a blanket we had in our car.

Cape Town Mission Field   14 March 2018 Day 95 Wednesday Today was transfer day. We drove out to the Montana Branch and set up the sack lunches for the Elders traveling today. We then drove to Market Toyota in Claremont to pick up a vehicle that had its starter replaced. Sister Courtright followed Elder Courtright back to the office driving the Ford Ranger pickup truck. The office was a bit chaotic as Elders were coming in and picking up their weekly boarding supplies while others were being interviewed by the President who were leaving off mission.  Elder and Sister Watson also arrived and we gave them our car to use while they're here for a couple of days then they fly back home to Temecula, California on Friday night. We plan on going out to Robin Island with them on Friday. Here's a picture of the activity in the parking lot at the Mission Office. Sister Courtright administered the English Learning Language test to Elder Chaparadza who is heading home....

Cape Town Mission Field   13 March 2018 Day 94 Tuesday Happy Birthday to our daughter Jackie, who is 38 today. We still refer to her as our Friday the 13th baby. We got to talk to her for quite some time this evening. And now she's only 8 hours time difference due to Daylight Savings Time. We wrapped things up early at the office and went shopping for sandwiches for the missionaries lunch tomorrow during their transfers. Afterwards we stopped at the Howard Center near our flat and both of us went in for haircuts. Sister Courtright afterwards had her eyebrows and nails done at a nice salon upstairs at the Howard Center. We stopped for dinner at Simply Asian then headed home. We noticed the little cactus that we picked up in Hermanus about a month ago is really sending out some nice shoots all over.

Cape Town Mission Field   12 March 2018 Day 93 Monday Yesterday was the 40th run of the Cape Town Cycle Tour. They say it is the World's Largest Cycle race. There were over 30,000 entries. Here's a picture of the start. Looks like chaos. There were two people that died from what I heard. One died as a result of a 20 bike pile-up and the other was a heart attack. We went to the Cape Town open air market to get some fruit for the missionaries lunches on transfer day, this coming Wednesday. We picked up a box of apples, plums, and peaches for R125 (about $9). Elder Morena and Latu from Fish Hoek came up and washed our cars at the mission office as a service project on their day off. We treated them to lunch in return. Elder Morena is heading back to Madagascar on Wednesday now that the mission there has re-opened. And Elder Latu, unfortunately, is heading back home to Tonga on Saturday due to his ACL injury from playing rugby. We will miss them both, they are very f...

Cape Town Mission Field   11 March 2018 Day 92 Sunday Today is our new son-in-laws birthday! Happy Birthday Jim Hale! Woo hoo! (Or was that yesterday? My Google calender said the 10th, but we just talked to Stephanie and she said it was today. Either way...we hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!) We really had a wonderful experience at the Mandalay ward again today. They are such a wonderful group of people. We had time after church to visit with Brother Lucky while his wife (the Relief Society President was in meetings). Their daughter also had her final interview in preparation for submitting her mission papers. Lucky's story is amazing. He grew up during apartheid and comes from Soweto (ground zero for the apartheid uprising in Johannesburg). He comes from a tribal family where his father had 8 wife's with 43 children. He grew up knowing 22 siblings. He got the name of Lucky from the doctor that delivered him at 6 months. In 1983 one of his brothers just disa...

Cape Town Mission Field   10 March 2018 Day 91 Saturday Today was our long range trip to Hermanus for boarding inspections there. First we had to swing by the office and pick up 2 bikes for the Somerset Elders that wanted them since their car had to go into the shop yesterday (prematurely). We dropped them off and headed to Hermanus, we saw more baboons along the highway over the top of the pass. We first stopped at the auto repair shop in the same building as the chapel to pay for some work on the Elders car. We then met the Patriarchs wife outside the Elders boarding to give her a letter for the Patriarch from Church Headquarters that we received at the Mission Office. We then visited with the Elders and saw that they are keeping their boarding in very nice condition. Elder Gibbons has been there at Hermanus for quite some time, several months as I recall. He showed us some brochures for a couple of potential hikes at some gardens/nature reserves in the area that we wa...

Cape Town Mission Field   9 March 2018 Day 90 Friday Can you believe it? 90 days...3 months in the field. We can't believe the time is going by so fast. Today was an implosion day for vehicles... It started with an early morning drive to drop off a vehicle at the Chevrolet Service Dealer that moved from Cape Town to Claremont. They like to hide there service department because it was quite an exercise trying to find there new facility during morning commute traffic. The Plumstead Elders have their car at the Mission Office waiting to be taken in next week because of a terrible rattling noise at speed. So the spare car they have seemed to have developed a starter problem so it ended up being towed into the dealer. They could push start it but one time they did it smoke came out from near the battery so they decided to stop that process. The Brackenfell Elders took their car in for an AC issue which the dealer can't seem to resolve so they continue to drive our car...

