This morning Mary finished our latest puzzle. The subject was ‘Trapped’ and is darker than most of those we do but it looked both interesting and challenging and it proved to be true. As usual the last 100-120 pieces were among the hardest to put in but if it was easy it would not be much of a puzzle.

While on the subject of puzzles, you may remember that we finish one that had beautiful roses in a vase. On Friday we were on our way to district meeting and stopped in at a small gift/flower shop and I saw this arrangement of roses on a table. As soon as I saw it I thought about the puzzle and how it would be fun to show the pictures side by side. While the roses in the puzzle were very pretty, they could not hold a candle to the real thing – especially the wonderful scent. 

It poured rain all this Sabbath morning but that did not dampen the spirits of the 40 plus members of the branch who weathered the storm to partake of the sacrament and the fellowship of their fellow Saints.

As part of the sacrament meeting the RS choir sang and it was beautiful. Sister Kujane, the RS president spoke about the history of RS whose anniversary was being celebrated. As I looked at the pictures I took today, I realized that there is not a single male in any of them – that was not on purpose but it seems fitting. Sisters Ratema, Williams, Kruger and Kujane are stalwarts in the branch. As are sister Mogapi and Mothibi below.

A new branch YW presidency was sustained and set apart today – you can see from the pictures that they were readily welcomed by the wonderful YW we have in the branch!

On Saturday the Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp and Jouberton branches youth got together at our building and had a wonderful dinner dance. What made it unusual was that the YM were responsible for everything – the food, decorations, serving and clean-up. The YW got to watch “Meet the Mormons” while the room was getting made ready. Then they were escorted by the YM and seated at the tables. The three courses and drinks were served by the YM and all enjoyed the meal. After dinner was finished, the YW were able to go out and take lots of Selfies while the YM took down the tables and chairs and made the room ready for the dance.

As you can see from the pictures not all those who enjoyed dancing were quite YM or YW age but they all had great fun and worked up a nice sweat. I think everyone had a great time and there are plans being made for future tri-branch youth gatherings over the year.

I will write more about the pictures below when I have a little more time.

            lace Marker for lots of pictures…

Today I get to post about two of the beautiful women in my life…Last night while we were visiting a family this young lady fell asleep in Mary’s arms. She knew a grandmother when she saw one. Also yesterday we found out that our daughter Cindy Mitchell was chosen as the UELMA Teacher Librarian of the year. When I went looking for a picture of Cindy I came across this one with her, Mary and our granddaughter Gentry Bartholomew who will soon be giving birth to another of our great-grandsons!

    

I know that I post about our district and zone development meetings every Friday and that there is little new to write about , but it gives me a reason to post pictures of the missionaries in our district and zone so that their parents can see their sons and learn a little more about what they are doing. This week was rather special because it was elder and sister Dummer’s last Friday and therefore their last DM in South Africa. They are going to leave the mission next Tuesday and the two branches they have been so diligently serving, the missionaries in Klerksdorp and Jouberton, and ourselves will greatly miss them and their talents.

One funny thing happened before the meeting started. Our Ikageng elders were late getting to the meeting and so everyone started calling and texting them to find out where they were. We all got in the action so they received calls from the other elders and the senior missionaries.

   

 

We got a surprise today when along with the replacement for our stolen computer, Syd from physical facilities also brought us a replacement for our digital piano that we managed to somehow destroy a few months ago. Mary read the side of the box for the piano and saw that it was made in Indonesia and of course that got our attention. We served there from late 2006 to 2008.

It was good to get the computer but it turned out that there was no driver for our printer. Also a after Syd had left we found out that the passwords for MLS no longer worked so while we had a computer there was not much we could do with it except browse the web. I had space for one more picture so I put this screenshot of a large herd of elephants at Tembe Elephant Park.  

The RS sisters are scheduled to sing in sacrament meeting next week so they took this opportunity to get in a good practice. Once they had finished going through the song they have chosen to sing, they just kept sining other songs together. It was lovely to stand and listen to their beautiful voices as they sang with the same spirit that I hear when I listen to the Tab Choir.

Mary played and sister Thulo led the music.

The YSA sisters stood in the back as did brothers Lebona and Mhike…I just noticed Jacque Kruger was also back there. I think from looking at the picture below the YSA sister took a couple of seconds away from singing to pose for my picture.

 

Last year, soon after we arrived in Potch, elder Knowles drove with us out to Parys. Along the way he had us stop along the road so he could take pictures of us among the large field of cosmos blooming along the road.

