14 November 2009 – Saturday

The morning again slipped away quickly. We had originally planned to go to the soccer game in PD between the elders and the branch but that was postponed because four of the elders could not be there. The RB elders went out to the deKlerk’s farm and the Empangeni elders had a service project. So instead we ran errands including getting pictures of the Enseleni youth printed, getting ink for the printer – where are the re-fillers in South Afrcia – and going to the pharmacy for some of Mary’s meds.

Sister Khumalo SMS us that she would not be able to come for her computer lesson but 3 out of 4 of Mary’s piano students said they would come. So while she was busy teaching piano I got to take a nap in the car. Before we were through dear sister Ndlovo came to clean the chapel. It was a good thing we were there because she did not have keys to get in so I opened everything up for her.

While Mary was teaching, it had started drizzling a little harder so we drove Zama – her last student – to her house. We then drove out to Port Durnford where we recovered the missing bag of games from the chapel – they were under the pulpit – and then drove to the Kanyile homestead to give them the picture of their family we had printed today. We did not think anyone was home but as we were leaving the son came out and so we were able to complete our task. The father seemed very pleased to have the picture and I was very careful not to mention anything about the church while we were there. Hopefully by showing them our love they will someday be open to hearing the missionaries.

As we drove pass Bungumuse’s house, we saw the elder’s car was out in front but we did not stop because we did not want to interfere with their teaching. Then about 30 yards further down the street we saw his mother and stopped to say hello to her. She is a very nice woman and we need to do more to help her get a job.

On the way out of Esikhawini we stopped to make sure the chapel was locked up – we had arranged for Sazi Mthalane to come over and do that – and drove up just as sister Ndlovo and her son were leaving. It had started to be quite wet so we picked them up and drove them home.

By the time we had finished it was still an hour before we were to meet the Mickelsen’s at the harbor for dinner. This gave us time to do our little bit of grocery shopping and still be on time. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant that the Bs introduced us to. We ended up taking almost 2 hours to eat and talk. It did not seem anything like that long because the company was so good.

We talked about the branches, some of the problems that needed to be worked on, stories about our first missions – theirs to Florida and ours to Indonesia – and we did some planning for our trip down to Durban on Monday.

Back at the boarding we had a couple of quiet hours before heading off to bed. Looking back I am not sure how much we accomplished in furthering the Lord’s work.

13 November 2009 – Friday

I went to bed late because I was not really tired and so woke an hour later than usual. Even the sun shining through the windows did not bother me.

My reading for the morning was again from Church magazines. The story about the Cosme family of Paraguay and how their baptism almost 50 years ago affected their extended family of now 60 shows that missionaries seldom see the true affect of their efforts in helping others accept the restored Church. The same issue included an article about the annual temple trip of the youth in Aberdeen Scotland, how it affects their lives and how they prepare for it all year. The final article I read was about the 70s and how their organization has changed over the years – line upon line – until they now minister and administer around the world. I remember how excited Elder S. Dilworth Young was when the First Quorum of the 70 was reconstituted in 1976 – he said he had prayed that he would be alive to see it happen. Elder Hartman Rector Jr. was also a member of that new Quorum and was the one who ordained me a bishop.

It is interesting that since at the time I was called only a General Authority could ordain bishops so I had been serving for a couple of months without being ordained. Soon after I was ordained the policy was changed and Stake Presidents could ordain bishops.

As we planned for the day we found that somehow we had left the boards for our BofM Bingo at Port Durnford. Since we thought we needed it for Youth at Enselini we made a quick run out to get it. Of course when we got there we could not find it. Hopefully someone found it and is storing it for us. We wondered if Friday the 13^th was to blame.

After that things went well until we arrived at Enselini and did not find President Vilane waiting for his English lesson. When we called we found that he was not feeling well and had gone to the clinic. We went over to see his wife and found out that he had not slept well and had gone for some pain medicine.

We tried to visit sister Seoka, the Relief Society President, but since the houses did not have any numbers on them we were not sure which was it. Later we found out that we could have knocked on almost any door in that block and found an LDS family. Someday we will learn the town and the members.

With still time on our hands we decided to do a little exploring so we followed the main road out of town until it became a dirt road. We continued along the road until we got to the top of a hill where we could look out across the rolling hills. We were surprised to see every green hill supporting two or three homesteads. It is a very beautiful area once you are outside the city.

