Make new friends, but keep the old . . . .

After you leave the city of Cape Town, the drive to Paarl is pretty much like many other places in South Africa.  Beautiful green rolling hills greet you, dotted with all kinds of trees and divided into little plots of farming ground. 

But before long, the mountains begin to loom in the distance.  They are very rocky and bring memories of the mountains of Idaho and Utah that I love so dearly.  Sometimes they seem even rockier than the rockies!

As you get nearer the city, you can see that it is surrounded by mountains much like our little home city, Pocatello.  This picture, taken from the car, is not the best, but it is what we often see as we enter the city on Sunday morning on our way to Branch Presidency meeting.  A gorgeous sunrise with the mist laying in the valley and the mountains stalwart and brave all around.

I love the way the clouds often move over the tops of the mountains like waterfalls. These clouds were actually flowing down the mountain.  I don't remember seeing this at home much.  This picture was taken near the fence around the church building in Paarl.  The Branch is actually called the Klein Drakenstein Branch and that is name of the area around Paarl too---it means 'small cave' in Afrikaans.

Here is a nice sunny summer picture of our beautiful church yard. 

I would like to introduce you to a few of the members that I have learned to love.  This is Candace, an amazing young woman who is a social worker.  She teaches one of the Relief Society lessons each month.  She loves Oprah and entered a contest writing about her boss and all she does to help the poor in Paarl.  She won a trip for the two of them to Chicago and appeared with all the winners on the Oprah show!  yes! She went in January.  She is amazing in so many ways and a is very serious, obedient member of the Church.  She is hoping to move to the US to work for a while very soon.  Maybe you'll get to meet her!

This is Keegan, a very musically talented young man, who has been serving as the Ward Clerk, the Executive Secreatary, the librarian, the membership clerk etc, etc etc.  His job was to help the Branch President in everything that the Branch did.  I say that in past tense, because he left last month for a mission in Ghana.  Exciting times for him and his family.  Boy do we miss him!

This is a picture of the Branch Christmas Party held in the 'gym' in the chapel. The white-haired lady in the wheelchair on the right is the oldest member of Paarl Branch.  She actually passed away about a month ago and I was privledged to help prepare her for burial with her Temple clothing.  No one else really stands out, except the man leading the singing who is the branch mission leader.  You can tell Christmas is in the summer here----everyone was very relaxed in their summer best!

The Relief Society sisters did a little program about how women are like gems and jewels with strength and value beyond what we see.  I know this doesn't really go with a Christmas theme, but our President was determined to put this program on because someone had showed it to her and she liked it.  This is Sister Wang who is a divorced mother of five children.  She makes money by sewing clothing---beautiful tailored suits.  I hope to have her make me a skirt before I leave.  She is very beautiful and talented in many things.

This is Margaret on the right, she is Ellen's sister, and her daughter, Bianca---doing their part for the program.  Two very active members who do a lot here in Paarl to bless the members who attend here. Margaret just got her degree in teaching and started teaching grade three this year.  Bianca just got married and had her first child this year.

And this is Sister Hendricks-- another stalwart in the Branch who is such an entertaining lady.  She never misses an opportunity to bear her testimony or share her thoughts on a gospel subject.  She is amazing! I wish I had a better picture of her.  She was assigned to talk about gold in the program I think because she is the most highly prized person in the branch.

Of course the missionaries are not paying any attention and totally have their own thing going at their table!  Elder Leach, Elder Balmforth, and Elder Nielsen are showing the young women some magic tricks I think!

They weren't the only ones not listening to the program, Elder Herbert was goofing off quite a bit too.  A young girl wore this hat and several of the men had to try it on.

This is not a great picture of Mara and her daughter, but it is all I have.  Mara is a widow with three children who is loved  by all. Her daughter helps to hold the Young Women together.   There is Elder Maja sitting alone in a contemplative mood---he is not one to be silly.  I really appreciated him in so many ways.  He has gone home to Polokwane, Limpopo now and I really pray that he is doing well there.

The Young Women sang some Christmas songs---like I said the dress code was pretty relaxed that night.  The beautiful one in the center is Tamsynn---the young women's president.  She returned last year from a mission at Temple Square.  She is Candace's sister and has been such an asset to the branch.

