25 June 2010 – Friday

 For the first time since we have been in this boarding, a flock of 8 or 9 hadedahs landed in our backyard and started looking for their dinner. The rising sun reflected off their iridescent wings as they stately walked around the yard picking at whatever they were feasting on in the grass. I managed to open the glass door and get some good pictures before some major noise made them all fly away.

Rose our friendly realtor and leasing agent came over for a walk through and we showed her some things that we think they might want to fix before the new couple arrives. She was her usual bubbly self and in a rather strange way we will miss her.

We have made a pretty good list of information we need to leave for the Nuzmans if they are assigned here. One of them is to make sure that important locations are listed in the GPS.

We left home and did a number of errands before having lunch. After lunch we went met sister Baldwin at the RB chapel where we turned over to her the remaining table cloths and a lot of extra curriculum material that we and other couples had managed to accumulate. Most of it came from my cleaning out Port Durnford’s overstock, but there was a good supply from the couples.

We went to Esikhawini’s Youth and there was a good turnout. The numbers have really been going up each week. Musa, Solo and Sne have all been encouraging the Youth to come. I just hope that some one steps up when Musa and Solo leave for their missions.

They had a nice project of writing letters to their missionary, sister Nonkule. They had asked sister Baldwin to buy them supplies and we were happy to bring them with us. Musa had also asked us to bring some things but since most of it was duplicates, we only supplied some pens and stickers to the project. Mary made one for us. They were also going to show a part of the 2010 DVD but when Sne found out it was 30 minutes long he decided to wait until next week.

While the youth were busy with their project, Sne and I talked about some leadership ideas as well as talking about his future plans. Hopefully he will be able to help train the leaders of the organization to better fulfill their callings. Also I urged him to help President Nyawo hold good presidency, PEC and branch council meetings – and of course Home Teaching.

I have tried for over a year to get these all established in the branch with only limited success. Hopefully elder Nuzman will have more success.

24 June 2010 – Thursday

The whole morning was cleaning up paperwork that seems to be breeding. Mary had to catch up on the bookkeeping and I went through stacks of papers for the third or fourth time. I also made lists of things we needed to get in writing for the new couple – the Nuzmans from Ogden – so they do not have to start from scratch. I got their phone number from Elder Davis and will try to call them to see if they have any questions and if we can meet them while they are at the MTC. They will arrive exactly one month after we leave.

We worked until lunch time – there are still stacks of papers everywhere because I can not make a decision about where to put things. After lunch – McDonalds today – we had three easy errands to get done before we headed for Port Durnford.

Mary had only two students for English – I spent the time making lists and telephone calls. Youth went well with Mary and I giving a good lesson on Enos and then having them play some games before giving them snacks. We mentioned that next week will be our last one with them but we should be there for testimony meeting on the 4^th of July.

As we were driving home we could see another field of cane being burned off. The flames must have been at least 30 feet high. It is an amazing thing to see flames and hear the crackling of the fire. Too bad it also means the sky is filled with smoke and haze.

While in Swaziland, we got to help teach and become friends with Nathi – sister Wilson’s pineapple conversion. He is a very special young man with a great spirit and really wanted to go on a mission. The Wilsons helped him get his papers turned in but do to some technical difficulties they had to go home before he received his call.

We got a real surprise when on Tuesday night – the 22nd – we got a call from Nathi saying that he had received his call and he was going to the Joburg mission in September. He wanted to tell us and thank us for what we did to help him with his business.

I immediately sent an e-mail to tell the Wilsons and then remembered I could call them on our Vonage phone. I got sister Wilson and shared with her the good news.  What a blessing came from her stopping to buy a pineapple from a crude little shop on the side of the road.