Blessings in Reverse

As we resumed our hectic schedule into the New  Year, we have been busy phoning and texting to set  up appointments with all our families.  Besides the ones we visit, we always try to go down the list and visit some of the families we haven't visited or met yet.  In our concern for those who we haven't met and consequently don't come out, I feel we sometimes overlook those faithful members who are consistantly there and would love a visit from the missionaries, but seldom get one because they are always so on top of things.  Such was the experience yesterday!

Jennifer is a very faithful member.  She has been a member since 2008.  She is always at Church and is usually one of the first ones there, even though she is one who lives a great distance from the church and has to rely on public transportation to get to Church.  She has asked me when we were going to come visit her.  I told her we were setting up appointments and would get back with her.  There is another fairly new member who lives near the same area where Jennifer  lives, so we were trying to set up a visit with both of them the same day.  We thought we had arranged a workable day and time, and then Thundiwe called and said she couldn't make it.  We told her we'd reschedule for a day next week, and went ahead with our plans to still see Jennifer.

Jennifer lives near a town called Hazyview which is over an hour from us.  We didn't really know how to get to her house, but we thought we'd go to the town and have her give us directions to her house when we got close to the area.  After having called her and getting directions, she also told us that she would come to the main road and meet us.  We didn't see her at the appointed time and place, so, thinking that we had taken the wrong road, we thought we would explore another area.  Of course, we were wrong.  She called us and redirected us.  We did find her this time, waiting at the side of the road for us.  She has no car.  We stopped and picked her up and she guided us down a very rutted, hilly, dirt road.  We finally made it to her place.

She was very glad to see us and grateful that we came to visit her.  Her house was a fairly new one on stilts with wood siding and a long stair case that led up to her house.  The stilts were to keep the snakes away from the house.  However, she did say that they had a green mamba get into their house shortly after they moved in.  Her house was very simple but neat and clean.  We found out that she was divorced.  He is a teacher but has a drinking problem and they hadn't been together for several years.   She worked when she could find a job and was looking for a work at the present time.  Her older daughter had bought a piece of land and they had a company erect a temporary house, similar to a mountain cabin, until they could actually get another house built.  As we visited, we discovered that  she had no electricity, or running water, or sewer in her house.  But they did have  several large tubs outside to collect the rainwater.  We never did find out what they used for bathroom facilities.  We were so humbled by her circumstances.  I don't know how she cooked because there wasn't even a wood burning stove there.  Just thinking about how she prepared a meal or got ready to go anywhere was totally amazing! She always looks very clean and tidy when we see her.

We learned later that she does her cooking on a propane stove under her house and when she runs out of propane, she cooks in the brick fireplace at the back of her house.  The large green tank by the fireplace is a water  holding tank.  This is a good lesson that we should never complain about what we don't have!!

We learned that last year before she moved to this house, she lived even farther away from the church.  She would take a transport over to Lidenburg to President Sigauke's flat and spend the night there;  get ready for church and come with him and his family to church.   Afterward, she would go back to his home and Monday morning catch a transport back to her house.  Even when we did the "Helping Hands" Project on a Saturday morning, she made the trip down and was there to help.  She is one of the first ones to Church on Sunday, and is always there to support anything that is going on.  She teaches Seminary to her son,  and said she would try to be to the training for Seminary teachers on Saturday.  She has such a strong testimony!  She saves a few coins here and there so she can make the trip to Johannesburg a couple of times a year to go to the temple.  She is a wonderful example of a true  deciple of Christ!  She would do anything or give whatever she has to be able to serve her Heavenly Father and support the Branch.

She thanked us over and over for coming to see her.  She said she doesn't have Home Teachers because they say it is too far to come.  We left the First Presidency Message and also the Visiting Teaching message, even though she had done her teaching and had given the message to her sisters. Yes, an hour and a half is a bit far, but she still deserves a visit like everyone else.  We felt very grateful for having had the privilege of being in her home and feeling the spirit that was there.  It was definitely worth the drive to be able to be near such a spiritual lady.

