21 August 2009 – Friday

 

I took these three pictures today. The pink balloon has been bouncing around our house for at least 6 weeks. We blew it up when we were trying to make the Liahona for the roadshow. We will keep it until either it pops or we go home. I kind of like the clown. Mary has wanted me to stop to take a picture of the rhino crossing sign since we have been here in Richards Bay. It is located along the John Ross highway where cars go by at high speeds. I am not sure what would happen if a rhino actually was crossing. I am not sure why I took the picture of the five security guards on bikes, I just did today.

I slept well but Mary woke up way too early and was up for a time before managing to go back to sleep. I spent part of the morning posting pictures on the blog. Everything takes time.

I doubt if anyone besides perhaps Cindy remembers the problem I had with white shirts during the first 3 or 4 months we were in Indonesia. I seemed to ruin one every week or two. Since we have been in South Africa I have only ruined one – remember do not do whites and colored clothes together stupid – when a new orange wash towel we bought bled all over one of my shirts. I should mention that later Mary wrote the Title of Liberty on part of it so it did do excellent missionary service.

Any way, although that is the only shirt that has been rendered useless, a number of my shirts have accumulated so much lint and other things in the bottom of the pockets that I had to spend more time than I wanted cleaning out the seams, soaking the shirts in water with a good dose of bleach, and then washing them again. Hopefully I will be rewarded with nice clean white shirts.

Speaking of white shirts I have noticed that the elders’ shirts are always really nice and white. I asked elder Babeeyo about this and he explained that they spend time pre-cleaning the shirts before they wash them. I wonder if they are taught this in the MTC or if one of the things a trainer does is teach the new missionary how to keep their white shirts, white. I am spending way too much time on this subject.

We were getting ready to go to the hospital to see sister Nzama when I got a call from Elder B saying that they were just admitting Sister B to the hospital. It seems she had a terrible night and finally agreed to go. I thought about the blessing she received last night and wondered if the terrible night was an answer because she has been very reluctant to go in. He called to ask if we could take care of something for him. I told him of course we would be happy to.

We quickly re-arranged our day and went to the RB chapel to meet the Zone Leaders so they could get in and pick up some baptism clothes for tomorrow. When we got there we found that brother Holder and another man was there putting a security door on the clerks office to protect the computers that are coming. We talked for a while and I was impressed by how much he cared about the chapels and their condition.

We met with the Zone leaders and took care of their needs – it turns out that there will only be 3 baptisms as two of the candidates felt they were not ready. We also had a nice talk with elder Richey and he seems to be focused on the mission and not home.

We then ran some errands, ending with buying what we need for the Last Supper on Sunday. We decided to get the makings for tacos because we felt that if sister B really wanted to have it at their home it would save them shopping and fairly easy to prepare. But when we got home I called Elder B and he said that they were keeping his wife in the hospital for at least two days so they can run all kinds of tests and give her a chance to rest. So far the tests have not turned up any problem so they are thinking she is just exhausted and her body has revolted.

I called president Malinga to see if we could visit him today. He was at BuildMart getting everything they will need for tomorrow. President Vesi is helping him choose the paint and the tools. It just goes to show that the Esikhawini branch is capable of taking care of most things themselves without the couples help. I am proud of them.

As I was writing this a very small mouse started running around the walls. It was a baby and after a couple of missed opportunities I managed to kick it as it ran by and either kill it or knock it out – either way I was able to dispose of it in the trash. Mary is quite happy to see it gone.

We went to Ngwalezane Hospital to see gogo Nzama. First Mary set the GPS to take us to the wrong hospital but she caught the mistake early so we did not go too far out of our way. I think we can now find it without any help from Lia. Then we had been told she was in Ward E but when we got there her name was not on the board. We were starting to worry when a nurse said they had an Nzama in Ward C.

When we got to Ward C, Sister Nzama was just a couple of beds in and right on the aisle. Her sister who lives in Esikhawini was visiting her. We had a nice talk with Sister N and got her to laugh a number of times. We pin up a picture of the resurrected Christ above her bed and told her that was to remind her that He was looking over her. As we prepared to leave her sister asked if we could drop her at the taxi stand but we said we would be happy to drive her to her home. She had already indicated that it was near the Nkosi home and we knew where that was.

 

 

We came across of children playing and one had a wire car that he was pushing around. This is a common toy here and Mary has been trying to get a picture. So we asked them to pose and they were happy to but we had a hard time getting them to understand what we really wanted was a good picture of the car. This one is OK but still does not show the car very well. We then started passing out some candy and had a mad house. Forming a line just was not going to happen. Some I am sure got two or three pieces – I just hope all got at least one.

After dropping her off I called President Malinga and asked if we could have 10 minutes of his time. He said certainly and so we went over. I told him I just wanted to congratulate him on getting everything ready for the Helping Hands project tomorrow without any help from us. We talked for a short time and then I asked if we could help in any way and he said yes. He mentioned that a few minutes before I called he was about to turn off his phone so he could go to sleep to be ready to go to work at 7:00. But he felt he should leave it on and then we called.

It turned out he needed us to take the paint and tools he had bought today so we could deliver them to the crèche where the branch would be working tomorrow. He also mentioned the braai that he said they would have and which he had not done anything about. I told him he should first call his counselors and RS president and see if they had already made preparations. I told him we would be happy to help if they needed it.

This also gave me a chance to explain that if he was holding regular presidency meetings he could have delegated all of this to his counselors a month ago. I got him to promise that he would hold one either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Hopefully he will see the wisdom of holding them each week so he will be in better control of the branch.

 

I took these pictures of Mary and President Malinga because it was a nice day. I do not remember what I said to break him up but I like the picture. He is a good man and is developing into an excellent branch president.

We left him to try and get some sleep before going to work – he will not have much. On our way back to our boarding we made a stop at the mall where I got some cash, tried to pay my Telkom bill but it was not out yet, and bought some more rollers and paint brushes at Games so more people could be painting at one time. Hopefully we will need them.

We called elder B and asked if we could visit sister B and to find out what were visiting hours. He said we could and that they were between 7 and 8. After having some dinner at our boarding we went to the hospital. After a number of false starts – there are no signs indicating room numbers – we found the right room. However sister B was fast asleep and elder B was out of the room. We did not want to wake her – she really needs her rest – so we dropped off another picture of Christ so she will know we came by and left.

Got an SMS from President Malinga telling us that he had taken care of the Braai. This means they have handled the whole thing by themselves. Hopefully it will also give them confidence that they can plan and accomplish other things also.

Before going to bed I posted the Tembe Elephant Park pictures on our blog. Also posted a number of pictures we got from Elder Mickelsen and gave him credit. He has not answered my inquiry about what camera he is using. This was the first time we made two hospital visits in the same day – hopefully there will not be too many of them.