Hello From Africa !

1. Mother & Baby Caroline

2. Elders at Care Center with Sister Kenny

3. Baptism Font

4. Elder Lebala sign

5. Elder Lebala & Siphokazi

6. Elders  at the top of the Big Pineapple on P=Day

7. Elders & Pres O having fun on P-Day

8. Elephant at Game Park 

9. Giraffe with President O' Dell & Elders

February 15, 2011

Dear Family Friends & Loved Ones

Greetings again from South Africa. It is past time again to write our letter home. My how the time is flying for us. Sometimes it is hard to find time to do all we need to do and want to do.

Well on Monday for P Day (2 weeks ago) I took all our Elders golfing. They really enjoy it and they have really given us a great rate. It is R58 for 13 holes  which is only about $ 8.00. I wish we could do that at home. On Tuesday we got transfer news. We will be keeping Elder Bangerter & Lebala, We are getting Elder Austin as our District Leader  who is fro Texas. He has been an AP (assistant to the President). We are also getting and Elder from Madagascar so it will be a long name ad one hard to pronounce. Sister O & I took our Elders to Fish River Sun for breakfast. Elder Moorcroft has finished his mission and is going home to Jo Burg  and is going to engineering school. Elder Rigby is going to Capetown South. We understand that Elder Austin is a very by the book person so our elders won't be having as much fun but the missionary work will or should go great. We really like our new Elders we have met Elder Austin before. The other new elder is Elder  Rakoloarivelo. We will call him Elder Rako. We took Elder Bangerter & Rako to Kenton-on-the sea to visit a senior citizen community and had lunch there. A sister in our branch fixes meals for them each day. We then visited and older couple  from our branch in Alexandria, the Barris's  about 50 K away. Then back to Kenton to teach a couple we met at our Spur restaurant. Their son is the owner. He used to be the heavyweight wrestling champion of SA for many years. He is 71 and they really seems like a nice couple.  Then back to Port Alfred as we had a number of visits we needed to make.

We had District Meeting at 10:30 on Friday and then we had our audit at 2:00pm. I needed then to meet with Brother Jubber from East London to go over some details on our church that we are trying to get finished. We then took elder Plehn & his wife out to eat Chinese food. Elder Plehn is the one that did the audit.

We got the go ahead yesterday to finish our church building. We are supposed to get 3 AC units, outside security gates, folding dividers for classrooms, bookcases, filing cabinets, door for my office & clerks office, raised floor in front, microphone, new stove in kitchen & etc. This will be exciting to have completed. Plus replace a few broken windows & gravel the front to help keep our building cleaner.  I have been really busy on getting bids on this as I have to have 2 bids on everything.

Sister O & I then had to go grocery shopping for a dinner party at the church for our YW & YM  to present and work on the Duty to God program and the YW Personal progress.

Sunday was and always is a GREAT day at church. It was fast & testimony meeting, I always really enjoy this as my testimony is strengthened as I listen to members bear their testimonies. We also had a baby blessing. Her name is Caroline Siambwezele. She is really a cute baby. She gave her father the cutest smile during the blessing.

On Monday we met 3 other senior couples ( La Prays, Taylors, & Robinson's  and their son & his wife)  at the Addo Elephant Park. We didn't see as much as usual but being with the other senior couples is always fun. We then went to Schotia Game Reserve and had a great time.  We really saw a lot and I think I got some great videos of lions & rhinos. We didn't get home until well after 10pm We then realized that Sister O left her camera in the safari vehicle and that the spare battery and a couple of full memory cards form my movie camera came out of my case while in the vehicle. So Tuesday morning we were back on the road (105 K) to get them but we were really glad to get them back.

We had a couple of teaching appointments with the Elders on Wednesday & Thursday. The people seem to really be wonderful and golden contacts. The man has a daughter in  England and she wants missionaries to contact her so I arranged for that. I spent more time on Wednesday getting more bids for our church building.

