Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field       31 May 2018     Day 173 Thursday Today we drove down to Fish Hoek to do a boarding inspection. The elders did a great job cleaning their flat and received a bonus package of Oreo's. Elder Shaw was also in the process of baking muffins. They were good. It was raining again today. We saw a nice rainbow across the mountains and ending in the bay but before we could get a good picture it disappeared.  We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant on the beach and took some pictures of some sand sculptures in front of the restaurant. The other night we were returning from visiting a man we met at the Makro store who wanted to know more about our church. His name is John Paul. He is from the Congo and speaks French. As we were driving along we came across a large construction crane moving down the road. In the states there would be a warning sign on the back stating "Over-sized Load" but here they use a different word... ...

Cape Town Mission Field       30 May 2018     Day 172 Wednesday This morning we had to take another car in for service and when we got back to the office the sun was just coming up in the east and hitting the top of Devils Peak and Lions Head.

Cape Town Mission Field       29 May 2018     Day 171 Tuesday We both woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep so we started a movie, "Over the Hedge". We finally went back to bed around 3:00 am. This morning we stopped at the post office and the Makro store for weekly boarding supplies. I noticed the aloe plants are starting to sprout their orange flowers in the area. The ones outside our office don't get that much sunshine so they are blooming slower than others.

Cape Town Mission Field       28 May 2018     Day 170 Monday We just realized that yesterday was our 6 month mark since starting our mission at the MTC. Wow, that's 1/4 of the way done already. Can't believe how time flies. This morning we had to take a car in for service and left the flat around 6:45 but the dealer had us booked at the Toyota place in the south end of the valley. It was a long drive so we stopped for breakfast afterwards. There was an interesting cow in the courtyard. And it was raining again. This morning was the elders personal day and 4 of the elders decided to climb up Table Mountain. They didn't check the weather and half way up it started to rain. Once on top it was really coming down but they were the only one's on top and the tram wasn't running due to the weather so they had to run back down. They showed up at the office very cold and wet. Poor Elder Lare from Papua, New Guinea isn't used to cold weather. The little guy ...

Cape Town Mission Field       27 May 2018     Day 169 Sunday Today we attended both the Langa 1st and 2nd Branch meetings. They are the inaugural meetings for these two split Branches (at least it is the first time that Langa 2nd is meeting together. President Mbaki called new presidencies for the auxiliaries and we all sustained them. It was a wonderful meeting where he called a member of the Primary to give the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting. Very powerful branch! Elder Clark and Mushipi took a picture of the new members from the pulpit after the service was over. Later I found this additional photo in the group. They are real hams!

Cape Town Mission Field       26 May 2018     Day 168 Saturday Today we visited both sets of elders in Somerset West for boarding inspections. Sister Courtright wasn't too pleased with the zone leaders boarding and began to show them some areas that need to be cleaned. They then asked "What more can we do?" That was the wrong thing to ask. The elders then spent the next 30 minutes on a whirlwind cleaning tour. She said we'd stop in this afternoon on our way back from Hermanus and see if things have improved. We visited the elders in Hermanus, they're boarding is in great shape.  We stopped for lunch at the seaside Fusion cafe. Awesome food, weather, and view of the bay. We then stopped at the Fernkloof Nature Reserve in Hermanus. We walked the garden trail and saw some beautiful greenery, several native tortoises, and some wonderful birds. The trail passed along the hillside with a lot of Protea's starting to bloom. Many were torn down and the ...

Cape Town Mission Field       25 May 2018     Day 167 Friday We had a very productive office discussion this morning which focused on how we are going to manage things better around the office to ensure we all leave our mission with no regrets and it being the best we can make it. I recalled earlier this week when I took a vehicle in for service the agent filled out the inspection sheet then asked for my "Hancock". I paused then asked him "You asked for people's John Hancock in South Africa?" He then paused then laughed out loud, "Yes, we know who John Hancock was and we use that phrase in South Africa too." Elder Courtright went outside and picked some berries from the Mulberry bush outside his window. They tasted great!

