Daily Archives: October 24, 2009

23 October 2009

 

23 October 2009 –  Friday

We had a very good day today. We got to spend the morning talking and studying with President Mann. He told us that a frustrated whale was obviously trying to mate with our house – See October 2 for why.

We left the house at about 9:00 and dropped the President off at the Richards Bay chapel for his meeting with the elders before picking up the Mickelsens for a morning of sight-seeing and orientation. They had never been to Esikhawini or Port Durnford so we gave them the grand tour – well at least a tour.

We took them out to see the beach – after a rather long detour we found it this time-which was quite beautiful and had absolutely no one on it – just miles of dunes, sandy beach and beautiful waves. We will go back some time when we can spend more time.

We introduced them to the Nzamas and the Chirwas – we wanted to let them get an idea of what the area was like and how the members lived. It turned out that the country was much like they experienced on their mission in rural Florida but of course the construction of the housing was different.

While we were at the Chriwas, Sister Mickelsen asked Elder Mickelsen to take a picture of some cattle that were grazing behind the homestead. He did not want to – he said they had enough cattle pictures – until he found that it was a herd that was going to be used for labola – that is the brides price – and then they became interesting. In fact he spent quite a bit of time talking to the young man who owned the cattle. He invited him to church and got his name for the elders. As we left, sister Chirwa started talking to him and perhaps he will actually come. At least we know he will be legally married and has enough income to be able to have a nice herd of cattle. Our last stop in Port Durnford was the chapel which they found interesting. I noticed the door was again falling off the toilet – I think it is a lost cause.

After a nice lunch at Spurs in the mall, we dropped them off at their boarding and came back to ours to get ready for youth. I hate to admit it but I fell asleep in a chair and if Mary had not woke me up I would have slept right through Enselini’s youth meeting.

When we got to the library there were a couple of young ladies waiting for us but most of the youth did not arrive until about 4:00. The Mickelsens came to meet with a couple of their PEF students – or perhaps hopeful PEF students. Much to our embarrassment we found that we had bunked President Vilane’s English lesson. I am not sure we had said we would be there but in any case he was and we were not. I promised him we would be there next week.

We had come prepared to share Elder Holland’s conference talk on the Book of Mormon but nothing else. Elder Tsugula taught a short lesson on Lehi’s dream and then I played the talk. I had forgotten that Elder Holland had started his talk with some comments about Lehi’s dream which made the transition from Elder Tsugula’s lesson perfect. During the talk I went out and got our bag that had the Book of Mormon Bingo – just in case they did not have any games planned. It turned out that they did but preferred to play Bingo. I think they had a lot of fun and we made sure everyone won something.

I was not surprised to find out that they did not know what most of the items on the Bingo card referred to. I asked if anyone knew what the “Urim and Thummim” was and no one had any idea. I told them it would good if they looked it up and came prepared to share next week.

There were 18 to 20 youth there and we only knew the name of two of them. It is going to take us quite a while to get to know them but hopefully the Lord will bless our memories and the youth will be understanding about our not remembering their names.

We got home just as the sun was setting. I tried to catch up this journal but my heart and mind was just not in it.

2 mite day!



22 October 2009

22 October 2009 – Thursday

Another busy day in Paradise – here is the real short version. We got the Mickelsens settled into their new house and then went back to the Richards Bay chapel for what President Mann called a mini-Zone Conference. He took an hour to tell us what he had learned at the leadership conference he and Sister Mann attended in Joburg this weekend. Elder Andersen of the 12 and other leaders taught them for three days.

We had lunch with the Mickelsens and then headed out to Port Durnford for English lessons and Youth. We arrived early so we decided to take a quick look at the Port Durnford beach that we have heard so much about. We of course did not find it – later we found out we were close but not quite there.

English and Youth went very well – we really love the Port Durnford Youth. Since none of them come from families with both parents we wish they had some strong leadership in the branch to watch over them.

In the evening there was supposed to be leadership training for the branch presidents. I had been in contact with each of them a number of times and assumed that they would all come. It turned out that none of them came. They had a wide variety of reasons but the root of course was that they did not feel that it was important enough to make the effort. I was of course disappointed but came to realize that I could not have done much more to get them there except pick each of them up myself and that is not going to help them learn to be reliable Priesthood holders.

My disappointment with the lack of branch presidents was kind of off-set by the youth leaders from Enseleni and Engwalazane coming to the go to the planning meeting for the Youth Conference to be held on November 27. Mary sat in on that meeting while I caught up the ordination and other paperwork with Calwyn Baldwin the district clerk.

After the meeting we drove the three young people from Enselini home. Enseleni lacks the streetlights that Esikhawini has so the back streets are much darker so careful driving is called for. Other than the pot hole I hit that felt like it might have broken the suspension and even with the GPS getting slightly lost while trying to get out of the township, there was no problems.

