Some notes....rh

Georgia is now teaching the 4th week in Relief Society. I have not been called to do anything in the branch, even though the president has said and the previous missionary indicated that I would be called as the membership clerk in the branch. Nothing has happened, even though the Stake President was at our meetings one week and a high councilor was there another time. Don’t know when something might happen.

Last Sunday, we spoke in Sacrament meeting – Georgia got the easy subject, covenants. I got Chastity. I was very direct, using the pamphlet that the missionaries use when they teach the law of chastity. I likened myself to Jacob in the Book of Mormon when he told the people that he would like to give them “the pleasing word of God” but needed to address a serious situation among the Nephites.

Our trainers and predecessors in the office have been gone for nearly two weeks. The work is still difficult, but we are doing it. We are thankful for the training we received, but even more grateful for the help of the Lord each day as we perform the various duties required of us. This is a tough job, MUCH tougher than being a temple coordinator. We come home exhausted most nights, eat and fall into bed. We brought several favorite DVDs with us but have only watched about 1/3 of one of them. Hopefully this fatigue thing will dissipate and we can have some real recreation time. Today, we went shopping at about 9 o’clock and didn’t return until about 4 pm. Almost all shopping has to be done on Saturday since nearly every store closes at 6 pm on weekdays. So Saturday is occupied with shopping and cleaning with little time for real relaxation.

Found something interesting – the way to the temple/area office/church distribution is lined for about three miles with used car dealers. One of those dealers is called Americana Motors. It seems to deal largely in classic American cars. Imagine that in Johannesburg!

Our flat is roomy, almost cavernous. There is no heat or A/C. We have been fine with that – only a couple of nights where the temp was a bit warm for sleeping. And the last two nights have been rather chilly. We got out the comforter that they gave us with our flat. The washer is tiny, about half size and the dryer sits on our back porch since there is no way to vent it. Oh, by the way, the washer sits in one of the bathrooms draining into the tub. But, and that’s a big but, they don’t require any quarters.

Friday night we went to the temple – during rush hour. There’s a lot of construction due to the upcoming World Cup but that’s not the only problem. Many robots (traffic lights) are out, even in areas with no construction. Well, we hit one of those non-operating robots about three kilometers from the temple – it has three lanes of traffic in all four directions. It was pretty well jammed up, for us anyway, since one stream of traffic was proceeding as if they had a green light causing most everyone else to sit and wait and wait and wait. I finally saw an opening and rushed into it, but then everything came to a standstill as all four ways were just sitting there facing someone who was facing someone else who was facing someone else. We sat there for 2-3 minutes with the thing totally tied up, then someone jumped out of a car behind us and took charge, like a traffic cop. His action finally allowed us to squeeze through the intersection. When we came through there on the way home, of course it was quiet with little problem. People were waiting their turn and allowing others to proceed - what a difference.

That temple session was nearly full, quite unlike the one we went to a few weeks ago. That earlier session had only seven people in it. The one last night had more than 20 – I estimate the room only holds 26. Three of our missionaries were in that session – it was good to see familiar faces in a faraway land.