Goodbye Tent

Dear All,

Well, the big news is that the Motherwell Branch was able to secure a new meeting place and move out of the tent. Even though we are in the middle of winter we had been very fortunate to enjoy reasonably good weather while worshiping there theses past 3+ months. The main problem has been the dirt and dust being stirred up, and that there were no chalk boards for use in teaching. Anyway, our new meetinghouse is another school. We will use five classrooms, none of which is very large. We had about 90 people at church on Sunday and every chair was taken, so no room to grow. 😩 There is one large classroom but another church is using it.  They meet on Saturdays so we suggested that we ask about sharing with them, with us taking it on Sundays. The branch president wasn't too keen on the suggestion but maybe he'll change his mind. It was wonderful being  in a real building however. Maybe next week we'll even have electricity. 😊   

We spent an afternoon at the South African National Arts Festival this past week in Grahamstown (1.5 hour drive from our home) and enjoyed seeing a huge exhibit of the native arts and crafts. We also attended a performance of song and dance that evening. The majority of the performances were by Xhosa, who are native to this part of the country. It was a wonderful show and gave us a great overview of the music and dance which is part of the Xhosa culture. The best part of the performance was watching the faces of each person on stage. They truly put their whole hearts into what they were doing and obviously loved performing. This is quite representative of how they live their lives, with lots of emotion and passion.

Yesterday was quite a day, and was somewhat representative of our mission, in that it was filled with diversity and even some drama. In the morning I pick up the Motherwell Elders at the auto dealership after they dropped their car for service. I took them to their home and left them with two bicycles to use for the day. (They were quite excited about being on bikes for the day, even though it is about a 30 minute bike ride to their area.) We went shopping for items for our storehouse (cleaning supplies, kitchen utensils, etc). We went to the bank for business which took about 4 times as long as it would in the US. We then went to see a woman in the large public hospital here in Port Elizabeth. She is a member who happens to be from Grahamstown. She fell and suffered a severe fraction which will requires surgery. It took us about 30 minutes to locate her, as there is no central registry. Even though she came to the hospital the day before, she was still in the "Casualty", department, which is equivalent to the ER. There must have been 70 to 80 people in this department just laying or sitting on gurneys and waiting for care. One nurse finally gave us her attention and pointed to the area where the sister should be. So, we went around the area calling her name with no results. Finally, one person pointed to a lady sleeping and said "I think that is her". Thankfully it was her and we had a nice visit. We asked what she might need and she said soap and a skirt. She had forgotten to bring them, so we headed off to a nearby store to buy them for her. She was very appreciative when we returned. By this time it was mid afternoon and we headed to Motherwell to visit members and teach a couple preparing for marriage. As we approached Motherwell we received a call from one of the Elders. They had pushed their bikes to the township and had gone walking on splits with two of our local fellowshippers. One fellowshipper is Mzolisa (Mzo) Mgqali, a young man who has been preparing for many months to serve a mission but has been rejected because he has diabetes and it hasn't been well controlled. So, the Elder told us that Mzo was not feeling well and he asked if we could check on him at a member's home where he had stopped. When we arrived Mzo was in a comatose state and was completely unresponsive to us. We immediately gave him a blessing and then carried him to our car and headed for the Motherwell Health Center. By this time it was well into the evening and just the small Casualty Center was open. We carried him in and laid him on a gurney where a nurse soon came and checked his blood sugar, finding that it was dangerously low. She started an IV to correct the situation so we took off to pick up the other missionary and took the fellowshipper who was with him home. We then picked up the bicycles which were nearby and headed back to the Health Center. By the time we arrived Mzo was sitting up and being his old self, so we took him home. By the time we dropped the Elders off at their boarding and got home it was after 9:00 PM, and were very tired, as we are every single day of the week.  

To say that the sights, sounds, tastes, and the smells, of South Africa are unique is certainly an understatement. As time has passed our ability to feel comfortable with them has increased to where we now embrace it all and are very much at home. Above all, the people are what make this part of God's creations special. We love them and hope that our time here will help bring them a bit closer to heaven.

All our love,

Elder and Sister Watson

Pictured above: Elders Paskett and Nkosi are Zone Leaders and they accompanied us to Knysna and George to visit our missionaries and provide training. It was a real treat for all since it is about a 4 hour drive from Port Elizabeth and not often visited.    

We see many of the Xhosa women carrying large burdens on their heads. However, this one was somewhat unique, and she was going up a steep hill. She laughed when we asked for the photo. Wish you could see her bright happy face, even while under such a load.   

Here are Elders Hernandez (Mexico), Nkosi (South Africa) Latu (Samoa) and Paskett (Cedar Hills, Utah). Elder Paskett made a traditional Xhosa meal for us on Saturday...no utensils required. 

I had the privilege of interviewing this young man recently as he prepared for baptism. He was introduced to the church by his friend pictured with him who is a recent convert, and who is preparing to go on a mission. His English is lacking so she interprets for him each Sunday. His knowledge of the gospel is really quite amazing. A challenge for him has been to forgive his mother and father. He never knew his mother and his father abandoned him when he was young. It was an honor to help him get past that and to see the relief he found thereafter.