Almost Back to Normal…

My double vision is almost gone so on Friday the 5th I was able to drive for the first time in a month without keeping one eye closed. But before that Mary was the designated driver as we made trips to Vanderbijlpark for apartment inspections on Tuesday, to Joburg for Zone Conference on Thursday, and to Klerksdorp for District Meeting on Friday. On Saturday we went around visiting members and then a normal Sunday. It is wonderful to be able to devote moer of our time serving the members of the branch The are truly great saints who always make us feel welcome.

June14 - Mary, Malapula, sikuku June14-ZC - Bodily, Davies

Inspecting the elder’s flats is one of the blessings that senior couples get to have once a transfer. For the most part they do a good job cleaning up for our inspections. However you really do not want to drop in unexpected very often. Unless the electricity goes off or something major happens they hardly ever complain. The story is told about some elders who called to say they were having a problem with their door and could someone come out and fix it when they have a chance. Since they did not say that it was urgent it was scheduled for the next time someone from the office was going that way. They called a couple of times more before they were asked just what was the problem. It turned out they could not open their front door so for three weeks or more they had been going in and out of their flat through a window!

Mary is with elders Malapula and Sikuku who are serving in the Sharpesville area. If I remember correctly elder Malapula is from the DRC and elder Sikuku is from Kenya and is a friend of elder Kelem who serves here in Ikageng. The picture on the right is the first one from the Zone Conference that was held in the very nice Sandton chapel. Elders Bodily and Davies are not companions but are good friends.

June14-ZC - Holmquist, Arthur, Chifokoyo, Mdletshe June14-ZC - Johnson, Harris, Browning

Elders Holmquist, Arthur, Chifokoyo, and our own elder Mdletshe. Our elder Harris in the middle has elder Johnson on his right – picture left and elder Browning on the other side.

June14-ZC - Pulley, Lyons, Beers June14-ZC - Rakotoarimanana,  Bird, Perkins, Rogers

Elders Pulley, Lyons, and Beers with an elder I am afraid I do not know. The picture on the left includes elder Rokotoarimanana who has the honor of having the longest name in the mission. If you enlarge the picture you may be able to see how they squeezed all that on his name tag. The other three are elders Bird, Perkins and Rogers. Elder Bird was here in Potch when we first came and is now serving as a zone leader in Soweto. He trained elder Rogers who will be leaving us this transfer.

June14-ZC - Roybal June14-ZC - Roybal, Richards, Rushton

Elder Roybal sitting in the boot of their car is my favorite one from the conference. He is even wearing the right color suit. Later he joined elders Richards and Rushton – the three R’s for another picture.

June14-ZC - Stapley, Carpenter, Cummings, Malapula 2June14-ZC - Stapley, Carpenter, Cummings, Malapula

Elders Stapley, Carpenter, Cummings and Malapula get two pictures because they could not seem to all look at the camera at the same time.

June14-ZC - Elders Eating 1June14-ZC - Elders Eating 2June14-ZC - Elders Eating 3June14-ZC - Elders Eating 4June14-ZC - Elders EatingJune14-ZC - Group Picture 2

I took a number of pictures of the elders enjoying their lunch. E/S Taylor, E/S Dummer and E/S Meldrum and sister Omer all pitched in and set up the tables and the decorations. Elder Taylor and I picked up the food from the most impressive super market I have ever been in. For about $4.50 per person they were able to get a salad, rolls, rice, sweet and sour chicken, and stir fried vegies. For dessert the sisters supplied Texas sheet cakes. I can assure you none of the elders went away hungry.

I am providing 3 pictures of the whole conference because there is no way to get 80 plus people to all look at the camera at the same time and I did not want any parents to miss their son’s smiling – or not smiling – face.

June14-ZC - Group Picture 3June14-ZC - Group PictureJune14-ZC - Omers - MayendeJune14-ZC - Omers - Pederson

After the group picture many of the elders wanted a last picture with the Omers who go home at the end of June. They lined up and gave me or one of their friends their cameras so I kept busy for a while recording these goodbye pictures…I took some with my camera when someone else was taking the picture. Notice how windy it was by looking at sister Omer’s hair!

June14-ZC - Elders cleaning upJune14 - District Meeting - Perkins, Harris, Mdletshe

While most of the elders were outside talking to friends or having their picture taken, a small group of elders went back into the cultural hall and put away the tables and chairs and cleaned up the floor. Other than elders Rogers and Johnson I can not identify these elders but i do salute them for their work. On Friday we went to the last Ikageng  District meeting of this transfer. It may look like elders Perkins, Harris and Mdletshe are singing but they actually are telling the rest of the district about their investigator and how they are doing.

June14 - District Meeting - Us Harris RogersJune14 - District Meeting - District 2

We took a picture with elders Harris and Rogers who we are pretty sure will be transferred next Tuesday. We have truly enjoyed getting to know these two fine elders and hope to see them again at some conference or perhaps the Christmas social.

June14 - District Meeting - District 2June14 - District Meeting - District Crazy

We kept up the tradition of taking some last district pictures which has to include one crazy one. They may be crazy but they are above all dedicated representatives of the Savior.

June 14 - Mary with Spiegelhoff babyJune 14 - Njabulo Zondi's Green Sock

 

On Saturday when we were visiting Mary got to hold sister Spiegelhoff’s one month old baby. i was not sure she was going to give her back to her mother. Sunday morning it was really cold here in Potchefstroom so we broke out all the heaters. Brother Njabulo Zondi took off his shoe and basically stuck his foot in the heater – he said it was frozen. I had to take a picture of his very bright chartreuse sock.



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