Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field   29 April 2018 Day 141 Sunday Today was an enjoyable service. We were excited to sit in on Ward Council after church and see where they are going with the new ministering program. After that we went with several members and the Branch President to one of the sisters in the Branch whose grandson (age 23) passed away. They had a short service in their living room, with the Relief Society and Young Women's president speaking and the Branch President spoke too. Many of us sat in plastic chairs in the front yard and listened through the open door. We joined in for the musical numbers. We met the good sister afterwards, who was 72. She was very spry and fun to talk with. I couldn't pronounce here name so I won't even attempt to spell it. We also are trying to remember the members names and faces so we take photos of them and write down their name. Here is Brother Mbaki who works at Villagio Restaurant and is the second councilor in the Branch P...

Cape Town Mission Field   28 April 2018 Day 140 Saturday Today we went in to the office to do some final clean-up and shopping for next week. The Young Women survived their night out on the grounds. The cleaning crew did a fantastic job cleaning up the office. Elder Courtright vacuumed out the van in preparation for President Palmer's arrival on Monday. When we were out shopping at the Sable shopping center we came across a western themed restaurant. Check out the name. The evening clouds over Lion Head looked very strange. Sister Courtright thought the cloud sitting on top of Lion's Head looked like an eagle head. Maybe, but it had a strange tuft near the ear, which I don't recall an eagle having. (center of picture)

Cape Town Mission Field   27 April 2018 Day 139 Friday Today is Freedom Day in South Africa. Being a long weekend the Stake brought in all their Young Women for a camp out. They set up tents, checked-in, made dinner; and all this in spite of a little drizzle that fell this evening. We had the facilities crew come in and clean the carpets. Tomorrow (Saturday), they'll be back to do some deep cleaning. We left at noon to attend a ministering activity at the Langa Branch. We paired off and departed for members homes who were having difficulties. We paired with out Stake councilor and visited 3 families. The first was an elderly lady (Zelpha) who was watching her 3 grandchildren. These children were from her daughter age 23 that passed away 1 year ago. The children were adorable. The little 4 year old enjoyed sitting on Elder Courtright's knee. All the children were well behaved. Sister Courtright was able to connect with Zelpha and comfort her as she talked about he...

Cape Town Mission Field   26 April 2018 Day 138 Thursday Thursday 26 April, today's the day when the veterans fly home. The office was buzzing with elders coming and going as the retiring elders were being interviewed by President Lebethoa prior to their return home. Sister Courtright took advantage of all the extra horsepower and put the elders to work taking down the old cardboard boxes of elders belongings and re-packing them into the new plastic bins she purchased. It was controlled chaos.

Cape Town Mission Field   25 April 2018 Day 137 Wednesday We then met our new vendor, Ronald Kintu and picked up the sandwiches from him for today's transfers (those flying in and out of the airport). We drove to the Guguletu chapel to set up. We were a little apprehensive because Sister Courtright received a WhatApp notice from the Relief Society sisters warning of a union strike today that could potentially shut down areas with protesters. Turns out there were no issues. Sister Lebethoa led a wonderful discussion for the missionaries in the chapel. Elder Greengrass and Sibiya serenaded us in the parking lot while waiting for things to get started. Elder Fullmer heading out to Queenstown in the East Cape Elder Bokarie heading out to Port Elizabeth in the East Cape Elder Barnabas heading out to Port Elizabeth in the East Cape Elder Lane moving to Paarl, still in the West Cape. He has seen some interesting things, including being stabbed in the bac...

