Lions, Zebras, and Giraffes, Oh my!!!!!

Dear Family and Friends,
This week started off with quite a bang.  We live 90 minutes from the famous Kruger National Park.  This is where you can lodge or buy a day pass and drive through the park.  The park is quite large so you try to find the entry that is closer to you.  Whenever missionaries come here they want to see this park before they are transferred.  This happened to be the best time for a visit.  So Monday we loaded up three senior couples car and one bakti (truck)  and headed off.  These are some of the animals we were able to see.  In Africa, they have which is known as the Big 5.  This includes, elephant, rhino, leopard, lion and hippo.  We were able to see all except for the leopard.  They are very hard to find.
                                                                         

We started the day off with some wart hogs.  Go Puma Go.  They are so interesting.  There were about 8 to 10 of them.  This trip we saw a lot of them.

Next came the beautiful giraffes.  They are so fun to watch.  They are so graceful.  It was like they were having a lunch date together.  You rarely see a giraffe by itself.

This is a red bill something.  It is endangered.  I am sorry I forgot the name but it is really ugly.

We then came upon the water buffalo or cape buffalo.  We have heard them called by both names.  They are especially ugly and their horn are so interesting.

The zebras are so beautiful!  We could almost put our hand out the window and touch them.  (That is not allowed).

We saw this cute turtle on the side of the road.  Elder Campbell even turned around so we could get a picture for Spencer.  It is so interesting that the shell even looks african.  WOW!  The designer of Africa really did a terrific job!

These are two interesting creatures.  We stopped for a rest spot and saw this Cheetah and thought we would take a picture for all of our fast runners.

Here are some of our wonderful missionaries representing, Mexico, England, Australia, Kansas, Missouri, Utah, and Idaho.  They are great!

Ba

boons!! At first we could not see this lovely lion in the trees.  Thank goodness the young Elders have much better eyes than we do.  We is just relaxing!!!  We saw some lionesses later we will show you.

They were sunbathing and napping by the water.

Our rhino taking a nap in the sun.  He looks so cute there with his eyes closed.

We ended the day with a trail of elephants walking across the road.  There were baby ones and all sizes.  We were the last car so we did not get the picture of the baby ones.  Just picture about 8 of these walking across the road.  Fascinating!

It was a great day viewing some of God's creations in their natural dwellings.

Now

Have you ever wondered where we get Cream of Tartar?

Your worries are over.  This is the plant that it comes from.  They grow here and hang from a tree.  The people here take the white stone inside and suck it while they walk kind of like we do a pebble.  The cream of tartar is a powdery substance on the stones.  They harvest that and we get 

Cream of Tartar!!!!

You may already know this but Elder Campbell broke his eye piece one night cleaning it.  We did not have a replacement as they are so expensive.  The only place they make them is in Boston at Harvard.  We ordered one and it cost $750. We had it sent to Elise as she was the closed.  To send it cost $200.  When it finally arrived in Johannesburg it took $150 to get it out of customs.  Then it took a week to get up here to us.  South Africa does not have mail service now as they are on strike.  This has been going on for 4 months now and probably will continue.  When the package came they had sent the wrong one.  Oh Dear!  We called and they sent another one.  They paid for the lens but as of now they have not paid for the shipping.  We are working on that.  This is Elder Campbell opening his package.  This time it is the right one and if working good.

One day we went to the fabric store for something as we decided to buy some fabric and make african skirts.  Here we are at District meeting with them on.  Sister Meldrum is from Canada, Sister Heyen is from Oregon, and me.

This is our week.  We hope you are doing well.  We love you and pray for you.  Thank you for your prayers.  We feel them.  They help us be better servants.

Hurrah for Israel,

Elder and Sister Campbell

Missionary work is great!

Dear Friends and Family,
We are sorry that we have not written for a while.  We seem to be quite busy from dawn to dusk.
Monday through Friday we awake and go for a walk.  We then come home and get ready for the day. We then read our scriptures and look at our plan for the day and make preparations.  Preparations we make entail: seminary lessons, piano lessons, temple preparation lessons, Primary lessons, visits with members, inspecting young Elder's flats and getting the necessary items they are in need of.  We also do other things when called upon.  We are not bored!!!

Here we are moving a family.  We have moved someone for the past 3 weeks.  Mind you it does not take too much time since they have not collected as much as we do.

This is how they make bricks for their homes.  They dig in the dirt and get it wet.  The women get in the mud and mix it with their feet.  They then form it into blocks that they put some newsprint on one side.  They stack them into a pile with an opening going through,  When they have made enough bricks they put some wood in the opening and fire the bricks.  It is amazing how they do this.  Many, many homes are done like this especially in Motupa Village.  Sometimes they will put cement on the outside.  We believe all of the buildings are done with brick.  There is not insulation in the homes.  It is only brick and plastered over for the walls.  It is hard to find wood.  We see women all the time carrying wood on their heads.

We are at the King Walden Resort.  It is said that the owner of this plantation built this for his sweetheart.  This tree is famous for the fact that the day his wife died lightning struck this tree and it has looked like this since them.  It is a beautiful place.  You can come and stay here in beautiful rooms and it has a swimming pool.  Did you notice the crocodile seat we were standing in front of.  Supa neat.  (There is a tire store here that is called "Supa Quick".  We love it!

Above you will see two of the many hairstyles they have here.  They do this or they wear their hair really, really short and sometimes wear a wig.  Below we are at Cheerio Gardens.  It is absolutely beautiful.  You will see such beauty and this is not even the most beautiful time of year.

We do believe that we are living in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Every day we see some amazing sights.  There are birds that have zebra stripes!  That is just amazing how everything seems to work together.

Here are Elder Perkins and Elder Downs ending the day of cleaning up the church grounds with some stick pulling.

This is the church grounds.  We rent it from the Chief of the tribe.  This is the water source.

Getting rid of the weeds.  This is our Primary Group Leader.  She is wonderful.

Pretty cute face.  The worked and worked- all barefooted.

We burned the weeds.  We know some Elders that are Pyromaniacs!!!

This is an example of the beautiful Jacaranda Tree.  They are all in bloom now and it is so Divine.  There are many trees that have such lovely blooms on them.

Here we are at the Motupa Visiting Teaching convention.  It was great!  The sister in the black on the front is our Relief Society Group Leader.  Motupa is a Group and is off of the Tzaneen Branch.  Elder Campbell is the Branch President of both.

This is Elder Campbell playing the organ for Motupa.  We visit one or two times a month.  The children love to stand by him.

This is our last baptism in Motupa. 

These are the four Senior Couples and the two Elders that are getting transferred.  We get so close to them.  They are like our family.

Before Elder Cazier her wanted a picture with our apron.  How fun!  He is from Germany!

Well, we have gone on and on and you are probably tired of hearing about our wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel with the people of South Africa.  We do love being missionaries.  There is a special feeling that comes with being a servant of the Lord.  We know what we are doing is good and we know that the gospel blesses lives.  We have seen many instances.  

We want to thank all of you for your prayers in our behalf.  We feel them and are very grateful.  They are a very tender mercy to us.  Love to all of you.  Keep doing good things!

Much love and Hurrah for Israel!

Elder and Sister Campbell

Johannesburg South Africa Mission