Cape Town Mission Field 31 May 2019 Day 538 Friday This morning we took the Beal's to the airport and they are off to Kruger National Park then on to Malawi before heading back to the states. Elder Courtright picked up the post, dropped off some rubber self-inking stamps to be modified with larger and narrower font to improve readability by minimizing the amount of ink that bleeds while it dries on glossy pass-along cards. Back at the office Elder Courtright worked with the area office in Johannesburg to finalize the new cars we will be receiving to replace our oldest vehicles. Sister Courtright approved the final 2018 History version at the printers then Elder Adams helped her convert the Crest Newsletter from a Publisher format to a Word format so in the future it will be more compatible with the history that we send to the printers. We left early, 5:30, and came home and made some taco soup. We will be busy tomorrow helping the Gugulethu elders move ...
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Cape Town Mission Field 30 May 2019 Day 537 Thursday We ran up to the Elsie's River boarding to pick up an extra table and chair to help de-clutter their flat. Elder Courtright took down the rusted shower curtain rod which required him to drill out one of the screws. He put the new one back up and Sister Courtright fixed the bathroom mirror that was falling apart. We then installed new drawer pull handles on the night stand in their bedroom. We left them with new drain plugs for their sink as both were missing. Sister Courtright explained some tactics for taking the English language test to Elder Dicarolo. We then headed for Paarl. We stopped for lunch in Wellington at Velamar, it was great. We had a chicken Marsala in the shape of a heart with crusted parsley and vegetable cous-cous. We then went to see a potential boarding for the elders but it was not where we thought it was going to be located. It was near the Technical College which is too close ...
Cape Town Mission Field 29 May 2019 Day 536 Wednesday The Firth's and the Beal's headed up to Table Mountain today. The weather was perfect for such an occasion. We spent the day at the office doing more paperwork; leases, cars, baptism's, handing out boarding supplies, and sending the post to the East Cape.
Cape Town Mission Field 28 May 2019 Day 535 Tuesday We made our typical post run then out to the Makro store. But first we stopped at Bright's hardware where Sister Courtright wanted to pick up some wood and brackets to put in a shelf in the office kitchen for the microwave to clear off some counter space. We met Allan who helped us figure out the dimensions of the wood then he was going to cut it for us. We were surprised when he pulled out a hand saw and began cutting this very wide piece of wood. He was very nice and helpful. We stopped at Maestro's on the Beach for a lasagna lunch before heading back to the office. We spent the rest of the day at the office taking care of paperwork. We left around 6 pm and met the Firth's and the Beal's at Villagio's for dinner at the Howard Center near our boarding. Allan cutting our wood for us by hand saw Maestro's on the Beach Firth's and Beal's at Villagio's
Cape Town Mission Field 27 May 2019 Day 534 Monday Today we enjoyed some catching up at the office then we went to the airport to pick up Elder and Sister Beal who are wrapping up their mission serving in Port Elizabeth. They will travel from here to the Okavanga delta and then on to Malawi where they went on their last mission. They've been a great help in the East Cape. We will miss them and wish them the best. They are here in Cape Town for a couple of days before they head out. Elder Courtright is working with Malvern in the area office in Johannesburg and they are planning the acceptance of 15 new vehicles in the mission to replace some aging vehicles. Sister Courtright is working through a slew of baptisms and she received another order from Joburg today. We also met with President Lebethoa for a senior council meeting this afternoon. It's great when we can meet with him, which isn't very often due to his demanding schedule.
Cape Town Mission Field 26 May 2019 Day 533 Sunday We had a great day at church, there were some very good speakers and we had a great lesson in Priesthood about missionary work. Elder Opolot shared what it takes to become a missionary and Elder Courtright spoke about what it takes to become a senior missionary. Sister Courtright had some great experiences with some new friends that were invited to church in Relief Society. They had a really good spirit with them in there. We spent some time at the office in the afternoon then went back to our flat and Skype called our children. Jackie sent some great pictures of the grandkids at school and visiting the grave yards of our deceased parents. As Memorial Day can be very very crowded at the cemetery's they went early.
Cape Town Mission Field 24 May 2019 Day 531 Friday We ran up to Milnerton to pick up a power cord at Bright's Hardware then ran to the Elsie's River boarding and Elder Courtright wired up the cable and got their stove running. It was back to the office to plan for tomorrow's (Saturday's) boarding inspection to Somerset West and Hermanus. Elder and Sister Firth made us BLT's for lunch. Awesome! Sister Courtright was talking to the Milnerton elders who were asking her about a family that is planning on getting baptized on Sunday but they discovered that they aren't officially married because they paid the Lobola (dowry money) but the ceremony never actually took place. So she directed them to the Bishop and Stake President. They reported later that the Bishop will marry them on Sunday and they will postpone the baptism to the following weekend. Wow. Things move fast when they need to. Lobola in Zulu , Swazi , Xhosa , Silo...