Since we dropped one of our riders off only a couple of kilometers from that field we decided to duplicate the experience . We found that the area we were in last year was almost barren of blooms but just a few hundred feet down the road there was another field. Since elder Knowles was not along only Mary got in these pictures – I call it my beautiful rose among the cosmos.

Due to an election that was supposed to be held today during our normal block time, we held just a sacrament meeting in the Relief Society/branch president’s office area. We were able to put seating for between 45-50 people in the main area and another 14-15 in what became the over flow area. By the time the last person had come to our meeting, there were 71 in attendance. By small children sitting two on a chair and elders Alvial and Liera standing, we managed to get every seated for the hour meeting.

Sister Disney Thulo just got a new job that will take her out of the branch and up to Johannesburg – the Florida area. We will miss her as she has been our diligent YW president for over a year. Brother Tinashe Mikhe joins the lovely Disney for a photo.

Two of our beautiful young primary sisters. Lorato is one of Mary’s best piano students.

Two of our lovely YSA sisters. Elder Alvial has no trouble lifting Joshua Gerber. It is nice to see that Joshua has the cast off his foot and is again playing cricket. He wants to be a professional cricket player.

Antoinette and Simon Tlotleng (pronounced something like klukling) are one of the great couples in the branch. Brothers Adam Lebona and David Rampai with sister Meisie Ratema – I see brother Simon smiling in the background.

 

We have great youth in our branch. Papa Thulo – his actual given name is Keamogetse but I can not get my tongue around that and everyone calls him Papa – among a group of the YW. Jacque Kruger is the teachers quorum president and my home teaching companion. He is another of Mary’s piano students.

 

Shavonne Kruger, Nasi (Nthabeleng) Williams and Millicent Tloteng pose for a picture. As does sister Thulo in another of her beautiful dresses.

       

As I was going out to the car I saw sisters Bummer and Mothobi are discussing RS business. Neither seem happy when they notice I am taking pictures…sorry sisters I am a candid camera type.

Saturday is often a busy day and it is always nice when a quick visit to the Tembe webcam shows not only elephants, waterbuck, nyalas and wildebeests but also a group of three giraffes. So we were able to get our animal boost early in the day.

 

This was the last week for dance practice – next Saturday it will be the real thing. We were a little short on young men so president Kwaikwai came in and showed the youth how he could move.

While the youth were dancing brothers David and Simon were busy getting the RS and branch president’s office area ready for our sacrament meeting tomorrow. Our normal chapel area is going to used for some local voting and so we will need to try and squeeze 50-70 people into an area made for a maximum of 50 – 60. So first comes the washing and waxing of the floor and then the four of us pitched in and set things up. Mary had managed to pinch a nerve in her hip so she got to supervise. The other two members of the branch presidency will be gone tomorrow so president Kwaikwai put his office chair up front for me to sit…kind of reminds me of a throne but it is very comfortable.

I put this picture in just to see if anyone is really looking and reading our blog. This great looking fall picture of South Africa has a hidden bonus – if you find it, please leave a comment saying you did but not what it is so it will be a secret between you and me! Or if you want you can messenger us on Facebook with your observation. Enjoy – I did.

What you say? Another post about a district meeting. Come on now you have these each week so why bother to post about them? Well it is because no two are the same and besides there are parents out there who follow this blog who never get enough pictures of their sons and grandsons. As usual after opening song, prayer, mission quote, and spiritual thought comes the area reports. Elders Oldroyd and Todd do not have any baptisms scheduled but have some prospects. On the other hand the Klerksdorp elders – McAllister and Di Ruscio have 3 on date for this month. Obviously they saw me getting ready to take a picture so they posed. Our Ikageng elders were excited to report that a long time investigator has agreed to a baptism date in April. The man has been a faithful attender at church and YSA FHE but only this last Sunday did he agree to be baptized. Elder Todd serves in the Jouberton branch with elder Oldroyd. After the meeting elder Dummer made some arrangements with elder Oldroyd about going to an appointment. Elder Oldroyd’s lesson for the meeting was about looking happy in our work so people will notice and want to know why we are smiling all the time. Elder Todd showed me his smile while we were at Sandwich Baron for lunch.

Later in the afternoon Mary was very busy. First she taught a piano lesson to Jacque Kruger while his sister Shavonne finished up her seminary home work.

The first to arrive after the Krugers was Dolly Ratema who also checked her homework. Jacque was greatly out numbered by the young women but all had a good time learning together.

I did not realize when I took this picture of Mary with the students how happy she looks and how attentive they all were as they listened to her lesson. After Seminary she taught them a number of fun songs that they can use in their FHE.