Our New Apartment

     After staying with Elder and Sister Moss for 8 days, we finally began the process of moving.  Elder and Sister Oborn came up from Johannsesburg on Sunday night to bring our new furniture and things for our apartment.  They are the couple responsible for the apartments for the missionaries.  They pulled a trailer with our couch and chair and bedding, along with his tools to fix whatever needed fixing.  They stayed with Elder and Sister Nichols on Sunday night.  Monday morning, the Nichols' loaded their car and headed to Johannesburg on route to Kenya to visit some former members where they served a few years ago.  (I'm always amazed at how many couples have served 2 or 3 missions previously).  Sister Oborn brought a lot of bedding down to the Moss's apartment to run through her washer as the electricity was about to run out in our apartment and it was a holiday today and the office where you buy more electricity was closed until Tuesday or Wednesday and we she didn't want to use all our electricity running the washer and dryer.  She informed me that I might want to go in and clean a little before we moved our things in.  Having been to the apartment a couple of times earlier, I already knew I would need to do that.  (Some people just don't seem to be as particular as I am)

     I started on the kitchen first since that seemed to be the biggest or worst area.  It was worse than I thought!  I took everything out of each cupboard and scrubbed out the cupboards and then washed everything that was in them and rearranged things to my liking.  I wiped of bottles and containers before putting them back in the cupboard or fridge. We worked until about 7:30 that night, and had the kitchen and fridge done.  It was dark and seemed too dingy to tell if I was getting it clean or not, so we decided to call it a day.

    Sisters Moss and Oborn made a trip to the stores earlier to get bedding, throw rugs, and toss pillows to give the apartment some personality.  I was amazed how well Sister Oborn did with choosing out colors that were something that I could live with.  The couch was a light beige suede with a matching ottoman, and a medium blue chair.  We chose to keep the winged back blue chair that was already here.  It was a little worn, but looked great with the other blue chair, though a different style.  It seemed to give balance to the living room.  Elder Oborn hung a new mirror in the main bathroom, and put a new light cover over the light in the second bathroom.  They were supposed to leave to go back to Joburg by about 3:30, but didn't even leave to go have a bite of dinner at the Moss's until 6:30.  We encouraged them to stay overnight, but she had a doctor appointment the next morning, and they were bringing the Nichols' luggage since they couldn't fit it in their car.  So they had no choice but to leave and drive during the night.  It was a four and half hour drive.  We felt badly for them to drive so late, because we knew they were tired, but we really did appreciate all their help in getting  things done in our apartment.

     We also appreciated Sister Moss's help in preparing lunch and dinner for all of us while we worked that day.  We had asked her if we could stay another day so we could finish getting things cleaned before we started unpacking them.  They told  us of course we  could.  It seemed nice to go to a clean apartment and be able to shower and sleep after being in the dissaray of our apartment.  The Moss's have also been expremely helpful while we have been there by taking us to different areas or shopping places for groceries etc, to help acquaint us with the area.  We would have ben totally lost without a clue as to where to go or what was available.   They have been terrific mentors and great friends.  We have had a lot of fun times while at their flat.  Sometimes we hae laughed until we had tears running down our faces.

     The next day, we got ready and headed to the apartment for some more of the same. I finished hanging some drapes in the bedroom, cleaned the bathrooms, wiped out shelves in the bedroom and bathroom so we dared put our things away.  About 8:00 that night, we went back to the Moss's to pack up our things and transfer them to our new apartment.  After unpacking our clothes and some of our bathroom things, we got the bed made up and hit the showers, ready for a good night's sleep in our new flat.  You'd think that after all the hours that we'd put in, I'd be asleep before my head hit the pillow; however, that wasn't the case.  I lay there for several hours.  It was nearly 4:30 before I could finally go to sleep.  The next morning, a litle after 6:00, the sun was shining brightly in our window, despite the drapes being closed, so that was the end of my sleep.

