We completed our mission to South Africa in June of 2014.   It's hard to believe that a whole year has gone by!  We both got right back into work and life with the kids and grandkids.

It quickly seemed like the 18 months we spent in South Africa was a blur. We yearned for the same feelings we had when we were in South Africa. About the same time we were called to South Africa President Lon Henderson was called to serve as a Mission President in Brisbane Australia.  We were thinking about the possibility of serving another mission and we made contact with President and
Sister Henderson.   His immediate response was, "Yes, we would love to have you come and help us."
We fasted and prayed about leaving so quickly, and talked to our kids and 9 little grandkids.  We also talked to our business partners about leaving and they said, "Go, we received more blessings when you were gone serving".   So receiving love and encouragement from our kids and grandkids, we're on our way again.

Not surprising, we were officially called to serve in Brisbane, Australia to leave on June 29th.   To get an Australian Visa is quite a process.   Australian immigration was naturally concerned about our time spent in South Africa.   We were required to obtain a police clearance from South Africa and special medical clearances.    We finally received the needed documents.   We waited and waited.  We could see the 29th of June coming and not having our visas, so we asked for a temporary assignment until our visa's arrived.  We were called to serve in the California, Anaheim mission.  We are serving in Disneyland. How great is that?  We have been here in Anaheim, for the past 2 weeks.  We were assigned to the Anaheim 1st Ward and have been visiting the lost sheep and actually teaching investigators.  We have been with the Elders and Sisters here and have thoroughly enjoyed what we have been doing.  We have learned on Friday the 10th that our visas have been approved.   We will be on our way to Brisbane this week. Leaving from St. George on Sunday evening the 19th of July and arriving in Brisbane on Tuesday morning the 21st of July.  We can hardly wait to get there and start our adventure.

We are continuing the same blog we set up when we were in South Africa.  Some of you may want to look at what we did there.  We also will have an Instagram account for those who would like to  follow our blog, and also see the pictures we post on Instagram.   To get Instagram you have to download the application and search for Debbieboyce9.  It will then send us a request and we can accept you to follow our Instagram.

                Here's our amazingly supportive kids and grand kids!!!  Aren't they all the cutest!

We've had the opportunity to attend the Newport Temple twice this week.  Once for a session with our Zone and once with the ward to help with baptisms.  What a beautiful temple!

 

 Fireworks over Anaheim Angels Stadium on JULY 4TH!  The stadium is right next to our apartment complex!

Signing off till we get down under next week!!
Love,
Elder and Sister Boyce

We knew this time would come, but its now difficult to accept and as we wind down on our Mission experience we reflect on all these treasures that will be forever burned in our memories.  We have absolutely loved every minute of this adventure.  We love this beautiful country, it's people and the feelings we have of being in the service of our Savior.  Our knowledge and testimonies have grown and we are even more convinced of the truth and its blessings. 

Let us share just a couple of pictures and experiences we have enjoyed in this last month. 

Attached is a picture of Elder and Sister Boyce with our little 91 year old Sister Peggy from East London 3rd Ward.  Sister Peggy has been a member since 1952 and from the onset of her membership she has been hosting and feeding the missionaries here in East London.  She has them over to her home each Monday evening for food and a Family Home Evening.  She has been doing this each week for 62 years. Needless to say, she has seen her fair share of missionaries as they serve in this area.  She is so sweet and charming and so kind and gracious to all those who pass within the walls of her home.  Besides feeding the missionaries, she also sews and takes care of all there split out pants, rips in their shirts, holes in their socks and everything they wear that needs to be altered.  She even takes their pants in when they have lost weight, but more often lets them out when they gain weight. We are sure her eternal reward is pretty well guaranteed.

We enjoyed our 2nd Mothers Day with the Elders.  We had about 20 Elders to our home and they had the opportunity to call or Skype their mothers and families.  Each Elder had about 40 minutes to talk.  We had 4 devices so they could talk to their families.   It was quite a challenge to find private locations for each of the Elders to talk to their families. Our flat only has 2 bedrooms, a great room, bathroom and garage.  We used each of these stations to make sure the Elders were able to talk privately to their moms and families.   The Elders loved being together, eating (naturally) and talking to families back home.  At nights end we were exhausted!  Here are some photos of the fun day!

