Elder Reeves and Elder Kitili were first in line for food – Elder Reeves was a runner before his mission and can put away more food than anyone we have had here since Elder Maremela. Elders Moremong, Dishon, and Mutraiswa filling their plates. Elder Mutraiswa does not seem to smile for pictures but loves to laugh and smile any other time. It is great to have the elders come over for dinner a couple of times a month.
07 March 2010 – Sunday
The missionary white handbook says that the missionaries are to be out of bed by 6:30 – for the third day in a row I was up and taking a shower by a little after 5:30. I think couples are on a slightly different schedule than the young missionaries.
We decided that I would go to Esikhawini and Port Durnford and then she would join me for Enseleni. It was a good plan and pretty much worked out but there were some additional blessings.
The Esikhawini PEC was short a number of members but they did get a number of things done. Elder Larios and Knosi are good about getting the missionaries there on time – something that has not been true since Elder Mbithi left the zone. They also came with prepared missionary correlation reports so the President Nyawo knows what is going on in the branch. He had gone out with the elders to meet the new converts in their home and I suggested they are given a good home teacher right away.
I then went to Port Durnford for sacrament meeting and was surprised to find that none of the Chirwa family was there. 20 minutes after the meeting was supposed to start Sandy and Thobani came and I found out that one of their older brothers had been put in jail because some product was missing at work. Although still recovering from having the flu sister Chirwa was going up to see him.
As I was taking the sacrament, I felt the need to go and see sister Chirwa and I found her walking from her house to the road to catch transportation. I decided I would drive her to Empangeni so we could talk, she would get there without walking a long ways, and she would save money.
She is sure he is innocent and she found no cosmetics in his room. Hopefully he will be released soon. He had been giving the family a good portion of his pay each month and it has been what has kept them in electricity and other necessities.
After dropping her off I thought about the need to call President Mann, President Baldwin, and President Nyawo. The first two I called just to inform them of the problem and the last to see if he had any advice on how we might help the Chirwas get him out of jail.
I picked up Mary and we went to Enseleni for their services. President Vilane was not able to start the meeting until almost 10 after because there was not enough PH there to pass sacrament. Once it got started it was an excellent meeting with lots of people bearing testimonies. You realize how many YSA women in the branch when six or seven in a row share their testimonies.
Before the meeting I asked Khulekani if he had his police clearance yet and he said no. This was very disappointing because that is all that he needed to send in his papers or so we thought. After sacrament was over I went out and made a number of calls to let leaders know about the problem in Port Durnford. One call was to President Mann and after telling him about the arrest, I happened to mention the problem with Khulekani’s clearance. He informed me that as long as he had the receipt showing he applied for one he could send in his papers. I had never heard that before and when I told Khulekani we both rejoiced. He will get the receipt tomorrow, get interviewed by President Vilane and then on the 18th he can be interviewed by President Mann.
During PH, President Vilane took my advice and separated the Aaronic Priesthood from the older group. I went with the AP and we had a wonderful class with everyone getting to take a part. It is much better than when they are all together and most of the Youth do not participate much.
Along the way I got a call from Calwyn Baldwin asking if we could postpone the audit that we were going to have at 3:00 until Wednesday evening. I was happy to do this because we were going to have the elders over for dinner and this would give me a chance to help Mary get prepared. Also I thought I might get in a nap. I did not get the nap – the afternoon just slid by – but I did my part in preparing the house and the food for the missionaries.
10 of them arrived before 7:45 which is very unusual. It turned out that some of them came fasting so they were eager to end their fast and eat. We had ham sandwiches, baked beans, and a huge fruit salad. I am not sure all the African elders were thrilled by the selection but I think they got their fill. Dessert was big moist brownies and custard. Elder Tsegula and Elder Dimene came a little late but quickly caught up.
This particular group of elders seems to really enjoy each other’s company. All zones that we have had do to some extent but these come in laughing, laugh while they are eating, laugh when they are through and are still laughing as they left.
After cleaning up and washing the dishes, we collapsed. A good day in Richards Bay for the most part – hopefully the Chirwa young man will be able to soon re-join his family.