New Year Teacher Training

January was a very busy month for us.  We put over 5 thousand kilometers on our car and visited every unit and almost every seminary and institute.  By the end of the month we did visit with every teacher.  Some weeks were hard and made us wonder what in the world we were thinking when we set up the visits.  It is always easier on paper than to actually do.  When we were not traveling we were preparing for training or contacting teachers about training.  It was a good and productive month but it was a hard month.  Glad it does not get that crazy every month.

This is a picture of a map of the Durban South Arican Mission.

The Free State and Lesotho are the part of the mission that we are responsible for.
You can see there are lots of roads.

I drew this one to make it a little easier to see the places that we travel.
At that you will still have to enlarge to see the town names very well.

We had a very interesting several week starting on the Weekend of December 27.  During the month of January we traveled over 5 thousand kilometers between teacher training and working with the Welkom Elders.

 


Dec. 27, 2014We started our teacher training in Leribe, in the country of Lesotho. It is located toward the top of the purple country.  (About 3 hours away)  We trained 2 seminary and 2 institute teachers there.  Traveled there and back again that day.

Tues.  Dec. 30 2014

We met with Bishop Moroole from Bloemfontein ward.  Five minutes from our house.  Talked about a new teacher  because The Van Der Leeks moved to Bethlehem.  Sister Van Der Leek was our seminary teacher in Bloemfontein.  Excellent teacher.

Wed.  Dec.  31, 2014

Went to Welkom for District Development Meeting with the missionaries.  When the meeting was over about 1:00 we fed the missionaries lunch.  We got home some time after 4:00.   DDM days are pretty much an all day event.

,Jan 2, 2015 

We traveled to Kroonstad (a little over 2 hours) to pick up Lindi and Lindiwe Chibase.  They are wonderful twin sisters who wanted to have a missionary experience so we picked them up and took them with us for training in Bethlehem and Phutaditjhaba.  We had training from 2:00 until after 4:00 in Phutaditjhaba.  (About 4 hours from Bloemfontein and almost two hours from Kroonstand)   Phutadijhaba is located on the map just above Lesotho.  We trained a seminary teacher and an institute teacher.  Elder and Sister Bird were there as well and an extra brother and sister from the ward.I started to panic a bit because we had brought lunch for the 8 of us but we now had ten.  Then before we were finished we had an addition bunch of young men who were there for mutual with Elder Bird.  I believe the Lord can and did make food planned for 8 stretch to be enough for everyone who shows up.  We then travel back to Bethlehem to spend the night.

Sat. Jan 3, 2015

We had training in Bethlehem Saturday morning from 9:00 to about noon.  There were only two of the teachers that came and only three of the many young people that showed up were seminary age and one was institute.  Sister Van Der Leek is teaching her two children, one seminary age and one institute age.

               Brother Alfred                                                                                                                     Sister Merium

From there we went back to Phuthadijhaba for S&I graduation.  They had a lovely program.  Then it was back to Bethlehem that night to spend the night again.

Sun. Jan 4, 2015
We went to church in Bethlehem and the traveled back to Kroonstand to take Lindi and Lindiwe back home.  They were both a great help with the training.  They helped a lot with serving refreshments etc and each gave a wonderful devotional at the Bethlehem training,

Tues. Jan 6, 2015
Elder Edington and Elder Huls went to the DDM today because there were some things Elder Huls had to do for the missionaries.  Sister Huls and I stayed home and got some things done that we needed to then we went clothes shopping and had a late lunch.

Sat. Jan 10, 2015
We had the big training in Bloemfontein.  Teachers from around the area came.  It turned out to be very successful day with a good number of our teacher in attendance.  We served a lunch for our teachers but had no idea that there would be other stake meetings going on as well, so we ended up feeding a lot of extra people.  Interesting how things work here.

Sun.  Jan. 11, 2015
We talked in church at Blomanda.  Of course we talked about Seminary and institute.  We were told that there would be two youth speakers and then us but when we got there things had changed and we were the only ones to talk.  It worked okay.