This is inside her home with her son, and grandbaby.  Her son is really quite nice looking, we just caught him in a silly look trying to get the baby to smile.  The baby's mom was out under the house reading a book and enjoying a free minute while 

grandma Jennifer played with the baby.  Jennifer's daughter lives in the Joburg area and had come to visit for a few days.

When I visited with her at Church on Sunday, she hugged me and thanked me again for our visit.  She said, "I have been talking to my daughters and I told them what a blessing it was to have you and Elder Baxter come visit me, and thank you for the bread! It helped a lot!"  (I had taken some home made bread).

She doesn't seem to realize that it was us who was blessed by having been  to her home!  How blessed we are to be missionaries and be able to rub shoulders with such humble, devout members!!

Thanks Jennifer for being such great influence and support to our Branch.

After we left Jennifer's, we stopped in town to get some lunch to eat on the way home.  While driving around the parking lot looking for a place to park, we saw this mother hen with her little chicks trying to find some food droppings for her little ones.  Notice the little yellow one!

During our travels home, we saw these two ladies carrying loads of large sticks on their head.  This is not uncommon over here.

As we finished our drive and neared home, were able to capture this beautiful sunset.

We definitey felt the blessings that had been poured down upon us for being able to experience such  a beautiful spiritual day.  We are so grateful to be missionaries!

2013 Begins

With the holidays out of the way, we are ready to get back to work. We've been waiting for our members to return from holiday. The past few weeks, we have had only 20 or  less people at Church. The week before Christmas, there were only about 24 people there. They hadn't planned any special Christmas program for the Sunday before Christmas, but they did have Christmas songs for the opening and closing songs but not the rest song. They combined Priesthood and R.S. and then dismissed the other meetings. We only had about 5 children in primary and shortened everything for that. After that, they wished everyone a Merry Christmas and that was the end of it.   That was quite a let-down from what we're used to at home for our Sunday Christmas Program.

The next week, we only had about 18 people there. They only had one person there that had been assigned a talk. They called on a young woman to bear her testimony. The President was going to say a few words and he said that I would follow him. I thought about what I would say, then I thought about the scripture that says, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord ." I also thought about the "White Stocking " story and shared some thoughts along that line and challenged them to consider what gifts they would give the Savior this year. It worked out well, and with the help of the Lord, I made it through. Afterward, the Relief Society President came up to me and commended me on my talk and said "that was just what I needed to hear today". We have learned to always be prepared with some thoughts in mind just in case we are called on to speak. We only had Sacrament Meeting that day and that was all.

Last Sunday we had about 28 people including 2 investigators. They had asked me to give the opening prayer and Lynn to give the closing prayer. Just before meeting started, I noticed that the Chorister wasn't there, so I went up to lead the singing. For Sunday School, the Gospel Doctrine teacher wasn't there, so everyone went into the Gospel Essentials class, which the missionaries taught. After Sacrament Meeting, I helped out in Primary and did the Sharing time and taught a class. We had 6 children in Primary. I taught the 3 younger children and the Counselor taught the 3 older children. So like I say, we will be glad to have our Branch back and functioning a little more  normal.  In the meantime, we continue to be a "Jack of all  trades" whether we can or not.

Our church is located in a very bad section of town.  There are street people wandering the streets or just hanging out because they don't have jobs.  Our church has been broken into 3 different times.  Once, since we have been here.  We now have burglar bars and a security system.  Since the church isn't a hot target anymore, they have started hitting the cars.  Early in December, the Elders had stopped at the church to check on the painters who were doing the Primary rooms.  They were up there about 5 minutes.  When they came back, they discovered that the back side window had been smashed to get entry.  They took one of the Elders' bags which contained his scriptures and teaching materials.  Since they had to wait until they were going to Joburg to get it fixed, they bought some red and green duct tape to give it a striped Christmas effect.

