February 20,Letter from South Africa

1. Pres. & Sister Probst  at the Beach for the Baptism

2. Sister Probst & Desiree at the Baptism at the Beach

3. Sister O Desiree & Sonja in the BMW

4. Family Home Evening with the Kibido

February 22, 2010

Dear Family, Friends & Loved Ones

On Monday Feb. 1 we had the Millers, another Senior Couple here to visit with us and go to dinner, which is always nice and so enjoyable to spend time with another senior couple.  Sister O. usually fixes them a large breakfast before they leave.  This time we didn't have time for breakfast.  We had to leave at 7:50 AM to go to a wedding.  Brother and sister Bongo, who we had gotten close to from our class, called us to be to the wedding of her brother Thando and Khongelies Kibido.  He forgot his ID papers so we had to wait about an hour for him to get them.  It was a justice of the peace wedding and it is so lacking in feeling as a church or temple wedding.

    After the wedding they wanted to go to the church for me to give them both a blessing.  I was happy for the opportunity and thought what a wonderful way to start a marriage and they were both really grateful and in tears.  We then made Sister O. happy as she had time to make her hair and nail appointment.  Then after lunch, Sister O. and I went to Great Braak River to visit the Meyer family.  Sister Meyer is struggling a little with faith but seems much better.  I asked her to read Moroni 7 to help her better understand faith.  I also wanted to give them a framed "The Family: a Proclamation to the World."  We will visit them again on Saturday with Elders Caine and Maja.

    We then visited John O for a few hours.  Helping her to get information and started on trying to get a loan for school.  Sister O and I go home at 7:15 and very tired.  We laid down for a rest and woke up at 10, just in time for bed.

    The couple that Sister O and I gave the blessing to wants to teach them but we probably can't do all of it as it isn't a safe area to got to.  The elders will have to do most of it for safety reasons.  Elder Whiting was stabbed in the arm in that area, but he made a bad mistake of allowing several young men into their car to find an area for them.  No. No. No.

    Last night (Tues) was a wonderful night.  Desiree committed to baptism and her daughter, but her daughter is not quite ready, nor is Gerard.  I suggested that we wait for Gerard to be baptized and let him receive the priesthood so that he could baptize his daughter Elizabeth.  Also Douglas' wife, Yolanda, and their son Niko, committed to baptism.  What a wonderful day.

    On Friday after our district meeting, we had lunch with the elders at a chicken place called Nandos.  Then Sister O and I needed to go grocery shopping, and a lot of reading and studying as we had Sunday school lessons, a priesthood lesson, and a young women's lesson to give.  I have had the opportunity to read and study a lot since being in Africa and my testimony has really grown and been strengthened. 

    On Saturday February 6 at 12 noon, to Sunday noon we had a special fast and prayer for rain.  Hopefully if we are humble and sincere enough we will be blessed.  I have seen much power in fasting and prayer while on our mission and we have also been commanded to do so.  We visited and taught Douglas' family and his dad Hein and finalized their baptism date on February 20.  Then we went to Great Braak River  to visit the Meyer's family.  They are a great young family and seem so interested to have the gospel back in their lives. 

   

We really had a great and spiritual fast and testimony meeting on fast Sunday.  President Mason was here.  He is first counselor to President Probst.  We received an email from the Chamberlains serving in Joburg, and they told us they had received 13 inches of rain in January.  I wish we had part of it here in George. 

    Our African son, George, hitch hiked from Tsitsikamma (two and a half hours by car) to George.  He came to church and visited us.  We were so busy with our lessons that we didn't have time to visit with him and he was able to ride clear back to Plettenburg bay with President Mason.  He is such and amazing young man I wish we could have received some support to help him go on a mission but I'm sure the lord will bless him and make it happen.

    For Sunday dinner we had a real treat.  Sister O fixed tacos and burritos.  She was planning a Spanish rice but forgot about it until the next morning.  You're not going to believe this one, Elder Maja wanted Mayonnaise on his tacos and burritos.  Can you even imagine it?  Yuk!  On February 8, P-day, we were busy until about three thirty and then went golfing for nine holes.  We had family home evening with the mother of Sister Bongo and Bro. Kibido.  They are a big family and a very close and loving family, which is wonderful to see.  We had 22 people in all with five missionaries.  In 1980, the mother had a dream.  She was sick and in a coma.  She dreamed that Christ's church was brought back to earth in America by a young white boy.  Do we recognize this?  Wow, how exciting is that?  She has looked for this event since but has never been able to find it until now.

