Daily Archives: July 19, 2009

Assorted Scenes from Africa

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The Mickelsens saved me the trouble of taking a picture of one of the vast fields of pineapples you see here. My guess is that the total acreage in pineapple here in South Africa is greater than that in Hawaii. The warthog in the mud is a common sight and I have one somewhere. The picture I missed was a bog with the parents and four small ones all enjoying a soothing mud bath on a hot African afternoon. The last picture is of what is called an informal housing settlement. A close up would show houses made of anything that could be found lying around, traditional stone, mud and wattle, and a few made of home made cinder blocks. They spring up on the outskirts of townships and cities.



All Zone Pictures

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Here are some borrowed pictures from the recent All Zone Conference. They pretty much speak for themselves. I think that white head between the two lines of hungry elders in the second picture is mine. My job was to remind them that they could only have one sandwich with two pieces of meat and one of cheese the first time through. Some of them went through 3 times. The last picture is the sewing circle of couples that developed as we waited for the missionaries to finish with their sports time.  



Borrowed Pictures…

Sister Mann and the Mickelsens both keep up weekly blogs. Today as I was reading their posts for the week, I realized I could copy pictures they use that I did not have and use them in my blog. This way those who did not read the other blogs could still see some pictures of South Africa that I had not shot.

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The 10 Billion Dollar bill from Zimbabwe is actually not worth the paper it is written on. Almost all cash transactions in the country are done in US Dollars. I have meant to take a picture of the ‘Please Don’t Kill” sign but never got a real chance. Thanks to Sister Mickelsen I now have one. I actually do not remember seeing the last sign but could not pass up showing it here.



19 July 2009

19 July 2009 – Sunday

I had a number of surprises today and they were almost all good. The most difficult part of the day was getting up and going. Since we need to be in Esikhawini  before 8:00 we need to get going before 6:00.

We made it easily today and I got to go to PEC while Mary practiced some music for the roadshow. Unfortunately brother Nkosi  and brother Mavundla were not there but president Malinga held a short but good meeting. They are still learning how to be effective in their PEC and so I will spend some time this week or next helping him prepare agendas. After PEC the presidency met and came up with a first draft for home teaching. Hopefully by next week it will be available for everyone.

Sacrament had average attendance and brother Mathalane gave an excellent talk as his mission report. I wish he had worked in a few more spiritual experiences so the young men would know how great his mission was and how it changed his life. However ,since he was called to be the YM President and to teach the Aaronic Priesthood he will have a number of opportunities to talk about his mission.

There was no teacher for Sunday School so president Nyawo stepped in an chose to have a lesson on agency. I made a couple of comments but as the lesson was going on I kept thinking about the idea of agency as ‘acting and not being acted upon’ which is mentioned in the scriptures. I decided to look it up and found that it was in 2 Nephi 26 but verses 25 to 29 gives the whole concept.

I do not know how many times I have read this scripture but this time as I read in verse 26 “And the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because they are redeemed from the fall, they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.”

I had never considered that without the atonement in the eternities there would be no difference between those who chose good and those who chose evil. The atonement made free moral agency eternally meaningful. So while we had agency from the beginning, by fulfilling justice Christ’s atonement gave our actions and choices meaningful. After Sunday School I shared this idea with Elder Mbithi and he felt the same as I did. There is much to ponder in this scripture.

When it was time for Priesthood, we found that there was no teacher for either the AP or MP so brother Nyawo taught the AP and I took the MP. Of course I had no lesson planned and a quick look through the PH lessons did not bring any inspiration so I just started talking about what responsibilities came with accepting the Priesthood and callings. As promised the words just came to me and I could see and feel that everyone was being edified. Even the investigator who has a baptism date in early August seemed to be caught up in what we were discussing. It was a very special time for me.

After the block, Mary played for choir practice and then gave her piano lessons. We really need keyboards for any real progress to be made. Hopefully we will be able to get power sources for the new keyboard and the one that is at the Nseleni elders boarding.

When we got home, I did have a few minutes of panic. Since the garage door does not open, we have had to use the front door. When I looked through my pocket for the keys I could not find them. I found three other sets of keys but not the three I really needed. Luckily for some reason I had taken the back door keys so we were able to get into the house.