Cape Town Mission Field   24 April 2018 Day 136 Tuesday Today is Elder Courtright's sisters birthday... Happy Birthday Penny! This was a crazy day. Dropped a car of to get serviced. They called a little while later to inform us that this car had already been seen recently. Yup, took the wrong one in for service. Hey, there's 60 cars in the fleet...it happens. Our new group of Elders arrived and we took them through orientation. Elder Day from Kayesville, Elder Dennis from Arizona, Elder Mabunga from Johannesburg, Elder Ferreira and Lopez both from Brazil. They then went to lunch at the mission home. We went to Sister Courtright's follow-up with the neurosurgeon. He identified a bit of narrowing around two neck vertebrae but didn't feel that was an acute issue that should be dealt with. He also identified some small white spots in the brain associated with small blood vessel damage. He felt that was more there than should be normal for a person of Sister Co...

Cape Town Mission Field   23 April 2018 Day 135 Monday It was off to the Cape Town market this morning to pick up some fruit for this weeks transfers. 1 box grapes, 1 box pears, 1 box naches (something between and orange and a tangerine) all for R130 (~$10).  We then headed towards Bellville to the Store & More to pick up some plastic bins for Sister Courtright's new project of replacing all the cardboard boxes in the storage room with plastic bins. These boxes hold any extra items the missionaries want to store and not carry around with them while they are working out in the field. Especially those being transferred to the East Cape. The airlines limit the amount of weight they can check. Sister Courtright decided on 110 bins. We made 3 trips even with the pick up truck. Here's a picture of the first load. And guess what...it was raining all afternoon. Woo Hoo!

Cape Town Mission Field   22 April 2018 Day 134 Sunday Today at church there was a young man that is 15 years old, Solcanyo Akho Bongani, that was fellowshipped by his peers and invited to attend seminary with them. He developed a testimony and was baptized today. We had services after church then we drove over to the Guguletu chapel where they have a font. It was filled with "borehole" water, not culinary water due to the water restrictions, so it was a bit yellowish brown in color. The service was our first baptism that we have attended. We took pictures outside afterwards. Solcanyo is the young fellow in the center leaning against the building with his hands in his pockets.  

Cape Town Mission Field   21 April 2018 Day 133 Saturday This morning we baked two applesauce cakes for Sister Courtright to take to the Langa Relief Society Birthday. We arrived at 2:00 as planned but only found one sister there. Eventually about 30 sisters in total arrived and they started around 3:00. The food showed up around 4:00 and they started to shut down around 5:30. Elder Courtright sat outside in the car and read all the articles prescribed for the upcoming conference with the area authority in two weeks. It was amazing to see all the activity in the neighborhood. It reminded us of the 50's or 60's when kids would be roaming the neighborhoods with families outside talking with neighbors. It was quite active. There is a field that separates the rented building where the church meets and the next street over where a large group had gathered for a braai (barbeque). There was one thing that was unusual and not typical of what we would find in the states. In t...

Cape Town Mission Field   20 April 2018 Day 132 Friday We picked up Sister Thirsley to do the weekly cleaning at the office and she commented that President Markus just passed away this week. He served as the Mission President here from 1996 to 1999. He was the one that baptized her. She had been cleaning the office from since two Presidents before him. She expressed her love for both as they were very kind and wonderful people. This evening we drove down to Fish Hoek to deliver a suit and some extra clothing to Elder Lare. The president asked us to pick up a suit from the store and gather some clothing (from all the donated clothing left behind by departing missionaries) for him after interviewing him when he arrived. He was only carrying a small carry-on bag and his attire was well worn. The Lord blessed us as we were directed to a store in the Canal Walk Mall where we found a suit that was on sale and eventually found the only matching matching pair of pants that we...

Cape Town Mission Field   19 April 2018 Day 131 Thursday This morning Sister Courtright followed Elder Courtright to the Chevrolet dealership in Claremont where he dropped off a car for service. We then drove down to Fish Hoek to do a boarding inspection there.  Elder Shaw is new to this area and is training one of our brand new missionaries, Elder Bokarie from Sierre Leone (west coast of Africa). They are both teaching a lot of people. We found a few items that needed repair. The upstairs bathtub for instance has never had the hot water tap work. It's funny what you learn if you ask some detailed questions. So Elder Courtright notified Tony to come out and replace the tap and the bathroom vanity that was water damaged when the geiser (electric water heater) broke last month.  The grounds crew was cleaning up the Mission Office grounds in preparation for a Girls Camp the following weekend. The installed an Owl Box on top of an abandoned pole in hopes of attractin...

