12 March 2010 – Friday

In the morning the ground crew came over and harvested our lawn…it has been about 5 weeks since they were here and the grass in some spots was at least two feet high. It took two of them almost 3 hours to get it all cut, trimmed, raked and carried away.

While Mary stayed home to keep an eye on the workers, I went to the Richards Bay boarding to do an inspection. Other than one of the fridges, it was really neat and clean. While I was a there I noticed that Elder Lemmon and his companion had an excellent way of keeping track of their investigators, less actives, etc. 3 x 5 cards were on the wall with color coded dots that not only told what they were, but what members were friendshipping them.

After the crew was done with the yard, we went down to Meer en See to pick up my cleaning and to mail off some of the insurance claims that we hope to get reimbursed for. Mary had spent much of the morning getting everything documented and in some kind of reasonable order. It turned out my cleaning was not back and if I do not get it tomorrow, I will not have my suit for Sunday.

We picked up some treats for the Enseleni youth and then came home to grab a quick lunch before heading to Enseleni for an English lesson, followed by Seminary and Youth. After Mary had taught the English class, I met with President Vilane and we went over the branch list to see if we could come up with a way to get some of the less actives back to church. He has been diligent in contacting many of them and although they promise to beat church on Sunday they seldom make it.

Khulekani teaches both Institute and Seminary. Since he will be going on a mission some time in the next few months, I suggested to President Vilane that they might need to change the day that the Youth meet to a day when Nonhlahla will not be going to school.

13 March 2010 – Saturday

I spent my morning finishing up the end of the year audits. Calwyn was there working on the computer cables and President Baldwin was there teaching President and sister Vezi computer skills. Mary stayed home and worked on other mission business.

I got home in time to have some lunch and it was soon time to head out to Esikhawini for Mary’s piano lessons. While she did that I delivered an old computer and printer that the Hafens had left to President Nyawo so he could do branch business.  While I was there we talked about branch business and I helped him fill out the sustaining list for tomorrow’s branch conference.

I went from there to the Malingas’ house to just have a nice visit with brother Malinga. We used to meet almost every week when he was branch president but it has been a couple of months or more since I was there. We had a good talk, I got to see Senzkile’s new baby boy and take a picture of him with his mother and grandfather. While I was there Mathuba came home and I had a short talk with him. It is really too bad he is not interested in a mission because he has tremendous talent. I guess he never really developed a testimony along the way.

By the time I got back to the Esikhawini chapel, Mary was almost done. I had a nice visit with Sister Mthalane who was digging up sweet potatoes out in her garden. What a great lady who has raised her children so well in the church. The daughter is married in the temple, Sne has been on a mission and is planning for a temple marriage some day in the future. Solo will be putting in his mission papers on Thursday, and Sazi will go when he can. Add to that her semi-adopted son Musa is will also be putting in his mission papers on Thursday and you have a very special and spiritual family. Her name will be blessed by her family for generations to come.

I also had a short talk with sister Malinga who was there cleaning the church for Sunday. She does not come to church so I was surprised that she was willing to spend an afternoon cleaning. I wonder if she knew English better she would come. We have tried to get her interested in English classes since the month we got here but she never comes.

After piano lessons we met up with the Griesmers and had a nice visit with them as we ate dinner at an Italian place in the mall that Mary wanted to try. The food was not terrible but it was also not good enough to want to come back again. But we enjoyed talking with the Griesemers and their very interesting day. They had tried all afternoon to find a missing member who was supposed to have a farm somewhere outside of Engwelezane but after visiting three places without any success, they gave it up as a lost cause. They even had two members along as guides and still were unsuccessful. But I think they still enjoyed the experience of being out in the field – literally!