Cape Town, South Africa Mission

Cape Town Mission Field    2 August 2019   Day 600 Friday 600 days on mission! We picked up Elder Khoza at 8:30 and took him to the airport. He's from New Castle, which is just north of Durban on the East Cape. The zone leaders came in and dropped off some items from the Fish Hoek boarding. We worked on office items most of the day, including updating the spreadsheet that shows where all the elders are located and their boarding's they stay at and the cars they drive. Elder Courtright also removed the reverse osmosis system from under the kitchen sink because the storage tank sprung a leak and he's been wanting to get rid of it anyway since the filters haven't been changed since we've been here and there's no one that we can find that maintains these type of filters and systems. We spoke with the president for a while and Elder Courtright called the states to set up our SAM's credit card to use here so we can begin booking flights and hotels for our...

Cape Town Mission Field    1 August 2019   Day 599 Thursday Welcome to August! This morning we stopped to pick up our meat pies that we ordered last night on our way back to our boarding. We then arrived at the Gugulethu chapel to set up. The hallway was very dirty, some poo in the hallway from someone that had an accident and didn't quite make it to the bathroom. It had been there for some time as it was hardened onto the floor. But once we began mopping it up, of course the smell came alive. So we had to douse it in some heavy duty cleaner. The transfers went well and all the elders were enjoying meeting and greeting those coming and going. We only had one hiccup, Elder Owens missed his flight in East London. So we'll have to come back for him later tonight. We stopped at the Pick-n-Pay to get some things for lunch then went to the Spur for some salads. We decided on a bucket of KFC. It came together nicely. We were enjoying the chicken in the kitchen and liste...

Cape Town Mission Field     31 July 2019   Day 598 Wednesday Today we had our new elder arrive. Yes, we only got one this transfer. Elder Ncube from Zimbabwe. He's been on mission for 9 months but has served in Zimbabwe since he had difficulty with his visa. Great elder and we didn't have to do much in the way of training since he's been out so long already. This transfer we are losing Elder Adams as an assistant and he is going to Hermanus, so Elder Day has come in to work with the elders and assume his position as the new assistant work along side Elder Brannan. Another awesome sunset over Devil's Peak The assistants getting it done with our new Elder Ncube

Cape Town Mission Field     30 July 2019   Day 597 Tuesday We managed a typical day at the Post Office and collecting supplies at Makro. We did try a diversion on our way back and stopped at the Food Lovers Market to try out their fruit for transfer lunches this week. We found what we wanted and also had lunch at the Pizza Hut next door. Yes, they are here too. And it was a nice departure back to the thick crust pizza that you get in the states instead of the typical thin crust pizza they bake here. It was rainy off and on and we didn't have the cover on the Ranger so we had to stuff everything in the back seat. And while we were there Sister Courtright discovered a plastic store in the corner of the shopping center and to her excitement they carry the storage bins that she uses in the back room to store the elders miscellaneous items that they don't want to transport back and forth across the cape during transfers. So we picked up 6 of those. And just before leavi...

Cape Town Mission Field     29 July 2019   Day 596 Monday Today we were back to a normal day at the office. It seemed rather unusual given how busy we've been lately. We had a lot of packages arrive today and Sister Courtright was busy gathering orders from the zone leaders for the week and preparing for transfers this week. Sister Firth was very busy working on scheduling all the flights for the elders coming and going. This is a monumental transfer week in that the cycle has been changed from Wednesday to Thursday as the day new elders arrive. This was to assist with a new training curriculum. So it will be an interesting week.

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...