    We visited with Desiree on Tuesday.  I was going to teach the law of chastity to her daughter, but she couldn't be there, so we went over the word of wisdom and her baptismal plans.  Before the meeting with Sister Desiree, she took Sister O and Sonja in a ride in her BMW convertible.  Sister O is now spoiled.  We did get some good pictures.  We'll try to email them to you.

    On Friday after our district meeting, we went to Tsitsikamma with the Knysna elders to teach George and his cousin Elizabeth.  When we got home, we went with the Thembalethu elders to teach the family that we had family home evening with.  It was great. 

    On Saturday February 13, we had two baptisms.  I had a feeling that we needed to check out where we usually baptize people.  I did and it was nearly out of water.  So the search began for another area.  We found a place in the ocean below Pacalsdorp.  This was a different experience of baptizing in the ocean for me.  We had a large turnout.  I baptized Stefaans Pieterse and Elder Caine baptized Dominic.  It took me three times to get him under the water before we got a wave deep enough for complete immersion.  Well the wave kind of baptized me also, as I went under as well.  Desiree came as she is getting baptized the following Saturday. 

    We then went to Great Braak to teach the Meyers.  This time we took the Pangels with us.  We taught them about the temple and the three degrees of glory.  They were very, very interested and I told them to read D&C 76 and we would talk more about it the next time we saw them. 

    President and Sister Probst were at the baptism on Saturday, and also at church on Sunday.  I missed the opportunity to be with Gary when he received the priesthood.  I really wanted to be there and he wanted us there, but we were in a meeting with President and Sister Probst.  He was so excited to receive the priesthood and we were excited also.  What a wonderful blessing. 

   

Well, it is time to close as we have a lot to do today.  Please know that we love and miss you all so much, but we feel that we are doing what we need to do.  We are enjoying the experience that we have been given and blessed with and we know that our lives have and will be blessed.  We really love the grandchildren and are anxious and excited to see them all again. 
 
Love to all from Elder & Sister O'Dell Mom & Dad
                          Grandpa & Linda Grandma & Grandpa Woody



PS The big family that we had the family home evening with got robbed the other night, and one of the sons got stabbed but was OK.  I'm glad Sister O and I were not there alone teaching.  Satan really works hard to keep people from the gospel.  I feel this is how he works sometimes.

First Letter for February 2010

February 4, 2010,

Dear Family, Friends & Loved Ones,

Well week before last was rather a hard week as are all transfer weeks. You really get attached to the young elders that are here and it is hard to have them leave. We lost 3 of our elders, Elder Botes went to Queenstown, Elder Cooney went to East London (about a 7 hr. drive away) and Elder Mathipa went to an area around PE we are not sure what the area is called? We got 3 new Elders who seem really GREAT and fun to be around. They also seem like very good missionaries. It is so amazing to see these young men and the dedication they have in serving the Lord and to bring people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They all have such strong testimonies and it is such a joy to be able to serve with them.

The new Elders didn't arrive until 11pm by car so we didn't get to meet them until Thursday AM. We have Elder Maja with Elder Cane in George Elder Wilson is with elder Moyo in George, and elder Owour is with Elder Bradshaw in Knysna. We have to do apartment inspections before the transfers so we did that to make sure they are taking care of the apartments and especially that they are clean. It seems so strange that Elder Cooney who is a germ freak always has the dirtiest apartment with the most cleaning to do. Sister O is really excited about having elder Wilson (who is from Utah) because he plays the piano very well and we really need him as man times we don't have anyone to play and when Sister O leading the music it makes it so much easier for her and especially since she doesn't have to try to hum thru the song first.

On the Tuesday before the Elders arrived, I told Sister O that I would like to see the ear doctor our pharmacy referred us too. I am having so much trouble hearing and understanding people talk. The Dr.  told  me that hearing aids would probably help, but not entirely as my hearing is so bad. They are going  to make one for my left ear (experimental) to see how it works. She is going to let me wear it for a month as a free trial to see how much it will help me and how much I like it.  It is hard to imagine how expensive they are but there is a big range in the price and I tried to get one that was less expensive and that will work.

