Good-bye Joburg, Hello Cape Town

There is a certain hymn that has been echoing through the halls of the Harms household of late. You'd recognize it if Susan was singing it- the words are familiar. It starts out with "I'll go..."
Yes, the next word is "where." See, I knew you knew it. Where is a very important word in this song of pledge, and since we've already made that pledge then it doesn't really matter where we are called...we'll go.
Which brings me to the real message of this blog. That's right! We've been called/reassigned to a new mission, the South Africa Cape Town Mission (SACTM to those in the know). If you've been hanging around any of the Harms clan you'll know that since the beginning of this adventure, this is our third assignment. We still hope they will invent a dead vaccine for yellowfever so we can still go to Uganda someday. We assume we'll get to go to the Johannesburg Temple and see Joburg too.
President Lawlor has a cool sense of humor. When he emailed us the news (he tried to reach us by phone) he relayed part of the phone conversation he had with the secretary from the Senior missionary office in Salt Lake. She told him she was calling to inform him of the reassignment for Elder and Sister Harms. He replied, "Yes, didn't we just do that about six-weeks ago? (Note how that caught her off guard) "She said I didn't know how, since the brethren have just approved it this week. So, President Lawlor decided to listen and was surprised to learn that we were to now to Cape Town instead.
So when Susan and I picked ourselves off the proverbial floor and brushed the dust off our clothes (packing has somehow gotten in the way of our normal housekeeping duties) we quickly hit the internet AGAIN to learn all we can about that part of the great country of S.A. Actually, we (esp. Susan) now ranks among the top ten authorities in the world on any topic and any country located on the continent of Africa. There are no books left in the Mesa Public Library remotely dealing with Africa that she hasn't read and then read to me. (They don't call me "Lucky Boy" for nothing.)
Here are a few interesting facts we have learned about the Cape Town area:
1. Look out for the giant cockroaches and the donkey penguins.
2. The wind blows there a lot more than most places in SA.
3. The coast is one of the most beautiful in the world and whale watching is a major attraction.
4. The life style thereabouts is said to be much more laid-back and relaxed.
5. It's cooler there since it's farther south, but more humid.
6. The Church is just as true and the need just as great as anywhere else.
7. We're going to love it and the people there and probably want to extend our time there while we make plans to come back again.

So as the song says, "Over mountain or plain or sea" I guess it'll be by the sea for us this time...unless there's a #4.

P.S. We're in the throes of emptying our closets and dressers so the new Cahill occupants can have a place for their stuff. We have 3 main destinations for our stuff...the D.I., storage (glad we made the shop extra big) and suitcases. Actually, right now we're just packing for our trip to Salt Lake (Mon. May 18th) for the 3 days of extra training in Public Affairs (that hasn't been changed and our departure date is still June 15th) so we're enjoying this trial run at packing before the real-real permanent flight.