Andrew - 100 Days!!

Andrew has 100 days until his mission begins!  Isn't that exciting!  Also, he just got a promotion at work and a new calling as Executive Secretary in the Bishopric in his ward in Buena Vista VA!  :)  How blessed and well pleased we are in our wonderful children.

Singing with the Children

At the orphanage this week, Chris brought his ukulele and we sang songs including "You Are My Sunshine", "Little Grass Shack" & "Pearly Shells".  I taught the kids the hand motions and they LOVED it!  They were so cute.  They don't speak English so it was a bit challenging because I couldn't explain to them what the hand motions meant but they followed along as best they could.  

They then flocked around Chris, wanting a turn to play the ukulele.  They were all smiles and even the baby in a high chair was grinning.  Oh those kids are cute.  I so love them.

The sweetest thing happened as we were leaving the orphanage the last time we were there.  A little boy called out "I love you!"  I was so touched because they don't even know English!  

I love this picture.  One of the missionaries has it hanging on her wall.

Antananarivo Madagascar!

We've just returned from Madagascar!  We traveled with Elder & Sister Eppel, who will soon leave the office and become the Johannesburg Temple President & Matron.  We will really miss them.

So Mada (as the locals call it) was quite an experience.  It’s a third world country side by side with the modern world.  It was like stepping back into biblical times in many ways.  I took most of these photos from the back seat of the car.  Not too bad!! :)

Stick stores out the front window

Streets were lined as tight as you could pack them with vendors in rickety stick or wood plank stores that I could have built, standing on the red dirt and crumbled stones. 

Bundles of garlic and folds of fabric.

Hanging from the store fronts were all kinds of things for sale...old parts from old stuff; lots of meat of all kinds like chickens hanging by their heads, cow hooves etc;  lots of produce; used shoes dangling on strings from the roof edge & clothing that should have gone to the poor but never made it past the vendors.  

Notice all the chickens hanging by their heads

Sugar cane for sale on a cane 

Yes! We have more bananas!

Driving was very slow because the road was shared by not only vehicles but many bare foot or sandal footed pedestrians, rickshaws, young men pulling hand carts loaded with anything you can imagine, cows (zebu) pulling carts, motorcycles etc...just so crowded and very very slow moving.  There are no traffic lines on the road and no traffic lights. 

From the farm to the market

Where's the beef!

We saw a huge rock quarry where 100's and 100's of people, even children, were hammering away making gravel.  Hand made gravel!  They would load it by hand onto trucks that would haul it off.  There were so many brick fields, each with it's own little smoking brick oven where the bricks were being fired.  Men, women, children were digging in the red dirt to make bricks & men carried the bricks away via a stack of them on their head.  Most homes do not have electricity or running water.  They are made of wood planks or the nicer homes are made of mud walls...mud, manure, eggs & milk". 

mud walled homes

Neighborhood by the rice paddies.

 The dirty brown rivers were lined with women doing their wash and then laying the clothes all over the ground (often it was dirt) or bushes to dry.  Women then carried the tub full of wash on their heads to their home.  There is so much to tell...I haven't really had time to process it all in my mind.   90% of the population live on less than $2.50 per day. We withdrew the equivalent of $90 in cash from an ATM and received 200,000 Ariarys (local currency). 

Something cute I wish I could have gotten a picture of was a couple little children shuffling a stick down the street with a flattened curved water bottle on the end of it.  They were probably imaging themselves to be great hockey players. :)

Wash day at the river

A most unusual Mada tradition that we saw happening as we drove past was a celebration called “cleaning the bones”!  They dig up the ancestors every 5 to 7 years and re-wrap the bones in a shroud for reburial.  On the coast they actually clean the bones in the sea water!  There is a feast and music and dancing.

One thing really fun we did is go to a Lemur Forest where 9 different varieties live free and unfenced.  (They stick around because they are fed.)  We got some awesome photos.  They aren't afraid of people so they come right up to you - but they bite if you try to pet them so no holding those soft furry critters.  Chris says  "I can honestly say I was leapt on by a leaping lemur that leapt from a limb with leaves and landed lopsidedly on my languid limb (arm) without leaves."  Ha ha…yes, he was briefly leapt on by a lemur.

Our audits in the Manakambahiny & Ivandry stakes went really well. We also trained a new assistant area auditor whose name is Solofanirainy Fanambinantsoa Randrianirinaniarivo.  Thankfully he lets us call his Nambinina.  The people are wonderful and gentle.  They are small Asian looking people ...actually they look Filipino. 

Back row is Elder Spears & Elder Bates.
They translated for us in sacrament meeting.

In the Manakambahiny ward where we went to church, we had the Elders & a couple others translate for us from the Malagasy.  Elder Spear from Pennsylvania translated for Chris & myself.  Man, what a great young man.  He had light in his countenance.  I sat by Sister Adams, the mission presidents wife, & she asked Elder Spear if he had felt any homesickness.  He replied that when he felt homesickness he relied on Alma 32 where it says that "even if ye can do no more than desire to believe, let this desire work within you".  He said he trusted that even if he could do no more than desire to love his mission, he would let that work within him & it worked and he loves his mission.  I was so inspired by his comment.

