12 November 2009 – Thursday

It was hot today! But not nearly as hot as they say it is going to get come December and January. Looking at pictures of snow does not seem to help. Luckily we spend a good part of our time in our lovely air-conditioned car. At least enough to cool us down between visits and classes.

I got the car washed this morning so the hand-prints that had been decorating the sides for the last few days have disappeared. We spent part of the morning getting everything ready for our English class and PD Youth. It is amazing how much time is needed just planning and getting things together. Then of course half the time you get to the class and you find you left something at the boarding.

We were bunked by the Richards Bay district for DDM. When I called elder Weaver he apologized and said that he woke up this morning thinking it was Wednesday. I must say that is a new excuse. With no DDM we had time to take care of a few errands that we had been putting off including paying our water bill.

We were just finishing lunch at Maxis when Sne Mthalane came in and we talked about the Youth Convention on the 28^th. I had talked to him about getting more information out to the branches as to what kind of banner they were to make. He was on his way to buy material so everyone would have the same size and quality. Since we met with President Vezi on Tuesday while we were eating and today Sne, maybe we should just get an office in the mall so everyone could come in.

Our English class is growing. Today sister Chirwa brought a neighbor. Unfortunately Temba and gogo Nzama were not there – we have not see Temba for two weeks now. The new sister who came knows almost no English so I ended up taking her to another area and working with her one on one. It was rather fun and she taught me the Zulu words for tree, bee, sleep, sweets, foot and feet. Hopefully I will remember them so I can show off next time.

Youth at PD was pretty good. We challenged them to read the Book of Mormon before we are released. They need to read about 2 pages a day and they said they would.  We will see how they do this coming week. Siya and Fufu are speaking this coming Sunday and I said we would come on Saturday and help them prepare their talk so they do not just read it from a Liahona. After our lesson, we played games: Book of Mormon Bingo and Book of Mormon Match Game. They truly enjoy games but are a little competitive. It is just a shame that there is not more family support for the youth – that is a home with a righteous PH leader. However a number of them have strong gogos and perhaps we can get them to start holding FHE, Family Prayer and Family Scripture reading.

Neither the Nzama’s home nor the PD chapel have even a fan to help cool things off. Mary seems to hold up pretty well but I have to continually wipe my face and neck to keep from drowning in perspiration. It would not be too bad if the breeze that seems to come up in the afternoon would move through the chapel but lately it has been blowing the wrong direction.

We were only home a few minutes when the RB elders called and asked if they could come over and make a baptismal program for Sunday. Of course we invited them over and Mary showed them how to use the template to make one. They did an excellent job and it is good to have them do it instead of just doing it for them.

As they were leaving Elder Weaver told us that they had an unhappy landlord because they keep setting off the alarm when they come home. For some reason they can remember how many rings means it is off. They are set it off twice in the last two days and it is waking up the landlord’s baby. Elder Weaver is afraid he might ask them to move if they do it again.

This morning as I was waiting for the car to get washed – a 45 to 60 minute task – I re-read most of the July Ensign. I really should re-read the Church magazines more often. Almost always some article that did not really connect with me the first time I read it, is just what I need to read later. Although the articles in the Church magazine can not be considered scripture, often they seem like they are.

This is Mary with sister Myeza of the Esikhawini branch. She is 81 years young. She was having trouble with her feet but insisted on walking us out to the gate and waiting until we drove away. She is the mother of the Relief Society president. Her yard is filled with beautiful flowers.

Mary did some work on President Machaka’s computer. President Machaka was happy to get his picture taken. His future wife – Phumzile was a reluctant subject. They have plans to be married in early December in the Joburg temple.

The Khanyile family would be a wonderful addition to the PD branch. Zinhle, the oldest child, comes to church and youth when the parents allow. The mother use to come to the English classes at the Nzamas. A neighboring child really wanted to be in the family portrait. We promised to take his picture if he would step out of the family shot. As I have mentioned there are huge tree farms in the country. Everyday we see truck loads of logs heading for the mills but it is hard to get a picture. I was lucky to catch this large load as it went around a corner.

