We Are Here!!!!

I thought this message was sent days ago.   We have power outages for 4-5 hours at a time and it seemed like the message sent.   There is a schedule for the outages but they never come when scheduled.

Hello !

I have to pinch myself---we are here.    It was a very long flight with delays and extra time sitting on the tarmac but they served food which always helps.    We had mechanical difficulties after we boarded in Atlanta but after an hour they were resolved.   We left Salt Lake City at 11:00 am on Thursday (we left the Missionary training center at 7:00 am) and arrived here at 11:30 PM on Friday night.   We arrived at our room at 1:30 Saturday morning.

We had a few tender mercies to be able to make all of our connections. Our flight was late arriving in Johannesburg but we thought we were still in good shape because we had a layover of a few hours.    However, as we walked into passport control we were shocked!   There were 295 people from our plane and about that many from another plane that landed when we did.  All 600+  people rushed to passport control at the same time.     But there were only 2 people to check all those passports....and you guessed it.....those 2 people felt no need to hurry....welcome to Africa.    Our line snaked around and around this huge room and we barely moved.   Larry checked his watch every couple of minutes and let out a sigh. Just when we felt it was hopeless,  4 more passport checkers arrived and our line moved a little faster.     We hurried through the checkpoint and raced to pick up our baggage.   A black man came up and asked if he could help us and we said, "no thank you."  We felt we had everything under control now and there was a chance we could still make the flight.

 Thankfully, he did not leave us alone and finally grabbed our luggage cart.    We showed him our flight info and he started almost running with us close behind.   The airport is HUGE!    He darted in and out and we stuck with him.  We arrived at the counter to get our boarding passes to fly to Durban, and there were angry people everywhere.   There were no lines...just chaos.    He had us wait  while he went around trying to get us "priority treatment" and find out what was going on.    He came back saying that all but 2 employees had left to go home just as the planes landed (although all these people needed boarding passes).    We watched the time tick by and began trying to figure out how to let our mission president know we wouldn't be on the flight.  We did NOT have a cell phone.   Again, at the last minute our "helper" got us boarding passes.   Larry gave him a big tip and we thanked him profusely and said we could find the gate ourselves.   He insisted he stay with us.   It was a good thing because there were 2 locations going to Durban and our gate was quite a distance. We would have probably stopped at the first gate.    Our "helper" shook his head,  like we had missed the flight and he was giving up, when an announcement came over the loud speaker saying our flight boarding was delayed for 10 minutes.    We raced up just as they were boarding and we gave him another hug.     

In Durban, we were the last ones to get our bags and leave the terminal.   We couldn't see anyone waiting for us.   Then we saw a man who had to be a Mission President.   He and his wife had arrived late and thought they missed us, but their timing was perfect. 

They dropped us off at a Bed and Breakfast--Jane's.     They don't have many hotels but mostly use B and B's.     Larry feel into bed but I was too wired to sleep.   About 4 am I heard loud noises like someone fighting.   Eventually I realized it was birds fighting or talking.   I got up to type an email.   We will be picked up this morning to find out what our duties will be.

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.   What happiness it brings to me.    I know our Savior lives.      My heart is so full of gratitutde.

I love you.   Sorry this is so long again.  

Love you!