09 October 2009 – Friday

Woke much too early but after reading for a while I went back to sleep. Mary slept well and woke feeling –and sounding – much better. Maybe she only had a rough throat yesterday.

Our mission continues to get more expensive as the dollar weakens against the rand – it is down to under 7.4 per dollar. It was about 9.2 when we came out 9 months ago.

It seems that the plumbing god is out to get us. This morning as I was showering, the whole valve stem to the cold water came out of the wall. Thankfully it was the cold water and it was in the shower. If it had been one of the basin taps there would have been water everywhere. I jumped out, grabbed my robe so I could go out and shut down the main valve. I then went in and figured out how to put everything back together again. I even had the right tools. Although no real damage was done, it was a little more excitement than I planned for this morning.

While I was dealing with that I heard the gardening crew starting to work on the yard. I was glad that they could work outside the fence for a while so I could finish my plumbing repair and get dressed before they needed to work close to the house.

While Mary baked a number of batches of cookies, I went to see if I could get Esikhawini’s sound system fixed. They were very nice and I went with their technician back to their work room. When he found that it did not work on batteries but was fine with wall power. He then found that a couple of the batteries were not good and assured me that if I replaced them, the unit would work.

I made a quick stop to get some cash and to buy batteries at Games. They have most of their Christmas display up and I thought how different this Christmas will be from the one we had in Indonesia where only a small percentage of the population is Christian.

Soon after I got back, the Bartholomews arrived to deliver their elliptical exercise machine. I now have no excuse for not exercising each day. I do have to figure how I am going to entertain myself while I exercise. This is always the hardest part for me – I get bored before very long.

Mary continued working on things for tomorrow’s District RS Conference. I pretty much just stayed out of her way until she asked for me to do something.

In the evening we went to the mall to have dinner with Elders Clark, Richey and Davis. The Bs and Us sat at a table for 14 and waited for the others to arrive. We got a call from Elder Davis saying they were still an hour away. Then the Clarks arrived and we sat and talked. After a while Elder Richey came in and told us that he and his family were at another restaurant – there are two with about the same sounding name – and had already ordered. It was decided that they would eat and then come join us. So we ordered and while we were waiting for our food the Davis’ arrived. They had had to detour off the N-2 because of an accident.

To make a long – 3 hour – story short, we had a great time talking to the elders, their parents and in Elder Richey’s case friends. We told the parents how excellent their sons were – and it was the truth. We also shared some stories they had not heard. Brother Clark at one point said that knowing what they know now, if they had been visiting instead of picking up their missionary, they probably would have wanted him to go home with them.

 

Elder Richey with his new tie. The dark tie in the other picture is the one he wore through his whole mission. At his last interview with President Mann, the President cut it in two. Mary at one time thought someone should put a match to it but we decided it was so greasy that it would probably flash burn and hurt Elder Richey.

We all said goodbye and headed to our boardings. The Clarks and Davis were staying in Richards Bay and then heading for Swaziland tomorrow. Elder Richey’s parents and friends drove back to Durban because he spent almost his whole mission in that area.