08 August 2009 – Saturday

Most of the day was spent attending the funeral of the young sister who was killed on Tuesday. We had discovered that she was killed when a truck lost its brakes and plowed into her taxi and another car. She was the only one killed but 14 others were seriously injured.

I had to get to the car wash very early because our car was coated with mud from our visit to the mud puddle area yesterday. I thought if I got there by 7 when it opened I would be first in line. Wrong! I was the 5^th in line. Others had the same idea.

We had told Fufu, a young woman in the Port Durnford branch who had gone to school with Nomfundo, that we would pick her up and take her to Richards Bay for the funeral. So we ran out to PD and got her and then headed back to the chapel to see if we could help in any way to get things ready. When we got there we found everything was under control. However Mary was asked to play the prelude and other music. She ended up playing for about 90 minutes before everyone arrived.

At 11:00 when it was to start there was only a couple of dozen people in the chapel but the family and those who traveled with them started to arrive and in a few minutes the chapel and half of the cultural hall was filled. Family, friends, neighbors, and even a bus from her school arrived.

The funeral was originally planned for 4 hours but president Van Thiel told the family it had to be no longer than 2 hours.  This was the first Zulu funeral we have attended and it was interesting to see it unfold. President Nyawo of Esikhawini conducted with President Vezi of the District Presidency presided. The first part was family and friends giving talks and singing. What I found interesting was the principal of her school was one of the speakers. Of course everything except the hymns was done in Zulu and I could not understand a word. But while of the speakers was talking, my spirit was touched and I felt that what was being said was special.

After the family part, we had a short LDS section where sister Khamalo spoke about how Nomfundo joined the church and her desire to go on a mission. Then President VanThiel spoke on the plan of salvation and I thought it was a wonderful and easy to follow talk that was teaching without preaching. Mary was also impressed.

After the service we took a load of young women to the cemetery. The service there was very short. The casket was then lowered into the grave and a layer of short logs were placed over it, then a couple of straw mats were put on top of those. Male members of the family each placed a shovel full of soil in the hole and the women threw in a small handful. Then anyone who wanted to could help in refilling the grave.

I did not participate but a number of the elders and members did. As it was being filled people would start a song in Zulu and others would join in. Fufu started a number of them and most people seemed to know the words so I supposed that they were traditional hymns that all sang in church.

When the grave was filled, the people quickly left. We were going to take the Esikhawini elders to their area but a number of the people from Port Durnford needed rides. So we found rides with members for the elders and took Sister Chirwa, Fufu and President Machaka to their homes.

The only other thing that we did before going to our boarding is to stop to pick up the bread I had ordered for tomorrow. Mary spent the evening making meatloaf and preparing other things for the dinner.

07 August 2009 – Friday

Rain in the morning which meant we were not going to the game park as planned. It seems that every time we plan to go away for a day the rain starts. So instead of enjoying a day off, we enjoyed a morning off and then headed out to Esikhawini to give the Zone leaders some money and other things that they needed for their Cosi Bay visit.

 

When I get out my camera, the kid comes out in all the elders. They want to be in the picture and they want to have fun. 5 minutes later they can be bearing a wonderful testimony or talking about the joy of finding a new family to teach.

When we got there, elder Mokopotsa was busy fixing their bikes. I kidded him that he should start a bike repair service up on the corner where there is an auto repair service that operates on a large grassy area. This would keep the overhead down to almost nothing. Two of the great sisters of the branch were there working on their gardens. We love sister Mathe and sister Khumalo – they are great examples to the young women of the branch.

We then headed out to Port Durnford to visit gogo Nzama and see how she is. When we got there we found that she had gone to the doctor’s to see if she could get some relief. This of course meant more of their meager funds had to go for transportation and doctor’s fees. With little if any cash reserve they will have a hard time with bills and food this coming month. After visiting with Thandi Nzama for a short time, we dropped off the chicken soup Mary had made and headed back to our boarding.

