Christmas In South Africa - 2012

With all the busies of helping out all those branch members who were struggling with illnesses, we hurried to get last minute preparations ready for Christmas.  Sister Omer had asked the Senior Couples if we would do a Christmas Devotional for the Elders followed by a brunch.  We had last minute shopping to do for that.  In addition, we were worried that some of the Elders might not get a Christmas package, or that their package might not arrive in time for Christmas, so we decided to do a package for them.  Knowing that their monthly allotment doesn't always allow for extras like jam and snacks, we decided to get some of those items for each of them, as well as a pack of pens to keep track of all their appointments.  We wrapped each item individually and put the small gifts in a large gift bag along with some fresh fruit, a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies and a plate of homemade candies.  Two of our Elders were transfered a week before Christmas, so we gave them their Christmas bags the day that they left.  We were sad to see them go, but because they are such strong Elders, we know they will do a great job as District Leaders in their new areas.

The two new Elders that we got in each companionship are equally as great!  The one who is  the District Leader, Elder Center, in the Nelspruit Area is from Nevada, and was raised on a farm and truly knows how to work.  The other Elder who  serves in the KaNyamazane area, Elder Handerade, is from Zimbabwe.  He is a  truly remarkable young man.  Both have been out  almost a year and are very dedicated to the work. This is the first Christmas away from home for all of these Elders.  We were excited to have them over to be our "family" since this was our first Christmas away from home as well, and since Sister and Elder Moss have gone home, we are starting to feel like orphans.

We planned a menu which consisted of ham, potato salad, chicken macaroni salad, Christmas jello salad,  Vegetable tray and ranch dip, chips and shrimp dip and onion and garlic dip, Chile cheese dip and Avocado and bean dip and chips, Oatmeal fudge bars, fresh baked orange rolls, and homemade candies, and a punch bowl. Because Sister Omer had moved the devotional to 11:00 instead of 10:00 to give the Elders time to study, we decided to eliminate the breakfast items and just concentrate on a lunch buffet instead.  I tried to get most of my items made the day before so we could just  enjoy Christmas without a lot of food preparations that day.   I did get most of it done with the exception of a couple of the dips.  Because we had invited Sister Precious over for a Family Home Evening, I cleaned up my kitchen a bit early so we could be ready for her family.

I hurried to make a "White Stocking" for her because she wouldn 't be here next year for the Ward Party when I would give each family a White Stocking to give their gifts for Jesus.  Just before I finished the stocking, the Elders came over early like we had asked them, so we could give them their Christmas packages to have for Christmas morning.  How fun it was to see their faces light up as we  reached each bag from under the tree and handed it to them. Elder Handerade couldn't believe all these gifts were really for him.  He looked into the bag and his eyes got big and said, "Is this all for me?"  A large grin came across his face when I told him that it was.  We visited for a few minutes before we said our good-byes until morning and wished each a "Merry Christmas".

Elder Handerade on left with his package, and Elder Mower on right sampling one of the homemade cookies.  No need to wait until morning, right?  These Elders serve in the KaNyamazane area.  

Do you love my sad poinsettia?  It was three times that size, but has been continually shedding its petals and leaves.

Elder Center on left, our District Leader is from Nevada, and Elder Brinkerhoff on right has lived in England the past 10 years, but his family has since moved to Colorado.  They serve in the Nelspruit area.  It was the Elders' "P" day in case you're wondering about their casual dress.

I finished the stocking, in time.  We got everything ready to act out the Nativity, and the oranges ready for the story of the  "Christmas Orange."  Before long we received a phone call from Precious saying they had to make one stop and would be there directly.  We continued to wait.  Finally, about 8:45 they arrived.  However, not all of their family was there.  Her husband was home trying to unclog a toilet and the 5 year old son had stayed with him.  Given that it was Christmas Eve, late, and not all her family was there, we decided to cut the FHE short and send the things home with her so they could be together for a bit before bedtime.  We were sad because her husband isn't a member and we were in hopes he would feel the spirit of the season as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.

Christmas morning I arose early to check on the ham in the crock pot and read scriptures for a bit as well as put the finishing touches on the devotional program.  We took a few minutes to do our Christmas and unwrap the packages under our tree.    I then hurried to get ready so I could finish any last minute things before the Elders got here.

Santa even comes to South Africa!

The stockings were filled, even without a chimney!

Christmas morning!

Too much fun!!

The Elders were prompt and came with scriptures and hymn books ready for our devotional.  It turned out very beautiful as we sang Christmas Carols that went with each part of the scriptures telling about the birth of the Savior.  Lynn had  typed up the order for everyone to do their part.  I shared my testimony and each one in turn shared some feelings about Christmas and bore their testimony.  It was a very spiritual meeting.  What a great way to start Christmas Day!