Cape Town Mission Field 23 May 2019 Day 530 Thursday Today was a long one...we started by stopping at the hardware store to pickup a power cable for the Elsie's River boarding stove we just bought. But they didn't have one. A customer told us where we could find one but Elder Courtright left his phone at home and Sister Courtright's phone was not opening Google Search to find the store so we ended up re-planning the stove repair for tomorrow and we headed to Paarl to drop off all the furniture items for the Wellington elders that are staying at the Paarl boarding. They unloaded the refrigerator, desks, bed frame, and night stand. Elder Courtright replaced their shower head and Sister Courtright then cut back their bedroom curtains to fit the window and sewed them back together. We then took the Wellington elders to their proselyting area and took them to lunch first. We headed back to Cape Town and wrapped up several items in the office then w...
Cape Town Mission Field 22 May 2019 Day 529 Wednesday We picked up Sister Lebethoa's car and took it in for service. Sister Courtright followed behind and took us back to the office. Sister Courtright worked on more baptismal records while Elder Courtright took the history report in to the printers to have them go at it one more time. He also stopped at the Nightingale Close boarding to install a florescent light covering that fell down. But the model he picked up is narrower so he'll have to come back and replace the whole fixture. We picked up Sister Lebethoa's car in the afternoon and the Assistants helped load up the refrigerator in the trailer so we can take it to Paarl tomorrow where we will be dropping off some boarding supplies for the two new elders that are living there. He stripped some contact paper off one of the desks we are delivering and wiped it down with mineral spirits to take the glue off. He applied some multi-surface cleaner and it looks...
Cape Town Mission Field 21 May 2019 Day 528 Tuesday We had a big pick up at the post office. We then went to Makro for our supply run. We found a stove there and dropped it off at the Elsie's River boarding to replace the hotplate they've been using. It doesn't come with a power cord so we'll have to pick that up on Thursday when we're in the area again and install it for them. We headed back to the office and worked until 10:30 pm on updating the history report and entering about 20 or so new baptismal records that Sister Courtright received. Another long day.
Cape Town Mission Field 20 May 2019 Day 527 Monday Today was a training day at the office with the Burk's. We learned a lot about their prior life too. Elder Burk was the GM of Operations at the University of Utah. The management of the stadium took a lot of his time. Sister Burk has been a nurse for over 40 years and the last 15 have been as a surgery room nurse. The Burk's were originally targeted to serve in Australia but the weekend before leaving Elder Burk was in an auto accident and broke several neck vertebrae. He is fortunate to still be with us. So they got reassigned to South Africa after his year of recovery. We went to the Slug-n-Lettuce for lunch then we took them to the airport. We wish them well in Port Elizabeth.
Cape Town Mission Field 19 May 2019 Day 526 Sunday We picked up the Burk's and took them to the new church house in Langa. It was such a change from the preschool building they were leasing. It was even heated and the sound system was excellent, we could hear the speakers. It is located in the Shoprite Shopping center and doesn't look like much from outside and still needs an outdoor sign, but the inside was perfect. The Burk's were asked to give the testimonies. Elder Burk was involved in a bad car accident just before they were to leave on their mission to Australia. After all the recovery and rehabilitation they were called to Cape Town so Sister Burk could serve as the Mission Nurse. She's been in nursing for over 40 years. We are excited to have them with us. They will be serving in Port Elizabeth.
Cape Town Mission Field 18 May 2019 Day 525 Saturday We arrived at the Table Bay Hotel at 7:30 am and had breakfast then took the Koch's and Harkness' to the Bellville chapel. They had an early morning focus group then Sister Harkness gave a wonderful presentation from 10:00 until just after noon. We then had a bite to eat with all the visiting authorities then took them to the airport. We dropped off the other van and took the Powrie's home where we spent an hour or so chatting with the patriarch and his wife. They are wonderful people. His sister is serving as the Durban Temple historian couple documenting the building of the Durgan temple. We then headed for the V&A Waterfront and had dinner with the Firth's and the Burk's, who just arrived from Farmington, Utah. We ate at Den Anker, a Belgian restaurant. It had a nice view of the harbor facing Table Mountain. Sister Courtright, Elder Koch, President Kruger, Brother Harkness Sister Cour...
