Going, Going, Ghana!

 


A very familiar sight in Accra, Ghana: Street hawkers
bearing their wares on their heads...hundreds of them!

Street booths are everywhere amidst colorful buildings and colorful taxis

 

As Bob's calling includes all of Africa, we were invited to the Mission Presidents' Seminar for the Africa West Area in Accra, Ghana this past week, where we were able to meet face-to-face the Area Presidency (Elders Curtis, Vinson and Dube of the Seventy) and their wives and the 13 mission presidents and their wives.

We participated in the mission president training by the Area Presidency and the discussions and sharing of best practices and also were able to spend a full-day sightseeing in and around Accra, tour the MTC with two of our former Cape Town missionaries from Ghana and participate in an endowment session in the Ghana Temple. 

Although we applied for our Ghana visas nearly two months ago, we almost didn't get them in time. On Monday, our departure day, we expected the visas any minute all day long, and the longer we waited the more tense we both got.  We were still awaiting a call about the visas at 2:00 pm. We were supposed to be picked up for the airport at 1:50 for our 4:55 flight. Finally, at 2:05, Bob had the Area travel supervisor make one last desperate call to the visa agent. At 2:06, we were told the visas were approved and the visas and passports could be picked up. The driver who was supposed to provide our ride to the airport instead left immediately to pick up our passports and visas, and we hurriedly drove ourselves to the airport, parked and met him there by about 3:30 for our 4:55 international flight. 

 

We went to South African Airways to check in for our flight and the agent told us the system denied our passports!  The agent said it had never happened before, and she didn't know what to do. She said she was sure we were okay, but she couldn't print boarding passes without passport approval on the system.  She asked the agents on either side of her, and they both said they had just experienced the same exact thing. After a phone call to their supervisor, it was clear that their computer connection to the passport system had quit working. So we waited and waited, along with the passengers on either side of us, until finally the agents just approved us and prepared handwritten boarding passes. 

Then, of course, the security guy asks, "What is this? These aren't real boarding passes!" When he realized there were several of us with handwritten boarding passes, he found his supervisor and got approval to let us through. Once we were finally on the plane, we were able to relax a bit after a very tense day and enjoy 6 1/2 hours of peace, quiet and rest. We even both slept for about half the flight. Then there was more waiting at the airport at the other end for our transportation to the hotel. We landed at close to 9:00 pm and got to the Fiesta Royale Hotel after 10:00 (midnight our time) in stifling heat and humidity, even at that hour.

Accra, Ghana, being near the equator, is much hotter and far more humid than we expected. Temperatures are in the 90's and humidity in the 90's all year round. It was also much more lush and green than we anticipated, but we really didn't see anything the first night and were in meetings all day the next two days.

When Bob went to his first Mission Presidents Seminar 10 years ago, there were 9 mission presidents there, all white Americans. The Area Presidency taught how the day had to come, sooner rather than later, when the majority of mission presidents in Africa would be native Africans. At this conference, 10 years later, 8 of the 13 mission presidents at the seminar in Ghana were black African natives!



Area Presidency and 13 mission presidents pose for a group
photo with their wives at the Mission Presidents' Seminar

Elder LeGrande Curtis, Jr., the Africa West Area President and his counselors (from Australia and Zimbabwe) were wonderful to include us and make a big deal out of the value Bob provides to the Area. He gave us time to introduce ourselves on the first day, gave us 45 minutes on the agenda the second day, and had us bear our testimonies at the end of the seminar. We loved the training and learned so much. And we became quite familiar with all of the couples, over two days of meetings and meals.

Elder Curtis talked about the incredible growth the Area is experiencing. There are 7 stakes in greater Accra plus a temple and an MTC, and 50 stakes now in the West Area, plus another 7 projected for this year and 14 new chapels under construction. At 12 converts per missionary per year, they had nearly 25,000 new converts in 2014 and are on target to exceed that this year, making West Africa the fastest growing Area in the Church, and Africa the fastest growing continent, exceeding the growth rates in Mexico and South America. The mission presidents and wives in West Africa were completely overwhelmed by the General Conference announcement by President Monson of a third temple in West Africa, in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast).