Cape Town Mission Field   18 April 2018 Day 130 Wednesday Today we were very busy at the office. Sister Courtright had to prepare all the packages to be picked up by the mail carrier Global Freight at 4:00 PM. Prior to that she had to coordinate all the boarding supplies for the zone leaders that come in each week to pick up for their respective elders in their zone. Elder Courtright also had to swap out a vehicle so that he could take it in for service at 7:00 AM tomorrow. While in the office everyone spontaneously sang Happy Birthday to Elder Milne. He received a rather large birthday package from his mom when we picked up the post yesterday. We also picked up the vehicle that had its boot repaired on the way home and will bring it back to the office tomorrow.

Cape Town Mission Field   17 April 2018 Day 129 Tuesday This morning we dropped a car off for repair at Car Smart, near our boarding. The boot (trunk) won't open and the back seat needs to be repaired where the elders tore it loose to get at their belongings in the trunk...I mean boot. The rest of the day was the usual; mail run, supply run, then office stuff. We did find that at the Makro store they have a little cafe where we stopped for bacon and eggs. We got two hashers of bacon with scrambled eggs. Sister Courtright is really enjoying the chutney on the eggs. At least she was until she found out how much sugar is in the chutney. Still not sure what a hasher is. I believe it is a strip of bacon. Bacon here is much thicker and wider than the usual bacon in the states. Came home late (around 7:30) and had tuna sandwiches for dinner. They were a welcome change.

Cape Town Mission Field   16 April 2018 Day 128 Monday Today was a typical Monday. Except that we still had to submit our taxes. Thank goodness for TurboTax and being able to file online. We stopped for lunch to have our usual chicken burgers from the River Club. But they messed up the order so we had beef burgers today. Still very good beef, they cook it medium and the flavor is incredible. The mountain was on fire again. This one was up above Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens.

Cape Town Mission Field   15 April 2018 Day 127 Sunday Today we joined our new assignment to the Langa Branch. Branch President Madaza (young man of about 32) had us introduce ourselves during Sacrament meeting. There were about 120 people attending. They have a wonderful strength and spirit about them. We're excited to be serving in the Langa Branch. Branch President Madaza (center) They asked us to sit in the Branch Council meeting as they reviewed the new plans to support the revelation brought forth during the last General Conference with regards to the "ministering" program. It is all very exciting to see this new work unfold in this branch in South Africa. Next Saturday is the Relief Society birthday party and Sister Courtright was asked to prepare a cake for the event.

Cape Town Mission Field   14 April 2018 Day 126 Saturday Today we went down to the V&A Waterfront to meet a sister that we met at the Tableview Branch last Sunday. She volunteered to show us around the shops, especially to look for some beaded necklaces that Sister Courtright is interested in. Sister Dawn Van Eeden, with her sister (wheelchair) and her daughter (Tear) Sister Courtright gets a hug from one of the street performers (xylophones mostly), he had a wonderful voice We first visited the "2 Oceans Aquarium" next to the shopping area. It was a really nice aquarium with a large 6 meter tank that you can watch the divers feed the stingrays. Petting the Rockhopper penquins Knysna seahorses (south cape area) Giant spider crab Feeding the stingrays Table Mountain across the waterfront The shark exhibit showcased a looping video that illustrated how many people were killed by sharks each year as compared to accidents with hous...