Cape Town Mission Field 17 May 2019 Day 524 Friday We got up early and stopped at the Mission office to pick up the van then head in to the Table Bay Hotel to pickup Elder and Sister Koch, the general authority seventy serving as a councilor in the area presidency. Brother Powrie, the Bellville Stake Patriarch met us in another rented van. We left for the airport to pick up Sister Lisa Harness, first councilor in the General Primary Presidency, and her husband David. Brother Powrie was driving the backup van in case there was an accident or issue. We drove them back to the hotel where we all ate lunch then walked a bit around the V&A Waterfront and took some pictures. We then headed out to the Mission Office where we met President Sanders, councilor in the Stake Presidency, who lead us all to meet a couple of families in the stake. We went to a family in the eastern flats and then to a family in Constantia. We talked to a family in the same complex as the...
Cape Town Mission Field 16 May 2019 Day 523 Thursday We stopped to drop off a rear wheel for the Tableview elders at the bike shop, it has a broken axle. We then stopped at the doctor's office to have blood drawn for Sister Courtright to have them check her A1C sugar levels for the past 3 months. She has been without her Glipizide diabetes medicine for about 2 to 3 months now. We spent the day at the office except for one trip to drop off the van down the street to get it washed and waxed for tomorrow's visit from Elder and Sister Koch, the area general authority, and Sister Lisa Harkness, the councilor in the General Primary Presidency. We also noticed a vagrant setting up a sleeping area between the fences that bound our property and the hospital property. Elder Courtright sent a message to the facilities manager asking what we should do. We're worried that he might observe all the supplies we keep in the shed nearby where he is setting up camp and break in...
Cape Town Mission Field 15 May 2019 Day 522 Wednesday Today we had the refrigerator arrive. We had to remove the back door to barely fit it into the office kitchen. We stopped at the printers for Sister Courtright to drop off updates to the Mission History for 2018. We then later went to the doctor's to get our flu shot and prescription refills. Once at Canal Walk mall to pick up our prescriptions we found the store closed for inventory counting so we had some dinner then headed home. We'll have to make another trip tomorrow.
Cape Town Mission Field 14 May 2019 Day 521 Tuesday We made our morning run to the post office and discovered a package for us from Jackie. It is a 2019 calendar that she sent us. Woo hoo! We then went to the Milnerton boarding to meet with the owner who wanted to do an inspection before she left for the UK for 5 months. She was surprised to see 3 items that needed to be attended to that she identified when she came by last year. She didn't realize they hadn't been taken care of. Elder Courtright replaced the lock on the bedroom door that was broken and indicated that since we believe it was broken by one of our elders that we would take responsibility for it. He also installed the smoke alarm properly above the threshold of the bedroom instead of having it sit on top of the refrigerator. He also ran an extension cord between the washer and dryer along the tile so the elders don't have to string it across the room and be source for running into. We noted th...
Cape Town Mission Field 13 May 2019 Day 520 Monday Today we dropped off the Mfuleni car at Car Smart to have them look at the terrible grinding noise coming from underneath the car. We spent the rest of the day at the office trying to catch up on many of our responsibilities with baptismal records, leases, phone updates, car issues, etc. We left for home around 7:00 pm but later Elder Courtright went to the Nightingale boarding's to install some florescent lights in the Langa 1 elders flat that have been out for some time now. He also visited the Assistants flat and the Zone leaders flat to review the cleanup job we had done by an independent cleaning company. Their boarding's get a lot of traffic during MLC and Transfers so we decided to help them out and have a professional company come in and do a deep cleaning. The Assistants boarding looked ok but the Zone Leaders boarding did not have the walls cleaned or the kitchen cupboards stripped of the contact ...
Cape Town Mission Field 12 May 2019 Day 519 Sunday Happy Mothers Day! We hoped to enjoy Mother's Day at our new building but apparently it is not finished and the old building is now closed to us so we gathered in small groups at 3 members homes. We met at Sister Betty's home and enjoyed a solemn service. The Sacrament water was served in small shot glasses and we met in the unfinished porch area of her home. It was actually a wonderful experience. Ronald and Esther Kintu attended with us and we gave them a goodie package sent to them from Ronald's sister Mary that we met in Utah. We headed back to the office for Sister Courtright to finish up the baptism records. We will call the kids this evening to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day. Sister Betty's house is behind us near the large green tree on the left side
Cape Town Mission Field 11 May 2019 Day 518 Saturday We made it to the office around 9 am and began working on the Crest Newsletter. Elder Courtright went to the Strandfontein boarding with the trailer. He picked up a couple of desks and wardrobe closet that were left there. Brother Hartzenburg from Mitchell's Plain Ward came by to help him. He was just released as the Branch President and has an interest in procuring the building. He started attending church at this building when he was 25, he was baptized at 24. He then became the Branch President at 26 and was meeting in this building so it has a lot of fond memories for him. The assistants came by in the evening then we left with them around 9 pm and dropped the furniture off at the garage at their boarding then called it a night. We weren't very tired because our time clock is still off from the trip to Utah so Elder Courtright finally went to bed around midnight and Sister Courtright was awake again aro...
