06 August 2009 – Thursday

The morning sky looked like it was going to be a dark, rainy day but although the sky stayed threatening, it did not rain.

It was a morning of taking care of business. First I went to the municipality building and visited my friends at the Water and Sewer Connection desk to try and get the water flowing again in Esikhawini. Knele – we are on a first name basis – made a couple of calls and we both crossed our fingers that someone would take care of it. Next we both had our hair cut at Images. We then went to the mall where Mary had her latest Book of Mormon Bingo game laminated while I went to the store – which is in the same section of the mall – for some things we needed.

On our way to Port Durnford we stopped by the Esikhawini chapel and found nothing had been done with the water. So I called Knele and told her that we still had the problem. She transferred me to someone who was really not happy to talk to me but said that someone else would call me. We then continued to the Nzamas where we had our weekly English class.

If you are ever in Port Durnford and want to find the chapel, all you need to do is go down the only paved road in the area until you see this sign and look opposite the way the arrow points and there is the chapel. Mary, Thandi and I sat up for youth. Thandi Nzama is the YW president and is learning her calling. The last pictures show the youth learning the 7th and 8th Article of Faith and playing Book of Mormon Bingo. They really liked the game and everyone won at least once.

After the meeting I was taking some pictures and of course everyone wanted their picture taken. The picture on the right is of Siya who lives in a small room near the chapel. He is a very smart young man and could be an excellent leader but he is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. The middle picture shows him sharing some of his bingo ‘winnings” with the small children that live in the front house. He always shares anything he gets with them – it just comes natural to him.

These are just scenes I shot near the chapel. The woman was dropped off by a taxi and is gathering up her shopping to walk down that road to her home. Sometimes the women will be met by a young man with a wheelbarrow if the load is too big for one trip. The middle picture shows how you start to build a small traditional round house but using block instead of rocks, mud and wattle. They recently tore down an older house just a few feet away. Almost every homestead has a garden where they grow cabbage, onion, spinach, beet root, and in this case peppers. Usually they are maintained by the women, but this particular one is cared for by a man.

As we were leaving the chapel to take Thandi home they started to burn the cane field just across the street. This is the first time we have seen a non-professional burn and it will be interesting to see if they were able to keep it under control. In the big fields – and there was one being burned as we drove out of Esikhawini – they are carefully controlled. The picture on the right is a typical truck load of workers being taken home. They pretty much pack them in and of course when they have an accident there are usually a number of deaths.

Yeah! We stopped again at the Esikhawini chapel and found that a crew had just finished closing up the hole after fixing the water problem. I thanked them a number of times before rushing off for home so I could drop off Mary before going to District Council Meeting.

I have come to enjoy the Council Meetings because it allows me to see the kindness, wisdom and practicality of President Baldwin as he deals with a district that really is short on trained MP and has a number of problems most Stake Presidents do not have to deal with. I am not fond of 2 hours meetings of any kind, but his seem that long. But I must say that I was happy to finally get home and to be able to relax.

On our way to DDM this morning we passed this beautiful bougainvillea tree in full bloom. This is one of the things that South Africa has with Indonesia. Everywhere we go we see bougainvillea. At DDM, Elder Babeeyo on left conducted as District Leader. Elder Mbithi gave a short lesson on taking the right member with you when you teach a lesson. Before DDM I taped two of elder Musemare’s fingers together to see if this will help the one he closed in a car door 9 weeks ago heal. I also gave him some pills that were sent up by Sister Mann. If this does not work he gets to have the finger X-rayed again.

After DDM we went to the mall to get a new ice chest – our old one seems to have been donated to a caterer without our knowledge. While I ran up and got it from Games, Mary sat in the parking garage and read. We then had lunch before heading to Esikhawini and our PEC meeting with the elders and President Machaka. The elders wheeled up in their bright red car. The meeting was short but covered everything that we needed to cover.

After PEC the elders wanted to show us a new way they found to get from Esikhawini to Port Durnford that comes out almost at the chapel. The road was not bad at all – at least not by South African standards – but when we got within about 200 yards of the main Port Durnford road we came to a very nasty mud puddle – actually more like a pond – that no one wanted to try to get across. Unfortunately I did not think to take a picture but I may tomorrow from the other side.

Since we needed to turn around I drove into a near by yard where there were a number of women with children. They looked at us strangely but we quickly made friends by talking to them and giving the children some candy. One of the women said that they were really surprised to see ‘white people’ in the area. I think we will go back some day and introduce ourselves and the gospel to them. Another photo op missed.

