It's Sunday evening and we're organizing and planning for the coming week.  We ran across some photos we took when we first arrived in Cape Town back on December 28th.  The office couples took us around Cape Town and showed us several sites that they thought we would enjoy and that maybe we wouldn't get back to Cape Town to view.
So along with Table Mountain Hike, that we have already posted, here are some views from Cape of Good Hope.  Cape of Good Hope is where the warm Indian Ocean meets the cold Atlantic Ocean and the wind is always at gale force!!

 This is Simon's Town Beach - where the only African Penguins hangout!

Below are some pictures taken at a beautiful garden in Cape Town on December 30!!

These two pictures are of some kids in our ward area - Mdantsane.  Notice the the little boy carrying his stuffed animal on his back.  He's imitating his mom - moms carry their babies like this.

You may remember our Elder that we had to rescue out of jail for speeding - here he is!

We love what we're doing!  The people are very humble and gracious.  The missionaries are so grateful for what we do for them.  We sure do stay busy!
Love to you all!

Count your blessings!!

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The Bishop in the ward that we are serving in is a young man about 38.  He is really is a good humble Bishop.  One of things he is trying to do in his ward is trying to get his members to sit together in church.  He says that in Wards here in Africa that the fathers sit on the back row and the mothers and kids sit closer to the front.  Every week, before church starts,  he stands at the pulpit and asks that families please sit together.  They really have some issues of absent fathers in this culture.  The fathers feel like they have little or no responsibilities in the family.  He is trying to get the fathers in his ward to own-up to helping their wives take care of the children, not only in church but in life as well.

We just received a report for 11 Young Single Adults males (YSA – like I was over in St. George, except I was over girls) here in East London.  They are all in College and studying for careers.  The report was to emphasis the lack of family involvement in the lives of these young men.  It is quite sad here in South Africa. Out of these 11 YSA males only ONE young man has a family “in-tact” (they call it) meaning a mother and father that are still married!  Two of them have been abandoned by both mother and fatther, two of them have had both parents die.  The rest,  6 remaining, have a single mother with the father either unknown or abandoned the family.  We don’t realize how blessed we are to be born in America and the Church! 

I'm counting my blessings every single day!

Hi everyone!

We are now in our assigned area – which is East London, South Africa.  It’s about 1080 K or 600 miles from Cape Town and the Mission home and office.  It took about 2 hours to fly here.  We spent 5 days in Cape Town and then were sent here to East London.  We spent 1 week with the couple, the Fowers from San Deigo, they trained us and now we are on our own!  They left on Thursday and we were able to start moving in to our flat.  So we have been cleaning, taking inventory and moving in for 3 days.  We have included photos of the outside of our flat and our amazing view.  We had to order some new blinds for the inside so as soon as we have them we will take photos of the inside of our flat. 

We are assist over 40 Elders, so part of that responsibility is making sure their flats, and cars are inspected for cleanliness  and operate properly.  We also supply them with items for the maintenance and cleaning of both.  So the inventory in the garage consists of items to take to the Elders each time we inspect their flat and car.  Items like dish rags, dish cloths, dish soap, (no dishwashers here – not even us – we hand wash every dish, no disposals either) shower cleaner, mold remover etc.  We keep a “store” in the garage of these items to take to the Elders when they need them.

Mondays are our P-days, it is also the Elders P-day so I will also be cutting hair for who ever needs it on Monday afternoon right before they go back to work on Monday evening.  P-day ends at 5:00 pm.

So we actually began our missionary service on Wednesday before we moved into our flat.  Our first duty was to take a missionary to the airport because he was being sent back to the mission home.

As we were driving from the airport we received a call from another Elder that was caught in a speed trap and was arrested on the spot!  Which rarely happens – he was going 104 km in a 60 km zone.  So we had to go to the  Cambridge police station and bail him out of jail.  We went to court with him and his companion the next day to pay his fine.  His companion was studying law before he came out on his mission so he found it all rather fasinating - the law system here in South Africa.  It all turned out OK. 

Then as we were returning  home we received a call from 2 Elders that had a kitchen grease fire and we had to drive to King William’s Town (60 miles) to assess the damage, buy them a new stove and arrange to have the kitchen cleaned and painted.  That was Wednesday, Thursday.

Saturday we received a call from President Wood, the mission President, saying that Elder Davuke’s father past away.  He’s from Suva, Fiji, (how about that President Cope – his mother is from Quaima) and is serving in Queenstown (2 hours from Gonubie – where we live).  Pres. Wood asked us us to go up to Queenstown the next day – Sunday.  We had to talk in church in the Mdantsane 3rd Ward, we have been asked by the Stake President to attend that ward.  I will assist the Primary and Ren will assist the High Priest Group.  So we spoke in church and then headed out to Queenstown.  (Elder McDonald, are you getting all this!)

The couple that we replaced called us yesterday and said that we have already seen much more than they saw their whole mission!

So we are ready for our p-day!  However, transfers are next week and we are meeting the new Elders at the airport on Wednesday and have to move Elder Zarbock (Yea, that’s right, Boyce family, Elder Zarbock!) and his companion into a different flat on Thursday . . . wait just a minute . . . we just recieved word that Elder Zarbock is being transfered.  So we will be moving 2 Elders but not Elder Zarbock, he's headed somewhere else.

Well, things couldn't be better!  We're doing great.  The church is true!
 

Conquering Table Mountain

Happy New Year everyone!
Our last day in Cape Town before we leave for East London - January 1, 2013!  We decided to take a hike up Table Mountain.  This is 3300 ft vertical climb.  Wow, it was an awesome climb!  However, Elder Boyce is very sore - as in his quads took a beating on the way down.  Sort of like I feel every time I run a marathon!  Here's some photos of the climb and the view!

 

Bottom of the Hill 

 

Gale force winds all the way to the top!

 

View from the top!

 

On the way down!

 

We did it!

 Now we can't walk!