KaNyamazane's First Missionary

     The small branch that Elder and Sister Moss help service, had the privilege of sending off their first missionary.  The whole branch was very excited for her.   "Samsa" is a convert who is the only member of her family.  Though her family aren't members, they were excited and supportive of her in her call to Ghana.

     The Kayamazane Branch is an all black branch.  They don't have much to do with, but they love to have fun and fully support anything their branch does.  Elder and Sister Moss invite us to their Branch functions, and we usually go along to help and support them by taking a dessert  item for their activities.

     After Samsa got her call, the couple who we replaced, who serviced both the Nelspruit and KaNyamazane Branches knew that her parents couldn't afford to get the things she needed  for her mission.  They talked with her and told her they would like to take her shopping for some clothes for her mission.  She was elated!!  She had never had that many new things all at one time in her life!

     A couple of weeks before her departure date, the Branch held a party for her.  It started in the afternoon with games while the men were getting the grills set up and ready for the "brai" (BBQ).
They cooked over sticks of wood, and one grill.

Many of the young people were playing a variety of games, all of which were accompanied by singing, clapping,  and laughing.  

They looked like they were having more fun than kids at Disneyland

Sister Moss had brought a bottle of bubbles.  The children were very fascinated with the bubbles.  They had never seen them before and would laugh and run and try to catch them and then come back and say. " Grandma, blow some more!"

In this game, each person went around the circle as they sang and when it was their turn, they had to put their leg over the other person's arm, until each person was finishsed.  As you can see, they were all having a ball!  Samsa, the missionary is the one in the pink shirt and hat next to the girl in orange.  Everyone joined in--young adults, teenagers, young children, boys, girls--everyone was just  laughing and having a great time.  The surprising thing was that no one fell down in that strange position!

Some of the ladies prepared the typical food of pap, beans, (pork and beans with a large dallop of mayo) and mixed together to look like a pink, runny, bean dish, a green salad, and bbq chicken, and sausage, and pork.

They served in styrfoam containers with the lid folded down to keep it warm and keep the flies off and served with no utensils.  ( They eat with their fingers)

Elder Baxter,  Missionary Samsa, and Sister Baxter

Ooops!  This sneaked in by mistake.  Those are real crocheted doilles fastened to a large tree outside a knitting, quilting and embroidery shop.

The following Tuesday, Samsa was to report to the airport to fly to Johannesburg to be set apart by the Mission President and then to fly out to Ghana to the MTC there.
All the roofs at the airport are typical thached roofs, and looking very South Africanish!

This is looking up toward the second floor.  The railing is made from bamboo poles.

We got a laugh out of this sample bag of skrink wrap!  With only the handle left unwrapped, the case looked like a days work to get through all the wrap to get to your bag.  Well, at least the contents would be safe.  (hopefully)

Samsa's proud parents.   They were a little sad and aprenhensive about her leaving. Her Mom also came to the Branch Social given for Samsa .  Her Mom took many pictures while she was there.

Samsa, in the gray dress, looked radiantly, beautiful, stepping to the counter to get her boarding pass.  Some of her friends came to support her and see her off.  She and her family have been so excited in anticipation for this moment.  We all said  our "good-byes", and she was off to start serving Our Savior.   She had to be set apart by the Mission President  in Johannesburg before flying to Ghana.  

Good luck Samsa!  You willl make a great missionary with your beautiful smile, your jovial personality, and your love of the gospel.  We will be praying for you.  We will also pray for your family that they will feel the Spirit of your letters and the things that  you are teaching, and will want the missionaries in our area to teach them so they can be baptized as well. 

We love you! 

   

We love the spirit of missionary work!

Helping Hands

     In the Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter Day Saints, there is a volunteer service arm of the Church known as Helping Hands.  Several weeks ago, one of our young missionaries, Elder Baker, had been teaching a fellow who taught at  The Kamagugu Inclusive School which is a school for handicapped children.  In talking with him, Elder Baker discovered the school was in need of grass planted in an area which was to be used as a calming area for austic children when they become over stimulated in the classroom.  The school is situated on a very large piece of ground, some of which is in playground.  There are many mature trees in some of the outer areas, but it has not actually been landscaped to be thoroughly useable.  Elder Baker thought this would be a good service project for him and his companion and the Branch.  It was scheduled to happen during the middle part of October.  In as much as October had much rain, the days prior to the planting were extremely wet and the Principal called off the project.  It was rescheduled for November 11.

