January 18, 2015 - Shelley

January 18, 2015

Well, believe it or not, today is HUMP DAY for us!  Our release date is October 18.  In most ways, it seems impossible!

It’s a big week of events for our family.  We have a granddaughter, Gretchen, who is celebrating her birthday on the 20th.  Happy Birthday, Gretty!! And it’s our 44th wedding anniversary on the 22nd!!  Forty-four years ago we were

standing together outside the Salt Lake Temple – and here we are, a life-time later, standing outside the Johannesburg Temple.  Great places to be – both of them!

This week was our welfare training in Johannesburg, South Africa.  It’s about a two and a half hour plane trip from here.  There were 11 other couples, each representing countries in South-eastern Africa.  We knew about half of the couples from our first training in May – the others have since finished their missions and have returned home.  This is a plug for any couple who could serve:  you are desperately needed!  Africa is a place where you can make a difference and there are so many ways that you can serve.   There are 5 couples who will be returning home this fall – including us – and no replacements have been found.  Think about it!  ☺

Anyway, we stayed at a beautiful hotel.  It was called the Courtyard and we thought it was connected to the Marriott Hotels, but it wasn’t.  From its looks, it could have been.  We felt very pampered!  I saw the first vacuum cleaner I’ve seen in nine months!

Here are a couple of the missionaries talking around the pool.  AND across the street was the Rosebank Mall!  I hate to sound so caught-up in worldly pleasures, but it was pretty great to see the different shops and eat good food!  The shopping was almost too much because I haven’t been in a place like that for almost a year – and I could hardly take it all in.  But I’ve learned that I can do hard things, and I managed to persevere!!! Haha

I want to mention one of the very special couples from the Area Welfare Office who were in charge of the conference.  Brent and Charlene Lee

have served six welfare missions.  Only developing and third-world countries have welfare (also called humanitarian) missionaries – so you know that they have served in some very difficult places.  One amazing thing is that Charlene is profoundly deaf.  A few years ago, an illness left her without hearing.  She has a cochlear implant and that’s why she wears her hair in such a poofy style – it’s to hide the implant.  Brent is great, but Charlene is definitely the expert on almost anything having to do with welfare.  She conducts the meetings, even though she can only “hear” if she is looking directly at the person speaking.  Anyway, their mission will be finished in two weeks.  They are both very wonderful!

There is a philosophy in humanitarian or welfare work that is sometimes hard to understand.  When I look around the town where I live, I see nothing but people with needs. But I’m judging those needs by my own Western standards.  Too many well-meaning people have come to Africa trying to “save” the people.  They see people in a poor situation and say, “This doesn’t look anything like my situation at home.  I’m going to fix this so that you can live like I do – and then you’ll be happy like I am.”  Well, it doesn’t work, even though they are only trying to help.

Billions of dollars have been poured into Africa from other countries around the world – not just the US.  And the people are no better off than before – maybe even worse.  They have come to rely on others rather than to look for solutions to their problems themselves.  

This is very hard to understand when we think of the Savior’s words that tell us to help the needy.  In our conference, the point was emphasized over and over again that we need to help the needy to help themselves.  It’s like the old story of teaching someone to fish rather than to give them fish.  We’ve actually submitted our proposals for this new year – trying to use those same principles of teaching self-reliance.  Many of them are regarding safe drinking water – definitely the biggest need everywhere.  Our plan is to have the beneficiaries dig the trenches for the water pipes so that they have sweat-equity in the project.  Then they will have ownership and feel like this belongs to them – and they will hopefully take care of it and repair it when it’s broken.  Wish us luck!

Here’s a cute mother and her children that we saw after church today.

When we landed in Johannesburg last Sunday, I was overwhelmed with how clean and modern everything was.  My thought was, “I have finally returned to my former life!!!!  It will take a crowbar to get me out of here again!”  Well, after a week of being there, I found out for myself that I have changed in the last nine months– and I hadn’t even realized it.  I’m not saying that I don’t miss all of those things, but they became increasingly less important to me as the week wore on.  My heart has been softened and I feel a distinct sense of purpose in what we’re doing.  The projects we do will fade with time, but hopefully the relationships we establish and the lessons we are able to teach will live on.  I know that we are receiving the Lord’s help, and we feel your love and support.  Thank you!   Much love to all of you,  Mom/Soeur Davis