08 November 2009 – Sunday

We had what has become a normal Sunday for us. There was a little spice in the morning when I could not find my scriptures nor the phone. After looking around for quite a while I decided I had left my scriptures at the Richards Bay Chapel and I could pick them up later. But I could not for the life of me figure out where I could have left it. After both of us pretty much looking everywhere, Mary told me to look in her music bag and there it was. I had given it to her when one of her students called and she had dropped it in when she cleaned up after her lessons.

PEC at Esikhawini was great with everyone there who was in town except the elders who arrived after the meeting was over. While I was in PEC, Mary was teaching another piano lesson. It turns out one of the sisters can be at the chapel at 8:00 which works perfect for us.

We then went to PD where once again the number of people kept growing until there were about 40 – including some investigators – there. We picked up Bungumuse and seemed to fit right in.

Steve Kliick was the District Council speaker. Steve lost almost all his vocal chords when he was beaten in a robbery so he had a hard time speaking. To help him speak he has found that if he writes his talk on the computer and then reads it, he is able to pace his breathing. When he tried to boot his computer, he ran into a problem and finally gave up and just talked from his heart. I don’t know how many people realized we were watching the Lord’s tender mercies as Steve was able to speak clearly and with great spirit without a single note to help him. It is as Nephi said – when we speak with the Spirit the Lord is able to add power to our words.

We left after PD sacrament and stopped at the Richards Bay chapel to pick up my scriptures. They were right where I thought they were and luckily Calwyn was had the clerks office open so I could pick them up. We stopped by home long enough for Mary to get some cold water to take with her to Enseleni.

I just realized I forgot to mention that it was very hot this morning and of course the PD chapel has no air conditioning and no fans. I decided I was not going to wear my coat today and I still managed to completely soak a handkerchief during the meeting. When real summer gets here it will be interesting to say the least.

I was extremely proud of President Vilane who started the meeting right on time. He did it without anyone at the sacrament table and did not seem at all worried that the PH would work it out. Hopefully as he continues to do this, the members will realize that if they want to take part in the sacrament, they need to be on time.

Two of the young sisters gave excellent talks and President Maloi spoke on the Atonement. After sacrament I noticed that the Young Women did not really have a class. They did not really want to go into RS or Primary. In fact some of them headed home. So I gathered a group of 6 of them in the kitchen – much too small and hot – and tried to teach them about ‘Come, Come ye Saints’ and the atonement. I do not think I did very well but when I bore my testimony about the atonement, I felt the spirit and hope that they did also. I will speak to President Vilane about having a class area for them and a prepared instructor. I am also going to suggest that he holds Sacrament meeting until 10 after the hour so that the lessons will only be about 40 minutes long.

After the meeting I had a brief meeting with Nonhlahla and Khulikani about the up coming Youth Convention and told them that we would start on getting ready on Friday. I am sure that the youth will do a great job on their Torch – but I suggested that they should not go too far out in their design.

We finally made it home at about 3:00 and that gave us time to rest before starting to get the house and food ready for the 10 hungry elders who were coming after their evening appointments. The great thing about the elders is that they are grateful for anything we prepare. Tonight they got sloppy Joes, French fries, baked beans, salad, ice cream and brownies.

They arrived over a 45 minute span of time and managed to eat about half the sloppy Joe mixture, 2/3 of the bunds, most of the French fries – which were not very good – all the salad, all the ice cream and about ½ the brownies. We sent the left over rolls, meat, and drinks home with them and then cleaned up before heading to a fairly early bedtime because we need to get up at 5:00 tomorrow morning so we can take them on a game drive.

I told them that they needed to bring their own lunches or go hungry. I said we were not their mother and father. Elder Wengert then said – well you kind of really are. I guess that is true because we do try to look out for them as we would hope others looked out for our children when they were on missions.

A two mite day…yeah!