     Everyone checked the weather and it was  determined that this would be a good day to be able to carry out the project.  Branch members were reminded to be at the church at 9:00 ready to go to work.  We met, passed out the "Helping Hand" vests, had a prayer, and loaded up the cars to drive to Kamagugu, a small area about 15 minutes from the Church.

     We met with the Principal and he expressed his gratefulness to us for being willing to come and help plant grass in this area.  The Elders unloaded two very large gunny sac type bags of grass plugs, and with our tools in hand, we walked up the path to the area for the planting.  I have never seen "grass plugs".  They are long root like things with 3-4 shoots of coarse grass coming up on top.  The plant reminded me of a strawberry plant which has a long crawling root system, with little shoots coming up every so often.  We would dig a trench and lay the long root in the trench, then cover it up with soil.  The soil was very fertile and because of all the recent moisture, it was very easy to work with.  The difficult part was bending over or kneeling on the ground and then standing up and moving to another area. Even though we were in a shaded area, it was very hot, and got even hotter as the morning went on.  As we moved to a lower area without trees, the ground was harder and more difficult to dig in.  The sun was becoming hotter because there were no leaves to shade us.

     There were about 25 branch members in all,  helping.  It actually went very fast as we worked in teams, one digging, the other putting in the plugs and covering them over.  Like my Mother always said, "Many hands make light work!"  Three and half  hours later, the last sac was emptied with only a small pile of plugs left to be put in.  The Relief Society President had brought "viennas" - hot dogs, and juice for a snack.  I added home made snickerdoodles and ice water to add a sweet touch to the day.  They had never tasted snickerdoodles before and thought they were "wonderful" and "rather moorish", whatever that means.

     The principal came out to inspect the work and was exceedingly happy.  He said, "You may think this is not a big thing, but to us it is huge.  By January when the students come back from break, it will be all filled in and it will be heaven for those little austic children who just need a calming place to go so they will  be able to work again in the classroom"

     Though our knees were sore from kneeling, and our backs aching from the stooping and bending,  and our faces dripping with sweat from the heat, we were happy to have been of service to the school.  We were grateful for the opportunity to serve.

Elder Baker, who spearheaded the project, and Elder Brinkerhoff surveying the area for planting.

Principal  Erasmus giving us an appreciation talk and instructions of what he wanted us to do. 

The early group of workers.  Several more came a little later.

Getting started putting the plugs into the ground.

Have plugs, will plant!

Time to cool off with a cold drink and a snack.

Team work!   Bottoms up!

Proud of a job well done!  Good work Elders!  

Security guard, Penny, in the background.  They even have a security guard there on Saturday.

Babies, Blankets, and Burps

     As I was visiting with one of our sisters in the Branch at church a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that her daughter had had a new baby.  Exciting!  Well sort of... Her daughter wasn't married.  It was a blow to her parents.  They have only been members for about a year.

     They have been having financial difficulties as her husband is trying to start his own business of a chicken and vegetable farm.  In the process of trying to get a government loan processed to get the business started, he hadn't been working at a regular job.  Needless to say, they didn't have an excess of funds.  In fact, none at all.

     They, as well as many other people here, don't have their own cars, and depend on transports to get them to where they need to go.  This is good, unless you don't have money for a transport.  Consequently, we have stopped on several occassions to give them a ride to church.  Our Branch boundries are very spread out and many have to travel up to 1 1/2 to 2 hours to go to church.  Even though they only live about 15 minutes from the church, it is too far to walk, so without transportation, they have to stay home.

     In thinking about this family, with the Mom trying to pack to move and the expenses involved in a move to a town about an hour away, I started to wonder what, if any things this young girl (19) had for her new baby.  I started thinking about all the pieces of flannel that I have in my cupboard at home, some of which were already hemstitched,  just waiting for crocheting around them, and none of which were here with me to make up.  I remembered that Sister Moss had a machine in her flat that the mission had bought for the Nelspruit and KaNyamazane Branches to use, and thought,  "I could make up a blanket set and just sew it--forget the crochet.  Besides, she needs that blanket now."

     So, the following Saturday, Sister Moss, Sister Omer, and I headed for a wonderful store that has all kinds of home items, fabric, sports, etc.  It is a kind of a  "something for everyone" kind of store.  I found a piece of flannel, (not a real big selection of flannel) that I thought might be cute.  It was the end of the roll and was marked down.  Even better!  Because they measure in metrics, I wasn't sure just how much I would need, so I took what was left on the roll.