Cape Town Mission Field   8 March 2018 Day 89 Thursday Today was a boarding visit to Elders Morena and Latu in Fish Hoek. Elder Morena is one of the last Elders to be returning to Madagascar next week when transfers occur. Elder Latu from Tonga is just learning the area from Elder Morena. He served for three months in Tonga before coming here due to visa issues. Here he is show at a zone conference where everyone wears the traditional clothing in Tonga for proselyting. We heard that there's a small possibility that Elder Latu may have to go home for an ACL surgery that he tore recently while playing rugby on P-Day. We are praying for the best. We stopped for lunch along the beach road back to Muisenberg in Kalk Bay. Sister Courtright had a nice dish with Egg Plant and Ostrich Meatballs. They were delicious. The facilities folks are taking steps to remove miscellaneous objects (stumps, etc) from off the property in order to make it safer for youth groups to come a...

Cape Town Mission Field   7 March 2018 Day 88 Wednesday Today we had our office meeting which focused on how we are going to manage support for the missionaries in the more distant areas of the East Cape with two Senior Missionary couples leaving us in the next few weeks. These are the Watson's in Port Elizabeth and the Peterson's in Port Alfred. It will be a logistical challenge that we have to come up with some creative ways to manage. Elder Courtright ran out and got lunch for everyone. We had Indian food from the Mumbai Restaurant. We had Chicken Hakka, Chicken Tika, Lamb Schwarma, and Garlic Naan. Mmmmm! Elder Courtright is busy with lease renewals and car issues. This evening there was a beautiful sunset over Lion's head. See for yourself.

Cape Town Mission Field   6 March 2018 Day 87 Tuesday This morning we left around 7:00 AM to go to the Cape Town Market just west of Pinelands. It is an early morning market (starts selling at 3:30 AM) for all the hawkers to buy there fruits and veggies that they sell on the street. We bought a medium size box of grapes, peaches, and pears for R200, about $15. Sister Courtright used the fruit to prepare a fruit salad and Elder Courtright went to El Greeyo (cuban cafe) and picked up 3-cheese burgers for the zone leader conference that was held in the office. Everyone seemed to applaud the change from pizza. As we drove through the gate around 8:00 AM we saw one of the long-necked birds that hangs around the area that tries to spear moles through the mole hills. I suspect he uses his hearing to tell when a mole is burrowing in its hole then thrusts its long beak into the dirt to spear the mole. Well, one of the birds had one in his mouth, it was a huge mole. After aw...

Cape Town Mission Field   5 March 2018 Day 86 Monday This morning we went to our doctors appointments. The physiologists for both Sister and Elder Courtright to straighten out our backs, necks, and loosen our sore muscles. Elder Courtright is standing up straight and has a big smile on his face again. Sister Courtright then visited her doctor that took her off her blood pressure and diabetes medication. Her numbers were great throughout the week. Here they should measure between 5 and 10, in the states we know 100 is the base line. But they use a different conversion factor here. Anyway, her numbers were all within range. Her Blood Pressure was normal, 121 over 82, that's the first time we've seen a normal BP. Usually it runs about 95 over 65. She no longer feels wobbly and can think clearly. Woo Hoo!

Cape Town Mission Field   4 March 2018 Day 85 Sunday Today we attended the Bellville Ward Sacrament meeting at 9:00 AM. We arrived early and was able to greet everyone as they arrived. We saw Neil Slater who has provided all the maintenance support including adding the water tanks at the Mission Office. We met Yvette, his secretary who Elder Courtright interfaces with. She is the wife of the Bishop (Blanckenberg). And her father is the Patriarch (Brother Park). Neil bore his testimony and included a recount of his conversion due to some Elders that knocked on his door some 31 years ago. He recalls how close he was to sending the Elders off because his testimony of the Book of Mormon wasn't progressing like he felt it should. When the Elders arrived, one Elder Jeff Jolley felt impressed to bear his testimony and that was the key to bringing his own testimony over the threshold and accept to be baptized. Our daughter sent us a picture of our gazebo that underwent an inve...

Cape Town Mission Field   3 March 2018 Day 84 Saturday Today we were invited to go on a hike with Andile and his group of students he takes out on hikes as part of a non-profit organization giving children from Townships an opportunity to participate in an outing that they normally wouldn't have access to. He was working with a three other friends that participate in similar activities or are friends from the Cape Town Hiking group that he participates with. It's amazing to think that the majority of these 13 and 14 year-old young people have never been on a hike like this before. We met at Newlands Forest parking lot. Which is the base camp for the fire fighters and helicopters in the area. Then headed around the mid-level of Devils Peak and up to the Kings Block House. This served as a lookout point for the harbor and had 2 cannons stationed there. We managed to stay hydrated and eat better, including an energy bar and PowerAid. This must've helped becaus...