Last week during church, the culprits hit again and broke through the tape and took a wallet and two cameras from the glove box.  The President had them come to Joburg the next day to get it fixed.  To cover the hole during the 5 hour drive, they came across an old Church sign in their flat and put that in the window slot, and taped pass along cards along the top of the window.  Pretty creative we thought.  Maybe you will think so too!

Nothing like having a little advertising as you drive the highways!!

Good job Elders!

School starts for the new school year tomorrow, so the stores here have been busy with lines of people getting their supplies. Over here, students have to buy literally everything, including jump ropes, balls and playground things. They all wear uniforms. I'm sure the children will be passing out from the heat because it has been very hot and the buildings aren't air conditioned.

After dinner last Sunday, we went out to the McCarthy's to give her a blessing because she has been down with the flu for the past 2 weeks. They live in kind of a remote area. We missed the turnoff and had to turn around and go back. As we were going down the road, off to the right Lynn spotted some giraffes. He wasn't sure that was what they were because they were among some trees and weren't moving. Then we saw one start moving and another one bend over to eat from the bushes. We counted 5 in all. Naturally we got out the camera and zoomed in on them.

"Oh, I was surprised to see, him eating branches off the tree!"  How many times in my life I have sung that children's song, but never thought I'd ever really see one.  

What a neat experience!!!

"But I suppose he isn't able--to eat like me from off the table!"  

This made our day!

Can you find 5 giraffes in this picture?

After our visit and blessing, we drove the other direction from McCarthy's road and there were 3 large Zebras and a mama and a baby. To our surprise, the baby didn't have his stripes yet. We felt like we were really in Africa. It was fun to see these animals, and we weren't even at Kruger Park. It is about 45 minutes from here and is the world's largest wild life preserve. We haven't had a chance to go there yet, but we will one day.

This is one of the smaller zebras that was in the field down the road from the McCarthy home.  

The baby had wandered off under a tree.

These were the larger zebras.  I think they are actually on someone's property, fenced in.

There were actually some teepees on the land with the zebras.

I guess this is the African version of a Mountain Man Rendezvous!  

A week ago Sunday, we had an investigator, Larraine, at Church. She is a single girl about 26 who works at a restaurant that we go to occasionally. Afterward, we asked her if she had plans for the day or if she would like to come to dinner. She said she didn't have any plans and would love to come. I thought, "Oh great, I was just planning on left overs today." I told Lynn that and he said, "That's O K." It was roast beef and potatoes and gravy. It worked out fine but I didn't have any rolls to go with it. We showed her the video of the Joseph Smith story and visited a little about the church. After dessert, we drove her home. She lives in an area about 40 minutes away from here. She said she was glad to have been able to share the day with us instead of being alone.

Later in the week, we decided to go visit a family that was on our ward list, but we have never seen them yet. They live in an area about an hour away called Ngodwana. We finally found the house and knocked on the door. We didn't get an answer and it seemed exceptionally quiet, so Lynn walked around the house and looked in the windows. The house was totally empty! I don't know how long ago they moved, but no one must have known them or knew about the move because they were still on the records. We have about 30 more such families to find out about. That is what's on our schedule as the New year begins.


Near Agodwana, there is a town called Kroopshoop.  It is an old German gold mining town.  It had some Bed and Breakfasts, Antique Shops, a few small restaurants and gift shops.  They also have several wild horses roaming around.  On the road before you come to that town, there are signs that say "Beware of wild horses.  Drive carefully" The ones we saw near the shops didn't seem too wild.  They didn't want to move as we drove by.  When we rolled down the window to get a picture, one almost stuck his head in the car.

On this road, the horses evidently have the right of way.

On our way home from Kroopshoop, we came across the "perfect Christmas Tree"  We have seen these in other areas which are used to conceal cell phone towers, but these are REAL trees.   Strange that they can be so tall and yet so perfect!!