     The day after delivering the  Halloween cookies, I got out the fabric and started measuring.  I cut a pattern for a burp cloth out of newspaper, and starting pinning and cutting.  I had borrowed the sewing machine from Sister Moss and started sewing.  As I was pressing the seams of the blanket and 2 burp cloths, I started thinking about the spare fabric left over.  Once again, I started measuring, pinning and cutting.  I decided another small blanket and burp, even though it was out of the same fabric, would be better put to use than storing it in the bag in the  cupboard.  So I went back to the machine once again.

     Once they were finished and ready to be delivered, I thought about the family needing some food while they were unpacking their boxes and trying to get settled in.  I threw some chicken in the pot for Chicken Salad, stirred up some cookies, and stopped at the store for croissants and chips to go with it.  One more stop at the baby store for a few more needed items, afterwhich we headed to Kamagugu to make our delivery.

     The family was extremely delighted for the meal, as they stood there amidst the array of boxes.  The young girl  was totally thrilled and amazed that I had made the gift.  (Most of these people don't  have or know how to use a sewing machine).  What a fun surprise for her, and an even more fun thing for me to be able to bring some happy moments to this family who has been struggling this past while.  And most importantly, for this family to realize what a blessing it is to be a member of a church that truly loves and cares about it's members.

The finished product.

Not bad for a morning's work,  even if it wasn't crocheted.                                                  

The happy new mom and her sweet daughter!

     Such are the blessings of being a missionary!

Yes, "Sweet is the work gospel brings"!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be serving in the South Africa Mission.  

Halloween Cookies and Surprises

       With only two days left before Halloween, I knew I had to get busy if I was going to get my  traditional Halloween cookies made.  I made a recipe and a half so I would have enough to take to some of the Branch members and neighbors.  After I got the dough made, I put it in the fridge because it rolls better if it is chilled.  The next day after our busies of visits and errands, I got started rolling and cutting my cookies.  Of course I didn't have my usual pumpkin cutter, but an empty tuna can worked fine for round circles.  And when some of the circles don't turn out very good, especially when you're picking them up to put on the pan, they kind of look like those misshapen pumpkins that you find in the garden.

     With much rolling, cutting and baking, I scraped the last of the dough from the bowl.  As I removed the last of the cookies from the pan, I counted my neat stacks of six each.  The total was eight dozen and eight cookies.  I placed them neatly in the plastic containers to await the frosting and decorating the next day.

     Making the frosting was easy--cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and flavoring--but trying to get the color orange was another chore.  I couldn't find plain orange, so I bought red and yellow.  I thought that would be easy enough, but not so.  A litle red, a little yellow, a little red, a little yellow, mix, mix.  Yuck!! what a sick looking orange, not the vibrant orange that I was hoping for.  :(  Oh, well when they get decorated, maybe they won't look too bad.  Wrong, they still looked sick.  So back to the droppers of color.  It still wasn't what I wanted, but I decided it would have to do.  Time was running out.

     I was feeling sad that I didn't have any corn candies to put on them for the lit up eyes, but, oh well, they were happy faces none the less.  Then SURPRISE!  Lynn came in the door with a package.  WOW! Jeanette had sent a package of Halloween surprises and it had arrived on Halloween!  I opened the package and what do you know?  CORN CANDIES!  What a difference they made on my drab, orange cookies.  It really perked the cookies up and made them happy that it was Halloween.  Thanks Jeanette for thinking of us!  And thanks for the card, (which made me get all teary) and for the fun Halloween decorations and other candies!!  It just made my day!!  I was feeling a little lonely anyway, thinking that the kids would be in their cute costumes, and coming to Grammy' and Grandpa's house and we weren't there.

     Though we weren't there for the traditional Halloween, we still had a fun evening as we tooks plates of jack-o-lantern cookies to neighbors and branch members who didn't know about Halloween.  The kids faces lit up when they saw the cookies and really smiled when we told them our kids dress up in costumes and go to houses and say trick-or-treat and people actually give them treats!   We finished off the evening with the Elders coming over for plates of cookies of their very own.  It may be South Africa, but we still had Halloween!!

Thanks Jeanette for all these fun Halloween surprises.  It really made our day!! 

 We felt as happy as that smiling jack-o-lantern!

Plates of cookies just waiting to be delivered.

The only thing I had for my Halloween costume was my gummy Frankenstein teeth!

Mr Jack-o-lantern helped me say, "HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Thanks Jeanette, for the corn candies. 

 It made these happpy little fellows come alive!

