The new – that is current – district met in Klerksdorp for the first time. When this car drove up to the gate I thought it was tan and therefore not the Klerksdorp/Jouberton elders. But then I noticed that there was some white under the tan. 

It seems that was a larger than usual mud puddle on one of the Jouberton streets and the elders felt it was there duty to go back and forth through it to pack it down for others. They picked a speed that was not too slow because they were afraid of getting stuck. I think this is the first time I have ever seen a mission car that had mud all over the top and not just on the sides, bonnet and boot! Notice the clean Ikageng area car in the background – it also serves in a township but the elders try to avoid large mud puddles.

The Klerksdorp companionship is now elders Peterson and DiRuscio – elder Peterson has been out for about 14 months. The Ikageng area is now in the capable hands of elders Alvial and Barton. For the third week in a row they did not bring their area book for elder Oldroyd to review.

Elders Petersen and DiRuscio did bring their area book that allows the district leader to see that they are keeping it up with the information about their investigators and less actives. Two Sundays ago the Klerksdorp elders had 3 baptisms and last week the Ikageng elders had two so the district is again leading the zone!

 

Elder Oldroyd is a well prepared district leader and enthusiastic about his calling. The first official – at least for me – picture of elders DiRuscio and Peterson as companions

After the meeting it was time for some pictures. It took a while to get them all together but I finally got a shot of the district. In the back is elders Di Ruscio, Peterson, Todd and Oldroyd while elders Barton and Alvial occupy the step. Elder Alvial decided that the mud car needed to have a flame job on the side so he used his talent and now dirty finger to draw them. As they say – different strokes for different folks…

After transfers it has been rather quiet and I found that I did not take many pictures but the few I did take are at least interesting to me so I decided to put them in our blog.

My barber moved again and once again the notice on the old space was in Afrikaans so I could not read it. But a nice security person told me where to look for it. I was greatly surprised at how big the new shop is and well furnished. I do not know how much he pays for rent but he must do a lot of $6.00 haircuts to pay the rent.

As I walked to the new location I ran across this very long line of people waiting to get their pensions. On the first of each month there are lines like this all over South Africa but this is the longest one I have seen as it went all the way out the door of the mall.  

Elder Liera was transferred and elder Barton will now serve the Potchefstroom branch with elder Alvial. Elder Barton is a seasoned missionary with just 3 transferred remaining so he will probably ‘die’ here. I took this picture on Thursday when I picked up their laundry to take home and wash for them. Their brand new washing machine will not work and they were in great need for some clean clothes – elder Alvial was down to this one white shirt. On Wednesday we finished our latest 1550 piece puzzle that turned out to not be as hard as we originally thought. The hardest part was putting the frame together as it was the same pattern all the way around. If there had not been different shapes and sizes we would still be trying to figure it out.