     This day wasn't so productive!  I had been cleaning out the hall closet and washing towels and sheets that were in them, and my washer stopped in the middle of the cycle, and the door was locked so I couldn't do anything to get it unlocked.  A little later, the water went off.  We didn't know why, so without any water to clean or wash, we decided to go do errands and get some groceries.   When we came back later that day, we had water, so we were able to get the floors mopped, (actually Lynn did all the mopping, and with all tile floors, that was no simple task!) and get the rugs down and now the apartment was beginning to look like a real place to live.  It was worth all the effort! 

     Voila!! The finished product!

Hanging the drapes in the extra bedroom.

The finished room, just waiting for guests.  Any takers???

Nice to have a maid to help with the difficult chores!! :)

So much fun shaking those comforters into the duvae covers!

Our finished room.  I like the bright green.

Our patio looking from the outside in.  Notice the barred doors.  This is typical everywhere.

The view from the patio looking out.  That's the row of flats on the row just below us.  We're on the bottom level.  (They think we're too decrepid to do stairs.)

Our front entry.  Notice the African Wall hanging.  The African that I bought it from told me it was a window shade to keep the flies out.  Our African guest tonight told he had never heard of such a thing. Oh well, it does make a nice wall hanging.  (Tha carved wood hanger was already there.  There's a mirror on the other side of the room to match.

The right side of our kitchen.  As you can see, we're fairly modern.  At least we don't have to scrub our clothes outside in three buckets.

Our kitchen, with a small utility room at the end.  Do you like the hand made mahogony bowl that I bought from a young man from Zimbabwe on our way to Nelspruit?

  

 The bath off the main bedroom.

The extra bath.  You'll have your own bath when you come to visit.  :)

This beautiful antherium just started to bloom.  It is on our porch just before you come in the front door.

Our living room.  It is very peaceful and relaxing.  The opens to our patio.

My new automatic dishwasher!

 

First Week

Well, we have been here one week today.  It has seemed like a long week.  Much has happened, but I feel like we're not into the work yet.  We spent from Tuesday night when we arrived in country, with President and Sister Omer, the Mission President.  They are very lovely people.  They made us feel very welcome and comfortable.  Sister Omer is a very gracious lady.  They both have a lot of responsibility.  I don't know how they do it.  She is basically the Missionary Mom, responsible for all the missionaries.  We were at the Mission Home everyday, being oriented to the mission and informing us about the cars, phones, apartments, etc.  One afternoon they took Lynn out to practice driving on the left side of the road.  He didn't take the car home that night though.  We were scheduled to go to Nilspruit on Friday, but they were having difficulty getting the sim card for the phone to operate.  Because it was still not working, they didn't want us to go until Saturday so we  could have a phone to take with us.   So Lynn stayed around the office to do some more practice driving, and I went with Sister Omer and the other Office Missionaries to a warehouse where there are a lot of authentic, handmade African Souvineers.  A gentleman who Sister Omer knows travels throughout Africa and buys hand made articles from the village people and keeps them in a warehouse and opens his store occassionally for people to come in and purchase things. There were a lot of interesting things,but many things that I didn't know what I would do with them after I got home, or how I would even get them home.  I did buy a couple of things that I thought I could decorate our apartment with.

By the afternoon, they had our phone working, so the plan was to leave early Saturday morning.  Lynn and I did a few errands before heading to the Mission Home to pack.  I had bought 2 curling irons the day before, 2 different sizes.  When I got home and opened them, they were both the same size, in a wrong box, so we had to take them back to exchange it.  We spent a lot of time driving around trying to find our way to where we wanted to go.  We had a GPS, but had a difficult time finding the addresses of the places where we wanted to go.  So we just ended up driving around until we found the kind of store we wanted.    It took us about 3 hours to do a couple of things and get back to the Mission Home.  Sister Omer had the Assistants over for tacos.  President had a meeting so missed dinner for the second night in a row.

We got packed with the few things that we had unpacked to last for a few days.  At 9:00 the next morning, we ready to head out.  We worried that we would be able to get 5 large cases, 2 carry on bags, a computer bag and a bag of manuals and journals loaded in the small Nissan, but with the help of the  President and the Assistants, we were able to get everyone loaded in.  It was raining and chilly,but with GPS loaded and Elder Bishop from the Mission Office to lead us out of Johannesburg, we started out.  It took about an hour to get out of the area onto the freeway where we would be able to hit the freeway from there.  It was a pretty drive.  The farther out we went, the prettier it became.  It was very green and a little hilly.  Through some of the areas, we saw some little villages that I wondered if they were houses or just a junk yard.  A litle farther down the road, I noticed some wash hanging out on the line and figured people were really living in them.

