Missions and Summer Camp

After a long day at the office today we were on our way home and I told Elder Kinghorn (Bruce)
 

"I don't think I have completely disconnected from electronic devices".
 

 Sometimes I imagine I feel my purse vibrate and assume it's my phone.....
 

 then I remember .....

I don't have my phone.

It's locked in a safe in my apartment

 

I can't count the times during the day when I am busily

sending e-mails to Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Country Directors asking questions like,

 "Will you have time to get 2 more bids on the advertising for the Rotavirus Campaign by the end of next month?"
 or
"can you please have the contractor for the water project in Uganda send us a signed vendor agreement?"

And my mind drifts to

"I should check my personal email to see if any of my friends or family have written"
or
"I wonder if any of my family has posted pictures on facebook today"

Each day when we return to our apartment I find myself

 anticipating

opening the door

 turning on my computer

checking my email and

finding a sweet message from one of my kids, or grandkids.
(hey, it happened once)

We have Vonage and our grandson, Wyatt tried to call once and when we didn't answer Vonage took his message and sent it to me on the computer. It made my day to hear his sweet voice.

Being on a mission is a bit like Summer Camp

As long as your day is filled with activities that bring you pleasure

YOU ARE FINE

But the minute you quiet your mind and your body

You feel a tug at your heart

You miss home

And you remember....

  This isn't your home

You are a guest here

You are surrounded by people you have come to love

Soon days turns to weeks

 Weeks turn to months

Days begin to pass quickly

Friendships deepen

and soon you feel the tug at your heart again

 you know that one day

this will all be over............

One day you will pack your bags

and go

HOME

Life in South Africa

We had dinner with some of the other missionaries tonight to celebrate our friend, Jill's birthday. We were sharing some of the experiences we have had here as missionaries from America. One of the men in the group served his mission here when he was a young man. He talked about what life was like here after Apartheid. He mentioned that the blacks were treated by the whites as if they were invisible. It reminded me of something one of the ladies told me on one of our morning walks. Our morning walks take us through a very wealthy neighborhood where large homes are located behind high gated, barbed wired, walls. There are security booths located between every four homes where a black security guard sits. Each morning we walk past blacks going up and down the road on their way to work. We see black women entering the locked gates in the early morning hours to begin their workday. We see black women standing on the street corner with small white children as they await their rides to school. I always greet each person we pass with a cheerful "good morning". One day I said to my friend, "everyone is so friendly when I say good morning". She replied, "yes, they are friendly, but you will notice that they do not greet you until you first greet them." She went on to say, "it's a subtle holdover from Apartheid".

We've been here 3 weeks now and now I see that the "subtle holdover" doesn't seem so subtle anymore. We go to work each day at the Church's Africa Southeast Area Office where the Area Welfare Manager who we report to is black. In fact, many people in our office are black. However, there are also many whites who were born and raised here in South Africa. I have come to see that our office however, is not an accurate reflection of what life in Johannesburg is REALLY like. In fact, I believe we live in a kind of bubble here.

When we leave the office we see a different South Africa then we experience at the Area Offices. The division between whites and blacks is more obvious. Tonight I found myself reflecting on our life here in Johannesburg. I thought to myself who do we see driving cars? and who do we see waiting at the bus stops?  Who do we see dressed in rags on the street corners begging for a small handout to buy food? My mind drifts off to memories of our dinner last night. We dined in a restaurant where all the diners were white and all the servers were black. Then I recall that yesterday when we went to a strip mall there were young men in the parking lots who we paid to help us safely park our car. Not one of these men were white. Yesterday we came down to get in our car and realized that it had been washed. We were told that a man comes and washes peoples cars and leaves the windshield wipers up so we know that he has cleaned your car. At the end of the month he is given a small payment for his service. I think it would be a good guess to say that he is a black man. Then I remember that all the men who are the parking attendants are black. Each morning when we enter our building there is a black man who monitors who comes in and out of the building. Some days when I return from my morning walk there is a black woman mopping the hallway in front of my door. We don't take our trash out to the garbage bin, in fact, we just set the bag out by the front door and someone picks it up and takes it to the garbage bin for us. My guess is, this is a black person. Our doors and windows all have iron bars. The entrance to our apartment building is locked and a guard sits nearby and opens and closes the door as we come and go. We have been warned that we have to be cautious and not go out alone or go out at night. In fact, the whole city pretty much shuts down at night. We never venture far from our little neighborhood with locked doors and security guards. Even our Area Office Building is behind a locked gate with a guard. What I know is this,

 When people are hungry and cold they become desperate.  When  begging on the streets doesn't bring enough money home to feed a family, or the minimum wage job doesn't pay the bills, people will do what ever it takes to survive.  