Cape Town Mission Field       24 May 2018     Day 166 Thursday It seems there's always something new you learn everyday while on mission. Today Elder Courtright learned that many of the emails that Sister Bell (on the East Cape) was sending to him were never being seen because they were being sent to the 2011891-vc email address that he has never heard of. Apparently, Sister Bell was instructed by Elder Hansen to send vehicle related information to the -vc email address, but the only address Elder Courtright is familiar with is the -hse (housing) email address. So that mystery is solved. He just needs to connect with someone in IT to figure out how to open up the -vc email to find out how much information is out there that he has been missing out on. Elder Courtright pulled a Hibiscus flower off the bush in the town square in Pinelands after stopping at the Quick Spar market to buy some electricity for 2 boardings and the Mission Office. It matched Sist...

Cape Town Mission Field       23 May 2018     Day 165 Wednesday We stopped at the print shop at the Howard Center to meet the Assistants who are putting together a yearbook with Sister Courtright's help. They received some guidance from the printer with regards to format changes they should make to ensure a top notch publication. We stopped at the Biltong center on the way out and took a picture of the spinning Biltong rack. Biltong is dried meat. It is similar to our jerky but more popular as a food source. Most is a bit softer and as you can see on the rack the beef here is very thick. Like long steaks hanging out.  Today is our busy day in the office with zone leaders coming in and picking up their supplies for their zone. Then in the afternoon Sister Courtright has to package all the materials being shipped to the East Cape. We had a good group in the office so Sister Courtright had everyone put SMS stickers on the back of Pass-Along cards th...

Cape Town Mission Field       22 May 2018     Day 164 Tuesday Today is our typical visit to the Post Office and boarding supply run to the Makro store. Sister Courtright found a sale on iron's so she picked up a couple. We usually get one returned every several weeks from one of the elders whose iron quits on them. Usually Elder Courtright will get a call from an elder that sales their flat has no electricity, but only on the wall outlets. He will ask if they were ironing. Most often they have been and their breaker tripped because the iron is about to die and pulling too much current. Elder Bullman called from the East Cape and was disappointed that one of the packages he received had been opened and the DVD inside was missing. Unfortunately, this happens more often than you would think. The post from international destinations seems to travel through a lot of corrupt hands. We took a pair of elders to the dealer to pick up their car and on the way ...

Cape Town Mission Field   21 May 2018 Day 163 Monday Today was a very rainy day. It was nice to have a hard rain come down. It is greening up the plants around the area too. There's some Aloe plants outside my window and they are starting to show signs of some flowers beginning to bud. But it wasn't too good for a couple of Elders who got into a traffic accident. Neither were injured but their car had to be towed away in the rain. I feel really bad for Elder Taim as he has only been on mission for 3 months now. The unfortunate thing is that the young man's car that they hit had to be towed also and he wasn't specific about where it should be taken so it ended up in an impound lot that requires a payment of R3750 to release it and accumulates an additional R350 per day for storage. This is like piracy and people will ultimately end up losing their car if they can't afford the ransom.

Cape Town Mission Field   20 May 2018 Day 162 Sunday Today the little Branch of Langa was divided in two. They are the smallest building and yet the largest attendance in the Stake. So they've outgrown their little chapel and had to be sub-divided. President Holmes from the Stake offered a heartfelt prayer to start for Brother Mabenga who was in serious condition following a run in with a train.  Sister Courtright distributed some knitted hats she received from Sister Geldenhuys who is the owner of our flat and is visiting from the UK and staying with her good friend Shirley at our flats. She also took a picture of the Primary Presidency that she's been serving with as they are now going to be dissolved with the Branch split.

Cape Town Mission Field   19 May 2018 Day 161 Saturday Today was a lazy Personal Day. We went to the Josephine Mill Museum in Newlands. Turns out it is closed for repairs until June/July. This mill is mentioned in early Mormon history in the area. As one of the first converts around the 1860's invited several local people to his house and they all wanted to be baptized right then and there. So they walked a mile or so down to the Liesbeek river and were baptized. The next day the local paper said that the sins were so great from those people that were baptized that they washed down the river and destroyed the mill. Don't know how true that is, but it's a great story. We will visit it again once it reopens. We stopped at the office for a minute and found the workers laying some pea gravel along the roadway into the office area. We got back to our flat after stopping for lunch at our favorite Cuban restaurant in Woodstock just in time to see the last bit o...

