Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field    29 April 2019   Day 506 Monday We are desperately trying to get things arranged at the office while we will be gone. The Firth's and the Assistants are offering a lot of great help with MLC this week and the start of Transfers next week. We will see you all in Salt Lake tomorrow night, we will be bringing Elder Tervort with us.

Cape Town Mission Field    28 April 2019   Day 505 Sunday We stopped at the office to pick up several items that we need to get rid of that we thought the branch could use. Once we got there the Branch President indicated his two main speakers were not able to make it to church and asked us to speak about a favorite conference talk. We were delighted. Sister Courtright spoke about being casual in our conversion and Elder Courtright spoke about the immediate goodness of God. We spent time at the office preparing to be away for a week. Then went home and Skype called our children to tell them the good news about our arrival on Tuesday and the opportunity of being at Alena's baptism. They were very excited and asked Elder Courtright to be a witness and Sister Courtright to speak.

Cape Town Mission Field    27 April 2019   Day 504 Saturday This morning we went out to Mandalay to look over their flat. We installed a smoke detector and gave them a new style mop and showed them some cleaning tricks. They are doing a nice job in taking care of the flat. The owner is also planning on painting it for us. We headed back to the office then Elder Courtright went out to the Elsie River's boarding because their sliding door wasn't locking. He had the elders remove the sliding glass door and hold up the bottom while he lubricated and adjusted the rolling wheels. That and some adjustment to the door handle itself solved the 'not locking' issue. On the way back to the office the shadows on Devil's Peak took on the appearance of a face of some sort of animal. Maybe Joe Camel? You can take a guess.  We got a call from the President who indicated that the area office was grateful for us volunteering to accompany Elder Tervort back to Salt Lake since ...

Cape Town Mission Field    26 April 2019   Day 503 Friday Elder Courtright took Elder Firth to the Toyota dealer to drop off his car for service. We then went to the hardware store to pick up a list of items that we need for boarding repairs. We then stopped at the mall to pick up Sister Courtright's laptop. They say they can fix it, motherboard damage due to it being dropped. We will try to send it back to the states to have the warranty work done on it. It was back to the office to work out some stuff. We then went out to dinner with the Firth's around 6:00 pm. The assistants recommended Sticky Ribs for their next transfer dinner. We loved the food but the atmosphere wasn't too conducive for new elders. So we think we'll pass on this place. There were posters from american movies all over the place and Elder Courtright got a kick out of the quote from the Godfather poster. While chatting at dinner Sister Firth told us that Elder Tervort needs to travel home b...

Cape Town Mission Field    25 April 2019   Day 502 Thursday Today we had the Flats and the South Zone Conference. We enjoyed the instruction that President Lebethoa provided. There was some great testimonies regarding how the elders deep planning has really changed them. They are anxiously engaged in the work and excited about it. This leads to being prepared to be a mouth piece for the Lord. We stopped by the fabric shop to get the material for reupholstering the recliner that has been sitting in President Lebethoa's garage. We met some great folks there and they introduced us to an upholsterer that just works up the street and he gave us a great deal on redoing the recliner. So we gave him the material and will drop off the recliner tomorrow. Workers up in the trees at the Meadowridge chapel trimming the dead branches Wonderful old relics in the rafters of the fabric shop

Cape Town Mission Field    24 April 2019   Day 501 Wednesday Today was another office day. We worked on lease updates, baptisms, car updates, orders, etc. Sister Courtright is going to modify the rubber stamps we had made to make them more readable but is having a hard time communicating what she wants to the vendor. We will also drop off another update to the Mission History for reprint. We have to pick up Sister Courtright's laptop and take it to the Canal Walk mall for repair as the outfit at the Howard Center indicated they don't have the right parts to fix it. We took a look at refrigerators for the office. We decided to see a movie so we picked out Shazam. The character from Chuck becomes a super hero. It was quite good.

Cape Town Mission Field    23 April 2019   Day 500 Tuesday Day 500, wow! This morning we went to the open air market and got some fruit for zone conferences this week. We then headed for the Bellville chapel and help finish setting up and dropping off some of the supplies for the North zone. We left for Makro and picked up the remaining supplies then headed for the Post Office and picked up the post. We dropped supplies off at the office then headed back to the Bellville chapel for lunch. There was some traffic on the way there, which is unusual for that direction at that time of day. Turns out there was a truck on fire just before our exit. We cleaned up after lunch then headed back to the office to finish up some more paperwork and supply preparation for tomorrow's pick up. We left for the Howard Center to drop off Sister Courtright's laptop for repair, which is not powering up anymore. On the way back to the flat we pulled over in the green space to get some pic...