We got a small above ground pool to use as a baptismal font. It was a lot of work putting it together. We have a baptism tomorrow (Saturday) and we will be using it. Since Elder Lebala will be the first Elder to use it to baptize someone. I named it the Lebala's Font. He was quite excited about that . Sister O made 7 doz. Cookies and the R.S. Sisters had a work meeting before the Baptism and made 2 chocolate cakes that we enjoyed eating after the baptism. We really had a large turn out at the baptism. The Sister being baptized was Siphokazi Dayile. A great  lady with a strong testimony and was so excited wanting to be baptized.

On Thursday I met with our RS president for about and hour.  Then later that afternoon Elder Taylor and his wife came from PE for a 4:30 meeting and training of our seminary teacher by the name of Patience Mgadi. We then visited the Cockbain's and then we all went and had chinese food. The La Prays came by about 9:15pm from East London area as they were doing a PEF program. We brought home some chinese food for them. They all  stayed the night with us and then the Taylor's left to go home about 7am while we went to play golf with the La Prays. It was really quite sad. I lost my first game of golf since coming to Africa. "Oh well"

We went on a teaching appointment Friday night and it was great. It is so good to see people accept the gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. Sometimes it is hard to understand people. They supposedly  believe in God & the Bible but still most people don't follow the doctrine of Christ as taught in the Bible. So many have followed a simple way because of the convenience or that it is easier. So many people believe in the commandments of God but only choose to obey those that they want or easier for them. That is why it is so exciting to see people accept  His Gospel and keep His commandments.

We had a really great Sacrament meeting Sunday (Feb.13) I confirmed our new member  and then asked her to bear her testimony. It was so good and powerful. Durning Priesthood meeting we conferred the Aaronic Priesthood  upon Brother Hola and ordained him to the office of a priest. I asked Elder Bangerter to do this and he did a good job with a wonderful blessing. We have a number of great investigators and in time I think we will have a number of baptisms.

For P-Day today (Feb 14) we took the Elders to a game park just outside of town and we  think they really enjoyed it. There is one giraffe that is really tame. You can walk right up to it and pet it. He is really a big giraffe. We braii'd some steak on sunday night for the Elders and had left overs for lunch before we went to the game reserve.

Well it is time to close. We love you all so much and can't wait to see you. We haven't heard any thing more on our departure plans, but we will let you know as soon as we know.  "We hope everyone had a Wonderful Valentines Day"

Love President & Sister O'Dell
Mom & Dad
Linda & Woody
Grandma & Grandpa

Last Letter of January

1. Elder Lebala making us Pop for dinner

2. All the children sitting so quiet waiting for cookies

3. Elder Onen with the O'Dells

4. Elder Rigby doing his first Baptism

January 30, 2011


Dear Family,Friends & Loved Ones,

Greetings again from beautiful South Africa, It seems like time is really flying by fast. We are often told that this is a sign of old age, but we know that can't be true Ha! Ha!. Time is getting short as we have only 21/2 months before we head for home. Sister Herbert called about a week ago and talked to us about going home so she could begin arranging our schedule. EXCITING

Sunday a few weeks ago I asked Sister O to talk in church. She really hates to do this but she really does a fantastic job, after church I had 3 people to set apart 2 for SS teachers and 1 for seminary teacher. We have a really great group of young men & women of seminary age this year. I think we will have 7 in seminary. That is really good for our small branch and we really have some really great youth in our branch.

Sister O & I have had a number of opportunities to go on teaching visits with our Elders. It seems as though they are teaching some great people. We would really be blessed if the gospel would grow in this area both in number and strength. We love the gospel so much and are really excited at what is starting to happen here. We know it will take time but we are really encouraged.

