What We Do Every Day

Africa Southeast Area Office - where we work Monday-Friday
 

We haven't posted much about what we do day-in and day-out during the work week, mainly because Bob's job is highly sensitive and Martha's keeps changing. 

Martha has been assigned additional responsibilities this week, working for the Area Director of Public Affairs, Sean Donelly. In addition to her many responsibilities as Assistant Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency and property manager for 19 senior couples' apartments at Duke's Court, and teaching piano lessons, she has now been asked to be responsible in Public Affairs for:

• Quarterly Reporting
• Opinion leader database
• Hosting VIPs (set up, program, communication, etc.)
• Using outlook diary for Sean and adding contacts, etc.
• Stock and inventory of printed materials and music and supplies
• Preparing folders for VIPs
• Minutes and agendas
• Finance – payments, reimbursements, trip reports etc.
• General admin duties such as scanning and copying , preparing training materials, etc.
• Some writing for Facebook and Newsroom
• Attending team meetings each Tuesday at 0900 and other planning meetings and luncheons with guests

How many full-time jobs can one person have?

And if that's not enough, the Temple President would like us both to work one 6-hour shift per week. He needs Bob as a sealer and would like Martha to become an ordinance worker. We're awaiting the approvals.

We haven't said much about Bob's job, because of its confidential nature, but just to give you a feel - over one short weekend, he arranged for 8 missionaries to return home early, another to be reassigned to a different mission, another to be reinstated after a medical leave, and another to receive a 2-day leave to attend his mother's funeral within South Africa. 

The early releases were an American elder whose parents were both tragically killed in a car accident, an American released two months early to provide a life-saving bone marrow transplant for his sister, an American senior couple released so the elder, a cancer survivor, could have a cancerous mole removed, an African elder who was ill and tested positive for HIV, an elder from Polynesia suffering from depression who had to fly home accompanied by the Area Medical Advisor (3-day flight each way), an African elder who confessed to serious misconduct in the field, and an African sister who returned home on her own insistence because didn't want to be a missionary. 

If that sounds like a lot of missionaries going home early in one weekend, it is! But you have to put it in perspective. With over 4,000 missionaries serving in Africa, 8 out of 4,000 is .002 or two-tenths of one percent, but enough to justify Bob's position and keep him plenty busy. But most weekends aren't quite that busy. 

Bob's work, much like Martha's, comes in waves, some days are very slow and others extremely busy, and for him often the busiest times are after hours (when Salt Lake City wakes up). 

Monday through Friday, we normally wake up by 6:30, drive to the area office by 8:30 and, depending on the day, drive home anywhere from 3:30 to 5:30. On some slower days, we'll go to one of the malls for lunch and spend an hour or two. Bob often has 2-3 hours of work in the evenings. Saturdays are our P-days and Sundays are usually filled with our church meetings and responsibilities in the Protea Glen Ward, Soweto Stake. 

We live within a few minutes' drive of three nice malls - Killarney Mall (walk across the street), the upscale, large Rosebank Mall (about 2 miles north) and the Sandton City Mall (a very huge and modern high-end mall about 7 miles north). And we live only 3 miles north of  the central business district of Johannesburg. 

The modern and huge Sandton Mall

A chocolate Easter candy exhibit in Sandton Mall

Killarney Mall from our bedroom window

 

Here are more photos of the gardens around the area office building, where we work, on the same grounds as the Johannesburg Temple, about 2 miles south of our Dukes Court flat.  

The forest and stream between the area office
and the Johannesburg Temple

Entrance to the distribution centre at one
end of the area office complex

Summer flowers surrounding the temple
 

 

Our week started with a family home evening and farewell dinner for the Dummers on Monday at the mission home and ended with a birthday party Saturday night for our area travel supervisor, Liz Burger, at House of Ribs (Africa's answer to Chuck-a-Rama, an all-you-can-eat buffet) and we both got runny tummies and got sick overnight. But we were both okay in the morning.

 

After 6 weeks without losing electrical power even once, the Eskom Power Company's "load shedding" rolling blackouts began again this week. We had no power for about four hours Wednesday evening and at least 10 hours on Friday. But you learn to work around the outages.