     I was also feeling sad that they wouldn't have the traditional Halloween Sloppy Joes after Trick or Treat.  Then I found out that Cristee and Crystal arranged for that so that it would still feel like Grammy's house.  Suz's family and friends came down as usual, WE  just were't there.

Thanks kids for still keeping with tradition so all the little goblins could feel like Grammy and Grandpa weren't so far away!

A Week of Endless Busies

Thanks for the little posts of the things that the kids are doing.  It makes me be homesick for everyone.  We get busy and involved in the work and this feels like home,  but then we see pics of the kids, and the snow, and we know we're not there.  We're not missing the snow, however.  It was 71 today, but that is chilly for here.  We've had quite a bit of rain the past week, but then it's spring here and the rainy season, so that's to be expected.  When it rains, the temps drop considerably!  The other day it was sweltering, then we had terrific thunder and lightening storms that night, and the next day I was wearing a sweater and knee highs!   But we're definitely not missing the snow!  We did miss the beautiful fall.  The pictures that we saw were spectacular this year!  I'm missing all my Halloween decorations as well.  The only thing Halloween I have is some gummy red and white Frankenstein teeth, and I've eaten most of them.   I haven't had time to make my Jack o lantern cookies.  That's on my schedule for the first part of the week.  I'm running out of time!  Please post pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes.  They don't celebrate Halloween here, however I did see some costumes in a store the other day.  Nor do they celebrate Thanksgiving.  Well, of course, that's an American holiday, but I've already been planning our dinner.  There will be the other Sr. couple, their 3 family members who are coming for a visit in a few weeks, the two sets of Elders, and probably a prospective missionary member from our Branch.  They are starting to get Christmas trees and decorations up in several of the stores.  We may break down and buy a tree since we will be here for two Christmas's.  I hate to think of that, because that sounds like forever, but the time is really going quickly.  We have been out almost 2 months already!

Our last two weeks have really been busy lately with visits, and seeing about the Church and all the things that have had to be done since the break-in, plus getting ready for Mission Conference with Elder Holland.

 We made another visit to the McCarthy's.  Her husband is 2nd Counselor in the Branch Presidency, but hasn't been to church since we've been here.  His wife is the 2nd counselor in the Primary.  She's the one who had the Agina attack.  The Branch Presidency decided to hold their meeting at his house, because his excuse for not being there was that he needed to stay with his wife. I had called to check on her, but no one had been there to bring in a meal or anything.  I made cinnamon rolls for the meeting, and for their family.  She was grateful, but felt quilty that she didn't know  we were  coming.  She said when I hugged her frail body, "I may have to take you up on your offer to help with the ironing.  I just can't keep up with everything."  We visited in the kitchen while the men were holding their meeting.  Her ironing board was set up, so I ironed while we visited.  She actually needs a heart valve replacement, but they won't discuss it with her because they don't have insurance.  With the faulty valve, she does a little and gets very tired and has trouble breathing.  Her visiting teacher lives up the road, but rides her bike to and from work and it is dark when she gets home, so has just called her, but hasn't been over to see her.  They live off the beaten path, up a dirt road filled with gullies, then thru a locked gate, and winds in and around an avacado orchard and thru another gate with 3 big dogs waiting for you as you enter.   I definitely wouldn't come after dark either.  I get nervous with Lynn driving when we go to see them and it's day light.  She was embarrassed for me to do her ironing, but I was grateful for something to do rather than just sit!  I was able to get most of it done with the exception of a few shirts and a pair of pants.

Since the break-in we have been after the owners to fulfill the agreement made 5 months ago about putting in a security system as agreed to when they raised the rent.   They finally came and put the burglar bars on all the windows and painted the bars white to match the curtains on the windows.  We took the curtains down and took them home to wash them.  (They were horrid!)  You could just feel the grime on them when you held them.  We brought  them back and got them rehung.  Before we did, we had to scrape off the paint drippings under the bars and wash the windows.  They did look nice after we got them done.

Because we had trouble with the video/audio problems on Sunday, Lynn did another practice test with the Area Technical person.  We were at the Church nearly all day Monday - 5 hours.  I don't know when I've seen Lynn so frustrated.  No matter what he did, it still kept coming up "no signal" on the screen.  The picture would come up on the computer, but would not project it onto the screen.  He went to get 2 different cords, neither of which did any good.  He was very frustrated by this time, because it was time to start the practice run with the Area Office, and it still wasn't working.  Elder Howes called and together, they were able to finally get a picture projected onto the screen.  Hooray!!  Just keeping our fingers crossed that it will work on Thursday for the webcast of the Missionary Conference.