 

On our way home we passed the Malondo home and saw that they were laying the blocks for the new round house they are building. We stopped to see how it was done and found Siya and Landani had stayed home from school to help. It seems that those two like to find reasons not to go to school. I suggest to them that this is a bad idea and that their main home to breaking the circle of poverty they are in is for them to get a good education. About 100 yards away from where they are building this house, the neighbors are building a square one using traditional wattle, stone and mud. Except for the tin roof that will go on, there is no material costs at all.

 

We decided today was the day we would check out that sea of mud we did not go through a few days ago. To get there we had to go through some smaller muddy areas. The idea is to get up some speed and hope you make it to the other side without getting stuck. Since there were a good set of tracks from prior vehicles we felt fairly safe in giving it a try and we made it through two of them without any problems. But when we got to the big one we took one look and said ‘no way.’ So we just took pictures and splashed back to the main road. Of course the car was pretty well covered with mud, but I needed to get it washed anyway.

On our way home to our boarding, we stopped at the mall and bought most of the food we will need for feeding the missionaries on Sunday. I am rather glad we do not feed them every week because that could become expensive.

When we got home we unloaded the car and pretty much called it a day.

Some random pictures: Mary really dislikes moths and this one was about 6 or 7 inches across. She did not care if it was beautiful she just wanted it gone. I love to take pictures of children. No matter where they are, how humble the surroundings, they are almost always clean, dressed in clean clothes and obviously loved by their parents or grandparents. The last picture was taken by sister Mickelsen of a loaded cane truck. I have been trying to capture a good photo of one of these for a couple of weeks but without success. Her picture is perfect. Thanks Sister Mickelsen!

06 August 2009 – Thursday

The morning sky looked like it was going to be a dark, rainy day but although the sky stayed threatening, it did not rain.

It was a morning of taking care of business. First I went to the municipality building and visited my friends at the Water and Sewer Connection desk to try and get the water flowing again in Esikhawini. Knele – we are on a first name basis – made a couple of calls and we both crossed our fingers that someone would take care of it. Next we both had our hair cut at Images. We then went to the mall where Mary had her latest Book of Mormon Bingo game laminated while I went to the store – which is in the same section of the mall – for some things we needed.

On our way to Port Durnford we stopped by the Esikhawini chapel and found nothing had been done with the water. So I called Knele and told her that we still had the problem. She transferred me to someone who was really not happy to talk to me but said that someone else would call me. We then continued to the Nzamas where we had our weekly English class.

If you are ever in Port Durnford and want to find the chapel, all you need to do is go down the only paved road in the area until you see this sign and look opposite the way the arrow points and there is the chapel. Mary, Thandi and I sat up for youth. Thandi Nzama is the YW president and is learning her calling. The last pictures show the youth learning the 7th and 8th Article of Faith and playing Book of Mormon Bingo. They really liked the game and everyone won at least once.

After the meeting I was taking some pictures and of course everyone wanted their picture taken. The picture on the right is of Siya who lives in a small room near the chapel. He is a very smart young man and could be an excellent leader but he is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. The middle picture shows him sharing some of his bingo ‘winnings” with the small children that live in the front house. He always shares anything he gets with them – it just comes natural to him.

These are just scenes I shot near the chapel. The woman was dropped off by a taxi and is gathering up her shopping to walk down that road to her home. Sometimes the women will be met by a young man with a wheelbarrow if the load is too big for one trip. The middle picture shows how you start to build a small traditional round house but using block instead of rocks, mud and wattle. They recently tore down an older house just a few feet away. Almost every homestead has a garden where they grow cabbage, onion, spinach, beet root, and in this case peppers. Usually they are maintained by the women, but this particular one is cared for by a man.

As we were leaving the chapel to take Thandi home they started to burn the cane field just across the street. This is the first time we have seen a non-professional burn and it will be interesting to see if they were able to keep it under control. In the big fields – and there was one being burned as we drove out of Esikhawini – they are carefully controlled. The picture on the right is a typical truck load of workers being taken home. They pretty much pack them in and of course when they have an accident there are usually a number of deaths.

Yeah! We stopped again at the Esikhawini chapel and found that a crew had just finished closing up the hole after fixing the water problem. I thanked them a number of times before rushing off for home so I could drop off Mary before going to District Council Meeting.

