Area Presidency's Christmas Party

Since we were in Johannesburg the day of the annual Area Presidency's Christmas party, the "Congolese Refugees" were invited to attend. It was amazing for us to see all the senior couples who have put aside their lives and come to serve.  There were over 50 people in attendance.

Cooks, Hatches, Hartmans, Staggs, Webbs and Howes

President Renlund and Binghams

Since we were living with the Renlunds, I got to help with the decoration and food. Anybody who knows me at all knows how much I enjoyed being a part of the project. 

                                                                           
We sang Christmas caroling lead by Sister Renlund and there was even a cute little Christmas tree with angel decorations from the Congo. There were yummy festive foods, fun stories and a wonderful Christmas message by Elder Carl Cook. 

 

We felt very blessed that we were invited.  It certainly felt like Christmas time!

      

 

A Fun Date

Since we really have some free time here and there are interesting to go,we've enjoyed several outings with the couples. Everyone who lives in Johannesburg has been so welcoming and wonderful to us and taken such good care of us that we didn't think about the fact that we'd been with other people all the time. Saturday we went to Bryantson Organic Market suddenly realized that it was our first "date night" since we arrived here.We had a great time together.

Bryantson is an open air market with fresh food and crafts and we had a great time just walking around and looking at things. It's a place with really nice quality things and as you walk around you just can't help by be amazed at how creative people are. We just enjoyed looking at things and bought a nice African shirt for Brent, some photographs and a necklace.

Then we sat in a little outdoor restaurant and listened to live musical and enjoyed hot chocolate and a crescent. It was a delightful day and we remembered how much we really just enjoy having a date and  being together.

Unforgettable Birthday-Part 2

I'm not sure how often in my life I've celebrated a birthday all day long, but this year I did.
Being homeless, unemployed refugees gives you time to do things you don't otherwise get to do. It's certainly not been a bad kind of "refugeehood." We're all troubled by the inability to do our work as effectively as usual, being away from our missionaries. worrying about the DRC and its people and having a little too much time on our hands. But everyone in the area office has been very kind and helpful to us and we have seen some interesting things. But, now back to the birthday party.

After going to the Lion Park in the morning, we headed on to Monte Casino. Yes, it really was a group of senior missionaries going to a Casino. However, this casino is very different. The couples here told us that it was designed by a member of the church who agreed to do it only if the casino could be placed in an area that allowed you to go to other areas of the complex and never have to go into the casino area. In Las Vegas you have to go through the casino to get anyplace, but in Monte Casino you never have to see the Casino. It has a whole section of restaurants and shops, many theaters and a venue for musical theater and all you ever see to indicate there's a casino is a sign pointing to it's direction.

We enjoyed lunch at a little cafe and then went to the Bird Park in the complex.

One of the main reason we chose to go to the Bird Park was that Elder Bingham is a bird watcher. He has a book about the birds of Africa and he checks off all those he sees. It was a beautiful place that we all enjoyed very much.

 

There were hundreds of birds and they were spectacular.

Some were very beautiful...

But these poor guys weren't quite so blessed!

Cute little meerkats and monkeys somehow got into the Bird Park and were just adorable. Check out the huge white mustache on this little monkey!

Spending the afternoon in this beautiful, serene place was just a delight!

That evening we finished off this fun day by having a quiet dinner with the Renlunds.

Certainly this was an unforgettable Birthday!

Unforgettable Birthday-Part 1

On December 8th, my birthday, the Kinshasa Refugees spent the whole day playing. It was a great Birthday Party.

We started by going to the Lion Park. We'd been there last month, but it was fun to share it with our couples. We took the "TOUR" this time and it was really terrific. We saw and learned a lot more than on our drive-through trip.

It was the same animals, but we got better views and had a great time with our friends.

On our tour we saw:

LIONS

CHEETAHS

WILD DOGS

ZEBRAS

DEER-LIKE-ANIMALS (DLA)

GIRAFFES

MIRKAATS

OSTRICHES

And naturally the best part of all were the baby lions. There were some that were 6 months old and some that were 9 months old. We enjoyed watching the sleepy little guys and getting to pet them was fun us all.

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I loved the Lion Park Birthday Party! But there was more fun to come...