The elders spent part of Boxing day painting a member’s house. I was lucky to get four of them in one shot – Wengert, Kekana, Dishon, and Vinson. They put elder Kitili on another wall and I found elder Maremela hidding behind some bookcases.

26 December 2009 – Saturday

Mary still had her cold and her hip still hurt so we did not do much today. I had received a call from President Machaka last night asking to see me today, so we drove down to his boarding in Port Durnford to see how I could help. It was very hot – it turned out to reach 104 with about 28% humidity. People were pretty much out of their houses looking for any shade or slight breeze to cool them off. For that reason we had our talk behind the house in a strip of shade.

I thought that he wanted to talk to me about something like he was going to move or that there was some problem with his business or in the branch. So I was greatly relieved when I found out that he wanted to know what they needed to do to get married in the temple. We talked about the steps and what needed to be done, including Phumzile taking the temple preparation class. They do not have a firm date but as soon as they do I told him I would help him schedule a time at the temple.

After we finished there we went down to the Nzamas’ where the elders were painting their recently re-modeled house inside and out. There were six of them busily painting away and I felt bad that I had not come prepared to help them – I think I may have used Mary’s illness as an easy excuse. However as hot as it was, I probably would have not lasted very long.

After giving them some moral support and taking a few pictures we came back to our boarding where Mary spent the day resting and I used the time to catch up a months worth of pictures and a few days of writing for the blog. I hope to be completely caught up by the time I go to bed tomorrow.