Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field       26 August 2018     Day 260 Sunday Today we awoke to another stormy, raining, blowing, cold day. We had breakfast then checked out and drove to Postberg again in hopes of seeing some more flowers but the cold weather had most closed up even though we did run across some sunshine. But sometime early this morning the front that blew through left a lot of hail on the road and I suspect damaged many of the flowers. We did see an interesting pair of buck, not sure what type they are. I'll have to look them up on google.

Cape Town Mission Field       25 August 2018     Day 259 Saturday Today it was overcast and windy. It has also been raining off and on. We drove to town to pick up some food for this evening's meal. We spotted a beautiful look out over the bay. We drove back to Postberg and watched the wave's come in. It was really stormy so the wave were high but the wind was blowing against the incoming waves so the surf rolling off the tops of the waves was blowing backwards and it reminded us of those paintings of the images of horses running in the waves with their manes blowing backwards in the wind. We made our way back to the Chalet and haven't been able to get a hold of our daughter all day so we tried one last attempt to go over to the restaurant and see if we can get reception there. We were able to connect via Skype to our daughter and we saw live pictures of our new granddaughter Charlotte. She's beautiful!

Cape Town Mission Field       24 August 2018     Day 258 Friday Today we took a day off from the office in order to catch the flowers at the West Coast Nature Reserve (Postberg). There is only a few short weeks in between August and September when the Spring flowers come out. And that section of the park is only open for those few weeks a year. It turned out that today was finally a sunny beautiful day. So it was perfect to see the flowers. We booked the weekend at the Duinepos Chalets that are located on the reserve. The gates lock up at 6:00 pm so there's no escaping. We had planned on going in to Langebaan for dinner, but instead we had to eat our tuna sandwiches we brought for lunches. We did arrive in time for lunch at the one restaurant at Gelbek, not too far from the Chalets. We had a nice braai (barbecue) lunch on the patio and watched the Cape Weaver birds making their nests in the trees. We also had a couple of them join us on our table. We drov...

Cape Town Mission Field       23 August 2018     Day 257 Thursday This morning we had a great planning meeting with the President, the Assistants, and the Hamilton's to prepare for next weeks arrival of 14 new missionaries. There's a lot to do and we're getting ready. Afterwards we did a boarding inspection at Fish Hoek. Sister Courtright thought they have made some great progress. Elder Courtright noticed a nasty water stain on the kitchen ceiling. After looking at the upstairs bathroom it appeared that the vanity that was just replaced was blocking splash water from the tub from getting into a crack behind the vanity. Now that the vanity is on legs the water has a direct path to the ceiling below. It was very unfortunate that the contractor installing the vanity did not take the time to clean up the wall behind the vanity and seal it with silicon. We saw a lot of surfers at Muizenburg. It's hard to tell but those are all those little black dots out in...

Cape Town Mission Field       22 August 2018     Day 256 Wednesday Today was another quiet day at the office. The Hamilton's have been out showing their two daughters that came from the states to visit the sites around Cape Town. Today they are off to Hermanus to see the whales. We did more paperwork, reconciling expenditures, baptism records, making copies for next weeks arrival of new missionaries, about 20 of them. Elder Courtright also drilled some holes in the wall to hang a calendar, clock, and display of the first yearbook. Sister Courtright's new office area is coming together nicely. Elder Courtright gets surprised once in awhile when a piece of candy comes flying his way now that he sits right next to her. We finally quit around 6 pm and came home to have some leftover lasagna that we had last night at Maestro's in Milnerton. Mmmm, good stuff!

Cape Town Mission Field       21 August 2018     Day 255 Tuesday Today was our normal Post Office and Makro run for boarding supplies. We did receive several letters in the mail today, finally. Some post marked in June. So, yes, the Post is a little slow around here. The strike didn't help any either. Elder Courtright was working on getting the Fleet cards sent out and getting new locks on the doors for the Strandfontein boarding that was broken into. Sister Courtright is busy with baptism records and preparing for next weeks in-rush of 20 or so new elders.  We did see an interesting bird on the front lawn today. Turns out it was a Blacksmith Lapwing Plover.

Cape Town Mission Field       20 August 2018     Day 254 Monday Today we awoke to find out from President Lebethoa that the Mandalay boarding was broken into last night while the elders were sleeping. They took several items along with their phone, boarding keys, and car keys then stole their car. So we spent the morning running over their to get them some spare keys, take them to the police station to file a report then meet back at the boarding to show the investigator what happened. The Elders (Opolot and Kyles) returned to the office later with the zone leaders to get a new phone and car. We feel bad for Elder Kyles as they took his camera and his back up of all his pictures was on a thumb drive that was in the car. He is scheduled to leave off his mission next week too. Back at the office we are trying to catch up on paperwork. Elder Courtright had to arrange for a locksmith to come and replace all the locks. He then had to cancel the phone service...

