Today
we traveled to Mdansante, a 45 minute drive from Gonubie where we are currently
staying, to attend the Mdansante 3rd Ward at 9 am and Mdansante 2nd
ward at 1 pm. There were 3 White young missionaries, 5 Black
missionaries, and ourselves. After the meetings we journeyed through
Mdansante and were surprised at how sprawling it is, practically a thriving
rural Metropolis.
Apparently before the Blacks took control of the government in 1994 the Whites
relocated thousands of Blacks inhabiting areas close to White settlements and
shipped them off to Mdansante. The government built hundreds of homes for them
to live in each 20' x 20'. The houses were blocked into villages with
each village identified as NU and a number 1-17. NU stands for “Native
Unit.” Today we were in the village of NU 13 where the Mdansante 2nd
and 3rd ward chapel is located. Since the community began, more and more houses
have been added so that now, Mdansante blends as one continuous sprawling
community stretching for several miles.
I
should use the term kilometers as nobody uses the term miles in this country
nor feet or inches. They are on the metric system here. Feet and inches
is replaced with centimeters and meters, petrol is in liters, mileage is in
kilometers, and weight is not pounds but kilos.
Speakers at sacrament meetings in South Africa are outstanding. By far
the majority give wonderful doctrine oriented speeches. Today a woman was
one of three speakers in Mdansante 2nd ward and her speech was
absolutely marvelous. I thought she was a returned missionary or a
university teacher she was simply outstanding. After the meeting I asked
her if she was a returned missionary and she laughed and said that this coming
Tuesday she would be a member in the Church for two years. I saw her scriptures
and they looked like they had been used daily for the past 20 years. She
currently teaches seminary.
We are off the
internet and don’t know for sure when we will be back on but will forward this
as soon as we’re back on. Sister S. just ate her first MacDonald
hamburger since being in Africa and thought it tasted good. She’s tired
of fish and chips, chicken and mushroom pies, chicken, pizza, and chop
suey. She wants a change. She does, however, enjoy salads at the
“Spur Restaurant.” This restaurant has gone bonkers over the native American
Indian so the whole chain of Spur restaurants is decked out with Indian
folklore, paintings, and pictures. Every hour on the hour the employees
don Indian outfits and do a war dance throughout the restaurant. It’s
interesting to see how the American Indian is such a hit.
Perhaps the identification with the American Indian is strong here because it
was the Whiteman who invaded and took over Indian land just as the Whiteman did
the same to Blacks in South Africa. The Indians were suppressed and viewed as
low-caste inhabitants as were the Blacks here.
It’s surprising how well the English language is spoken by Blacks in this
country. Even young kids in elementary school can speak English. The
older folks have strong accents but the young adults and teenagers speak very
clearly, a tribute to learning English in school at an early age.
On Saturday we went to the Lion Park in East London. We enjoyed it and
saw some animals we had not seen before. If we could ever get Smile
Box up and running again we could share some photos. But Smile Box has
died on this computer and we can’t resurrect it.
We
have one more week here in East London before we head back to Port Elizabeth
via Port Alfred where we will go whale watching as part of our next senior
couples’ activity. In August it was Zip Line through the jungle. In
June we went on the Pumba Animal Park Safari.
Last
week we attended a high school vocal concert which reminded me of our
ones at Skyline except this was “Africanized” which made it very
interesting. Last Thursday we went to a lecture/media presentation on the
evolution of the musical in Hollywood movies. It was great. I totally
enjoyed it. The lecturer was a retired university professor. This
Thursday we will attend a high school dance concert.
No, we are not
shirking our missionary duty. We are engaged in it according to the
demand.
In economics the law of
supply and demand determine how much action is needed. The PEF students
are the demand and we are the supply. When the demand is low the supply is low,
so the supply attends lion parks, concerts, and lectures, even movies. If
we were golfers we would play golf, tennis if tennis players.
We go around the Eastern Cape of Africa giving PEF Orientation Firesides and
encourage students to seek education, get PEF loans, and embark upon a
career. We counsel students. This is what we supply. Then
it’s up to them to make the move. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t
make him drink. At this point it’s up to them. They have to make the move
to help themselves. They fill out the loan application and submit it on
the computer to Johannesburg and Salt Lake City and await approval.
Once Salt Lake approves a loan, then the student demand increases and so does
our supply increase. Next Phase two kicks in. The student has seven specific
things to accomplish before Salt Lake can cut the check and send it to his/her
school. We help the student achieve those things and then send the
documents off to Salt Lake via computer. The Church cuts the check and
sends it off to the school. The student registers and commences classes. I
won’t go into detail on what those items are or this could be a two page
essay. But that’s how it works.
As to what else we do?
:
# We attend district
meetings and zone meetings,
# Accompany the young
missionaries to visit members, teach investigators the gospel, and help
reactivate.
# We provide lunch once
a month for 16-48 missionaries at zone conference
# We participate with
wards and young missionaries in visiting old folks homes
# Participate in
gardening projects for an orphanage and old folks home
# Shop for the young
missionaries according to what they need
# Pick up the mail from
the airport on Thursdays and deliver it to the missionaries. To reach
outlying missionaries is an 80 mile round trip.
# In Port Elizabeth
rotate to 7 units (wards and branches) on behalf of PEF and students.
# In East London visit
11 units (wards and branches) on behalf of PEF.
#. Throw in the branches at
Grahamstown and Knysna and that gives us 20 units or wards and branches to
cover. And we have yet to hit Capetown, the second largest city in South
Africa.
# It’s up to the bishops and
branch presidents to call teachers to teach the PEF mandatory Workshop called
“Planning for Success” in their respective units. There are 4 classes in order
to complete the Workshop. In Port Elizabeth if a teacher can’t teach a class on
a particular day, we fill in. If a student misses one class out of four
and the teacher can’t conduct a makeup session, we do it.
Now
all this may sound like we are as busy as can be but really we are not. We have
all kinds of free time. Some of this is once a week stuff or once a month
stuff. By next Sunday we will have given PEF Firesides to all 20 units in East
London. However unless a student applies for loans, we are literally
marking time until they file the application and the loan is approved.
I’ve
detailed here what we are doing on this mission but don’t think we are
inundated with all kinds of work. Not so. The real bees in the hive, the
true workers, are the young proselyting elders. These are the people who make it happen. Whether they have
zero baptisms, one, or multiple, the domino effects of contact, through time,
brings multitudes into the gospel. We derive great joy in working with these
young elders.
Testimonial:
Brother and Sister Clarke were inactive for 26 years. Missionaries visited them
off and on over this period of time. Two months ago we sat with Elder Pack and
Elder Acton in the Clarke’s living room. These two fine young
missionaries extended the invitation to them to come to church again. They
consented and have been coming ever since.
Testimonial: As we sat in the living room of the stake patriarch in Port
Elizabeth. He told Sister S. and I it took visits by six sets
of missionaries over a period of years before he was baptized. Since then he
has been a bishop, a stake president, and the temple president in Johannesburg.
I feel good about our sons and
their mission contributions. For here in the trenches, I observe first
hand the fruits of missionary labor. And though our sons may never fully
realize the impact of their service in this life, the life hereafter will
reveal countless blessings as a result of their labor.
Well,
it has been a good Sunday. We met with a bishop, 2 counselors from separate
wards, a Planning for Success teacher, counseled 2 PEF students, and mingled
with the saints, perhaps doing 1/50th of what Everett does every Sunday.
(Except we drove 90 miles round trip)
Until we meet again via the
written word, Aloha.
Elder Stokoe
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