The temple was fully closed for the last two weeks of March so this was a great time for Kirk and Sue to come visit! We had time off to take them around to enjoy South Africa! A day trip to Tala and PheZulu Village— just an hour away from our apartment—Incredible wildlife!! Sadly at […]
Over 200 sisters came together to celebrate the 182nd Relief Society birthday! Never seen such a joyous Relief Society party! Singing, laughing, clapping — the broadcast was loved by all and followed up with testimonies of about 20 sisters, all ages, new members, the stalwarts, single sisters, moms, the works! Such a spiritual feast!! Lots […]
Though the temple is closed, we are invited to come and put the luxury of extra time to good use: We helped Sister Patricia complete the inventory of all items in the temple laundry. We learned all about the TIS (Temple Information System), so we are more fully qualified to prepare schedules etc and serve […]
Pull out all the gardens and replant, repair to the fountain, repaint and repairs to the exterior due to damage from the ocean air, then the usual biannual temple cleaning and maintenance—we are sad to have our labors interrupted but have big plans to make good use of the 6 weeks’ time. Zoom in close […]
Joseph turned 8 years on March 8th and got baptized on the 9th. Such a sweetie boy! We miss him so much!! This is the sacrifice of going on a mission but thank heavens for ZOOM so we got to be there virtually and in spirit! Love this cute boy so much!! And so proud […]
We definitely timed our visit just right as when we returned a couple weeks later, there was only a few flowers left on the tree. It really wasn’t that beautiful anymore — physical beauty is such a fleeting thing! Durban Botanical Garden We’re definitely not in Dubai! Vishnu, our tour guide driving us around the […]
Our first excursion outside of Durban, the LoveLayNels headed off to explore South Africa. Two and a half hours drive north along the Indian Ocean from Umhlanga is St Lucia, a smaill , safe surf town on the Eastern coast of Kwa Zulu Natal. Hluhluwe is the oldest of South Africa’s game parks and we […]
We had 5 baptisms in the ward yesterday! Such a beautiful experience! The Gospel is really on fire here in South Africa. They feel the power and strength of the Book of Mormon to change their lives and bear witness. We helped with serving the dinner afterwards. One of the sisters that got baptized paid […]
Humor is very much a part of South African culture. While we like to think of these animals as not ugly, but more ‘cabbage patch”, the Ugly 5 is a thing: hyena, vulture, wildebeest, wart hog and marabou stork. We only saw 2 of the 5 on this game drive. A grand daddy wart hog […]
Cheetah sighting-There are two cheetahs in this picture, just chilling in the shade and not worried about us at all. We got lucky to see them. The success of every safari ride depends on your safari driver. Jabuloni was a good one! He said we got very lucky today seeing 8 white rhino, 2 cheetahs […]