SORRY I HAVEN'T WRITTEN ................

I BROKE MY HAND!?!?!?!?!?!?  

As the mother of Missionaries,
I've heard this story before.........BUT..........YEP, ITS TRUE! 

I tripped in the dark, fell and saved my face by putting my left hand down.  Another week and a half and I can go without the brace.

May 15-17   We taught Career Workshop  in the Employment Center to 6 participants.  3 of the participants were member of the Church and the 3 others now have more knowledge regarding the scriptures and our belief in Heavenly Father’s desire for them to be successful.  Hopefully they will continue their study of the Gospel.

May 17  We drove to Tzaneen in Limpopo Province. It is the Hawaii of South Africa.  Fantastic, except there is no ocean........

 This is a new take on "open range"There are no fences and I'm sure the herdsmen appreciate the work.....

Elder and Sister Edwin Smith are serving in Tzaneen, he is the Branch President.  They are from San Clarita California and Elder Smith served with Wes DaBell, my second cousin, in Switzerland as missionary companions back in 1965.  

We ate dinner with them that night after preparing for the Saturday Workshops.  The hamburgers were delicious and 6 young fulltime missionaries were also there.  They celebrated 3 birthdays. 

We then retired to the San Loo Country manor where we had a comfortable bed and delicious breakfast the next morning.











May 18  (Saturday)  We taught both Career Workshop (11 participants, taught by Sister DaBell) and Self Employment Workshop  (10 participants, taught by Elder DaBell)  We also had help from the District High Councilor / Employment Specialist, Ian Swanepoel.  The participants were from Modjadji Branch, Lenyenye Branch and Tzaneen Branch.



We enjoyed pizza for lunch.

Brother Swanepoel is on the back row in the red tie.

That evening the Swanepoel  family invited us to dinner:  a braii or as we would call it a barbecue.   A delicious dinner and good company.  The Swanepoel’s are Afrikaans and have lived in Tzaneen for 6 or 7 years.  He does consulting work in Johannesburg, but they are reluctant to move back to Joburg because Tzaneen is the “Hawaii of Africa” and they are also a big part of the local branch and the 4 children are having a great experience in Tzaneen schools including extracurricular activities including sports and music.  Brother Swanepoel serves on the District High Council, Employment Specialist and now as Branch Young Men President.  Sister Swanepoel serves as Branch Young Women President and does a great deal of the Branch Music. 


Bananas are covered on the edges of the field where the sun hits the most.  Inside the fields the bananas are not covered.  We also saw a lot of monkeys, but they were too fast to get a picture.  

The bananas have an electrical current passed through them to take care of snakes and big spiders.

May 19  We drove north to Modjadji and attended Modjadji Branch.  We were the Sacrament Meeting speakers and the Branch President has us take all the youth / YSA for the rest of the block after Sacrament meeting and teach them about making critical choices. 

This branch meets in a speed space....rented trailer type buildings.  Usually there are 4.  Many of our branches have "speed space" churches.  They still meet for three hours on Sundays, though.

 Cute children!!!

 Our youth group...we met three of them yesterday at our workshops
Elphas Ndhlovu, center in a leather jacket, who is going on a mission to Kenya, Silienta Maenetja, in the orange blouse, who is very seriously studying math and science and wants to be a doctor, and Jacob Marobela who plays guitar, sings and writes music and wants to be a professional musician.

This is the Branch President, President Sekhula

President Sekhula was particularly happy that we emphasized the importance of paying tithing. He laments that the missionaries were taken out of Modajadji and he says the attendance has declined dramatically in the last 6 months.  Self Reliance / Employment issues impact this small branch similar to many areas in South Africa.

Some of the areas reminded us of our home in Joburg.

As we left the San Loo, we looked up the lady who had taken care of our room.  We offered her a small amount of money for a tip.  She was soooo grateful, she knelt down and clasp her hands together saying something in a native tongue.  Walking out the door we could hear her exclamations.  The wages for labor are very, very low.

May 20  We returned to Johannesburg.  On the way, we met a man who was supervising the harvesting of “tea leaves” in the Tzaneen area and gave him a pass along card and a Book of Mormon.   His brother joined the church in Lenyenye in the past year and is now living in Johannesburg.  Hopefully our conversation and testimony will help him be motivated to read the Book of Mormon and follow in the footsteps of his brother.

