Saturday, July 26, 2014

African Salt Lake Craziness!

Just so everyone knows - this is a post by Dustin (well mostly - with Meagan's technical help) 
:)

Some of my fondest memories from my mission are from 6 weeks in the Hospital View area in the Tembisa Township. Why? The area was spectacular, but the friendships more so. Elder Thamy Graham Sabela, My Zulu Mkhulu, Mfuwetu, and Brother. He adopted me as a Zulu and named me Nsizwa.  Ever since we've been more like family.  

Unfortunately (as my family will attest) I'm not very good at staying in touch.  Meagan convinced me to join facebook 3 years ago and I've checked it maybe 3 or 4 times since then. On Sunday in the middle of sacrament meeting I kept getting a feeling that I was missing something on facebook. So since I checked. Sure enough, there was a message from Graham saying he was in Salt Lake from July 17 through the 25th and would love to meet up with me. It was the 20th when I got it...

What!!??!!

I've dreamed of being able to hang out with this guy again. And I've already missed half the week!  How could I ever get to see him?

Well thanks to an awesome brother-in-law that helped us figure out some plane tickets and understanding employment, I was able to fly up Wednesday morning and fly back Thurs. morning.  It was fast, it was crazy, there was not a lot of sleep, and it was sooo worth it.
Yebo! I finally got to see this guy and I was so excited.
Another one of his old companions, Elder Andrew Norton, met up with him at the same time I did and we had a great time reminiscing. I was reminded of lots of fun stories.
Graham was here as the South African Church Representitive to show a goverment and media group from South Africa around as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave them the royal treatment and tours. We were up at 4:00 am the next morning to meet up with the radio hosts as the broadcast from the conference center back to South Africa.  It was beautiful wandering around seeing everything lit up and serene in the early morning. Plus it felt like the two of us had the whole world to ourselves. :)

Hanging outside the Conference Center waiting to be let in.
Broadcasting back to South Africa!
I also got to meet up with my 2nd companion Elder Smoot! So so so fun. We had a lot of fun times running around South Africa.
The Beautiful Salt Lake City Temple lit up in the peaceful morning.
I even got to see a few of the Pioneer Day parade floats as I waited to get back on the Tracks light rail train back to the Airport Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, while I was waiting for Graham to get back from his tours of the Provo MTC and BYU, I got to meet up with an old landscape architecture class mate, Scott Stephens, and check out some of the beautiful new landscape architecture sights in the new shopping/development center just south of temple square.  It was really fun and truly stunning.
Can't wait to see this guy again!
Hold on Africa. We'll make it back there!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

So glad you were able to make that happen

Debbie said...

I can't tell you how HAPPY your mom was when it all worked out! Chance of a lifetime...thanks Meagan for supporting him!