Week 6 - Jul 6th - 12th, 2014

Sunday, July 6th - Saturday, July 12th

We started this week with a very nice and restful fast Sunday.  Our sacrament meeting was so busy with testimonies.  I took a turn and added my testimony to all of theirs.  It felt great to be able to do so in a land so far from our home.  We have so much in common with members of the church all around the world!

Monday I took our heart surgery patient Elder Rami back to the hospital lab for his weekly blood check.  He is such a fine young man, it's great to be around him.  P-day for the Elders, some of them stopped by the office.

Elder Going - New Zealand kneeling left, Elder Ramiaramanana (Rami) - Madagascar kneeling right, Elder Wambua - Kenya standing left, Elder Wild - England next, Elder Hansen - USA and
Elder Majodi - South Africa standing right, my size guy.

Tuesday aside from other issues and regular things Melanie and I took Elder Rami to lunch.  He's sort of a single Elder some of the time and needs to be looked after and cared for.  Sometimes he can stay in the MTC with other Elders, sometimes with some of our Elders in areas close by.

A little fellow named Lucky came in with his parents to the office today.  He is seven and was a little bashful but warmed up nicely to a slinky which I gave him.  His parents are members and will soon be going to the temple and taking their family, including Lucky to be sealed!

Lucky 7, with his new slinky from Elder Hansen.

Wednesday the Taylor's returned from up north and we got right busy again trying to finish up some cross-training duties, etc.  We have worked busy long days again this week, ten hours plus a day usually.  We went to dinner with the Taylor's tonight before finishing up our work.

Thursday we had a new senior couple arrive at the mission office, the Campbell's from Prescott, AZ.  He will serve as branch president up north about a five hour drive from here.  This is their first mission and they seem quite personable.  Tonight we got a group of senior couples together to take them to dinner at a place called the Cattle Baron's which was quite nice.

Friday we got up early so we could drive the Taylor's to the airport so they could fly off to their beloved assignment in Botswana Mission.  It took an hour getting there because of commuting traffic but only 1/2 hour getting back which was good.  Later I took Melanie to her first hair appointment which she was so very anxious to have.  It went well so I rewarded her with a lunch at McDonald's which was the first time we have done that since we've been here.

Cool little deliver scooters they use here to deliver McD's food orders!

Sometimes we're so busy we only get one meal a day and it's usually not lunch and then we're too tired to fix anything so the dinner we have is small and humble.  Guess that's okay because once in a while we do get to go out with the other senior couples anyway.

Saturday, our first real p-day together since we've been here.  We had so much to catch up on with cleaning the flat and then shopping for supplies and groceries.  We did take a few minutes later to go a gigantic mall close by called Clearwater Mall.  Every store imaginable there.

The money here is sort of fun for us.  Different colors, different animals on the currency, slightly different sizes too.

Denomination is the South African 'Rand'.  If you drop the last zero on these bills then they equate roughly to our $20, $10, $5, $2, and $1.  The animals are what they call the big 5 here, the Leopard, the Cape Buffalo, The Lion, the Elephant, and the Rhino.

Afterwards we stopped at a restaurant close by for dinner, The Porterhouse.  Good food and not too expensive.

Then on to the flat to do a little video calling before calling it a week.  Another great week here in Africa.  And a bonus giant large orange African moon rising in the northeast as we got home.