A part of our duties and responsibilities, as a senior missionary couple, is to document the events and activities of the Church in the Africa South Area which as I’ve mentioned before includes 13 different countries. In the last few weeks, we have traveled to the countries of Malawi and Zimbabwe to participate in several humanitarian projects, Malawi The Church’s Humanitarian Initiatives generally fly pretty much under the radar rarely being mentioned in the media – which is the way it should be. Because of this lack of visibility, even as a senior couple serving a mission in Africa, I

During my first tour of duty as a young missionary in South Africa in 1968-1971, my first area of service was in the city of Pietermaritzburg which is about six hours southeast of Johannesburg (about 490 kilometer – 304 miles). I served in this area for a little over five months. The Ball family was in the branch of the Church at the time. Brother and Sister Ball took me under their wing primarily because I had become good friends with their teenage son and daughter – Chummy and Jenny Ball, who were 14 and 17 years of age at

It’s a big deal when an Apostle visits any country in Africa. On the weekend of February 14-16, 2025, Elder Renlund, and his wife a long with the Second Counselor in the Area South Area Presidency, visited Lusaka, Zambia for a country-wide stake conference. We made the trip from Johannesburg to Lusaka to document this visit.  On Our Way to the Conference via South African Airways But First a Short Story About – My Nearly Unscheduled Visit to Lusaka – 55 years ago. Serving in a country as a senior couple, many of the things that I see or think

During my service as a young missionary in the South African Mission in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was tasked by the Mission President on two separate occasions to visit Mozambique to assess the viability of opening the country for missionary work. Once when I was a District Leader in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) and another time when I was an Assistant to the President. I highly doubt that any of my input that I provided the Mission President had any impact on the opening of Mozambique to missionaries. However, today there are two LDS missions in

One last dinner out on the town in the Philippines On Thursday, December 5th at 7:55 am, we left the Philippines for South Africa. After a short stop in Dubai, we landed in Johannesburg the evening at 8:55 pm (not including the 6-hour time difference which would have made our body clock time 3:55 am, Philippines time on Friday). The total time from leaving our apartment to arriving in Johannesburg was~24 hours of lapsed time.  On our way to South Africa After arriving in South Africa, it took about 90 minutes to clear customs, change our US dollars (that we converted

Some of you may or may not know that over fifty-five years ago as a scrawny green behind the ears nineteen-year-old, I served as a missionary for our Church for two and a half years in South Africa and in what was then known as Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). After serving in the Philippines as senior couple missionaries for a little more than twenty-one months, Marcia and I have accepted an assignment to the Africa South Area. Our Philippines mission was scheduled to end in February of 2025, but with this re-assignment we will now return home from South Africa in

Yes, the US Has Hurricanes, but…. In the Philippines, hurricanes are called Typhoons. Since the 1970s, there have been over 63 hurricanes in the US. These hurricanes generally make landfall in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, or in the Carolinas with occasional hurricanes making landfall in states in the upper east coast areas of the US. As you may know, hurricanes are tropical depressions that form in the Atlantic Ocean while these same type of tropical depressions that form in the Pacific Ocean are call typhoons. Both are equally destructive. One of the biggest difference is that the Philippines has an average of

Where ever Marcia goes, it only takes a few minutes before she has engaged everyone she meets in a conversation quickly learning about their family, kids, and their life’s journey. Even though she only met the Filipino in the picture below a few hours before this picture was taken, they are already bosom buddies. Marcia with Filipino saints at the Navotas Ward . Our friends the Call’s, a senior couple from Charleston, South Carolina, are standing to the left of Marcia in the background. Marcia with a Filipino sister member and Sister Call (a senior missionary). You will note that

Recently, we were privileged to interview an Area Seventy and former Mission Leader.  Some of these interviews that we get to do are so inspiring. Here is a summary of Julio Gaviola’s story and interview. As a young man, after graduating from high school, he came from the provinces to Manila to find work at age 17. Coming to the city to find work, since there is little opportunity in the rural areas of the Philippines, is very common. He arrived in Manila with no money. He stayed with an older brother who introduced him to a member of the

One of the highlights of our calling is to interview soon to be released and mission leaders that have already been released and having them share insights and experiences they had during their service as mission leaders in the Philippines.  To review, mission leaders (formerly referred to as mission presidents), served for three years. They are generally a couple in the forties or fifties, and rarely some are even in their sixties, if they are called from outside of the Philippines. However, Filipino couples that serve as mission leaders are often in their late thirties or early forties and still

Some things are not easy to get use to in the Philippines. Last Sunday as we walked into our Filipino ward for Sacrament meeting we heard the Christmas carol “Silent Night” being played on the piano. Christmas officially begins in the Philippines on September 1st. This means that Christmas trees and decorations adorn shopping areas/malls, offices, and homes throughout the Philippines and are displayed until the first week in January.. True Faithfulness I recently shared in a blog post about the new temple in Urdaneta. There was an open house where the local community, governmental and barangay officials, and non-member

At church recently, I made an interesting observation.  In Sacrament meeting, a recently returned missionary from Monrovia, Liberia in Africa, was one of the speakers giving a phenomenal talk. Then in Priesthood meeting, there were two young men who were brothers in the class. Their father works for a US-based company and are an American family currently living in the Philippines. One of the brothers just returned from his mission in Mexico and the other had just received his missionary call to serve in Madagascar off the southeast coast of southern Africa.  After the priesthood meeting, I was chatting with

The Manila Temple opened in 1984, the Cebu Temple opened in 2010, and now the Urdaneta Temple will open in May of 2024. Temples that are under construction or have been announced total ten more…with more likely to come.  We had an opportunity to visit and attend the Urdaneta Temple, a three-hour drive northeast of Manila, and attend the open house – an event where the public gets to visit and tour the temple prior to its dedication. The reason for our visit to Urdaneta was to record an oral history of Sister Fe Corazon Basconcillo Johnson who was the

We had the privilege of attending a devotional with Elder Neil L. Andersen, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Lord, recently. A very brief biography (I always like to read bio’s of Church leaders to see the path they followed) of Elder Anderson. Born in Logan, UT but raised near Pocatello, ID. Served his mission in France returned to BYU and graduated with a degree in Economics, got his MBA at Harvard, and spent his professional career working in a health care system in Tampa, FL. Called as General Authority in 1993 and an Apostle in 2005.

I love listening to The Tabernacle Choir. Since I grew up in a small town in South Dakota, I wasn’t exposed to The Tabernacle Choir and knew very little about them. The first time I started to gain an appreciation of the Choir was on my mission to South Africa. The saints there had a great respect for the Choir which rubbed off on me and that I’ve held ever since.  Nearly every time that I am in the Utah, I try and attend the Spoken Word or any other events the Choir participates in such as the annual Christmas