10 November 2009 – Tuesday

Spent the morning doing many of the chores that did not get done yesterday. It seems that laundry, dishes, shopping, etc., does not get done by some friendly elves when we are doing game drives and holding FHE at member’s homes.

Finally in the afternoon we were able to go out and visit a couple of investigator’s home. At the Khanyile home we met the whole family and had a nice visit. When her parents let her, Zinhle has been coming to church on and off for a long time. She has two young siblings, her mother runs the house and her father is a boiler maker who makes a decent income. While the home is very modest, the children are going to very good schools. It is wonderful to see the parents invest much of their income in the future of their children. It is also great to find a family where there is a father at the head. We could sure use this family in the Port Durnford branch. We gave them a picture of Jesus and they asked us to offer a prayer before we left.

After that we picked up Bungumuse and took him to the RB mall so he could get to spend a few minutes with the famous South African wildlife painter Joe Marais. Mr. Marais looked at his work, gave him some instructions on how to improve and invited him back in a couple of months so he could evaluate his progress. Bungumuse was as excited as he would have been to have met President Obama. I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack. It was very nice of Mr. Marais to take the time to see this fine young man and help him with his drawing.

We dropped Bungumuse off at the taxi ring with enough money to take one home. We had checked with his mother to make sure it would be alright for him to go home by taxi so we did not have to make another round trip to PD.

I spent much of the evening – and some of the morning posting pictures and text to our web. I also put an album of our game drive on our Facebook page. It gets a lot of attention and we hope it might even get some couple thinking about putting in their papers for a mission in South Africa.

Mary has started a new puzzle we bought in Umfolozi yesterday – she does like to put things together.

Within 10 minutes of being in the park we got to see this and two other lions. Elder Musemare spotted two lions in the tree or we would have driven right by. He should think about becoming a game warden.

On the way out we came across this female hiding behind a bush. We think she was picking out dinner because there were some impalas nearby. We found a couple of rhinos around a waterhole with a small herd of Wildebeests under the shade of a tree. As the day went by we saw a number of single wildebeests among or near herds of impalas – we decided the richer herds hired them as bodyguards against the lions. The good side view of the rhino is actually from a trip to Umfolozi in September but Mary wanted to include it today.

The second of the big five we saw close up in the park was a large herd of Cape buffalo that hurriedly crossed the road right in front of us. Notice the young one at the rear. After they crossed the road they spread out and started grazing. I caught this older bull looking right at us and a number of them in the herd kept us in their sight.

Although we saw an elephant at a distance and found another along the road that I managed to scare away when I drove over a rock, it was not until we were on the way out that we came across four elephants near or in the river. The ones above were all taken at a distance of less than 30 feet and a couple were at less than 15 feet. The trees he is eating is covered in thorns – big ones that are up to 2 inches long and very sharp. I have decided it is the elephants version of spicy food.

The elephant we were able to get close to gave up eating and walked down to the river where three other elephants were grazing and drinking. One of the three left his or her friends and walked across the river where it greeted the other with what looked to me like a big kiss – which is not easy when you have a lot of trunk and tusks in the way, but it looks like love always finds a way.

There are so many wildebeest and impalas that we seldom take pictures but this wildebeest let me drive right up in front of him and then held still for a number of pictures. Mary took the one of the good looking male impala who was also close to the road. The picture with the two resting rhinos is just thrown into because the one on the right was really big even lying down.

As you can see we had our own herd of wild animals with us – the Richards Bay zone. We are told not to feed the animals in the reserve so we told the elders they had to bring their own lunch. However we did bring them some apples and left-over brownies.

09 November 2009 – Monday

It was a wonderful P-day for us. We were up at 4:45 and on our way to the RB chapel at 5:25. We thought that would give us plenty of time to get fuel and still be at the chapel before 6:00. Unfortunately while we were filling up I realized I did not have a tie and since we had told the elders we were to go in our whites, I had to run back to the boarding to grab a tie. Even with this set back, we made it on time and of course we had to wait for the last car of elders – Babeeyo and Kekana – to arrive 15 minutes late.

