14 August 2009 – Friday

 

Some clouds this morning and it is trash pick-up day. Since they may come anytime from 7 am to noon I must get it out early. However I can not leave it out over night or the whole thing may just disappear and then I would have to pay $50 US for a new can.

I am finding it hard to get moving this morning. I seem to be kind of sleep walking through it.

Got a message from the Taylors and they just got their call to New Jersey to be in the office. Talk about a different mission from Indonesia! But there must be something there that needs their special talents and love. They were given only 3 weeks to get ready to report to the MTC. But of course they do not have anything to pack and they can keep their car.

We really did not get started until after lunch. We spent the time working on things we needed to get done and to prepare for the rest of the day. I created a form for the branch presidents to use that spells out exactly what they need know to fill out the Resource and Needs analysis for deciding on welfare needs. Once they have the details of money coming in and where it is going, they are in a better position to see how much help may be needed. The next step is to figure out a way to help some of the families get enough income so they do not need additional assistance.

We went into Esikhawini and our first stop was to meet with President Machaka and have him look at the new form. I wanted his input as to anything I left off that might be important for him to know. We added a couple of things and I will make the changes tomorrow.

Guess who wants to be a professional soccer player. Mary and Sister Mbambo in front of her house. Sister Tembe and daughter in their living room which is about 8 feet by 8 feet. The furniture might be torn but love abounds in this home.

We then went out and started visiting members home. This is what we are planning to spend most of our time doing now. With Esikhawini leaders taking over the Youth program, that frees a full afternoon or more. We are also going to work more on training the leaders and teachers in Esikhawini so that by the end of the year they should be close to be fully functioning. Then if no new couples come in to the area we will have time to spend a day in each branch or as needed.

We visited 5 homes and found 3 of the members at home. We had a good visit with each and found out more about each of them. We hope to put together an area book that has a picture of each member, their vital information, and some observations. Hopefully this will help future couples in the area or perhaps the elders that serve here.

We then went to the chapel and waited to see if Mary’s piano student showed up. She does not have his phone number so we could not call to see if he was coming. I spent the time reading things I had noted from the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. I also tried to get a good picture of a species of birds that is always around the chapel. But the little rascals will not let me get close. I decided to just sit in the car and wait for them to come near. They did but they always stayed in the shade so none of the pictures are very good.

I also noticed that the view in the side mirror showed some interesting cloud patterns so I took a number of pictures. I think they turned out well. When Mary’s student was not there by 15 minutes after the scheduled time we headed back to our boarding.

One of our photos of the Kanes in Indonesia – this was on Bali at a couples conference.

We had a pretty normal evening with much of the time spent reading and working on things we needed to get done. I did find Dan and Traudi Kane on line and we chatted for a while through Facebook about what we were doing. They said they would think about another mission in 2 to 3 years. They are still relative young so they can do this. If we are going on another mission we probably need to do it soon after this one while our health continues to be good.

One of the things that elder Koelliker said was that each person should have their own copy of the Liahona or Ensign that have the conference talks. He said that they should read it, ponder the messages, and mark down thoughts they have. Then they should keep it and read it again and again like they do the scriptures. When he asked President Mann if each missionary got their own copy, he replied not yet and made a note to have enough copies sent to each boarding. Of course the missionaries can get copies through the branches or wards where they serve. Most of the units get more than enough copies for their active members and even to take to each less active family. But they do not get enough so each member can have their own.