We stopped for gas and lunch at a small of the road area.  It is very hard to understand the people as they  speak very fast and with a dialect.  A couple of hours later, we stopped to stretch our legs and potty.  A man from Zimbabwe was selling bowls he had made from Mahogony.  I couldn't pass it up and thought it would make a lovely fruit bowl.  A while later, we stopped at some roadside stands with people selling their bags of oranges,  avacados, pecans and macadamia nuts.  We bought something from each one of them.  We had seen orange trees loaded with oranges a litle earlier.

We finally arrived in Nilspruit about 2:45, but it took us an hour to find the area even with 3-4 phone calls to the couple that we were to be staying with.  Our apartment won't actually be ready until about the 25th or 26th.  Another couple is leaving and then the mission is bringing in some new furniture and other thngs to fix up the apartment.  It is dificult living with complete strangers, but they are very kind and in the gospel, we all feel like family.  We're just geting tired of living out of suitcases and trying to adjust to other peoples' lifestyles.  We haven't had internet since we left the Mission home, but went to the Mall yesterday and got s "stick", but we can only run one computer at a time.  We may look into getting a land line when we get into our apartment.

We went to church Sunday in our Branch.  The people seemed very nice.  we haven't met with the Branch President yet or the Ward Mission leader to know just where they would like to use us.  The Elder's Quorem President invited us to dinner at their home on Thursday, so we will get a chance to get to know him and his family.  He seems like a very nice young man. Our Branch meets upstairs in a rented building downtown.  It is quite nice for not being an actual chapel.  The couple we're living with work with another Branch about an hour away.  They just have two rooms in a school that they use.  The classes are usually held outside because they have no rooms to meet in.  The rooms look just like school just let out.  The Branch President has to hold interviews outside, while sitting on a stump.  The church has purchased a piece of land for a chapel, but they people aren't paying their tithing, so that is holding them up on getting a chapel. 

Well I had better close this epistle.  Our love to you all. 

Our Farewell

Our Farewell was August 12, 2012.  

We celebrated with a luncheon at the Croydon Park 

following the Farewell.

We're excited to be a part of South Africa for the next 18 months!

A small South Africa flag adorned each table.

Everyone enjoyed a delicious feast and of 

sloppy Joes, salads, fruit and desserts

 while visiting with friends and family.

So much to choose from--"What else would I like?"

Some of the kitchen help take time to smile for the camera.

So sweet of Deanna to bring Aunt Deane and Aunt Barbara. 

Aunt and cousin time.

Cousins Lynda and Clint.

MiRinley's trying to figure this hullabaloo out.

Faun, my long time friend, teaching partner, and therapist.

Sisters!

Valarie - neighbor, teaching partner, friend, fellow missionary.  

They leave Oct. 22, for the Philippines, Baguio Mission.

The overworked daughters start goofing off.  Just something the family does!  :)

Uncle Harold and his daughter Becky, take time for a picture.

Hugs with sweet niece Lynda to last for 18 months.

Best cousin buds, Crew, Treyson, and Tryker,

My sweet kids--Jeanette, Jill, Crystal, Clint, Jennifer, Cristee, Suzette

 

Time to break out with a few African Moves.  :)

The girls join in with a few of their own.  We love to have fun.

Jack tastes the serving spoon before deciding on what dessert he wants.

Thanks Uncle Harold and Aunt Cleone for driving down from Rexburg to join us in our celebration.

Jack must have taught Cuda how to taste the delicious strawberry cheesecake.

Crystal surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake, celebrating the  70 year milestone.

Looks good enough to eat, though I wasn't going to admit to the age.

It was a beautiful day, thanks to everyone who helped with food, setting up, cleaning up, and coming to help us celebrate.  The only way it could have been better was to have Lynn's children be able to join us.  We realize that many miles, school and finances make it difficult to make such a trek.  

We missed you!

South Africa, here we come!!