It looked like it might rain but other than a few drops on the way home the weather was perfect all the time we were gone. One of the reasons we were going was because Elder Wengert had never seen an elephant in the 21 months he has been in South Africa. We decided to go to the Umfolozi side and we were not 15 minutes into the park when we got to see … three lions. We got to see a male and female in a tree – they were within 30 feet of the car and another lioness walking through the brush. The female got down soon after we arrived, but we got great pictures of the male.

We then went to a look-out where at a distance we saw an elephant, six rhinos, and cape buffalo. So within a half hour of being in the part we had seen 4 of the big five. Before the day was out we got drive through a herd of cape buffalo, practically pet an elephant, and was within 50 yards of a very large rhino. Elder Wengert and the rest were in 7^th heaven. Besides this we saw lots of zebras – one as close as 6 feet. Ditto on a wildebeest and of course impalas, nyalas, and even a small herd of waterbucks. We did find it strange that we only saw one giraffe and that was at a very long distance. It was not giraffe day.

Besides the elephant at a distance and one very close up and personal, we got to see four of them in the river. We have pictures of what looks like two of them kissing – which is not easy to do when you have long tusks in the way. All in all it was probably the best single game drive we been on since we came to South Africa.

By the time we got home I was beat and I was tempted to call President Vilane and change the date of our FHE visit but we realized that it was tonight or not this week and so off we went. We had a great time. Mary had a short lesson that I got to be part of, we sang songs, and then played a Book of Mormon match game that they loved to play. Their 5 year old son Khaye (Ki-U) loved the game and was very good at it. In fact he and a 15 year old beat all the older people who were playing. After prayer we shared some Chelsea buns we had brought, thanked them for letting us be part of their family home evening and came home. We did not want to stay too long because they had not eaten dinner.

When we got home Mary fixed us a taco salad and soon after eating I fell asleep in the chair before waking long enough to fall go to bed.

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!

The view out the Nzama’s back door – I thought it catches a lot of what Port Durnford is about. The yellow daisies and the Esikhawini chapel. This taxi travels around the area where we have our boarding. Therefore a number of times we have found ourselves behind it and I can tell you it is well named.

Joe Marais is a wildlife painter who works in the Richards Bay mall. He is doing a very large mural to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to charity. We see women carrying loads every day – we caught these ladies as they were walking along the road to Esikhawini.

A week ago we finally went out to the Port Durnford beach by ourselves and the next week we took the Mickelsens out to see it. Great sand dunes, beautiful white sand beach, and a river runs through it.

We had a good laugh at this sign warning about walking on the non-existent lawn. Elder Mickelsen introduced me to Spur’s chocolate milk shakes. A big mistake because now I order one everywhere we eat – the best I have found so far is the double thick one at Maxi’s.

Gogos -grandmothers and great-grandmothers – seem to always have children on their laps. This great-grandchild of sister Nzama never seems to smile – my goal is to get a picture of her smiling before we go home. Mama Zulu from Enseleni with her grandson.

We drive by an aluminum plant almost every day. We often see truck lots of ingots – as seen here – and sometimes we see trucks that is hauling hot aluminum. We are not sure where the trucks are going but they head towards the harbor. We had to laugh when we saw this speed limit sign on a Port Durnford sand road in the middle of no-where. I finally got a picture of my plain looking, yellow beak bird in flight. The great looking white under-wing does not show when it is hopping around the Esikhawini lawn.

Branch Social at :Port Durnford

It would not be a social with out a braai – Siya, Quinton, elder Maremela, and president Machaka did the cooking – mainly the president. Chicken and worst – standard fare.

After the movie I went into the chapel and found these two young men singing into the fan. The blast of air made their voices sound strange. I have a video that captures the sound and the smiles on their faces. Two man – young men – basket ball without goals and a very small court. Elder Wengert, Ayando Madondo, and Zehile’s little sister.

Mary sat in a chair in the shade and gathered up children, talked to Bungumusa and elder Wengert – among others – and had her hair styled by Ayanda and Zinhle.

Fufu picked up a couple of guys – that girl is a guy magnet and lots of fun. I could not pass up a picture of this young man and his yellow hat. Every time he sees me he says the only thing that I think he knows in English ‘How are you?’ It is now a standing joke between me and the children.