After getting turned around and back to Esikhawini we went to the chapel to see if anything had been done with the water. Of course it had not. See yesterday for pictures – nothing has changed.

We then had the sad task of going to the home of a young – 20 years old – sister who was killed in a taxi accident last night. She was the only member of the family who was LDS but we were welcomed to the family’s home. We introduced ourselves and shared in their sorrow. There was a group of women and one man sitting around the room and we joined them. In one corner was a small setting that included some clothes, candles, a bowl and a stack of books. The top book was her Book of Mormon. The setting was important but we were not sure what the pieces represent. My guess is it things the spirit will need as it travels to the next world. But that is only a guess.

As we were sitting quietly, one of the women started singing in Zulu and most of the others joined in. The singing was both very beautiful and very sad. They sang a number of songs and the last one sounded very much like ‘God Be With You Til We Meet Again.’ When they had stopped Mary commented on how beautiful it was and I said that the last song reminded me of our hymn. When I mentioned the name, they said that is what it was. The Zulu words require small changes in tune.

When what was obviously their preacher arrived, we excused ourselves. Two of the other mourners came out with us – I think our leaving allowed them to. We will come back for the funeral which they indicated would be at the house but we will have to see.

As we were traveling back to our boarding I noticed the full moon in the darkening sky. I took a number of pictures from different places and these are just three of them. The two on the right were taken only two or three minutes apart but the light had changed dramatically in that time. The one on the left was taken near our boarding with another lens setting.

This really belongs with yesterday but I did not take it until this morning. This is the finished 1500 piece puzzle that we had to do mainly by turning the pieces over and using a pattern on the back to guide us. I know it was cheating but I doubt if we would have every finished it any other way. I am going to get more puzzles from this company but I think I will stick to the 500 or 750 piece puzzles.

This evening a neighbor who is an insurance broker came over to get the information needed to give us a quote on renter insurance while we are here. If it is cheap enough we will probably get it just in case someone breaks in and cleans us out as they recently did one our neighbors.

 I will write about these pictures when we get home from DDM

Before running errands we went to our PO box and got the bills we knew would be there. On the way home we stopped at the nursery to see if we could get Round-Up concentrate so we could kill a lot of weeds that have grown up around Esikhawini’s garden plots. They did not have anything but we did get these good pictures of a bird we had not seen before and that we can not find in our Birds of South Africa book.

We then went to mall where I made sure we were not behind on our Telkom bill so they will not disconnect us this month. I have come to know the young women who work there by their first names. They appreciate the fact that I never get upset with them when I have a problem – it is not their fault.

We then went to the municipality where Mary paid our $3 water bill while I went up to the Water and Sewer desk and told them about our problem with no water at Esikhawini. The woman called the water folks and told me that they would take care of it.

When we arrived at Esikhawini we found the service folks waiting for us. I thought for once a problem would quickly be solved. Wrong! After an hour of working on the problem they decided that the crew that repaired the system last time would have to do it again. They made a call and told us that someone would be coming. 2 1/2 hours later we gave up and headed home. Maybe tomorrow?

The picture of the lamp post is important because I finally figured out how to get my camera to go beyond the 3.2X zoom. It has been a problem for months and there are a lot of pictures of birds and animals I could not take because I could not zoom in close enough. We spend more money at Super Spar than anywhere else in Richards Bay. We not only get most of our food there, we also buy any welfare food orders at Super Spar. I have bought enough from the bakery department that the manager knows my name and the clerks all smile and wave when I go by. For all the years I have shopped at Albertsons in Provo, they still do not know me from Adam.

In the evening Elder Peterson and Elder Mukhota came by so Elder P could use our Vonage phone to find out why his credit card does not work. It took him about 20 minutes to get them to agree to lift the ban that Zions has on almost all Visa cards here in South Africa. Credit card theft is one of the major problems that we are warned against. We only use ours at the ATM and for Mary’s pharmacy purchases.

3 August 2009 – Monday

Our planned P-day trip to the game park with the elders was washed out by the continuous rain that fell until about 11:00. We decided we would just stay around the house and then go to lunch and a movie.

This was also changed when we got a call from the Barts inviting us to go to lunch with them and the elders. We of course were happy to do this and so the Piers, the Barts and 10 elders arrived at Spurs. Sister B is still hurting – she did not get to sleep until 4:00 a.m. this morning. She tried hard to look happy to be there but it was very difficult. I am amazed at her strength. I am afraid I would just crawl into bed and not come out until I was feeling pretty good.

