We got the opportunity to deliver some food orders that will make Christmas a little brighter for a couple of families. At the Chirwas we found the family all sitting in the shade outside one of the houses. This young lady was using the time to style hair.

Sister Ndlovu is collecting glass so she can get a fence across her back yard. As you can see most of them are beer bottles – they are abundant in the townships. As we were leaving the Ndlovu’s home, I noticed another family spreading out under a large shade tree – it was hot and few have air-conditioning. What was probably the last picture of this group of elders as the Empangeni District. Notice they are also gathered under a tree.

23 December 2009 – Wednesday

Clear skies this morning which means we are now officially into summer and the heat.

A strange thing happened this morning – I found the missing piece of the puzzle. We had been up for a couple of hours and I was just about to sit down and work on a short lesson I am to give in DDM. As I looked down at the chair, I noticed that there was an upside down puzzle piece sitting right in the middle of the seat cushion. I knew immediately what it was – what I can not figure out is how it got there. The only explanation I can come up with is that after my shower and before I got dressed I sat somewhere and the piece stuck to me. Later when I sat in the chair reading, it got transferred to the cushion. Either that or the puzzle fairy decided that she would restore the piece so we could finish the puzzle.

The subject of my talk is ‘Being bold but not overbearing. I found lots of good scriptures and ideas to use so DDM went well. Elder Kitili is a good DL and moves things right along. We had some good training on being bold, including some role playing by the elders.

After DDM and lunch we went to Esikhawini for our PEC with President Machaka. By then it was very, very hot and so we met outside his tuck shop. He has his tithing report done – the first one to get it finished. After we finished there we went to sister Ndlovu house to teach English. We have noticed that someone has been collecting empty bottles – mostly beer bottles – and stacking them neatly against the house and fence. It turns out she is saving them so she can break them up and sell them to a recycler so she can get money to pay for putting in a fence across her back yard so people will stop walking through her yard as a short-cut. She needs R800 for the materials –about $95 US.