Cape Town Mission Field   18 May 2018 Day 160 Friday Today was another paperwork day at the office. But we left a little early around 4:00 pm and went to the Canal Walk mall and got some dinner (Fish Taco's) then headed for the theatre. We found an early showing of Rampage so we went to the movies. I'm a big fan of 'big' gorilla's. King Kong is my all time favorite childhood movie with Fay Wray. We concluded by buying a full-length mirror for the flat and some pillows to see if that will help Sister Courtright's neck while sleeping at night.

Cape Town Mission Field   17 May 2018 Day 159 Thursday This morning was unusually busy. We left for the office around 6:45 am and picked up Sister Lebethoa's car and drove it to the dealership with Sister Courtright following behind. We then drove to the Elders at 22 Rhodes View for a boarding inspection. Elder Courtright replaced a cabinet hinge and reinstalled the cabinet door in the kitchen. Sister Courtright worked with Elder Larson hemming the curtains. Each stitched one side. Elder Makwakwa worked on cleaning the kitchen floor to earn a higher score and some Oreo's for having a clean boarding. We then left for Howard Hamlet and inspected their flat. It looks good ever since I had the carpet replaced with tile. We then went to Gate Green and inspected their flat. Elder Greengrass prepared a last supper for us. He will be returning to the UK in 4 weeks when his mission completes. We've grown quite fond of him. We dropped off a lot of proselyting material...

Cape Town Mission Field   16 May 2018 Day 158 Wednesday The evening was busy, starting at 5:00 pm and ending at 9:00 pm. We had to pick up a car at the repair shop and dropped it off at the front of our boarding. We then picked up Sister Lebethoa's car and dropped it off at the office in preparation for taking it into the dealership tomorrow for routine service. We stopped at the store to pick up some items for boarding inspections tomorrow. We swapped the car in front of our boarding back with the missionaries and left the spare they were driving in front of our boarding to be taken back to the office tomorrow.

Cape Town Mission Field   15 May 2018 Day 157 Tuesday Today was a usual paperwork day at the office. I've been observing city workers cleaning out the riverway in front of our office, including it's arteries. They seemed to be focused on a certain type of vegetation that is either clogging the waterway or maybe it is invasive and they just want to get rid of it. Anyway, you see the water starting to appear now with large mounds of dead vegetation alongside the waterways.

Cape Town Mission Field   14 May 2018 Day 156 Monday Today was Elder Mushipi's birthday so we brought in a cake that we picked up and had some in the office. This evening we went to a Home Evening group at Sister Betty's house in Langa. There were six sisters and myself. All all are of the senior type. We studied next week's Sunday School lesson. Afterwards Sister Betty served Rooiboos tea with biscuits. One of the children that lives with Sister Betty (the daughter of a lady that lives with Sister Betty) was singing songs for Sister Courtright before we started. She sand Itsy Bitsy Spider and several other songs we knew. Sister Courtright taught her Once there was a Snowman, and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.

Cape Town Mission Field   13 May 2018 Day 155 Sunday Today is Mother's Day. Sister Courtright had a delightful breakfast of eggs on toast, pannekoek with banana, and yogurt on granola. We enjoyed a wonderful Sacrament service at church. The sisters all stood and sand "Sister in Zion", it was beautiful. In Sunday school they asked us to write down on a piece of paper the pictures we have in our house that helps us remember Christ. We have Joseph kneeling in the grove with Christ and God, a large picture of Christ, a picture of the nephite warriors burying their weapons in honor of the promise they made to their mothers not to go to war again, and pictures of our grandkids. All draw us nearer to Christ.

Cape Town Mission Field   12 May 2018 Day 154 Saturday This morning we stopped at the Methodist Church to support their annual bazaar. We enjoyed pannekoek (crepe), rice and curry, and mince with veggies in a bun, bacon and egg in a croissant, and a boerewors* (beef) sausage in a bun with mustard. Sister Courtright found some garage sale items for office decorations. She also found a pair a clip on earrings with tiger eye stone, she's wearing them in the picture. We then did some grocery shopping came home and baked up some granola to replace the Hansen's granola they left behind. It is good stuff. Below is the recipe. We stopped back at the office to pick up some items for Sunday and I noticed some white things out on the lot. They were mushrooms. They were growing in a perfect circle surrounding a green spot. Weird. Boerewors Raw boerewors Place of origin South Africa ,  Zimbabwe Main ingredients Minced meat   Cookbook: Boerewors    ...