The above picture is of Elder Steele.  He is from Nephi and is a great Elder.  In the past 6 months we have had 3 Elders who have been bitten by spiders.  The African Sac Spider that usually will bite in the evening while they are sleeping.  The venom of this spider is similar to that of the Brown Recluse (called the Violin Spider over here)  as it will deteriorate the flesh. (But on a much smaller scale). Elder Steele was one of these elders and was bitten between two of his toes.   The morning after he was bitten he woke up and couldn't even walk. The infection went up his leg.   He didn't know what was happening to him and noticed all the swelling and infection around his toe.  He said he had a hole where he was bitten that was large enough to put a Q-tip swab end entirely in it.  He immediately started putting some anti-biotic cream on the bite (some that he had brought from the States).  The wound began to heal.  After about two weeks, he decided to tell his family about his experience.  We went to see him about this time and he showed us the scare and how it was healing.    We could tell by the size of the healing wound that the hole was substantial!  We have bug and spider spray that needs to be applied in their flats very often to eliminate these spiders, fleas, bed bugs, roaches, flies and mosquito's.
Elder 2 was bitten on his arm and  it left a huge hole in his arm that needed 3 weeks to heal.  Elder 3 was bitten on his elbow, but we were able to treat him quickly and the infection only lasted a couple of weeks. 

Elder Maciver from Yorkshire, England.  Below Elder Kaufusi (sitting in the bathroom).  He's from Salt Lake.

Some of the greatest experiences we have is actively proselyting the gospel.  Sharing and inviting is truly a blessing.   We have had many experiences teaching people the message of truth.  Generally we find and then turn these great contacts over to the full time missionaries who teach them the lessons.  Often we fellowship and join them as they teach.  Testifying and sharing personal experiences helps touch their hearts and instills a desire for more learning.   One young man, Lamla Mafundityala, is an incredible 18 year old. His brother Luvuyo is a member and currently serving a mission in Ghana.  Before he left on his mission, he tried to get his brother to listen and accept the message of the Restored Gospel.  He was not really interested and did not progress.  Many sets of Elders tried to teach him and nourish the seed, but he did not act.  Luvuyo challenged us to visit him to see what a couple of old people could to do to spark his interest again. We met with him and shared our testimony and message.   We read from the Book of Mormon and committed him to get back on track. The seed started to germinate again and he committed to read, pray and attend church.  A great ending to the story - he was baptized yesterday!!  It was a wonderful, spiritual event as he bore his testimony following his baptism.  He will now prepare himself to receive the Priesthood and start his efforts in preparing himself over the next year to go on a mission like his older brother.  These are some of the treats of serving here and are really the most rewarding things we do.

 

 Recently we concluded all the Mission Branch Conferences.   We as a Mission Presidency, along with our wife's, train the branch leadership on Saturday and Sunday.  These branch conferences are patterned after the Ward Conferences.  We have Priesthood leadership (This usually involves most of the men in the branch) and also relief society, primary and young women leadership training.  Its a special experience and we love the association we have with these wonderful 'hungering and thirsting' members.  This year our conference was based on the scripture in Matthew 11:28-30.  All of us  that labor and are heavy laden, need to take upon ourselves the yoke of the Savior and he will give us rest.   Here in South Africa many are heavy laden with adversity and trials.  We try to help them understand that they can gain rest from their problems as they trust in the Lord and his Atonement.  Besides these trials in there lives (really in all of our lives), these two women are definitely 'heavy laden' with these burdens they carry on their heads.   These bundles weigh about 80lbs.  They must have very strong neck muscles and their balance is incredible.

We wanted to have a final lunch with all the Elders in our zones. (Except the Queenstown zone) So after their zone conference we took them to their favorite Chinese Restaurant here in East London.  We fed 32 young men lunch. Oh, how we love these guys, they are incredible servants of the Savior and we have become close friends with each of them.  Following the lunch they all stood and sang the mission song to us.  It brought some tears and was very special. Here is a short video of their singing. All those in the restaurant listening were pretty impressed.

