Day 3 🇿🇦🤩 "Our incredible Trip to South Africa" 🤩🇿🇦 Thursday, August 22, 2019

-Well getting some sleep didn't go as hoped... JET-LAG 🥴 (We we're trying to adjust to being 9 hours ahead...) it didn't matter how tired we were, we'd sleep for an hour or two and then lay awake--- we turned on the TV... we were laughing so hard watching "Idol South Africa" and some show with really bad acting full of over the top drama set in a township...🤣😂 not much on TV... got a little more sleep...

Got up as the sun was coming up, and got ready for our 1st day of 4 in Capetown... what a difference a new day makes, with the rising sun🌄 we felt excited and ready to go explore! 😎 (...What a true analogy of the Light of Christ ☀️dispelling darkness and fear... and filling our souls with incredible PEACE!!) Went outside our back patio to see our surroundings-- it was gorgeous 😁 our apartment was situated on the water's edge of the picturesque V&A Waterfront Marina. Such a beautiful morning, perfect weather! There we were looking up at the majestic Table mountain, we were really here in our BELOVED BEAUTIFUL SOUTH AFRICA!!!!🇿🇦🤩🥰

We went on a walk to explore the Water front and get some groceries. The Waterfront is a very nice touristy area with a huge mall and lot's of restaurants and shops. (The mall was new when we were missionaries.) Was such a trip down memory lane going to the Pic n pay-to pick up Litchi and passion fruit Juice, Schweppes Granadilla soda, naartjies (mandarins), little mini bananas (tastes kinda like pineapple-so yummy) cheese bread, roast beef-chutney and tomato flavored chips, south african candy bars.😋😄 (A few things I noticed is how small their soda section is-with small cans, 2 liters in the refrigerated section but...their tea and rusks section was a whole isle, milk only comes "full-cream") We were learning quickly to convert rand to dollars... everything was fairly "cheap" for us. When we were missionaries the rand was 6 to a dollar... now it was nearly 15 to a dollar. 😮 Definitely made it so we could "afford" a lot more. We were able to use our credit card most everywhere, but did get some rand just in case we needed it-- but even when tipping, everyone would rather have US dollars anyhow.

For lunch we went to the Spur https://www.spursteakranches.com/za (a favorite restaurant as missionaries) We ate outside so we could see the magnificent view! 🤩 Jared had a burger (unfortunately they no longer had "the Monkey-gland burger"-not made with monkey glands😉) ...I had a waffle topped with ice cream-since that had been my favorite thing at Spur--amazing how smells and food can transport you back in time. 😋😄 Went back and took a good jet-lag nap. Originally I had planned we'd go to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens... but It was really nice and relaxing to just stay close to our lodging the 1st day--and not have to worry about driving that darn stick-shift on the opposite side of the road... so by late afternoon I was mentally ready to drive again after having time to recover from my traumatic crash course the night before. (Jared was just fine letting me drive-turns out I drove the 1st week and he drove the 2nd week) We got ready to head to Jean's!!🥰😁😁🥳

Jean-She is a spunky fun white south African, she was 58 when Jared and I both served in The Milnerton ward in April 1997, Jean was learning about the restored Gospel, and got Baptized in May- (Jared confirmed her) Her conversion story was amazing-it really spanned her whole life- her husband was completely against her joining the church- but her testimony was incredible. She became all the missionaries South African mum- she took such good care of us all- always feeding us and giving us rides in her yellow VW bug. She was the most amazing member missionary- sharing the gospel with everyone, helping fellowship anyone we taught and she was just loads of fun, took us on adventures on our preparation days, and assisted in tricks and pranks-that missionaries play on each other. She was beloved by all missionaries, but we were some of her 1st missionaries and the bond we had, had never been broken... so we were very excited to finally see her again😁🥳 She was now 80, her health had been failing- she had been telling me for a few years she didn't think she'd live to see us again... but here we were, and despite her nearly dying 3 times the previous year and spending many weeks in the hospital... She was still here and actually feeling quite well-we were so thankful! 🥰 We had arranged to meet at 5pm and take her to any restaurant she wanted-a small gesture to try and repay her for all the meals she had cooked for us. Driving there took a lot longer than expected--we got stuck in rush hour traffic--- so got to practice my stick shifting -starting-stopping A-LOT!!!😩 -so by the time we got to Jean's I was doing fairly good and much more confident at driving.

Wow it was just like stepping back into 1997...walking up her drive-way... and there she was, the same spunky, funny Ma Jean we knew and loved-just older and thinner. 🥰 We brought her a few things from the U.S. she had requested and surprised her with loads of american candy. She began talking... telling us everything she'd been through since our time as missionaries til now... after an hour, we insisted she pick her favorite restaurant so we could take her to dinner... and of course in ma Jean fashion she wanted to make us dinner-that we mus-ant waste our money taking her to dinner. We had to put our foot down and remind her... we were't poor missionaries, and it would be our privilege to take her to dinner!

We went to the Blue Peter http://www.bluepeter.co.za/dining.html right off the beach at Blouberg strand.😍 Drove her in our car---my driving scared her a bit 😳 It was dark and a bit chili and windy when we arrived-would've been so beautiful to have watched the sunset there (but we would be staying close by there on our last night of our trip... so we planned to bring her back for dinner at sunset before we would fly home) We dined inside on the upper floor, was such a lovely dinner, wonderful food, visiting with Jean- reminiscing and laughing. What a beautiful night-- 🥰now this was what I had anticipated and envisioned when planning our trip... I just wanted to savor every moment. Such a perfect day! 🥰

Day 4.... continued tomorrow 😎🇿🇦