The work is great!

22 May 2007 Greetings from cold So. Africa,Yes, the temperature has dropped below 0 here. That is 0 celsius, so it is still below freezing. It is very deceiving though because it is sunny and bright outside and one would think it should be warm and yet when outside the wind chills to the bone. I even have on my long-johns and they feel good!!Terry and I have been busy answering calls for blankets and hygiene kits. Now that the weather is so cold there are orphans, refugees and street people that are suffering greatly. Yesterday we gave away many of these items, tomorrow we'll be giving out more and on Thursday we'll be loading up a truck to take these things into the Lesotho mountains where there are thousands of orphans in need. We just wished that the blankets were already there...but government clearance, trucking schedules, etc. have slowed down the works.We are staying healthy and happy. The work is great! Hope everyone is well on the home front.Love to all,Kris and Terry

Soweto Hospital

Not much new here. We've just been arranging a truck to take a load of blankets and hygiene kits into Lesotho for the many orphans that live in the mountainous regions. It gets pretty cold there.Today, I'm going to call the Salvation Army to see how we can help their organization help a huge hospital in Soweto. It is a government hospital and is the biggest in the world. In a week's time they have 500 babies born and there isn't enough hospital gowns for the mothers to wear..they just wrap up in their sheets and many have nothing to bring their babies home in. Yesterday, Sisters Parmley and Stringham visited the hospital and delivered 72 newborn kits...they were used up in short time.We sure have it nice compared to many in the world.

Hi, just a note from the blog master, I went to my bosses RS luncheon today (because my job is the best in the world) and got to help stuff animals and make books for the kids in the orphanages in South Africa. Pretty cool to think that maybe some of the stuff we worked on today will end up with my parents over there.

Why are you so funny Elder Rix?

We are looking forward to getting back to our regular desks this week since we have been sharing a computer room with three or four other guys while the air conditioning units are installed. They can get very distracting when they talk to each other or on the phone and persecute us because we are Americans and chide us about our kind of football. They are pretty fun guys but we can't get as much done with them around.I hurt my back again the day we had to travel to Durban...I did it in Washington and had to be in bed a few days and then again in Hurricane. This time I was starting to feel a little pain and then I leaned over to pull the trash bag out of the basket and wow..what a pain I had it even made me nauseous. I told your dad 'I think I need a blessing.' So before we left we stopped by the Stringham's apartment and the two men gave me a blessing. Sister Stringham gave me some medication that she had to have for her back.We traveled for six hours, I had pain but it wasn't unbearable and I never had to take that medication. By the time we arrived my back was doing pretty good and I was able to move about without difficulty all weekend and today feels good too. Another miracle for me.It was an interesting experience at the City Hall in Durban where we had the wheelchair presentation. There was a disabilities conference with about 2000 people in attendance and the presentation was included on their program. So we gave 12 of the 500 chairs out with a huge audience and the people were clapping and cheering and the church got great exposure. Afterwards, some of the missionaries were talking to some families of the recipients and it sounded like they were setting up appointments. Super!Today was a good day too. I spoke in Sacrament meeting about parents responsibilities, your dad gave the gospel doctrine lesson and then we both ended up doing sharing time in primary because no one from the Primary Presidency was there! Your dad taught the kids about the angel Moroni's visit to Joseph Smith and the gold plates. After Primary, one of the little girls came up and said,"Elder Rix, why are you so funny?" Good question, I've been asking that for years!!

Pretty Bird

I was happy to get a call from Africa this morning. I was thinking as I got ready for church that if they were going to call it would be right about then and sure enough a couple of minutes later they did! Do I know my parents or what?

I got this email tonight (their tomorrow already..how crazy, emails from the future..wooow. :)

We had to apologize to the Bishop because we have been counseled not to take a big position in the ward but to only do shadow leadership...help others learn their jobs. However, I did lead the music in Primary and had a great time doing it. Your dad volunteered to teach the Gospel Doctrine class next week. Anyway, we won't have the callings but we will still be involved in doing the work. I'll try to send a couple pictures from our trip to the bird place. We didn't tell you, but they also had a poisonous snake and frog display too. Very interesting. Did you know that the chameleon's tongue is 1 1/2 times as long as its body?

Swaziland letters

Ben forwarded an email he'd written to M & D to me (I think so I could read about my lack of contact, hey, I'm the one with a cell phone that can't call out of the country!) and this was attached so I'll slip it in here for more reading on Swaziland. :)

Dear Ben, Kwona and kids,
We tried to call you last night but your phone was busy!! Maybe we'll have to arrange a time when you'll be home and available. We had a great trip to Swaziland, saw some interesting things on the way and while there, like a cow being skinned on the roadside, (must have been hit by a car). We were able to meet with a number of people about some projects that are pending, like 250 wheelchairs, disaster relief, books for a library, NRT, and a career workshop. It was tough catching the Mayor of Mbabane, but he finally slowed down long enough for us to find him in his office. We set up three different times with him...third times the charm!
We were able to visit a cultural village where we were entertained with singing and dancing, and a tour around their village of grass huts. Saturday we went to the zoo in Pretoria with another missionary couple (the Elder is actually Sharon Olson's cousin). Your dad got some good pictures of the animals there. Hope school is going good for the kids. We were called yesterday by our Bishop to serve in our assigned ward. Your dad is excited because he has been asked to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher. I am looking forward to mine also because I will be in PRIMARY with the children as the music director!! Only problem is they don't have a piano so I'll have to learn how to carry a tune. The Bishop was so happy to have us say 'yes', because he says many people will go inactive if they are asked to have a calling here. Well, we love all of you and think about you everyday. Love,Mom and Dad, Grandma & Grandpa

The Real Deal

The pictures in the last post were just some images I found on the net, these a true blue authentic photos coming from M & D.

Yesterday, it being another holiday (Workers Day), we took a trip to Pilanesberg game reserve with two other couples. It took two hours to get there and then we spent 6 1/2 hours watching animals. We saw giraffes, white rhinos, hippos, gazelles, wildebeests, warthogs, zebras, 1 crocodile, and about 40 elephants up close, playing in the lake with their young ones. Some elephants reminded us of our kids and grandkids because they would submerge themselves in the water, then jump up out of the water and then sink back down under it again. Some were using their trunks as a snorkle, you know, 'up periscope' style. It was so great seeing them in their element and believe me, we stayed in "our" element, the van.

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!!!