After the devotional, I took a few minutes to pull my things out of the fridge, slice the ham and put the punch in the bowl.  When we called them to eat, Elder Handerade took one look at the buffet and immeditely grabbed his camera.  He said, "I have never seen a Christmas like this!  We don't exchange presents, and sometimes we might slaughter a goat and roast it, but I have never seen a Christmas like this one.  Sister Baxter, I will never forget the Christmas of  2012!"

He needs to know that we never will either!

The Elders filled their plates and went back for seconds.  When they could hold no more, we sat around the table and visited for a few minutes.  When we were sure no one was going back for thirds, Elder Baxter gathered the Elders up and they went to the Church to use the internet for them to call their families for their Christmas calls. He took the computer and let them use our g-talk account to save their parents some dollars.  They each had an hour scheduled for their calls.  I stayed home to clear up the food and get take home containers ready for each companionship.  After getting the Elders going on their phone calls, Elder Baxter came back to help with dishes and gather some games and desserts ready to take over to do while the others were on the phone.

The Elders really had a good time playing Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders and Timberrrrr.  They snacked on oatmeal fudge bars, orange rolls, milk and punch and candy.  Some of the parents called them back to finish their conversations.  Each missionary was on cloud nine after he hung up from his phone call.  They walked as though they were walking on clouds as they ate another roll and had another glass of milk.

About 7:00, each one had finished their phone call, so we gathered things up and went back to our flat to get their take home packages from the fridge and get them on their way.  The KaNyamazane Elders had stayed with our elders who live in our same complex, to save k's on their vehicle and to obey the President about not driving on Christmas eve and day because of all the drinking drivers out on the roads.  They were all beaming from ear to ear as they carried their things out to their cars.

Now it was time for us to start making our phone calls to our families. At least some of them would be up and ready to make phone calls.  It was good to talk to them.  We were only able to make connections with 5 of our 10 kids, but we left greetings and messages on their phones so they would know we had tried to get a hold of them.  The ones we were't able to reach, we tried early the next morning, which would be their Christmas night.  I started making a call at 6:00 a.m. thinking  at 9:00 p.m. their time I could still catch them.  Wouldn't you know it?  The internet wasn't working.  It said there was a problem and it couldn't connect.  GROWL!  I knew some of the kids would be sad to not make connections on Christmas.  Oh well!  I prayed and read my scriptures for a bit.  About 2 hours later I tried again and  wahoo, the internet was finally working!  It was good to get to talk to everyone.

Though our family Christmas was just through gmail, the Elders made up for the family that wasn't here.  We felt good that we had been able to make up for the families of theirs that weren't here either.  It had been a great Christmas and probably one of the most spiritual that I had ever had.  What wonderful blessings the Lord gives us as we do his work!  We hope each of your Christmases were just as great!

Love,

Elder and Sister Baxter

Gifts That Don't Need To Be Wrapped

December has been a different experience for us.  I guess we didn't know what to expect for the Christmas season in South Africa.  For starters, people aren't big into Christmas like they are in the states, but I understand that they do more now than they did 10 years ago.  Because of the weather being so warm it doesn't seem  like winter and Christmas.  Also, you see no houses lit up and we've only seen one tree in all the houses we've been in this month.  People generally travel to other places in South Africa to be with family during Christmas, so attendance in our branch is even less than it usually is.  School wise, the Christmas break is like summer vacation at home since it is the end of the school year.  They have almost a month off from school, so families do their vacations now as well.

Despite all the non-Christmas things going on, we have still been very busy.  Last Saturday as we were preparing to go to the Christmas party up at the KaNyamazane Branch, we received a text from our Branch President that his baby had been admitted to the hospital again with bronchial pneumonia.  We stopped over to the hospital on our way out of town to see how we could be of help to Sister Sigauke, since she lives an hour and a half from home.  After seeing what her needs were, we had just gotten on our way, when we got a call from our Elders that Trisha Mishale, from our branch, whose family has just moved to Barberton, an hour away, had been brought down by ambulance in the night for an emergency surgery.  They had done a surgery last Friday at the Hospital in Barberton for appendicitis, and evidently things weren't going well and they had to rush her down here for another surgery.  She was filled with infection.  The Elders had given her a blessing earlier when they stopped. She was in a government hospital here in Nelspruit.  After visiting there, we knew why the Mission Office told us that if we needed to go to the doctor, not to go to a government facility.  Go to a private facility!  We couldn't believe it when we walked into the hospital.  It was like a step back in time to World War II with wards with 8 or more beds in a ward.  The inside was dirty and unkempt.  I called it the "creepy crawly place"  That's just how you felt when you left.  It felt like a prison because when you came into the parking lot, you had to fill out a paper and give them with info about who you were seeing, your name and address, phone number etc.  It was hard to find the front door.  When we finally found it, there was a guard at the door, once again asking us who we were there to see.  Then he told us that visiting hours were from 2-3 and it was 4:45.  We told him we came yesterday later than this and they let us in.  We told him we were from her Church.  He said, "Are going to give her  a prayer?"   He looked at our badges and then told us we could go, but to check in at the nurses desk before we went in.  We thanked him and went on our way.

