Last Letter for 2010 Happy New Year!

1. Charles had his 23 Birthday on the 24th we celebrated

2. President O'Dell with George & Charles in front of our tree

3. All the Elders around the Christmas Tree

4. George, Charles & Sister O with her gift from them

5. Christmas Day at the O'Dells

6. Our 2010 Christmas Tree

7 .Elder Moorcroft showing off one more time

O'Dell After Christmas Letter

December 26, 2010

Dear Family, Friends, & Loved Ones,

Christmas is over and time to write again. It was really a great Christmas because we got to talk to the O'Dell family on ICHAT plus Connie later. Than we got to talk to Linda's family after that on the vonage phone. That's what made Christmas so GREAT (family) We Love and miss you so much.

On December 11, we had a baptism of a lady named Vumile Ntombiyakha. I also got to confirm her on Sunday. What a blessing this is. She is really a great lady, but again we have the problem of real poverty and no transportation. I think she will really be a strong member as time goes by.

We wrote earlier about an Elder that joined the church. He was of Muslim faith & was converted to the gospel . Because of this they ( the Muslims) killed his family right in front of him and then beheaded his mother.  They told his brother to kill him but he would not so they killed his brother and beheaded him also. This Elder has gone thru such trials but such a great Elder with such a strong testimony. Unbelievably, he is at peace as he has had the temple sealing ordinances done for his family and knows all will be well with his family. Later he found his father in England and they killed and beheaded his father also.  What a trial for him before serving a mission for his Father in Heaven. His Uncle is Muslim and know where he is. He had a cousin that also joined the church and they killed him, cut his body up in peaces. They sent him a picture of this and told him he was next. What a trial he has. He needs to have some ear surgery before he leaves his mission.  Sister O & I have gotten very close to him and Pres. Probst asked Sister O & I if needed could he spend 4 or 5 days with us while recuperating. Of course we said we would love to.  There is also a slight possibility of him coming to Arizona but more than likely there will be a problem with visas (papers etc). He gets off his mission in a few weeks. His attitude is great in spite of all that has happened and what a strong testimony he has.

It seems so strange to have Christmas in the summer and so many people will be gone on holiday as we do at home when our summer vacation starts. They don't really celebrate it here like we do."Very little lights or festivities"  Very few people have trees or any home decorations. A lot or a part of this is probably do to the extreme poverty.

We had transfers nearly 2 weeks ago. We lost Elder Grobler and got Elder Moorcroft who was the Zone leader and also Elder Bangerter from Centerville Utah. We had our Christmas program on December 18th and had a great program. Brother Barris talked on Love, Sister O talked on Traditions (America) etc & she gave a really fantastic talk. Sister Barris talked about traditions in Germany and I talked about gifts of Christmas & going home to our Heavenly Father. (He did a wonderful job and it was GREAT) The 4 Elders sang a beautiful quartet plus other Christmas music.

We had the Elders help decorate our Christmas tree on Sunday night the 19th. They enjoyed it and we exchanged names, sang Christmas carols etc. On P-Day the 20th I took the elders to Alexandria to play 9 holes of golf as it is cheap to play there. Monday night we had 2 senior couples spend the night with us. The Robinson's from PE and a new couple the Taylor's also from PE. We went to Fish River Sun for there fabulous breakfast where we met the Platerio's from Grahamstown. We then played a round of golf here in PA & the wives went shopping. Elder Taylor didn't play but walked the course with us. The Taylor's are from Wyoming.

We have had several opportunities to go on teaching lessons with Elders Moorcroft & Bangerter. Sister O and I spent all of Wed. evening taking a gift of a CD  by the Tabernacle Choir (Called to Serve) to our members. Then on Thursday we along with the Elders took a food basket to most of the more needy people in our Branch, We fixed big Christmas stockings for the 4 Elders plus plus our 2 African sons from Tsitsikamma area, George & Charles. They spent 2 nights with us. Sister O fixed a big breakfast for the 8 of us on Christmas morning. Then we had a large (Bar BQ) Braa for dinner. That seems to be everyones favorite here. We had steak, lamb chops, pork ribs, wors and ham. Sister O also had a great potato salad, baked potatoes, plus salsa & jello salad ( from Sister Dell). It was a GREAT and WONDERFUL day. The best part was that we were able to talk to my family on ICHAT and then to Sister O's family on the vonage phone. We talked to Connie's family and Kristi's Family later on that day. That is what made Christmas so special. We love our families.

Well Christmas is over and it is such a wonderful time of year. Not only at home but anywhere that we can celebrate the birth of our Savior.  We are such a blessed people. Having family, having the gospel and its blessings of knowing our Heavenly Father & his son Jesus Christ, and to know that we can have eternal families and living in their presence.  That is his plan. Now we need to follow it. How blessed we are!

Sister O has really  been suffering with a bad cough and congestion for about 4 months now and just doesn't feel well. I wish and pray that she will feel better so that we could better enjoy our services to our Heavenly Father,

Saturday on new years day I am taking the Elders golfing on our course here in PA along with a cart. That was part of our Christmas to our Elders. Yesterday for P-Day we went to the beach and tried sand boarding. They had fun but,  we don't think it was as good as they thought it would be.

Well we love you and miss everyone of you so much. Not only our families but our friends also.  "HOW BLESSED WE ARE" 

All our Love.
President & Sister O'Dell
Mom & Dad Linda & Woodt
Grandma & Papa Woody Grandpa

Last Letter for 2010 MERRY CHRISTMAS !