The Mickelsens had called earlier to say they were coming for the weekend and when they found out there was Youth at Enselini they decided to come and try to meet with two of their PEF loan applicants. We were sure glad they did because they were a big help when it came time to play games.

As usual about half of the youth arrived nearly on time and by the time we got to the games close to 20 were there. We had decided to take pictures of each of the youth and have them give us their names and addresses so we could find them in the future. I am thinking that we should create a page for each of the youth and have them tell us about themselves, their birthdays, telephone numbers, etc. We could then make it into part of an area book for future missionaries.

Elders Otieno and Tsegula came and also helped out. Since no one had prepared spiritual lesson I spoke for a while but I think I was too preachy. I am going to have to correct that in the future or they will not listen to me. They need stories that build them up, not lectures and preaching. They need lots of love and attention like any young people. I am just not all that good at this but Mary is sensitive to their needs.

We played three different games with the youth rotating from one game to another. They seemed to have lots of fun and I think played all afternoon. We asked Sister Mickelsen to run the bingo game while Mary and I over saw two BofM Match games. After the games we had treats – they are called pillows and are made of soft dough with cream centers. The youth – and the elders – really like them.

After we had semi-cleaned up, we left the Mickelsens talking to their two applicants and hurried home for a few minutes to take care of a couple of things. We then went down to the Arterial to wait for the Mickelsens to come by so we could go to dinner at the harbor. As we were almost to where we agreed to meet them, Mary discovered she had left the phone back at the boarding. Since we did not have time to go back and get it we just had to sit and hope that they found us. When they pulled up along side us Mary was very happy.

When we got to restaurant row at the harbor we were surprised to find that everyone was booked up. It seems that just like in the US everyone goes out to eat on Friday night. We must have looked very disappointed because one of the restaurants brought in an extra table to accommodate us. That is what I call an excellent manager.

We were early enough that we did not have an over long wait for the delicious food to arrive. It was also quiet enough to talk to each other. But then the crowd arrived and the volume of noise increased greatly. There were two or three large parties including one right behind us where 15 or more women were celebrating one of their birthdays. They came in strange costumes and my picture of them does not do the actual scene justice.

The swordfish was very good. The fillets were thin but large where we are use to thick smaller ones at home. So while they were not as juicy, they were still tender and tasty. All in all it was a very nice meal and even with 14% VAT and a generous tip the whole meal was about $25.

When we got home I almost immediately started on editing the pictures I took today. This ended up taking over an hour to finish but we can now get them printed and ready for the Youth by next Friday.

12 November 2009 – Thursday

It was hot today! But not nearly as hot as they say it is going to get come December and January. Looking at pictures of snow does not seem to help. Luckily we spend a good part of our time in our lovely air-conditioned car. At least enough to cool us down between visits and classes.

I got the car washed this morning so the hand-prints that had been decorating the sides for the last few days have disappeared. We spent part of the morning getting everything ready for our English class and PD Youth. It is amazing how much time is needed just planning and getting things together. Then of course half the time you get to the class and you find you left something at the boarding.

We were bunked by the Richards Bay district for DDM. When I called elder Weaver he apologized and said that he woke up this morning thinking it was Wednesday. I must say that is a new excuse. With no DDM we had time to take care of a few errands that we had been putting off including paying our water bill.

We were just finishing lunch at Maxis when Sne Mthalane came in and we talked about the Youth Convention on the 28^th. I had talked to him about getting more information out to the branches as to what kind of banner they were to make. He was on his way to buy material so everyone would have the same size and quality. Since we met with President Vezi on Tuesday while we were eating and today Sne, maybe we should just get an office in the mall so everyone could come in.

Our English class is growing. Today sister Chirwa brought a neighbor. Unfortunately Temba and gogo Nzama were not there – we have not see Temba for two weeks now. The new sister who came knows almost no English so I ended up taking her to another area and working with her one on one. It was rather fun and she taught me the Zulu words for tree, bee, sleep, sweets, foot and feet. Hopefully I will remember them so I can show off next time.

Youth at PD was pretty good. We challenged them to read the Book of Mormon before we are released. They need to read about 2 pages a day and they said they would.  We will see how they do this coming week. Siya and Fufu are speaking this coming Sunday and I said we would come on Saturday and help them prepare their talk so they do not just read it from a Liahona. After our lesson, we played games: Book of Mormon Bingo and Book of Mormon Match Game. They truly enjoy games but are a little competitive. It is just a shame that there is not more family support for the youth – that is a home with a righteous PH leader. However a number of them have strong gogos and perhaps we can get them to start holding FHE, Family Prayer and Family Scripture reading.

