Happy Christmas!

One of our favourite videos to watch at this time of year to reflect upon the greatest gift given to all mankind from our Heavenly Father -- our beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ. We wish all our family and friends a very happy Christmas! And in the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus. May we not only make room for the Saviour in our lives, but choose to walk in His light daily."

Ramblings from a 23 year old...

On the 26th of November I, Lauren, turned 23! To celebrate, Jarom did his utmost best to make me feel incredibly special and loved by spoiling me rotten (although I hope people don't describe me as rotten)! Leading up to said day, J kept inquiring what I would like as a gift. Seeing as my dear husband will never purchase a Chelsea shirt, the only other thing I desired was to decorate our home to make it feel, well, homey. Yo. So after cleaning up after the painters (oh yes, our flat has been painted beige) J took me to Vincent Park, handed me a certain amount of bucks and set me loose in Mr. Price Home! Dream come true! After searching that store high and low for suitable decor, we settled on assorted sized frames for our wall, a clock and 3 blue and silver pillows on clearance for R50. When the pillows rang up at the cashier it registered as R25 a pillow! What a sign! Thank you birthday luck! We dashed home to hammer some picture hooks in wall and scatter the pillows to spruce up the place. Check it out, our haven is slowly but surely coming together!



Looks better yes? To be added: pic of JHB Temple.

 Thinking the awesome day to be over, J suddenly took me off to Tasty Thai for the best Thai food ever, which we took to-go, and ate overlooking our pretty city at the lookout point in Beacon Bay. After which, J whisked me off to his final surprise of the evening to watch the latest HP movie! The entire day was brilliant! I have the best husband in the world! Thank you J for being the man you are! The best of the day was being able to spend it together.

P.S) Thank you family and friends for the birthday cards, emails, sms', etc. You all added to the joy of turning 7 years away from 30. :)

Katberg!

On Thursday and Friday we had the opportunity to spend some time in Katberg, a tiny town about 2 hours away from E.L. Despite the name, I only saw one cat...and a peacock. J attended the Quacks golf day where he socialized with clients on a more personal level, whilst I spent some time with J's dear mother, and relaxing. It was about 37 degrees Celsius = COOKING!! The gardens were out-of this-world-beautiful, with assorted flowers in the brightest shade of colours. Have you ever seen a peach and yellow rose? On Thursday evening we had a tasty buffet dinner with J's parents. Friday morning we slept in of course, and after watching our President Jacob Zuma address his cabinet, we delighted in the buffet breakfast where amongst other things were flapjacks and whipped cream! Hello heaven! At this point it felt like the end of the world was about to happen it was so hot, we did what any sane people do, and played lawn bowls! HAHA! Whilst this may be seen as an 'old person's' sport, we thoroughly enjoyed it! L beat J! We highly recommend lawn bowls! After sweating enough to fill a 2l milk bottle we jumped in the pool to cool off and tan! Sadly our little mini vacation came to an end midday when we had to check out and head back to the city all South Africans dream of retiring in. What can we say...we live in paradise. :)

The room we stayed in was called 'Eaton Place'

Nothing like a game of bowls!

Eating like grown-ups

Anyone who lives in South Africa knows that if you were to purchase a  dining room table you'd have to sell your house first in order to afford it. We have spent the past few months visiting almost every furniture store in East London trying to find a dining room table not made out of chipboard, and one that will last more than two years, for a fraction of the cost than what shops are selling them for. Tall order? Maybe, but we were determined to find our dream table. We finally decided to visit the antique shop around the corner from us in Berea to see what they had to offer. And lo and behold the brilliant owner makes tables out of real solid oregon pine. He offered us a deal and half, which we snapped up and now folks, we are eating like grown-ups at our very own 8 seater dining room table that will last a long long long time. :)

Please take this as your official invitation to dinner!