With an additional 14 stakes being projected for the Africa Southeast Area this year, that's a total of 21 new stakes projected in Africa in one year! That's 21 new stake presidents and presidencies, 250 high councilors and more than 150 new bishops, just in the new stakes, and there will also be new districts and branches in almost every one of the 27 missions. This growth will be sustained with local leaders in charge, and less dependence on American missionaries, which is more evident in West Africa, but also emerging across the rest of the continent..



A typical LDS meetinghouse in Ghana

The Accra Ghana Temple is beautiful, and we were able to join the Area Presidency, all the mission presidents and their wives in an endowment session Wednesday evening. Unlike the Johannesburg Temple, the Ghana Temple is staffed entirely by black, native ordinance workers (we saw no white American temple missionaries) and, much larger than the Johannesburg Temple, we had all 50 of us in one session.

At the Ghana Temple at dusk, where we enjoyed an endowment session

We had a free day Thursday to be tourists and see the country. President and Sister Heid of the Ghana Accra Mission showed us around from 7:00 am to 3:30 pm and took us to the most scenic places in the country, along the Volta River and Volta Lake, north of Accra, near the Benin (eastern) border. David Heid is the son of Elmer and Bonnie Heid, dear friends of ours (and of Ray and Kathy Egan) when we lived in Kirkland, Washington, and David and Delynn are neighbors and dear friends of Terry and Susan Gylling (my mission trainer in Denmark and his wife) in Fallbrook, California. So we had a lot to catch up on as we saw the sights and fought the incredible traffic while within the city of Accra.



Scenes in Accra, Ghana

 

 

A beautiful tree and a sample of the lush
greenery north of Accra along the Volta.

A Muslim mosque, taken from the car, in downtown Accra

 

In the shade along the Volta River in Ghana with President David and Sister Delynn Heid at the Senchi Resort

The Heids dropped us off at the MTC, where we were greeted by Bob's only two returned Cape Town missionaries from Ghana, Elder Pappoe and Elder Adonteng, who were so thrilled and excited to see Bob and to meet Martha. We spent a couple of hours with them and invited them to a guided tour of the Ghana MTC with us, from the president. Then President and Sister Robison of the MTC had us for dinner and had their driver, Patrick, drive us through the Accra traffic to the airport and our flight home.



With Chris Pappoe (left) and Alex Adonteng (right), former
Cape Town missionaries at the Missionary Training Center
in Accra, Ghana

We thoroughly enjoyed our three days in Ghana and found it well worth the nearly 13 hours in the air, so very grateful that our visas came through last minute, as an answer to many sincere and almost desperate prayers. We are loving every adventuresome day we spend in Africa!

Xenophobia, Ebola and Malaria

Okay, we know some of you are concerned and are wondering  if and how the things you hear on the news and in the media are effecting us here in South Africa.

We know many of you are hearing various reports on CNN, Fox News and other media about the current civil unrest in isolated places in South Africa, referred to in traditional and social media channels as "xenophobia," or fear of foreigners. If these reports have concerned you for our safety and welfare, please rest assured that we are safe, we are well aware of the heightened political tensions and we are taking all reasonable precautions, but please know that this "xenophobia"story has been greatly overblown by the media, and the threat to our safety and security remains minimal. We stay well away from where any protests take place and have witnessed no violence whatsoever.

Just so you can understand the situation here, the violence against immigrants is mostly black-on-black, directed at Africans from neighboring countries who have come to South Africa for economic opportunities. Owing to their desperation, many of these immigrants work very hard and are very successful—much to the chagrin of their impoverished South African neighbors, who scrape to get by in a country with a 40% unemployment rate. White missionaries, though foreign, are not considered a threat, as we are not taking any South African jobs.

The actual violence began two weeks ago in Durban, against businesses owned by foreign nationals, and has since spread to isolated pockets in and around Johannesburg's central business district (closed to all missionaries) and surrounding low-income townships. Because of a politically motivated shooting in the township of Alexandra Wednesday, South African army troops were deployed in Alexandra to support the local police. Though dramatic, the move was mostly seen as a show of force to further discourage some of the random and opportunistic crime (looting, burglary) which has been associated with the civil unrest. To be clear, the violence has been shocking with many people injured and seven people killed in the last two weeks, but it's very isolated and not near where we serve.

