02 June 2009 – Wednesday

I was out of the house early to go to the Nissan dealer to try and get our boot latch fixed. Unfortunately they did not have the part but they did manage to tie the boot down in such a way that it is closed and the rain will not get in. However we will have to put all our many different bags of supplies in the back seat instead of the boot.

Mary stayed home so if the garage door man came she could let him in. He did not arrive until after I returned home and of course he could not solve the problem so he took the whole thing out so he could take it to the folks who sold it in the first place. If we did not know that another couple should be coming here in August, I would just tell him to forget it.

We were late to DDM at Empangeni but managed to be there in time for the lesson on how to introduce the Book of Mormon to an investigator. It was interesting to hear the missionaries tell all the different ways that they have used. The one I liked best was where they would use it to answer questions and then put it away until finally the investigator asked what they were reading from and could they have one to read.

After lunch we went to Esikhawini and visited a number of members and gave them some pictures we had printed on Monday. We were encouraged when sister Malinga said that she would see us at church on Sunday. Sister Tembe is reading the Christ Ideals for Living book we left a week or so ago. She is determined to be able to walk well enough to go back to work.

We stopped by the chapel and found president Vezi coming out of the gate. We stopped and talked about a number of things including the District Council meeting that we thought we were having tonight. I also told him about President Mann wanting to meet with the presidency when he was in RB tomorrow. This was followed by a number of calls that worked out some details and we found out that the District Meeting was to be changed to tomorrow night. It was a blessing that we ran into president Vezi when we did.

President Mann called to tell us that he would not be staying with us on Thursday night but needed to get back to Durban to take care of some problems that came up. This included being with Sister Mann who is having some complications with an operation she recently had for an abscess. It seems that the last month of their mission is going to be somewhat of a trial for the Manns. But they both have great spiritual strength and very positive attitudes so I am sure they will come through it fine.

When we did get home, I found myself taking a nap before dinner. I am starting to think I am getting old! We are starting to use up the food in the pantry so our meals are sometimes rather unusual. Tonight it was soup and left over macaroni and cheese.

In the evening I called Tom and talked to him about lots of things including if we should buy an I-pad and if so which one. He agreed with Mike that we should get a Wi-Fi model with 64G and so he is going to order it and load it with books and movies for us to catch up on when we get home.

Winter is certainly quickly approaching as it is very cool and leaning towards plain cold in the mornings. The South Africans are all wearing coats and sweaters but I am sticking to just a short sleeve white shirt. Brad Hafen wrote us that it was approaching 100 in Southern Utah. Sister Swazi-Wilson will love it when they get home tomorrow or the next day. Elder Wilson will be turning up the air-conditioning.

01 June 2010 – Tuesday

We had a very interesting and blessing filled day. It could have easily been a complete disaster.

It started out perfectly. I decided we could take the other half of our P-day by going to St Lucia and going on the hippo boat ride. Mary has wanted to do this since she first heard about it and I have been dragging my feet.

The trip to St Lucia was quick and beautiful. The sky looked like it was going to open up and pour but other than a few drops here and there we stayed dry. We drove through a very bad accident at the first Mtubatuba exit but there was a fairly clear path through the debris. I think this is the third bad accident we have seen at that intersection. I imagine there are a lot of them since there is a busy road crossing a national highway.

We found out that the first boat did not leave until 11:00 so we took the opportunity to do a quick tour of some of the game reserve. We did not see a lot of animals but we did see some that we do not often see. There were at least three red duikers and one of the largest kudus we have seen. Unfortunately none of them stood still for picture taking. The duikers are especially shy and the biggest kudu kept head turned away at all times. Later we got up close and personal with another good size kudu but he was only about 75% as large as the big one.

The first problem came up when the trunk lid popped up. This is not a new thing for us and this car but this time instead of it being the lock itself it was the slot the lock goes into. It broke completely off and so I had to use the rope – I now carry rope just for this purpose – to tie it down. I also had to move all the stuff in the trunk to the back seat so it did not get wet or stolen when we parked for the ride.

As we drove out of the park, Mary saw a beautiful rainbow right in front of us. I stopped an took a couple of pictures. I thought that made up for the broken lock. However we did call the Nissan dealer and get an appointment to get it fixed tomorrow.

Even with the problem with the trunk we made it to the boat in plenty of time and had just settled into enjoy the ride when the security company called to say our house alarm had gone off. I immediately thought of the Klingers who lost their lap-tops with all their pictures just a few months before they went home. I knew the security people would not get to our house and be able to check it before the boat took off for it’s two hour ride. I decided we should not go on the ride but head for home. The people at the boat were very helpful and said we could use our tickets another day.

I called the RB elders and asked them to please drive by and to go over the wall and check the doors and windows if the security man did want to do that. We were on our way home when we got a call saying that when the elders arrived and gave him permission the security man went over the wall and found that everything was secure and it must have been a false alarm. That made me feel better but I still wanted to get home and make sure everything was OK.

As we were going down the N-2 at a brisk pace, the very large flat-bed truck just in front of us had a rear re-cap tire come completely off. The re-capped part rolled off the road and then crossed right in front of us – I was afraid that it would turn right into us and we would have a very nasty accident much like the Mickelsens did. But the Lord blessed us and it went past and came to rest between the two lanes of speeding traffic so no one got hurt.

When we got home we found everything locked up and nothing missing.  However I would just as soon not have this happen again before we leave. Being of a suspicious mind, I wonder if some one set off the alarm to see what the response time was for the security company. I remember when our business alarm went off three nights in a row and on the fourth night someone did break in and carried off some equipment. Because there had been three ‘false’ alarms in a row the security people were not in a hurry to see what was going on the fourth night.

After lunch we went up to Enseleni and checked on a number of people. We were able to meet mama Zulu’s son and he wants us to get the address of the church in his area in Joburg. We then went to mama Rose’s house but Thandeka was gone. We stopped at other houses and either dropped off pictures or took them. We ended up at the Vilanes’. President Vilane was asleep so  talked to sister Vilane about how the president was doing. She said he was getting stronger but still far from being well.

The only other excitement of the day was that brother Bartholomew called to tell us about their trip home. When they got to Joburg they had to go through some very tight security which included body pat-downs of every passenger on their plane, carry-on luggage carefully gone through and hard eyed security people everywhere.  When they finally got seated sister B found that the passenger next to her was ex-president Jimmy Carter! I hope she got a picture with him.

It really was an interesting way to start a new month here in Richards Bay.