And here I am with Sister Ellen who is the Relief Society President in the KD Branch.  She invited all the missionaries (and many of her family members) to her home for dinner on the Sunday before Christmas.  She is the cutest and sweetest woman you could ever hope to meet.  This picture was taken on her deck in the back of her home.  Her husband works in a water purification plant and she is a nurse.  She doesn't speak English very well (she thinks) and she writes out everything she says in front of RS when she conducts so she won't make a mistake.  I am getting her to forget about that and just get up and speak from her heart.

Here is a picture of the whole group she fed that day.  Oh, but I forgot to tell you, Ellen doesn't cook!  Her daughter, Valencia (pronounced Walencia), had prepared all the food.  She is standing on the left of Ellen with her arms around her little boy.  She is a canine officer in the police force in Cape Town.  Ellen's husband and brother are in back of her, and her sister is up in front with the crown on her head.  I think it was her birthday.  Ellen's son and neices and nephews are in the back too.  Elder Grobler - a missionary from The Free State, is kneeling with his arm on the table---the other missionaries are behind Vic--Elder Balmforth and Elder Leach.  Elder Maja is the black Elder in the very back---great missionary.  And Elder and Sister Foster are there too.   We had such a good time sharing stories of Christmas.

This is one of our new converts in Paarl with her two small children and her parents.  Her parents came to her baptism on this day---but they also came back the next week.  Her name is Lindelwa and she is a really wonderful woman who has spent her life caring for parents, aunts, cousins and everyone else.  She lives behind her parents in a one-room shack that they built back there.  She has no running water and her electricity is an extension cord running from her parent's home. She uses the bathroom in her parent's house and has a  bucket for the kids to use in emergencies. (Many people live that way---they call it a Wendy shack for some reason.)  What a strong and beautiful woman.  She also has a great job in a factory where she is in charge when the boss has a day off.  What a blessing she will be to this branch.

Look at that hair!  this is a great example of what lots of the little kids look like.  You can tell she is a little afraid of me---probably because I am white.  My white hair doesn't help either.

Later, when we had made friends a little, she struck this pose when I started to take her picture.

Big brother didn't want to be left out---he asked me to take his picture.  What a cutie!

These two young girls were also baptised that day.  Their mother had to work, but she is a member too.  They had just never gotten the girls baptized.  This is one of the families we have worked to bring back to church.  This man's mother was one of the earliest members of the church in Paarl and taught Seminary and Institute to many of the people his age.  She has altzheimers now, so we don't see her at church.  He has a wonderful testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here is a picture of the lovely chapel for me to remember.  I know you've seen a millon chapels, but this is somewhat rare here in South Africa. Paarl is set up to have a stake here someday.

Here is the multipurpose room when no one is in it.  We have two table tennis tables and a pool table ---just no basketball hoops inside.  They are out in the parking lot.

And finally a picture of the entire branch that was in attendance at Keegan's farewell.  These are our new friends in Paarl.  What a great group of people.  I love so many of them dearly.  Can you imagine us saying lets all go outside and take a picture together after Sacrament meeting?  Well, that's what the Branch President did.  They told the women to line up first so I lined up with them.  Then everyone else started filling in and Elder Herbert ended up far away from me.  That is Sister Foster standing by him and her husband is kneeling next to her.  You can pick me out by my nametag just a little right of the center of the picture.

The other counselour in the Relief Society is right in front of me.

Hope you enjoyed meeting the people I am working with every week.  This is a memory more for me than for those who will read it.  The Church is the same everywhere you go---great people doing many, many small things to build a small piece of the kingdom of God on the earth.  Every little thing we do helps so much---keep up what you're doing too!   We love you too!

A Few More Tidbits from the Eastern Cape

I have a few things I want to show you that we saw on our trip and then I will be done.  No animals this time, just lots of interesting sites.  These pictures were taken between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town on our way home.  We drove around sight-seeing with our firends, the LaPrays in Port Elizabeth.  We saw these children playing on a rural road when we were driving to the Elephant park.  They had homemade toys and were happy to show them to us. 

I hope you can see that the toys have long handles that allows the boys to push them along on the road.  They have made those little wheels out of wire and then just added lots of layers of ideas.  They both look like they have something that is supposed to be a license plate. 

We have seen a few of these toys as we have traveled around, but this is the only time I have had the opportunity to take a good picture.

