Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field     28 July 2019   Day 596 Sunday We arrived at the Langa 2 Branch to find the speakers did not arrive so Elder Courtright was asked to talk and he gave his talk as he had prepared. We were planning on attending the baptism afterwards but the councilor in the Langa 1 Branch asked Elder Courtright if he was prepared to give his talk. That's when we realized it was the Langa 1 Branch that had left the message to prepare a talk and not the Langa 2 Branch. So we skipped the baptism and stayed for Sacrament meeting. It turned out that the 3 other speakers gave marvelous talks on Self Reliance, Sacrifice, and Tithing. All points that Elder Courtright was going to cover but never had to because these speakers ran over in time. He'll just save it for next time. We also heard from the Wellington elders that they were robbed on their way to church this morning. Welcome to the neighborhood! The Mbaki girls The Mbaki boys

Cape Town Mission Field     27 July 2019   Day 595 Saturday We were up and out at 8:00 and on our way back to Wellington. We stopped at the Shoprite store just up the street and picked up some food for them since most was left at the Paarl boarding. We also got an ironing board and clothes drying rack. We met some great people in the parking lot and Sister Courtright gave away 3 Book of Mormon's to interested people. We dropped the items off at the boarding and the elders managed to get the couch in the front door. But it was not easy. We helped put up the new curtains then we went looking for a second hand store for a coffee table. We had no luck so we stopped at a Braai place and got some chicken and chips. We then took the elders to their service project where they are helping peel potato's for a family that makes "slap chips" for the local community as a way of raising extra money on the weekends. We met the Paarl elders there who were busy cutting and peel...

Cape Town Mission Field     26 July 2019   Day 594 Friday We got permission to pick up the key for the Wellington flat and look at a possible flat in Stellenbosch. So we ran up and picked up the key then came back towards Stellenbosch and got the key from the agency and looked it over. We liked it a lot and prayed about it and decided to accept the flat. They will send us the contract details. We stopped at the mall and went to the Game store and Sister Courtright bought all sorts of supplies for the Wellington flat; including a microwave, pots and pans, dishware, and a washing machine (total around R8000). It was crazy busy in Stellenbosch and it was because this is the weekend that government checks go out so everyone is shopping for the month. We drove back to Wellington and met the elders there who helped us unload all the supplies. We drove back to the Paarl boarding and the elders loaded up their mattresses and we took them up to Wellington. We then headed ba...

Cape Town Mission Field     25 July 2019   Day 593 Thursday Today was our Cape Flats Zone Conference at Meadowridge chapel. Shortly after arriving Sister Courtright became ill and had to drive herself back home. Elder Courtright stayed and set up the tables then set out the fruit and snacks then joined the zone conference where most of the discussions centered around the use of technology (Smart phones) as a tool to help us bring others closer to the Christ and the gospel. We discussed the many opportunities and dangers of the Smart phone and discussed game plans to manage the tool appropriately. Afterwards, President Lebethoa took Elder Courtright home after dropping off all the table supplies at the office. Sister Courtright recovered soon and spent the day cleaning the apartment, especially the mold that has cropped up in the curtains around our flat.

Cape Town Mission Field     24 July 2019   Day 592 Wednesday We made it to the Post Office and then spent the day at the office catching up on paperwork, leases, getting the post ready for pickup, etc. Sister Firth brought in some nice chicken and wild rice soup since she finally found some celery at Pick-n-Pay. It was a nice lunch. The glass company came out and replaced the broken rear window of the retired van. They also fixed a rock chip on the Ranger that we picked up on the freeway coming back from the Food Lovers market on Monday.

Cape Town Mission Field     23 July 2019   Day 591 Tuesday Today was a rest day. We stayed at home and slept a lot and relaxed, took medication, slept some more, ate a lot of stuff. We found (finally) a decent tomato sauce for spaghetti and made some chicken topped with the sauce and cheddar on a garlic panini roll. MMMMMMMMM. Nothing else got done today. It was weird, but we forced ourselves to take it easy. Surprising how hard it is to make yourself do nothing when you're so busy all the time.