It is amazing how much the elders can eat and drink! A couple of them ate double rib-burgers – that is almost a pound of boneless ribs on a bun with fries. I have no idea where some of the smaller elders put it all. While the food was great, it was the conversations with the elders that made the almost 2 hours we spent at lunch fly by. I sat across from elders Richey and Muthoka – they had been companions and now are serving in the same zone. It is interesting to hear both their spiritual experiences and their war stories. Elder Muthoka is the most robbed and mugged elder in the mission and yet it has not in any way reduced his desire to serve. The one thing he is mad about – he says he is working on his anger management skills – is when they took his carefully marked scriptures.

I told him that maybe in 20 years there will be an article in the Liahona telling about someone who found this set of scriptures in the trash and after reading them joined the church. Then his family joined and over the course of 20 years over 100 people had joined the church because of those scriptures found in the trash.

After lunch we looked at what was on at the movies and did not see anything worth going to. Instead we came home and spent the day relaxing, working on the puzzle, reading the Liahona, etc. Next week even if it is pouring rain we are going to go somewhere and see some part of Africa.

02 August 2009 – Sunday

It is almost 11 p.m. and the rumble of thunder rolls over the house. It has been raining almost all day but the thunder is new. It has been a good day in many ways.  There has also been some disappointments. But in the long run it more than balances out to be a good day.

The alarm cut into a really deep sleep – neither of us were ready for it. But we got up and prepared for our usual Sunday activities.

We were the first ones to Esikhawini so I opened everything up. Since there was still no water pressure we knew we would be going to Richards Bay for the baptism. PEC consisted of 5 elders and brother Wenzie. President Malinga woke up not feeling well so he would not be at church and would not be able to baptize sister Zibani so elder Mbithi will do both.

The morning was cold and threatening to rain as the members started coming in. We thought we had a real problem when we could not get the lights to stay on but finally they did – at least for most of the meetings. Brother Wenzie did a good job getting the meeting started only about 5 minutes late. Which for South Africa is well within the ‘on time’ zone – I guess that is something like the way the airlines figure their on time percentage.

There were some great testimonies. As I mentioned before, there are almost no preaching, faith promoting stories, travelogues, or such. Most people give thanks for blessings they receive and bear their testimonies of the truths they know. Sister Khumalo started her testimony by saying “I know God loves me and knows my name.” I was greatly touched by that thought. It is something that I think is a really important part of a testimony and shows her relationship with God.

While testimony meeting was going on it started to rain and it just kept getting harder and harder as the block went on. For all those who have to walk home or to the taxi stands it was not going to be a pleasant day.

Brother Nyawo taught adult Sunday school – they really need to get a regular teacher. The lesson was on the scriptures and he got the members involved.

Priesthood was another highlight of the day. Brother Mthalane – the recently returned missionary – taught a lesson on the sacrament – the importance of preparing, blessing and passing it with the right spirit. We then read our way through the blessing on the bread and as we did this, I realized that while I had thought of the individual parts of the blessing, I don’t think I ever thought about the order of the blessing. The idea that after we eat the bread in remembrance Christ,  we then witness (covenant) with God to willing take upon us Christ’s name, always remember Him, and then keep his commandments as he has given them…when we do all this then the great blessing of always having His spirit to be with us is assured. I do not think I will ever take the sacrament after this with out thinking about what I learned today – at least I hope not.

After the block we started to organize the cars to get people to the Richards Bay chapel for the baptism services. We ran into a bit of trouble when we found that the branch mission president who was supposed to conduct had left and we could not get him on his cell phone. To make a long story short, Mary and I took one of the young sisters who wants to learn to play the piano home so she did not have to walk in the rain with the keyboard we are lending her and then went to the RB chapel where we found everyone except someone to conduct. It seems the BML got busy somewhere else and was not going to make it. Once more wonderful brother Wenzie stepped in and conducted a meeting he had no idea he would conduct.

The baptism went well – brother Zibani had to be done twice because elder Mbhiti was standing too close to the steps the first time. About the only people who actually watched were a group of missionaries, the couple’s daughter and Yaya Mathe who we think is somehow related. As always I was touched by how simple the ordinance of baptism really is and yet without it there is no entrance to the straight and narrow way that leads to Eternal life. I can kind of picture Phillip baptizing the eunuch in the river along side the road – just the two of them and perhaps some of the eunuch’s servants. Yet this simple scene was greater than the baptism of a new royal child in some great cathedral.