Once inside I emptied every pocket in my pants, coat and shirt and still no front door keys. I was almost ready to head back to Esikhawini and see if I had dropped them somewhere when I took other things out of my pocket. But before I did that, I started searching the car. The keys had fallen out of my pocket and were down between the seat and the console but on Mary’s side. So the problem was solved with only a few minutes of distress.

Mary spent most of the rest of the afternoon finishing getting things ready for First Night – that is the first Sunday dinner for the elders after transfers. She had started preparing on Saturday so the spaghetti sauce was already cooked, but she still had other things to do. I was responsible for cleaning house and getting the garlic bread ready.

Although the elders arrived a little later than usual the dinner went well and no one went away hungry. In fact they did not even eat all the brownies and ice cream. Anytime the elders go home with food left over, the dinner is a success.

After dinner the Zone Leaders – elder Richey and elder Mbithi –sent in their report and the other elders sat around and talked. Elders Hoosier  and Torgereson played a game of chess that they were not able to finish. I think the two new elders- elder Musemare and elder Muthoka – seemed to enjoy themselves. I commented to elder Bartholomew how just a few days after they came to the area and had new companions that they seemed to fit right in. It is another of the amazing features of missionary service.



18 July 2009

18 July 2009 – Saturday

It  was one of those mornings when it seemed like we had to run jus t to keep from falling more behind. Even with stopping by to see president Machaka in his tuck shop, we made it to Port Durnford by 10:00 where we hoped to hold a rehearsal of their road show. Of course almost no one showed up on time but we finally got 5 of them together and could run through it a few times.

We then ran three of the Young Single Adults young men to Richards Bay so they could take part in a YSA program put on by the district. The Barts had just gotten there so they were able to help set things up.

We had time to stop and grab some lunch before running back to Port Durnford so a young man who needed to earn some money could wash our car. He is non-LDS but he drew and painted most of the back drop for our road show. The car really did need washing and I have no problem with helping him as long as he is willing to work.

We then went to Esikhawini to see if anyone would show up for our English class. No one did but we were able to spend some time talking to sister Mathe and set up the chairs in the chapel. Yesterday we had forgotten to have the youth replace them after the rehearsal.

We than went back to the Richard Bay chapel where we saw the last 10 minutes of the movie they were watching. I then drove a group of the young men – all 4 that came – to the taxi rink so they could catch their rides back to their homes.

After getting everyone on the way home and locking up the chapel, the Bartholomews and us went to have some dinner at the mall. It is always a treat to spend time with these two inspiring missionaries. Our food took some extra time to get to us because they ran out of olives to put in sister Bs salad. We had a good laugh when we found out they had to run to one of the grocery stores in the mall to buy olives.

After we parted with the Bs we went to the grocery store to get a few things that we needed for tomorrow night when all the missionaries in the zone come over to our house for the first Sunday dinner of the transfer cycle. As it was after 5 by the time we had finished with dinner almost all the stores were closed. Only some of the restaurants, the grocery stores and the theater were still open. It is strange to walk through a mall at 5:30 on a Saturday evening and see only three or four people around. It is almost eerie.

I need to mention that we got an answer to an e-mail we sent to Elder and Sister Reber who replaced us in Indonesia. They reported that no one from the Church was injured in the blast at the hotels in Jakarta. However they had an appointed to go to the Marriott at 10:00 a.m. on the morning of the blast. They would have probably got there about 9:45 so if the bomb had been set off 2 hours later in the day they could have been right in the middle of it.

Mary joining Facebook has been had some very unexpected results. We have made contact with a number of our friends from Redondo III ward. Some we have not seen or heard from in over 20 years. We have been able to encourage a number of them to either put in their papers for to serve a mission or start planning to serve when they retire.

We also learned from Facebook that the Taylors who we served with in Indonesia just sent their papers in on Sunday. This will be the third mission – they come home from one and then put in for their next one. They sold their house and car before going on their first mission to the Philippines so they just visit their children between missions. I wrote to President Mann and suggested he see if he could get them assigned here –they were be the perfect replacements for the Barts.