I didn't know much about Apartheid until I came here but I believe that there are still some

 "not so subtle" remnants of apartheid right outside my door.  

The door to the left is the Service Elevator

The door to the right is the Service Entrance that goes into the kitchen

Costco in South Africa?

This ones for our kids

They know how much Bruce loves a trip to Costco

So since it WAS "P day" (our day off)

"p" for preparation day.

When the Lee's called and said, "want to go to Macro"

We said, "of course

As you can see Bruce was quite pleased with South Africa's Costco

Church in South Africa

Some days when we are stuck in the office all day it is easy to forget we are in South Africa.

When the week end comes we have the opportunity to leave Johannesburg and travel 30 miles or so to our little church in Orange Farm. 

 As we exit the freeway and turn into the small community we are quickly reminded that

 

THIS IS SOUTH AFRICA

 

we begin to see black women walking along the side of the road with large items on their heads,

or babies strapped to their backs.

We see families dressed in their Sunday best,

 and small groups of people visiting on the side of the road.

 

When we pull off the main road and head down the dirt road to the school where our church services are held,

 we pass small homes with black men or women standing in the yard who greet us with a friendly smile and wave as we pass by.

Once we park the car and enter the school yard we are greeted with big smiles and hugs from the members who are gathered outside waiting for church to begin.

 Last week a young man dressed in dark pants and a clean white shirt was straddled over a water facet as he rinsed the sacrament trays.

It is quite obvious that we are the minority here. Most Sundays the only other white faces are those of the two young missionaries who attend church in our little branch.

After church last Sunday I snapped this picture as I saw the members beginning their walk home.

 

Then I met this sweet little girl twirling around a pole and asked if I could take her picture

Then I saw these two handsome young men loading the Sacrament Podium in the car along with the Sacrament trays and white table cloths.

 

 

Humanitarian Aide in Africa

I wanted to share a little about the WORK that we are doing as Humanitarian Missionaries, least you think that all we do is eat and have parties with the other missionary couples. This mission has been quite different then our mission in Ukraine for two reasons. The first, is that we are surrounded by other couples who are serving missions in Johannesburg. The second, is that WE are not actually going out to meet with organizations to find possible projects.

We have been called as Area Welfare Specialist. Which means, there are 8 Humanitarian Couples who are working in various countries in South Africa, who are doing what we did in Ukraine. It is their responsibility to  find projects and partner organizations and then send proposals to the Area Welfare Specialist in Johannesburg. (Elder and Sister Kinghorn). Our job is to review the projects that come in from Uganda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Tanzania, Gabon, Lubumbashi,  The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. Once we review the projects we send them to our Area Welfare Manager for approval. The Major Initiatives, which include, Water Projects, Neonatal Resuscitation, Wheelchair Projects, Immunizations, and Vision Projects all require a 9 step approval process, finally ending up in Salt Lake for approval. The smaller projects which are called Area Initiatives, are approved at the Area Office. The Area Initiatives here in South Africa are projects that help non-governmental agencies such as schools, orphanages, or hospitals. We recently built a bread oven in a refugee camp.

Once a week we have a meeting with our Area Welfare Manager and discuss some of the proposed projects that have come into our office during the past week and review the progress of ongoing projects. What I have learned, is that the church is very involved in providing relief all over South Africa. One of the major projects has been providing clean water. Not only is it crucial to have clean water to prevent disease, but the village wells provide safety for the women. We have discovered that women and young girls walk up to 6 miles one way two or three times a day to get water for their families. In some instances young girls are sent alone and have been assaulted along the path. So building the wells in the villages has not only provided clean water but safety for the villagers as well.


There are orphaned children all over Africa as a result of the Aids epidemic and the turbulence between countries. I learned about a young newlywed couple who have taken in over 60 orphaned children.  I have learned about places where children live without parents and sleep on dirt floors with no mattresses We have developed projects in schools to not only provide clean water and latrines but to teach hygiene as well.  I have learned that children in many schools sit on dirt floors and attend school in shifts because there are not enough classrooms for all the children to attend at the same time. We have purchased desk or chairs for classrooms or other needed supplies. We have built hand washing stations and latrines in schools.

On a more personal level I have seen the effects of poverty in my own ward  (congregation) and neighborhood here in South Africa. In my ward, one young man walked to church last week in his socks because he had no shoes. One mother in our ward has seven children but she has had to send some to live with relatives because she can't afford to feed them all. This past week my ward had to cancel their trip to the Temple because they couldn't afford the transportation cost, which is the equivalent of $60.00, to rent the mini van for a group of members to travel approximately 35 miles. Each day when we return home from the Area Offices we are approached by beggars on the street who tie a black garbage bag around their necks and offer to take the trash from your car in exchange for a rand or two, which is the equivalent of ten or twenty cents.