07 November 2009 – Saturday

We received an e-mail from Bob and Denise Cox saying that they were coming to our mission as CES missionaries. I called President Mann to tell him we had friends coming and he said he had just got their paperwork. He was glad to have a couple coming but wished they were coming as an office couple. A hour or so later the President called to say that he just got an e-mail saying that an office couple was called and will be here in January – about the same time that the Coxes will be here. So part of the pressure is off but it would certainly be great if he now heard that a couple was coming to replace the Bartholomews.

Since we are having dinner for the missionaries tomorrow, we did a ton of shopping this morning. We always cook what we think is too much food so they do not go away hungry. We know we were successful when there are any left-overs of any kind. Of course they are always more than happy to take any food home with them – meat is especially welcomed.

We went to Eskhiwini so Mary could give piano lessons and I could help sister Khumalo with her computer skills. It is interesting to work with someone who has little if any experience with computers get started. I have to think about what I do without out thinking and then explain it to her so she can understand it. This time she took notes so that she would be able to get into programs without any problems. While I was doing this Mary gave two piano lessons – both of the students seem to be practicing and progressing.

After the lessons we went to Port Durnford for a branch party. I must say that President Machaka and the elders did all the work. We just provided some advance cash for the food and then showed up to enjoy the company and the food.

While we were there a couple of the young sisters had fun working on Mary’s hair. They tried a small corn row but decided it was not for her. There were a number of non-LDS there and Bungumuse – our young artist friend – asked if we would pick him up tomorrow for church. As mentioned Thursday, Zenhile and her sister was allowed to come to the activity and seemed to have a good time. For once I remembered to take pictures.

By the time we got home the sun was setting. I spent much of the night editing pictures and ended up posting them on the blog. I still need to go back and add text but at least they are there for people to see. Hopefully Cindy will get to see them.

06 October 2009 – Friday

Read on Facebook this morning that Mike and Cindy’s house was burglarized and among other things both of their computers were stolen. Also the burglars trashed the house. We are hoping that there was some back up for all the pictures that Cindy took so much time scanning in this summer. We read this too late to call this morning but will tonight and learn more.  As this is the second burglary in the last couple of months of people we know, I am thinking that we may need to put an alarm system in our house when we get home.

It was a morning of paperwork. Mary made the baptismal program for Engwalezane and a recommend for the Youth Convention. I typed up a letter to the branch presidents explaining all the things I am giving them, telling them who will speak in their branches this Sunday, and announcements for Sunday. It is a good thing we are living in the middle of huge pulp tree farms, because a number of trees are going to be used up this morning.

Our first stop for the day was the Richards Bay Chapel where we made lots of copies of the different things that we needed to give to the branch presidents. We then went home to use our paper cutter and to assemble packages for each branch.

For the next few hours we visited presidents Malinga, Machaka, and Mngadi and went through all the forms, lists, letters, etc. Then after a break for a late lunch we headed to Enselini where I did the same with his package of goodies. Mary then gave him his English lesson.

We finished with that just in time to start welcoming the Youth for their activity. I remembered to bring hymn books so everyone got to sing. After a short lesson we played games. Since we did not come prepared with games we had to make them up as we went along. First we played Musical Chairs, then hot and cold, and finally ‘Fruit Salad.’ Everyone seemed to have fun – actually the youth were continually going in and out during the games which made Musical Chairs difficult.

When Youth was over a group of them, President Vilane, the missionaries and ourselves went over to the home of a woman who was investigating the church when she died. It seems she had set a number of baptismal dates but was never baptized. At the home we sang some songs, I gave an opening prayer, and there was a brief talk by elder Tsegula in English that was translated into Zulu. I was very pleased that so many of the young people – about 30% of those who came to Youth – gave of their time to show their respect for the dead non-member sister.

Elder Tsegula talked to me a little about funeral customs in his country and it seems that the men spend the night before the funeral at the family’s home singing until dawn when the women come and sing until the burial. It would be interesting to write a book about the funeral customs in the different areas of the world.