 

One of the families we talked about in one of our previous blogs is the Gqola family.  They have now been members almost a year and have progressed in their gospel learning and development.  Ayanda is now serving in the Young Men's Presidency and Jackie is teaching Gospel Doctrine.  They are preparing to go to the Temple and be sealed as a forever family.  Siyanda (their 11 year old son) is preparing to receive the Priesthood in December.   Kelly their young daughter is 7 years old and will be baptized on June 14th.  We unfortunately will miss this event, but Jackie requested a picture of the projected upcoming baptism.  Ayanda (who will be baptizing Kelly) and Kelly were dressed in their 'whites' so we could get a picture before we leave.  So these following picture is in anticipation of the upcoming baptism on June 14th.  

We had the opportunity of having Brett and Mindy come to South Africa and visit us last week.  What a great experience is was with them.  They loved with the beauty of this country and meeting these wonderful people.  We saw many sights, animals, and they even attended church with us. (The Bishop invited them to share their testimony in Sacrament meeting)  I think their eyes were opened to how most of the people in the world live and how truly blessed we are.   We were able to go to dinner with Brett and Mindy, Our Bishop Mahlangabesa, President Mangwane (Stake Presidency) and Brother Mahlangabesa (High Council).  We had a wonderful evening.

  What a ride this has been.  We have learned so much and grown so much.  This mission has made us want to be better and strive for more perfection in our lives.  It has brought us closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and His teachings.  We have learned how to be more charitable and to love everyone as we serve them.  It has been amazing.    We will share  our mission experience on June 29th at 11:00 am in the Sunset 8th Ward (On South Dixie Drive next to the fire station in St. George).

We love you all and again appreciate all your kindness, love and especially your prayers.

Ren and Debbie

We hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!
We also hope your Christmas was very Merry and awesome and you were all able to celebrate with your family!
We wish you very Happy New Year filled with blessings and happiness!

We are reminded each day of the many blessings we have and the amazing experience we are having here.  The beautiful South African people that we have come to love, and the Elders  . . . oooohhhhh the Elders!  The choir we are in, the investigators we are helping to teach, the less actives we are trying to help renew their blessings of living the gospel, and also the new members who are striving so diligently to live the gospel! 

We miss you all and our family!  It's a good thing that we can Skype our kids and grandkids every single Sunday and we are still able to see them grow and change.  We have been here for 1 year now, and all our grandkids are a year older. Even little Kate is now 1 year old!

Part of November was filled with an incredible visit from some of our wonderful friends from St. George.  We then had  a missionary couples conference the week of Thanksgiving.  Here we are, with our friends, getting ready to do the Zip Line near Knysna, South Africa.

 We also went on a game drive and saw this female leopard.  It walked along within 10 feet of us.

We arrived back in Cape Town on the 23rd of November.  We all climbed Table Mountain on Monday morning.  This is a rigorous hike that took us 2 hours.  It's not for the weak or feeble!!  Table Mountain is a land mark for South Africa and is one of the new 7 wonders of the world.   Everyone who can, will climb it, when they come to South Africa.  It's on the right side of my head in this picture.

We spent the week at the Mission home with the other couples and President and Sister Wood.  We all pitched in and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, with all the trimmings.   we spent some time learning and studying with President and Sister Wood.  They both know the scriptures very well!  All the couples shared wonderful experiences and tough times as well!  If was an uplifting week!

Then we returned home to East London to take care of things here.  We were missed by the Elders, and we had a lot to catch up on.

We decorated our flat for Christmas as you can see in the picture below - yep - that's it! This is extent of our Christmas decorations and it all sits on our kitchen table!

We had a car wash workshop and BBQ for the Elders in Mdantsane and East Londaon Zones.  They all brought their cars and we taught them all how to keep a car clean and how to wash it.  They all did very well!  Not sure how long their cars will remain clean, but they sure looked good when they left!  This is East London Zone - Denise and Dave can you see Elder Potter - 5th one from the right in the grey shirt.

We also began planning for our Christmas Zone Conference.  It a conference for all 3 of our Zones, East London, Mdantsane and Queenstown.  The Conference is from 9 in the morning till 8 in the evening, and the Elders look so forward to this Christmas zone conference.  Ours, with our 3 zones was on the 17th of December, we had teachings from the Assistants, President and Sister Wood, and we were also asked to share with the Elders our experience with the Living Christ and the invitation to memorize it.  We actually toured the whole mission that week with President and Sister Wood inviting every Elder in the mission to memorize the Living Christ.

We just heard from the AP's and they told us that they are almost done!  This was an unforgettable experience!

