Daily Archives: July 4, 2009

04 July 2009

04 July 2009 – Saturday

Happy Birthday America!!!!

We spent part of the morning cleaning up our boarding. We tend to let it gather piles of papers, etc. like we do at home. There always the regular things to do – washing the dishes, doing a load of laundry, and general clean-up.

Now that we again have access to the internet, I was able to go to the Church News and read the talks that the Presidency and members of the 12 gave at the New Mission Presidency Seminar. I was especially struck by Elder Holland’s talk called “Divine companon: Teaching by the Spirit.”

He said, “Teach the missionaries that second only to the responsibility they have to listen to the Spirit is the responsibility they have to listen to the investigator. They must have the patience, sincerity and ability to go where the investigator is, spiritually speaking, before expecting the investigator to come where they are.”

“Once we have found these people, once we know our investigators, then we can find out what they believe and what they enjoy and what they hope for, as well as what they fear and anything they are struggling over.”

This is something I told the missionaries in the MTC when we were serving there in the TRC. I would tell them after they thought they had asked all the questions they needed to, that they should ask one more.

President Monson spoke on how the mission presidents needed to build the mission spirit. He also touched on something that Elder B and I think is really important for our elders to understand.

“Make certain “preparation “day does not become a “diversion” day that puts missionaries at physical and spiritual risk, he cautioned. “Do nothing on preparation day that would rob the missionaries of their spirituality.”

After noon, our day got rather busy. The Bartholomews brought the cake and other goodies that they are supplying for President Machaka’s engagement party because they need to be somewhere else today. We loaded up the meat and other things and took off for Port Durnford.

We stopped at Esikhawini and young brother Mthalane had just finished drawing the outline for our big back drop. We rolled it all up and went on to PD. The party was to start at 2:00 but they were still sitting up the tent and the bride was not there. We unloaded all the things we had and sat around talking to people for an hour before we had to leave for our English lesson at Esikhawini.

We thought that no one was going to come but the sister who was cleaning the chapel wanted a lesson so Mary did a one on one with her. Hopefully next week we will have her and some more. We then locked everything up and headed back to Port Durnford to at least let them know we cared about them.

When we got there the program had not yet started – in fact the bride to be was not even into her dress yet. Since we needed to be back in Richards Bay at 5:00 we just took some pictures, said thank you to sister Joyce and good luck to the groom to be.

We made it to Richards Bay before it turned dark and had dinner with the Bartholomews. We talked about our day and other things while enjoying a delicious – and somewhat expensive – dinner. Sister B  was very tired and so we did not linger after the meal before heading home.

Once we were home I started writing in this journal and I felt a need to call some of our children and wish them a happy 4th. So I called Jim and had a nice talk with his family and then let Mary talk to them. Once I got things started Mary had a good time calling.

For some reason they do not celebrate the 4th of July here so there is no fireworks in the sky. We will not see them next either because we will not be home before the 4th.



03 July 2009

03 July 2009 – Friday

It was another morning of running errands and afternoon of being with the youth. Actually it might be said that I ran errands and Mary waited and read in the car. It just worked out that other than choosing cardboard for make props, I could take care of everything else by myself so there was no reason for Mary not to just wait in the car. It turned out to be a blessing because the escalators were being worked on and she would have had to walk up to the different floors.

Since we still did not have any internet, I once again went to Telkom. After a couple of calls and sending an e-mail I was assured that it would be on in 20 minutes. I bought some air time for the phone – a major expense that we did not have in Indonesia – and then some things we would need for making props for the road shows. The final stop was at Super Spar where I bought 20 kilos of worst for the party tomorrow. I was lucky in getting there just as they were making a brand new batch so they could pack it in bulk and it would be very fresh for tomorrow.  We then went home so we could put the meat in the fridge and have lunch before leaving for Esikhawini.

Since the internet did not come on while we were home, we left early so once again I could pay a visit to what was becoming my favorite store in the mall. This time it took only one long call to find out for some reason the $125 I paid on Wednesday never got recorded to my account so they thought I was still past due. But since the lady who was helping me had all the record of my payments in her hand, after just 15 minutes I was assured that it was all taken care of and when I got home all I needed to do was re-set the modem and things would be fine. For some reason I did not feel as certain as she did that this would be so but there was not much I could do about it.

The youth activity at Esikhawini took a while to get going, but for the most part things went well with everyone – especially the boys – enjoying making swords. We need to go back and get some larger boxes for shields. The young man who is in charge of scenery started outlining the scene on a large piece – actually three pieces that we will make one – and elder Mokopatsa joined in to help him. We also ran through the show once and found we need to increase the talks, dances and songs or we will have a very short show.

When we got home I was happily surprised to see the green light that indicated we had an internet connection glowing brightly – ‘Oh ye of little faith’ came to mind. We spent part of the night catching up with e-mail, blogs, the Church News and part just relaxing.