Neither the Nzama’s home nor the PD chapel have even a fan to help cool things off. Mary seems to hold up pretty well but I have to continually wipe my face and neck to keep from drowning in perspiration. It would not be too bad if the breeze that seems to come up in the afternoon would move through the chapel but lately it has been blowing the wrong direction.

We were only home a few minutes when the RB elders called and asked if they could come over and make a baptismal program for Sunday. Of course we invited them over and Mary showed them how to use the template to make one. They did an excellent job and it is good to have them do it instead of just doing it for them.

As they were leaving Elder Weaver told us that they had an unhappy landlord because they keep setting off the alarm when they come home. For some reason they can remember how many rings means it is off. They are set it off twice in the last two days and it is waking up the landlord’s baby. Elder Weaver is afraid he might ask them to move if they do it again.

This morning as I was waiting for the car to get washed – a 45 to 60 minute task – I re-read most of the July Ensign. I really should re-read the Church magazines more often. Almost always some article that did not really connect with me the first time I read it, is just what I need to read later. Although the articles in the Church magazine can not be considered scripture, often they seem like they are.

This is Mary with sister Myeza of the Esikhawini branch. She is 81 years young. She was having trouble with her feet but insisted on walking us out to the gate and waiting until we drove away. She is the mother of the Relief Society president. Her yard is filled with beautiful flowers.

Mary did some work on President Machaka’s computer. President Machaka was happy to get his picture taken. His future wife – Phumzile was a reluctant subject. They have plans to be married in early December in the Joburg temple.

The Khanyile family would be a wonderful addition to the PD branch. Zinhle, the oldest child, comes to church and youth when the parents allow. The mother use to come to the English classes at the Nzamas. A neighboring child really wanted to be in the family portrait. We promised to take his picture if he would step out of the family shot. As I have mentioned there are huge tree farms in the country. Everyday we see truck loads of logs heading for the mills but it is hard to get a picture. I was lucky to catch this large load as it went around a corner.

10 November 2009 – Tuesday

Spent the morning doing many of the chores that did not get done yesterday. It seems that laundry, dishes, shopping, etc., does not get done by some friendly elves when we are doing game drives and holding FHE at member’s homes.

Finally in the afternoon we were able to go out and visit a couple of investigator’s home. At the Khanyile home we met the whole family and had a nice visit. When her parents let her, Zinhle has been coming to church on and off for a long time. She has two young siblings, her mother runs the house and her father is a boiler maker who makes a decent income. While the home is very modest, the children are going to very good schools. It is wonderful to see the parents invest much of their income in the future of their children. It is also great to find a family where there is a father at the head. We could sure use this family in the Port Durnford branch. We gave them a picture of Jesus and they asked us to offer a prayer before we left.

After that we picked up Bungumuse and took him to the RB mall so he could get to spend a few minutes with the famous South African wildlife painter Joe Marais. Mr. Marais looked at his work, gave him some instructions on how to improve and invited him back in a couple of months so he could evaluate his progress. Bungumuse was as excited as he would have been to have met President Obama. I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack. It was very nice of Mr. Marais to take the time to see this fine young man and help him with his drawing.

We dropped Bungumuse off at the taxi ring with enough money to take one home. We had checked with his mother to make sure it would be alright for him to go home by taxi so we did not have to make another round trip to PD.

I spent much of the evening – and some of the morning posting pictures and text to our web. I also put an album of our game drive on our Facebook page. It gets a lot of attention and we hope it might even get some couple thinking about putting in their papers for a mission in South Africa.

Mary has started a new puzzle we bought in Umfolozi yesterday – she does like to put things together.

Within 10 minutes of being in the park we got to see this and two other lions. Elder Musemare spotted two lions in the tree or we would have driven right by. He should think about becoming a game warden.

On the way out we came across this female hiding behind a bush. We think she was picking out dinner because there were some impalas nearby. We found a couple of rhinos around a waterhole with a small herd of Wildebeests under the shade of a tree. As the day went by we saw a number of single wildebeests among or near herds of impalas – we decided the richer herds hired them as bodyguards against the lions. The good side view of the rhino is actually from a trip to Umfolozi in September but Mary wanted to include it today.

The second of the big five we saw close up in the park was a large herd of Cape buffalo that hurriedly crossed the road right in front of us. Notice the young one at the rear. After they crossed the road they spread out and started grazing. I caught this older bull looking right at us and a number of them in the herd kept us in their sight.