Finally, here are views of the four walls in Bob's office. Martha has a desk there which she will continue to use a day or two per week, when she's not at her other two desks with the Area Executive Secretary and Public Affairs.

Bob's desk and double monitors

Bob's credenza, zebra painting and SACTM sign



The Africa map wall and guest chairs



Martha's desk

We hope you are all well wherever you may be around the world. Know that we love you and miss you, and we're doing just fine, loving Africa and our mission! We especially love Sundays with our ward and the amazing Young Single Adults we work with.

 

 

Teaching Piano and Touring Johsannesburg



Martha teaches her first piano lesson to Alicia Redebe as three little Primary boys watch with great interest
(then Alicia told them she heard their mother calling)

Another week has sped rapidly by. We were both plenty busy in our day jobs this week, and we both had meetings with the Area Presidency. Our Area President, Elder Carl B. Cook and his wife took us out to dinner at Moyo, a beautiful restaurant by the Zoo Lake, where we had magnificent meals out in the summer air, and we got to know each other on a very casual, personal basis. We felt like we had a lot in common and see things very much alike. They also took us to a neighborhood where they like to go walking/jogging that is well guarded and very safe, secure and beautiful.

This morning was another great experience in the Protea Glen Ward. The three sacrament meeting speakers were excellent. The ward family history consultant, the high priest group leader and the stake family history specialist took three different and effective approaches toward motivating everyone to get onto FamilySearch, do family research and take family names to the temple. The stake specialist, Sister Madela , was especially impressive.

We attended Sunday School with the Young Single Adults. The bishop introduced as the new ward YSA Coordinators at the beginning of class.  There were 24 in the class, about half men and half women, taking every seat in the classroom, and most of them looked very young but participated in a very mature way. It appeared that most of them were 20 or younger. We were very impressed with the teacher, a YSA herself, and we decided right away that we don’t want to take her place as a teacher because she related so well with the class and had their full attention. We’ll just get to know them in class and find other ways to visit with them about serving missions and about dating and marrying, when the time is right.

After Priesthood and Relief Society, Martha had her first piano student, the ward music specialist and chorister, Alicia Redebe, who doesn’t know how to conduct, play or read music. Martha was very pleased about how it went and Sister Redebe’s attitude. She is 56 years old and really wants to learn. And she has a keyboard at home to practice on. By the time her lesson was over, Martha had four more students lined up for next week!

 

Yesterday we took our weekly Saturday P-Day and got all the laundry and cleaning done, then we drove to Park Station and took the open-top, double decker, hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Johannesburg. It provided a very valuable and interesting orientation to the city, and we enjoyed it very much. We learned a lot about the political history and apartheid and other aspects of the unique history and culture of Johannesburg, including how it sprang up from the world’s richest diamond and gold mines. Gold was discovered on a farm in what’s now the center of the city by three farm workers who were all named Johannes.

Here are a few photos from the tour:

Gold Reef Casino and Theme Park

 

 



Building painted with
South African flag

African National Congress HQ



Largest Building,
Carlton Center Hotel, 50 stories high
(now totally vacant!)



City Hall

Beautiful Architecture 

 




        

Carlton Center Sidestreet 



Colorful Marketplace Downtown 



Artful Graffiti

We learned how white business owners vacated prominent downtown buildings when the white population moved out to the suburbs, and black squatter gangs hijacked the buildings while the owners were away and insisted that tenants pay them rather than the rightful owners. To prevent further building hijacking, all openings on the ground floors were bricked shut. Many huge, prominent buildings remain vacant today, including the city’s largest hotel.  The central business district that was essentially all-white during apartheid has become all-black over the past 20 years.

One of the things we learned by taking the tour is that Joburg is not as beautiful or fascinating a city as Cape Town, Rome or Paris, where we had recently been on similar hop-on, hop-off tours with the same company. In fact, the final words of the tour were, “Johannesburg is not much to look at, but it is full of wonderful people.” There were only 10 stops on the tour, which took about two hours, and we didn’t feel an urge to hop off at any of them. But we may go back to a couple of the sights, like the Gold Reef theme park and the Apartheid Museum.

