Our purpose was to introduce the new Youth Theme for 2016 (I know, I know, it is February---not January--we are running a little late!) I printed up a colorful graphic and theme for each of them. But I cannot figure out how to show it on this blog. So I will just write it:
Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ
having a perfect brightness of Hope, and
a Love of God and of all men.
Wherefore, if ye shall press forward,
Feasting upon the word of Christ,
and Endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father:
Ye shall have Eternal Life.
Clear communication is always a challenge here. I wanted to make sure they knew what "press forward" meant in this context. I wanted them to know it meant there would be obstacles to overcome and it would require energy and effort on their part to follow Christ. I asked for 3 volunteers to come to the podium/stage and we set up a simple obstacle course. I tried to reach my objective (following Christ) and they tried various ways to distract me or to set up barriers so I could not move forward. By the end, they all understood---and everyone wanted to participate.
In advance, I asked one young woman and one young man to speak for 5 minutes and share how they could "press forward with faith in Christ" during their teen years. These 2 youth gave simple, yet insightful talks. How fulfilling to see the youth grow in their faith.
I also asked 2 young women who I knew had good voices to sing a new song, "Press Forward", that was written for this theme. They had no piano in their church (daycare center) and they couldn't read music well so I didn't know if it would work. However, we have a missionary from Utah who is musical who volunteered to help. He spent 3 afternoons helping them and they did a fantastic job that night.
Afterwards, we taught the entire group the song. I used all the methods (visual aids, hand motions, boys sing, girls sing, all those who like chocolate ice cream sing, all those who like vanilla ice cream sing, etc.) we use in Primary and elementary school to teach all the verses. They were very engaged. The words and the melody are "catchy" and are still stuck in my mind. I hope the words are stuck in the minds of the youth!!! It had a powerful message for them.
In between the music and the talk we shared 3 videos that were 5 minutes each. They love these videos!! I think they could watch them all day. One video was called "Securely Anchored". It compared our relationship to Jesus Christ to rock climbing. In rock climbing, there are at least 2 choices. One choice is to Free Solo--- the climber uses no safety equipment and scales the cliffs/mountains with just their hands, feet and no ropes, etc. They are at high risk but they do for the thrill. Next, the video shows another youth using anchors, safety equipment, and a partner, etc. It explains the purpose of the anchor while rock climbing, and compares it to having Jesus Christ as our "anchor". It was very effective.
As always, I left feeling so grateful to work with the youth of South Africa. Hopefully they can remember and apply the things they heard.
Three down.....how many to go?
Now I want to go back to Thursday, which was a "baking marathon". Unfortunately, the weather was extremely hot and humid so the kitchen was a sweatshop. But I needed to make 170-190 cupcakes. Early that morning, I experimented with a South African Pillsbury cake mix and a local cake mix that I found here. That put me several hours behind schedule because neither turned out that great (they were the weirdest looking things and did not look like cupcakes), so I began making a "scratch" recipe I found here. The recipe was easy but I could only bake 12 cupcakes at a time in my oven which equals 16 batches!!! So it went very SLOW! The kitchen was so hot that my neighbor was sure I had lost my mind to be baking. Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday morning we were already "booked", so I didn't have a choice of when to bake. By late afternoon I had a rhythm going and was moving right along but still needed 48 more cupcakes when I had to quit.
Late Saturday afternoon I resumed baking and made the last 2 batches of cupcakes. I love cake batter and saved myself 1/2 cup batter from each batch to eat. That is a lot of cake batter and was delicious! Now I know why my skirts are too tight and so are my tops.At 4:00 I began making frosting with my hand mixer. I made 4 batches without trouble, but on the fifth batch my mixer burned up. By then the stores were all closed--all stores that sell hand mixers close between 4 and 5. I have burned up the motor on 3 mixers in 14 months!!! They definitely weren't made to be used every week! I tried beating a batch by hand, but the frosting wasn't as good. Finally I called Allyson Colton, a friend, about the mixer. I mentioned that I wanted to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes to make them look festive. She really saved the day, and also dropped her 12 year old daughter to help with the frosting. We worked nonstop for 4 hours! I am sure she would have loved to be home watching a movie, but she never complained. Maddy agreed to put sprinkles on the cupcakes, but when I opened the package so many of them had melted together in one big glob! The only sprinkles I could find were at a commercial bakery store, and the bag was huge---almost a gallon. This was a blessing in disguise, because even though half the package had melted, there was still plenty left. I left the bag in the trunk while we did more shopping and the heat melted them. I had no idea sprinkles could melt!
