Friday, August 14, 2009

St Lucia – Hippocampus, Crocodiles, Rhino, and Impalas

This is a beautiful cottage with a thatched roof that we saw in St Lucia. We loved it and couldn't resist taking a picture.
While in St Lucia we stayed at the Avalon Guest Manor. The following is their web site if you would like to see what it looks like: www.avalonguestmanor.co.za. We took a walk in the evening and it was getting dark when we came to this warning sign. That was enough to make us turn around and go back. We returned the next morning to get this picture. There were hippos in the background but you can barely see them in this picture.

This is how close you can get to the wildlife in the reserve. Sometimes it is much closer than you would like but for these Impalas it was great to see them. This is the favorite food for the lions.






This rhino was very close and he was huge. We were lucky to get this close and have such a good picture. What an interesting animal...but we didn't want to get any closer than about 50 yards and we stayed in the car.










We decided not to swim here.














We went to beautiful St Lucia with three other senior couples and enjoyed their company and the wildlife. We took a Hippo and Croc boat tour and were able to see these animal from the water side and get much better pictures. We went into a nearby game preserve and saw many other animals and have just selected a few pictures for you to see.

Christmas In July




The zone wanted to celebrate and have an activity that they would all remember and since it was the middle of winter in South Africa they decided they would like to celebrate Christmas in July. They had all 12 Elders come over to the Klingler’s home for dinner along with the three senior missionary couples. The three senior missionary couples cooked a fabulous turkey dinner and after that they watched a video (Elf) and slept over at the Klingler’s home. We served Swedish pancakes and all of the other trimmings for breakfast in the morning and then we played the gift game, sang Christmas songs and they dug into their Christmas stocking that the Wilson’s put together.
It was a great experience and these are just a couple of pictures of the group and what happened there.

Dundee Meeting House Now




Here is the new meeting house that we found in Dundee. The missionaries found this school and were able to get it for the rest of the year and we can continue it throughout the coming years. It has a much larger hall and separate rooms that we can use for primary and for the youth. It is much more comfortable and can handle the growth that we are experiencing in Dundee.



At present we have about 40 attending of which 2 are members. We are expecting 10 to be baptized early in September. The missionaries are finding a lot of new people that are interested in addition to what is referenced here. Elder Zeeman and Elder Parry are doing an amazing job.

Dundee Branch Meetingplace


Here is the first meetingplace that we had in Dundee. Elder Zeeman and Elder Parry are standing in front. This store was sold and they had to find a new location to meet in. One Sunday we had to meet in a member's back yard. It was a sunny day so we enjoyed it. Since it was still cold we had to move to stay in the sunshine. One person was just walking by and heard the singing and came in and sat down. The Elders taught him later in the week.