From the outset, the Church's Area Security Team has been on top of this, monitoring hot spots and sharing that information with the Area Presidency and missionaries. At this point, they have not requested any restrictions on any missionaries' proselyting activities anywhere. In addition to our professional security, local members—who are always concerned about our missionaries—are monitoring neighborhood situations and warning our missionaries of any potential dangers long before they erupt.

On a practical level, we want you to know that life in Johannesburg feels very normal to us. Shops are open, people are on the street, and the work of the Kingdom is moving forward, thanks in great part to your prayers, which are always appreciated and helpful.

While we were at the Mission Presidents Seminar in West Africa this week, we received promising updates on Ebola, which is isolated now to two countries, both a 7-hour flight  from where we live in Johannesburg. The country of  Liberia went 21 days without a case of Ebola before one isolated case showed up. Once it goes 42 days without a case, the country is no longer considered at risk, the quarantines will be lifted and the missionaries will be returned. In fact, a new mission president has just been called for the Liberia Monrovia Mission, effective July 1st, and Bob will be training him next month. The country of Sierra Leone has just six cases of Ebola currently and the same thing goes for that mission... we hope to see a new mission president called this year and the missionaries returned to the country. That's it for Ebola - it's practically eliminated, and is farther away from where we live and work than New York is from Europe.

Malaria, however, is still very much present in West Africa, with dozens of cases reported among our 4,000+ missionaries this year, most often in West Africa, the Congo and East Africa, but it is virtually non-existent in South Africa, so it is a non-issue where we live. And when it does occur, the medication the Church provides works immediately and thoroughly.

In short, no Ebola, no malaria, and life is pretty normal here in South Africa, despite what you may be hearing about xenophobia. We remain healthy and happy doing the Lord's work.

If you want to read about the Church's response to xenophobia in South Africa, here is an interesting link: www.mormonnewsroom.co.za/article/latter-day-saints-respond-to-aid-xenophobia-refugees

Ten Years Later...

With former Cape Town Missionary Sheryl
Garner at the Johannesburg Temple

 

This week we had another visit from one of our returned Cape Town missionaries, this time from the USA, Sheryl Garner, our lone African-American sister (actually Haitian-American) from Washington D.C.

Sheryl had a 5 1/2 hour layover in Joburg on Friday between her flights from Namibia and to Port Elizabeth. She is touring her old mission areas, visiting her converts, three of whom have now served full-time missions themselves! Needless to say, she served an outstanding mission, finishing at the end of 2005, and is enjoying the fruits of her labors here, 10 years later. 

 

We took her to a late lunch at Mike's Kitchen and to the temple and Area offices during her layover. She is so fun, and she purposely planned a long layover so she could spend it with us and get fatherly advice and counsel from Bob regarding her future and some important decisions she is facing. 

 

We had another busy week that zoomed by fast. Elder Jones, after considerable discussion with the Area Presidency and with Martha, met with Sean Donnelly and told him Martha would not be sharing her time with public affairs after all, as she was going to be kept plenty busy as assistant executive secretary. He told Martha that if he gave her up half-time it wouldn't be enough, and he feared Sean would fill more and more of her time. She told Elder Jones she is perfectly fine with the decision and loves what she is doing.

We had another very spiritually enlightening Sabbath day, with a powerful block of meetings at the Protea Glen Ward, where our Area President, Elder Carl B. Cook and his wife attended. He presided and spoke in both sacrament meeting and Priesthood meeting and he and his wife attended the YSA Sunday School class with us and about 30 young single adults. In every meeting, he bore testimony and left challenges. 

He challenged the ward members to focus more on the sacredness of the Sabbath and the sacrament and to arrive at church earlier to prepare for the sacrament by the Spirit. The SS lesson was on the Good Shepherd, and he challenged the young single adults to be shepherds and feed the Lord's  sheep and go out and find the lost ones. He challenged each YSA to bring a less active YSA to sacrament meeting, telling them we have enough YSA's in this ward for four wards, if they were all active. And he challenged each Priesthood bearer to fast a full 24 hours on fast Sunday and pay a fast offering of the cost of two meals missed (enumerating the blessings in Isaiah 58:8-12) in addition to coming to sacrament meeting 10 minutes earlier on a weekly basis. 