On Monday Sister O and I had to go to East London fairly early as Elder Onen was having some ear surgery and we wanted to be there for him. The surgery went well. Elder Onen was quite out of it all day on Monday. We had a family night with 4 of our Elders from East London at the Jones's empty flat where we stayed and had a good time with them. On Tuesday at 7am we were back at the Hospital and picking up Elder Onen to bring him home to our flat in Port Alfred. He was with us for 10 days. He is really a great Elder but it still was good to take him back to East London. Sister O & I love the Elders so much but it is also nice to have time to or for ourselves. Elder Onen is the one we wrote to you earlier about having his family killed in front of him etc. He has had some real adversity in his life and struggles but I'm sure the Lord will bless him deeply in his life for giving of his service under such circumstances. After his final Doctor appointment on February 7, he will fly home to Uganda on February 8th. He is struggling somewhat with fears as I'm sure we can all understand. If he keeps strong with his faith we told him he would be blessed. President & Sister Probst came by Friday afternoon and visited Elder Owen and ourselves for about hour and then to the church to have a meeting (training) with our Elders for about 2 hours.

On Wednesday I had a lot to do and I got most of it done and then we had the Platero's over from Grahamstown as it was Pres Platero's birthday. We had KFC Chicken (because that is Pres. Platero's best food he likes to eat) Then Pres. Platero wanted to go Golfing for his birthday so we went for 13 holes along with Elder Moorcroft & Bangerter as they didn't have any appointments at that time.

When we finished we had the Zone leaders at our flat. They came to do splits with our Elders and they stayed with us for 2 nights. Elder Onen was still here so we had quite a house full.

I've been trying to visit a Brother Tsitsi from our branch. He hasn't been out for over a year. He received the Melchezidek Priesthood and since he had the priesthood he thought (I guess) that he could start his own church. I haven't been able to contact him yet but we know that his wife really wants to come back to the church. I will keep trying but I think he has been avoiding me.


President Probst & his wife were here Last Sunday and we had a really good sacrament service. Afterwords we both had some interviews and didn't get home until about 2:30pm a long day as we were there at 8am. Then at 4 pm we went with Elder Moorcroft & Bangerter to teach a new investigator. He is such a great person and really wants to hear more but his wife believes in God but doesn't believe in religion and leaves the room when we begin teaching.

This last week we have been able to do a few service projects which we always like to be able to do. We had 7 investigators out to church last Sunday which is always exciting. Yesterday at church we really had a good turnout. One of our speakers didn't show up so I had to talk for the last 15min. Then since it was the 5th Sunday we had a combined RS & PH meeting and I was in charge of this and we really had a good meeting (I think) We talked about. Family, Love and Family Home Evening.

On Saturday we had a baptismal service for a man that has been attending for several months. His name is Ncebazakhe Hola ( try and say this one) He wanted me to baptize him but I talked him into having Elder Rigby baptize him as he did most of the teaching and it meant so much to Elder Rigby. We had a good turn out to the baptismal service and Sister O made 10 doz cookies. Everyone over here really likes treats and you can never make too many. Elder Lebala did the confirmation and really did a great job with a beautiful blessing. It is so wonderful to see these young men grow and mature in the gospel. I had one of our YW ask me to give her a blessing during SS as she wasn't feeling well. This is always such a wonderful privilege. Her name is Olewethu Ngcibi and seems to have about the strongest testimony of any young women you would ever see. I wish we had many more like her.

After the baptism when we went back to the church for refreshments it was so neat to see. There were 6 or 7 young primary children sitting in the small primary chairs. They all had their arms folded and was patiently waiting for their cookies.

Last night we Braai'd steaks and Elder Lebala fixed pop. (This is one thing we have heard a lot about but we have never eaten any) The people in SA always tell us they like meat and pop. We had never had the pop. It is a thick corn meal like poi or a masa with not much flavor. He made a big pan of meat, spicy chili etc. which was really good that you eat the pop with. We all enjoyed it very much.

Well it is about time to close again. We love you very much and miss everyone. We have been gone so long you will all probably forget who we are and what we look like. (except for Jenna Gale she knows that I am bald & Grandma is short) But we hope not. We can't wait to come home.

Love you all so much
President O'Dell & Sister O'Dell
Mom & Dad (Woody & Linda)
Grandpa Woody & Grandma