We attended the KaNyamazane Branch Christmas  Party.  They had a good time singing and dancing.  While everyone was enjoying the activities, the men were at the Brais (bbq grills) cooking all the meat for the party.  Later, the women dished up the plates for the meal.  I helped with the food which consisted of Pap, pork and beans mixed with mayo for a sauce for the pap, green salad with oil dressing and chicken, spicy sausage links, and pork loin chops.  They eat with their fingers and then rinse them off in a large tub of water.  We had forgotten to bring forks, and didn't feel quite ready to dig in with our fingers, so we were glad to have to run to the hospital then.  They sent a container of food with us which we ate later.  The pap had really set up and hardened when we warmed it up. As you can see, a fork full picked up the whole helping.  Unfortunately, that was still on our plates when we finished eating.

We had had a very hard rainstorm earlier in the afternoon.  As we walked down a long hall of this government hospital, one of the ceiling sections was off and the roof was leaking a steady stream.  The floor had about 2 inches of water standing, in which they had thrown down a couple of old blankets to absorb the water, but the ceiling was still leaking and there wasn't even a bucket to catch the water.  It continued to run down the hall about 6 inches away from the wall.  We took the stairs up to her room because we were afraid that the elevators might break down on the way.  The stairs were so dirty, I'm sure they hadn't been swept or mopped for at least a month.  Like I said, we just felt creepy and crawly just being in there.  We felt bad for the girl to have to be there and no family close by to keep tabs on her or see about the kind of care she as getting.  They all live too far away and have no money for petro or transport. Besides, her mom is taking care of her baby.  This girl is the one who I made the blankets and burp clothes for.  She was always grateful for our visits each day.

Then as we left the hospital, they stopped us at the gate and opened our trunk to be sure we weren't smuggling out something - like there was anything in there that anyone would want!  It was an experience to be sure!  One that I don't want to repeat anytime soon!  We pass by there on our way to church or to town and I just get crawly thinking about it.  Trisha was taken back to the hospital in Barberton on Thursday, and then they released her Saturday night.  Her mom sent us a text and thanked us for being the answer to her prayers.  She said since she couldn't be at the hospital, she kept praying that there would be someone who would stop by and check on her and be there to cheer her up.  It made us feel good that we were the ones that the Savior was using to answer her prayers.



This is Sister Sigauke and her sweet baby.  She was such a sweetheart during this whole ordeal.  Even when the nurses were pounding her chest or back to help break up some of the congestion.  She was always good to let me hold her while her mom put eye drops in her eye to help with the cornea problem.



President Sigauke's baby was released on Tuesday.  Since he was at work and wouldn't be able to come down and get them until after he got off, and drive the hour and a half to get here then turn around and drive back, we offered to take her home.  I hurried to make Italian chicken and rice so they would have some dinner when they got home.  She was very appreciative.  She had been in Joburg the week previous in the hospital because she was losing the sight in her eye that they had done a corneal transplant on a couple of years ago.  Her body was starting to reject the transplant, so they had hospitalized her to see what was causing the bleeding behind her eye and try to remedy the situation and restore her sight.  While she was there, her 2 girls were at her sister's house.  The 4 year old came down with mumps from the outbreak we had in our branch, and her baby started in with bronchitis as well.  They had only been home to Lydenburg part of a day when her baby was admitted to the  hospital with bronchial pneumonia.  Bottom line, it had been nearly 2 weeks since they had been home and together as a family.  The drive to Lydenburg was an experience we hadn't planned on.  It was a very mountainous, curvy road, and we drove through dense fog about 3/4 of the way.
we could hardly see a car length ahead of us.  We gained a greater appreciation for President  Sigauke and the effort he has to put forth just to come down to run our Branch.  It reminded me of  Broc and the trips he would have to make to Roseau when he had to preside at their meetings.  President called us later that evening to thank us for bringing her home so he didn't have to make the trip down.

