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.