Cape Town Mission Field 10 May 2019 Day 517 Friday We had a rather relaxed day at the office working on baptism records and catching up on vendor receipts and emails. We finally resolved a vendor setup issue that has resulted in one lease not being paid for over 3 months. We were all pretty worn out so we left with the Firth's and went to the Hogshead restaurant around 7:00 pm and enjoyed some Texas style ribs and brisket. We ran into Lucky from the Mandalay ward. We haven't seen him in several months. His daughter is in Central Africa on a mission. She recently broke her wrist after running into another elder, a Tongan elder. They are big so we can see how that can happen.
Cape Town Mission Field 9 May 2019 Day 516 Thursday Elder Courtright overslept until 8 am, while Sister Courtright had just gone back to bed after waking up around 3 am. We finally arrived at the Firth's boarding to give them a ride to the office around 9 am. We had a senior Skype call this morning where we connected with all the senior couples in the mission. Elder Courtright conducted the meeting following President Lebethoa's agenda he published. We introduced the new senior couples and in the end had Elder and Sister Beal share their testimony at the conclusion of their mission. They will be departing at the end of this month. Sister Courtright repacked all the mail for the delivery driver that came today. He didn't stop last week nor yesterday (his usual Wednesday pickup days) because of holiday's. We then headed home early around 4:30 because Sister Courtright was struggling due to the time change. She took a two hour nap then we had dinner and he...
Cape Town Mission Field 8 May 2019 Day 515 Wednesday We got up at 6 am after 4 hours of sleep and headed for the market to get some fruit for the transfers. We then went into the office to get some items then stopped at the post office to pick up any letters for the elders that are passing through. We then headed for the Gugulethu chapel and set up at 8:30 am for the transferring elders. All went well then we wrapped things up and headed back to the office to arrange for supplies for the Cape Town elders to be picked up by the zone leaders. Elder Courtright had to arrange for a new phone for a new area being organized in Paarl. We were able to manage travel very well because today was a public holiday and the roads had little to no traffic on them. While we were gone they had 3 cars go out of commission. Elsie's River car was hit by a drunk driver, the Paarl car wouldn't start, and the Mfuleni Elders car began to make a terrible grinding sound from under the ...
Cape Town Mission Field 7 May 2019 Day 514 Tuesday We left Salt Lake around 2 pm on Monday, flew for about 11 hours, had an 8 hour time loss, so 19 hours later we arrived in Amsterdam at 9 am on Tuesday. We only had a short wait before our flight boarded for Cape Town. We left around 11 am and after an 11 hour flight we arrived in Cape Town just before 10 pm. The Firth's were waiting for us and we drove them back to their boarding in our Ford Ranger. We headed for the office to prepare some items for tomorrow mornings transfers. There are about 19 elders changing assignments along with the 3 new elders that arrived today. We got things sorted out and made it back to the boarding and went to bed at 2 am. Some of the missionaries traveling with us
Cape Town Mission Field 6 May 2019 Day 513 Monday This morning Sister Courtright had us all shampoo Kerry's carpets on the main floor. She wanted it to look nice after we left so that Kerry could feel good about having guests over again. We then had a visit from Austin Jensen who stopped by to deliver a goody package for us to deliver to Elder Opolot in Cape Town. He met Elder Opolot when he was working for several months at his fathers business in Uganda where they were installing solar systems. Elder Opolot had been pushed out of his home by his step father and was occupying the local Elders Quorum Presidents couch at the time. Elder Opolot and Austin adopted each other and have been staying in touch since then. We then cleaned up and Jackie took us to the airport. We were able to move through without any problem and when we got to the gate boarding for Amsterdam we found about 30 other missionaries heading that way too. Most were heading on to Berlin. On...