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| Cupcakes everywhere! Trying to find containers to store them overnight was a big challenge! Anything that had a lid was used. |
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This is the overworked mixer that quit before the job was complete! A few more cupcakes! On sunday night when we went to serve them, lots of ants had gotten into the box. When no one was looking, I blew the ants off the cupcakes and placed them on the serving tray. We didn't want to be defeated by an army of ants! We served them with vanilla or chocolate ice cream. We learned they prefer vanilla.  These young men are standing in front a a taxi--the main means of transportation.  Saying goodbye is always hard. This taxi is almost ready to go. taxis operate differently than in the U.S. Each taxi has a destination . Each taxi has 16 seats. When all of the seats are full, the taxi departs. So when you board the taxi you have no idea if you will be leaving in 5 minutes or 3 hours! It depends enitely on when every seat is full. It is very challenging. Often people arrive for church late because the taxi did not fill up and they had to wait an hour or more before it filled up. However, we made arrangements so the taxis on Sunday night would be full (we paid in advance for all of the seats) and could leave immediately. If at first you don't succeed..........
We decided to make one more attempt at the turtle tour. We drove to St. Lucia in time for the 4:30 PM tour. The times are determined by the low tides so the maximum beach is exposed to watch the turtles. Well, we searched for 4 hours and didn't see one turtle! It was so disappointing, but Mother Nature rules. However we arrived back at our B & B at 10:30 PM and found a hippo grazing on the lawn! We sat in the jeep for 10 minutes and watched this giant creature eat nonstop. It was as good as seeing the turtles!! I have mentioned before, that the hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa and kill more humans than any other animal. This hippo certainly looked harmless, but our guide reminded us the hippo could outrun us, would attack us, and one bite would kill us! So we stayed in the vehicle with the motor running.....although we were very close. Sometimes the hippos come up from the rivers during the night to find more grass in town. Seeing a hippo on your front lawn is pretty exciting!
As usual, I am disappointed in the picture. This looks like a tame dog instead of a fierce hippo! When they open their mouths, their teeth are huge!
 Family Reunion in South Africa
I have an amazing cousin, Karen Clark Hill, who knows every name in our HUGE family tree. Somehow she realized my second cousin (my grandfather's brother is HIS great grandfather--or something like that) was serving in our mission. I thought the possibility of seeing Elder Faumgartner was remote because our mission is very large geographically. But things worked out and we were able to meet briefly in Durban and get to know each other. How fun to come to South Africa and ameet an unknown cousin! I didn't think an 18 year old would be interested in meeting me, but we felt like familly immediately.
 Working Attire
On Saturday we spent 6 hours visiting people in Enseleni who were not attending church regularly. This is one of our favorite things to do. Getting to know people better--learning about their struggles, their families and their dreams--helps us to serve them more effectively...and it is rewarding. One of the ladies we visited is Gogo Rose (Gogo means grandmother). She lives in such humble circumstances and is raising many of her grandchildren on her own. One thing that amazes us, is how the Zulu women dress every day. To work in the yard, do laundry by hand, cook, clean house or go to the store, they are always dressed beautifully. We dropped by unannounced and found working hard in the garden dressed like this. In fact, Elder Todd often remarks, "Look how these women dress up to clean the house." I know what he is really thinking: My wife never looks like this to clean the house! And that is definitely true!
 Zone Conference
Thursday was our Zone Conference with these fabulous missionaries and our mission president, President Zachrison. Our mission president's wife is supposed to be sitting in the empty chair, but she jumped up to set the timer for the picture and did not get back in time. During the Conference, we studied from the Bible and Book of Mormon and we discussed how to be better disciples of Christ. These meetings are a spiritual highlight for us. Elder Todd and I provide lunch and an afternoon snack.
 
We did not plan our matching clothing!! This is Sister Zachrison.
It Continues to Multiply
During the past month, we have had opportunities to work with more people than ever before. As we find more and more people to serve, it is amazing how our love continues to expand. In a mathematical equation, the more people that need you, the less love would be available to each individual. Yet, just the opposite is true. No matter how many people you work with, your love multiplies instead of divides. WE HAVE ALL EXPERIENCED THIS, but it is still astonishing. In fact, I marvel at how the ability to love is limitless. That is one reason why we are so grateful to be serving as fulltime missionaries.
The second lesson that we continue to re-learn , is that THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS! We are grateful to be in His service.
Love,
Elder and Sister Todd
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