So instead of rushing around in and out of stores trying to get gifts for everyone on our list, we have been running here and there to bring Christmas joy to people in need. On the Sunday that Sister Sigauke was at the hospital with her baby, as we were leaving the hospital, a young man came out of a room and chased us down the hallway.  I had looked at the window of the room as we passed by, and noticed an isolette with a tiny baby lying  there.  The young man looked at our badges and the words "Jesus Christ".  He said in very broken English and with a bit of a stutter, "Jesus Christ", could you say a prayer for my baby the next time you come?"  Lynn asked if that was his baby in the room, and he responded, "Yes, he was born premature and went home but is having problems now."  Lynn told him we could give him a blessing now.  So we turned around and he went back and got President Sigauke, and he and President anointed the baby and Lynn gave him a blessing.  The father was very thankful for our kindness.   That night when we brought a robe and p j's over for Sister Sigauke, we stopped in to check on the baby.  The mother was there and she also thanked us for the earlier "prayer". The next day as we passed by, we noticed baby had gone home.  I thought as we left the hospital, "The gifts we are giving this year are the ones that don't need to be wrapped in Christmas wapping paper.  These are the kind of gifts that the Savior would give.!"

How grateful we are to be able to be serving here in South Africa!  We are not knocking on doors as the young Elders often times do, but we are still able to touch people's lives in a good way.  This experience to serve has given this Christmas season a whole different meaning.  It's what Christmas is all about.  Though this post was started before Christmas, it is being finished after Christmas.  We hope  you all had a very Merry Christmas and were able to enjoy time with your families and remember and be thankful for the real reason for the season and be grateful for all that our Savior has done for us and the blessing the Gospel bring into our lives. I know we certainly are!

A  belated  VERY  MERRY  CHRISTMAS !!!! 

Christmas and Other Things

We have been enjoying getting ready for Christmas, and we're grateful that we decided to break down and put up a a tree.  It's difficult to get the Christmas feeling with it being warm and not cold and snowy.  We are actually very blessed in as much as the weather, which is usually very hot this time of the year, is unusually cool.  We may have sun later in the morning, but by afternoon, it clouds up, cools off and often times rains a very good rainstorm.  Every time we get a hard rain, we get water in our storage area.  The room has openings with slats across them.  It is covered by the garage cover on the one end, and the porch covering on the other.  We thought it was coming from a gap between  the ceiling and the carport cover, so Lynn put calking around the opening, thinking we had solved the problem.  I just wanted to scream when I opened the door to that room to get some ice cream out of our second fridge and saw 2 inches of standing water on the floor.    I grabbed an armful of towels to absorb some of the water.  Later, I discovered that my bag of sugar which was in a plastic bag was wet and water had seeped in thru the bag and onto the paper bag of sugar, getting it all wet.  I salvaged what I could, and had to throw the rest of it away.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went out to the Kamagugu School where we had planted grass for our Helping Hands Project.  They were to have a Christmas Program, according to the Principal.  These are some of the decorations hanging on the walls.

The backdrop for the manger scene.

Some of the animals outside the manger.  Darling art work done by the school kids.  The scenery was very cute.  Too bad there wasn't a Christmas program to go with it, like we were told.

It turned out to be the awards assembly for the end of the year.  January starts the new school year.  The kids have a three week break over Christmas.

Some of the teachers waiting to present awards.  The principal is on the far right.

These children were very proud to receive their awards.  Remember, this is a special needs school.  They also announced their new officers for the coming year.  It was interesting to see the way they applauded the winners.  Such a neat experience to see this.

So the day after Thanksgiving, our land lady's grandson brought over his portable oven from his apartment for us to use while they decided what they were going to do with our stove.  It sat on our cupboard.

Nice stove, except I had to stand on my tip toes on a stool to see what was cooking in the pan.

After having a fit about the portable stove and oven, we came home from shopping to find this box on our porch.  Hooray!!!!

Minutes later, the installers arrived to put it in.  He is taking out the broken stove.

Glad to get rid of this headache!!

The shiney new one!!

This is the hole that was burned in the platform where the oven sat.  We have no idea what caused it. It's a wonder that the whole house didn't go up in flames like another one in the comoplex did a few weeks ago.  The odor from the burning wood and melamine would sting my eyes terrically every time I opened the oven door.

While they were installing the oven, we were starting to put up our tree.  

This is the finished product.

My cute decoration that plays, "Let it Snow" by Bing Crosby.  

You can see the snow falling in the background.

Even stockings under the tree.  A Santa Bear for me and a moose for Elder Baxter.