We are going out to the Christian Youth Camp tomorrow to put a deposit down to secure the date of April 4, 5, & 6 for our Youth Camp and Conference. We need to meet with the Branch Young Men and Young Women leaders and the Branch Presidency to start getting it planned. They have never had anything like that before, so we want it to be really fun and spiritual as well. There is so much negative influence around here, we would like to strengthen their testimonies to make them stronger members of the Church. The camp has hiking trails,  a swimming pool,  a zip line, an obstacle course, an outdoor BBQ area and fireside area, an outdoor game area, as well as indoor games for rainy days like basket ball and ping pong and meeting areas for training in the new programs for Young Men and Young Women. We can see a lot of potential for strengthening our youth and want it to be something they will remember. We will be doing it with the youth from the KaNayamazane Branch as well. How fun for them to get to meet youth from another area. We'll keep you posted.

We took one of our newly baptized members, Elvis, to lunch today. He had a nephew who was shot and killed in Barberton about a week ago. He evidentially was involved in a wayward lifestyle and was shot because of it. They are still investigating. We were concerned about him because we hadn't seen him to church for a couple of weeks, and the missionary that baptized him has been transferred. He is the only member in his family. We haven't met his wife yet, but he has brought his two kids to church a couple of times. In talking to him, he is still reading the Book of Mormon and is trying "gently" to get his wife interested in learning about the Church.   We discussed several aspects of the gospel as we ate lunch.  He told us he had been trying to memorize the Sacrament prayers so he could bless the sacrament.  We told him that was great, but that there was a card to look at to be sure to get it perfect.  He felt relieved to know that.

We had a nice lunch and then took him back to work. He works at a Bank in the investing department. We felt very positive about the time we spent with him.

Last Saturday, we picked our Mission President up from the airport and took him to the Church for interviews with the missionaries. After dropping him off, we went home to pick up our food for the luncheon which consisted of Sloppy Joes, potato salad, watermelon, chips, and brownies. It was a small intimate gathering, but very enjoyable. I'm sure the President enjoyed it as well, since he had done 32 interviews the day before in another town. Our mission is so spread out, he has to fly to some of the areas for interviewing the 200+ missionaries in the mission.  He also oversees about
9 or 10 branches that he acts as  the Stake President over these Branches. Needless to say, he doesn't have many spare minutes. After the luncheon, we stopped home to put the food in the fridge, and then we drove him back to the airport to catch his flight back home to Joburg.

Thursday night we had our young friend who serves in the Peace Corp stay with us. She is a returned missionary and comes here about every 2 months to attend church. The last time she was here, another senior couple who is over the Seminary and Institute Program was here. They, along with the Mosses, and Rachel and us all went to dinner. Sunday after Church, we had an appointment. Rachel stayed here to make a call to her parents. When we returned and were talking, she started crying and saying how much she had missed being able to go to church each Sunday, and being with all of us missionaries last night had reminded her how much she really misses the church. She said she was thinking about going home, but enjoyed the opportunity to serve. I told her there were lots of opportunities to serve. She could volunteer in the schools until she could secure a teaching position. Lynn asked her if she wanted a blessing, and she said yes. He gave her a blessing and the next day she returned to her assignment with the Peace Corp. Well, we received a call from her the other night asking us if she could come and stay, as she had decided to go home and was on her way to Pretoria to finalize her departure with the Peace Corp. She said she had decided that though she enjoyed the Peace Corp, she couldn't realize her dreams of a Temple Marriage and a family with anyone there. She said we had helped her realize that this was what she was supposed to do. We told her that she was making a good choice and we knew that the Lord would bless her in her efforts. She flew back to the states today, Tuesday. We felt good to think that in some small way, we had been able to help her realize what she needed to do to bring true happiness to her life.