Cape Town Mission Field       19 August 2018     Day 253 Sunday We had a great Sabbath Day today. We heard some wonderful talks and testimonies. Everyone participated in the Sunday School lesson on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. We discussed Wisdom versus Learning, and Pride, and Gossiping. We noticed that they had a cleanup day and all the trash around the preschool where we meet was picked up. The grounds looked very nice.

Cape Town Mission Field       18 August 2018     Day 252 Saturday Today we stopped at the Somerset West boarding to review their Spring cleaning. Sister Courtright asked them to dig deeper. She found several areas where they needed to improve even though it is looking a lot better than it was the last time we visited. We then went to the Hermanus boarding to inspect their flat. It looked very good. Elder Courtright installed two white boards on the concrete wall for them in their living room. We then went down to the harbor and ate some lunch on the rocks at Sievers Point and viewed the whales in the harbor with our binoculars we bought for the trip to the Nature Reserve a couple weekends back. There were whales everywhere. We saw a pod that had a jumper. He (or she) would jump 3 -5 times then repeat about 30 minutes later. We also saw several mothers with their baby whales right in front of us. They gently rolled in the water and the baby would push up...

Cape Town Mission Field       17 August 2018     Day 251 Friday Today was our Cape Flats and Cape South Zone Conference at the Meadowridge Chapel. We had some wonderful discussions led by President Lebethoa. Sister Courtright arranged for our new caterer from Imperial Gardens to put on lunch for us. Richard, with Des (the owner), and Lawrence (kitchen staff) all showed up and put on a wonderful lunch. We had a wonderful spicy chicken with soup and vegetables with cake for dessert. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the event. Silly me. Later we met at the office with Dr. Foote from the area office. We had a frank discussion then later met with the President and the Hamilton's to review some office matters. The President offered some great council and wonderful direction and insight for us to move forward.

Cape Town Mission Field       16 August 2018     Day 250 Thursday It was a quiet day at the office, which allowed us to catch up on baptisms and other paperwork that has been neglected due to the chaos at the office with missionaries leaving. It the afternoon the Meadowridge Elders (Barbre and Larson) called and said they had found a turkey in the grocery store and wanted to know if they could come over to our flat and share a turkey dinner with them. We were so excited. We picked up some items from the store and had them join us as we put together the sweet potato's, fruit salad, and mashed potato's with gravy. It was a great meal. We tried using toasted coconut marshmallows on the sweet potato's and it turned out great. Elder Larson is heading home in two weeks, we are truly going to miss him.

Cape Town Mission Field       15 August 2018     Day 249 Wednesday This morning Elder Courtright took the truck and trailer out to the Tableview boarding to help the Milnerton elders gather their furnishings and take them to their new boarding. Elder Duma and Texeira will pick up their third partner, Elder Steffenson for a couple of weeks until his new companion arrives. In the evening we took the Davies to the Canal Walk Mall to get some dinner before taking them to the airport. Elder Davies was admiring the new BMW. At the airport all the other elders arrived around 9:00 PM and it was a tearful goodbye for many.

Cape Town Mission Field       14 August 2018     Day 248 Tuesday This morning we made our run to the Makro store for weekly supplies for the Elders, including a vacuum for one that died. We stopped off at the new boarding in Milnerton on the way back to the office to pick up the keys for the elders who will be moving in tomorrow. Back at the office the elders who are leaving early (2 weeks) off their mission in order to get back home in time to start the Fall semester at college were all gathering at the office. We have six elders leaving early. We are really going to miss Elder Ivins from Murray, Utah. He's a really great guy. Full of fun and a happy spirit. Sister Courtright prepared a casserole for their lunch while they were going through exit interviews with the president. Elder Courtright now has three more cars sitting at the mission office since some of the companionship's were broken up due to their partners leaving. They will work in threesomes ...

Cape Town Mission Field       13 August 2018     Day 247 Monday This morning we dropped Sister Courtright off at the office and Elder Courtright took our Toyota Corolla Quest into the Dealer for servicing. It has reached its 15 km mark. We then took care of more office stuff, lots of stuff. In the afternoon we left early for the airport to pick up Elder and Sister Davies from East London who are going home from their mission back to St. George, Utah. We also received some great photos from the Aquila Game Reserve that were taken by a nice gentleman we met on one of the tours. His name is Morne Carstens and we've included some here.