I have come to enjoy the Council Meetings because it allows me to see the kindness, wisdom and practicality of President Baldwin as he deals with a district that really is short on trained MP and has a number of problems most Stake Presidents do not have to deal with. I am not fond of 2 hours meetings of any kind, but his seem that long. But I must say that I was happy to finally get home and to be able to relax.

On our way to DDM this morning we passed this beautiful bougainvillea tree in full bloom. This is one of the things that South Africa has with Indonesia. Everywhere we go we see bougainvillea. At DDM, Elder Babeeyo on left conducted as District Leader. Elder Mbithi gave a short lesson on taking the right member with you when you teach a lesson. Before DDM I taped two of elder Musemare’s fingers together to see if this will help the one he closed in a car door 9 weeks ago heal. I also gave him some pills that were sent up by Sister Mann. If this does not work he gets to have the finger X-rayed again.

After DDM we went to the mall to get a new ice chest – our old one seems to have been donated to a caterer without our knowledge. While I ran up and got it from Games, Mary sat in the parking garage and read. We then had lunch before heading to Esikhawini and our PEC meeting with the elders and President Machaka. The elders wheeled up in their bright red car. The meeting was short but covered everything that we needed to cover.

After PEC the elders wanted to show us a new way they found to get from Esikhawini to Port Durnford that comes out almost at the chapel. The road was not bad at all – at least not by South African standards – but when we got within about 200 yards of the main Port Durnford road we came to a very nasty mud puddle – actually more like a pond – that no one wanted to try to get across. Unfortunately I did not think to take a picture but I may tomorrow from the other side.

Since we needed to turn around I drove into a near by yard where there were a number of women with children. They looked at us strangely but we quickly made friends by talking to them and giving the children some candy. One of the women said that they were really surprised to see ‘white people’ in the area. I think we will go back some day and introduce ourselves and the gospel to them. Another photo op missed.

After getting turned around and back to Esikhawini we went to the chapel to see if anything had been done with the water. Of course it had not. See yesterday for pictures – nothing has changed.

We then had the sad task of going to the home of a young – 20 years old – sister who was killed in a taxi accident last night. She was the only member of the family who was LDS but we were welcomed to the family’s home. We introduced ourselves and shared in their sorrow. There was a group of women and one man sitting around the room and we joined them. In one corner was a small setting that included some clothes, candles, a bowl and a stack of books. The top book was her Book of Mormon. The setting was important but we were not sure what the pieces represent. My guess is it things the spirit will need as it travels to the next world. But that is only a guess.

As we were sitting quietly, one of the women started singing in Zulu and most of the others joined in. The singing was both very beautiful and very sad. They sang a number of songs and the last one sounded very much like ‘God Be With You Til We Meet Again.’ When they had stopped Mary commented on how beautiful it was and I said that the last song reminded me of our hymn. When I mentioned the name, they said that is what it was. The Zulu words require small changes in tune.

When what was obviously their preacher arrived, we excused ourselves. Two of the other mourners came out with us – I think our leaving allowed them to. We will come back for the funeral which they indicated would be at the house but we will have to see.

As we were traveling back to our boarding I noticed the full moon in the darkening sky. I took a number of pictures from different places and these are just three of them. The two on the right were taken only two or three minutes apart but the light had changed dramatically in that time. The one on the left was taken near our boarding with another lens setting.

This really belongs with yesterday but I did not take it until this morning. This is the finished 1500 piece puzzle that we had to do mainly by turning the pieces over and using a pattern on the back to guide us. I know it was cheating but I doubt if we would have every finished it any other way. I am going to get more puzzles from this company but I think I will stick to the 500 or 750 piece puzzles.

This evening a neighbor who is an insurance broker came over to get the information needed to give us a quote on renter insurance while we are here. If it is cheap enough we will probably get it just in case someone breaks in and cleans us out as they recently did one our neighbors.