Full view.

"It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!" 

Family Home Evening with precious and her family.  Elder Baxter is trying to thread his needle to help string popcorn too.

Notice what looks like the star in the east!

So proud of their finished product, ready to hang on their tree.

My Christmas table by the front door.

The wall hanging just past the front door.  Notice the authentic window cover hanging.  It's to keep the flies from coming in through the window.

The kitchen table with Sants and his bowl of candy canes. 

 (Candy canes are hard to come by over here)

The coffee table with the Thanksgiving flowers, which were later replaced by a beautiful poinsetia.

Can't be in a foreign country without a trip to the dentist for a new crown.  

Glad we were able to find a great dentist!

His dental assistant

A common sight during rush hour.  About 4:00, you see dozens of people waiting for the bus to take them home.  These accordian buses are interesting to see go around a corner.  Sometimes there are even three joined together, (they look like a giant caterpillar) and they're full to capacity as many people don't have cars.  Also many of those who don't have cars, can't afford the transport, so they walk miles and miles to and from work.

Close  up of the side view of the bus.

Recent Happenings

I'm sorry I'm behind on our blog entries. Life just doesn't seem to slow down to allow us to get caught up.

We made it through Thanksgiving despite all our trials, and were rewarded with a new stove and oven on Monday. It seems good to have something in which all four burners and the oven work.

The day after Thanksgiving, after District meeting, we celebrated with a shopping trip to look for a tree. We decided that since we would be here for two Christmas's, we would invest in a little holiday spirit. We found a small 4 1/2 foot tree with decorations. We bought a few extra to go on it as well. As I was undoing the decorations, I was thinking, "These are kind of cheesy, but oh well, it's a tree". When we got it put up, it really did look quite cute. We also found a little noise activated music box that plays, "Let it Snow"with Bing Crosby singing, and in the background, snow is falling down behind a glass as the lighting behind the glass changes colors. I told Lynn that would be the only snow we would see this Christmas.

We hurried to get it decorated because we were having a family over for Family Home Evening, because they are moving and we thought it would be fun to have it feel like Christmas amid all their packing. The oven people were there trying to install the oven, and the landlady was there to inspect things to make sure all was good. She is 85 years old and is still driving and pretty spry. They finished and started packing their tools to their truck and Lynn said, "Let's make sure it's working." They turned on the burners one by one. When they turned the second one, it tripped the breaker and they had to take the oven out and work on the wiring for another 45 minutes.

The oven was finally working, they left, and we finished decorating the tree after Lynn had to go exchange 2 sets of lights for ones that weren't flashing. We finished the decorating and got things ready for FHE. They were in awe at the feeling of Christmas. I don't think people do much for Christmas over here.  After a flannel board lesson on Nephi building the ship, and keeping the commandments, we popped pop corn and strung garland of pop corn and red beads. They had fun doing it, even the 5 year old who is nearly blind was excited to be involved which surprised his mother. We had rice krispy treats for a treat. This family loves the gospel. Their 7 year old gave the prayer and it sounded about like something a General Authority would give. When they left, they asked if they could come again before they moved. Of course we said yes.

We had appointments almost every night with some of our inactive people. 3 of the 4 are coming out but we're still working on the 4th.

The Moss's came over last week to let us know they were going home early. They have a family situation at home where they are needed to help, so after talking to their Bishop and the Mission President, it was decided that it was best for them to leave early. They were to be finished in April. We are sad to hear that they will be leaving. We have become very close to them over the past nearly 3 months. We are even sadder that there is a problem at home that they need to help with. Because she had family here before Thanksgiving, she didn't get her set of placemats done. I knew that with all the early packing that needed to be done, she probably wouldn't have time to do them, so I offered. I worked on them during the weekend, as well as make 9 dozen cookies and a large pan of oatmeal fudge bars for the dessert for Zone Conference, as well as chicken spread for rolls to eat along the way.

We left early Monday morning for the 5 hour ride to Tzaneen for Zone Conference. We stopped at various sights along the way. The beauty was breath taking! It reminded me places in Dominica with its mountains, green foilage and rain forests in some areas. Just before arriving in Tzaneen, we turned on the GPS to find our way to the hotel. None of the satelites were working so after driving around for a bit and calling the hotel for directions, another Sr. couple called and we met and followed them to the hotel. We quickly changed clothes and freshened up to go to dinner with the Mission President and his wife, the Area President, Elder Renland of the Seventy and his wife and about 7 other senior couples. We had an enjoyable time until the flying termites started attacking us as we sat on the patio dining area. They were attracted to the light, and were coming in swarms. They were about 2-3 inches long. You couldn't just shoo them away. I was grabbing them with my napkin and squeezing the life out of them - 5 in a bunch - and Lynn was stabbing them with the his fork. What a sight. And with all the excitement, of course we didn't take time to get the camera out of his pocket to get a few snaps. The other end of the table was wondering what was going on! I guess our flying friends passed the word along to their friends and soon those that survived, decided to go to greener pastures. Good thing! Right after that, they brought our dinner, and we were able to enjoy it in peace!