We felt badly that we weren't able to be in Johannesburg for the conference, but very grateful that we were able to have things working so we would see and hear the proceedings.  I knew that when it was over at 5:30 pm,  the Elders would be be hungry and still had appointments to go to. So in order to make it feel like the special meeting that it was, I decided to have a light dinner afterward.  I made chicken noodle soup, and made two pans of cinnamon rolls to bake the next day.  Sister Moss bought hard rolls to go with it.  We had the soup in the crock pot and everything set up to eat after  it was over.

(Finally continuing 5 days later.  I started falling asleep)  (Now Sunday night)

Wednesday, we felt like we needed to "take 5" after the turmoil of yesterday and trying to get web cast set up.  We didn't have any visits scheduled  because of all the busies of the upcoming conference, so we decided to take the Moss's and go to the Penryn College Christmas Market just to see whet they had, and to scope it out to see if it might be some place we could take President Omer's wife while he was doing training and interviews.  It was very interesting.  It is an annual fundraising that the school does every year.  It isn't really a collge by our terms.  It's a private school for preschool to 12th grade.  They had many home made items from crafts, clothes, jewelry, food, etc.    We decided it would be somewhere that Sister Omer would like to go.  It was another drizzly, COOL, day, and since it was in a large barn-like structure, we were ready to go somewhere warm after a bit.  Besides I needed to get home to work on the cinnamon rolls.

Thursday, I made the chicken noodle soup and baked the 2 pans of cinnamon rolls that I had put in the fridge the night before.  We loaded up the car and headed for the church to get things set up for the webcast.  By the time Sister Moss and I had the crock pot plugged in and the food set up, Elder Baxter had the equipment set up and going.  Hooray!!  Prayers answered again.  It was a wonderful broadcast!!  We were just sorry we weren't there in person to shake Elder Holland's hand, but very grateful that the equipment worked so that we could see and hear it.

The soup and rolls were a hit.  We had also invited prospective missionaries from the KaNyamazane Branch as well as ours.  Because the paper or plastic bowels here are so small -- only large enough to hold 2 scoops of ice cream, Lynn bought small containers with lids with the plan to use the lid as a saucer and the bowl for the soup.  It worked great!  When everyone got through and the Elders needed to leave for appointments, they filled their bowls again, put the lids on and had their own take away container.  There was not a sniff of soup left in the extra large crock pot which was filled to the brim.  Not a bad idea.  I may have to incorporate that idea in the next family dinner we have, then I wouldn't have to lose all my plastic containers for take homes.  haha

Friday morning we had district meeting which was very good.  The district leader always does such a great job of teaching! I'm always so amazed at how proficient they are with their knowledge of the gospel and their ability to conduct classes and discussions that are uplifting to everyone.

When we finished with the meeting, Lynn and I vacuumed and dusted the church so it would be ready for the President to do his training and interviews the next morning.  We finished and stopped to buy more electricity so we wouldn't run out for the weekend, then home for some quick lunce before a fast run to get groceries.  ( I hadn't had time to do it earlier this week.)  There were some things I needed for the chicken spread for the next day.

South Africa is interesting--They have tons of everything except the things that you need that you're used to using when you make things in the States.  Celery--how strange is celery?  We had to go to 2 different stores for that.  Miracle Whip and Mayo--No such thing over here, at least not what we're used to using.  We went to three stores and finallyl ended up with something that I hoped would work.  Croissants - one package of  8 was all we could find, so to another store.  None there, but they would special order and have them ready by 8:00 the next morning.  Wonderful!!  Now home to get the chicken spread made before it was time to go to dinner with the President and Sister Omer.  They were to arrive around 6:00 and wanted to go over what appointments were lined up for the next day.

I had cooked the chicken before we left for District meeting, so I just started cutting up everything to go in it.  When I opened the jar of Salad Dressing and tasted it before I ploped a large scoop into the chicken, frustration started in again!  It tasted almost rancid or like something that had been sitting out in the sun all afternoon.  Now what should I do?  Lynn offered to go see what he could find.  It was 5:00, we had already been to about 3 other stores, we had a dinner date in about an hour, but if he was willing to go, I told him to have at it.  I continued to cut up the grapes and stir things together.  The President called said they were checked in at the hotel and wondered if we had decided where we wanted to go eat.  I told him I'd check with the Moss's and get back with him.  After a phone call to them, I hurridly changed clothes and prayed that Lynn would be here soon, as we were to meet the President at 6:30 at the restaurant.  At 6:15, Lynn walked in the door with 4 jars of " Whip - Sandwich Spread" with hopes that one of them would work.  At least they were more white looking than yellow, like the one that we bought earlier.  We walked to the Moss's and got on our way.