1. All the Senior Couples at the Zone Conference

2. The Elders at Zone Conference Elder Moorecroft is the one making the face.

3. Port Alfred Elders on top of the Hill in the Township

4. All the Elders & Elder & Sister Lapray at Dinner at the O'Dell's

5. Elders having fun in our Kitchen before Dinner

6. Elder O'Dell Baptizing our newest member last Saturday.

December 15, 2010

Dear Family, Friends & Loved Ones,

It is now Saturday December 12 and almost time for Christmas. We know that all of you are busy getting ready for this wonderful holiday.  It is the hardest time of our mission, to be away from home and our families at this time of the year. Especially since we have such wonderful families. Please know that we love you and are so proud of each of you!

Well we met for the 1st time in our new chapel on Sunday November 2nd. It is not finished BUT it is really nice & big. I know that all of our members are so thankful for it and that it is so nice compared to what they have had in the past. It is still a long way from being completed but it is still really nice. It will probably (hopefully) be completed sometime in January as we will be working with a new budget for the year. I have gone down many morning at 5:30 & 6 am to try and get things more organized etc so we can function better. Getting into a new and bigger and nicer facility is one of my many goals that I want to accomplish while Sister O  I are serving here in Port Alfred SA.

Sister O and I have had several opportunities to go on teaching appointments we both really enjoy this. It is such a great experience. Sister O and I had the opportunity to visit a lady and her family who are members in Grahamstown. Her husband is not a member but seems like such a great person. We met her at the youth camp that we attened several months ago at Hogsback. It was about 11/2 hours drive from Port Alford. We picked up our 2 Zone leaders in Grahamstown as they wanted to go there and visit them also. They have some game animals on their ranch but we didn't drive around to see their ranch. Maybe next time. We visited for several hours and had a very nice lunch with them. The Zone Leaders were Elder Moorecroft from Jo Burg & Elder Oleole from Hawaii. The La Prays want to visit them so maybe we will visit them again.

On Monday after Thanksgiving we got together with 7 couples in the Grahamstown chapel. It was so nice and fun to be with 6 other senior couples. Not only to enjoy there company but to enjoy our traditional American Thanksgiving dinner.  I guess it seems funny or odd that you miss things like that when you have had it a part of your life for so many years, and at 73 that is quite a few years.


The Zone leaders usually stay at the Elders flat with them but since there are already 4 Elders in this flat there wasn't room. So the Zone leaders stayed with us for 2 nights along with the La Prays for one night, so we had a house full. Elder La Pray & I took them golfing on a Friday afternoon. We walked and the wives drove a cart around. Elder Moorecroft is getting good but Elder Oleole must have lost about 15 golf balls and most were on his drive from the tee box. Sister O & I got to go on missionary splits with them.  We were with Elder Labala & Oleole it was great and we loved it.

We had a baptism a few weeks ago of an 8 year old. She was baptized by her father Patrick Nteyi. The girls name is Meihle Nteyi. It is so great to be able to have the father baptize his own children. It is such a blessing to have the Priesthood in your home and be able to do this, He was not able to confirm her and bestow the Gift of the Holy Ghost but I'm sure he will in time.

Monday is normally our P-Day but we didn't have it because of a change in our schedule, we went to East London for a quarterly zone conference. We were there for 3 days. Zone conference was Tuesday and we had a Christmas P-Day on Wednesday with 3 Zones. We had Elder Watson of the 70 with us for our Zone Conference on Tuesday. He is a counselor in our area presidency. What a wonderful man he is. We have been so blessed by being given the opportunity to personally meet so many general authorities.  Elder Watson is so down to earth to visit with and was so personable with each of us. We had 4 senior couples that had dinner with Elder & Sister Watson & Pres. & Sister Probst. Elder Watson was the personal secretary for the last 3 prophets and first presidency. As I said, what a great man and interesting person to be able to talk and visit with. What a great experience  for both Sister O and myself.  Sister Watson heard that I liked fireballs and she gave me a handful. She was such a fun lady to sit by and talk with. Her son Tyler Watson is a very good friend with Mark Larson and she said both Mark and Tyler said for her to give Sister O a BIG hug! And she did. She and Sister O had a great time talking at dinner.

On Wednesday we had a 3 Zone P-Day There were 60 Elders. The part I got to attend was great. They showed a movie called "Gifted Hands"  (it was a true story). I didn't get to see much. They had a talent show form the Elders but I didn't get to see much of this either.  They also showed a video of all the pictures taken this last year in the mission.  I didn't get to see this either. We will get a copy of this and I can see it later.  I was out most of the time with Elder Jones getting the food for the lunch Pizza and the orange bowl from Mc Donald's, they furnish a large cooler of orange drink with ice and 100 cups for free. They do this for large groups and church groups. It is really a good orange drink. Then I had to pick up 30 large pizzas at Romans. This took a while as it is quite a distance away. Then we all sang a number of Christmas carols as Pres. Probst read a Christmas story about the life of Christ. The singing of the carols was very beautiful as we have some very talented singers in the elders. We started the P-Day at 9:30am and it lasted until 3:30pm. We got home about 6pm.

On Saturday I spent most of the day at our new church as I had the 4 Elders there and we hung the new blinds on all the windows. There is eleven windows. We also hung a new beautiful outside sign on the church. We also hung a lot of pictures etc. on the inside. The new blinds really add a lot of beauty to our new chapel and adds so much. We will be so excited when it is all completed.

Well it is time to close again. Please know how much we love and miss all of you and how proud we are of our families. I don't know why we have been so blessed, but we have and give thanks to each of you. We will really miss you at this special time of year. Families are always special but even more so at Christmas season.

We Love you and all our friends!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL !!
LOVE ELDER & SISTER O'DELL
MOM & DAD,  LINDA & WOODY
GRANDMA & GRANDPA