We had a beautiful and inspirational conference the next morning. We started a 8:00 and went until 12:00 with a 10 minute break and one stretch time. Elder Renland brought a message from the First Presidency which was, "Thank You for what you are doing! Thank you for giving of your time and talents to spread the word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and do the work that is needing to be done in this area of the world." It was very touching as he told how they select the place where you will serve. He said he had been there when they had assigned someone to an area, and several minutes later, the Apostle said, "Go back. That couple needs to be here, not there." I had the Spirit testify to me once again that this is where we are supposed to be, and that we have truly been called by the Lord through his Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.

After being taught and spiritually fed, we enjoyed a nice lunch by Elder and Sister Alder, they are over the Seminary and Institute Program in this Area. We took several pictures of our group and helped clean up. We had opted to stay over another night so we wouldn't have to be driving in the dark on the long drive back home. In this area there are alot of cattle and goats along the highway. In fact, the Moss' had hit a cow driving at night along these roads. We relaxed on the covered patio of the hotel. A short time later a hugh thunder storm came through and we were glad we weren't driving on unfamiliar roads in the dark.

At 6:00 the next morning, we received a text from our Primary President asking us if we were still in Tzaneen. If so, could we stop and give her husband a blessing. He and two of their children had the mumps and he was also experiencing severe stomach cramps and chest pains. We agreed to but told them that it would be later in the afternoon before would be there. When we arrived there, he didn't seem too bad, but Lynn and Elder Moss still gave him a blessing. Each day this week we have received a text saying that he was worse than the day before. He is experiencing some complications and was into the doctor again this morning. They gave him a different medication and said he would be down for another week.

Our Branch Christmas party was scheduled for Saturday morning. The mumps has seemed to spread to other children in the Branch, and in addition, our Branch President's wife was in Johannesburg with the loss of sight because a cornea transplant that they did 2 years ago was now being rejected by her body. This is the woman who we were helping with her and her baby who was in the hospital with pneumonia. Their little 4 year old also has the mumps. In liew of the mump outbreak and in consideration of the Branch President, the decision was made to postpone the party, until a later date. Some people were a little disgruntled by the decision, but it was recommended by Mission President Omer to postpone the Christmas social because of the mumps outbreak.

It was a good thing, because we still had to get the Primary room put back together after the painters had been there this week. Moss's were leaving Saturday and we needed to help with some last minute things for them. We were sad to see them leave. We are praying that we will get another couple here soon to help take care of the KaNyamazane Branch. If not, we may be driving there every other week to help them, and we already feel like we're drowning here. We just need more senior couples in the field to help. We will also have their set of missionaries to see about as well. We don't mind that. They are great workers. It just means that I'll be baking more cookies now, and be doing the Christmas Devotional and Brunch by myself. But that's not a problem, I'm used to large family crowds, and they are our family right now.

My rear end has gone to sleep, so that means I need to sign off and go see about something for dinner before we have to go give blessings to the family who came over for FHE. Her husband isn't a member and she wanted Lynn to give them all blessings before they leave. We will miss her. She is a very choice person who loves the Gospel and is so thankful for the blessing that it is in her life.

Take care and know that we love you and miss you all. Have fun getting ready for Christmas as you prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We love the work and are grateful for the opportunity to serve under such favorable circumstances.

A Thanksgiving to Remember

       This was our first Thanksgiving while on our mission.  We had planned to have Elder and Sister Moss and their three family members who were visiting from the States, our two Elders, the two Elders from the KaNyamazane Branch and two young men from our branch who have been going out with our Elders on teaching assignments.  We spent nearly all day Monday going from one store to another to find each needful thing for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We felt very fortunate that we were able to find a turkey for the big day.  Sister Moss found that Woolworth's had frozen turkeys.  They weren't large - 8 1/2 pounds - but we got two so we'd have enough for leftovers.  We found no fresh cranberries, but we did find canned  cranberries.    They had never heard of yams, but they had sweet potatoes - white sweet potatoes.  We hoped that we had everything we needed because we had been to 4 different stores and were ready to go home.  I got home and got all the things put away and started to cut up and dry the four loaves of bread for the stuffing.   I barely had enough pans to put it in to start drying.