Here are pictures of our meals.  We did a snack for breakfast, and a lunch and a dinner.  It was a BIG day for us!  Then we set out the next day to tour the rest of the mission.

This is our car - loaded to the hilt!

This is our snack - a water, banana, in the green sack are a huge muffin, granola bar and a little pack of skittles!

  This is the table with the gift bag that we prepared for each Elder - notice the candy kisses scattered on the table - We sisters can't give the Elders a hug but I can give them a kiss!

The meal was roast beef, potatoes and gravy, beans and corn, homemade rolls, 3 layer jello, (that was so fun to make and the elders loved it!), for deseret we had a brownie with a scoop of ice cream and homemade hot fudge, with a candy cane stuck in it!

We had a great time planning and preparing it.  We had 3 other couples that helped us!  One couple made cookies for the gift bags and homemade hot fudge, one couple did amazing potatoes and the 3rd one made rolls.  The Elders loved it all and were very appreciative.

The evening meal was Pizza and ice cream bars, by then they weren't even hungry - well . . maybe . .

After we were done with that, we left East London to complete the rest of the Zones in the mission.  However, we did not have to do the meals for the other Zone Conferences!  We just gave them the Living Christ and invited them to memorize it!

After visiting each Zone in the mission we took a day off and climbed Lion's Head with President and Sister Wood!  Another great hike in Cape Town South Africa.  These are not the most appealing photos so look at the view and not the old people!

We also had a Thank you dinner for the YSA Choir - we did a concert for our friends and the Choir put in many hours preparing for the concert so we thanked them with a dinner.  That's one thing about YSA, they love to eat!

Christmas Day we had an open house for the Elders.  Of course food . . . and they were able to Skype their family.  We had about 20 of them at our home.  It was a fun day.
 

After they left we were able to Skype our kids and grandkids!  It was fun to see them on Skype and see their excitement of Christmas!

One of the most memorable and exciting thing about this Christmas are the SMS (Texts) we receive from the Elders as they tell us about their experiences of memorizing "The Living Christ".  They share with us how it makes them feel, how it has change their life and how it changes the way they look at the Savior and how it has changed how they look at Christmas.  It has also helped them as they teach the gospel to investigators.  They are working so hard and some of them are so fast at memorizing, yet some say "it is much harder than they thought but has been well worth it!"  It seems that every SMS we receive from them brings tears!

We thank you all for the support, love and prayers you send our way!  We love what we are doing and are having an amazing time doing it!

May the New Year bring blessings and hope to you and your family and may you, like us, have an increased appreciation for all the blessings that are bestowed upon each of us from our Heavenly Father each day!

Happy New Year and "Go Well"!
Love,
Elder and Sister Boyce

Happy Halloween!
Seriously, where has the year gone!
We were able to go to the Johannesburg Temple on September 25 and 26th with our ward.  There were 17 people that went with our ward.  That is a record number for the members of our ward.  One couple were married and sealed in the Temple on the 26th.  They were both alone -with no family for either of them. . .  just us as the ward family!  We arrived a day before everyone, because they rode in a bus from Mdantsane to Johannesburg, which was a 13 hour ride thru the night.  We only had 2 days so we had to fly!  Shame!  (as they say in SA).

Needless to say we had some time to look around and wander the beautiful grounds of the Johannesburg Temple before we went in!

This is the view from the back of the Temple - it looks over the city.  Of course the Church always finds prime property for the Temples.

It was great to have the opportunity to go to the Temple again..

We had to be home for our Zone Conference on Friday the 27th.  This Zone Conference was for 3 Zones - 46 Elders and 4 couples and 1 member from Grahamstown - 55 in all!  Our responsibility is providing the snack at 11:00 am and lunch/dinner at 4:00.  It's always a lot of work, but the Elders help in the set up of tables and chairs, and the other couples help in the serving and clean-up.  We try to make it as organized and quick as we can.   The mission president is on a tight time schedule so we have to be quick, organized and efficient as we serve the snack and meal.

This transfer we are doing surprise flat inspections.  We always do flat inspections but we warn the Elders when we are coming.  This transfer - no warning!  We will drive up and send them a SMS (text) that says "Surprise" and they open their doors or gates.  They all live in some pretty secure places as all of our boardings have iron gates or doors.