02 July 2009

02 July 2009 – Thursday

I spent most of the time we were home this morning reading from Mosiah 7 -9. Then inspired by the comment in Mosiah 9:3 about Zeniff and his people being smitten because they were slow to remember the Lord, I started writing my District Council talk on the 12th.

I decided to use Moses’ brass serpent as a lead in to my talk on tithing and fast offerings.  I was sure that the scripture included a statement that said “while those who looked at the serpent lived, there were those who did not have faith enough to look and died.” I was greatly surprised when neither Numbers nor Helaman’s account says anything about there being anyone who does not look. I mentioned this to Mary and she was also surprised.

“I will rely on the arm of Jehovah to guide through these last days of trouble and gloom. “

We had a lot of errands to run before going to teach our English class. We made a list and decided the order to do them. Our first one was to go to the Richards Bay chapel and measure the stage. When we got there the gardener told us someone had broken a number of the outside lights. I walked around the building and found 6 light fixtures broken. I called bishop Holder in Durban and told him the problem. He told me he would come up today and see for himself. I also mentioned that there was a hole in the back fence which was probably the way they came in. Later when the Bartholomews arrived for their DDM, elder B told me that the hole had been there for a year. My guess is that this time it will be fixed.

All of this put us about 30 minutes behind schedule to get to the bank. Once there I had to wait in line for about 15-20 minutes – and I think the air-conditioning was off because it was hot – to get my two checks cashed.  As I have mentioned before it is not easy to get a check cashed in South Africa. By the time I got out of the bank another half hour of our day was gone.

We decided that we should check on getting meat for the upcoming braai to celebrate president Machaka’s engagement. The butchery that we were told to go to was closed but there was another one close by so we went there. At least I did but Mary saw some things she would need for the road shows in one of the stores along the way and stopped to buy them.  This stop was not on our list but it saved us looking for them elsewhere.

We then stopped to get some lunch at Maxi’s – they have excellent food for a reasonable price and we seem to stop there about once a week for lunch. The staff is getting to know us as the people who want a glass of ice with a little water in it.

After lunch Mary went out to the car while I went and paid the rest of the Telkom bill. Once again I found myself in a line but it went fairly quickly and I had time to stop and get some cash out of the ATM. We would have still had time to do at least one more thing but while she was waiting for me she realized that she had left something important for the Youth meeting at the house so we had to run back to the boarding and get it. At least this gave us a chance to put our leftovers in the fridge.

We had our three main students for our English class and it went well. I am not sure how much it is helping them but we enjoy it and they want us to keep coming back. It also ensures that our YW president goes to the Youth activity and that is really helpful to us and important for the youth.

It took a while to gather everyone but we ended up with a good turn out. They were able to get started on the scenery and had a run through on the show itself. The young people seem to be really interested and I think it will all come together in time.

We did get some sad news about one of the non-LDS young women who had been coming regularly to Youth. She was the only one who did something with her genealogy and had learned the first six Articles of Faith. Unfortunately her mother has said that she could not attend any more meetings because they go to another Church. I am thinking about going over to see the family and try to at least let her come to Youth meeting and be in the road show.

We dropped a number of people off at their homes before wending our way out of Port Durnford in the rapidly falling darkness. We stopped on the way home at the pharmacy and the store to get a few things and we were really happy to pull into our garage at the end of a long – and I think fruitful – day.



01 July 2009

01 July 2009 – Wednesday

I fell asleep in the chair last night at about 8:00, woke about 9:30 and transferred my sleeping to the bed. Of course that meant I woke up sometime just after 1:00 and spent the next two hours reading. I was back to sleep about 3:30 and did not wake again until after 7:00.

The internet was still out so I called Vincent and he came over to see what he could do. It turned out that he could not fix it here so he went to the office where he found that our internet had been cut off because we had not paid our bill. It did not matter that we had not received a bill or that it had not even been 30 days since they installed the DSL line, the bill needed to be paid. Of course by the time we found this out it was time to leave for DDM so we could not stop and pay our bill at the mall.  

DDM was excellent as usual, it is one of the best parts of our week. The spirit that is usually there is very special for us.Most of the companionships had found a father led family to teach. We had found two new families for the elders to visit. One was a man who we had met on the road and the other was the mother and two older children that we are helping try to get back on their feet. The lesson for the day was on prayer and it brought home the idea that we really needed to pray for individuals and how to help them.

After DDM we hurried down to Port Durnford where we quickly ate the lunch Mary had packed before the youth arrived to help with the road show. Mary is doing almost all of the work on this. I find that I am a little too controlling to do much more than help with things that need to be thought about at home.

After Youth meeting, we took Gabi and Fufu home – we are starting to know their names and where they live. This is a big step for us and hopefully by the time we have our youth activity we will know all their names. To get to Gabi’s house we must go on a large sandy road, to a smaller sandy road, to a even smaller and longer sandy track before we arrive at the cluster of houses that make up the family homestead. The trip is an adventure in itself. This is the homestead where the 97 year old gogo danced for us.

