16 April 2010 – Friday

I woke up about 4:00 and started thinking about all the things we needed to do before we go home. My mind raced from one thing to another and there was no way I was going to go back to sleep. I was thankful when it finally got to be 5:30 so I could get up and get ready for the day.

We took President Mann to the Richards Bay chapel so he could meet with the 8 elders from Empangeni. He started that early because he needs to be in Swaziland by 4:00 for appointments. We opened everything up so they could meet. Also Mary got to look at the extra Christmas ornaments the Sister Mann had sent along for the couples to look at and buy if they wanted them. Mary decided that she wanted them all. She checked with Sister Mann to make sure that was OK and we will pay her in Dr. Pepper from Ballito.

We tried to buy electricity at the municipality building but ran into a big problem. We did not realize that they were having a demonstration by the workers who are on strike and the offices were closed down. There was also trash thrown everywhere and the concrete trash containers were tipped over into the roadway which made it hard to negotiate through the area.

We worked our way out of mess and went to the store to buy a food order for Port Durnford. Mary tried to buy electricity while I did the shopping but the computer was down. Hopefully they will solve this problem before we run out of electricity. We have bought enough food orders that I can almost do it without thinking. We have decided to increase the amount of maize meal that we buy because it is really the staple of their diets.

We took the order out to Port Durnford and delivered it to the family. They always thank us and I try to remind them that it is the Lord and other members who actually provide it, we are just the delivery people. It is wonderful how the Lords program helps the worthy poor.

We stopped and talked to Bongomusa’s mother who really needs a job. We talked about her problem and said we would try to help but there was so many people needing jobs that they are very hard to get unless you have some special skills. We spent some time talking about her early life in Port Durnford. She walked to school each day with Thandi Nzama. Her children want to ride the bus and of course that takes money which they really do not have. It is a sad thing to see how little some people have to live on.

We then went back to Richards Bay to lock up the chapel. It turned out that no one had made plans to have the RB elders come back and do that. Since we were already heading that way it was not at all inconvenient.

After eating lunch we called President Vilane to make sure he was going to be at English today. He told us that due to the strike the library and everything else was locked up so not only could we not have English class they also could not have Seminary, Institute and Youth.

We had decided to go to Esikhawini and see if we could help revive the Youth program there. It seems almost no one has been coming to the meetings. I suspect it is because there was not much for them to do when they got there. We will work with the leaders and hopefully help them prepare for success.

There were only three young men and one young woman but we had a pretty good meeting. We worked on the theme for the year, the first two Articles of Faith and played Book of Mormon Bingo. We also suggested that on Sunday they talk to the youth who come to Church and see what they would like to see happen on Fridays.