As  we put our Christmas decorations away until next year, our little table looked a bit bare, so we made a trip to Valencia to find some fabric for a cover for it.  After looking at several pieces of fabric and not finding quite what I was looking for that was as wide as it needed to be, I said,"I just wish I could find a round table cloth the size that I needed."  Lynn asked one of the clerks if they had tableclothes.  She directed us to downstairs.  Low and behold, they did have round tableclothes.  I found one that I thought would work with the colors that we had in our living area.  We got it home and got it ironed and put it on.  "Voila!"  It worked.  This is the finished product!!

The picture at the back of the table is of an African woman that Sister Blake, who works with the Perpetual Education Fund, painted with water colors from a snapshot that she took.  The family figurine on the right is one we bought at an outside market on the way to Tzaneen for Zone Conference, and the African Nativity was made in Kenya and came all the way from Utah from Jeanette.  We couldn't find any African Nativities in our area, but were told that some of the shops around Joburg had some.  We just didn't have time to go there during the holidays.

We are excited to try to build our Branch. We have lost 2 strong members to moves, and some of our strongest members have only been members less than 3 years. So you can see we have a lot of work to do. We're grateful to be able to be here to help the work move forward. We're grateful for your prayers on our behalf. We feel of your strength daily as we follow promptings to call on see certain people. As our branch members tell us how thankful and blessed they are to have us here, we know we are here for a reason. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve.

We pray that all is well with your families. You are all in our prayers each day. It was good to talk or skype with most of you during the holidays. We hope that all your hopes and dreams come true in the coming year and that your homes will be richly blessed as you continue to live the gospel and set good examples for your children. Know how much we love you and miss you.

Thank you to our friends and family who sent Christmas Greetings.  Though many of them didn't arrive until after Christmas, we enjoyed them just the same.  We enjoy keeping track of the 7th Ward through their Facebbook page.

May you all have a healthy and Happy New Year filled with many bountiful blessings!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Baxter

Random Happenings of 2012

We just wanted to share some of the things that haven't made it on previous posts.  Hopefully you will see why we love our mission so much!!

A couple of months into the mission, one of my back fillings broke off.  With the recommendation of a former Senior Couple, I was able to find Dr Ferri who did a wonderful job of making a crown for the broken tooth.  The nice part was that it was about $350 cheaper than others that I have had done at home.  It was a much better experience than my root canal in Bangkok.  :)

His assistant was very congenial as well.

Sister Purine was helping clean and dust the Branch President's Office.  She is always the one that says,"I'd like to come clean the church on Saturday, could you come open it for me? I'll bring my family also."

Sister Purine's son, Shaun was home from college break.  

He also came to help clean the church.

Sister Purine's 9 year old daughter, Zama, is such a good worker.  She always scrubs and polishes the floor of the Young Women's room.

Maggie had missed our Enrichment day because of a class she had, so she asked me to please come over and teach her how to make cinnamon rolls.  I did, and a week later she asked me to come over again and  just "supervise her work so she would know how to do it without me".  I did, and she was very successful.

Because of our visits and chats, she had decided to leave her live-in boyfriend and move back home to Polokwane so she could live the gospel.  This was her last Sunday at church.  She calls us her parents and says I am her daughter's "gugu" - grandma.

The Sunday before Christmas, we invited Purine and her family to dinner.  Her sister was here visiting. After dinner we visited for a bit about our lives and families.  Her sister, who is a member, started to cry and said how thankful she was that we invited her for dinner.  She hadn't been as active lately as she wanted to be and had been praying for something to help her know this was what she was supposed to do.  She said when she heard of the sacrifice we were making to leave our families and come here to help strengthen the people here, the least she could do was to be more active in church to show her appreciation for the sacrifice that we were making.  We felt very touched, and hope she follows through with her commitment.   (By the way - Do you call "having fun" a sacrifice?)  :)

We prepared some treats to take to some of our branch members.  We were taking them to White River which is about 25 K away.

