July 24 -30

We are deep into winter here and it is so cold. Our kids make fun of us because we complain about the cold when it gets up into the 60s during the day. Occasionally even into the 70s. The problem is our house does not have central heating so although it is close to the same size as our house in Salt Lake the only heating we have are a couple of space heaters. The house gets very cold at night (the outside temperature goes down into the 30s and 40s) and then never really warms up. It is often a relief to go outside and feel the warm sunshine. We took a temperature reading in our bathroom in the morning, it was 50 degrees. Stepping out of the shower in the morning is an act of courage. We wear our hoodies around the house. When the members ask us if it gets cold where we are from we tell them it gets a lot colder at home BUT our houses are warm. The Newcastle and Madadeni chapels are pretty warm but the other chapels are cold. Even on mild days I need to wear a sweater or a shawl.

The weather has not been mild the last couple of days. A cold rainstorm moved in over the weekend and lingered for 3 days. It was good because there is a drought here so every drop of rain is needed but it is c-c-c-cold.

It rained all Saturday night so we woke up to a soggy world Sunday morning. We were still at the DeKlerk’s farm and we were a little concerned about the dirt road we had to negotiate in order to get to church. The DeKlerks left at 6am in order to get to church by 9am. We left at seven-thirty because our church didn’t start until 11am. We were fish tailing up some steep, slippery, muddy parts but we made it out ok. We were worried that if we got stuck we would never get out on our own. Then Sister DeKlerk messaged us her son’s phone number in case we got stuck so that was good to know. We got to church with a very muddy car, but we got there safe and sound.

These pictures were taken on our drive from the farm
I would have taken more but I was too busy being scared

It was still cold and rainy on Monday but we hope drier weather is coming because we are freezing all the time. We miss our furnace! The good news is that Elder Hind is finally completely well and feeling his old self.

We love teaching our Seminary and Institute class in Dundee. The drive takes about 45 minutes and we do it twice a week. But what really takes up our time is studying for these lessons. The Old Testament can be a real challenge to teach.  

Our students outside the Dundee Chapel

 We got to the Dundee chapel this week we noticed the security alarm was going off. We are not sure what happened. There were some students waiting outside so I don’t know if they had done something that set it off or Elder Hind could have set if off by accidentally touching the keypad on the set of keys he has. Anyway within a couple of minutes an armed security guard showed up. He was very nice and even let me take a picture of him with Elder Hind.

We will try very hard not to do this again as I think the church gets charged
every time a security guard has to come to the chapel

I like to take pictures when we are driving home from  Dundee
This is a little grainy but I like the monochromatic look showing the land forms
And the cooling towers in the foreground 

And of course one more of my sunset pictures