     Tuesday I made my fudge so it was done and I could take it out of the pan and put it in a zip lock bag, so I could use my pan for other things.  Wednesday was to be the big day for all major preparations.  Knowing that the pies would take the longest, I started with them first.  Sister Moss's family had brought canned pumpkin from the states, so I didn't have to cook my own pumpkin, for which I was grateful!  During the course of my preparations, I discovered that I had no water!  Bummer!  No way to rinse things when I finished with them so they wouldn't get dried on while waiting to be washed.   I had my 3 pumpkin pies ready to go into my preheated oven.  Just then, my power went out!  Are you kidding me?  No power?  I need power today.  I thought to check the breaker.  It was tripped!  Well at least they aren't working on the lines and have the whole system out!  I flipped it back on, and hooray!  I had power.  I put 2 pies into the oven.  That's all that would fit into my small oven.  After  15 minutes, I turned it down like the recipe said, and set the timer for 40 minutes.  When the buzzer rang, the pies weren't quite done, so I set it for  10 more minutes.  I checked them again.  They seemed done, but the crusts weren't brown at all.  Oh well, they still looked good.

     I turned the oven up to 400 and decided to bake the four pie shells before doing the other pumpkin and apple pies.  I kept checking the oven to see if it was hot enough yet.  It seemed to take longer to heat, but I finally put the shells in.  I kept checking them every 10 minutes, but they weren't getting done.  After 30 minutes,  the inside of the crust still appeared doughy, I realized that my oven wasn't working.  When Elder Baxter came home from doing errands, I told him about my plight and he went out and bought an oven thermometer to check the temperature.  It definitely wasn't working!

      In late September after we had finished getting settled, our Landlady had stopped by to meet us and I told her that Elder Nichols had mentioned that the top burner wasn't working and that she had said she would get someone out to fix it.  I also told her that we had an American Holiday in November in which I would need the stove for baking and a lot of food preparation for this holiday.  She said she would have it checked.  When our flat was hit by lightning during a storm the stove breaker was tripped and when it was reset, it tripped the main breaker.  She sent a repairman out and he fixed a burned wire.  He also discovered a large burned hole about 12 inches in diameter on the platform where the drop-in oven sits. He was curious about that and said he had never seen anything like that before and was surprised it hadn't started a fire.  He recommended that the oven be replaced.  Our landlady didn't like that idea so she kept sending out different electricians to get another opinion.  They told her the same thing.  I kept reminding her that I needed my oven on Wednesday and Thursday and whatever repairs needed to be done had to be done Monday or Tuesday of that week.  We had heard nothing.  So here it is Wednesday,  I had four more pies waiting to be baked and no oven!  I also had two turkeys, dressing, green bean casserole, and 5 dozen rolls to be baked the next day, and NO OVEN!

     After making a phone call to her, in which she told me she was just leaving for Pretoria and she would call me next week, I gathered my pies and knocked on Sister Moss's door and said "Help!"
We made arrangements with her to use her oven on Thursday as well, even though they weren't going to be at home.  (Her family decided that they wanted to sight see instead of coming to Thanksgiving)  We also called our young Elders, who live two rows down from us, to see if we could use their oven tomorrow as well.  Arrangements were all made and I had the oven situation under control, even though it wasn't going to be convenient for my preparations.  Oh well, the food would still get cooked!

     Thursday morning, I arose early to make the rolls and finish the rest of the preparations.  Later in the  morning I had put my large pots of potatoes, sweet potatoes and giblets on to cook and went to get ready.  I came out a few minutes later to check them to be sure that they weren't boiling, and discovered that the stove was cold!  The  stove top wasn't working either!  So I gathered my pots one by one and walked to the Moss's to get them on to cook on her stove.  Then I went back a few minutes later to turn them down after they started boiling.  I spent the next hour and a half taking my rolls and dressing to my two borrowed ovens.  Elder Baxter would go to the Elders' flat to help take them out and butter the top and go back a few minutes later to do the same with the next pans.  I was doing the same with my things in the Moss's oven.  I'm sure the neighbors thought we were crazy running back and forth with all these pans of food.    Then I ended up having to rewarm things in the microwave so they would be hot enough and ready to serve.

