06 April 2010 – Tuesday

Mary called to make a doctors appointment and found that Kelling was on vacation but was told to go see her old friend the wound specialist. While we waited for it to be time to go, we finished our latest puzzle. The last piece would not go in so we had to find where we had put a piece in the wrong place and do an exchange.

As we started to leave we found that the automatic garage door opener had jammed and the motor had started to smoke. I managed to find the breaker to shut it off and manually open and closed the door so we could get to the hospital.

When the wound doctor saw Mary’s weeping wound, she said she had to have it opened up and checked so she would have to have day surgery. So the rest of the day was spent at the hospital. She was supposed to be operated on at 3:00 but just before she was wheeled out of the day ward, a couple of emergencies came up so she did not go until 5:30. Everything went well and she was able to leave at about 8:30. Other than she was very tired she was fine.

While waiting for her to be operated on I called to try and get someone to come out and fix the garage door opener but everyone is on vacation. So until they get home it is back to opening the door the old fashion way – work for it.

During the day we got a very nice SMS from the Port Durnford elders thanking us for suggesting the FHE for the YSA. I told Elder Lieros that it was his talk at ZDM about being creative that caused me to give him the idea. I had given it to other ZL over the last few months but had been told it was not practical because of the Ks required for them to go out there on P-day night. But Elder Lieros decided that if it worked the benefits were worth the expense. Thanks to the Lord’s tender mercy and a lot of hard work by the elders it worked.

Just remembered that today is the 180th anniversary of establishment of the Lord’s only true and living church on the earth. I wonder how many of those 30 or so people in that little log cabin imagined that someday the church they were starting would truly fill the whole earth. How thankful I am for Joseph Smith and the other real pioneers of the church who had the faith and courage to establish it in these last days.

05 April 2010 – Monday

We decided not to go on a game drive so Mary could go into to see the doctor about her weeping wound. By the time we found out that the doctor was not in and that it was a holiday, it was too late to go. So instead we went out to lunch, went to a movie, read a lot, and worked on the jigsaw puzzle.

But the Lord did bless us today. The elders held a family home evening for the YSA in Port Durnford and every inactive single adult – all 12 of them – came. I had suggested this idea to Elder Lieros a couple of weeks ago and he decided to give it a try. The elders worked hard to personally invite each YSA and to arrange for the sisters to be escorted home by the men so they would be safe. The branch provided the funds for the food. It went so well that they are planning to continue holding them each week. Hopefully this will lead to some of them coming back into activity in the future.

04 April 2010 – Sunday

Out of the house before 7 to go to Esikhawini’s PEC, then to Port Durnford for Testimony meeting, and then to Richards Bay to watch last night’s Priesthood session of Conference. Although many members were away, there was still a good attendance at the branches – Enseleni had about 65 and led the district. When I asked Elder Dimene how it went without President Vilane there, he said everything went well.

We spent the afternoon getting things ready for feeding the elders while listening to the Saturday afternoon session on the computer. Some of the elders arrived in time to join us at 6:00 to watch the Sunday morning session and the rest came later. I must confess that I will need to watch the session again because often my attention was elsewhere.

Elder Zondi really liked the potato salad. He had never had it before but once he tasted it, he came back for seconds and then took some home. It is interesting to watch some of the elders try foods that are new to them. I have to mention that elder Lieros carefully pointed out to me that he put catsup on his ham sandwich. I do not think he eats any meat without catsup and he pretty much drowns fries in it. Reminds me of how the Indonesians put hot sauce on everything. At least elder Lerios does not put catsup on brownies.

It was a good Easter Sunday for us. We got to hear the simple but strong testimonies of the Port Durnford saints and were fed by the spirit of the conference talks. Then we got to share dinner with a fine group of 12 elders who are trying their best to bring others unto Christ. This is our 4^th Easter in a row away from home but I know we are where we should be.

03 April 2010 – Saturday

We met the Zone Leaders at Esikhawini and drove out to meet with the Shandu group. Bongani brought one new friend who did not say much. Fortunate had written down lots of questions that we answered. The hour quickly went by and there were times when the spirit was definitely in the room. Fortunate, Goodman and Bongani each committed to come to church tomorrow. The new man did not. I must remember to ask Bongani who he was.

The elders had another appointment so they could not go to lunch with us at KFC so we dropped them off at their car and went without them. KFC was very crowded. As with last week the longest line was for ice cream cones but today it was out the door.

After lunch we went back to the Esikhawini chapel so Mary could have her piano lessons. Sazi, Musa and Sthembiso came for their lessons and we have pretty much given up on the other two. I tried to repair a garden hose but had bought the wrong size connectors. I will give it another try on Tuesday.

We then came back to our boarding so we could watch the Saturday morning session of conference on the computer. It took me a while to get things working but once I did it was like watching it on TV – a small one of course – at home in Utah.

Although all of the talks were good, I especially enjoyed Sister Beck’s and Brother Anderson. There were a couple of quotes in Sister Beck’s talk that I want to print out and suggest to the RS presidents in the branches that they give copies to each sister. One was from Eliza Snow and one was from President Kimball. Brother Anderson talked about the Church in Haiti and how it responded to the earthquake. The Haitian mission president it 30 years old – talk about youth in leadership positions.