Well, it's a new week and a new African adventure lies before us.

Meeting with Bishopric and New Calling

Protea Glen Ward Chapel in Soweto

 

We had a great morning at the Protea Glen Ward again today in Soweto. Two sisters and a high councilor delivered great messages in sacrament meeting and we complimented all three of them afterward. The one sister, Sister Redebe, who also led the music, asked if Martha played the piano. She told her she had played as a young girl, and Sister Redebe's face lit up and she asked, "Can you teach me?" Martha had been warned that this could happen and had been told about the Church's highly effective piano teaching program. So she was prepared to answer, "Sure, I would be happy to," and she has her first piano student with a lesson scheduled for after church next Sunday!

We had great lessons in Sunday School, Priesthood and Relief Society. After the 3-hour block of meetings, the bishopric asked to meet with us. The bishop is a returned missionary who grew up in Queenstown and is probably between 28 and 30 years old, and his counselors are probably in their early 30's with young families. The bishop said he didn't know quite how to use us because they have never had a senior missionary couple before, and we said that's okay because we have never been a senior missionary couple before. 

We explained that we are here to help the ward in any way we can, that we're not to serve in leadership callings but would love to be counselors, secretaries, or shadow leaders to help train leaders, or we could teach where they might need experienced teachers. I asked what their biggest concerns are. 

The bishop said for sure the biggest concern in the ward right now would be the young single adults. He said he has had a hard time finding a couple to serve as YSA coordinators because all the strong couples have multiple callings, often one has a responsible position in the ward and the other in the stake. He asked if we could serve in that role and and also teach the YSA Gospel Doctrine SS class. He said there are well over 25 YSA's who are active, some attend weekly and many just occasionally, but he said there are 25 or more in class every Sunday. 

The problem is that YSAs are just hanging out and not pairing up, dating and getting married (the subject of today's high council speaker's message). They are postponing marriage for reasons that aren't really valid. We assured him that we had the same problem in the states. He wants us to help fix that!

So we will be YSA coordinators and SS teachers, and the bishop will introduce us to them next Sunday. 

Then he asked Martha where her experience and passions lie. She told him about her great love for and experience with Relief Society. He suggested that she could be of great help with the RS presidency. The president is in her 20's and pregnant and has asked to be released after serving barely a year. He would like Martha to get to know her and see if she really needs to be released. They need a new secretary, and Martha could really learn to know and help and train the presidency in that capacity. He said he would ask the president about that possibility.  

So she could be in the RS presidency, in addition to YSA coordinator, ward pianist and piano teacher!

We thought it might be fun to share some of our early impressions of South Africa...

Following are Martha's grocery store impressions after being here about 7 weeks and shopping in several stores, large and small:

Grocery stores are all in malls, so you wheel your trolley (shopping cart) through the mall past or even through the department stores. When we shop at the Killarney Mall across the street, at either Pick 'n Pay or Woolworth's, we just wheel the trolley across the street, into the lobby elevator and up to the 3rd floor and wheel it right into our apartment, unload the groceries, and wheel it back to the lobby, where they return it to the mall.

 

The stores all charge you for the plastic bags, the checkers sit down while checking you out, and there is always one giant queue (waiting line) for whole store, regardless of how many check stands are manned or available.. 

Cuts of meat are very different from home, and it's hard to find familiar cuts. But the quality of the meat is fantastic, even better than at home, and cheaper. 

They stock at least ten times the herbs and spices, seasonings, marinades and rubs and have miles of prepared condiments that you wouldn't see at home (chutneys, sauces, spice flavors, vegetable jams, and pickled everything). 

They have aisles of long-life dairy products on shelves that are not refrigerated - milk, buttermilk, cream, etc.  - that really do last for weeks without refrigeration. Eggs are all brown in color and never refrigerated, and they are not sold in dozens. You buy either packages of 6 or 18 or 48, and the eggshells are not clean but need to be rinsed of feathers and dirt before you crack them. Also, you can't check for breakage before you buy because the cartons are covered and sealed in plastic. 

