As part of Caleb's mission preparation,
he needed to obtain a notarized letter of good conduct from the local municipal court or
local police department. For us, that meant the Davis County Sheriff's Department.
Part of Durban's mission includes the nation of Eswatini, formerly know as Swaziland.
The letter of good conduct basically served as a temporary Visa for Caleb to enter
this country. On his first p-day there, he had to see a doctor to make sure he was in good health,
took more passport type photos, and filled out paperwork to get a more permanent Visa.
After a long flight to South Africa, he did get one day of rest from travel
before finding out he would be driving 8 hours to his area in Nhlangano, Eswatini.
It's a small country bordered by South Africa on the North, West, and South,
and on the East by Mozambique. He said he stayed awake for almost the entire ride,
but found out after taking about a 20 minute nap that he'd missed seeing some giraffes!
He was kind of disappointed about that, but I'm sure he'll get plenty of opportunities
to see more giraffes and other animals from Africa.
We learned from Caleb that this nation is a monarchy,
and each year, the king marries a new wife. The current king is up to 15 wives!
We thought that was interesting. We also found out that it's a pretty safe area,
which helps ease this mama's heart! It's also considered "the promised land"
among missionaries because there are so many there ready to join the Church.
He also said that those serving in Eswatini are usually there for a good
chunk of the time, so we'll see how long he stays in this nation.
On his first p-day, he met with his zone for a bry, or in other words, a BBQ.
We're excited to hear more about the people he meets while serving in this area.
Here is the email he sent home this week along with some pictures of him at the bry:
"This week was BUSY. Started on the 13ths at 4 AM with a bus ride to the airport and flew to Atlanta from Atlanta to Johannesburg which is a 15 hour flight. When we got to Durban which was another hour flight from Johannesburg we met President Laguna and his wife, they're awesome and super kind. On Saturday we found out where we were all going and I was assigned to the Eswatini zone which is like way up north in the mission, it was an 8 hour drive. It was fun though, we got to talk a lot with one of our zone leaders, Elder Selman, and this is his last transfer so he had some wisdom to share with us. It was an awesome car ride with him. I met my trainer Elder Kohlani, hes from South Africa and hes super cool, he likes soccer and answers all the questions I have for him.
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