We stayed up to watch the start of the afternoon session to hear the statistics. The Church did not hit 14 million this year but it will next year. Convert baptisms are down to around 280,000 but new children of record are up to almost 120,000 so it grew by 400,000 less deaths last year. I wonder how many deaths there are in a year? I know there are many actives as well as less actives who die but are left on the rolls for years before they are removed. Unfortunately the convert baptisms are not doubling as President Hinckley suggested they should – they have actually gone down about 50,000 a year since he made that challenge.

01 April 2010 – Thursday

No fooling around for us today! We did not hear any April Fools jokes yesterday and I did not play any. I can remember last year when I wrote an e-mail to all our mailing list saying that we were extending for an extra 5 months. Our good friends the Christensens in Hong Kong fell for it. Anyway this year I think we were just too busy to have time to think about a good idea.

We went to Zone Development Meeting where Elders Lerios and Nkosi did an excellent job of teaching about finding. When we got to the RB chapel we found an electrician working on getting the audio system repaired from the damage done when it was broken into a couple of weeks ago. They wanted it to be done so they could show conference on Sunday.

We found out that one of the branches did not get the word that there would be no transportation to RB on Sunday and that they needed to hold a regular Fast and Testimony meeting. When I heard this from the elders I put in a call to the branch president to let him know this. I am pretty sure I had told him this earlier but perhaps I just thought I did. With 4-5 branches to watch over sometimes things just get lost.

We had lunch at McDonalds before driving to Port Durnford for English, Youth and piano lessons. But before we did this we stopped in Esikhawini to see if Musa had the copy of his police clearance so we could fax it to Joburg. I forgot to write that yesterday we got a call from the mission office saying that they could not send Musa and Khulekani’s mission papers in because they needed a copy of their police clearance and the receipt for the application would not do. So we called the two young men and found that both of them now had them so all they needed to do was get a copy certified and get it to us. I am afraid that Khulekani is going to die from anticipation before he gets his call.

We took the paved road out to Port Durnford to see if they had filled in any more of the potholes. They had not but it is no worse than the sand road. However there are a lot more cars and people to contend with so we will probably go back to using the alternate route in the future.

As we were approaching the turn-in to the chapel I saw that a young lady who was standing nearby had a pile of groceries sitting next to her and no one seemed to be coming to help her get them home. So I made a U-turn and asked if we could help get them home. She was happy to do this so we loaded up the car and ended up driving her to Bernard Mhlongo’s  homestead where she borrowed a wheelbarrow to take her supplies the rest of the way home.

We were very surprised to see Bernard working at clearing his yard. Just 10 days ago he was taken to the hospital with what we were told was a heart attack. Obviously it was not a bad one or he has a very strong constitution.

Half of those who usually come to English class were away so Mary taught just sisters Nzama and Chirwa. Because we knew a number of the youth were also gone and we had a 5:45 appointment with the Richards Bay elders, we decided that Mary would have her music lesson with Lungani and I would play games with the Youth that came.

It worked out well. Besides Fufu and Thobani we had a number of young people who are staying at the Mlondos for the school vacation. I decided to play Book of Mormon matching with the hope that they would learn some of the people in the BofM and what they did. I think everyone had fun and I know all of them liked the bananas we passed out at the end.

We stopped at the Mthalanes on the way home and picked up Musa’s police clearance. I was surprised to find President Nyawo there. It turned out that he had gotten an e-mail telling him about the problem with the clearance so he had dropped in to see if he could take care of it. He is an excellent branch president.

We had just enough time between appointments to rush home and grab a very quick dinner before meeting the elders at the Engen station and them following them to where we were to teach Morris and his family. Unfortunately Morris had to work late and although we said we would be available all night, the elders never called. I suggested to the elders that they make the next appointment later in the evening when Morris would be more likely to be home and we would be happy to go with them and teach about the temple.

So it was a busy day. Not as busy as we would have liked but a good start to another month.

31 March 2010 – Wednesday

I took the car into Nissen today to find out what was making the steering so loosey-goosey. This meant we were without a car for most of the day. Once it was fixed we went to Esikhawini and met with the elders and President Machaka for a short PEC. Elder Lerios talked to us about having FHE for YSA in Port Durnford. I had suggested this a week or so ago and I guess that the elders decided to give it a try to see if they could get some of the inactive YSA back to church.

We then stopped at sister Manamelas to drop off the April VT message so she could get it copied. I need to do the same for HT. We then stopped by the chapel and had a good visit with sisters Khumalo and Mathe who are starting to work in their gardens. They are great women and it is just a shame that their children are not out there helping them.

While we were in Esikhawini I called Bongani and asked him if he had any questions about what we asked him to read. He is the man who we introduced to the gospel last week at the Shandu homestead. He said that he had done what it asks in Moroni 10:3-5 and had received a witness that it was true. He said that he would bring more people to our next meeting on Saturday. We may end up with something like they have in Swaziland with a whole flock of people coming to Esikhawini from 10K away.

The best news of all is that Elder Dimene was released from the hospital this morning. Of course we could not go get him because the car was in getting fixed, but the elders took care of that and got him out. Later in the day he dropped by our boarding and we had a chance to talk. He is to go back to the hospital on next Wednesday. By then they will have the report from the Joburg lab as to just which of the three less dangerous malarias he has and will know how to treat it. He was very excited about being able to go back to work in his area. Most of the elders just want to work, work, work – President Benson would be proud of them.

It has been a good month for us. Starting with a wonderful Couples Conference and ending with an opportunity to introduce the gospel to others. The Lord does bless and watch over his missionaries.