After a nice  dinner with President and Sister Omer, we returned home to finish the chicken spread and make the carmelitas.  And, yes, the white Sandwich Spread did taste more like Miracle Whip and worked fine.  The chicken spread tasted like it usually does.  We did up the dishes and went to bed so we could function the next morning.

I was up at 5:45, showered and got ready, made breakfast and Lynn was off to pick up the croissants at the bakery.  I cut the watermelon and finished just as he came in the door with the croissants. They were still warm, and twice the size of the ones that we had bought yesterday.  I don't know if I've ever seen 7 inch croissants!  Oh, well, that's only half as many to spread.  I had ordered two dozen and had just enough spread for that many rolls.   (Pretty good judging! haha)  Lynn left for his training with the President, and Sister Moss and I spread the croissants, cleaned up the dishes and loaded the car.

We got everything all set up buffet style, for lunch whenever anyone was finished and ready to to eat.  We refrigerated the rolls and fruit and Lynn set them out when they were ready for them --  Chicken salad croissants, chips, watermelon, canteloupe, honey dew melon, carmelitas and ice water.  At that point, Sister Moss, Sister Omer and I headed out for a few hours of ladies free time of random shopping - something we felt we had earned!  Sister Omer truly enjoyed the "time off".  She had had 18 missionaries at the Mission Home while they were there for the conference as well as 2 senior couples.  Just cooking for that crew would be enough to make you want to run away!  We had a truly enjoyable morning!

So, if you're feeling badly that I hadn't answered your emails this past week, now you know why.  This has been somewhat typical of the kind of weeks that we've had lately.  But we're enjoying it and glad that we have enough to keep us busy.  Though we haven't been able to spend as much time with the members as we would have liked, we have been definitely  been spiritiually fed and grateful to be able to be a part of this great work!

We love you all and miss you and love to hear about what's going on in your lives.  We love to see pictures of the kids, since we went off without ours.  So anything you can do about that would be great!  We would love to skype with you if you have skype set up. But it would have to be morning your time, since we are  9 hours ahead of you, otherwise, it is 11:00 p.m. or later our time.  Take care.  Thanks for all your prayers in our behalf.  Please know you are always in our prayers as well!  

Latest Happenings - October

This is the Baptismal font at our church.  It looks rather like a large bowl.  There is a large cover that stays on it when not in use.  When we have a baptism, they remove the cover, clean out the sediment, add some disinfectant to the water and turn on the heater, that you see sitting along the side.  There's barely room for two grown men to be in there.

This is Brother Elvis and his stwo children, Hope and Chase, prior to his baptism.  His wife didn't come.  She later told the missionaries, "He didn't invite me."  However, she didn't come the next week to his confirmation.  He is thrilled to be a member of the Church.

Elder Baker, from Idaho Falls, Elvis, and Elder Brinkerhoff, from Riverton, UT and England, prior to the baptism.  It was a very special day for each of them.  Elder Brinkerhoff came just a couple of weeks before we did.  He's been very quiet and shy, but is starting to talk a little.

"Oh what do you do in the summer time, when all the world is green?"  "Do you march in parades, and drink lemonades " ...and plant flowers of course!  When we were in the hardware store the other day, there, amid the poinsettias, were beautiful gerber daisies just crying for a good home.  I must admit, I've never selected daisies at the same time I could choose  Poinsettias, but I guess that's what happens when you live on the other side of the world!  Just couldn't resist bringing some home!

I've never had a begonnia before, but this one was exceptionally pretty and I thought the color would be a nice contrast to the pink shades of daisies that I chose.

This one is actually more of a deep maroon that a red that it shows in the picture, but beautiful, none the less.  There are also two buds on it as well.  They really brighten up my patio, and it is so fun just to open the sliding door from the living room to step out to water them.  I just wish I had more time to sit on the patio and enjoy their beauty.  Strange, I had the problem at home as well! 

Thanks Karrisyn and Kaibrienne for making these beautiful pictures for us.  I packed them carefully, and as we got settled in our flat, I hung them on the side of the fridge so we can see them every time we walk into the kitchen.  You are such great artists!  I think of you each time I look at them!