May 21  We took part in a conference call with Brenda Smith and Joe Dorias from Church headquarters in Salt Lake City regarding LDSJobs.org.  This is a powerful tool and resource, but we are experiencing some unique issues to the international church that we encouraged them to deal with to make this more user friendly here in Africa.

May 23   Margaret fell nearly a week ago in Tzaneen and today Elder (Dr.) Hoffman advised her that her hand had sustained a broken bone and he advised putting her left hand / wrist in a “splint” for 3 weeks and trying not to use it.  As he said:  “if it were you or I it would not be a big deal, but Margaret is a pianist and extra care is warranted.  


We had a Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Cook and did role playing on how and what to teach members after baptism.  He encouraged us Senior Missionaries to volunteer to help the young missionaries with teaching after baptism lessons especially regarding Family History and temple work and the importance of marriage and family.  Elder and Sister Cook are very kind and are great leaders and great examples.  He serves as First Counselor in the Area Presidency and as of August 1, 2013 will be our direct Ecclesiastical Leader. After the Zone Conference we attended a temple session together as Senior Missionaries and then had a Soup and Salad buffet back at Duke Court.

May 24   Temple service is a high light of at least 2 Fridays a month.  We are learning to help patrons and make the temple experience special and spiritual.  Just being in the temple is special whether one is helping at the front desk, officiating in initiatory work, participating in sealings,  officiating in a session or helping in numerous other ways.  Elder and Sister Smith from Tzaneen were down to the temple, so we enjoyed going to dinner with  them and the Kraczeks who serve in Family History and came out in the same MTC group.

May 25  (Saturday)  We visited the Tshabala Family in Boksburg  at their “new to them house” where Sister DaBell taught their older 3 children piano.  

We then proceeded to the Centurion Stake Center where we taught two workshops on Effective Interviews and Excellent Resume’s.  Centurion Stake Relief Society had 7 different workshops for the sisters and we were pleased to be asked to help.  The workshops were on dealing with teenagers, anger management, aromatherapy, financial management, making greeting cards, and our workshop .   They had great refreshments and fellowship.  We assume there were likely 150 plus in attendance.  The Stake Relief Society Presidency were very gracious:  Sister Clark, Sister Torr, and Sister Marilyn.

Bishop DeVilliers

May 26  We left home at 6:40 am to be at Selcourt Ward in time to train the Ward Council at 7:30 am on Welfare / Self Reliance matters.  The new Bishop, Andrew DeVilliers, was very welcoming and the council took part in discussing  LDSJobs and the Needs and Resource Analysis form.  If a council works together, there is more power and inspiration in helping solve problems and encouraging poor and needy members.  

Elder Padoa, in the wheel chair serves as a service missionary in the family History Center in the area office.  Wonderful young man.  He has Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy.

We were speakers in Sacrament Meeting and then we taught youth and  YSA about making critical choices. 





In this ward are Brother and Sister Storrer,  Brother Storrer serves as the Stake Patriarch.  He was my brother, Ken's missionary companion here in the 1960's

Also in this ward are Brother and Sister Padoa.  Brother Padoa was a missionary companion to my brother, Roy in England in 1980 or so.

After the meeting block, the Stolps (he was released as Bishop 3 weeks ago) invited us to dinner.  We enjoyed a curry chicken dish on rice with a green salad and ice cream for dessert.    Sister Stolp’s father President Hugo is the Branch President of the YSA Branch in the Benoni Stake and former Benoni Stake President.   






The Stolp’s have started a Bio Diesel business and are selling their Springs Property and moving to Mozambique to launch this business within the month.  Their oldest son Curt is waiting for his mission call and their younger son in 3 years old.  We are meeting so many faithful members who are so welcoming!!

May 27   In Devotional today, Georges Bonnet, the Area DTA, told of his weekend trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Elder and Sister Renlund where they met Bishop Gary Stevenson, Presiding Bishop.  What an inspiration to be with the Presiding Bishop and Renlunds who have mastered the French language.  On Saturday afternoon almost 1200 young men  / young women showed up at the chapel to hear the Presiding Bishop and the Area President.  (such enthusiasm to be taught by priesthood leaders)