Cape Town Mission Field    22 April 2019   Day 499 Monday Thankfully today was a fairly calm day. We did hear that Elder Olsen needed to go back into the hospital because he was feeling very bad. They gave him some fluids, anti-inflammatory, and some pain medication. After lunch he had some color back and was feeling much better. We spent the day working on the computers and catching up on paperwork. Elder Lawer called and informed us that he had driven down a muddy road and got stuck in a small ditch. Some members came out to help push him out of the ditch. He said it has been raining hard in the East Cape. Good news.

Cape Town Mission Field    21 April 2019   Day 498 Sunday We had great talks and testimonies and Sunday School lessons on the Savior and the week leading up to the atonement. Elder Mbaki, our newest returned missionary from Langa, bore testimony of the Savior in both branches.

Cape Town Mission Field    20 April 2019   Day 497 Saturday We headed for Paarl this morning to do a boarding inspection and arrived around 11:30 am. The new elder (Del Quirroz) is assigned to work in Paarl with Elder Trimbley and Elder Jarina. We spent some time replacing curtains, window latches, a towel rack, a sliding door handle, and a fan for the shower. Elder Courtright had to use the new fan motor in the old fan housing and blade because it was a bit smaller in size. He had to fish the wires through the ceiling using a coat hanger. We finally left around 4:30 pm and headed for the Cape Gate mall, which is on the way back to Cape Town. We picked up 9 totes for the storage room. They didn't have any of ones we bought previously so Sister Courtright found a size that would work in the shelves she has. We then found a place to get our hair cut. We finally grabbed a beef roast from Checkers supermarket for our Easter dinner, they don't have large spiral cut hams...

Cape Town Mission Field    19 April 2019   Day 496 Friday We heard from the Firth's that they stayed at the hospital until around 1:00 am then went home. Elder Olsen is at the hospital and is scheduled for surgery tomorrow around 1:00 pm. The break in his wrist is in a bad location that is hindering blood flow to his hand. It sounds like a wire and pin or screw will be installed. Interesting how we all just watched the church's new safety video's and one was specific to sporting activities and doing "show off" types of things as being very dangerous, wasteful, and setting a bad example. Still this elder (the one who was also riding around the church parking lot with no-hands on his bike) decided he was immune to such directives from the church headquarters. So now we have many people attending to his consequences, including his companion that now has become a third wheel to the assistants and zone leaders while his companion is in the hospital. The widows m...

Cape Town Mission Field    18 April 2019   Day 495 Thursday This morning we did boarding inspections at the Nightingale Close complex. The Flats Zone leaders, the Assistants flat, and the Langa 1 elders. The Zone Leaders and Assistants flats are used to bunk transferring elders. They each have a second bedroom with two bunk beds and extra mattresses for the floor in the living room. In total they've had as many as 8 extra elders during transfers. They were in pretty good shape considering the amount of use they get. Surprising the Langa 1 elders needed a lot of attention. It's been sorely neglected. They had scrap lumber and broken mops on their balcony along with a bag of bedding (2 duvets, sheets, and blanket) which was soaking wet and moldy. We cleaned a lot of junk from the tops of their cupboards in the kitchen.  We got back to the office and unloaded all the junk next to the garbage cans for pickup. We then spent the afternoon working on more office do...

Cape Town Mission Field    17 April 2019   Day 494 Wednesday Today was a rather quiet day at the office. Sister Courtright was busy handing out orders and getting the post ready for the carrier to pick up. Elder Courtright was busy catching up on leases, phones, and car maintenance. We were going to go out to Durbanville but we decided to call it an evening around 7:00 pm.

Cape Town Mission Field    16 April 2019   Day 493 Tuesday We started out by dropping a load of scrap material that we pulled from the George elders boarding then went to the post office and Makro for boarding supplies. We are starting to get some requests for heaters as the weather is starting to cool down. We then did some orientation to the new elder that arrived today. He was out of the normal transfer cycle and we were just informed about him arriving last week. He is Elder Del Quirroz from Brasil. Three weeks earlier arrangements were made for Elder Lopes to come here today to do transfers with the assistants. As he arrived at the airport he saw someone turn the corner that looked like an elder. So he caught up to him and noticed the name and spoke to him in Portuguese. Elder Del Quirroz who speaks very little english was lost and didn't know where to go. So having an elder approach him and speak to him in his native language was one of God's little miracles....

