Daily Archives: May 31, 2010

30 May 2010

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Some of the people we saw during the day. President Nyawo with his youngest. Khulekani looking very much like the missionary he will be in about a month. He has come along way from his dreadlocks days. Having the elders over for dinner is always a treat for us. Elder Lerios was in 7th heaven because just about everything already had catsup on it so he did not have to add much…

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Elder Bentley’s big smile was a little forced. He has been fighting a cold for over a week but it never kept him from going out and doing his best. Elder Webster has just been in the mission for about 3 weeks now. He does not look nearly as in shock as he was when we first met him. His positive attitude and desire to work hard means he will be an excellent missionary. He is working in Enseleni with elder Dimene.

30 May 2010 – Sunday

It was a normal Sunday for us. While I met with the Esikhawini PEC, Mary met with sister Khumalo and started planning for the RS section of District Conference in July. We will not be here and the new couple will not have arrived , so Mary wants to help sister Khumalo get as prepared as she can.

We went to sacrament meeting at Port Durnford. It was President Vezi’s first meeting as branch president and he came a little closer to starting on time. Just having his family there adds 7 or 8 people to the congregation and hopefully he will get some of the less actives coming back to church on a regular basis. He did have one problem – he forgot to bring bread but brother Machaka brought some so things worked out. It would be interesting to come back in a year and see how the branch had grown.

After the meeting at Port Durnford we went to Enseleni where brother Chiliza had arrived early – President Vilane is still too weak to come – and the elders were helping him get prepared. He started the meeting just two minutes late with 12 members in the congregation and four of those were missionaries. By the time the meeting was over there were 41 in attendance of which 16 were primary children. I am going to work with brother Chiliza sometime during the week to better prepare him to conduct. He seems to have a little problem following the agenda as he tried to do away with the opening song and prayer and later the closing song. But he will learn and he seems willing to serve.

After the meeting we came home and took naps. I guess we are either getting old or lazy. We spent part of the afternoon preparing dinner for the elders. Mary cooked a roast which I sliced and put in a pan. Mary slathered it with her famous BBQ sauce and we heated it just before the elders were to arrive. There was also BBQ baked beans, corn, rolls and a big green salad. Everything pretty much disappeared except the salad which we packaged up and they took back to their boardings. One thing I really liked about the menu for the night was that there was a lot less dishes and pans to clean up after the elders had left.

As always the elders had a lot of fun as well eating more than they should. They also recount about attendance at all the branches. We counted up what the attendance at sacrament was for the district and with Kosi Bay added in it should have been about 265 which is about 55% of the district. Esikhawini is getting well over the 80 they need as average attendance to apply for a permanent building. They now need to work on getting the tithing up to where it should be.

Richards Bay had fewer people in attendance than any other branch. It is too bad the best chapel in the district is available to the smallest branch. Hopefully the day will come when they will start growing and be able to fill the chapel. Â