Although we saw an elephant at a distance and found another along the road that I managed to scare away when I drove over a rock, it was not until we were on the way out that we came across four elephants near or in the river. The ones above were all taken at a distance of less than 30 feet and a couple were at less than 15 feet. The trees he is eating is covered in thorns – big ones that are up to 2 inches long and very sharp. I have decided it is the elephants version of spicy food.

The elephant we were able to get close to gave up eating and walked down to the river where three other elephants were grazing and drinking. One of the three left his or her friends and walked across the river where it greeted the other with what looked to me like a big kiss – which is not easy when you have a lot of trunk and tusks in the way, but it looks like love always finds a way.

There are so many wildebeest and impalas that we seldom take pictures but this wildebeest let me drive right up in front of him and then held still for a number of pictures. Mary took the one of the good looking male impala who was also close to the road. The picture with the two resting rhinos is just thrown into because the one on the right was really big even lying down.

As you can see we had our own herd of wild animals with us – the Richards Bay zone. We are told not to feed the animals in the reserve so we told the elders they had to bring their own lunch. However we did bring them some apples and left-over brownies.

09 November 2009 – Monday

It was a wonderful P-day for us. We were up at 4:45 and on our way to the RB chapel at 5:25. We thought that would give us plenty of time to get fuel and still be at the chapel before 6:00. Unfortunately while we were filling up I realized I did not have a tie and since we had told the elders we were to go in our whites, I had to run back to the boarding to grab a tie. Even with this set back, we made it on time and of course we had to wait for the last car of elders – Babeeyo and Kekana – to arrive 15 minutes late.

It looked like it might rain but other than a few drops on the way home the weather was perfect all the time we were gone. One of the reasons we were going was because Elder Wengert had never seen an elephant in the 21 months he has been in South Africa. We decided to go to the Umfolozi side and we were not 15 minutes into the park when we got to see … three lions. We got to see a male and female in a tree – they were within 30 feet of the car and another lioness walking through the brush. The female got down soon after we arrived, but we got great pictures of the male.

We then went to a look-out where at a distance we saw an elephant, six rhinos, and cape buffalo. So within a half hour of being in the part we had seen 4 of the big five. Before the day was out we got drive through a herd of cape buffalo, practically pet an elephant, and was within 50 yards of a very large rhino. Elder Wengert and the rest were in 7^th heaven. Besides this we saw lots of zebras – one as close as 6 feet. Ditto on a wildebeest and of course impalas, nyalas, and even a small herd of waterbucks. We did find it strange that we only saw one giraffe and that was at a very long distance. It was not giraffe day.

Besides the elephant at a distance and one very close up and personal, we got to see four of them in the river. We have pictures of what looks like two of them kissing – which is not easy to do when you have long tusks in the way. All in all it was probably the best single game drive we been on since we came to South Africa.

By the time we got home I was beat and I was tempted to call President Vilane and change the date of our FHE visit but we realized that it was tonight or not this week and so off we went. We had a great time. Mary had a short lesson that I got to be part of, we sang songs, and then played a Book of Mormon match game that they loved to play. Their 5 year old son Khaye (Ki-U) loved the game and was very good at it. In fact he and a 15 year old beat all the older people who were playing. After prayer we shared some Chelsea buns we had brought, thanked them for letting us be part of their family home evening and came home. We did not want to stay too long because they had not eaten dinner.

When we got home Mary fixed us a taco salad and soon after eating I fell asleep in the chair before waking long enough to fall go to bed.

08 November 2009 – Sunday

We had what has become a normal Sunday for us. There was a little spice in the morning when I could not find my scriptures nor the phone. After looking around for quite a while I decided I had left my scriptures at the Richards Bay Chapel and I could pick them up later. But I could not for the life of me figure out where I could have left it. After both of us pretty much looking everywhere, Mary told me to look in her music bag and there it was. I had given it to her when one of her students called and she had dropped it in when she cleaned up after her lessons.

PEC at Esikhawini was great with everyone there who was in town except the elders who arrived after the meeting was over. While I was in PEC, Mary was teaching another piano lesson. It turns out one of the sisters can be at the chapel at 8:00 which works perfect for us.

We then went to PD where once again the number of people kept growing until there were about 40 – including some investigators – there. We picked up Bungumuse and seemed to fit right in.

