Week 34 - Jan 18th - 24th, 2015

Sunday, January 18th to Saturday, January 24th, 2015

We went to meetings at the Roodepoort Ward for the last time this Sunday.   We have made some friends here and will miss them when we leave.  They are a special group of people that function well together despite their racial differences,  they act like the brothers and sisters that they are and treat each other with love and respect.

What time I spent in the office this week was mostly consumed by working out some cell-phone contract related issues for the nearly 160 accounts that the mission has.   Some of these loose ends will now turn over to Elder Allred's capable hands to complete.

Monday night we were invited to a special dinner hosted by Pres. and Sister Dunn at the Mission Home along with many other senior couples and one young Elder and the AP's.   Some were going home and we were going on our transfer.   We had a nice time, good food and nice visits.

Thursday we had a major big-time show of weather with violent thunder, lightning, rain and hail like we haven't seen before.  The thunder would just shake you and the rain became run-off rivers very quickly.  Heavy duty weather.  It put the power out for a few hours.

Friday we packed up the remaining stuff we have here and loaded it into the car and drove off leaving Joburg for our new assignment in Polokwane to work with the Seshego township Group of that branch.   Polokwane metro area is over a million people.  Not sure how many live in our township but there are many thousands.  Some of them live in small brick and stucco places.   Others live in some shanty type shacks without any facilities, ie. running water, etc.   Some very poor people who do so much just to survive day-to-day.   But some very humble and friendly people too.

The Branch itself is a separate congregation from the Group we meet with about 8-10 miles away.   Between them they average just under 200 attendance each Sunday.  Many of these members are 'first-generation' members and thus pioneers in the church for their families and friends etc.   They need nurturing and support in so many ways to help them become strong and self-reliant.  That is what we will be focusing on over the next 10 1/2 months.  It is so exciting to us to be here and be involved.

We stayed at a local B & B while awaiting the departure of the Harward's whom we will replace on Monday, January 26th.  We can hardly wait!