Seminary Graduation

It is on occasions like these that make L's heart leap for joy! Seeing our youth graduate and earn their course completion certificates for the year reminds L of what a wonderful blessing it is to teach these amazing young women and young men who are so valiant, courageous, and supreme examples of doing what Heavenly Father expects of us all. This year we studied The Book of Mormon, and boy did I gain increased insight from teaching this year. Was looking at the picture of the prophet Joseph Smith holding The Book of Mormon recently, pondering about how he and so many of the ancient prophets in the scriptures sacrificed so much, even their very lives for us to have this sacred record today. If they went to such extreme measures for US, then how important is it for us to make use of it, by studying, pondering, and living what we learn from it each day! What a powerful manifestation of Heavenly Father's mercy and love for us by causing The Book of Mormon to come forth in the last dispensation before the coming of our Lord and Saviour.
Last year 12 of 15 received certificates. This year, due to number of new converts and investigators, 24 of our youth received certificates. And J's brother Hyrum graduated! We're really proud of their achievements. I wish you could meet Avela, Pia, Shantal, Ludwe, Motshabi, Zoliswa, Zukhanye, Harley, Ashley, Vuyo, Yvette, Joseph Z, Hyrum V, Michael, Alfonso, Anathi, Chwaita, Likhona, Hyrum W, Timothy, Albert, Daniel, Natalie & Juan. For if you did you'd join us in saying they're simply the BEST! :)


Happiness!



Prettying it up

So, you've seen the pictures of our home. We live a minimalist lifestyle - meaning 1 piece of furniture per room and that's it. But lately, whilst L should be studying for her very difficult examinations, she has been getting her craft on and hanging up frames to make our home look a little more like people live in it everyday rather than once a year.  Oh if only the craft and blogging temptations were not so strong, L would probably get 100% for every exam. sniff.


Top Pic: J got this from a lady he baptized on his mission!
Bottom: "Wherever we are together that is Home" ah bless!

Note to Self

Never drive like this again.

L's Photography



{The famous London Eye}



{Taken near Cape Agulhas, South Africa}



{Gansbaai, Cape, South Africa}



{Big Ben}



{Stonehenge}





Welcome Home Seth!

Guess whose back after serving a 2 year mission in Kenya and Tanzania? SETH! He arrived home yesterday afternoon at 16:10 where we all met him with joy! Afterwards we went to the Stake Center where Seth was officially released by our Stake President, President Bell. It was a very touching experience to be there. He has served the people of Kenya so well, naturally he is going to have a difficult time of adjustment to life in an apostate world. Us Wainwright's all then went out for dinner at Ocean Basket to celebrate his return. A great way to end a brilliant day! We're so happy he's home!

Youth Convention

This past weekend we spent up in Hogsback with our gorgeous group of youth on their multi-stake convention. Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, Grahamstown and East London stake attended, making it a great success. The youth spent their time participating in the various rope courses and team building activities, socializing and creating lifelong memories. On Saturday night Jarom was assigned to be the DJ, providing the youth with all of today's popular songs (we even managed to sneak a Tim McGraw song in there! lol!) He really is a man of many talents! On Sunday morning Elder Hill of the Seventy and his wife came to speak to the youth during our little church service. Hogsback really is a stunning place to escape the daily grind of life. Definitely worth a visit! We left on Sunday afternoon feeling super grateful we could attend this convention with our good young men and young women.



J hanging out with the DJ equipment!



A few of our beautiful Young Women!

Brother & Sister Wainwright - Snr's & Jnr's!

Martin's Day!

To a wonderful father, friend, life coach, and example,

Happy Birthday Martin! Missing you more than ever on your special day! Lots of love, J & L

ADS Sales

Check out J's new business card:

Brilliant right? :)

Its on days like these...

...that L is inspired to write. Welcome Spring!

One down, four to go!

Scissor Happy

Gone are the days of L's looooooooooong hair:

Now hopefully L won't be mistaken for a teenager.
Or a 40 year old...hm.

