SOUTH AFRICA

May 14, 2011 Saturday

Last Sunday a “young” couple about our age visited our ward. They are visiting their son and his family and are from South Africa. Brother Comrie has been in the stake presidency over there and also temple recorder for a long time and was recently released from both. He and his wife are here for a month and then are going on to Texas to visit a daughter and her family. Today Orson and he went over to visit Benny Van Huizen, a fellow from South Africa who heard the lessons a couple of years ago and has a beautiful family. We had tried to re-interest Benny but have been unsuccessful. Benny was happy to meet a fellow compatriot and Brother Comrie is going back over on Tuesday to visit. We are hoping he can help Benny swing over to the true church. As we were driving him back and forth, he talked about his country. They are experiencing “reverse discrimination” to the point that most of the young professionals are leaving the country. He explained that what South Africa is going through is what most of the rest of Africa did years ago when they kicked most of the white professionals out of their countries. The African traditions are very strong and it is difficult for the Africans to move their countries forward on their own. Many of the dictators there now were democratically elected years ago and then they refused to step down. Corruption is rampant and the quality of the schools and hospitals is going down. He said the church is the bright spot in South Africa. Very few white folks are joining now; it is mostly the blacks and it’s a real struggle to get them to leave behind the traditions that are holding them back. One example he gave is that of the “dowry.” Basically, the young man has to buy his wife. He said it’s very difficult for young LDS young men to come home from missions, get married, and get an education because of this custom. Most cannot afford to be married and many fall back into “just living together.” Another is the “manhood” camp that all young men have to participate in. They take large groups out into the “bush.” Here they circumcise them and then leave them for a certain period of time to prove they can survive. About 10 percent die because of the unsanitary conditions the procedure is done in, and it’s no big concern to anyone. The more he talked, the more we realized once again what a blessing it is to have been born in the good old US of A!