Their breakfast cereal aisle is tiny with almost no variety of American breakfast cereals beyond Corn Flakes and All-Bran.  Honey Cheerios, made by Nestle, are coated with an interesting colored enamel or shellac. Sugar cereals are not to be found. 

We're surprised at how little variety there is in general, yet at how large the variety is of kosher and halal (Muslim kosher) items, which seem to be stocked by the hundreds. 

We have been unable to find things like English muffins, black olives that are not brined,

common prepared or processed foods that we're used to, wonton wrappers, ranch dressing, breakfast sausage (we tried Chakalaka Boerewors as an okay substitute), Skippy peanut butter (but we're getting used to the Yum Yum brand). On the other hand, we have been shocked at the over abundance of chicken feet, pickled beef tongue, head meat and organs from lamb, pork and beef, and

sliced ox tails.

 

 

One of literally hundreds of packages of chicken feet at our local Pick 'n Pay at Killarney Mall.
The price of 10.02 is rand, which at 13 rand/dollar now is only about 75 cents for the package.

 

We've both had a busy week at work, and time is flying by. We're loving being here in Africa where every day proves to be a new and exciting adventure. 

 

Namibian Adventure and Martha's Birthday

We 're a little slower than normal with our posting this time. We were out of the country over the weekend and yesterday was Martha's birthday. We celebrated at the Spur Steak Ranch, using a gift card from our son Erik...

When we found out that two new branches and the first-ever  district in Namibia were being formed on Sunday, Bob asked our Area President, Elder Cook, for permission to visit Namibia this weekend, at our own expense. He agreed it would be worthwhile and gave us his blessing. We flew out Saturday morning and arrived in Windhoek before noon, rented a car and checked in at the Kalahari Sands Hotel. 

Johannesburg, Cape Town and Windhoek are three points on an equilateral triangle, each 1000 miles apart. So we are no further from Windhoek in Joburg than we were in Cape Town, a 2-hour flight. 

Since it was Saturday afternoon, all the shops closed about an hour after we checked into the hotel, but we were able to find Martha some fun African birthday gifts.

Being in Namibia was really an amazing experience for Bob. In fact, for both of us. Especially the conference on Sunday. Everyone came up to him and hugged him and reminisced about specific things, particularly regarding the creation of the second branch in Namibia in 2006. It was a grand reunion, and Martha very much enjoyed meeting these wonderful saints. 

When we pulled into the church parking lot, the Makuwa family (Womba's parents) pulled up right beside us. They were surprised and delighted we were there, and Bob felt immediately that Brother Demus Makuwa would be the new district president. Shortly thereafter, President Wilson, the mission president, and his wife pulled up on the other side of us and introduced themselves and welcomed us. 

Then we were greeted at the chapel doors by Johannes Swartbooi, who Bob had called and set apart as branch president in both the Windhoek and Katutura branches in 2005 and 2006. He is now a counselor to the mission president and conducted the conference. He was also the first speaker. 

We stood by the doors and greeted everyone who came, and Bob was able to remember almost everyone (except the new converts) and called them by name. What a fun surprise for all these people who just love Bob!

It was a wonderful, spiritual conference and very well orchestrated and presented. A newly returned missionary bore his testimony and Sister Wilson and Elder Wilson both spoke and set the stage for the reorganization. President Wilson explained what a district is and its advantages and sustained the new district presidency, President Makuwa and his two counselors, President Charles Kashihakumwa and President Muine Samahiya, who were the past 3 presidents of the Windhoek Branch, all very experienced and effective leaders, who each bore powerful testimonies of the gospel.

 

Bob with new Namibia District President Demus Makuwa (center) and his
two counselors, Charles Kashihakumwa (right) and Muine Samahiya (left).

 

President Wilson also announced that a new branch was organized last week in Swakompund near Walvis Bay on the country's west coast, with Marcell Noble as branch president. Bob had formed the Swakopmund group "twig" (branch of a branch) under Brother Noble as group leader back in 2007. 