 About 5 K before we got to White River, Elder Baxter looked down at the gas guage and said, "We're about out of gas.  He pulled over to turn around and go back to a station that we had just passed and the car stopped.  He got out and walked down the road and across the highway to the gas station.  The worker found an empty 2 liter pop bottle in the garbage and washed it out with gas and filled it.  Elder Baxter walked back to the car and proceeded to empty the bottle into the tank.  Thankfully the car started and we were able to go back to the station and fill it full.   Good thing we didn't run out earlier, because there is nothing for several miles back.  One of the Lord's tender mercies for missionaries!

Sister Baxter's idea of journaling--open journal, close eyes!  Consequently, there are many scribbly lines among the script.  Things haven't changed in several years.   :)

One morning at breakfast, Lynn was adding some yogurt to his cereal.  As I watched him scoop it on, I thought it looked exceptionally thick.  With the next spoonful, he asked, "Is this yogurt?"  I then realized that although it was in a yogurt container, it was actually SHRIMP DIP left over from Christmas!  I couldn't stop laughing!  He dumped it  out and started over after I got the actual container of yogurt out of the fridge!

This is Brother James and his wife Debra.  He is our Branch clerk and very organized and intellegent.  They are one of the families we visit.  We had just attended dthe funeral of her brother in law.  It was very interesting.  Her sister's family are members of "The 12 Apostle Church". She looked very radiant in her African dress so we just had to capture it!

Sister Precious's family was moving to Pretoria because of a promotion in her husband's work.  We came to help her move and clean.  Notice the broom.  It is a handmade one like many of the people here use.  Elder Baxter and I were sweeping as fast as we could go, and we could hardly stay a sweep ahead of some of the older ladies who had come to help.

This is one of Precious's friends who came to help her.  How she can do all that scrubbing on her knees on the tile floors is beyond me!  They did a wonderful job!  My knees ache just from watching them.

The complex that they live in is in a gated community and you're not allowed to drive down in.  The Elders helped me carry the trash on a little trolley up the long sidewalk to the garbage area outside the gate.

The truck is about filled to capacity.   Good!  That means we're almost finished!  With everyone's help, we were able to be through sooner than we had planned.  Precious was glad she didn't have to come back the next day to clean.  It was all done!!!   Thanks everyone!!!

One evening before Maggie left, we had invited her to dinner, but we had to go get her because she had no transportation.  We were all loaded in the car and Elder Baxter began to back out so we could drive forward down the hill.  All of a sudden, *$#* Bang!!!  He had backed into a utility box that was the same height as the car and didn't see it!!!  So now our car has a cute little dent in it.!  Darn!!

This is the sweet utility box that  we backed into.  It really wasn't as tall as it looks !

Family Christmas party when we got to skype with our family!
 So fun to see some of our beautiful grandchildren!!

Our New Year's Day dinner with the Elders.  They requested spaghetti.  There was just a smell left in that large bowl at the end of the meal.  Do you like the kitchen towel bibs?  They were afraid they would splash spaghetti sauce on the front of their white shirts!

Elder Handerade and Elder Mower.
Do you like the wall decorations?  This was the Elders contributions to our house on New Year's Eve!  They were the festive ribbon rolls that came with the fireworks.

I don't know who had more fun on New Year's Eve - Elder Baxter or the young Elders!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Do you love the decorative paper and the plastic crowns?

Some of our fireworks going off!
When Lynn told the Elders he had bought a few fireworks, they said,
 "We're not allowed to do fireworks!"  Elder Baxter told them that they wouldn't have to worry about that.  He would light them and they could just watch.
He later confessed to the Mission President and the President said he was forgiven!
It pays to be honest - right?

When we went out to do sparklers and fireworks, the Elders lingered behind.  When we came in,
this is what we saw!!   It just added to the festive decorations, don't you agree?