Cape Town Mission Field    15 April 2019   Day 492 Monday We stopped at the West's before leaving George and reviewed a few last items with them before heading back to Cape Town. Elder Courtright enjoyed his time traveling with Elder West as he shared some interesting stories such as his best friend in High School was the younger brother of the lead singer in the Beach Boys and he got invited to the recording studio one day and it turned out they were working on the release of "Good Vibrations". Got a call this morning from some Port Elizabeth elders who left their pack in the back seat and someone smashed the rear window and grabbed their scripture back. Elder Courtright goes through this safety talk for all the missionaries when they arrive. He tells them to never leave anything in their back seat and to always put it in the "boot" (trunk) because people with smash-n-grab items without knowing whats in it. They don't know that there are just script...

Cape Town Mission Field    14 April 2019   Day 491 Sunday We had breakfast with the Beal's at the B&B then headed to church. At church we watched the Sunday sessions of conference. Sister Courtright was so excited to see 2 people show up to church that she invited on Friday and Saturday; Tracy and Denise. They were both really refreshed to feel so welcomed at church and hear the messages from the speakers at conference. When Denise left the chapel she said she felt lifted and so happy; more so than she has felt in a long time. We also met the Adams again. We reminisced about the time we were in their shanty and Elder Bullman sang "Bring Him Home" to us.  We took the elders to the Pilarsdorp township and drove them to an area where they wanted to tract out. We all got out of the truck and met a lady and man walking by and asked if they needed some bed sheets that we had extra. They graciously accepted them and showed us to a lady up the street that could ...

Cape Town Mission Field    13 April 2019   Day 490 Saturday We met with the West's this morning and they decided to take the new boarding so the elders wouldn't end up another 1.5 kilometers farther from the taxi rank. We went there and set up the refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, microwave, curtains, bedding, etc. We had to find the water valve to turn on the water. The hot water never did come on so the landlord will send a plumber tomorrow to find out why there is no hot water. We picked up a few more items from the Game store, including a new toilet seat, but first had lunch in the mall at Simply Asia.  We went to the police station to certify one of the missionaries passport copy that they use out in public. The West's will keep the original passport with them at their boarding. We then cleaned up and met Elder and Sister Beal at the Old Townhouse restaurant for dinner. They are in town from Port Elizabeth for some Seminary and Institute meetings. ...

Cape Town Mission Field    12 April 2019   Day 489 Friday This morning we drove to Knysna; Elder West and Elder Courtright in one car and Sister Firth and Sister Courtright in the Ford Ranger. We stopped at the new boarding and met the agent. It was a nice place in the center of town. The elders are looking forward to moving in. We didn't get the down payment and first month's rent processed in time so we can't move them in today. It will have to wait until next week. We took the elders to the chapel to meet with the George elders who came over to have their District Meeting in the chapel. The chapel is in a converted two screen movie theater. One of the theater's hasn't been touched and still has the screen and stadium seats in it. We visited their boarding to determine what items we need to purchase for the move. We took their passports to the police station to have certified copies made that they use while their original passports remain with the senior co...

Cape Town Mission Field    11 April 2019   Day 488 Thursday This morning we loaded up the West's luggage and headed for George. Elder Courtright was co-pilot to Elder West in their Toyota Corolla that they're taking out to George. This was to help Elder West get familiar with driving on the left side of the road. Sister Courtright drove the Ford Ranger with Sister West as co-pilot. We were diverted at Somerset West to go around Betty's Bay because of protest action; burning of tires on the road on the other side of Lowry's pass. Not sure what the native were restless about. This took us two hours out of our way, but this was not a bad thing because we stopped in Kleinmond for lunch and happened upon a wonderful restaurant right on a beautiful beach. We then headed for George and arrived around 6:30 pm. We checked in to our B&B's then had some Chinese food for dinner before calling it a day.

Cape Town Mission Field    10 April 2019   Day 487 Wednesday Today we cleaned the van, picked up the post, prepared the mail for shipping to the East Cape, delivered the orders to the zone leaders, and worked on getting the phones set up for the West's. I found out Elder West's first name is James. The Wild, Wild West was always one of my favorite TV shows as a kid with James West. We all headed for Signal Hill to watch the sunset but fog rolled in and we couldn't see anything. So we went down to the V&A Waterfront and found a great place on the waterfront for some seafood. We had the fish pie which was to die for.

Cape Town Mission Field    9 April 2019   Day 486 Tuesday Today we took the Firth's and the West's sightseeing. We headed to Simon's town to see the penguins then we headed for the Cape of Good Hope. There were some strong winds blowing down at the cape. We took the rail car up to the light house. There were some baboons sitting at the turnstile and also in the courtyard at the top of the rail car stop. We also saw some Elands in the open grass just below the parking lot. We stopped for pictures down at the beach where the Cape of Good Hope sign is. The seas were impressive. We then headed back north and stopped for lunch at the Hub Cafe. This was a delightful spot and the food was terrific, yellow tail tuna; mmmm. We headed down to the beach below the cafe because we saw some impressive surf. We got out and walked around a bit and took some pictures. Sister Courtright was out on a rock outcropping. We then noticed a pretty good sized wave coming in so she got down...