Our last stop in Port Durnford was at Ntshangase – pronounced  Jan -gah-sa – homestead where Mary got some dates she needed to finish her CV and I asked Bongumusa – the son – to help out with the scenery for the road show. He will be happy to do this. The elders are going to visit with them but they appear to belong to the Zionist church which meets just down the road from them.

When we got to President Machka’s tuck shop for PEC, the elders were there but he was not. After a while they called him and went to pick him up at the KFC in town. While they were gone, Mary taught some of the children who were around some Primary songs.

After the meeting we hurried over to President Malinga’s home where we spent the best part of an hour giving him some training and telling him about up coming events. We also talked about the trip to the temple they just got back from and other things. We asked how his wife was and he said he is a bachelor for the rest of the week because his wife is away until Saturday.

By the time we left there is was getting dark but we stopped at the mall where I bought a heater and took care of the Telkom bill – I did not realize they were open until 6:00 so I did not bring the account information but luckily we had my passport with us and the woman could access the account with that ID. It turned out the reason we had been cut off was because we were over our credit limit. The reason we were over our credit limit was because they billed us for the June and July as well as for the installation costs. So I paid the bill and hopefully we will be back on line tomorrow morning. While I was doing these chores, Mary did our shopping. I was surprised that she was not done before I finished but the lines were very long. Going to the store just after 5 is a big mistake.

It was warm this evening so the heater did not make it out of the box! Mary and I both chuckled when we realized that.



June 30 2009

30 June 2009 – Tuesday

Can it really be the end of June already? It does not seem possible that the year is almost half over. Slept very well last night and woke up this morning fully refreshed.

I spent the first hour reading and writing in my study journal from Mosiah 4 – what a wonderful chapter it is. Almost every verse has some important concept and promise to ponder. Due to our experiences of the last few days, I was especially struck by verses 16-27. The song “As I have been given much” came to mind. Verses 29 & 30 also gave me much to think about.

Confession time: For a couple of months I have been complaining because people can not contact me unless I have called them and put them on my list – they just went right to voice mail but I never even got notification that they tried to call. I had been to MTN and they could not solve the problem. I decided it must be the phone itself and I have been meaning to buy a new phone for over a month but just never found the right one.

Saturday when we were leaving from Port Durnford, Mary mentioned that perhaps the problem was we were not giving out the right number. At first I thought this could not be the cause because I got it right from the phone itself, but the idea started to make sense so I pulled over and checked. Sure enough – instead of the first three numbers being 078 – they were 073. Boy did I feel stupid. Then I thought about the chances of the wrong number being active but the owner did not allow any calls except those on his SIMS already so they went to voice mail.

No internet this morning. I think it is a reminder from the Lord that I have been spending too much time on the web and not enough time studying the scriptures and PMG. I have always said we should be careful of what we pray for because the Lord may answer our prayers in a way that blesses us while also challenging us. I did call and ask the tech to come by and he said he would. Of course we waited as long as we could and he did not make it.

We went to Port Durnford where Mary got the information for a CV from the woman we met on Sunday. While she was doing that I had her son wash the outside of the car so I could pay him R30 and maybe keep the power on for a while. We also gave them the basic groceries we bought for them yesterday.

From there we went to the Mzama home to make sure the meeting was for tomorrow and not today – just in case Mary set two meetings for the same time. She found that she had not so we were able to head for Esikhawini for the Roadshow meeting we knew was scheduled. We did not have time to go buy lunch so we stopped and bought some bananas to tide us over.

While Mary worked with the roadshow – about 8 youth showed up to help her and the YW president – I tried to come up with some lyrics for a song about wanting a king. The elders arrived – they had been out doing service – and I asked them to change the light bulbs in the outdoor lights. They were happy to do this but when they tried to put the cover back on they had problems. Since I had taken them off before I knew they would go back on. However after all but elder Richey had failed, I pulled my tired old body up and quickly set it in place. Once they saw that it could be done the other three were quickly changed. They joke about how many elders it took to change a light bulb. They said “4” and I said “or 1 senior elder.”

My next task was to get the music the sisters wanted to use to play. They tried the portable player without any results. I then tried the cd player in the car also without any luck. Finally I tried the computer and it worked so they could do some practicing. When they were done, I locked up all the rooms and headed home.

We decided since we did not have any lunch we would stop at the mall and get a good meal. But first Mary wanted to stop at the fabric shop and get some material for costumes. While she did that I got the tank filled – it was good timing because it turns out the price of gas is going up significantly tomorrow.

We went to Spurs for dinner. The mall was packed – I guess with school out many of the families are getting out more. I had my favorite rib burger and Mary tried their quesadillas. Both of us enjoyed our food and just relaxing.

When we got home the internet was still down so I have been listening to music, reading, and now catching up this journal. One of the things I have been doing is reading D&C 4 in Indonesian. I still know what the words really mean – that is how the Indonesian differs from the English – and mostly pick out the root words. But I have forgotten all the rules for forming verbs.

End of the month – time to close this chapter of my life.