As the Christmas season comes to an end, and as we look forward to a new year,
we are grateful for the opportunity to serve in South Africa!
We're grateful for the opportunity to touch people's lives - hopefully for the good.
We're grateful for the missionaries and for the opportunity to brighten their holiday,
and for having them here to help brighten ours!
We're grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gives us a reason for the season!
We're grateful for our family and friends who pray for us and support us in our effort to serve the Lord.
May each of you enjoy the Lord's blessings throughout the coming year!
We love you!!!
Elder and Sister Baxter

Zone Conference in Tzaneen

Early in December, we had the opportunity to attend our first Zone Conference.  It was held in Tzaneen, a town about 5 hours from Nelspruit.  Elder and Sister Moss were going to ride with us.  Even though they had just found out that they would be going home in mid December, they wanted to go to say good bye to all the missionaries and other Senior Couples that they knew during the past 14 months that they had served in South Africa.  We were glad they were going so we could have one last time together.  We had become so close since we had lived with them for about 10 days while we were waiting for our flat to become available.  They were such great mentors! They would drive us to the grocery story, or to a store to get something for our flat; to buy internet service and to buy electricity and drive us to areas  where we have members and introduced them to us.  We were sad that they were leaving, but we were happy that we could have one last outing together and one more chance to grin and laugh together as we did when we were staying with them.

We decided to leave about 8:00 in the morning so we would have time to stop and see some of the sights along the way.  By the time we got our things packed, and the lunch and snack items loaded in that we were taking, it was actually about 8:30 before we really drove away.  They decided to drive since they got free miles because their church is 30 minutes away and ours is in town, so we get no free miles.

On the way to Zone Conference in Tzaneen, we stopped at Mac Mac Pools,  just a little past Sabie.  We couldn't resist the opportunity for a great picture frame!!

Something about pink and orange that is really becoming!

Beautiful view of some of the landscape at Mac Mac Pools.

Interesting bird's nest in the trees at Mac Mac Pools.  

Notice the opening is at the bottom instead of at the top.

This beautiful bird makes it's home in the nest above.

Beautiful Mac Mac Falls.

This lady is one of the many vendors who come to sell their hand made wares to tourists.

These men are carving African animals out of wood.

This is the way that African mother's carry their babies.

 

 Hiking up the trail to see God's Window.  It's a rain forest in this area.

Enjoying the magnificent view of "God's Window"

Looking down at the village shops at "God's Window"

Lots of souvenirs to choose from at "God's Window".

Here we are!

One of the beautiful flowering bushes outside the hotel
where we stayed at Zone Conference in Tzaneen.

Unbelievable greenery outside the deck of the Sanloo Inn where we stayed.

Fountains at the front entry of the Inn.

This is the small chapel that was around the back of the Inn.

Beautiful manicured landscape around the Inn.

Stairs leading up to the rooms of the Inn.

Marque outside the church at Tzaneen where we held Zone Conference.

Handsome group of missionaries at Zone Conference.  

President and Sister Omer are in front middle.

Area President and Sister Renlund.  He is a heart surgeon and she is an attorney.  

What a blessing to have been taught by such spiritual giants.

The chapel where our conference was held.  Unlike some of our huge chapels at home.

Catching a few winks while your parents sell their wares at the roadside stand.

We bought mangos from his parent's fruit and veggie stand.

This tunnel marks the division between the
Highlands of South Africa and the Lowveld where we live.

We stopped to look at some of the wares at this roadside shop.  While we were deciding what to choose, Elder Baxter was telling the ladies about the church and handing out pamphlets and pass along cards.

A Waterfall down the road from the tunnel.

Rock Mountain by the tunnel.

Elder and Sister Moss and I looking over the beauty of the area above the "Forever Resort" area.

Besides being spiritually fed, we were able to view some of God's beautiful creations.  At times, we felt like we were in the Garden of Eden.

As we finished our trip to Zaneen from Zone Conference, I thought of the  words to the Primary song,

"I'm glad that I live in this beau-ti-ful world, Heavenly Father created for me!"