Cape Town Mission Field   11 May 2018 Day 153 Friday This morning you had to watch where you stepped in the parking lot due to a pair of Hadeda Ibis that frequent the grounds. They look a bit awkward due to their oversized beak for their bodies. They do have a nice iridescent patch on their sides. Their call is like that of a crow but higher pitched from the nasal cavity which makes it sound very loud and annoying. Apparently, they get their name from their call...haaa haaa haaa deh dah. (You can't make this stuff up.) The African Sacred Ibis lives across the street in colonies in the stream that runs along the road and forms large ponds near the damn by the River Club. These are similar in structure but mostly white with some black and they are silent.

Cape Town Mission Field   10 May 2018 Day 152 Thursday Today was a slow day at the office. I spied this pretty little bird outside my window. I looked it up on google and found it to be a Cape White-eye. We left work a little early to drop off a car at the repair center near our boarding. Sister Courtright walked around the corner to the nut shop. She picked up some items to remake some granola that the Hansen's had left us. We continued to walk along the street stopping at shops that seemed interesting. We dropped into a pet shop where Sister Courtright had a long conversation with a yellow cockatiel. She said "Hello" and "I'm a pretty girl". We then stopped at a bakery and met Sister Brown from Milnerton ward. She recommended a yellow cake which we picked up for Elder Mushipi's birthday on Monday. We then stopped at a bike shop and met Neil and Tracey. They've had the bike shop open for about a year and were wonderful to talk to and hear...

Cape Town Mission Field   9 May 2018 Day 151 Wednesday We got up early to stop at the office and take the President's car in for service. He drives the oldest car in our inventory, a Mazda 6 from 2012. It only has 64K on it and is in better shape than most other cars in our inventory. It took me a minute to start it. It is key-less and I couldn't find the button. It was tucked on the left side of the steering wheel, not where I was expecting.  We caught up on a lot of paperwork at the office while Sister Courtright handed out weekly supplies to all the zone leaders who came into the office. One pair of missionaries requested a couple of blankets and a space heater since it is starting to cool off here and most if not all boarding's are not heated. And some of the missionaries come from warm climates and aren't used to the cooler weather. Elder Bokarie is from Sierre Leone, along the equator. And the temperatures have cooled off, especially in the mornings to ar...

Cape Town Mission Field   8 May 2018 Day 150 Tuesday We met with the optometrist today (Shabina), she was very good. She recommended a different prescription for Sister Courtright and a set of office glasses to be used when at the computer. We're feeling very good about our physical and mental situation right now. It's a good feeling to know the Lord is blessing us everyday.

Cape Town Mission Field   7 May 2018 Day 149 Monday Today was a stressful day preparing for the mission tour zone conference and the dinner this evening with 40 people. We are trying out Ronald and Esther for the first time as caterer's for the event. Probably not a wise thing to do when you're going to be feeding the area authority from Johannesburg (Elder Palmer) and the director for missionary affairs from Salt Lake City (Elder Nielson). We started out by gathering the table cloths and bottled water and a few other items from the office. We then went to Sister Courtright's doctor appointment with Dr Frost (neurologist) whom she was referred to by Dr White. He reviewed all the lab work, MRI's and examined Sister Courtright. He concluded that she has some balance issues due to her mild neuropathy in her feet from diabetes, and from mild arthritis in her neck. Her blood pressure was affecting this too but has been corrected when Dr Bapoo took her off the blood ...

Cape Town Mission Field   6 May 2018 Day 148 Sunday Today was another wonderful day at church. Sister Courtright took pictures of all the Primary children last week and this week she printed them on colored stock paper with their names so everyone could see them on the bulletin board. We really enjoyed talking to our children this week via Skype. It was a red letter week, we caught all of them this week.  We stopped at Ronald's house on the way home to pick up the dishware and silverware for the dinner tomorrow night.

Cape Town Mission Field   5 May 2018 Day 147 Saturday Elder Courtright was feeling a bit better so he went to the office today with Sister Courtright. They worked on installing the name tags on the Elders storage boxes. Sister Courtright worked on completing the Mission newsletter (The Crest) to be sent out for April/May. Here is the cover page.