Steve Kliick was the District Council speaker. Steve lost almost all his vocal chords when he was beaten in a robbery so he had a hard time speaking. To help him speak he has found that if he writes his talk on the computer and then reads it, he is able to pace his breathing. When he tried to boot his computer, he ran into a problem and finally gave up and just talked from his heart. I don’t know how many people realized we were watching the Lord’s tender mercies as Steve was able to speak clearly and with great spirit without a single note to help him. It is as Nephi said – when we speak with the Spirit the Lord is able to add power to our words.

We left after PD sacrament and stopped at the Richards Bay chapel to pick up my scriptures. They were right where I thought they were and luckily Calwyn was had the clerks office open so I could pick them up. We stopped by home long enough for Mary to get some cold water to take with her to Enseleni.

I just realized I forgot to mention that it was very hot this morning and of course the PD chapel has no air conditioning and no fans. I decided I was not going to wear my coat today and I still managed to completely soak a handkerchief during the meeting. When real summer gets here it will be interesting to say the least.

I was extremely proud of President Vilane who started the meeting right on time. He did it without anyone at the sacrament table and did not seem at all worried that the PH would work it out. Hopefully as he continues to do this, the members will realize that if they want to take part in the sacrament, they need to be on time.

Two of the young sisters gave excellent talks and President Maloi spoke on the Atonement. After sacrament I noticed that the Young Women did not really have a class. They did not really want to go into RS or Primary. In fact some of them headed home. So I gathered a group of 6 of them in the kitchen – much too small and hot – and tried to teach them about ‘Come, Come ye Saints’ and the atonement. I do not think I did very well but when I bore my testimony about the atonement, I felt the spirit and hope that they did also. I will speak to President Vilane about having a class area for them and a prepared instructor. I am also going to suggest that he holds Sacrament meeting until 10 after the hour so that the lessons will only be about 40 minutes long.

After the meeting I had a brief meeting with Nonhlahla and Khulikani about the up coming Youth Convention and told them that we would start on getting ready on Friday. I am sure that the youth will do a great job on their Torch – but I suggested that they should not go too far out in their design.

We finally made it home at about 3:00 and that gave us time to rest before starting to get the house and food ready for the 10 hungry elders who were coming after their evening appointments. The great thing about the elders is that they are grateful for anything we prepare. Tonight they got sloppy Joes, French fries, baked beans, salad, ice cream and brownies.

They arrived over a 45 minute span of time and managed to eat about half the sloppy Joe mixture, 2/3 of the bunds, most of the French fries – which were not very good – all the salad, all the ice cream and about ½ the brownies. We sent the left over rolls, meat, and drinks home with them and then cleaned up before heading to a fairly early bedtime because we need to get up at 5:00 tomorrow morning so we can take them on a game drive.

I told them that they needed to bring their own lunches or go hungry. I said we were not their mother and father. Elder Wengert then said – well you kind of really are. I guess that is true because we do try to look out for them as we would hope others looked out for our children when they were on missions.

A two mite day…yeah!

The view out the Nzama’s back door – I thought it catches a lot of what Port Durnford is about. The yellow daisies and the Esikhawini chapel. This taxi travels around the area where we have our boarding. Therefore a number of times we have found ourselves behind it and I can tell you it is well named.

Joe Marais is a wildlife painter who works in the Richards Bay mall. He is doing a very large mural to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to charity. We see women carrying loads every day – we caught these ladies as they were walking along the road to Esikhawini.

A week ago we finally went out to the Port Durnford beach by ourselves and the next week we took the Mickelsens out to see it. Great sand dunes, beautiful white sand beach, and a river runs through it.

We had a good laugh at this sign warning about walking on the non-existent lawn. Elder Mickelsen introduced me to Spur’s chocolate milk shakes. A big mistake because now I order one everywhere we eat – the best I have found so far is the double thick one at Maxi’s.

Gogos -grandmothers and great-grandmothers – seem to always have children on their laps. This great-grandchild of sister Nzama never seems to smile – my goal is to get a picture of her smiling before we go home. Mama Zulu from Enseleni with her grandson.

We drive by an aluminum plant almost every day. We often see truck lots of ingots – as seen here – and sometimes we see trucks that is hauling hot aluminum. We are not sure where the trucks are going but they head towards the harbor. We had to laugh when we saw this speed limit sign on a Port Durnford sand road in the middle of no-where. I finally got a picture of my plain looking, yellow beak bird in flight. The great looking white under-wing does not show when it is hopping around the Esikhawini lawn.