Cape Town Mission Field     22 July 2019   Day 590 Monday Today we stopped at the Post Office then spent the day at the office. Elder Courtright went to the doctors in the morning because his head/chest cold was just not going away. It would seem fine for a day or two so he decided not to go into the doctors, then it would revert back to a terrible cough and runny nose. So finally he decided it wasn't going away on its own. The doctor said it hadn't migrated into his lungs so she put him on a mild antibiotic to clear up the upper-respiratory infection and added a couple of other goodies to dry him up and open up the airways. NAC was prescribed which seems to have a lot of interesting qualities. Sister Courtright off-loaded all her setup materials for tomorrow's zone conference to Sister Firth who said she would get everything set up for tomorrow. She also was preparing the boarding supplies and managing some packages that arrived in poor condition. We left earl...

Cape Town Mission Field     21 July 2019   Day 589 Sunday We heard from the maintenance man that they finished the Wellington chapel and had their first meeting last weekend. It is set up in an old home that was acquired from some members. There are usually about 20 to 25 members from Wellington attending the Paarl chapel which is quite a ways away. There were 85 members show up for their first meeting and had standing room only. Even though some were members from the Stake and the Mission President and his family were there also. So we felt impressed to attend church there today. It was a wonderful experience and there were about 74 members and visitors attending today. The speakers were moving and shared the depth of their conversion and commitment to keep coming praying for the day they would have their own chapel. One member was visibly moved because his uncle and aunt that motivated him to become a member were anxiously awaiting for their chapel but recently p...

Cape Town Mission Field     20 July 2019   Day 588 Saturday Happy 50th for the landing on the moon!!! We spent our Personal Day taking care of some boarding issues and boarding inspections. We started by picking up two lounge chairs at the shed and taking one to Tableview and one to Milnerton. We sprayed the Mold Buster on the walls and ceiling at the Tableview boarding and repaired a bad hinge on one of the kitchen cabinet doors. We had trouble taking the legs off the old lounge chair at the Milnerton boarding and trying to put them on the new chair we brought. So we improvised. We picked up a lot of "junk" from the Milnerton boarding that they are trying to clear out. We dropped all this stuff off at the office and loaded up the new washing machine to take to the Brackenfell boarding. We took the Firth's with us to show them the two new boarding's they will be managing. We installed the new washing machine in Brackenfell and also a new shower head. We looke...

Cape Town Mission Field     19 July 2019   Day 587 Friday We picked up the Post then spent the day at the office. We had the maintenance people come in and fix the plugged kitchen sink. Turns out there was a blockage in the outside line running to the main. So they had to run a power hose through there to clear it out. We called it quits early and went home to crash for the evening.

Cape Town Mission Field     18 July 2019   Day 586 Thursday We did our Hermanus run today for boarding inspections. We stopped at Mandalay, Khayelitsha/Mfuleni, Somerset West, then Hermanus. The Mandalay elders boarding was in good shape, we made some minor recommendations and have asked the landlord to repaint this unit. The Mfuleni elders needed to have their smoke detector installed as it has just been hanging on the back of their bedroom door. Elder Mabunda had his birthday yesterday so we all sang to him. The Somerset West boarding was in terrible shape. It was not clean and the vacuum was sitting on the balcony in the rain. The shower was disgusting. Elder Courtright was so disgusted that he couldn't say anything without fear of blowing up. So Sister Courtright kindly went through and showed them how to deal with the cleaning issues. Turns out the vacuum was returned to them by the zone leaders and when they turned it on it began to smoke and spark so that's ...

Cape Town Mission Field     17 July 2019   Day 585 Wednesday Today we had to take the Ranger in for service. It was raining lightly. We picked it up around 5:00 pm using one of the spare vehicles we have now that we've received our new vehicles. When we returned we noticed the grounds maintenance crew had been week wacking and they broke the rear window of the van when a rock flipped up and hit it. One more thing Elder Courtright has to take care of.

Cape Town Mission Field     16 July 2019   Day 584 Tuesday It was a rough morning again. Still not feeling very good. We finally got to the office around 9:30 to pick up Sister Courtright's phone then we headed for the Post Office. We then stopped at the Elsie River elders to give a gift sack of goodies to Elder Milanzi whose birthday was on Sunday. We then headed for the Makro store to pick up boarding supplies and we also picked up two washing machines. One goes to the Masiphumelele elders whose machine needs to be converted to a front loading machine in order to extend the counter top and get it repaired. The other machine will go to the Wellington elders when we open up their flat at the end of the month. We headed down to Capri around 5:00 and set up the washing machine with the help of the elders and the Forsyth's. They have a new guest that has set up a perch outside their bedroom window on an exterior light fixture. It is a beautiful young Kestrel.  ...