This mission is different for us because we have daily contact with other couples who are serving missions, whereas in Ukraine we only had contact with the Mission President and his wife or the office couple. This mission as Area Welfare Specialist is similar to our mission in Ukraine in that we have the same goal, "to relieve the suffering of the poor and needy"  just as we did in Ukraine.  I love this quote from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.

"Not only by precept did Jesus teach, but also by example. . . He stretched forth his hand that others might be lifted. . . Unaltered is the divine command to succor the weak and lift up the hands which hang down and strengthen the feeble knees. Each of us has the charge to be. . . a doer. . . lifter. . . There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out: ‘Is there no balm in Gilead…?’ Each of us must answer" (Thomas S. Monson, "With Hand and Heart," Ensign, Jan 1995, 2)"

THE FOOD IN AFRICA

 

Some of my family members have asked how the food it here. Let me just say that we have eaten out more times than we have cooked at home. The first two weeks we were in training we went out to lunch several times. We had gigantic burgers, steaks, and tasty salads, One evening we had a really nice buffet at a beautiful hotel. Tonight on the way home from the lion park we ate out again. This is what Bruce's dinner looked like. It's a hamburger with mushroom sauce, cheese, pineapple, fried egg, and bacon.



.
When we got home one of the ladies I walk with brought us this plate of yummy cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven and this beautiful beaded necklace.
Now you know why I have to walk every morning.


 

Are we there yet?

Today we left the city for the very first time and went to a Lion Park. OK so it wasn't exactly a Safari and the animals WERE in enclosures but it was still THRILLING to see these beautiful creatures up close. The male lions were absolutely beautiful.



THE LION CUBS WERE AMAZING

 



NEIGHBORHOOD WALK





This is Sister Kirshbaum exiting her apartment. We live in the apartment right above theirs

This is the mall directly across the street from our apartment building

Exiting our apartment building to begin our morning walk at 6:30 AM

Walking through the park

 

No traffic on the freeway since it was a holiday 

Fun times with the Couples

We had a surprise party for Elder Lee
This is him walking in the door!

It was really fun
 we squeezed about 27 people into our little living room

Sister Lee had us play some games to get to know each other better!

We found out some interesting things about each other.
This little group of "Seniors" has done some interesting things,
We have a flaming baton twirler, a model and actor, a majorette,
a daredevil female who liked to jump off bridges as a young girl,
a man who delivered newspapers on a horse,
a woman who got a full set of power tools for Xmas,
a woman who cleaned the toilets for Lady Bird Johnson,
a man that made his own hunting gun as a young man,
and a man who was a gymnast,
 in our group of Senior Missionaries. 

Our home for the next 18 months

This is what our apartment looks like today. Tomorrow night we will be having a birthday party for one of the other Senior Missionaries at our place so I imagine it will look a little different with 10 plus couples here.

First week in Africa

It's hard to believe it has only been a week since we arrived in South Africa. It seems like we have crammed a lot in the first week here.

The first few days we spent in the office with the Kirschbaums, who came into the country with us while they met with the couple they are replacing.  The Kirschbaums are going to be the Humanitarian Couple for South Africa, which includes, South Africa, Soweto, and Swaziland. They will be working in the same office we work. The couple they are replacing were going back to the States the end of the week so they wanted to have a few days to talk about some of the projects that need to be completed. So we spent Monday-Wednesday training with them. Each day we were taken out to lunch which was very nice.

In between training those first 3 days we:

• Attended a morning devotional on Monday morning at the Africa Southeast Area Office
• Had a tour of the Area Office, where our office is, which included getting ID badges that would get us in and out of the office building, filling out applications for our Bank Cards, meeting with the fleet department who would be getting our car for us, meeting with the IT people who would be setting up our office computers.
• We each had the wonderful experience of learning to drive on the left side of the road, while sitting in the left side of the car
• Attended our first Family Home Evening with the couples, after the meeting some of the couples mentioned they had some things I needed for my apartment so I took a shopping cart that was parked outside one of the couples apartments and collected, a garbage pail, crock pot, hair dryer, clothes hangers, and outlet adapters from 3 different couples, I even came home with some chicken one couple had just taken out of the oven.
• Got our internet, and Vonage hooked up in our apartmentArranged to have someone come hook up our new oven and stove top that had been installed before we arrived.
• Made our first withdrawal form the ATM.
• Visited the mall across the street to buy groceries ( purchased our groceries with rand instead of dollars)
• I started walking with a group of women for an hour every morning from 6:30-7:30

On Wednesday the Vanwagoners arrived for 3 days of training before they headed to Burundi where they will be the Humanitarian couple.

