Hosting a New Missionary Couple and Back to Our Assignments

Hosting our first dinner party on Sunday with, left to right, Sister Connie Barton, Sister Jill and Elder Ben Jones, Sister Egan, Elder and Sister Lombardi who just arrived yesterday, and Elder Cornelius who flies home to Idaho on Thursday.

As much as we loved our fantastic two weeks with Ali here, it has been great to have a full week back in Johannesburg to get back on the job and caught up and to really get settled in our new flat.

 

We are really enjoying our mission assignments and loving our new flat. It has been a very interesting week. It feels so good for both of us to really be busy in our work and to be back serving together in the Johannesburg Temple. 

 

Martha worked her first full shift as an ordinance worker and got a "baptism by fire" in every aspect of the assignment, including being follower in another endowment session Bob officiated. And Bob got to receive a new endowment couple at the veil and seal them afterward, his first live sealing in Africa, and Martha served as the sealing coordinator. They are a beautiful African couple, Emmanuel and Phumzile Mazibuko who have two small girls at home and spent most of their day in the temple. It was a very sacred experience.

 

One of Martha's many jobs is to provide host couples for new missionaries that arrive - picking them up at the airport, taking them to their new flat (after stocking it with necessary groceries) and introducing them around at the office, making sure they meet everyone and get the necessary orientations, keys and badges, getting them their car, taking them out to dinner, showing them their way around, etc. 

 

So we decided we should be the host couple for the next new couple to arrive so we will know what it's like. The Lombardis arrived yesterday from Sandy to work as church history missionaries in the area. It's their second African mission, as they had only been home about 18 months since their mission in Swaziland.

 

We went grocery shopping for them and arranged things to their apartment, then picked them up at the airport and drove them to their beautiful, newly renovated 2-bedroom flat in Seven Oaks, the first senior missionary flat not in Dukes Court. But it's only about a block and a half away. 

 

We had to borrow an area Kombi (minivan) to hold all their luggage, and we also used the van to take them to church with us today along with another couple. 

 

Today was the first meetings of the two units split off from the Protea Glen Ward. Bob got a call about 9:45 last night from the new branch president, asking if he would teach the gospel doctrine class in Sunday School today, as both the former ward's gospel doctrine teachers are in the new Glen Ridge Ward. 

 

Things went smoothly. The new branch president did well conducting the meetings, and President Mokoena of the stake presidency sustained a new second counselor in the branch, Thulani Buthelezi, Bob's former SACTM missionary, who bore a sweet testimony, as did his wife, and he taught a combined Priesthood lesson in the third hour. Bob is so proud of him. And one of the full-time missionaries assigned in Protea Glen is a young man the Lombardis knew and loved in Swaziland, so they had a great reunion.

 

Both counselors in the new branch presidency have sick babies in the hospital. The Buthelezi's 2-year old daughter is improving from a respiratory illness, but the Mbobo's newborn son has an enlarged heart and had actually stopped breathing for a short while. He is in critical condition, and they asked for our prayers in his behalf. 

 

I counted 113 in attendance at sacrament meeting. It was a wonderful and spiritual fast and testimony meeting with strong, powerful testimonies, like Brother Moloi, a young returned missionary who spoke of his job interview where he was one of 5000 applicants and the only one without a college degree but got the job because of the spirit the interviewer felt from him. The interviewer said he liked my personality," he said, and he testified that if we are righteous and faithful, the Lord will provide, even against all odds. 

 

Bob's lesson on the signs of the second coming (Matthew 24) went very well, with good attendance and participation. We were happy to see how many wonderful people whom we have grown to love are in this branch.

 

We had our first dinner party this afternoon with the Lombardis, the Joneses (who leave for home in 2 weeks), Sister Connie Barton (whose husband Bruce is traveling in the Congo) and Elder Cornelius, on his way home from his mission in Zimbabwe. We enjoyed sharing a Sunday meal with these good friends. 

 

We're no longer the "newbies," as four new senior missionary couples have arrived since we got here in February and several couples we have grown to love have gone home or soon will be leaving. Martha will especially miss Elder and Sister Jones, who she works so closely with. But such is the nature of missionary service. 

 

It's amazing how quickly inexperience develops into experience and we're excited to be able to "pay forward" our service to new couples in exchange for all that other couples did for us when we got here four months ago. 

 

We are very happy here and loving our mission. It's gratifying to have been here long enough to have established meaningful personal relationships with other senior missionaries and our ward members in Soweto.