March in Pilanesberg

On Friday March 24th we took a preparation day to make up for the previous Saturday and drove to Pilanesberg National Park. We were there in early January and we could see seasonal changes with the grasses starting to brown.  We arrived at the park about 9;15 am and started driving around. Sometimes you can drive for hours without seeing an animal and then see a lot together. On the 24th we saw 40 elephants! 38 of them came into a water hole and salt lick just as we were ready to leave. They came in groups over about a 20 minute period. The other 2 we saw in different places - one at a lake where he was right up against the hide and the other as we were heading for the gate and he stopped traffic. Elephants are unpredictable and can easily turn a car over so when they are on the road, everyone waits. We saw lots of impalas, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, wildebeests and even some rhinos at a distance the first day. There were also some interesting birds.We spent the night at the Kingdom Resort which is about 20 minutes from the gate we use.

Pilanesberg Map

Pilanesberg is an extinct volcano. It was made into a park in 1979. It covers 221 square miles. It was reclaimed from farm land and many animal (6000) were brought to the park in the early 1980's to repopulate the area in a program called "Operation Genesis." 

Green backed Heron

Pied Kingfisher

Warthog

Grey Go Away Bird

Ox peckers on a Giraffe

Elephant next to the Hide at Mankwe Lake

Pilanesberg Center -
 animals at salt lick including giraffe, zebra, impala, kudu

Baby Zebra - isn't he cute!

Elephant on the Road!!!

Elephants at Pilanesberg Center 

Kingdom Resort

On the 25th we left our lodging early and arrived at the Bakubung Gate (the one we use) at 6:15 am. It was just getting light and we took the first dirt road. We saw a rhinoceros near the road and then drove on. Shortly after the rhino we saw 2 black backed jackals running down the road towards us so we stopped to watch them. They veered off before getting near, but a third jackal followed and came right up to our car!   A short time later we ended up being in the middle of a herd of Impala - about 150 of them with only 1 buck, a number of females and lots of young ones. We stayed and watched them mill around our car for at least half an hour. Just after we drove away we saw a mother rhino with a baby next to the road, so we sat in the car until they meandered off. Later we saw some elephants on the road, more impala,  We went some time without seeing any animals. We returned to Johannesburg in the afternoon.
It was a good trip and very nice to get away from the city. We are more grateful for the variety that God created in this beautiful world.

Black-backed Jackal

Impala Buck (the one with the huge herd)

Mother and baby Rhino

Giraffe looking at us

Gautrain and Pretoria Zoo

Tuesday, March 21st was Human Rights Day holiday so 20 Area Office Missionaries took the Gautrain (we live in Gauteng province which is pronounced Hautang), a high speed electric train, to Pretoria. The train goes underground in Jo'burg and above ground beyond the city.  From the Pretoria station we took a bus to the National Zoo. It was a nice zoo, but we like the Jo'burg zoo better. The wild animal parks are even better, but you only see native animals (if they are visible!) at the parks. We had lunch at the restaurant at the zoo and then returned to Rosebank Mall area to pick up our cars. It was a warm and fun day.

Voortrekker (Pioneer) Monument outside of Pretoria. We need to go back to see it as it is a monument to the Afrikaners (Dutch) who left Cape Town to escape the British.

Zebra with Pretoria in background.

Okapi from DR Congo

Charging Rhino - we were glad there was a sturdy fence!

From the train station as we wait to go home.

His People On Fire - Church History Training Seminar March 17-18 2017

Our advisers started arriving at the airport early on the 16th. We thought once all the flight bookings were done, Thursday the 16th would be an easy day of just receiving them as the shuttle brought them in to the Area Office. Wrong! Our first expected adviser's flight was cancelled and she came in on a later flight. then we found the 4 men from the DR Congo had changed flights and had come in about 4 am and had managed to call our shuttle service to get them to the hotel. One man missed his flight (we never heard how that happened!) and took the bus from Zimbabwe and didn't arrive at the hotel until about 10 am on the 17th. There were a couple of other hitches, but everyone made it. As I said I thought the 16th would be relaxed, but it turned very hectic!

