SHOCKING - IN AFRICA!!

Just a little blog to let you know how we spent our pday this week!  we took our pday last Monday since we won't have a free Saturday for 3 weeks. We decided to go to a lion rhino game preserve near Johannesburg.  It is a self driven safari. We saw 9 white lions all lying on the ground sleeping just beyond the road we were driving on  They were behind a fence and I didn't want the chain link fence in my picture so I got out of the car - put my camera lenses in one of the holes to get a better picture. I couldn't see the image very well because of the sun - so I leaned in to get a closer look when all of a sudden my elbow hit the electric fence!  I thought I was going to die!  It sizzled through my arm all the way up to my jaw!  It hurt for about an hour!  Needless to say I didn't try again!  You can imagine Taylor laughing hysterically - once I could speak and say I was ok!  I said "I could have died!". His reply was, " That's why I didn't start laughing till I knew you were alive!". It was rather funny afterwards. But for a minute I seriously thought I was going to fry!

Here is a picture of the lions - with the electric fence!

       

This could have been my last photo ever...

We are now in the Cape Town mission for the next 10 days.  I know what a sacrifice...speaking of sacrifice - a friend wrote and asked me what I thought were the sacrifices and blessings of serving a mission - I thought I would share a few of those thoughts here.

The biggest sacrifice has to be family - our kids and especially our grandchildren - you miss out on things you take for granted like baseball games, dance recitals, baptisms and birthdays.  You go without simple comforts - clean water, nice clothes or being able to buy many of the things we don't even think about at home like chocolate chips, brown sugar or turkey at Thanksgiving. You soon come to realize many of the things you thought were important like having your hair look good (that's why I take most of the pictures - so I'm not in them!) - or quick and easy meals just don't matter that much - what's really important - the Lord's work and bringing people to know who they can become is what really matters.  The simple little comforts of life though a sacrifice - you soon forget - kind of like the pain of having a baby - you forget or you probably wouldn't do it again.  You value the child so much more than the pain that you forget the sacrifice and love the blessing so much more.  

The blessings are overwhelming.  By far the best is the Spirit - you feel it every single day.  I already know the hardest  part of leaving our mission will not be taking off the badge but taking off the mantel and privilege of having the Spirit with you all 24/7.  The blessings of working with the full time young missionaries is beyond belief - they are so humble and receptive to becoming more Christ like.  We love being part of their lives and my testimony has grown immensely watching them and their sacrifices.  

For us, the magic of being able to serve at the same time TJ is serving in Alaska is such a rich blessing.  We almost feel like we are serving together.  We were just home for Bree's wedding and we could not believe how everyone of our children individually are doing so well.  We feel like it is a tender mercy - the Lord is doing more than his part in helping them while we are gone.  (And he does a far better job than we do!)

We have also always wanted to go on a safari - in fact we planned Taylor's 40th birthday around that - but were not able to go at the time - now we have been blessed to go on several fabulous safaris while we are serving here - ones we wouldn't have found in any tour guide book.  It's hard to imagine what happens when sign up to serve the Lord instead of making it about yourself.

America is such an amazing country - and I will always feel grateful to have been born there.  That too is a blessing I have often taken for granted.