Another beautiful Sabbath at the Potchefstroom branch. With vacation time coming to an end, there were over 50 in attendance to share the sacrament, lessons and of course wonderful fellowship between and after the block. Members of the branch got a surprise when president Kwaikwai announced from the pulpit that he was going to be married and sealed in the temple on Friday April 24th.

We have not had a missionary information booth for a while so Saturday the missionaries and members of the branch set up across from the police station and for three hours talked to people passing about the gospel and offered to deliver a free Book of Mormon or DVD. It is not only a great missionary tool – it certainly beats door to door finding – but it also allows members of the branch to bear their testimonies of the gospel.

Elders Barton and Avial ‘struggled’ to carry these 6 cups out to the car. They proved to be such a burden that they didn’t take them out of the trunk when they were setting up. Sister Kujane and her daughter Thato were great helps as was Papa Thulo who is one of the Teachers in the branch.

Brother David Rampai is always happy to help at the booth…he has been doing it since before he was baptized. Brother Simon Tlotleng is a branch missionary who came to help. The elders worked together to explain about the gospel to this man.

Our dear friend sister Antoinette Tlotleng forgot about her aching shoulder and spent the whole three hours fearlessly stopping people to tell them about the joy the gospel brings into her life. Sister Lebo joined the booth – she is Mary’s piano student. I am not sure what Papa is trying to point out. These unusual yellow flowers reminded us of firepots but the the plant itself is quite different. Whatever they are they brought a wonderful bit of color to the mall landscaping.

Fridays are great because we get a chance to be with other missionaries who we see only once a week or less. This District Meeting was great because the Zone Leaders came over for it. Elder Togiatomai and the new ZL elder Tekurio. Elders Barton and Alvial showed up with matching ties to show companionship unity.

Elder Oldroyd continues to be enthusiastic in his calling as district leader and this weeks lesson was on how to help your companion regain the Greenie Fire. There was a good discussion about what a companion can do but most important was to love him.

Since the zone leaders were there we took another  district photo or two. They love crazy pictures.

After the meeting they devoured Mary’s brownies and then adjourned to the parking lot for handing out of mail. Elder DiRuscio got a large package from home and lots of letters. The Italians scored again.

Later Mary held Seminary with a limited number of students. Hopefully now that the vacation time is over the class will return to normal size.

While waiting for Mary to have her lesson, I walked out in the yard and noticed the beautiful blue sky above the school. The picture of course does not do it justice but it will remind me of that moment when the natural beauty of the world was before me. I also took this picture of one of the murals on the buildings – the murals adds color and beauty to the otherwise dull brick buildings.

Thursday afternoon found us at the office where Mary gave her most promising student a lesson. Sister Lebo seems to be very interested in learning to play, is always on time and does practice which is about all you can ask of a student.

The elder’s washing machine is still broken so once again we washed and dried their laundry while they were out serving. I kidded elder Allred – he is in charge of the care of the flats – that the elders might prefer that their machine never gets fixed so we can keep taking care of their laundry.

As I mentioned before I did not get pictures of all companionships this transfer but here are the ones I did get so if your missionary did not send you information about their new companion and a picture here they are

     

Time really does fly when you are having fun…but it goes very slowly when you are not…but that is for later.

Last night we were sitting in the living room when the electricity went off – we did not realize that load shedding was still going on. When it first went off it was still light but a hour or so later I looked over and noticed Mary was only illuminated by the glow of her iPad. I thought it was a perfect for a picture.

  This morning I was out in the yard when I noticed this pink rose on the white rose bush and since I always have my camera handy I snapped a shot. This led to me taking a number of pictures of the yard. I thought how here in South Africa it is well into Autumn and soon many of these plants will be killed by the cold or go dormant until next spring – about the time we leave. We will arrive back home in Provo just in time for fall and so we will go through the cycle again.

Now for the long story that made the morning pass slowly. Our Ikageng elders’ washing machine would not work so a repair man was supposed to come this morning to fix it. Since the elders needed to be at our flat to be interviewed by president Dunn, I got to sit in their flat and wait for him to arrive. I sat for about 3 hours before giving up and coming back to our flat just in time to take a few pictures of the elders before they and president and sister Dunn left to go to the mall to had out passalong cards.

The pictures above are of elders Barton and Alvial looking their sharpest before leaving to see the president. Each missionary has a study desk and most of the personalize their spaces with pictures from home. Hopefully they do not include a picture of the girl they left behind! Elder Alvial is from Chile so he proudly displays his country’s flag. Elder Barton has a large US flag displayed but it is on the side wall so is not visible in this picture. Notice the savior’s picture is included in both display.

I got one shot of four of the elders and sister Dunn watching the PH session of conference while they waited. Mary made rice krispy treats which quickly disappeared. Elder Todd seems to be sad that only some of the drinks were left.

After working with the elders at the mall President and sister Dunn hurried off to their next appointment back in Joburg. Unfortunately I did not use a flash so the president is not very visible. Elder DiRuscio and elder Todd – both smiling.

A close up of elder DiRuscio and a shot of elder Oldroyd doing his jumping jack imitation while elder Peterson has a big smile. All in all it was a long but interesting morning.

While the attendance was still low because of members being away during the holidays, the spirit was high. There was no long silent periods during testimony time. The members felt the spirit of Easter as they bore strong testimonies of the Savior and atonement. Elder Barton in the gray suit got to meet many of the members for the first time. Our dear friend Bongani Buti was home for the holidays and we are always happy to see him. Here is talking to sister Thato and Evelyn Kujane.

When I took this picture of sister Kujane and Bongani I did not notice sister Thulo in the background. I got a better picture of her later. These two you men wandered around during the last two hours. I do not think the one fishing caught much. Mary plays for sacrament, primary and relief society. It is wonderful to hear the children sing. Brother Andries Louw is teaching David Rampai about MLS – David is our new executive secretary. Sister Brummer is one of the oldest member of the branch – not just in age but in membership. However she does not like to get her picture taken so I have to either sneak up on her or get someone else to be in the picture.

Here she is with sister Thulo who I caught as a bonus in an early shot. Elder Alvial is making an appointment to see sister Lebo later in the week.

  Sister Neo – the YW president – is in both of these pictures. She does quite well picking out tunes on the keyboard while waiting for her ride home. It was a great day in the Potchefstroom branch. I had the opportunity to teach Priesthood because all of the elder quorum presidency was out of town.

Mary held seminary on Friday this week but unfortunately few came as most of the students decided they would rather enjoy another day of their vacation from school. Sister Neo – the new YW president came to learn about what we did for seminary and YM/YW activities. We are hoping that in the future the YW presidency – and eventually a YM presidency will conduct the activity time. This year’s lesson is on the D&C with todays lesson being on the healing power of the Priesthood. I got to share a number of stories about health blessings I have been able to give.

With Easter coming we had thought of decorating eggs and then having an Easter egg hunt. However they do not decorate eggs here – probably because almost all their eggs are a nice deep brown and would not show much in the way of dye. So I hid about 40 orange Swizzler – a kind of chewy candy – and they had a great time looking for them. The nice thing about Swizzlers is that they are small enough that they can be hidden much easier than eggs. The four seekers found about the same pieces of candy and had a lot of fun doing it.

Before and after the hunt they students had a spiritual activity so it was not all fun and games. The final part of the afternoon was digging into donuts sticky but oh so good chocolate and cinnamon sugar ones.

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…