28 August 2009 – Friday

We were happy to hear that the Mickelsens slept well last night. Both commented that their bed here was better than the one they have in their own boarding. We told them we could tie it on the top of their car and they could take it with them to Swaziland and then home. After about 1 second of thought we decided that would not work.

We fed them some breakfast – Elder Mickelsen liked a cereal we had called Caribbean from Simply Cereal that Mary has been eating lately. She experiments with different cereals and this one has 30% fruit and nuts baked with oats that produce crispy clusters of cereal – it is quite good and a small amount if filling.

As the Mickelsen’s were driving out armed with a map that we hoped would get them to a road they knew, the gardening crew showed up and for the next couple of hours cleaned out the weeds and mowed the lawn. They were supposed to come last week but every three weeks works for me.

Once they were gone we headed out to run some errands including buying what we need to feed the elders on Sunday. We will break the news about the cut back in dinners when we see them. While I was waiting for the butcher to cut a brisket, I had a chance to talk to the manager about how they hired employees and what they were looking for. He mentioned that what he was looking for were employees that wanted to work hard and had an interest in the success of the store. He told about a security guard in Petoria that he felt really cared about the company so he helped him get promoted and today he is a manager in one of their stores. This is something we need to teach our young people about getting a head by doing more than just doing what they are expected to do;.

Among the other things we did today was to buy cleaning supplies for Port Durnford’s Helping Hand project that is on for tomorrow and deliver them to President Machaka. Check with him that he had a place to stay in Joburg when they go to get married in December because elder B found out that there was no openings at temple housing. He said he had people there that they could stay with. We attended Esikhawini’s Youth meeting and found that brother Mathalane had it under control. While Mary watched the activity, I did some minor maintenance that needed doing. While I was doing that, I found the tool to open the soap dispensers – it had been in the supply locker the whole time we were trying to get them open. When I showed it to Elder Mokopotsa we both had a laugh because he had tried to figure it out also.

I also got to help the elders with a problem with one of the bikes, a question about driving lessons, and with Elder Richey how we were going to get two new converts up in Kosi Bay ordained to the priesthood. Elder Richey and his new companion Elder Maremela – we now have elders Maremela and Musemare which I know I will have a hard time remembering where the ‘mare’ goes – brought Mary two brand new keyboards for her students. A parting present from Sister Klingler. I would have been a little more effective this afternoon if I had not left the phone sitting on the counter at home. But we did manage to get quite a few things done without it.

I have been spending part of our time at home putting photo albums of pictures from our mission in Indonesia on Facebook. There are many Indonesian members and missionaries on Facebook and I think they will enjoy them. I ended up looking very quickly at most of the pictures we took on our mission and in that way kind of re-lived the experiences that they were a part of.

Visits to water projects, couple conferences, Intensive English Classes, District and Zone meetings, sight seeing trips, and visits in member’s sometime very humble homes all came flooding back into my mind as I viewed the pictures. Journals and photos allow those of us with very poor or very short memories – a problem I have always had – to have a way to recall the important spiritual as well as trivial moments. Hopefully they will allow children and grandchildren to share them also.