What a beautiful people, and what a beautiful place South Africa is!

What a beautiful, hopeful people we have been assigned to work with! As we get ready for "graduation" and talk with teachers, we continually find a humble spirit and a desire to serve the Lord in them. They love their students, and are giving them a wonderful gift of understanding and confidence and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an amazing thing to talk with them one-on-one and feel the love they have for the Gospel and their students. They are hopeful when their physical circumstances are less favorable than we could imagine, but their hearts are focused on their love of our Savior and what they can do to follow Him and serve Him. The work we have to do is such a joy, and we are so thankful to have been invited to serve here.

Most days we have been quite busy with visiting classes and Church leaders, as well as spending a good deal of time with record keeping. That is the one break the teachers have here in relation to Utah Seminary and Institute...they turn their attendance, assignments, etc. over to us, and we record it. One of the Stakes is considering asking the teachers to do their own record keeping starting with the new academic year in January. It would be wonderful if that could happen, but we will see. We are starting to get requests to substitute for teachers who are unavailable at their class time. We are really looking forward to do some teaching!

The Black Name Tag is still doing its magic, magnetic thing! Many times as we go to stores we will have people ask about the Church. Some are sincerely looking for a church to "attend", and others have a church and would like to have a gospel "discussion" with us. Usually the latter is very friendly, and we will make a point of being in their store again when they may be there in order to talk with them again. It is interesting that most of the inquisitive people are African. It seems like many of the "European" individuals are more set in their ways, and less interested.

Well, that's the report from here. No pictures from the above activities, but we have had some wonderful "P days" which we will share pictures of.

Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens are not far from where we live. We visited them a number of times when we were here before, and love the natural beauty as well as the feeling of total security in the wide open spaces.

Lynn has decided that we need this thatched roof enclosure in our area he is developing out back of our house.
 We just have to figure out what to tell our neighbors when the winds  blow and the straw goes flying!

As for me, I am trying to work out a way to send this wonderful mahogany bench home!

The new fitness are has been added when we were there last. As you can see from the picture below,
they are serious about everyone becoming fitter!

This beautiful waterfall is a truly dramatic spot in nature! When we were here
before we watched parent eagles teaching their young to fly. We did see their
nests, but no flying school going on that day.

This last "Pday" we took a bit longer trip to Pilanesberg National Park. It was really a great day to see animals! At first we thought it was a giraffe convention, but, no, it must be an elephant convention, as well. We also caught a glimpse of some lions afar off sleeping under a tree.

Who has the right to the road here?

The zebras were having a party, too!

It was so sad...Some of the giraffes found a giraffe that had died somehow.
It was interesting to see how interested they were in it. 

This little guy just had to pose for us!

  Of course, we have tons more pictures, but suffice it to say it was one of our best ever wildlife viewing days. Lynn has taken some tips from Johnnie, our favorite game drive guide, and likes to predict that they are headed for the water. If we can follow them, he is usually correct!

Okay, the last entry in the beauties of this land. This is the perfect time to see the lovely Jacaranda trees, which are a popular site here. These pictures were taken just around the corner from our cottage. I love their beauty, but the nostalgia element is no doubt the strongest emotion. When I was growing up we had Jacaranda trees around the cul de sac where my parents' home was. We complained a lot about having to clean the street when all of the purple flowers had dropped, but we did love the sight when they bloomed. It is so hot and dry here right now that Jacaranda season will be very short this year.