Monday, April 30, 2007

Catch Up!

Hey All! Jenna here, if you are like me, I come to this site often looking for the latest in African Adventures and I'm always bummed when nothing is going on! So I appointed myself liaison to the African Freaks and will now be posting email tidbits and hopefully pics (hint hint) for our future enjoyment.
I got to talk to mom and dad yesterday for awhile (SO NICE!) They told me about a trip to the zoo on Saturday where they were most impressed with the Cheetah. Dad says 'Do you know that the Cheetah is the fastest animal on the planet? He can go 60 MPH! And you should hear the noise he makes!' They go on to explain that Cheetahs make a noise a lot like a house cat. They told their friends that KC can sound more fierce. I don't doubt that actually.
Each paragraph in this post is from a different email starting with the most recent and working back for a month of so. I look forward to keeping you all updated on the goings on of my cool parents in the bush!

We will be heading off by ourselves in the car to Swaziland tomorrow to spend the next four days and three nights. It will be exciting to find our way and meet new people. The trip to Port Elizabeth was so wonderful; our hotel was overlooking the Indian Ocean and we went to the beach to watch the swimmers, surfers and seagulls in our free time. The wheelchair presentation went so well and the recipients were so happy to have their new BMW's as your dad said in the program. We have some pictures that we'll be sending off. There were 10 elders and 2 sister missionaries that came to help and they were so cute with these people. We met some awesome priesthood leaders that took care of so many details, we couldn't have done it without them. All in all, we find ourselves involved in a great work!


It is so nice just to go next door to the temple. I can actually look out my window and see the spires and Moroni above the tree line. We met some people who traveled for two days to get here and do their temple work. Some were married, some had their families sealed to them and many were doing work for their deceased family members. There are apartments here at the area office where these families can stay while they get their temple work done.


We tried to go shopping at a place called Thrup's but everything closes so early on Saturday...1 pm, so we missed getting in to check out their peanut butter selection. We heard they had Jiff there at one time so it was worth the effort. The Stringhams already took us to the Republican Market for fresh vegetables, meat, breads and nuts and then over to the Organic Market where everything is made with organic things; silk, cotton, wood, wool, etc. We'll have to take you there when you come.


We went to a branch (actually the only branch in all of Lesotho) for church on Easter. We have been so impressed with the depth of the spirituality that these people have...we are learning so much from them. The little gal that taught Sunday School was an exceptional teacher. She could go from English into Sosotho (their language) and back without a pause as she explained terms and helped the older people understand. We stayed in the neatest little B&B's on our trip. You would have loved them both but especially the second one. We chose to stay in the loft room...it had wooden floors that creaked as we walked, three gabled windows, and was just fun.


Along with three other missionary couples we headed south to Kimberley to visit "the big hole" or the Kimberley diamond mine. We looked real hard but couldn't find one to bring home so we left and went to a place by the country of Lesotho called Ladybrand. Here we stayed in a charming B&B where we enjoyed the laughing doves that called out in the middle of the night waking us all, and then the following night we were awakened by the most fantastic thunderstorm. We all thought we would be flooded out by morning...but all was good and clean for a new day. We're finally seeing a little wildlife along the roads...ostriches, 3000 flamingos, some little antelope type animals and a zebra who was just looking over the fence at the traffic going by. He was my favorite...because I thought it was just a horse from a distance and then all of a sudden I realized he had stripes!!!

6 comments:

Cara said...

So much fun to read! Keep it up liason.

Sioux said...

YES!! Just like you, I keep coming to this blog for some interesting news from Africa. What a great idea for Jenna to add the email info and keep us all informed. I love reading it! Thanks, JMR.

KickButtMommy said...

Thanks Jenz! I love it.

To Kris and Terry! What wonderful adventures you are having!

Anonymous said...

Now all is right in the universe again...we have input from Kris and Terry. Next step is to put it together as a book.

jmr said...

ya, has anyone tried to print out pages of a blog yet? I'm wondering what it would look like and if it would transfer well for journal type stuff. I know of scrapbook/journaling software but the blog is so much more fun with everyones comments.

KickButtMommy said...

You can go to a site called blurb.com and do it apparently. I am going to try it out and print and have them bound into a journal.