I forgot to mention that after the meeting the Mickelsens drove President Mann to our boarding so he was here when we got home.

It was a 2 mite day with 1 ½ mite result.



21 October 2009

21 October 2009 – Wednesday

We spent the morning organizing paperwork and making plans for the day before heading up to the DDM for the Empangeni District. Although it ran a little long, it was a good DDM. We got to know a little more about each of the elders , including why they decided to go on a mission. They set some interesting District goals including one to find each day until they found one new family to teach. It will be interesting to find out how they do in keeping that one.

The Empangeni elders are teaching 3 or 4 families at this time. In fact other than poor Port Durnford, all the areas are doing well. The main problem seems getting the investigators to come to church. I suggested in any family where there are youth, that they try to get them to the Youth activity so they can make friends and have fun. I also suggested that they take the RS President, Branch President and others with them when they go so they will get to know a number of people so they will feel more comfortable coming.

After the meeting the elders enjoyed the Chelsea buns we brought. Elder Maremela went first so he could give a demonstration on the correct way to eat one. He is a very funny young man. One of the things most of the elders mentioned was their favorite sport. Elder Maremela is a big man and you would guess he played basketball, soccer, or rugby. It turns out that he did not play any sports – he was just not interested. This is very surprising for any young man and even more so with someone his size and agility.

During the morning I got a call from the Mickelsens saying they would be coming to RB to start working with the Engwalazne branch. Since they had already arranged a meeting with President Mngadi for tomorrow, I cancelled the one I had scheduled with him for today. Instead we went back to Richards Bay had some lunch and picked up the two bikes that we had completely tuned up for Esikhawini elders. They had to almost rebuild them and this caused me to decide we would inspect the bike regularly to see that the missionaries were taking care of them.

We then took the bikes to the Esikhawini chapel where we met with the missionaries. They were very happy to get them because they have been walking everywhere and sometimes it was a long distance between appointments.

As we were leaving the chapel, we got a call from a non-member woman who we have been trying to help get a job without and success. She has great qualification and is probably too qualified for many jobs and too old for others. She said they had no food but since none of her family are members I could not direct her to branch president for help. We try not to just give people food or money but we also could not let a family we know go hungry so we bought a pretty good selection of basic foods and took them to the homestead. Along the way I thought of a way we could help but also let them feel like they are no beggars. They were very happy to accept our suggestion for re-payment and insisted on giving us a head of lettuce from their small garden.

By the time we finished there it was a little late to do anything else so we drove towards home. We used a sand road that was quicker and smoother than the main paved road. We will not use it after a major rain but for a while it is a good short-cut between Esikhawini and Port Durnford.

We did make a short detour to Meer n See and the Barts boarding to tell Hans that some people would be using it from Thursday through Sunday so he could have the beds made, etc. I also picked up the surge protector/back-up battery unit that Elder B said we could have. Now at least there is a hope that if there is a lightening strike our computers will not be toast.

All in all a good day – close to 2 mites.



20 October 2009

20 October 2009 – Tuesday

Of course this morning the sky is clear and the bright sunlight woke me before 5:30.

I spent much of the morning going through the things Elder B left me about the two branches and other things. Thank goodness he is so thorough about his paper work – we have about everything we need to know about their two branches to do our work.

We spent the day with President Vilane. First sat and talked about the branch and then went through about one half the branch list name by name so he could tell us a little about the members. Then we took him with us as we went around and visited – or tried to visit – a number of homes. We got to meet mama Zulu, sister Rose (who is not a member but should be), and others. During our visiting we managed to make two contacts – at least one is a family and the other one may be. We got their names and phone numbers and gave them a picture of Christ with our names and phone number. We enjoyed meeting the members, introducing ourselves and leaving a prayer in each home. They are wonderful people and we are already in love with them. Enselini is tiny compared to Esikhawini and compact compared to Port Durnford. The missionaries should be able to visit almost every home in the township in one or two cycles. Just three or four families would make a great difference to the strength of the branch.

One of our biggest challenges will be communicating with President Vilane is that his English is as weak as his spirit is strong. He and she are used interchangeably so until I am sure of the member’s names and gender I am going to have to check the branch list to affirm if it is a male or female we are talking about. But in the end, the spirit will help us understand him and him understand us. I can only imagine how hard it is for those members who really do not have a good grasp of English to really understand the gospel. That is why it is so important for the young men to go on missions. Not only do they really learn the gospel so they can teach it to their own family and to others in the branches.  Also they are often with US, English or white SA elders who can help them with their English.

As we were dropping President Vilane off at his house, he noticed that we had a nail in our front passenger side tire. He checked and it showed a very slow leak. I decided that I needed to get it fixed but that it could wait until after we had our rather late lunch. McDonalds is always our first choice for a quick lunch – we can be in and out in 20 minutes or less. After lunch we went get the tire fixed before the place closed – the service is excellent and the price reasonable.

A busy but only a 1 ½ mite day…