•  The Lee's took us all out to a very nice  dinner at the Hotel where the Vanwagoners were staying.
• We were in training for about 8 hours a day but it felt more like 12 since all of us were still jet lagged and exhausted from our 2 weeks of training at the MTC and the long plane ride.
• The Lee's took us out to a nice lunch and then it was back to training at the Area office again
• On Saturday after training we made a quick trip to the mall again for some electrical adapters, a converter and a Garmin
• Saturday night couples potluck and game night
• Sunday we attended Church at our branch in Orange Farm and Bruce and I were both asked to speak.

I am exhausted just typing this post

Here is a picture we took at church on Sunday with the Young Single Adults. The church is held at a school and this class meets on the lawn outside. It was so awesome when we entered the area where the school was we saw several people dressed up waiting for the services to start. It turns out they weren't all going to our church service there are two other churches that meet in the area. While we were singing Sacrament Hymns we could hear the tribal drums beating in the background then a beautiful chorus of voices singing outside joined in outside somewhere. The women in our congregation sang out the songs with so much joy in their hearts it was really beautiful. The little classroom we were in was filled to overflowing with people standing in the hallways peering through the window to hear the Sacrament talks. It was a beautiful day.

Welcome to South Africa

We are loving our mission in South Africa. So far we haven't made it outside of Joburg (the short name everyone here uses for Johannesburg). All of the mission couples have really helped us to transition into our new environment. We have had a slight problem with getting internet hooked up in our flat  (apartment). We have a very nice sunroom that will be our office but the phone outlet was not working and we couldn't get the internet or phone to work. So after a few days of waiting for the engineer to come look at it I began to wonder if there was another outlet in the flat. I found another outlet and quickly hooked up the internet, home phone, and vonage phone. I was feeling quite proud of myself and when Bruce discovered we had internet he sat down and began checking his emails and paying the bills. I made a quick phone call to my mother and then our children and then decided to do some ironing. Well, that wasn't such a good idea because I guess I blew a fuse. Bruce tried to flip the circuit breakers but had no luck. So we went to bed at 9:30 pm and decided to deal with it in the morning. I went for a walk for about 45 minutes at 6:30 this morning with 3 other female missionaries and one of them said she would send her husband over. So before we left for the office today we got the circuit breaker working and a lesson on how to flip the breaker if that happens again. It is so nice to have so many nice people living close by to help us out. When we got to the office we got good news that  the Engineer  is heading over to our flat today to see what he can do about getting the phone and internet working in our home office. I took myself on another tour of the Area Office Building where our permanent office is this morning and one of the Sister Missionaries invited me to a women's lunch/discussion group today. Later today we get our brand new car and will have a driving lesson. (Bruce would prefer a used car). Which sounds good to me. The couple that traveled from Utah with us to do Humanitarian Work here had their driving lesson yesterday and the Elder must have been driving too close to the left hand side of the road and had a little mishap with a tire hitting an embankment. YIKES!! Praying for safety on the road today.

I noticed I needed to translate a few things from my last post.

FHE is short for Family Home Evening
The morning devotional is only on Mondays not everyday

We are now in South Africa

THAT WAS THE LONGEST PLANE RIDE OF MY LIFE!
WE LEFT SALT LAKE ON FRIDAY AT 11:OO AM
AND FLEW TO CHICAGO AND ARRIVED AT 3PM
DEPARTED CHICAGO AT 9:20 PM
ARRIVED IN LONDON AT 9:00 AM LONDON TIME (flight time was 8 hrs)
WE TOOK A SHORT NAP AT A HOTEL
DEPARTED AT 9:20 PM FOR SOUTH AFRICA (flight time was 10 hrs and 45 min)
IT TOOK ABOUT 90 MINUTES TO CLEAR CUSTOMS
THE LEE'S MET US AT THE AIRPORT AND TOOK US TO OUR NEW FLAT