Well - no warning for flat inspections was pretty dismal!  Some of the Elders are excellent - some of them . . . . well . . . need to spent a little more time in cleaning!  Of course . . we are EASY inspectors!  NOT!!

                                                  Here's some unusual things that we see -
                                          

                              This is Standwa, he's our Bishop's son.  We told the Bishop and his wife that
when we go home if Standwa is gone, he's on the plane with us, but we'll send him back in a couple                                       of weeks!  He's 6 years old and so smart!!  He knows Xhosa and English.
                                             There are very few children who know English.

                                 This is a young male lion we saw in a game park on a p-day.

                       Car accident involving some of our Elders on transfer day.  All walked
                                                           away, but car was totaled!

                                         Transporting his treasures, on the 70 mph freeway!
                      This is so common, along with many hitchhikers, bicyclists and pedestrians,
                                                               on the FREEWAY! (even at night)
                                                     We drivers need to be very careful!

 Two very cute girls who have been members for some time and have a brother on a mission in Uganda but parents who are not members of the church.  The missionaries are starting to teach .
                                                    the parents, we join them when we can.

These two Elders, the one on the right is Elder Taylor from Salt Lake, the one on the left is Elder Warentino from the Pacific Islands.  They were "grounded" from their car (so-to-speak) because Elder Taylor misplaced his Utah driver's license.  It took us about a month to secure another copy.  We had to involve personnel from DHL in Salt Lake and in two other locations, his parents,  the Utah DMV,  and many phone calls to the U. S., to get this all worked out, so Elder Taylor could drive again.  We finally were successful and Elder Taylor sent a copy of this picture to all who were involved.

There are certain foods that we cannot get here or even the equivalent South African food is very different.  Stuff like chocolate chips, Frenchs mustard, crisco, red licorice, brown sugar (they have something like it but different), graham cracker and oreo pie crusts, the ice cream is very different,  canned pumpkin (for pumpkin pie) and turkeys, . . .

HOWEVER - they have great vegetables like cucumbers and onions and red peppers and all the spices that I used to make great Mustard pickles!

Also they have magnificent strawberries and other fruit now . . . . (however no raspberries) in Oct., Nov, and Dec, and Jan -  to make beautiful freezer strawberry jam.

                  I also made a variation of Strawberry Short Cake for Zone Conference this past week as
                                           fed 54 hungry Elders on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
                                                        

After our Zone Conferences we took a day to relax to go hike the Hogsback. This is a beautiful area about 2 hours west of us.  It is a mountain area that has an incredible forest with large trees, beautiful flowers and wonderful waterfalls.   We hiked about 4 hours to the waterfalls. It was beautiful.  The English author J.R.R. Tolkien was born in South Africa and it's been said he received his inspiration to write of the talking trees (Ents) in his book "Lord of the Rings" from these trees he saw at the Hogsback  Attached are a couple of pictures showing and even showing one of the trees that may have inspired him. 

In conclusion let us share a wonderful experience with you.  We received an email from Sister Carrie Henderson in Brisbane, Australia.  Most of you know they are serving as Mission President's in Brisbane.  In her email, she asked if any of our South African, Cape Town missionaries were from the African country of Rawanda?  Two of their Australian sister missionaries were teaching an investigator from Rawanda and she was very interested in the gospel, but only spoke the native language.  They couldn't find anyone who spoke her language to assist in the teaching.  She was asking questions they were unable to be answer, without an interpretor. Sister Henderson asked if any of our missionaries knew the language and could assist with her questions.   We did some searching and none of our missionaries were from Rawanda or even knew or could speak the language.  But, we had a faithful member, a brother in Cape Town (Brother Sotter) who knew the language and could speak it fluently.  We set up a Skype call (9 hours difference in time) with this translator member, the two sister missionaries from Brisbane,  and the sister investigator.   Anyway, after about 4 or 5 Skype calls and lessons, this sister was baptized. (about 2 weeks ago).  Attached is a picture of her. Isn't it wonderful how technology can serve the world and make it smaller to accomplish the Lord's work.  (From South Africa to Australia).  It really makes us realize who is in charge of this great work!!

        Sorry this blog has taken so long to get out . . . we have no excuse . . . we don't know what I've     
                                                                 been doing . . .
                                 
     WE LOVE YOU and appreciate all your support, thoughts and prayers.  They help us so much.
                                                          Elder and Sister Boyce