Palace of an ancient king

Notice the stone to the left.  We saw several of these stones,
used to roll across passageways,
much like the stone rolled across the Saviors tomb. 

Our work is picking up and very busy now.  Chris & I have decided to take French lessons to prepare us for an upcoming trip.  French would have really helped us in Mada & will help us in many other places we will probably go.  Even though Madagascar speaks Malagasy, French is also known by most people.

New York City!

Andrea's MTC experience is drawing to a close. Her visa to Brazil has not come so she has been temporarily reassigned to NYC North Mission!!!!! She will leave tomorrow and she's so very excited, especially because she has had so many dreams that she was going to NY on her mission! She will be only a couple hours from Jennifer!!  Andrea will be there until her visa to Brazil comes through, probably no less than a month but it's hard to say...when it's the right time I guess. :)  You can read her fun email to us about it on her blog  http://sisterkingbrazil.blogspot.com/  under the heading called New York City!!!!!

Elder & Sister Hamilton

On Sunday, August 11, we had the privilege of going with Elder and Sister Kevin Hamilton to the Tembisa Ward.  We picked them up at the Area Presidency Residence and drove them to Tembisa.

It was a very special Sunday.  Bishop MKambule said it was a Sunday he would always remember; he was overjoyed.  In addition to Elder Hamilton, President Armstrong, the temple President spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  President Chatora (Centurion Stake President) was also sitting on the stand.

The Hamiltons just arrived in South Africa.  He is a newly called member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and is second counselor in the Area Presidency.  They have six children; 5 of which are married.

Last May, we met Elder Hamilton’s mother in the garment distribution at Deseret Book near the Seattle temple.  She told us about her son’s call; and how excited and proud she was of him (as any mother would be).

President Armstrong talked about the temple and the sealing covenant.  He explained that sealing blessings not only include the sealing of your spouse, posterity and ancestors to you, but also include your sealing to the Abrahamic Covenant, and sealing to our Heavenly Father as his child.

Elder Hamilton asked the congregation the question, “Why are you here?”  He taught us that Christ sacrificed for us; he accepted and followed the Lord’s plan; this allowed us to come to earth to receive a body and progress.  We are here in church because of His sacrifice and because of our love for Him.  We sacrifice our time and talents in building up the kingdom.  We are here because we desire to return to Him.

Following sacrament meeting, there was a group of youth that were going to be baptized.  We gathered for pictures on the church lawn with the young children and the Hamiltons.

We brought the Hamiltons back to our flat for a light lunch.  What wonderful people they are.  We look forward to hearing from Elder Hamilton in the Sunday afternoon session of October Conference.

I have to add one more thing that was a bit humorous.  Sister Armstrong, temple Matron, was supposed to speak with her husband, but she got a nosebleed and had to leave the meeting.  After sacrament meeting I was chatting with her and she said "Yes, the Lord wanted to have some time for Elder Hamilton to speak today so he gave me a nosebleed"  I laughed and teased her a little saying "ha ha..you're blaming God for your nosebleed?"  She said "No, I'm giving him the credit!" :)

A Most Wonderful Day! :)

This has been the most amazingly cool and awesome happy day!!!!
I got up early and went out to the table to read my scriptures and heard a rumble in the drawer.
I fished around for my phone and saw that the family had been trying to reach us for half an hour! Ha ha.
We all gathered in a Google chat:

Our son, Andrew, got his mission call to Helsinki Finland!!!!  He reports to the Provo MTC to learn Finish on December 18th!!!  He and we are soooo very excited.

Also, my nephew Tyler Klingler, arrived here in the Johannesburg MTC today in preparation for going to Botswanna!  We got to go greet and give him hugs!  He looked great!  :)

Apartheid Museum

Last Pday (day off) we visited the Apartheid Museum here in Joburg (Johannesburg).  As you pay your admission, you are given a random ticket which assigns you as a white or non-white.  To enter the museum, you are required to enter the corresponding door.  For the first few hundred feet, you do not mix with the other class of people.

The museum tells the story of South Africa, from when the first white settlers came (Dutch back in the 1600’s) to when Nelson Mandela was elected President in 1994.

Apartheid was a dark chapter in South Africa’s history.  Apartheid laws were passed in 1948 and a policy of segregation was institutionalized.  But even prior to 1948, the blacks had no voting rights.  Under apartheid, each citizen was classified as black, coloured, and white.  Different jobs and wages were available to each class of people.  There was an office for race classification that would measure things such as skin color, hair characteristics, employment, socioeconomic status, and eating and drinking habits.  You were required to carry your classification card with you at all times and could be immediately imprisoned without it.  Poverty, low wages in the mines, and unequal education fostered uprisings among the blacks.  This ruling white governmental response was repression and relocation.  Much of the world refused to do business with South Africa.  They were not allowed to compete in sporting events including the Olympics.  They increasingly became and isolated nation.  It reached a point where the white government could not control the blacks unless they imprisoned, resettled or killed millions of them. 

White statesman FW deClerk and Nelson Mandela shaped a new future of South Africa through negotiation and reconciliation in 1993.  They were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  South Africa is still experiencing growing pains.  The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to live peaceably with our neighbors and show love to all of our brothers and sisters here on this earth.