Cape Town Mission Field    8 April 2019   Day 485 Monday Elder Courtright drove into the office to get some spare car keys for the elders that are dropping there car off at the repair shop today. He then took the broken bike to Neil's for repair. We then picked up the West's and took them to the office. The Firth's took them to the bank to set up their account with Standard Bank. We had the electrician's come in and replace the dimmer switch on the new LED lighting in the mail room, it was flickering off every 15 seconds. Turns out the dimmer switch was the wrong type for LED lights. Once replaced they also realized it was wired wrong to begin with for the florescent lights that used to be there. We also carried buckets of water in from the tanks because we've been without water for a few days. The main broke and it won't be back on line until tomorrow. Elder Courtright is arranging some SIM SWAP's for the West's new phones. He also got a call fro...

 Cape Town Mission Field    7 April 2019   Day 484 Sunday We had a slow start to church due to Sister Courtright not feeling well. But once there we enjoyed the Fast and Testimony meetings. We returned home to watch the Priesthood session of conference that was broadcast last night at 2:00 am. We then watched the 10:00 am session of conference at 6:00 pm our time. We went to the office to pick up the van and drove to the airport to pick up the new missionary couple arriving from Los Angeles. They will be serving in George as replacements for the Bullman's. They are a very nice couple and Sister West has a very fun spirit about her. For some reason I forgot to take a picture of them when they arrived. Probably better that way after being on the plane forever.

         Cape Town Mission Field       6 April 2019     Day 483   Saturday This morning we ran up to the Brackenfell elders to do a boarding inspection. They were on transfers so we met with Elder Chola and Elder Reilly. Sister Courtright showed them the new mops she bought them and how to use them. We reviewed several items and in the end gave them a failing grade. We felt like they could do much better. We then went to the Tableview elders boarding. We ran across a huge gathering of bikers that flooded the main intersection near the Tableview Elders boarding. They were using this as a memorial to a fallen biker that was killed recently at this intersection. There were about 2000 bikers. It was quite a thrill to see them all gathered like that, despite having to wade through them which took about 20 minutes to turn the corner. We installed a smoke detector that was sitting on top of their cupboards. Sister Courtright showed ...

Cape Town Mission Field       5 April 2019     Day 482 Friday Had a very interesting morning after picking up the Post, stopping at the printers, then stopping at the rubber stamp shop. We had a visit from a person who had a bad experience while living in the mission home prior to it being taken over by the church about 16 years ago. There seems to be some controversy as to how the property was divested by the Valkenburg psychiatric hospital according to him. To which the title deed can not be produced in order to build on this land. So his proposal is to turn it into a large garden and open it up to the patients and the local public. I told him that we'd forward his meeting request onto the appropriate real estate and facilities people to hear his request. It did turn out that he is a Section 28 patient from the hospital which probably stems from when he defaced the Rhodes memorial as a political statement back in 2001. Anyway, a very interesting morning...

Cape Town Mission Field       4 April 2019     Day 481 Thursday This morning we picked up meat pies for the elders lunch sacks that will be flying back to the east cape. We stopped at Nightingale to deliver these and had the assistants come out to the garage and load up the stove that was in storage. We will get it serviced and placed at the Elsie River boarding. We had Elder Clark give Sister Courtright a wonderful letter describing his apology for not informing us last night when they were running late getting back to the office where we were entertaining the zone leaders during dinner. He spoke of a wonderful story from his childhood and related it to not ever wanting to hurt his mother's feelings and how he considers Sister Courtright a mother to all the elders and wants to ensure their relationship is solid and in good standing. We stopped at the Gugulethu elders for a boarding inspection. Elder Courtright replaced a shower tap and Elder Silva (fro...

Cape Town Mission Field       3 April 2019     Day 480 Wednesday We had a busy day preparing for the elders supply pickup, the post pickup and the MLC luncheon. We went to the chapel around 11:00 am to setup. We had pork kabobs and cheesy potato's. We cleaned up then stopped at the printers to have them print the 2018 annual mission history book that President Lebethoa and Sister Courtright put together. It was a shame that we just had our building painted and fixed up and the new battery backup system replaced some florescent lights with low-power LED lights. So now, the facilities group will have to come back and patch and paint where all the ceiling lights have been replaced. We had a dinner delivered for the zone leaders that are staying over. It was a nice chicken lasagna. Elder Opolot related a story of how they were playing soccor with some younger children and asked them if they could speak to their parents. One of the parents recognized the Book ...