Cape Town Mission Field     15 July 2019   Day 583 Monday We slept in a bit but finally made it to work. We spent the day at the office arranging repairs for the flats and getting the new flat in Wellington paid for. The sink in the kitchen got plugged so Elder Courtright tore it apart to try and fix it. He needs to replace some seals because one was never installed properly and they used pipe putty that hardened up and made it difficult to re-seat the fittings. In the evening we went over to the Gugulethu elders and did a boarding inspection. Elder Courtright installed their smoke alarm and will make arrangements to come back and attach their ceiling light that has come loose. Whatever it takes.

Cape Town Mission Field     14 July 2019   Day 582 Sunday Well, today was another day spent in bed and lounging around. Elder Courtright was feeling worse with his head/chest cold and got up around noon. We listened to some scriptures and was able to call our children and got hold of a couple of them. Jackie sent some fun pictures of the grandkids and one of Logan with all four front top teeth now missing. We'll see how we feel tomorrow and decide whether or not we'll make it into the office. We received email addresses from Stephanie so we sent a Happy Birthday wish to Jane. We also left a Happy Birthday wish for Gerri, our daughter-in-law. Sister Mbaki called to see how we were doing and she sent over some dinner for us with the Langa missionaries. We had some pap with goat and chicken meat. The savory flavors of the meat were very good. Elder Courtright doesn't see the reason for pap. But, if you need something to fill you that is a good source and it's very ...

Cape Town Mission Field     13 July 2019   Day 581 Saturday Strangely enough we don't have boarding issues on our calendar today, which is a good thing because Elder Courtright is really stuffed up and not feeling well. So it looks like we will be lounging around today and taking it easy. Not bad to have one of those days every once in a while.

Cape Town Mission Field     12 July 2019   Day 580 Friday Today was a bit unplanned but we got a lot done. Elder Courtright made two trips to the Hyundai dealer and the hardware store to pick up some boarding supplies. He also met the Milnerton elders there to give them some spare keys to their flat because they locked themselves out of their boarding. We fixed Sloppy Joe's at the office for lunch. The Hermanus elders came by to pick up their new Almera. They swapped all their belongings into the new car and Elder Courtright asked them about the damaged fender and door on their old car. The fender was damaged by the zone leader during exchanges and they don't know how the door was damaged. It was done prior to their arrival. You just never know what you're going to find. Elder Courtright installed the new SD card into the van for the navigation system. We then finished up some birthday letters and baptisms and organized a viewing for a new flat in Stellenbosch. E...

Cape Town Mission Field     11 July 2019   Day 579 Thursday Today was our boarding inspection day for the Fish Hoek run. We hit Meadowridge, Fish Hoek and Masiphumelele. We have some mold issues at Meadowridge and Sister Courtright instructed Elder Miller and Zikalala how to manage that. We will need to send a plumber down to deal with a faulty toilet valve and a drip coming from the geyser (hot water heater). The Fish Hoek elders boarding was in great shape. Elder Courtright had to install the new smoke detector above their bedroom entrance since the old one was upstairs and the elders have moved downstairs. The Masi elders still are having some minor cleanup issues but they haven't received all their cleaning supplies from the zone leaders yet. We stopped at the Checkers market and got them a scrubber for the shower and a new clothes drying rack, as one of theirs is broken. We will be coming back next week with a new washing machine, a front loader, so they can r...

Cape Town Mission Field     10 July 2019   Day 578 Wednesday We spent the day at the office with the zone leaders coming in and picking up their supplies. Elder Courtright presented the new Toyota to the Firth's and gave their car to the North Zone leaders. They in turn will give their car the Paarl elders and their car will be retired. The Firth's give their car to the North Zone leaders; Elders Smith and Brinkerhoff The Firth's with their new Toyota, note the mag wheels. No more worrying about hub caps being stolen. Unless they decide to take the whole tire.