We had visitors today – only the second time that some one outside our zone has come to see us. We served in the same mission as Dennis and Taunia Lombardi but at different times. We got to know them through FaceBook and they were kind enough to help me replace my favorite Swaziland silver ring when the one I bought there in 2009 got damaged. They are now serving their second mission in South Africa. The first one was served in the Durban mission and they spent their 18 months blessing the lives of the members, missionaries and others in Swaziland. This time they are serving  in the Area offices in Johannesburg as Church History Advisors. We dropped in to see them in their office a couple of weeks ago and they returned the favor today.

Sister Lombardi said that they missed working closely with the young missionaries and the people. She also mentioned she missed the dirt roads. So we invited them to take a quick tour of Promosa and Ikageng where we would be happy to get them on some dirt roads.

Our first stop was in Promosa where we visited our dear friend sister Mary Mothobi. She lives in a humble home but it is filled with love and the spirit.

We then directed them – elder Lombardi was driving – to the orphanage that we give a little support. Sister Lombardi was in heaven when she found a group of young men playing on the dirt road. They have a big bag of lollipops ready to hand out to the children. They were equally as pleased to meet some of the children who live at the orphanage. Unfortunately neither Lolo or George were home but Lolo’s daughter was there to answer all their questions.

It was a fun afternoon for us and I think that this brief trip to the real Africa that they saw every day in Swaziland kind of recharged their batteries. We invited them back any time – at least up until we leave for home.

Monday night is YSA Family Home Evening time at the branch. Sister Ratema conducted the meeting and sister Kwaikwai thought a lesson on Tithing and Keeping the Sabbath Day holy from a talk by elder Bruce R. McConkie given at BYU  40 years ago but just as relevant today as it was then.  10 Commandments After the lesson the group settled down to a couple of intense games of Book of Mormon “Go Fish” which is a favorite of the group. Sister Kwaikwai cleaned up in the first game having accumulated 7 sets with the next best being 4!

On Tuesday  we picked up elders Hentunen and Wild and took them up to Parys to visit sister Bobbi Swanepoel and Louis. As we were  driving into the town, elder Wild spotted a group of monkeys so we stopped and took some pictures.  Elder Hentunen is from Finland and elder Wild is from England…they make a great companionship.

After our visit we walked down to the Vaal River that runs behind her flat. It was a beautiful day and the river was as smooth as glass. It is also very low for this time of the year. If you look really closely at the photo on the left you can pick out a man paddling a small kayak down stream. The other photo is from the same spot but looking up stream at a small rapids.

Usually I get a couple of photos of Louis but this is the only one I took this trip. He is leading sister Bobbi back to their flat. They make a great pair and we have been blessed to know them.

Sunday was clear and cold but over 50 members of the branch came to Church to enjoy the blessings of the sacrament and the fellowship of the saints. Due to load shedding the heaters stopped working about 30 minutes before the meeting started and the power did not come back on until 30 minutes after the block was over. I guess wanted us to be warmed by his spirit and it worked.

Above is president and sister Kwaikwai who had a few moments together for a photo. Three of the lovely young women in the branch posed for the next one – sisters Kruger, Lekebe and May. Below we have brother Menzi with sister Amos – I try to get Menzi with a different lady each week. The warmest place was out in the yard in the son so there were a number of gatherings including the one of the PH with sister Ntabising. We were glad to have Bongani Buti visiting the branch.

If you look through the blog you will see that I often have a photo of sister Thulo – she is joined in the other two by sister Khanye Lekebe.

Sisters Ratema and Kea show off their smiles and also their oh so tall high heels. Below Sister Ratema with brother Omphile. While his main girl, sister Kea gets even by posing with Bongani Buti. Bongani served as my counselor until he got a job up in Pretoria so he knows the branch members well. Then we got the two love birds together for a photo. In the last photo in this series we find sister Kwaikwai joining brothers Omphile and Bongani as well as sister Ratema.

 

The branch is blessed to have a very active Primary that is watched over by a great Primary presidency of sisters Georgina, Viona and Merriam. Mary plays the keyboard for sharing time and then does the same for Relief Society.

Since we hold our sacrament and other meetings in a room where there are school classes, each week a different group of members have an assignment to clean and wax the floor and then set up the room for the meeting. They also clean the bathrooms – not always a pleasant task at the best of times, and a couple of other rooms. The Tlotleng group have never missed a cleaning assignment!

The crew today included sister Renny Motha who shows below her excellent mopping skills while elders Hentunen and Wild start setting up the chairs. The bottom photo is of brothers David Rampai and Simon Tlotleng cleaning and setting up the Primary room for the children.

While the crew was cleaning, Institute class was being held in another room. I did not get a photo while the class was going on but I did get some of class, plus sister Renny who had turned in her mop, afterwards as they were preparing to play some wicked games of UNO. They take playing very seriously but you could not tell from all the smiles and laughter.

Because the errands we needed to run went quickly we arrived at the Klerksdorp chapel 45 minutes early. I took a photo of elders McCartney and Peterson. Elder Peterson is the only missionary in the district besides ourselves who is from the US. Elder McCartney is from Scotland. We have a very diverse group of missionaries – but all are here because they love the Lord and want to share the gospel with others.

We took pictures with the district. In the one on the right elder Peterson was missing so we took another one with him and his green tie. In that photo from left to right behind us is elders Hentunen – Finland, McCartney – Scotland, Wild – England, Tukia – ZL – Samoa, Peterson – US, Khwela – South Africa, Turauskis – Lithuania. From the photos below you can see that we brought apples as treats…The zone leaders, elders Tukia and Masoka are showing the district how to pose with an apple in their mouths – true leaders in every way.

 

Along the N12 in Klerksdorp there is a group of mimes that are often preforming at the robots. They put out a box or something that folks can toss money into. Mary’s job is to try to get the coins into the box – she is getting better. It helped that this time we were the first in line so she had lots of time to make the toss.

While district meeting was going on, I was working with brother Andrews to finish the year end audit for Klerksdorp so I missed the training. I am just glad this is the last time I will have to do any audits – it is not a fun job no matter how well organized the branch financial records.

I was cleaning up some things in the cupboard and found an old open bag of marshmallows. I started to throw them out but decided instead to see if the birds that come to eat would like them. The first group i put out were ignored for a couple of days and then they disappeared. I only put a few out at a time and now they last about a day. The sequence shows one of the sparrows coming up, taking a peck and then checking around before taking another. I think some of the birds have developed a sweet tooth!

I usually plant African daisies and dianthus each year that we are home in Provo. Then winter comes and they die. But here  in South Africa they seem to thrive during winter – at least this winter. The pot of daisies hardly had a decent bloom during the summer and fall but now with winter it is alive and beautiful with them. The dianthus has been blooming since the day I planted them and even now they are full of color. I look at them often because by the time we get home it will be fall and so I will have to wait until April 2016 to plant these beautiful flowers again.

We had load shedding again last night and it was all my fault. In the morning as we were getting into the car, I said to Mary that we had not had any load shedding – that is when the power goes off for 2 to 4 hours – in a long time. As soon as I said it I realized that I had just hexed us and so I knocked on wood. Unfortunately I was too late  – the power went off at about 6:00 and did not come back on until about 10:00  So we lighted the candles, got out the emergency lighting and had a quiet evening. Unfortunately Mary was in the middle of baking a batch of sugar cookies when the power disappeared and the oven is of course electric. But on the positive side the oven stayed hot enough to finish baking the batch and as you can see they came out fine. I will not mention load shedding again – at least not while we are in South Africa.