Port Elizabeth

 

Public Affairs Council in Port Elizabeth

We’ve returned from our trip to Port Elizabeth and East London. We conducted Public Affairs training for a new Council and introduced ourselves to the PA Director and Stake Counsellor in East London.  It’s soo beautiful here.  Our hotel is two blocks from the beach. It's cool and breezy and I love it.  On Sunday we attended a Ward and a Branch, the Bishops in both wards were just under 30 years old, yet they had such a wonderful working knowledge of the church and the gospel.  

The Branch started with six members one year ago, by October there were 60, as of today there are 80! That's how fast it is growing.  The Gospel Essentials class was larger than the regular Sunday School class. During the opening song, “How Great Thou Art”, one sister was putting her own spin on the song, adding extra words as we were holding notes.  It was actually very nice and very african.  No pianos here, It’s all acapella.  They meet in a school where the church rents rooms for classes and sacrament meeting. There homes are very poor by our standards, but their Spirits are rich and beautiful. The Relief Society President was giving the lesson and told us how she is desperate for a job and a person had called her for an interview, she was so excited and hoped she could borrow R20 or $2.00 from her neighbour so she could take the bus to town. I think that tells you how poor they are here.  No fences for the cows, which wonder around the neighbourhood, so you have to drive carefully because they may be in the middle of the road.

 Andile & Bulelwa Khanti and their daughter Enzo. Enzo Kuhle's name means "good works"

 

Next we drove the three hour trip to East London to make contact with some other PA people.  They are planning three to four major activities this year so we wanted to make contact and see what we could do to help. 

 No duck crossings here, but we did see a boar crossing! We enjoyed the drive with its beautiful country side.

We stopped at a small town called Grahamstown because we heard about the Cathedrals, St. Michael and St. George and I wanted a picture.

We had a lovely dinner in East London with  Brother & Sister Human and Brother and Sister Flowerday.  Brother Human has been a seminary and institute teacher for  26 years and Brother Flowerday is a professor.

Boarding the plane for Durban.  It was only an hour flight, hence the small plane.

This is something you don't see in the States.  They wrap your luggage in plastic if you want to pay.   I like the idea, because you know no one can get into it.  They also don't have the 3oz. liquid in a plastic bag rule.  No signs of TSA here!