They seemed pretty intelligent and able to understand our language although we couldn't get them to say anything.  They have probably been told not to talk to strangers!!  I'm sure they had never seen adults so excited about their silly toys---they thought we were crazy.

This is our newest couple - they came in December and are assigned to Port Elizabeth in the Seminary and Institute program.  We didn't get to spend much time with them.  They are so busy learning their jobs and doing such a great job.

As we started out trip home, we again were greeted by beautiful open fields with forests of pine trees and mountains in the background.

Between Port Elizabeth and Knysna where would spend our next night, we would go through an area where the Tsitsikama National  Park.  This is kind of at the beginning of it.  We decided to turn down and drive to the ocean and see what it was all about.

This was an especially beautiful part of the drive with flowers blooming all along the highway.  This is the Garden Route which many people also call the Garden of Eden. 

It was only about a twenty minute drive down to the ocean and this beautiful bay where children and adults were all playing in the water.  They had boats traveling over to where the river came into the sea, but we were too late to be able to do that and still get to our Bed and Breakfast in time.

I did take a few minutes and walk down to the water and get a little bit wet.  You can see the little child playing at my feet.  The water was not very cold and so peacefully rolling into the beach.  I would have loved to swim there.  It was very, very hot and it was great to just get my feet wet. 

He doesn't look very happy, but he was enjoying the scenery.  It was just so hot.  The waves on the rocks are always so fun to watch.

Actually this is a oceanside campground and this is the little store that is connected---kind of like Mac's Inn in Island Park!  There is a laundry, mini-market, little restaurant, gift shop---you know.  Now we'll show you the campground.

First, there was this beautiful picnic area for day campers.  Not too many people here today because of the heat, I think.  But what a great spot for a picnic.

This was the beginning of the campground.  There were a  few people camping and I think they were having a great time even though there wasn't much shade.

Elder Herbert and I kind of missed our camper at this moment!  I hadn't considered camping on the beach in quite this way, but I am sure there are lots of places to do this in the good old USA.  We might have to find some!

 When we got back to the main highway and drove a few miles, we came to the Tsitsikama Bungee Jump off the Bloukrans Bridge.  It is actually the 2nd highest bungee jump in the world now.  If you look closely near the top of the arch, you can see a person at the beginning of a jump.  As we walked up to the overlook, a young man sitting there said, Elder, will you do the jump today? And of course, Elder Herbert laughed and said, Not as far as I know.  Then, two of our Elders walked out of the visitors room.  They said they heard our voices and couldn't believe we were there.  We couldn't believe they were there either!  It was the Port Elizabeth Zone Leaders, Elder Cannon and Elder Young, who were on their way to visit the Elders in George and Knysna which was where we were headed too.  They left pretty quickly after we got there, but called us later as they were driving away and asked if we would like to meet them for dinner.  We did, and it was a great visit.

 This picture shows a person being pulled back up after the jump.  The area was so amazingly beautiful, it was extra amazing to watch these daring people hurl themselves off this bridge.  We had an interesting coincidence happen here at the overlook.  We met two young men who were watching with us.  I asked them if they were going to jump and they said "Absolutely!"  We stayed a few minutes to see them jump and then we had to go.  The next morning at our Bed and Breakfast we went in to eat breakfast and there they were!  There were dozens maybe more Bed and Breakfasts in Knysna, but they were at the same one we were.  They were college guys from Finland, one was a teacher and the other a doctor to be.  This was their dream trip and they were trying to do every exciting thing they could find to do.  They were going on a week-long hike and camping trip with a guide along the ocean starting that day.  We talked with them for quite a while and I asked them if there were any warning signs at the bungy jump and they said there was only one----Do not jump if you have back problems.  They said their backs were a little sore that day.  It's good that jumping is against Mission rules or we might have a Granny with back problems on our hands! Obedience brings safety!

Above is the poster outside the visitor's rooms.  They didn't have a lot of things for sale, but they did show close-up videos of the jumps that just took place and jumpers could buy the video of their jump!  It was fun to hear their comments as they watched the video of themselves.  Most of them bought the video!

After a drive of abut 30 minutes, we met our two Elders for dinner.  Afterwords we saw this drum band on the street in Mossel Bay.  They had such a sweet relaxing sound---a very African sound - and I wish I had videod it so you could hear this one too!

