Randy and Kay’s South African Mission – Week 20
I apologize for the delay since our last blog entry. Things have been a little busy with the
mission activity and some personal items.
The Mission is going very well. My English class has added another student,
making my class size now four students. Sister
Farnsworth has added another Keyboard student, bringing her total of students
now at around 15, depending on who shows up and school holidays. Also the Elders are continuing to teach and
preach the gospel.
We are currently on the fourth week of the latest transfer
for the missionaries. On the last
transfer we lost missionaries and only received 4 in return. The reason for this is that right now the
mission is not receiving as many Elders in as it needs in order to replace the ones
who are leaving at the end of their allotted time to serve. Also some of the African Elders who are
scheduled to serve in the mission are still waiting for visas and other
paperwork to come through so they can come into the country. The forecast for elders to come into the
mission over the next few months is promising, again depending on paperwork
approval for the South African Government.
The pair of missionaries which were not replaced here in our Zone were
the walking/biking Elders here in Queenstown.
The Zone leaders added their area to the one not replaced and now have
more than enough to keep them busy.
On this past mission transfer, we lost one of our Zone
Leaders: Elder Stegelmeier from Idaho.
This was hard for me to get a grip on because he is an exceptional young
man and a great example of what a missionary is all about. During the three months that we were able to
work with him, we got very close and I felt like he was one of my sons. The one redeeming factor is that he lives in
Preston, Idaho, and will be somewhat close to where we live in Utah. Also he wants to get together after we are
home and possibly go fishing in Idaho. We
will look forward to that.
Since the last blog update, Sister Farnsworth had to have
surgery on her right eye. Her vision in
her right eye became distorted and wasn’t clear anymore. We saw an eye doctor in East London concerning
this problem and he told us that was the result of something called a “Macular
Pucker,” which needed to be taken care of, the sooner the better for her. The surgery was done on July 28th
and all went well. We will be returning
for a follow up visit on her eye on Aug 28th. So far things seem to be progressing well.
Yesterday, August 14th, Bishop Xalabile form the Sada Ward
had his son return home from completing his mission. Today, Saturday, the ward is having a
celebration for him. Tonight they are having
another party and serving a lot of food.
If we can complete the keyboard lessons which are scheduled for today in
time, we hope to be able to attend. Curious
to see what the menu holds.
Monday morning, August 17th, we will be in East
London to go on a tour of the Mercedes Benz factory down there. We are looking forward to the tour and hope
that we might be able to get a few pictures to post in the future.
We hope that all is going well for all of you in your
lives. Please keep us in your prayers
and if you get a chance to write drop us a line or two, (randyfarns@gmail.com or bowlerkr@aol.com).
Elder and Sister Farnsworth