First Gear

This is all L has on the brain lately:

Clutch. Break. Release. Petrol. Handbrake. Foot off clutch

= take off! This is what she's currently driving - courtesy of Andre:

What fun!

Sales Agent of the Year

This week Jarom attended Proton's yearly conference held in Johannesburg. There they had several conference meetings, played adventure golf (which J won!), ate good food and attended two motivational talks from life coaches (one of them being renowned Robin Banks who fyi charges R20,000 for 1.5 hours to speak...wow). But the BEST part of all, Jarom received the "Sales Agent of the Year" trophy...again! 2 years running! My husband is amazing! Way to go babe, you show 'em how its done!

Return of Mung Kee family

They're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! :)

Gorgeous in every way. You can stay Mung Kee's.

Mormon Helping Hands

On Saturday the 21st, we attended the Mormon Helping Hands project! Our ward rendered service to the East London Child and Youth Care Center where we washed windows, did yard work, and played with the orphans. 91 people made up of members, investigators, and community attended the project! 3 ANC counselors even showed up to lend a hand, and as a result expressed interest in attending our Church service! Good news indeed! L was assigned to be the ward reporter - her task was to take photographs of everyone involved and write a report which was sent to Area office! Was an awesome experience! Here's a few snaps from the day:
J talking to one of the ANC counselors:

2 of our missionaries and my temporary 'Gunny', Sister Peggy:

L & 1 of the gorgeous orphan boys that she tried to smuggle outta there...heartbreaking to leave him behind!:

Sis Sheila - cousin:

Barclays Premier League Victories!

Yes, its THAT exciting time of year again - the Premier League has started as of last week and we're thoroughly enjoying every second of it! We're especially joyful because our teams have both won their first matches. Starting off with L's team Chealsea who played on Saturday night against West Brom; won 6-0! What CHAMPS!

Then on Monday night J's team Man U played Newcastle and won 3-0! In the words of Lady Gaga - "REJOICE!"

But lets get down to reality here...Chelsea have way more brilliant players (Cech, Essien, Terry, Mikel, Lampard etc) than Man U (who have Berbatov, Van der Sar & Rooney etc). So its likely they'll kick their trash all over the place. To quote Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United, "Chelsea are the team to beat and we're focusing on that."

Let those words sink in for a second...

Hesiod's Theogony

Just for interests sake, this is what L had to draw for her Greek mythology assignment - its the family tree of the First Beings, the Titans and the 12 Olympian gods, all according to Hesiod's Theogony...fun stuff:

Admirals

Before the Uruguay/Germany game on the 10th of July, we went to have dinner at Admirals - one of the only buffet restaurants in our region, well in Port Elizabeth anyway. We went with these awesome friends (namely Bishop, Hayley, Corith, Candice and her parents):

AH their food selection was out of this world! They even had candy floss for pudding! Amongst their finest selections were (click to enlarge)...

Which Jarom tried ALL of! And the verdict? Kangaroo is tough, mapane worms taste like teabags, kudu aint lekker, and crocodile? well that tastes like chicken, of course!

Having the option of eating these things is just another reason why we love our homeland! :)

The Minimalist Life

This is it. The new home post. Finally eh! We thought we had a lot of stuff until we moved into here, lol. It sure is easier to keep clean and tidy though! So here's the grand tour...

The kitchen:

The lounge:

Our bedroom (comes with a walk in closet, what a bonus!):

The bathroom:

The hallway that leads to our room and the second bedroom (which is not photographed as its currently known as the 'dumping ground'...you can imagine):

The Study, complete with LOTS of cupboards - a novelty for us! (we also just got the 2 desks for a bargain and a half!):

And the best part of our new place is that we get to keep our beloved forest view:

Its a work in progress of course, but we're enjoying saving up for new furniture. Until then, this is how us minimalists live! Also notice there are no burglar bars in this place as we have an alarm system! So now that we're growing up and growing into our new home, please start planning a trip to stay with us! (Its a good excuse to clear out the dumping ground!)