We spent a quiet night at home. We called Cindy about the break-in and was sad to hear that she had lost most of her jewelry including her wedding ring. But they did not lose any pictures because the thieves did not steal the Mac hard-drives. That was a tender mercy among all the chaos. We later chatted with Fae Dahl who is serving in the Dominican Republic and found out that one of our friends – Ron Haller – was dying of cancer. That is sad news and I just realized that his mother died of the same disease some 40 plus years ago. We also got the news that another couple we have known for many years have received their mission call to South Africa. Fae thought they were coming to Durban but was not sure. She sent us their e-mail address and I wrote to find out if they were coming here and if so when.

Close to a 2 mite day.

05 November 2009 – Thursday

I like to take part of the morning to read articles from the Church News site. Today there was an excellent article on the reaction of the members in Japan to the announcement of a new temple for Sapporo. It was touching to read the stories of these faithful Saints who have been praying for a temple on their island. A number of them said that they prayed for a temple while trying to attend the temple in Tokyo more often.

Another article from the archives had the “directions for singing” were included in the preface to John Wesley’s 1761 hymnal. I loved 3 and 4.

III. Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find a blessing.

IV. Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. . . .

I like the part about singing as a cross to bear and the promise of a blessing.

In the morning we went to a good DDM at Richards Bay – the elders focused on how to set baptismal dates. When we were done there it was time for lunch and then we had to hurry to Port Durnford for English class and then Youth. We have a new member of our English class – Sister Mlondo. Unfortunately Tembe did not show up as he said he would – I am not sure he will ever be baptized.

Youth was short but good. Almost all the youth came to the meeting. It was so hot in the building that I suggested we hold it outside. I do not think that is a good idea so in the future I think we will come early and open up the building before English so it might cool down by the time for Youth.

We shared Bishop Burton’s comments on learning the 13^th Article of Faith and then worked a little on their talks. Next week we will break it into smaller groups so we can work on individual talks. I also promised them lots of time for games. I gave them a short talk about some of the concerns we had for them and all the youth in the district as they are faced with so many worldly things each day. We left them talking to Thandi Nzama about Seminary – she wants to teach it but no one wants to stay after Church.

We had a quick trip back to our boarding so there was time to heat up some of the left-overs before I went to District Meeting. President Baldwin runs a good meeting and we got a lot done. After our meeting the District YM and YW met with most of the council to discuss the YM and YW convention on the 28^th. While that was going on I went with Calwyn and got the tithing sheets for all the branches, corrected some records and got new branch lists for the presidents. I also got the interview list for the branch presidents so the can know who they should be interviewing each month. Hopefully this will help them get closer to their members.

After the meeting I drove Sne Mthalane to the bus stop so he could get a ride home. I would have driven him all the way to his house but he did not want me to go to the trouble. Because of his job at the mall, he is use to using the bus to get home at night.

I am thrilled about the fact that the District YM and YW leadership is doing all the planning and assignments for the Convention without any help from us. We continue to remind them that we will be happy to help in any way we can, but they – along with Brother Mark Deploy of the District Council – want to do it themselves. It is a big step for them and hopefully it will be a great event so the next time they can have it over two days instead of one. The Hafens and Bartholomews should be proud of how well they trained the youth leaders to a point where they are capable of planning and carrying out a major event on their own.

While we were at the Nzamas for English Zinhle Khanyile came to pick up her sister and surprised us by saying she will be at church on Sunday. She is the young lady whose family stopped her from coming to Youth and Church just after the Roadshows. They felt she was drawing away from the family church. Hopefully this means they have softened their views and perhaps we can even get her back to coming to Youth.

As I was writing about Zinhle I remembered at DDM yesterday when Elder Kekana was using the section on Christ Like Attributes as part of his talk, I re-read about patience and how the lack of this attribute show a lack of faith that the Lord really is in control of His plan. At the time I was reminded about how upset I got when none of the branch Presidents showed up for the training meeting. But as I think about the same attribute this morning (Friday) I relate it to how sad and upset I felt when Zinhle had to stop coming to our meetings. But the Lord knew her and worked on the hearts of her parents.

It was close to being another 2 mite day.