April is Here!

Here are the pictures I promised.  April is here and General Conference was amazing!  We are happy to be serving the Lord in the area of Temple and Family History work.  It is a vital part of the Plan of Salvation.
Update on Allan - his MRI turned out negative for anything remarkable.  All the areas were "unremarkable". So, good news that he doesn't have a tumor.  Bad news is that we still do not know what is causing his headaches.

Super opportunity to get a golf lesson from three pro golfers.  These ladies are amazing!  They established "Eyes for Zimbabwe".....this organization helps children receive eye care and glasses.

Besides being fantastic golfers they are valiant missionaries for the church.

They are generous to a fault!  They bought us the shirts and gloves we used that day.

It was a fun afternoon!

The security gates at our flats!  

Oral genealogy is being written down and put in computers to save the valuable information!  The tribes have "Singers" and they can sing the genealogy of their tribes.  Amazing!!

We had a youth group come into the centre.  We give instruction and then help them at the computers.

The brothers Lee!

A young single adult group that came into the centre.

This is where we have been attending church and helping the members prepare names to take to the temple.  It is about a 45-60 minute drive to the township of Orange Farm.  

A busy day with Democratic Republic of the Congo patrons.  All French speaking!  We are soooooo grateful for our translators.

The savannah with a mixture of Zebras, Red Hardebeest, and Impala.

This is an Eland - the largest of the antelopes.

This a Sable.  They are rare and this is the only one we had seen since being here.

 

Another trip to Pilanesberg with Brent and Charlene.

Looking for crocs and hippos.

On our way home from Pilanesberg, Allan and I stopped at a resort to do a Canopy Tour (zip line).

 

Along the trail to the zip line.

The Transvaal Candelabra Tree (poisonous)

This Canopy Tour took us back and forth over a canyon.

This was break time!  Our guides were quizzing us about the big 5, little 5 and ugly 5.  Also, talked about snakes.  The interesting and scary thing they said was that when most snakes hear you coming they go the other way.  A black mamba will wait for you!  Really reassuring!!!!

 

They never tell you about the climb OUT of the canyon when you finish.

It was a short climb and we made it just fine.

At the Krugersdorp Game Reserve they feed the lions every Sunday at noon.

We had the opportunity to see it this week.

There is a circle where they put the meat out and it is chained to a post.

You can park all around the circle but you have to stay in your cars (obviously)!

The male lion hung back and sent in three females first before he came in.

They fed them the back half of a wildebeest.

Among the lions were two cubs.  Interestingly, the male took charge of the meat when he came in.  The females waited patiently for their turn.  If they tried to eat the male would go for them.  However, he didn't mind the cubs eating right along with him.

The male had a pride of five females with two cubs making a total of eight lions in this reserve.

He came really close to the car when he finished.  He walked a distance away and watched the females eat.

Cute little cub!

I was really glad we were in the car.  These are big cats.

We saw this poor guy with his deformed horns - he is a Waterbuck and they do not shed their horns.  So, he is stuck with these the way they are.  They aren't going to help him much if he has to defend himself.

A day at the zoo.  This is an Arabian Oryx or White Oryx.  They are extinct in the wild and can only be seen in reserves or zoos.

We came upon this little wildebeest still wet and very wobbly on his feet.

This is another rare antelope.  It is a Tessebee.  There are about 72 species of antelope in Africa. We have only seen a small portion.

Farewell to March!

Well, it finally happened!!!!!  I forgot to blog!!  I totally missed the month of March.  I wish I could say it was because we were sooooooooo busy that I just didn't have the time to write.  Well, we have been busy - but not that busy!  I will just chalk it up to my senioritis flaring up.

We had a long weekend (again) in March.  This holiday was Humanity Day.  Anyway, we (meaning all four of the Lees) went back to our favorite game park - Pilanesburg.  We stayed in Rustenberg, a town about 30 minutes from the park.  As usual, we saw many, many animals - all of the big five except for a leopard.  We saw lions, rhinos, buffalo, elephants and lots of antelope.  For the first time, we saw a sable antelope and a tsessebe antelope.  Will put pictures in for the official April blog.

We have been going out to a small branch in a little township called Orange Farm on Sundays to help the members get names prepared for a temple trip the branch has planned for April 22nd.  We will go out one more time and finish up.  Several of the members are going to the temple for the first time to receive their own endowment.  Such lovely, humble, special people.  Africa is a "happening" place right now.  It was exciting to hear that another temple will be built here in Africa - Kenya, this time. That will make eight temples in Africa.

The latest thing happening right now is that Allan hasn't been feeling super good lately.  He went for an evaluation today and Friday they will be doing an MRI.  He has been getting headaches that are progressively getting worse.  So, keep us in your prayers. Will keep you posted here or via email or FB.

For those of you who watched General Conference this weekend, S. Mark Palmer (Sunday Afternoon session) is 2nd counselor in the Area Presidency and is our ecclesiastical leader here.  We had our quarterly interview with him in February and our temple recommend interview with him in March.  He and his wife are amazing.

I will be blogging for April very soon and pictures will be forthcoming!

Happy Springtime!