Cape Town Mission Field 5 May 2019 Day 512 Sunday This morning we went to see Nancy (Sister Courtright's sister) who live nearby in West Jordan. We had a good visit. We then dropped in to the Welby 1st Ward Sacrament meeting. This is our home ward that we departed from on our mission. We greeted a few of our ward members before the service started then went up and bore our testimonies. It was strange to see President Law on the stand. He's our Stake President that set us apart. It's not typical for a Stake President to be at a ward on Fast Sunday. We explained that we were only passing through and that we were not released from our mission early for bad behavior. We then darted out and made it to Jackie and Jake's Sacrament meeting where they recognized Alena as their newest member of the ward, having been baptized the day before. We then went back to Kerry's house and had fajita's in honor of Cinco de Mayo with Jackie and Jake's family. We we...
Cape Town Mission Field 4 May 2019 Day 511 Saturday We spent some time early this morning doing some more house repairs on Kerry's house then we got cleaned up and went to the Black Bear Diner for breakfast with Jackie and Jake and the grand kids. Kerry brought along Erica and her son Alma. We then went to the baptism where we had a great service. Sister Courtright gave a special talk to Alena and Elder Courtright got to be one of the witnesses. We sang Gethsemane for the closing song. We went to Jackie and Jake's house afterwards for a yogurt bar. We watched the Lego movie with the grand kids. We came home after picking up Sister Courtright's laptop. The display was cracked and of all things that is not covered by the warranty so of course we had picked a new one up and they transferred all the files from her old laptop onto the new one. In the afternoon Ronald Kintu's sister Mary and her husband John stopped by and visited with us. She has a package that ...
Cape Town Mission Field 3 May 2019 Day 510 Friday We woke up early and had a nice breakfast then went into the back yard again to do some more cleaning and weed pulling. We got cleaned up then headed for Jackie's. Sister Courtright helped Jackie clean up her house in preparation for tomorrow's baptism. We then went to Kerry's house to watch a Marvel movie on Netflix that preceded the Marvel End Game movie that we are going to watch at the movies tonight. We had difficulty staying awake to watch it and Sister Courtright began to have leg cramps so she decided to stay home. Kerry and Elder Courtright went to the movie and Kerry picked up two of his friends as well. It was a dramatic conclusion to a series of Marvel movies over the past 10 years or so.
Cape Town Mission Field 2 May 2019 Day 509 Thursday We awoke early again and had pancakes then headed into the back yard where we cleanup up and trimmed many bushes and weeded the garden area to help Kerry prepare for Spring. He had already made a big dent on cleaning up the yard. We got cleaned up then headed to Jackie's where we had some lunch then headed to Thanksgiving point for the Tulip Festival and to take some pictures of Alena for her baptismal day tomorrow. It was a beautiful day and we saw some beautiful flowers. We also ran into Elder Allred who left off his mission last October. It's a small world. We then headed for pizza at MOD, where you customize your own pizza. We had the grand kids come over then took them back home after Kerry came back from watching a concert put on by some of the members from his Single Adults ward. Logan, Alena, Boston First Vision Statues Elder Allred Charlotte is an angel, see the halo...
Cape Town Mission Field 1 May 2019 Day 508 Wednesday We got up early and fixed breakfast then Sister Courtright wanted to clean the upstairs so we worked on that. Jackie came over then we stopped at the computer store to see if they could fix Sister Courtright's laptop before we went to pick up Logan (our grandson from school). We went shopping for several items then we ended up at Jackie's house and watched a movie with the grand kids. It was the animated SpiderVerse and it had a really good story line. We had Jackie drop us off at the Jordan River Temple where we caught up with Kerry. His Single Adult's Ward was having a temple night. We took some of their family cards and did and endowment session. Elder and Sister Courtright was asked to be the witness couple. It was a choice experience. As we were leaving the temple a young lady was standing near the front doors looking a bit lost. Sister Courtright asked if there was anything we could do and she request...
Cape Town Mission Field 30 April 2019 Day 507 Tuesday It was all day on airplanes today. We landed in Amsterdam then on to Minneapolis then on to Salt Lake. We arrived around 8:30 pm when Jackie (our daughter) picked us up and took us to Kerry's (our son's) house. We crashed and slept very well. We met an elder killing time in the Amsterdam airport so we chatted with him until our plane boarded. He was there for a couple of hours and still had three more to go before he heads to Ireland. He's from Las Vegas, Elder Fernaugh. We had several members stop us in Minneapolis. It seemed that most were either coming or going to London. Elder Tervort's family was all there at the airport to greet him when we arrived in Salt Lake.