First Golf Outing

It is March the 22nd and as I promised my golfing friends back home I would arrange to play golf at the  Killarney Country Club once I got here. This is the club I played at 47 years ago. Last week we went down and negotiated on the prices so we could play golf at the club. The have graciously allowed us to play as members.  The early-bird tee times (7 AM - 8:30 AM) green fees for 9 holes is $13.00. We also worked out some prices to rent clubs which came to another $10.00. So for both Jenee and I it cost us $23.00 each to play 9 holes. Pretty pricey, but what fun to do!

The golf course has four tees settings.  Blue for the pros, Yellow for the young bucks, Red for those 65 and older and Pink for the Ladies.  Which do you think we played - right the RED for the guys and the PINK for the ladies.

We went out with our fellow missionaries Bob and Susan Bird and had a great time even though we have not played for (Jenee-QUITE) a while.  We hope to get out at least once a month if not twice depending on time and money. The weather is great even in the early mornings.

Here are a few pictures: shots from the first tee and the 4 of us.  It is a beautiful golf course all around.

First Trip to a Game Reserve

March 21st - today was a national holiday (Freedom Day) which meant that the Temple was closed.  When that is the case everybody tries to make the most of the opportunity to see South Africa.

Today two vans full of Temple Missionaries headed out at 5:30 AM for the Pilanesberg Game Park. There are three major game parks in South Africa: Kruger, Manekwe and Pilanesberg.  Pilanesberg is the smallest of the three and is about 2 hours northeast of Johannesburg. It also charges the least admission (20 Rand) so this park is frequented more than the others, especially on day trips like this.

We had fun and saw a lot of wildlife, but hope to return since we did not see everything we wanted, which is usually the case in game parks. We are hoping to visit Manekwe before our children come out so we can decide which park to take them too.

             

We drove through about 1/2 of the park looking for animals of every kind.  As the pictures indicate, taken from the van by Gail from as close as 5 feet, we saw a number of the African animals but did not see any lions or elephants on this trip - maybe next time.

After sight-seeing we went to a nearby resort/restaurant named Bakubung's for lunch.  This was a very nice buffet (all you can eat) which cost us 100 rand - about $13 each and it was worth every penny. After lunch we headed home, arriving at about 5:00 PM.  A great day all in all - with good friends.

Sis. Ashcroft, Jenee, the Birds, Elder Roger Smith, sisters(literally) Gerhke & Warnick, the Browns.

Centurion Stake Conference

March 18th we attended the Centurion Stake Conference.  The Stake President is President Chatoria who is also the Temple Recorder.  We drove to the conference with other temple missionaries and area office missionaries we knew.

The Centurion Stake is in Pretoria, an area that I served in the last part of my mission many years ago so I was hoping to see if I knew anybody.  The Stake Patriarch was Brother Comrie who retired as the temple recorder last year.  When I introduced myself he immediately remembered my name.  He and his family lived in Pretoria, in fact his father was the district President back then.

The stake conference was held at  university auditorium so that there would be enough seating for everybody.  It was wonderful to see so many saints there, the majority of them being black.  It delighted my heart to see so many there and the spirit of the meeting was wonderful, quite uplifting to say the least.  Jenee and I were both overly impressed with the youth speakers.  It is just amazing to listen to these young black saints speak as they do about the church and their conviction to its truthfulness.

The more I am here and see the progress that has taken place I an convinced that the Lord's kingdom has taken root in black South Africa and is progressing beyond the expectations by many - me being one.

To the AFRICAN Market

March 5th - Ever since we got here, everybody has been telling us about the African Market, a place where the locals sell their curios and such. So this morning we set out for a place called Hartbeesport. Hartbeesport is a vacation area that reminded me of The Lake of the Ozarks.  It is a large lake with beautiful homes surrounding it. Just before you get to the lake there are two shopping centers that they call the AFRICAN Market.

The first shop was quite small in comparison to the second one. In the second one (the place to shop) there were hundreds of merchants each with their 10 x 10 stall, selling curios of every kind.  The merchants were like Jerusalem, they were all over you wanting you to come into their space and take a look at  their goods. They would call us Elder & Sister because of our missionary name tags but you could tell that they had done this before.  There had to be hundreds of little separate shops throughout this place all having about the same items so you had to really look around to find the exact item you wanted.

You could go crazy buying things, but we have 18 months to look so we were not in a big hurry to start gathering curios by the lot.  We wanted a couple of things for our flat so we shopped around and found a few things and of course Jenee wanted to get something for the kids. Still, we limited ourselves this time around because we knew that before we go home we will visit this place many many times.

Of course the system is to negotiate down their prices since that are high to begin with.  Many of the Missionaries are uncomfortable or afraid to barter so I became the negotiator on most of the items purchased. Elder Smith said you could get 20 may 30 % off if you talked real hard.  WELL! that wasn't going to cut it for me so I went at it and in almost every case I got them down 50% or more on most of the items.  Jenee found some African decorated leather head bands for the granddaughters. The vendor was asking R85 or $12 each which would of totaled R1450 or about $195. After several minutes of bargaining and negotiating I ended up getting all eight for R250 or $33 about 80% off.

I helped several other missionaries negotiate on their items so all in all everybody saved.

                                           INSIDE THE "JUST AFRICA" SHOP

                                                        OUTSIDE THE SHOP

                         OUTSIDE "THE CHAMELEON MARKET" (150 MINI STALLS)

          We then went to the Jasmine Restaurant and market for lunch and a little grocery shopping
                                before returning home. This was located in the Big Windmill.

Assigned to our first LDS Ward

May 4th. Last week the Area Office assigned us to attend the Saulsville Ward in the Pretoria area.  We were assigned to join with Elder Don & Sister Leslie Peterson, our friends from years ago in Sandy, since they are serving as the Humanitarian Couple to the Area & have a car for traveling.  I was hoping that it might have been a ward in the city of Pretoria where maybe old friends might have been,  but it was in fact a small ward out in one of the compounds - an all black and very humble ward.

Disappointed - not in the least, this is where Jenee and I had hoped to be assigned and our dreams come true.  The pictures are worth a thousand words but you cannot get the sweet feeling that we felt being with the saints and experiencing their Sabbath with them. We will be attending church there until such time as we are reassigned.  It takes us about 45 minutes to get there but the drive is beautiful and peaceful - and we are with friends.

We were asked to bear our testimonies during Fast & Testimony Meeting which is always a delight to do.

The bldg (a little elementary school) has no decent piano, nor does the ward have any pianists, but the singing was out of this world.  They sang as angels with an African harmony that would bring tears to your eyes.  Hopefully I can talk to the Stake President about getting a Casio Recorder for this ward.  Jenee would like to teach piano and conducting for an hour after meetings if at all possible.   As for me, I am just soaking it all in and enjoying my associations with these African saints.

To see them conduct their meetings, teach classes and express their testimonies of the Savior, the Church, the Book of Mormon and past and present prophets is a miracle in the making that has been going on ever since the revelation on the Priesthood was announced in 1978.

There certainly has been a social transformation in South Africa since I was here 47 years ago but the most remarkable transformation has to  be the spiritual development among the African Saints, their growth and development to where they are today.  Miracles certainly have and are happening and Jenee and I are blessed to be playing a small part in that while here.

     Below, our dear Bishopric:  Bro. Maimone, Bishop Mossethedi, Bro. Simon ........

                                                     Below, the Chapel and Oveflow