26 August 2009 – Wednesday

In the morning I went with Elder Bartholomew up to Enseleni to deliver a food order. After we delivered it, he took me on a quick drive around the township to show me where most of the members live. They almost live in clusters with a number of members along one street. He said that they have maps showing the location of all the members in both of their branches. That will really help after they leave. We have started to do that for Esikhawini but it is impossible for Port Durnford. He was hoping that his wife would be released from the hospital today. She has had two good nights in a row.

In the afternoon we drove to Esikhawini where we returned some painting tools and a new pitcher to the pre-school/crèche that we help paint on Saturday. They have about 150 children enrolled in the school and there seems to be about 5 staff to watch over them.

When we left there I felt that we should visit a family that has been struggling lately and had some health issues. Our timing was perfect and the brother opened up to tell us many of their problems. We listened and tried to build him up spiritually. I suggested that he needed to make an appointment for he and his wife to talk to president Malinga. He said he would do that and I hope he does.

Next we went to PEC meeting with President Machaka. As always there was no one there but him and the missionaries, but we had a pretty good meeting. The missionaries have a number of people ready for baptism in September and will coordinate it with a couple baptisms from Esikhawini. Now if we can just have decent weather and enough water to fill the font, everything will be great. Later Mary found out that they have set the wedding for December 12 – I think she was the first to find out the date.

 

After that we went to the Esikhawini chapel to see if the toilet had been fixed and to wait until it was time to meet with President Malinga. It was supposed to be time for seminary but the only person there was Lisa Mathe who was filling in for sister Khumalo. While we waited I tried to take pictures of some birds that are often at the chapel. I have tried a number of times but with poor results – this time was alittle better but not much. None of the students showed up. We ended up taking Lisa home before going to the Malingas.

We had a short meeting – it still went 30 minutes – with president Malinga. Mainly we talked about how his wife was – she was home and had gone to the salon – and some of the needs of the branch. He told us they are going to hold Presidency meeting on Friday. I gave him an outline on how they might plan socials without him needing to anything but follow up on assignments.

His wife came home so I took him out to the yard and told him that a couple was going to make an appointment with him to talk to him about their problems – financial and marital.  I could tell he was uneasy about this so I took some time to build up his confidence in himself, his calling, and God being available to help. He may be worried but he will do well. Given some time and training he will become a fine branch president. I reminded him that part of his calling was to train men to take his place when his period of service was up.

It was growing dark as we left the township, but there were no fields being burned so the sky was quite clear. There were few cars on the road – at least the way we were going – so it was a nice drive. We stopped at Spars to get a few things – including something for dinner.

We had a quiet evening at home. We did find that sister B had been released from the hospital. Hopefully she will continue to get better so she can finish their mission on a positive note. They are a very special couple who love the people they serve.

This is a fun picture because the woman has a 2 liter container of milk on her head. I have no idea how she kept it balanced perfectly  or why she chose to carry it on her head as it is not either heavy nor cumbersome. Maybe it is just for practice.