Here is a shot of them a little farther away. You can see there were trinkets and batik for sale there and Elder Herbert didn't dare let me go on the other side to take a picture of them from the front! We still had a little ways to drive to our Bed and Breakfast where we were staying that night and he knew it would be hard to get me out of there very quickly!

Here are a few pictures we took at the B and B.  It was on the edge of a bay in the city of Knysna.  It is a city where the rich and beautiful gather to party and enjoy themselves.  We didn't really see any of them, but that is what we were told. 

They had this little pool that was as big as two hot tubs.  I didn't swim--we didn't really have time.  The other couples have said that it is okay for couples to swim in safe pools, but we played it straight by the rules. 

Our room was down the path on the left.  The patio gardens down here are always so lovely.  We had free run of the whole place and we even went to the fridge later in the evening and got some sodas and fruit to munch on in our room. 

After breakfast we set out to see the headlands where the water enters the bay.  Everyone had told us not to miss this wonderful sight.  Here are the pictures we took.

It was a fantastically beautiful day and the ocean was beautiful as always.

 People there told us that you can drive to the other side too and then hike down to the caves---not exactly our best thing.   But then they said you can get to the caves by an underground passaage way too.  Now that sounded interesting!  Time is always the roadblock to those exciting adventures---and probably a good thing!

As usual I'm talking or something when he snapped the picture.  We were watching that little sailboat way out there come in.

 Here's a close-up of the caves.

 I guess if you are rich enough, you can live on this hill with a view of it all.

Yes, we watched the little sailboat come in through the heads.

 Here's a picture of the whole bay.  Our B&B was on the far side right on the water.  I can't believe I have no pictures of that view - I guess I must have deleted them!  It was late evening when we arrived, but I thought we took more pictures the next morning.

Wherever you go, you can't get away from people trying to make a few dollars with their wares.  This young man had all these tiny animals made from beads and wire.  They were mostly sea horses and butterflies and dragonflies.  The little airplanes were made from pop cans and other tin cans.  We couldn't resist getting one  of those. It just breaks your heart not to buy more, but you have to resist because it happens all the time.

Can you see all those tiny things?  They really were very weird, but now, looking at the picture, I wish I had a few of them!

 The next city after Knysna is George--after King George!  We had to stop there and take one last look at the Indian Ocean. 

 I'm very glad we did because we got this picture of a sign on the beach that shows how very clean minded they are and unafraid to legislate morality.  They still have laws against obscene things in public.  I liked this because of the three languages too.  We see things like this often.  We should be grateful it doesn't show all eleven national languages of South Africa.  These are the three major languages - English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa.

I know strand means beach in Afrikaans, so this sign is in English and Afrikaans.  Fun, huh! No one down here thinks anything of having everything in lots of languages.  I expect you see this in Europe too.

We really took off as we left George, and drove like maniacs through the little Karoo to get home by dark.  We saw lots of ostrich farms and beautiful mountain scenes.  And we stopped for lunch at The Dung Beetle Restaurant---well, we were in the middle of the desert and it seemed appropriate at the time.  Although, looking back it was kind of a crazy thing to do!   The food was good though---that is a chicken salad and chips (fries) and yes, we had a coke - we weren't at all sure about drinking the water!

As the day wore one, we saw this for about half an hour - it was small at first and got bigger and brighter and then slowly faded.  We see these kinds of things through the clouds all the time down here.  I am always taking pictures of the sun streaming through the clouds.  We wonder if it has something to do with the climate or the curve of the earth, or what. . . .

We caught a nice little sunset as we were coming up on Worcester and the tunnel that goes through the mountain.  (And thank goodness for that, or we would probably have had to add another two hours to our trip!)

 

 And here it is!  I'm not sure what that sign with Boom! on it means----I'd really like to know!  Some of the members who come to Klein Drakenstein Branch live in Worcester and have to drive through this tunnel to
 get to church.  I'll try to remember to ask them.   Yes, Paarl is right on the other side of this tunnel!  Not too interesting inside - it is 4 kilometers long - about 2.4 miles.

And here we are coming out and the sun is still up on this side of the mountain.  We actually made it home just as it was getting dark.  Ahhhh. . . . what a trip!  What a memory.  How great it is to be back to our home away from home!!