Hi everyone – pardon me while I skip a week or so of this blog. I talked to Cindy this evening and she suggested that I post my daily journal – something I did when we were in Indonesia.

I doubt if I will do that – my journal contains some private thoughts that I am not comfortable sharing with the world, however I will try to post each day so that things are fresh in my mind.

This morning was wonderful -cool and bright. I spent some of the time catching up my journal. I have not been very diligent these last couple of weeks. I am afraid that I have spent the time over-gorging on the internet.

We had an appointment to meet the Bartholomews over at the Esikhawini chapel at 10:00 so sister B could train sister Mavundla, the new Young Woman’s President and her counselor. Sister Mavundla was baptized on the 31st, confirmed on the 7th and after being confirmed was given her call. Talk about putting new converts to work quickly. She has a great spirit and will do well.

Well Sister B and Mary trained the two sisters, elder B and I talked to the gogos who were working in their gardens that are part of the branch property. These ladies are out almost every day working to grow vegetables to help feed their family while saving some money.

Their gardens are pure sand – there is no soil at all in Richards Bay. So they are constantly watering because the sand soaks up the moisture so quickly. I am looking for a reasonable source of top soil that we might bring in so they might grow more and work less.

After the training we dashed home for some lunch before heading up to Enseleni for a youth activity. Although the Bartholomews work with the youth of that branch, we were especially invited to come.

It was a very special activity because it was thought up, planned, organized, and led by the YM and YW presidents – both who are 19 years old and had never done anything like this before. Not only had they planned the activity, they designed and printed a program that included them speaking.

 They were wise enough to ask the Bs to organize the games and help them with the food. This was necessary because the township – that is a town that was built during apartied to hold the black populaton that was necessary to supply workers for the industries in Richards Bay – does not have a decent grocery store and none of the members of the branch has a car.

The activity was a great succcess. Instead of an activity for the mutual age youth it became one for almost the whole branch and their friends. There was somewhere about 50 in attendance with a good part of them being primary aged and investigators.

When sister B got up to announce the games, she had to take a minute to tell all of the youth how proud they were of them. She could hardly hold back the tears that I know she felt – this was the fruit of 20 months of missionary service and I think the Bs felt this one event more than marked paid to whatever sacrifices they may have made in coming to South Africa for 23 months. They now know that they can go home knowing that the branch is in good hands.

The youth love to play games. Mary and I learned a number of new games that we can use in our branches. Mary and I helped out some with the games and had a lot of fun. We also helped out with preparing the food but the young YW leaders did most of the serving. They made sure each person got their share.

I have never seen better behaved young people than were there today. From Primary Age to Young Adults, they sat quietly and ate their food. It is too bad we can not export this behavior to the US.

I should mention one thing that I have noticed and I am not sure if I have mentioned before. When we give out candy or food as prizes, the winners almost always share with those who did not get anything. I have seen a single piece of candy being divided  between three or four young people. They love to compete and win but they share the prize.

After we got home, we used the newly installed Vonage phone to call Jim at work and Cindy at the dentist office. For a monthly fee of about $30 we can call anyone in the states and they can call us. We can now wish children and grandchildren happy birthdays, etc. and visa-versa. Between the phone and this blog, the family should be able to know what we are experiencing here in South Africa.

Barking dogs! Most of our neighbors have dogs to let them know when someone is approaching their fence. When we first moved in we heard every bark, but recently we realized that most of the time their barking – and it often goes on much of the day and night – is not even noticed. When we do notice it is either very, very loud or we are not doing anything and all of a sudden we realize we can hear the dogs.

So in someways it is the same as adjusting to the call to prayer in Indonesia. At first they would often wake us up but by the time we left it was always surprising to actually hear one of the many calls during the day.

So now it is about 8:15 and I am going to post this and then read what is new at the Church News site.