Cape Town, South Africa Mission

September 01, 2018

Cape Town Mission Field

1 September 2018
Day 266
Saturday

Welcome to September. What? How did that happen?

Anyway, it was a busy Saturday. We arrived at El Greeyo to review catering plans for a meal next week at MLC. Tanya wasn't in yet, but we had some breakfast before heading to the office to swap cars with the Paarl elders whose car be one of the ones being turned back into the church. In total we will be downgrading to 19 fewer vehicles, which means about 10 new walking districts for those elders that used to drive.

We then drove to Plumstead to see an issue with their boarding. Some parquet tiles that were recently relaid have come loose. We then drove back to El Greeyo to drop off one of their menu's we borrowed to make a copy for future catering orders. While there we ran into their birthday party for their daughter Daniele who turns 10 today. She and her friends were playing tag in the hallway outside the restaurant.

We then drove to Langa to visit with Sister Juliet Sande. She and her husband (Romeo) and her two children (Logan and Bailey) will be driving tonight to East London (10 hour drive) to make preparations for her brothers funeral who just passed away from cancer. She only has her mother there and being the next in line and the only working family member a lot of expectations fall on her to make the arrangements. And burial arrangements with African traditions are quite complicated and can be quite costly to family members. Elder Courtright gave Sister Juliet and Brother Romeo both blessings. We told them about our grandson whose name is Logan and he's five and one of his favorite shows is Thomas the Train. And guess what Logan (whose 7) was watching on their TV? You guessed it, Thomas the Train. Their humble one-room house is no bigger than our living room at the flat where we stay.

We then drove over to the Shoprite grocery store to pick up some items for them to travel with; some breakfast items and we stopped at Fryday's to pick up some chicken and fish for their lunch and dinner tonight. Shoprite was crazy packed and while standing in the queue we were talking to a lady who said the last day of the month is always like this because the government grants checks are released so people do their shopping at that time to fill the empty cupboards. You can see a bit from the picture where each queue for checkout was about 20 people deep. She asked about our work as missionaries and asked if we felt comfortable walking around in Langa being the only white people for miles around. We told her that we felt very safe and the people were very friendly and helpful. We do take the normal precautions and don't go there at night. She understood that and we left with a new friend.
In the afternoon we picked up the Hamilton's and went to Timbuktu for dinner. We both had beef tibs with veggies. We then went to the adult session of Stake Conference at the Mowbray chapel. All the talks were centered around the ministering approach to helping others that was announced at the last General Conference. The Relief Society presidents, Elder Quorum presidents, and unit leaders that spoke gave wonderful talks on how this new approach is bringing people together and really have a big impact on the Stake. The second councilor also announced through a message from the First Presidency that newly baptized members over 12 can be given a temple recommend immediately to go the temple to do baptismal work for the dead and even older members can go to if they commit to living the law of tithing even though this may be new to them and they haven't fully grasped its principle. That was such an amazing announcement that we just new the gospel is true, it's growing, and we are blessed to witness these great revelations being brought forth with living prophets and apostles that lead us in our day and age.