 

Then tonight we had a zone meeting for all the senior missionary couples, 19 area couples and 14 temple couples, plus the temple presidency, and were blessed to hear from Elder Jackson Mkhabela of the Seventy, whom Bob knew from his previous mission.  

Elder Mkhabela was a black police captain in Johannesburg during apartheid (a very rare, near impossible feat) and joined the Church during apartheid in 1993. He was one of the first black bishops and the very first black stake president in Southern Africa. He earned a law degree through years of evening classes. 

He was just released in General Conference two weeks ago as an Area Seventy, after 5 years, and has been called to be the first black mission president in Zimbabwe, starting in July. 

He quoted President Hinckley that there is no more compelling work than missionary work and no work that brings greater satisfaction. 

His beautiful message was to focus on the Savior and be fixed in our purpose. We left motivated and inspired to do better. 

Quick Weekend Trip Home to Utah!

The Egan siblings at our home following our grandson's
graveside service in Sandy on Friday, April 3rd - Betsy
 and her husband Klint, Kelly and her husband Richard, 
Elder & Sister Egan, Christian, Emily, Ben, and Robby
and his wife Kelsey.    Erik was on a stake pioneer trek
with his family and ward family who he is bishop over.
 

We're still quite jet lagged from a long, but short, Easter weekend trip home to Sandy, reconnecting quite unexpectedly with our wonderful children and grandchildren.

We woke up Monday morning, March 30th, to the sad news that our little premature grandson, Leo Ezra Egan in New York City had lost his 4-week battle for his life and passed away peacefully in his mother Kelsey's arms. He was a fighter, but weighed barely one pound, and his under-developed  organs finally gave out, ending a roller coaster month for Robby and Kelsey and everyone who loves them.

 

On Tuesday, when we were able to work out the arrangements to bury Leo in the same grave as his grandma, Bob's late wife Kathy, we both knew we had to be in Utah for the graveside services and to host a family luncheon at our home in Sandy. Luckily, it was a 4-day holiday weekend in South Africa and our offices were closed both Friday and Monday. 

 

We got approval from our Area Presidency, who were already in Utah for General Conference, booked our flights, and were in the air Wednesday night, April 1st, arriving Thursday the 2nd after a nearly 24-hour journey. 

 

Despite the sad circumstances, we had a wonderful day Friday with family, both the Egans and the Nixons. The graveside service was a beautiful tribute to little Leo and his parents, and our Sandy home proved to be a perfect venue for a solemn yet precious family gathering, catered by Olive Garden. 

 

We enjoyed a peaceful, although certainly surreal, weekend at home watching all the General Conference sessions, sleeping in our own lovely bed four nights and showering in our incredible shower each morning. Then we were back in the air for the 24-hour trip back to Johannesburg Monday/Tuesday after saying goodbye to our family... again!

 

We were reminded yet again of the tremendous healing power of a loving family unit and the sacred, spiritual blessings of eternal families. 

 

Just before we left for the Johannesburg Airport on April 1st, we were able to meet one of our returned sister missionaries from Madagascar, Sister Ranjaliva Ramananihanitramalala and her husband in the Johannesburg Temple, where they were performing ordinances for family names. We shared a tender moment as they told us about their three children and the blessings they are enjoying in Madagascar as an eternal family. 

 

While we were visiting, the temple president, Robert Eppel, came out of his office and showed us a letter he had just opened from President Monson authorizing Bob to be a sealer in the Johannesburg Temple. 

 

We agreed to work weekly in the temple on Friday afternoons, when we're available, and we started yesterday. Bob is the only sealer on Fridays, and Martha was set apart by President Eppel as an ordinance worker. 

 

We've both had a busy three days back in Joburg, and we're trying our best to get over the jet lag and get back to our normal missionary routine here in Africa, which we have come to love so much!

 

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.