Mon. Jan. 12, 2015
We traveled to Welkom for missionary boarding checks for two missionary flats.  Then we traveled on to Kroonstad to do boarding checks there.  After boarding checks we visited with Group Leader Beldon and his wife who are now the seminary and institute teachers in Kroonstad.  we did some training and gave them their materials.  Then it was back home for the night.

Jan. 13, 2015
We traveled to Kimberly to visit with Sister Mpho, our institute teacher and Sister Margaret, our seminary teacher for training and to make sure they had all the materials they needed.  We also visited with Bishop Thasabalala.









Thurs. Jan. 15, 2015                                                                                                                      Sister Eugenia
 We were able to stay home for part of the day and only had to go to Botshabelo in the afternoon to visit with President Madibo and Brother Samuel.  This is when we found out that we would have a second seminary teacher in Botshabelo.  Sister Eugenia is teaching her son in their home.

Tues. Jan. 20, 2015
started our day pretty early to see Sister Eugenia in Bosthebelo to give her a teachers manual and 3 student manuals.  After training her we did not have time to leave the books in Thaba Nuchu that were needed and continued on to Lesotho where we left 3 book off at Elder and Sister Parnel's home.



               University Students                                                                                                                                                    

After that we left for Roma to the University of Lesotho so we could talk with a group of students who wanted to start an institute there.  We happily gave them books and information to get started.  Then we went to Mpo's house to give him some more books.  Before we left Lesotho to go home we went to visit with President Moroose but there had been a communication breakdown and he was not home.





Wed. Jan. 21, 2015
We went to Welkom to train

Brother Elias our seminary teacher and then had the opportunity to give a lesson for the students.  It was a lot of fun for us to get to teach.

Thurs. Jan 22, 2015
Elder and Sister Huls came with us for a Senior couples adventure.  We left about 6:30 in the morning so we could be in Ficksburg before 9:00.  We then traveled with Elder and Sister Bird and President Johns into Lesotho where we met with Elder and Sister Parnel.  We traveled in a caravan for over two hours through the beautiful mountains to the Katse Dam were we planned to do a tour of the dam.  The weather was beautiful at first but then turn pretty stormy as the day progressed.  To our great disappointment when we finally got to the dam the electricity was out and we could not go on the tour.  We ended up going to a resort for lunch and then travel back home.  At least we saw some beautiful country.

Fri. Jan. 23, 2015
We got to stay home most of the day and only went to Blomanda Seminary in the late afternoon.

Sat. Jan. 24, 2015
We went to Thaba Nchu for institute to deliver additional books and to participate in class.  This is a picture of who was there.  The teacher is on the back row wearing the blue t-shirt









Sun. Jan. 25, 2015
We went to Phahameng for church and then met with the youth and young adults for a meeting about seminary and institute.  Had dinner with the missionaries that night.  I brought the dessert.   It was coconut almond square.  This was the first time I made them but they sure were good.

Mon. Jan. 26, 2015
P-day shopping, cleaning and bookwork.

Tues. Jan. 27, 2015
We went to Welkom for missionary DDM.  I took Sloppy Joes, Potato Salad, Tomatoes, cucumbers and Coconut squares.

Wed. Jan. 28, 2015
Finally got my hair cut in the morning.  In the afternoon we did training for the new Bloemfontein institute teacher and then visited the Bloemfontein seminary that evening.

Thurs. Jan. 29, 2015
Sister Huls and I provided lunch for the missionaries zone training meeting and attended the training.  Later that night we attended the Rocklands/ Blomanda Institute.

Fri. Jan. 30, 2015
We went to a movie with the Huls and then went to Blomanda Seminary.

Sat. Jan. 31, 2015
To round out our month we went to Botshebelo institute class and had an enjoyable experience with them.  It  is always good to stay busy and this month although hard sometimes was really great.