On Friday, after our district meeting we took the post to the Knysna Elders and then we all went on to Plettenberg Bay so that we could teach George a lesson. He is such a great young man and really wants to go on a mission and hopefully we can fine a way for this to happen. We are sure that the Lord will provide a way. When we got back to George we visited Clifton & Elizabeth then Gary & John O Lene.

On Saturday am I spent most of the morning making repairs to the Elders flats. We had 2 baptisms on Saturday afternoon and that is always exciting.  Except there is bad news. They are moving to PE as he has a good job there and you can't turn that down. He had a nice car for transportation also. There are so few people here that have cars. We also hate to see them leave as I'm sure he would grow into a great P.H. Leadership position.  We need good men to serve) Then at 4pm another senior couple (the Stones) were here for a teacher training seminar.

On Sunday at Sacrament I confirmed the husband and conferred the Gift of the Holey Ghost. This is always such a privilege. We had a great SS Class and a really large one and was fun to teach as we are getting a lot of class participation. As usual Sister O had a large and delicious dinner of roast beef and about everything else you could think of with it. She really enjoys cooking for and taking care of the Elders.


Well on P-day the Elders twisted my arm to take them golfing. We always have fun together. Our new Elders wanted to play and really enjoyed it. They said they had played a "little" before, but it really didn't show. On Tuesday I got my hearing aid. It is hard getting used to BUT I think it is really going to help a lot. On Wednesday we were busy with a lot of appointments. We had Hein, Dougles (Hein's Son) Yolanda, Ben & Hester, Clifton & Elizabeth and Gary & John O. On yes I forgot on Tuesday we visited with Desiree as they are back from France and it was really great to see them again. Gerard was at the farm but will be back for next Tuesday. We will see them again next week.

On Thursday Sister O cut Elder Wilson's Hair before we left to go to PE for Zone Conference. When we got to Tsitsikamma, the bridge, we visited George and gave his cousin, Elizabeth a lesson. Three of the elders had never seen the bridge and the bungy jump and they really enjoyed it and thought it was awesome. (It is)  There were people jumping and that is so neat to watch. We stayed with the Stones again another senior couple and we were responsible for feeding everyone at Zone Conference.  For a morning snack we had cinnamon rolls (they make them very large over here) and call them Chelsea Buns. With a punch drink. For lunch we had pizza, a tossed salad, brownies and ice cream. We had to leave for home after conference and got home at about 9:30 that night.

On Saturday we had a busy day with 5 appointments. One was a new family called the Mayors and they live in Great Braak River which is about 25k away. They have a cute little boy almost 4 and he really took to Sister O. also a 2 month old baby girl. They were baptized 7 or 8 years ago, moved away and have been inactive and now want to learn about the church again and get active. They seem like a great couple, but again transportation may be a problem!

Sunday was a very good day. We had a lot of our investigator there and the new couple the Mayor's were there. We had a large and good SS class and Brother Mayor's participated a lot in class. The last hour was a joint RS & PH meeting and President Matsaluka gave a wonderful presentation, I have wanted this to happen for quite sometime.  He talked on fasting, prayer and faith. We are having a special fast and prayer for rain next Sunday. Our Mission President and Stake President have given us full support on this and other units in the area are also fasting and praying for rain. We all know that there is great power in fasting and prayer if done with faith and deep humility. The fast will go from Saturday noon to Sunday noon. We just hope we have the proper faith and humility to make it happen. For Sunday dinner we had a simple dinner but Sister O made it fabulous. We were just doing hamburgers & hot dogs. We also ended up with potato salad, fruit salad, tossed salad, corn on the cob, chocolate cake & ice cream. Sister O just can ever make it simple or leave well enough a lone. I guess that is just part of why she is such a great lady.

Well I think I better close because Sister O doesn't like the letters to long as she has to type them.

Family please know that we love you all with all our hearts. Also know that we love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all our hearts and are so grateful for the opportunity that we  have of serving our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. We need and appreciate all your prayers that we will be blessed that we may serve as we desire. The hardest thing for us is not being able to see family for such a long period. We pray daily that each of you will be blessed and given thanks for the love and happiness you bring into our lives and especially for you our Grandchildren.

We Love you and Miss you always
Elder & Sister O'Dell, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Linda & Grandpa Woody