Daily Archives: June 14, 2010

13 June 2010

13 June 2010 – Sunday

I arrived at Engwelezane and there was no one else at the library. The elders arrived next and for a while we thought we would not be able to get into the building because the lock seemed frozen but elder Kaseke finally got it to open. The elders started setting up but had to leave to walk one of their investigators to church. So until about 10 to 9 when others started arriving I was the only one in the library.

By the time the meeting started there was about 15-20 people in the audience and there were only about 40 there for the meeting. This is about 25 less than normal. I guess they heard how bad my talk was going to be and decided it was better to just stay home.

Sister Myani gave an excellent talk and I would have been happy to let it rest there but since there was 30 minutes left in the meeting I had to give my talk. It was very disjointed and I never felt comfortable for more then a couple of minutes. Of course after the meeting people said they thought it was an excellent talk but the spirit did not seem to be with me. I am pretty sure I was not edified by the talk but I was by preparing it.

After Engwelezane I went to Enseleni where I found not only elder Dimene and elder Webster but also the assistants and of all people elder Nkosi. I knew the assistants were probably going to be there because President Mann called me about a problem that he sent them here to look into. He and sister Mann were in Bloemfontein for a district conference so he could not take care of it personally. It turned out that elder Nkosi just could not take the cold in Lesotho – it drops below freezing at night – and so is going to be moved to a warmer climate.

I was also surprised when president Vilane came walking in. He said he walked very slowly and he seemed to be feeling OK but I asked him to please be careful about doing too much too soon. If it had not been for the 6 missionaries attending, there would not have been 20 members by the time the sacrament was passed. They did make it to over 40 by the time the meeting was over.

I talked to president Moloi about this – he was there as the district speaker – and he said he thought it was because it was the holidays and many young people went back to their homesteads. Hopefully that was the case. Later I talked to president Vezi and he said they had about 50 at PD. I told him that was great. We talked about getting more chairs, another sacrament tray and some more hymn books. Those are nice problems to have.

The rest of the day was spent at home or visiting Mary. I did do some cleaning around the house. We certainly have accumulated a lot of stuff in just over a year. I am sure the South African economy is going to suffer when we leave.

Mary was fine except she of course would love to be out of the hospital. She has found that she does have to take it easy – her body is not feeling as well as her mind is. She asked for her cross-stitching supplies and I reminder her she has now been working on the one piece for over 2 years. I gave it to her for Christmas 2007! Obviously cross-stitching is not her favorite pastime.

We visited Arthur Wilson and he is doing much better. He will probably get out tomorrow. The Baldwins visited him later and then went to see Mary. They brought the Career Workshop certificates that we have been trying to get for about 6 weeks. Sister Manamela will be very happy.

I must confess that at times I think about going home and what we will do when we get there. I think I have done this more since Mary has been in the hospital and I have had too much time by myself. There is just so much I can accomplish by myself – Mary is the real talent. I understand that may be more of an excuse than a reason but it seems to be mainly true. Hopefully when she gets home we can wrap up as much as we can before we leave this wonderful land.



12 June 2010

12 June 2010 – Saturday

Up and out of the house early so I could pick up the Nyawos and YaYa Mathe to take them to have their patriarchal blessings. While they were with patriarch Jabba, I basically sat in the parking lot of the mall in Ballito and worked on my talk for tomorrow and read the newspaper. I was surprised how quickly the three hours passed. I did take a walk around the whole mall – it is a strip mall so I was outside in the nice warm sun most of the time – and saw some the stores we did not have time to visit before. In most malls in South Africa you see 90% black faces and 10% others as customers. In Ballito it is about reverse of that.

By the time we got back about all I could do was catch some lunch and then go to see Mary. I had called her during the morning and knew that she felt fine but it was good to see her as well. I took her some chicken McNuggets, Crystal-lite, Bugles and of course the newspapers so she could have her precious puzzles. She was happy to have it all.

After the visit I came home and took a nap. I got a call from president Baldwin about some things that needed to be done. He is still very sick – in fact he sounded worse today than he did on Friday. He said that Arthur Wilson was back in the hospital with complications from his hernia operation.

I visit Mary and we went to visit Arthur. When we arrived at his room he was getting a blessing from Calwyn and president VanThiel. He really was not well and we found that they were going to move him to high care so that they could monitor him better.

My evening was spent mainly working on my talk which is just not coming together at all. I have lots of ideas and thoughts but I can not figure out how to make them flow. I also want the talk to help the branch and especially any investigators. It is strange to not have things working this late in the day.



11 June 2010

11 June 2010 – Friday

Just before I woke up I had a dream that I had woke up and could not get any of the lights to come on and I was stuck in the dark. In the dream I realized I was dreaming and actually woke up. I can not decide if I woke up earlier and then went back to sleep, had the dream and then woke up, or did I just have the dream and woke up.  It was a strange way to start the day.

Unfortunately I was not dreaming about the phone being dead so I will go in early to MTN and have them try to fix it or get a new one. Seems like a waste with only one month to go but Mary needs her to call me and I certainly need one so I can call others. To add to an interesting morning, the internet is down and it is too early to call Telkom to find out if it is a system problem or just us. I do hope the car starts today.

Called Telkom and after talking to three very nice people, I found that they had a problem in the area. As I was talking to the second agent, I heard what seemed like a party going on in the back so I asked him what was all the noise about. His answer was – it is the World Cup – which goes to show how crazy the next month is going to be around here.

I went to the mall and found that my phone was dead so I bought a new phone and put in my old SIM card. Of course I lost most of my contacts because I did not save them to the SIM card a couple of weeks ago when the spirit told me to. Which shows you should follow the spirit even when it has to do with something as mundane as saving phone contacts.

As I was getting into my car to leave, a couple of young ladies came out wrapped in what looked like a big South African flag. It turned out to be a lightweight blanket of the flag and it only cost R30 at PEP. So I went in and bought 3 to take home as gifts. I may have to go back and get a half dozen or so more before we go.

I spent most of the rest of the day at our boarding working on getting things in order so that the new couple can find things that they need and getting rid of old records, etc. I have accumulated a large amount of old seminary, SS, YW, and YM manuals that I am going to take to RB for them to either add to their supply or give them away.