Cape Town Mission Field   13 April 2018 Day 125 Friday We said good-bye to Elder Hernandez as he completed his mission and headed home to Juarez, Mexico. He was held up in Johannesberg because they wouldn't let him fly into Atlanta without a visitors visa. Which is apparently a new travel restriction for Mexican citizens passing through the US. You have to have a visitors visa even if you're just passing through.  It was a rather quiet day at the office today. Elder Courtright did some bush trimming to clear a parking area for the two spare vehicles we now have at the office. In the corner of the lot near the parking area there were 3 or 4 Egyptian Geese playing "King of the Pine Tree". They were honking at each other as a new one would fly in and try to take position on the limb where another was sitting. It was all very strange as I've never seen geese hang out in trees before. There was also a rather large garden spider with its web stretched between s...

Cape Town Mission Field   12 April 2018 Day 124 Thursday Today we spent most of the morning at the doctor's office. Sister Courtright was having 3 MRI's done to determine if there's anything in her neck/head area causing her persistent head, neck, and shoulder pain. Back at the office Sister Courtright is preparing reading packets for everyone to prepare for the upcoming area authority visit at the beginning of May. Elder Palmer will be visiting from Johannesburg. Elder Courtright was busy sending out requests to property managers for payments to help with boarding improvements at several of our boarding's in the Cape Town area. He also did some car swapping. The Hamilton's inherited the Peterson's car and Elder Lane and Makwakwa inherited the Hamilton's Corolla following the demise of their vehicle in Tuesday's accident. We stopped at the Canal Walk mall for some health care items at Click's pharmacy and while there we ran into 3 member...

Cape Town Mission Field   11 April 2018 Day 123 Wednesday Today was our senior couple's Skype meeting with the other senior couples on the East Cape. Then we broke for lunch. Sister Courtright prepared Taco Salad with Chicken Quesadilla's and guacamole. We stopped at the clinic on the way home to get our last shot from the whole series we started prior to leaving on our mission. It was the third booster of the Hepatitis-B vaccine series. Glad those are all over. Oh wait, while we were there they asked if we wanted a flu shot. Since we had one six months ago we weren't sure. Neither were they. So we took it anyway. We'll let you know if anything weird happens. Jackie also sent us some pictures and a video of the kids preparing to get into a silly string battle. The cans were covered up and the color of string will let the kids know if there new baby will be a boy or a girl. Since you can't see the string color very well in the video I'll tell you now t...

Cape Town Mission Field   10 April 2018 Day 122 Tuesday Today we stopped at the bread and cheese factory store for some items for the sloppy Joe's. Sister Courtright finished preparations at the office in the morning for the luncheon. Elder Courtright had to run out and tend to Elders Lane and Makwakwa who rear ended a utility truck that stopped for a pedestrian at the traffic light after going around two vehicles that had rear-ended each other while coming upon the "robot", as they call them here (traffic light). Fortunately there were no injuries and little if any damage to the utility vehicle. Both men in the truck were very understanding. We drove to the police station to file a report after the car was towed away. While Elder Lane was working with the driver to fill out the report Elder Makwakwa was talking to the other worker and eventually gave him a Book of Mormon. That's a dangerous way to seek out investigators by rear-ending them.

Cape Town Mission Field   9 April 2018 Day 121 Monday Monday seemed like a blur. Not sure what we accomplished, I just know we worked late and did some food shopping early in the morning at the Cape Town Green Market after dropping off one of the missionary cars at at the repair station near our boarding. The food is for Tuesday's MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) meeting. Sister Courtright is going to make sloppy Joe's for everyone at the office tomorrow. This evening we put together a broccoli salad, potato salad and cooked up the sloppy Joe meet. Monday's see a lot of elders come and go through the office because it is their P-Day (Personal Day) to take care of personal business. Elder Milne was practicing his roping with Elder Hernandez (who is leaving off his mission on Thursday).

