Day by day we will make this successful with an amazing contribution from the Lord!

We have been here a month now, and you may think all we are doing is playing and discovering fun things about South Africa.  Well, we do some of that and love it, but we spend a very good amount of time with our assignment (and love that, as well).

We are called "Coordinators for the Seminary and Institute Programs in the Johannesburg and Bedfordview Stakes of the Church in South Africa." That means we visit and coordinate with the 47 Seminary and Institute units in the two stakes.  We have now visited about 22 of the units, which is no small endeavor, when we have to figure out how to get to them all. (Thank goodness Lynn is terrific with a map). They are each a bit unique from each other, but there is an amazingly strong spirit in the homes, churches or schools or wherever they have identified to hold class. We also prepare attendance reports for the Church each month, and prepare monthly inservice meetings (the first to be 26 September)!  Each Sunday we choose a ward to attend, depending on where we can meet with and encourage a teacher, or talk with Priesthood leaders that are, of course, responsible for the programs when it comes down to it.
                                     

A Seminary teacher at the Cosmo City branch. She is standing next to their
"open air" baptismal font.

When we attended church at the Four Ways Branch,
we were surprised to notice out back a couple of "Go Carts" like I remember from my brothers'childhood. It brought back a lot of memories, but
we never did figure out if they were transportation to
 church or waiting for an activity in the future.

Lynn is such a "natural." He loves every minute of
being with the people here. It doesn't take long for them
to recognize it, and love him back!

The teachers of the classes are identified through callings...no professional teachers here! They learn to teach with the influence of the spirit, and their own natural intellect. Each class is unique and strong in a different way.  One of our challenges is working with the CES program using the same materials used in Utah. That is what we are asked to do, but we often face some difficulties in making it all fit together as it does at home. For instance, yesterday we attended a class in a home in a township. There were 11 students who for the most part were very enthusiastic to learn, as was the teacher to teach. It was a struggle to teach the lesson for the day, "The Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre." As you might expect, these were sharp kids, but they just didn't have the historical background or the Utah perspective to appreciate much of it. We talked about some principles it taught, such as following counsel and addressing difference with "adversaries" before the situation grew out of hand. Lynn and I tried to talk it back to applications they were familiar with, so I think it came out okay, but maybe some day we will have materials more understandable for the kids in Africa. I guess, at least if they are confronted with the story in their future, they will know to understand that yes, it happened, and we can learn some important principles from it.

Our bedroom in our cottage is set up with facing desks and most of the office supplies we need, so it is generally our office. We travel to the CES Office (about 20 minutes away) for the weekly devotional and as needed. The most of our travel is spent finding classes and visiting them.  Reports are due on the 10th, and it is no small job to get all of the teachers to carry through on attendance, reading and assignment reports, so the last two weeks have been pretty frantic as we sought reports, learned the program to put them together, and continued to visit more classes and teachers! Our work this week, I think, will be visiting more, and focusing on the September 26 inservice.

Our Bedroom Office

With the favorable exchange rate, about 13:1, we find ourselves eating out frequently, as we can hardly cook for the cost to us. Of course, Nando's is a common choice, but we've had some pretty fair Hake and chips (grilled for Lynn and deep fried for me). We have McDonalds all over, and that is an economical "fix" when I am homesick...I almost never eat Big Macs at home, but they taste the same here, and all of that fat really cheers me up.   We are now venturing out to some nicer places we liked when we were here before.

Our neighborhood bakery. We went to it from time to time
when we were here last, but now it is just so close to us...

Above, our neighborhood produce market;

Below a "nicer" Chinese restaurant in an upscale mall 

We're doing fine. We miss our family and friends and our home, but we are convinced that this is the place that we should be at this point in time. We do love this work, and see miracles and feel the spirit on an hourly basis.

More detail soon.