After an intermediate hymn, the two existing branch presidents were released and the three new branch presidencies were sustained, the new branch boundaries were presented in some detail and the meeting was concluded with the mission president's testimony, a hymn ("The Spirit of God") and a prayer. The new branch is named the Wanaheda Branch, and it joins the Windhoek, Katutura and Swakopmund branches in the new Namibia District. Following the meeting, the three branches met separately in three different parts of the building. Anyone who weren't sure which branch they were in checked the big map, and the three new branch presidencies took some time with their branch membership. 

We gathered out behind the church for photos. One branch was still meeting, so the group photo only included about 2/3 of those in attendance. Lots of children and young adults were there, and we met lots of friends if young adults. We took our photos with several of the leaders and their families. 

 

Charles & Theopolina Kashihakumwa Family

With President Swartbooi and his family. He is counselor to the mission president
and his oldest son is the  Elders Quorum President in the new Wanaheda Branch

We loved the time we spent with the new district presidency and their beautiful families! President Makuwa was a new convert when he stood on the hill overlooking the city in 1992 with a handful of church members as Elder Russell M. Nelson dedicated the country of Namibia for the preaching of the gospel. 

The second branch, the Katutura Branch was organized by Bob 14 years later in 2006, and now, less than 7 years later, the number of units has doubled again to four, with a powerful district presidency and a counselor in the mission presidency, all native Namibians. It is so fun and rewarding to witness, and be part of, the fantastic growth of the Church in the countries of Africa!

Temple and Dinners

 

Martha at the Johannesburg Temple

We've been here in Joburg a month tomorrow. Martha drove home from church today, her first time on the right side of the car and left side of the road, and she did great! It's getting to be pretty normal for Bob now.

We're starting to feel at home and getting to know many of the members of the Protea Glen Ward in Soweto. We had a marvelous fast and testimony meeting this morning, great lessons in Sunday School, Priesthood and Relief Society and another baptism. 

We had a good, jam-packed week. Martha is becoming really busy in her role as Assistant Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency and actually had a busier week than Bob had! We're settled in our new 2-bedroom 2-bathroom apartment and loving it! Here are some photos of our lounge (living room), dining room and kitchen. 

 

Lounge

Lounge

Dining Room

Kitchen

  

Kitchen

Kitchen Bar & Stools, Grandchildren Photos

The Johannesburg Temple opened up again this week, and we went to the temple twice. On Tuesday, we went on an endowment session with about 20 new young missionaries who just arrived in the Johannesburg MTC. There were 8 elders and a sister who received their own endowments in our session!

There are 24 seats in each of 4 endowment rooms, but they brought in 5 extra chairs in our session, so we had 29 patrons - 23 men and 6 women. We were invited because they needed four couples for the prayer circle, counting the MTC President and his wife, who were the witness couple... It was a great experience!

Then we went back to the temple again Friday for the wedding of Zack Lowe from Cape Town and his new bride. His dad, who was a bishop there when Bob was mission president, and his mom, who was our interior decorator and framed all our pictures in the mission home, invited us. It was fun to see how a temple wedding is done in South Africa!

We had three fun dinners Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday evening we were invited to a dinner at the Sunnyside Park Hotel where the Area was hosting all the Church's national public affairs directors from 26 countries in the Africa Southeast Area for a training conference. We sat next to Suzan Apondi Mwanga (one of Bob's missionaries), the national PA Director from Uganda, and Womba Makuwa Nashiwaya, the national PA director for Namibia (who Bob called to that position 8 years ago) and they showed "Meet the Mormons," which none of them had seen before. What a fun evening! Both women were so excited to see Bob and meet Martha. 

 

With Suzan Apondi Mwanga and Womba Makuwa Nashiwaya

On Friday evening, we hosted six other senior missionary couples for dinner and a get-to-know-you activity in our new apartment. We really enjoyed the evening and got better acquainted with all of them.  

And last night we drove to Randberg, about a half-hour northwest, to the home of Mark Pearl (one of Bob's AP's) for a South African braai (barbecue) on his patio. He and his cute wife Genevere (and their sharp 3-year old son Daniel and darling baby Juliette) hosted us and Genevere's mom and dad. Her dad is Rolf Randall, the director of finance in the Area office. The food was great, and we visited non-stop for four hours, getting caught up on everyone and everything, and forgot to take even one photo!

We are happy, healthy and busy and loving our African adventure.