03 December 2009 – Thursday
We continue to clean out the B’s boarding and this morning we got enough moved that we should be able to finish it tomorrow with President Vezi’s help. Of course then there is the problem of what to do with everything once we get it to our boarding. We must continue to decide what to keep, what to give away and what to throw away. The hard part is deciding if something can be just thrown away. There are stacks of Ensigns and Liahonas, old manuals – especially the Teachings of the Prophets going back 6 or 7 years – and other material. Mainly I end up not making any real decision and just pack it away in a box.
After lunch we go to the Nzamas for our English class of delightful gogos. Mary teaches those who have some English skills and I spend an hour trying to help a very fine illiterate gogo learn the alphabet. She tries so hard and just can not remember the ABCs – even the song does not help. So I concentrate on the first 13 letters and then teach her some simple words like cat, dog and mop. This gives her some success for all her hard work.
On the way to the chapel, we drop off the students along the way. Getting four large size mature ladies in the back seat of the Tiida is an interesting feat and I have to be careful what part of the sand roads I travel on because of the low clearance.
When it is time to start Youth there is no one there except Mary, Thandi Nzama, and myself. But I am learning patience and we start teaching Thandi how to play Skip-bo. With my help she beats Mary in the first game – but we only use a stack of 6 cards.
As they are playing the young people start arriving and we start the meeting. I give them a short lesson from 1 Nephi 8 and we talk about what is of most value. I ask them if they could have one thing, what would they want? They all come back with wanting money. We talk about this and about eternal values. I am not sure that I convinced them that Eternal Life is more important than getting money right now, but I do think they understood what I was trying to teach.
We then played Book of Mormon Bingo and I added a little spice by asking some questions and gave the one who answered correctly 5 rands. At the end of the class we divided up the bananas – everyone got 4 – before cleaning up and heading home.
Our evening was spent continuing our unpacking and rearranging some of the stuff we have moved from the B’s. Mary spent a good portion of the time getting hand-outs ready for her Saturday meeting. T
The big event of the evening, was calling Bob’s and talking to the family about the sealing this morning – afternoon our time – of Taylor Pier and Spencer Taylor. The first time we called we just got to talk to Bob, Kelli, Jim and some of the other grandchildren. Taylor and Spencer had not arrived yet. But we called Taylor’s cell an hour or so later and got to talk to the new bride and groom and others. It was an exciting time and while we could not be at the temple we still got to share in the spirit of the event.