I completely forgot about an experience we had on Tuesday as we drove from the Richards Bay chapel to the mall. We came around a bend and there was this huge tree limb covering over 1/2 the street. According to the man whose car is under the tree, he and his family had just gotten out of the car and into the house when he heard a loud crash and came out to find his car buried. He was upset but also thankful that no one was hurt. Because the curbs are low and slanted we were able to drive around the tree and continue to the mall.

Also yesterday we saw this woman with the load on her head and managed to get a shot. I did not notice her striped socks until I was editing the picture. We miss a half dozen good shots of loads being carried each day. But if Mary is carrying the camera at ready, we do not see anything worth shooting.

21 July 2009 –Tuesday

Unfortunately the up coming road shows are starting to press upon Mary. She woke way too early and could not go back to sleep because she started thinking about everything that still needs to be done.  It will be good when the activity is over and we are back to more normal days.

Our morning meeting with the garage door folks came off right on time and we once again have an operating garage door opener. However they will be back tomorrow morning to make one more adjustment to make sure the problem does not occur again.

I have spent most of the morning working on the blog, answering e-mail and checking up on Facebook. It is good to see that Cindy is busy with looking into genealogy and scanning in pictures. She writes to Mary with questions. Last night we happen to be online when she was and she had a nice chat with Mary. Between blogs, social networks, and chats, we are able to pretty well keep up with what is going on at home.

Last night I finished President Uchtdorf’s talk on discipleship. One quote that struck me was, ”Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessings of faith by standing on the sidelines…” How true this is and I would add that we need to be doing what the Lord wants us to do not what we want to do. Of course in the best of worlds they would be the same thing. As Christ said “Not my will but thine, be done.” That would be a good sign to hang in our houses.

I was reading some of the newspapers on line this morning and got to reading an article on home funerals and burials. It was interesting that there are midwives who help families handle home funerals. I wonder if there are any that help with births and also help with burials…portal to portal service so to speak. I loved this practical thought and wondered about the bookcase idea – we always are looking for new places to put books and records in our house.

“Mr. Lakin, a woodworker, makes coffins specifically for home funerals. Ranging in price from $480 to $1,200, they double as bookcases, entertainment centers and coffee tables until they need to be used.”

Our day got busy at about 10:15 when we left for Zone Development Meeting. Elders Mbithi and Richey did a good job getting everyone involved. I especially felt the spirit as each companionship talked about how they found a family headed by a father to teach. Last ZDM they had set a goal to find at least one each week per companionship. Elder B said that if they wanted to achieve this goal that they should keep it in front of them at all times so that it would be in their minds and prayers. A couple of the elders mentioned that they did this and that it helped them to center their thoughts and their actions.

The Enselini elders remembered to bring the keyboard from their boarding. It did not have a converter and plug but later I tried the one we bought the other day for the new keyboard and it worked fine. Now all I need to do is get another converter and Mary will have two keyboards and the branch keyboard to use in her piano class.

After ZDM we headed off to Spars where we bought food orders for two families out in Port Durnford. By the time we were finished with that we had just enough time to grab a quick lunch at McDonalds. Then it was off to Port Durnford to deliver the orders and to gather the youth so they could practice for the road show. I drove out and picked up Gabi and as we were walking from the car to the chapel she said “we need to get serious.” At that moment I got the feeling that I needed to talk to the youth about this. So I asked Mary – who was starting to do a run through – to let me say something. I told them what Gabi  had said and that it was true. That it was their road show and they had to decide if they would become serious about practicing or if they should just forget it. I told them that Mary could not sleep because she was worrying about the show and that was not right. I said that we would leave for 5 minutes and they should spend that time talking about what they wanted to do and if they would commit to getting serious.

By the time we got back they were practicing the singing and they said they wanted to do it. Mary then ran through everything two or three times and we will come back Thursday and do a costumed run through. I encouraged them to study their lines and the words to the songs because we only had the one more practice and then they would have to put it on.

I am thankful that I was listening to the spirit when Gabi made her comments and that the youth rose up to the challenge. They are very talented young men and women, they just need a couple of leaders among them who are willing to take charge in a way that the others will follow.

We need to somehow get across to them that they can overcome their poverty by getting a good education.  A number of them did not go back to school because they did not have something they felt they needed – one needs shoes and one needed a 80 cent haircut.

Rather late in the evening I started to shut down the computer but decided to check to see if anyone in the US was on Facebook that I could chat with. I ended up having a brief chat with Glenn Roberts who we served with in Indonesia and then saw that Gentry was on line and started chatting with her about what she has been doing, etc. After a while I decided it would be easier to just call her on the Vonage phone and did. So I got to talk to Gentry and McKay for a while. It was quite fun and it was a good way to wrap up the night or about wrap up the night. I did read more of the conference talks from the Liahona before finally turning off the light on a good day on our mission.