Cape Town Mission Field 

    6 March 2019
    Day 452
Wednesday

Today was a long, long, day...

We were at the office by about 7:30 am, it took a bit longer due to heavy traffic this morning.

Sister Courtright began working on her orders for the day and Elder Courtright left around 8:00 am for the police clearance lot in South Bellville. When he arrived he was asked to get behind one other car that was parked on the street. Apparently, everyone was having their morning meeting so they couldn't open the gates yet. Once seen by the "man in charge", he examined the vehicle and stamped it and he thought he was through. But, nooooo. He was sent to the red roofed building to "see the lady" there. Once inside there was no one around but he could hear voice in a closed room with a captains' sign on it. Apparently, everyone there was still in a meeting. After waiting about 20 minutes a whole crew of "ladies" ambled out and set themselves up at their desks. They were all talking to each other in Xhosa and eventually one called Elder Courtright over to her desk and began typing something into the computer. Someone else copied his documents and said he was done and should return the documents to the motor registration office in Cape Town. He made it back to the office just after 10:00 am. We loaded up the truck with more water then headed for home so Sister Courtright could refresh herself before heading to the chapel for the MLC luncheon. We stopped at the Pick-n-Pay to get 4 sandwiches for the lunch sacks for the four elders who will be flying home right after the meeting. We had a great lunch of chicken curry on noodles. Elder Courtright discussed boarding and vehicle issues and they decided that we should take one of the cars we have to George with us then leave it in Port Elizabeth on Monday then fly back. They are short handed on cars and will need at least one more when the Hayden's arrive there in the next few weeks.

After lunch we cleaned up and returned to the office so Sister Courtright could finish her packages for mail to the East Cape and set up supplies for the zone leaders who will be stopping by later. Elder Courtright headed for the motor registration office down town. It takes about 10 minutes to park the car in the parking garage because the visitors parking is on the 8th floor. And it takes a while to get there. He saw the same lady who helped him before and informed him that he needed to see Malvern's registration certificate. He told her that he gave it to her the last time he was here. She replied that all those documents have been sent off to somewhere and that he needed to produce another copy. He begged for leniency but the best she could offer was to have him call and ask Malvern to email it to her computer. Luckily, Elder Courtright caught Malvern in the office this time and he mailed it to her. She was able to go into the computer and set it as "cleared". Woo Hoo! Victory! What a painful process.

It was back to the office where we spent time trying to wrap up some more new lease documents before we head for George tomorrow. Sister Courtright finally left around 8:30 pm and the zone leaders came back to give Elder Courtright a ride home around 9:30 pm. The elders found the Mowbray elders phone in the back seat of their car so we stopped by their boarding and luckily their balcony window was open so we got their attention and gave them their phone. They were so relieved.

It was in bed at midnight. As I said, it was a long, long, day.