After the baptism we came home, broke our fast, and then I took a nap. When I woke up I helped Mary in cleaning up the house and getting the food ready for feeding the elders. We were ready for them to start to arrive about 7:00 but they ended up arriving later than usual because they had all been working or at least they had been busy in their areas. Elder and sister B were unable to come because of her illness.

Elder Torgerson had an unhappy day because a couple that they have been working with for months and thought was ready to be baptized, told them that they were going back to their old church. As we talked I told him that even if they do not continue to come, the experience that they have had with the church will never leave them and we may never know what that will mean as the years go by.

For the best part of a couple of hours our house was filled with elders happily talking about their work, the food, and what they might do tomorrow if it continues to rain so we can not go to the game park. Some of them – elder Musemare especially – are rather quiet. But for the most part they keep up a continual chatter stopping only to eat a large quantity of food. Just after 9:00 our 12 great elders went home full of BBQ beef, baked beans, corn, garlic bread, brownies and ice cream.  For some of the African elders it was the first time they had BBQ beef and baked beans – all of them like the beef – I am not sure they all appreciated the beans.

After they left I finished the dishes and then we just sat around and relaxed until it was time to go to bed. Any day that I can watch two people enter the waters of baptism is a great day.

31 July 2009 – Friday

We spent most of the morning at home. We were waiting for our neighbor to send a crew over to mow and clean up the yard. But right at 8 I headed down to the car wash. It was the perfect time to go and I did not have to wait at all but drove right in. However because of the full service they give I was still there almost 45 minutes.

As we planned for the day we realized we needed some new games for the youth. We found a matrix for making a customized Bingo game so we printed out a set of cards. Once she got started Mary made another.

Mr. Justice finally came by at about 11:00 and sent his crew to work on our yard. It really needed it because it has not been done for almost 2 months. During the winter the grass does not grow very rapidly –however the weeds do so it was looking scraggy around here. It bothered Mary more than it did me but it will look better when the crew is done. I took some pictures to show the before and after.

We ate our lunch and then headed out to our area. First we went by the Bartholomews to pick up some games for our youth activity. Sister B had spent the morning having a lot of blood samples taken so they can find out what is wrong. She is still feeling quite bad and I am going to suggest to the elders that we fast for her on Sunday.

Along the way we ran some errands but still got to Esikhawini early. We stopped so I could get some KFC for Thobani Chirwa so he would know we cared that he missed the cast party yesterday. We then went to Port Durnford where we dropped off the list of foods someone with an ulcer should and should not eat at the Nzamas and then went to the Chirwas. After giving Thobani his treat – including one of Mary’s delicious brownies – we took sister Chirwa back to the Nzamas so she could visit gogo Nzama. Sister Chirwa is the branch RS president and takes her calling seriously. If we had not come by when we did she would have walked the 3 or 4 Kilometers as she usually does.

We then went to Esikhawini where we found one of the Buthelezi sons wanting to take the CPU from the branch computer to his home so they could send e-mail to Nkule who just left for her mission and is in the MTC in Joburg. We gave him a ride so he did not have to carry it back to his house.

On the way home we did some exploring and ended up at a couple of dead-ends – there are lots of them in the townships because the South African government under apartheid did not want people to be able to move quickly through them. There are only 6 roads that exit the township. All they had to do was block those and no vehicles could leave without being searched. There are also only 2 roads out of the area – once again so they could easily control the flow of traffic if they wanted to.

But the exploring paid off because as we were finally back on the road we knew, sister Mathe drove by and blinked her lights. At first I did not know who it was and then looked back and recognized her car. We waited while she drove back and we both got good hugs. She is a wonderful and very busy woman and like so many gogos here takes care of many of her grandchildren.

Back at the chapel we had our youth meeting. About ½ of them came. Some were sick and some just did not come. But I think those who did come had fun and enjoyed the treats. The biggest need they have is to develop some leadership among the youth. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves and so they do not have a bonded group as it seems Port Durnford is developing.

After the meeting Mary met with Sister Khumalo as a District RS Presidency. The other counselor did not come – she was working in Mthubathuba which is about 1:40 minutes away. We wondered if she went there each day – because if she does, she spends a lot of time on public transportation.

Once again we got out of the township fairly early so we arrived home just as it was getting dark. Mary made tuna sandwiches and we spent the night reading, writing, and working on the puzzle. I am trying to put together something for president Malinga to help him with conducting his presidency and PEC meetings.