WE WERE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED TO FIND A VERY NICE 1 BEDROOM FLAT THAT HAS A NEWLY REMODELED KITCHEN AND BATHROOM AND TODAY THEY ARE INSTALLING NEW WINDOWS
THE LEE'S HAVE SAID "YOU HAVE THE NICEST SENIOR COUPLES APARTMENT IN THE BUILDING"
WE LIVE IN A NICE COMPLEX WITH 30 COUPLES
TONIGHT IS FHE WITH THE COUPLES
WE EVEN HAVE A HOST COUPLE WHO SUPPLIED OUR FLAT WITH SOME BASIC GROCERIES TO GET US THROUGH THE FIRST DAY AND BROUGHT US TO THE OFFICE TODAY. THEY TOOK US ON A TOUR OF THE AREA OFFICE BUILDING AND WE MET SEVERAL SENIOR COUPLES WHO WORK HERE IN THE OFFICE. LATER TODAY THEY WILL TAKE US SHOPPING AND SHOW US AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD WE LIVE IN.
IN A FEW DAYS THEY WILL TEACH US HOW TO DRIVE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD AND HOW TO DRIVE TO THE OFFICE BUILDING.

WE START EACH DAY WITH A MORNING DEVOTIONAL WITH ALL THE PEOPLE WHO SERVE IN THE AREA OFFICE BUILDING.

WE ARE FEELING VERY COMFORTABLE AND HAPPY TO BE SERVING HERE!

Humanitarian Aide in South Africa

We just completed the last two days of training. We have had a wonderful time here at the MTC. We have met so many amazing couples who are headed to places all over the world. Today we had dinner with one couple who returned in July from a 3 year mission where he served as a Mission President. Tomorrow night this couple will attend a mission reunion with the missionaries they served with while he was the President and the next day they will catch a flight to Burma where they will do Humanitarian work for 18 months. Of the eight humanitarian couples who were in our group 5 of them had served at least one other mission.

One of our instructors asked us "Why are you willing to go out again?"  As I have sat in classes all week I have pondered that question a lot. What I have come to know is, that I was anxious to serve another mission because I know God lives. I know he is aware of even the small details of our lives. My life has been filled with blessings. I am willing to go out again because that is what the Savior would do.  I am truly trying to live by his example. I am nothing without him. I love being a missionary. I love being on the lords errand. I love waking up each day knowing that he will guide me to where he needs me to be.

I have come to understand that humanitarian work is not really about "giving away" things. It is about that moment when you look into another persons eyes and your souls touch.  It really is that simple. When we served in Ukraine I experienced this special moment many times. I was not able to learn the Russian language but it didn't prevent me from communicating with the people of Ukraine. Often words were never spoken. I left my  mission in Ukraine a different person then the one who arrived there 18 months earlier. My life will be forever changed from a short encounter I had with a  beggar on the street that we passed nearly every day. My husband and I would approach this same old woman each day and  he would put a small amount of money in her hand. One day a still small voice whispered to me, "she doesn't need your money as much as she needs you to really SEE her." From that day on  I would approach her and give her a kiss on the cheek and a hug. It was in that moment that our souls touched. Then there were the sweet children I encountered one day in an orphanage who would live out the rest of their lives confined to a bed. As I walked from bed to bed and knelt down and peered into their eyes and they grasped my hand and gently rubbed it on their cheek. It was in that moment our souls touched.  I felt the Saviors love for them. As I laid in bed that night and saw each one of their faces over and over again, that still small voice whispered, "I have not forgotten them". I know the Savior knows his sheep. I know he has not forgotten them. I am going on another mission because I want to be an instrument in Heavenly Fathers hands. I want to have that wonderful experience of feeling God's love for his children again.

As I depart tomorrow I will leave happy to be on the Lords errand. I will board the plane bound for South Africa knowing that once again my heart will be filled with love for the people that I serve and once again, I will have to leave people that I have come to love behind. Tomorrow my heart will weep for my family here in America that I am leaving behind and 18 months from now I will weep for the people I have come to love in South Africa.

South Africa Area Map

We have been in training all week learning about the Humanitarian Program. We have been told that our mission assignment covers all of these countries in South Africa. We will have 12-15 couples who will be living in some of the countries who will be submitting request for Humanitarian Aide to the office we will be assigned to. Some of the Major Initiative Projects in South Africa for this year will be Water Projects, Neonatal Resuscitation Trainings, Wheelchair Projects, Food Projects, (teaching food production and supplying materials for gardens), Vision Projects, and Immunizations. Short Term Specialist from the USA volunteer to come to countries all over the world, including Africa to assist with these projects. The Humanitarian couples will also do smaller local projects as well.  I will write more about these projects in future post. Tomorrow concludes our last day of training here at the Missionary Training Center.

 Friday the Humanitarian Missionaries who have been in our group will depart for Thailand-Bangkok, Thailand-Leo, Macedonia-Kosovo, Gabon- South Africa, Ghana-South Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo-West Africa, and two couples will be headed to Johannesburg- South Africa.

 

It's Snowing

We woke up to snow today. So pretty.