Daily Archives: October 26, 2009

25 October 2009

25 October 2009 – Sunday

It was a good missionary day with us visiting 3 branches, one PEC meeting, one PH/RS meeting, two sacrament meetings, and feeding 10 hungry missionaries. We started at Esikhawini with a PEC meeting that was pretty well attended. It is always good to have President Malinga at these meetings.

Then we went to Port Durnford for sacrament. There were 37 in attendance, which is good for PD. Two of the youth had talks to give and had not prepared so they read – poorly I am afraid – parts of talks from the Liahona. We have to remember to find out who is speaking each week and try to help them learn how to prepare their talks. It was good to see Sandile Chirwa help pass the sacrament for the first time.

After sacrament we dashed over to the Bart’s boarding to pick up the bags of hymn books and scriptures they had. I decided we should have them along just in case the elders forgot to bring theirs. It turned out that they not only brought them, but they were the first ones there getting everything set up. Elders Otieno and Tsegula are excellent missionaries with a great desire to serve.

Elder Otieno told me that Elder Reeder has been very sick for a couple of days – running a 102 fever, vomiting, etc. I immediately called Elder Weaver to find out how his companion is doing and kind of bawled him out for not telling us. It turned out he did call Sister Mann and got instructions on what medicines to buy. His temperature is back to normal but he has a very upset stomach – I decided he had a some bad food.

There is an Assembly of God church that gets out just about the time the branch should start their meeting. As they break up, the leaders of the church line up and shake each member’s hand and say a little something to most of them. I noticed that our elders also got in line and shook hands with their members. Maybe when they are out contacting, some of the people will remember their warm handshake and smile.

 

The meeting started only 15 minutes late and there had 7 investigators –including one family – among the 67 people in attendance. The singing is always strong and full of spirit. President Vilane did a good job of conducting the meeting. I did learn I need to be careful about the announcements I prepared for him – on one of them I put a note for his attention and he read it to the congregation.

The youth leaders – Khulenkani and Nonhlahla (I may never learn to pronounce that name correctly) both gave well prepared talks. Nonhlahla included many excellent scriptures. After them Elder Tsegula spoke on Choosing the Right.

 She did not ask for any class participation at all. After the meeting Mary suggested that she actually ask the questions to the class and give them time to respond.

I went to PH where Khulenkani did an excellent job of teaching. He would teach a little bit of doctrine and then ask lots of questions. My inability to hear and understand much of what was going on is a real pain. I really do need to get my hearing aid fixed.

After the meeting one of the men asked me some questions and I realized it was a young man that Elder B introduced me to at the YSA activity. He is working with President Vilane on some things he needs to get cleared up. I am going to start teaching him about the Melchizedek Priesthood so he will be ready when the time comes that he can receive it.

We finally arrived home just before 3:00 and had some lunch before I dropped onto the bed for a nice long nap. I mentioned to Mary that perhaps we are getting a little too old for another mission and she said she did not think so. Maybe she is paying more attention to the promptings of the spirit in this matter than I am.

From 7:30 to 9:15 we fed the 10 elders 10 elders 8 pounds of meat loaf, 7 pounds of mashed potatoes with gravy, a large green salad, 3 + pounds of corn, a dozen large rolls, a plate of brownies, and 2 liters of ice cream + about 5 liters of soft drinks. Oh and since Elder Reeder was recovering from being very ill he only ate a little of the mashed potatoes and half a roll. However he did make himself a nice plate of food to take home so he could eat it as soon as his stomach stopped making noises.

While some of the missionaries were here I ran Elder Holland’s conference talk on the Book of Mormon. I think they got more of the power of the message as they were able to see him as well as hearing his words.

It is always a blessing to have the missionaries over but like with grandchildren, it is also nice to wave goodbye to the last car load as they leave to make it home to their boardings on time. After they left we cleaned up the kitchen – even using disposable plates and cups, there is plenty of things to wash.

Mary started the latest 1500 piece Big Five puzzle. There is no helping graphics on the back so it is going to take a long time and lots of patience to finish. My main job on puzzles is to keep going through the pieces and put them in different bowls. I guess it is an age for specialties even fordoing puzzles.

I do not know if it was because of the long nap or the energy of the missionaries but I did not go to bed until about midnight. A late end for a good 2 mite day.



24 October 2009

24 October 2009 – Saturday

I must confess that today is going to be a difficult one for me. We can not seem to get started – at least not as far as getting out to any of our areas. I have done a couple of loads of laundry, we went out and shopped for the things we need to feed the elders tomorrow night, I washed the car – the line at the car wash was much too long, and I have caught up my blog. But my mind seems to go blank when I start to think of what we should do before we go to Esikhawini for a battery of lessons sessions.

While Mary taught conducting and piano lessons, I tried bleach on the mold in the bathroom with not great results. Then I gave Sister Khumalo a basic lesson on the computer and got her started on a typing program that was on an old computer that the Bs left behind. I let her take it home with her so she could practice typing and learn more about how to use Word.

After the lessons we drove to the RB mall where we had dinner with the Mickelsens. They are a fun couple to be with and I am glad we are going to have a chance to work with them. They will go to church tomorrow at Ngwelezane and then head back to Durban in the afternoon.

I am afraid today is hardly more than a one mite day when it comes to doing missionary work.