05 March 2010 – Friday

I was up early because I needed to take the car in for it’s 60,000K service. I even managed to get the trash out to the curb before I left. The trip to Engwelezane went quickly but then I had to wait over an hour to get a ride back to our boarding. I could have asked some of the elders to pick me up and take me home, but I do not like to ask them to get up that early.

However we did ask the Enseleni Elders – Tsugula and Dimene – to take Mary to the hospital to get her pump cleaned out. They arrived about 20 minutes early and insisted on using that time to sweep out our very dirty garage.  At the couples conference we talked about how couples help elders but no one pointed out how the elders are always ready and willing to help us when we need them.

After making the garage beautiful, they took Mary to her appointment. Later when I called to see how they were doing, they said they were using the time to do contacting at the mall. They ended up with 20 new contacts – I think the Lord blessed them for their service and their efforts.

While Mary was gone, I did some house cleaning. We had not cleaned under and behind the bed since we got here so I should not have been surprised at the amount of dust that had gathered during those months but I was. The daily breeze off the ocean seems to push dirt through any small crack and this house has more than its share of them.

It turned out that Mary had to keep her pump for at least another week. But at least now she knows how to turn off the beeper that comes on when there is a problem  so if it goes off during a meeting she can silence it and fix the problem after the meeting.

In the afternoon we got a ride back to the dealer and picked up our car. On the way home we did most of our shopping for feeding the elders on Sunday. We are going to keep it simple so Mary does not have to do a lot of cooking. By the next time we feed them, hopefully she will be back to normal.

In the evening we got a call from the Hafens asking about some of the members. It seems that once you get the people of the Richards Bay area in your blood you never forget them.