Then we had arranged for one of our advisers who hadn't had the opportunity to take out his temple endowment to do that at the 3 pm session. The temple prefers a person be there 1 1/2 hours early so we had him up there in time. I came back from getting him settled and our DRC country advisers told me that a new adviser was going to get his endowment which they hadn't informed the temple of. We rushed around and got him up in time to do it - because this temple sees a lot of this type of situations and is very accommodating. We had to get them from the Temple/Area Office complex to their hotel and they were very slow returning so it was after 7 pm before we got home. But they were all thrilled to have had the opportunity to go the temple.

On the 17th we had our meetings at the Sunnyside Park Hotel, built in 1895. All went well with an excellent buffet lunch. Cherrie had a short presentation on reporting (and sending in their monthly report on time!) and Dave had a couple of short presentations. S. Mark Palmer, 2nd counselor in our Area Presidency and his wife spoke to us.  After the meetings we went with all the advisers to the temple for a session. One advisers was able to be sealed to his deceased parents and another one had her grandparents sealed. We didn't get home until after 9pm.

Sunnsyside Park Hotel

Elder & Sister Palmer

Leon Holmes

On Saturday, the 18th, we went to the area Office early to set up for our meeting. David and Leon Holmes made several trips to bring the advisers over. After a general session we split into 2 groups with Leon taking the newer advisers (13) and us having the more seasoned advisers with a couple of sessions being conducted by some long time advisers. It all went well. We had lunch catered at the office by the canteen crew. We ended about 5 pm and took people back to the hotel. A couple of advisers helped me put things away while Dave made a couple of trips. Then we took the last 3 advisers in our car. We stayed at the hotel so Dave could meet with Osvaldo from Mozambique on a project they are doing. I was able to visit with some of our lovely women. It was good and our advisers felt that they learned a lot and also made friends with the other advisers.

Our Seminar Group Photo

Everyone but Never and Everjoyce from Zimbabwe left for home on Sunday. They stayed to have some computer training on Monday and then left at noon. They are a lovely couple who are tremendously hard workers. I love their names, too!

Never & Everjoyce

We are glad the Seminar went so well - we had 23 advisers from 14 countries in the Africa Southeast Area. But we are glad it is over. We are still exhausted from the long hours before and during the seminar.

Lion Safari Park

Yesterday, March 11th we went to Lion Safari Park which is about an hour from our flat. It was good to get away from the city and it is surprising you can be so close to Jo'burg and its suburbs. We went on the hour and a half safari which took us tot he lion enclosures with 3 lion prides, the wild dog enclosure and the hyena area plus the leopards and through the veld where there were various antelope, zebra and giraffe. As mentioned the predators are enclosed so they have to be fed and do not feed on the other animals. It was interesting to see the lions up close and our guide was excellent on telling about each kind of animal.

Leopard in a tree

Cherrie petting lion cubs

Dave with lion cubs

Male lion

Lioness

Wild Dog

Zebra & Blesbok antelope

Giraffe

While we love to see the animals like this, we look forward to going to a game reserve and seeing them free.

Face to Face in Johannesburg

March 4, 2017 the Church had a "Face to Face" for youth with 20 youth from South Africa on screen. We were asked to attend due the historical nature of the event so last night we went up to the Devotional Room in Area Office to photograph the event and watch it. President Henry B. Eyring and Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Council of the 12 Apostles were in Palmyra, New York with a group of youth from that area. They answered questions particularly related to a scripture from the New Testament, James 1:5. It was a wonderful event and we learned from the messages - or answers taught. It is wonderful the Church is doing these events to help strengthen the faith of the youth in the challenging times we are in.
It was interesting to see how much effort had gone into the event here in Jo'burg and realize similar efforts had to be done in Palmyra and Plymouth, England. It really shows how much our Heavenly Father loves each person on this earth.

Anniversary

This last week we celebrated our 52nd anniversary. We bought a small bronze statue titled "Walking in Love." It depicts a young African couple walking together. While we are no longer young ( at least looking at gray hair and wrinkles in the mirror confirms that) we started our walk together in love and continue to enjoy being with each other. The tag attached to the statue says:

"Together we will walk down the path of happiness and love, thinking about our future as husband and wife. We wonder if we will have children one day and how this will change our lives."

We now look back at the joy we've shared as we have had children, and now grandchildren, worked together amidst both sorrows and moments of joy. We are grateful we could walk together in love all these years.