29 December 2009- Tuesday

Mary continues to be ill – the cough is way down in her chest – but says she is feeling better. It is a bummer to have your wife and companion sick at the same time! Hopefully she will get over this miserable cold soon. I remember in the MTC when the doctor said that nothing you can do to cure the common cold. It is going to take about a week for it to go away and all you can do is try to make sure that you do not make it worse so that it turns into pneumonia.

I spent much of the morning running errands including getting my hair cut – I told the young lady to trim the back up and away from my shirt collar so when I sweat it does completely ruin my shirts. While I was there they asked where Mary was and I told them she a cold. I got a number of suggestions of what she should take to clear it up. (As I am typing this Mary is standing about 5 feet away coughing her head off) I decided that we should try something so I stopped at the pharmacy and got ACC 200 that is supposed to clear up mucous wherever it is.

My next stop was the Municipality office where I bought electricity. It is the only place we go to that has an isolation booth type entry and exit. You have to wait for a green light to go on before you can open the outside door. This lets you into a small bullet proof glass room where you wait until the outside door closes before you can open the inside door. The reverse is done to exit via another cubicle. I guess they do not want a large group of gun totting criminals to break in and rob the place.

My last stop was the bank where my timing was quite good. I did have to wait in line but not for long. I also go a teller who did not take forever to cash my three checks. Just checking and entering everything they have to takes 5 – 10 minutes.

After we had lunch, I went to Enseleni to meet with President Vilane and give him the forms for the quarterly report. We also went over the convert list for the last 18 months. There were a number of them that he could not recall by name but would have recognized if he saw them. I suggested there were two or three that should be encouraged to get ready to go on a mission.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that President Vilane’s father suffered a stroke and is partly paralyzed. I did not realize that the Vilanes had brought him home to take care of him while he recovered. I got to meet him but I do not think he understands much English. Luckily sister Vilane has just graduated from nursing school so she should be able to take care of him.

The elders got their move notices tonight. Elder Weaver is going to Durban and Elder Maremela is going to New Castle. The president is also moving in two extra elders to work the Empangeni area. Elders Kitili and Kekana will be split up with Elder Kekana and his new companion walking in Empangeni while Elder Kitili and his companion will have the car in Engwelezane. I do not know any of the elders who will be coming in but one has only been out 6 weeks.