Andrew & Hannah!

Andrew and Hannah will be married in 16 more days! :)

Andrew & Hannah, Washington DC temple
May 16, 2014

We are so excited for Andrew and Hannahs wedding coming up soon!  They have a beautiful website announcement / countdown :-)   at: handrew.us

My Happy Easter message to you

Many years ago our daughter Emily, found a beautiful rock on the beach near our home in Sequim.  It was smooth and translucent with swirled colors of pink, blue, yellow & purple.

Emily's Moonstone

We took the pretty rock to Em's geology teacher and asked him if it had any value.  A geology student standing nearby piped up "It is only as valuable as the value you place in it."

A couple days ago I was reading an article about Easter.  The author was discrediting Easter, explaining it's origins as a pagan holiday.  I soon quit reading the article because I could tell that the author placed no value in Easter.  To me it is of great worth, for it is the season to commemorate the atonement and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.  If it is so that Easter began as a pagan holiday, I rejoice in it's conversion to Christianity.

I love the words to our church hymn "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me."  What is that love that Jesus offers us?  It is an unconditional love from His soul to ours.  I believe some of the yearnings we have in our hearts are because our spirit sorely misses the Savior and His all encompassing love that we were once so familiar with before this life.

Is there anything in this world of more value than our Saviors love?

Truly I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.  The hymn continues "confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me."  What is this astonishing grace that He offers us?

1)  It is forgiveness of sin.  Jesus' last words here in mortality were "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  I am astonished at such grace!  Can you imagine after all He went through and all they had done to Him?  (I would have wanted God to strike them with a lightning bolt!)  Such mercy and unconditional love.  Repentance is an important part of forgiveness.  It is easy for God to forgive us of our sins but that would not change us.  Only repentance can change our heart & Jesus forces no one to repent and change.  We can choose.  In 2 Corinthians 7 it says "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation."

2)  The grace Jesus offers us is resurrection.  Resurrection is a free gift to us from Jesus, by no works of our own.  Much of the world seems to be literally confused by grace in that they think you don't have to do anything to be saved except accept Jesus.  There is some truth in this because there is a kingdom of glory for all God's children.  In 1 Corinthians 15 it speaks of these kingdoms of heaven as differing in glory as the sun differs from the glory of the moon and the moon from the stars.  In order to gain the glory of the sun, we must have both faith and works.  We can never earn our way to the highest kingdom of heaven but through our works, our repentance and our righteous desires and then through the grace & mercy of our Savior, we can become worthy to live in the highest kingdom of glory.

Is there anything in this world of more value than the grace Jesus proffers me?

We all have our own life to live and at its end, the only opinion that amounts to anything is Gods.  What we choose changes us.  Every choice is making us into the person we will become.

The Savior was lifted up on the cross and died for us so that He could lift us up but we don't have to wait until we die for Him to lift us.  He can lift us every day because He lives and is watching over us with His love.  One day we will stand before Him an make an accounting.

Second coming of our Savior Jesus Christ

Ukutula

Ukutula (Zulu for "place of quiet") is a lion preserve where they rescue animals who have lost a mother or who a farmer finds in his field and is going to kill them.  They had some meerkats and 3 baby wart hogs they'd just rescued. Isn't it great that there are caring people like that!

Ukutula also breeds white lions!  They are trying to preserve the gene before it is extinct.    Anyway the place is cool because the guide takes you on a walk WITH lions!!  And you get to hold baby lions!

Aaaaahhh I Love this photo!

I was aiming through a chain link fence at the white lions when their food truck went by and as they all looked up I snapped the photo!!  Isn't it so pastoral!!  Someday in the future Millennial day, I shall have lions in my front yard.

Click to enlarge and see the two Horn-bills!
Not a bad perch right? :)

Madikwe

Br. Price from the church auditing dept in SLC was here for our conference.  It was his first time in Africa so he stayed a couple extra days and we took him to a couple fun places.  First off was a game drive in Madikwe.

Chris took this amazing photo!!  Gorgeous!

Isn't this a cute little guy!  His family was visiting here from Germany :)

AAA Conference Group Photo

We just finished our Assistant Area Auditor Conference here in Joburg and were thrilled to have all of our non-French speaking AAA's in attendance. :)  Elder Carl B. Cook presided and added to the great spirit that was there.  We were also pleased to have Br. Rahn Price from the Church auditing department in SLC in attendance and he added much.  We four Area Auditors taught our AAA's about going beyond the audit to help teach and strengthen the units in their Coordinating Councils.  We feel truly blessed to work with such great individuals. They are dedicated and our testimonies are strengthened by their humble yet mighty spirits.

Andrea's Hump Day

10th of April Street on the 10th of April!
the half way point of Andrea's mission

Today is Andrea's "Hump Day" which means her mission is half completed.  It is April 10th and she is standing on the "10th of April" Street!  :)  Andrea is doing well in Passo Fundo Brazil.  She loves the people and the area and making avocado juice! :)  It is fun to be serving missions at the same time.  How we love & miss her.

Durban

Durban Mission Office

 We spent the last few days in Durban meeting with the mission president and his financial clerk.  We had a wonderful discussion about the units he oversees and came away with many items to follow up on.   We also had a meeting with our Assistant Area Auditor for the Durban Coordinating Council.  We talked about the expectancy attitude and what we can do to shift peoples thinking to that of Ubuntu.  This is an African word Br. Kennedy taught us which means togetherness or humanity towards others.  It's the idea of everyone pulling together as one rather than expecting something of a few.

In the financial training that we do, we come away with stories that are confidential or discussion that would really be quite boring to write about in a blog so that is why I speak of the lesser important part of our travels - places we stayed and things we saw.

We stayed at Huntley Place where Jane was a delightful host.

Two dogs and two cats gave us warm lovins

Jane's herb garden which decorated our breakfast plate.

Jane grows herbs on the patio and sometimes monkeys come in a pull them out.  The terraced topical jungle that you can't see above the wall was very beautiful but must be taken with caution as it could hold African surprises like deadly black mambo snakes.

This is the bark of a giant Kapok tree in Jane's yard

Jane had some guests from Senegal who told her that in their country this is called a torture tree because when someone does something wrong they are strapped to the tree and then the straps are pulled and tightened.  Eish!!!  Gives me the creeps

A few pictures from the African medicine market:

Bats, monkeys, bones, snake and other animal skins,
bird heads & wings, owl carcasses...

Many rows of barks - all kinds of bark and sticks and spices.

Ladies were chopping sticks into pieces using a metal blade on a log and men were pounding different woods into bark chips with a pole inside a metal bowl.

Woman's work clothing

Pictures from the beach front promenade:

Evening on the promenade

The promenade is just beautiful!  The Indian Ocean is warm and has great surfing waves.  There are rickshaw rides, restaurants, a gorgeous waterpark and even a small "Seaworld".

Our 6.5 hour drive back home went well.  We passed towns like Ubumbulu, Tweedie, Verkykerskop, Lions River and Giants Castle! Wouldn't you love to live in a town called Giants Castle!  :)