With Joseph Mofokeng, returned Cape Town missionary from 2006, in front of the Johannesburg Temple |
This week consisted of more reunions with SACTM
missionaries, welcoming new mission presidents to Africa, and an American 4th
of July barbecue in Africa!
On Monday, Bob was greeted with a call from Joseph Mofokeng,
one of his beloved Cape Town missionaries who wanted to get together with us
and talk. We scheduled a lunch meeting for noon on Tuesday, and as we entered
the reception area to meet him, another of Bob’s Cape Town missionaries, Juan
van der Merwe happened to be standing there getting a drink of water. He asked,
“So are you on a mission here again?” and was very surprised that Bob called him
by name, since he only served under Bob two months,
back in 2005. He’s working for his dad’s panel beating (body shop) company that
has a contract with the Area to repair damage to church-owned vehicles.
With Joseph Mofokeng and Juan van der Merwe, Cape Town RMs |
We had a great visit with Joseph over lunch at Mike’s
Kitchen, as he poured out his heart to us about his divorce and subsequent struggles. But his testimony is intact, and
he really needed someone to talk with. Martha’s life experiences were
particularly helpful to him. What a great man he is, and we felt he left very
rejuvenated and committed.
New mission presidents start “on or about July 1,” and we
have eight new mission presidents in Africa, four in each area. The area
presidency here in Johannesburg invited us to join them to greet the new
presidents Tuesday, 30 June, at the airport, as the four couples all flew in
together on the same itinerary from Salt Lake City, spent the night at the Airport
Intercontinental Hotel, and flew to their missions in the following morning, 1
July. It turned out to be a most
interesting experience.
The couples are the Footes from Reno, Nevada on their way to
Madagascar, the Baehrels from France to the DR Congo, the Kochs from Brazil to
Mozambique, and the Mkhabelas from South Africa to Zimbabwe.
Thankfully, the couples all arrived safely, and even landed
a little early. But the “fun” was with the luggage. The first word was
that their luggage had been lost. Happily it wasn’t lost in the sense of
being sent to China or somewhere by mistake. Two of the couples’ bags had
been checked by some well-meaning ticket agent in SLC to their “final”
destinations. So the luggage was not there at the baggage claim, but
rather off somewhere in a holding place for the flights to Swaziland or
Harare. The couples wanted their luggage to do some adjusting and to have
a change of clothes, so they requested the bags be retrieved. That ended
up taking several hours.
Meanwhile, our team was there patiently waiting and staying
true to the faith. We arrived at 4:30, the same time the Cooks and Ellises
arrived, and stayed diligent until the very end. After a wait of an hour
and a half, one couple made it out where we could greet them. The Footes from
Nevada, on their way to Madagascar, were first at about 6:00 pm, and made it
out in time to be greeted by the Cooks before they had to go board their flight
home for their annual July leave. They explained the luggage situation to
us. The Footes have their son with them, a recently returned missionary from
the France Lyon Mission. Elder Ellis remarked, “Think of it: your
own baggage porter and French tutor!” They were safely delivered to the
hotel by Francois Nortje of the area staff for a blissful sleep. Francois had
checked everyone in ahead of time and had their room keys in hand.
Next, President Mkhabela (South African going to Zimbabwe) came
out with their hand luggage to greet us, but also to meet up with their three
great kids who had brought bags from home for final packing for Zimbabwe.
Wonderful Sister Mkhabela opted to stay back with the Baehrels and Kochs to
help them through a difficult situation in a strange land. Francois was
able to return from helping the Footes in time to escort Elder Mkhabela to the
hotel.
The whole Mkhabela Family at the Johannesburg Airport |
Elder Jackson Mkhabela and Sister Mkhabela on their way to the Zimbabwe Harare Mission |
Then the wait continued, for two more hours! One thing we did to productively pass the time was to have a rousing game of new mission president family trivia, emceed by Elder Ellis! These are four great families, and we reviewed and learned interesting things about them. We found commonalities and differences among them. The Egans and Sister Ellis were clearly the winners, and the Frischknechts were our correlation team on the sidelines to make sure we stayed in bounds.
The finale happened at about 8:00 pm (yes, that would be 3½ hours
of waiting for us, and 3½ more hours of a stressful struggle for our new MP
couples who had just finished a 17-hour flight, after a five day fire hose
training in Provo)!
But the good news is that Sister Mkhabela, the Baehrels and
the Kochs came out WITH THEIR BAGS. The greeting was great, and we all escorted
them to the hotel for some much needed rest.
Unfortunately, we got all the way to the parking garage to
find out our parking ticket didn’t work in the machine, so we had to go back
down four levels of escalators and stand in line to pay for the parking,
extending our airport wait to four hours. We arrived back at our flat a
half-hour later at 9:30.
Three other new African mission presidents arrived in Accra,
Ghana at the same time, the Cosgraves from Highland, Utah to the Ghana Kumasi
Mission, the Carlsons from Midway, Utah to the Liberia Monrovia Mission, and
the Egukos from Lagos, Nigeria to the Nigeria Calabar Mission. A fourth couple,
the Clawsons from Fairport, New York will arrive later to take over the Sierra
Leone Freetown Mission, once the country is declared ebola-free. Which reminds
me, Liberia was declared ebola-free once 42 days has passed since the last
case, only for three more cases to come up this past week! So the Carlsons will
be delayed for some time in Ghana.
Also this week, the senior couple missionaries planned a
real American 4th of July barbecue with American hamburgers and hot
dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, apple pie, chocolate cake and
patriotic singing. It was held in the Dukes Court courtyard, and there were 46
of us there, including a couple of South African couples, who seemed to enjoy
the food but didn’t know the words to any of the songs. It was a beautiful day,
temperature in the 70’s, and a fun, nostalgic time, bringing out emotions and a
brief longing for home and family.
Celebrating the 4th of July with other senior missionary couples at Dukes Court |
The lawn extending from the courtyard at Dukes Court |
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