     The table was set with the new African place mats that I had made and everything looked lovely.  As we were ready to sit down, Elder Mower asked if he could lie down somewhere as he wasn't feeling well.  He had the same flu that his companion had had a couple of weeks ago and was running a fever of 102.2.  I went to dish up the jello, and the whole container was still jiggly, even though I had set it the night before and had used only half the water that it called for.  (It was the first time I had made their brand of jello.)  Oh, well, we had jiggly jello with whipped cream anyway.  Because I had never cooked or eaten white sweet potatoes, I was nervous about them.  We had found some canned orange sweet potatoes that I had opened and mashed and seasoned with the white ones.  They were OK, but the color was a dirty light brown color.  Not exactly like the orange yams that we're used to eating!

Sister Moss's family brought me French Fried Onions for my green bean casserole.  Hooray!!

When we were looking for turkeys, I couldn't believe it when I saw these chicken heads and feet packaged and ready for cooking!  Elder Baxter had to go get the camera for actual proof!

They call these "Walky Talky" and they make a soup out of them and call it "Walky Talky Soup.

They eat all of the feet and heads.  They don't just use them for the broth!

We have much to be thankful for!

A kitchen full of busies.  Notice all the kinds of sugar.  Brown sugar comes in three different colors, very light tan, medium brown and dark brown.  It is very course, unlike our brown sugar.  Caster sugar is a very fine sugar.  Icing sugar is for making frosting, similar to our powdered sugar, another kind of icing sugar, and white sugar is a very course sugar.  It has been a trial and error experience with my baking and these sugars.

One of my turkeys - 8 1/2 pounds.  $27 @ 3.50 per pound!

Pies done, and dressing to put together.  Cross them off my list!  

In addition to the pumpkin and apple, we had banana and chocolate as well.

Making out the rolls, Thanksgiving morning.  (Looking bad, and yes, girls, I did go to bed.)

Filling the pans of rolls.  (I'm really not asleep.  Lynn just snapped it as I was looking down.)

haha

 Rolls ready to raise.

Thanksgiving table all set.  Notice my new wicker chairs.  Hand made by young people from  Zimbabwe.  They were selling them along the side  of the road for about $15USD each and Lynn stopped and bought them.  We bought the cushions at Mr. Price Home.  It is a very fun, inexpensive store where we've bought a lot of things to make our flat feel more homey.

My African place mats.  They have a design on both the front and back.  

We bought the fabric and I made them.

Hooray for me!

When President Omer was down for interviews, Sister Omer, Sister Moss and I had a ladies shopping day and found these at Valencia.  They were in a large strip of fabric that we cut out, put some light weight batting in between and sewed them together.  Each of us got a set that made 9 place mats.

I was surprised how many of the Elders said, "Wow, I like your place mats."  

They are really cool, and lifted the plates to see the whole thing.

Elder Baxter helping with the preparations.  The container was too big to fit into the microwave, so we had to put it into a smaller container to fit into the microwave.

Elder Laban (from New Zealand) helping with the rolls.  

Thanks Elders for your help and letting us use your oven to get everything cooked.

Elder Baxter carving the turkey.

All our guests ready to sit down to dinner, minus Elder Mower who had gone to lie down because he was running a fever and sick with flu.  We saved him a plate however.  Starting from the left, Elder Baker,  Ephriam, Sibusiso, Elder Brinkerhoff, Elder Mower's empty chair, and Elder Laban.

Our Thanksgiving dinner, starting front left and going around.  Potatoes, rolls, dressing - with and without pecans,  sweet potatoes, turkey, choco loco -(Elder Laban made and brought).  It's an African dish) gravy and green bean caserole.

     Despite all that the Elders had eaten, they still had room for pie.  When I took the pies out of the fridge. I was disappointed to find that my "mile high banana pie, had wilted to pudding.  I don't know why.  It was set up and high when I put it in the fridge.  The only thing I can think is that it was from the humidity from the fridge.  They had ice cream with their pie and also took an extra piece home with them.

     Despite all the problems that we experienced, the dinner turned out and was very much enjoyed by the Elders.  They all went back for seconds and then fixed them a plate to take home for left overs later along with a bag of rolls and a bag of fudge and M & M's. (Thanks Jeanette).  I saved them for the big day).  We truly had much to be thankful for.

     About 4:30, our two Elders had to leave for an appointment.  Ephriam and Sibusiso went along as well.  Our Elders are trying to give them the feel for missionary work.  Elder Laban hung out waiting for his companion to wake up.  About 6:00, he finally stirred, still running a fever.  I fixed him some jello and a roll and gave him some Excedrin.

Elder Laban started feeling a little chilly because our patio door had been open to keep the house cool.  He wanted a blanket to wrap up in.  Elder Mower managed a smile, despite the fever and not feeling well, but that's just how he is--always a smile on his face.

 

    Thanks Elders for helping make our first Thanksgiving away from home so memorable!!