The Animals  

Within a couple days of our arrival, Paul and Jinny Graf took us to the Krugersdorp Game Preserve. We got to see some amazing animals in the in their natural habitat.

This big lioness was about 5 feet from the car.  She had just finished eating and was heading to the shade under a big tree.


























We rounded a turn in the road and here were a group of ostriches just sunning themselves.


















This is a black wildebeast.  You can tell by their lighter tail.  The blue wildebeast has a black tail and some stripes up by their shoulders.




















We love seeing the Zebras.   Over here they are called "Zeb-bras" not "Zee-bras".

We got to this area in Krugersdorp and there were so many different animals all together.


The animals are truly an incredible part of the Africa experience and we cannot get enough of them!!

Our New Home  

Upon our arrival in Johannesburg (Joburg for short) my boss, Bryan Jackson and his wife Tina met us at the airport and took us to a dinner where all of the missionary couples were at one of the missionary's apartments.  We met a lot of people that night but it will take a long time to remember all of their names.

Then it was off to our new home, Flat 310 in the Glen Eagles Building.  It is a very nice apartment, and we feel very blessed to get to enjoy all these conveniences! The picture of our kitchen makes it look a lot bigger than it really is. Our frig, oven, washing machine and dryer are really quite small. But we are very thankful for each of those appliances no matter what their size! There are no screens on any windows here. Up keep on apartments here is a little different than in the states.  For example, we have one window that is broken and you can put your hand right though the missing glass. We hope that might get fixed before winter arrives!  All the other missionaries assigned to the area offices and the Temple reside in Duke's Court except for us.  Luckily it is very close.

The Living Room and Dining Room

We have a TV,  DVD, Internet Service and a Local Telephone.  It is furnished and we have a view of a large jackaranda tree out our dining room windows.

Our kitchen

The Kitchen is at an angle with a small pantry closet at the end.  The refrigerator is about 10 cubic feet and so Sherry will not be able to stock up as much as she normally likes to do.

 

The Master Bath

The Master Bath has a 6' diameter tub with a  rainfall shower head but no shower curtain or  rod. Showering is quite an experience! You have to mop up the floor after every  shower. They do not allow any electrical outlets  in the bathrooms so we have to run an extension cord in from the bedroom for Sherry's curlers, etc.

Finally in Africa    

We departed Salt Lake City and flew to Atlanta which was about a 3 1/2 hour flight.  In Atlanta we met Elder Jacobs from South Africa who was returning home from his mission in the United States (Texas).  Ironically his father works at the Area offices.  We also met a number of LDS members who were headed to Africa for a short term humanitarian project.  When you are traveling in missionary attire with your name tags on it is easy for people to identify you. 

We boarded the Delta flight for the 16 plus hour non-stop flight to Johannesburg.  Lynn watched a movie and tried to rest as much as he could, but the seats were not very comfortable or spacious. Sherry was not very successful resting and managed to work on some of her nursing continuing education courses to pass the time away. All in all, we are happy to say we managed quite well.  We truly felt many prayers were answered in Lynn's behalf. This trip would have been impossible to manage in October when we were initially scheduled to depart on our mission.

Knowing Lynn's lifting restrictions from his back injury, we were concerned about how we were going to manage getting our luggage off the baggage carousel and then dragging them through immigration/passport control and then through customs by ourselves (as we had 5 large 50 lb suitcases as well as our two carry-ons).  Lynn and his brother Keith devised a system so they could strap all of the suitcases together and they would roll on their own wheels.  Needless to say, a lot of people stopped and watched in amazement as Sherry was able to easily handle over 300 lbs of luggage by herself.  We recorded it so everyone could see her with her Luggage Train. The skycaps were especially fascinated and cheered us on!

OGC Training and On to Africa

Church Headquarters in SLC

After finishing our missionary training at the Provo MTC we went to Salt Lake City for three days of intense legal Training conducted by the Office of General Counsel -International.  There were 7 missionary couples there for the OGC training. Three were going to South Africa, one to Russia, one to Australia, one to the Dominican Republic,  and one to Chile.  It sometimes felt like we were drinking from a fire hose because there was so much information to cover.  However, it is amazing how much we were able to absorb and would end up needing to use.

It was a real eye opener to see all of the work that is taking place all over the world.  The Church is growing so rapidly in so many areas. As a result, more attorneys are needed to work with foreign governments to gain recognition for the Church to allow it to officially function, teach, and build facilities, etc.  It is really exciting to be involved in so much dynamic activity.   Even if we are not the ones out preaching each day, we are helping to facilitate the missionary work moving forward.

The giant wall map of the world where missionaries often pose.

Here we are posing in front of the large world map pointing to Johannesburg, South Africa.  It has taken months to get to this point but now we will be there in a few short days and a long plane ride. A 4 hour flight to Atlanta and then a 16 hour flight to Johannesburg or Joburg, as it is more commonly called.

We are really getting excited to get there and get to work!





While in Salt Lake, we were able to stop and see our dear friends Chris and Erlynn Lansing where Chris is serving as the Mission President in the Salt Lake City South Mission.  We had a wonderful visit with them and they are doing an incredible job working with 150 plus young missionaries from all over the world.  They are in a beautiful new mission home where Erlynn's touches are evident. Truly they make a wonderful team and we know they are touching the hearts and lives of so many missionaries as they serve the Lord.

Arriving at the 

The MTC -The Fun Begins

Finally on January 8th, we entered the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC).  We arrived at 6:40 PM on Sunday evening.  At the reception desk, we were told we could go to our room and get settled in or we could leave our suitcases at the front desk and go to Building 19 for a Devotional. Who would want to miss out on a devotional? We went to the Devotional and it was super.  They reserved a section down in the front area for the senior missionary couples. They truly treat the senior couples nicely.  The speaker that night was the head of all missionary training for the Church. He showed pictures of the 15 MTC's around the world. We had no idea there were so many or how large some of them are.

After the Devotional we went to our room and got settled in.

Our Home Away From Home

After some in-processing the next morning we started with some group training.  We then had group pictures and were assigned to different Districts for classroom training.  The Trainers are young 21-22 year old return missionaries.  The training was all centered on Christ, the Doctrine of Christ and bringing people unto Christ.  It was amazing how much these young people had learned on their missions and how effective they were as instructors.  You really grew to love them quickly. Our district was one of two larger districts. We actually felt very fortunate to be in the district we were in as it enabled us to get to know more missionaries and learn from our interactions with them. They were each great!




There were 1200 missionaries at the MTC when we were there.  Of those, 99 were senior missionaries.  48 couples and three single sisters.  It was amazing to us to learn how many of the couples were on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or more missions.  It was also amazing how they were able to feed that many people so quickly at meal times.  The entire organization of the MTC is truly remarkable.

Our District and Two of our Trainers

Sister Richens
Brother Zufelt

Elder & Sister Mower  (St Louis, MO)
Elder & Sister Pike  (Hawaii)
Elder & Sister Horsely  (Canada)
Elder & Sister Wall  (Hawaii)
Elder & Sister Smith  (Baton Rouge, LA)
Elder & Sister Mathews  (Alpine German)
Elder & Sister Savage  (New Zealand)
Elder & Sister Whyte  (Johannesburg, SA)