Cape Town Mission Field   8 April 2018 Day 120 Sunday Today we visited the Tableview branch. It's been organized for about 1 year now. We met some wonderful brothers and sisters there and heard their wonderful testimonies. It turns out our new Elder Taim has an uncle in the Branch Presidency here. Elder Leon from the Tableview Branch just returned from his mission in Birmingham, England. Elder Reynolds who is now serving in the East Cape was one of the missionaries that left from the Birmingham ward that Elder Leon was serving in. It's a small world. We got some pictures of Alena's birthday party (held right around Easter).

Cape Town Mission Field   7 April 2018 Day 119 Saturday We woke to a beautiful sunrise then decided to head north along the coast, a direction we had yet to travel. We stopped along the beaches of Tableview which looks south to Table mountain.  We headed north until we reached the Koeberg nuclear power plant and drove onto a private reserve, an area set aside by the French company that built the reactor to protect wildlife on their property. We saw a few little Springbok. We then stopped at the Cape Town Ostrich Ranch on our way back to the city. They had 2 beautiful cheetah's there also. We took a tour of the facility which showed us how Ostrich's are used; feathers, hide, meat, egg shells, etc. We saw different types and sizes. Including Tom Thumb, the Guiness World record smallest Ostrich. He was very gentle and easy to feed; he loves corn. We then sat upon a large male and had our pictures taken by a lady who was with our group and her little gi...

Cape Town Mission Field   6 April 2018 Day 118 Friday We stopped at the Post Office then filled up the van (R930, approximately $70). After Elder Courtright backed the van up against the fence along the north side of the property he heard a tiny pop, pop, pop sound. It had rained that night and he followed the sound over to where he found a frog that had tried to hop over the electrified fence and met his match. Elder Courtright got a broom stick and pushed him off the bottom two wires of the fence to halt the zapping. In the evening we went to the V&A Waterfront. Sister Courtright found some interesting circular chairs in the square outside the Silo Hotel. She sat down in it and started to roll around and around. We then visited the Shimansky Diamond museum. It was an amazing history of the diamonds found in the Kimberly mine and the De Beers family that sold out but kept the family name associated right up to the time Cecil Rhodes purchased it. The biggest ro...

Cape Town Mission Field   5 April 2018 Day 117 Thursday Today we dropped the Peterson's off at the airport this morning. The Radison Red back side faces Table mountain and a working dock. There were 3 vessels in dry dock getting scrubbed. Although you couldn't see Table mountain due to the fog this morning. We then went on to Somerset West for boarding inspections then on to 3 Gate Green in Strandfontein for a boarding inspection. We have resolved a number of broken/damaged items in these boarding's over the past two months and they are looking quite good. The new blinds at Gate Green are really nice. Mission van with dry dock in the background

Cape Town Mission Field   4 April 2018 Day 116 Wednesday This afternoon we (and the Hamilton's) met the Peterson's at the V&A Clock Tower for some dinner. They stayed at the Radison Red, which was next to the Silo hotel. A unique reclamation of some silo towers converted into a hotel. We ate that the Cape Town Fish Market next to the pier and had a wonderful evening. We really connected and wished we had more time with them. They are heading out for 2 weeks of vacation before heading home. They are stopping at Victoria Falls then on to Rowanda and Uganda to see the gorilla's. Ray and Shannon Peterson from Idaho Falls and Mesquite, Nevada Silo Hotel

Cape Town Mission Field   3 April 2018 Day 115 Tuesday Today was a day to make new friends. We finally met the Peterson's, who've been in town for the weekend. But due to Elder Courtright being under the weather we haven't had a chance to interact with them yet. We also received a new Elder from Papua New Guinea, Elder Lare. He arrived in between normal arrival dates so we had a special training session just for him. He's all smiles. We went to lunch with the Peterson's at the River Club. It turns out that Elder Huang and Sibiya brought the new elder there for lunch too.  We then went downtown to the District 6 museum. It is housed in an old Methodist church and has artifacts and stories of the area known as District 6 that was occupied by people of all races and colors and how the white apartheid dominating political party forcibly moved everyone out of the area into "townships" in 1966 declaring the area a white group only area. All the bu...