Ren and Debbie's Mission Adventures

The days and nights are a blur and we seem to never have the time. But we absolutely love every minute and wouldn't have it any other way.   Our duties and experiences change every single day, really . . . . really . . . . like try this on for example.

Last week we received a SMS (text) from a pair of our Elders who were doing service at a farm here in East London. Their text said, "Elder Boyce will you approve us to get new windshield wiper blades for our car? We just watched an EMU peel them off the windshield of our car and run away with them. I told the Elders to try and catch the big bird and get a billing address, but the bird was too fast!!!   None of the experiences we see, shock us anymore, we see everything here in South Africa.

Elder Boyce is always busy making sure that the fleet of cars and bikes under our care, are in good order. We seem to always be juggling with car and bicycle breakdowns and repairs. Businesses really don't move very fast, over here. If we have a car accident, it usually takes 2-3 months to get the car repaired and back in service. This is always fun to try and make things work when 4 Elders share a car, to get to their areas, and the car goes down for repairs. But you know what, everything always seems to work out. We really don't even wonder how and why things always fall into place because we know the true source of why we are all blessed so much.

So I think on this round of our blog, I am going to just post a bunch of pictures and do some explaining what they are. I really don't want to burden you with a bunch of dialog (and me either) so just enjoy the photos and some things we have been doing in the last 60 days.
This is May 12th - Mother's Day.

We invited any Elder's over to our flat to Skype and call their moms. We had them coming at different times. We also had dinner for them and they played some games (in hopes of making a homey atmosphere for them!)while they were waiting for their turn to Skype their Mom's and family. We had three locations in our flat so they could have privacy to Skype. (you can imagine how noisy it was!) It still took about 4 hours. The Missionary Handbook restricts them to 30 minutes each, but the good thing is that it was all free for them to call! We probably had about 26 Elders calling home and this was just a few of them!

This is a beautiful cactus that is the entrance of our complex where we live, or as they say it in South Africa - where we stay. It also covers the countryside as we travel to areas within our mission.

If you want to move or change residency, you can do it like this! Most people do not have a car, let alone a bakkie (truck). So they just pick up, what few belongings they have, and move them to their new location! We see this as a convenient way to move, and an even better way to move their belongings is with a wheelbarrow.

Brett and Min - aren't you glad that you and the kids didn't have to move this way!!

Ren is holding the daughter of the Branch President in Grahmstown.

Her name is Lucy Budaza.

She's a cutey!

But not as cute as 5 little girls that we have back home!

Mia, Georgia, Annie, Ivy and little Kate!!

Or as handsome as 4 little boys we have back home!

Luke, Richie, Landon and Brock!

We love you all!

We were part of a Young Single Adult Committee.

On the 29th of June we had a Young Single Adult Conference.

Saturday evening was a dance and we were chaperones for the dance.

Sorry it is so blurry and I'm so WHITE!

This is Sister Magibisela.

She had 4 steps to get out of her front door with no handrail!

We installed a handrail for her and she thanked us by baking a delicious pie!

It actually was very good, as good as home - it was apple!

This is a church in Alexandria, is about 30 minute south of Port Alfred.

Doesn't it remind you of what we see back in home?

This is the start line of the Knysna Half Marathon on July 6th.

We had a Branch Conference at the Knysna Branch on the 6th and 7th.

So President Wood (our mission President) and I decided to run it!

There was 6500 runners from all over the world!

It was great fun!

The start line sign is waaaaayyyyy in the back of the picture.

It started in the Knysna Forest and it was COLD! Can you tell!

The finish line . . . well 100 yards away . . . I did finish!

Just this past Saturday - August 17th was Helping Hands Day in South Africa.

A day that

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints reaches out to

all communities in South Africa in service.

Our ward - the Mdantsane 3rd Ward

decided to go to an orphanage just down the street from the church.

This orphanage gets no government funding, is housed in a corrugated shack, it has no power, no washing machine, no running water, no indoor toilet, no shower facility,

Leaving from the church . . . .

Arriving . . . .

Home to 23 children - 9 months to 18 years.

            Washing clothes - this is a bath tub. We washed 9 loads like this, plus other containers.
                                                         Notice the color of the water.
                                       We did change the water, but the color didn't change.