Umhlunga, Durban

    Thursday, July 20th, we flew to Durban to enjoy the temple and the weekend together. It's our second time to Durban; this time we didn't have to deal with jet lag. We had the privilege of completing a full-time missionary's father's work. Elder Ssenyenjo is serving in Zimbabwe, Harare; his father died a year ago. He was so excited to hear we could possibly complete his father's temple work since we were going. Miracles always work out; especially because Sister Warne was trying to send us the temple card as we were leaving, our internet didn't work, and the temple was able to log on under Bruce's account and print the card. We were planning on some sessions but not a baptism. This gave Bruce the opportunity to see the baptismal font and resolve some tile issues in Harare. The actual facility's temple maintenance manager happened to be the one baptizing Bruce. He was able to give him new tile samples that should work better on our temple site. My temple recommend had actually expired last month so they tried to call Pres. Judd. The temple couldn't reach him so I called Sister Judd and she answered. Luckily, I was able to enter the temple as planned. It was a beautiful peaceful day at the temple. Since our internet wouldn't work, we couldn't call an Uber car to come pick us up. A nice brother, Gareth Hill, offered to give us a ride back to our hotel. He knew the Nields and has also served in the South African Area Presidency. We were so grateful!

 

We stayed at the Marriott Protea in Umhlanga, Durban. We even got a free upgrade suite! It's right in the restaurant and shopping beach district and was a convenient place without needing to rent a car.

    Thursday was a bit cold and overcast. Friday was better but still a little chilly. We bought some sweatshirts to keep warm. Friday, we walked the beach and went to the aquarium. We saw some fun shows with dolphins and seals. We even saw a scuba diver feed the sharks. I couldn't get the "earworm" baby shark, do, do, do, do song out of my head. Aria just loves that song and asks Alexa to play it over and over again. She's only 2 years old.

Save the penguins! The South African penguins are endangered. We enjoyed seeing them.

Grandma Shark, do, do, do, do. The aquarium was pretty awesome!

Bruce really wanted this suit coat; I told him I didn't think it was missionary attire approved.

Umhlanga Rocks, has a beautiful beach, sunrises, a lighthouse, and sand. It was too cold to swim!

It was cool to see all the fishermen along the shoreline of the Indian Ocean, 2023.07.21 

We found some delicious mini donuts to try at #doxydonuts. The young owner entrepreneur told us she has the missionaries over for dinner. We ran and got her a Book of Mormon which she accepted gratefully.

Saturday after the temple, we enjoyed the beach, and a fun lunch with 4 tapas at "Sunset & Mermaids".

    Dinner Friday night at Lord Prawn restaurant. Fish cakes, tempura shrimp, Roquefort salad, and lobster bisque. We didn't go hungry! Bruce even tolerated shopping at 3 different close by malls. It was good to be back in the "20th" century in South Africa. It was a much more clean and metropolitan. It was cool to find black licorice for Bruce and Reese's peanut butter cup for me. There were plenty of things to stock up on that we can't get in Zimbabwe. You can't top the Shona and people of Zimbabwe for their friendliness. It was good to get back to our little apartment in Highlands. We feel so blessed to be serving here and able to participate in building the temple for the saints of Zimbabwe.