 I will write about these pictures when we get home from DDM

Before running errands we went to our PO box and got the bills we knew would be there. On the way home we stopped at the nursery to see if we could get Round-Up concentrate so we could kill a lot of weeds that have grown up around Esikhawini’s garden plots. They did not have anything but we did get these good pictures of a bird we had not seen before and that we can not find in our Birds of South Africa book.

We then went to mall where I made sure we were not behind on our Telkom bill so they will not disconnect us this month. I have come to know the young women who work there by their first names. They appreciate the fact that I never get upset with them when I have a problem – it is not their fault.

We then went to the municipality where Mary paid our $3 water bill while I went up to the Water and Sewer desk and told them about our problem with no water at Esikhawini. The woman called the water folks and told me that they would take care of it.

When we arrived at Esikhawini we found the service folks waiting for us. I thought for once a problem would quickly be solved. Wrong! After an hour of working on the problem they decided that the crew that repaired the system last time would have to do it again. They made a call and told us that someone would be coming. 2 1/2 hours later we gave up and headed home. Maybe tomorrow?

The picture of the lamp post is important because I finally figured out how to get my camera to go beyond the 3.2X zoom. It has been a problem for months and there are a lot of pictures of birds and animals I could not take because I could not zoom in close enough. We spend more money at Super Spar than anywhere else in Richards Bay. We not only get most of our food there, we also buy any welfare food orders at Super Spar. I have bought enough from the bakery department that the manager knows my name and the clerks all smile and wave when I go by. For all the years I have shopped at Albertsons in Provo, they still do not know me from Adam.

In the evening Elder Peterson and Elder Mukhota came by so Elder P could use our Vonage phone to find out why his credit card does not work. It took him about 20 minutes to get them to agree to lift the ban that Zions has on almost all Visa cards here in South Africa. Credit card theft is one of the major problems that we are warned against. We only use ours at the ATM and for Mary’s pharmacy purchases.

3 August 2009 – Monday

Our planned P-day trip to the game park with the elders was washed out by the continuous rain that fell until about 11:00. We decided we would just stay around the house and then go to lunch and a movie.

This was also changed when we got a call from the Barts inviting us to go to lunch with them and the elders. We of course were happy to do this and so the Piers, the Barts and 10 elders arrived at Spurs. Sister B is still hurting – she did not get to sleep until 4:00 a.m. this morning. She tried hard to look happy to be there but it was very difficult. I am amazed at her strength. I am afraid I would just crawl into bed and not come out until I was feeling pretty good.

It is amazing how much the elders can eat and drink! A couple of them ate double rib-burgers – that is almost a pound of boneless ribs on a bun with fries. I have no idea where some of the smaller elders put it all. While the food was great, it was the conversations with the elders that made the almost 2 hours we spent at lunch fly by. I sat across from elders Richey and Muthoka – they had been companions and now are serving in the same zone. It is interesting to hear both their spiritual experiences and their war stories. Elder Muthoka is the most robbed and mugged elder in the mission and yet it has not in any way reduced his desire to serve. The one thing he is mad about – he says he is working on his anger management skills – is when they took his carefully marked scriptures.

I told him that maybe in 20 years there will be an article in the Liahona telling about someone who found this set of scriptures in the trash and after reading them joined the church. Then his family joined and over the course of 20 years over 100 people had joined the church because of those scriptures found in the trash.

After lunch we looked at what was on at the movies and did not see anything worth going to. Instead we came home and spent the day relaxing, working on the puzzle, reading the Liahona, etc. Next week even if it is pouring rain we are going to go somewhere and see some part of Africa.

02 August 2009 – Sunday

It is almost 11 p.m. and the rumble of thunder rolls over the house. It has been raining almost all day but the thunder is new. It has been a good day in many ways.  There has also been some disappointments. But in the long run it more than balances out to be a good day.

The alarm cut into a really deep sleep – neither of us were ready for it. But we got up and prepared for our usual Sunday activities.

We were the first ones to Esikhawini so I opened everything up. Since there was still no water pressure we knew we would be going to Richards Bay for the baptism. PEC consisted of 5 elders and brother Wenzie. President Malinga woke up not feeling well so he would not be at church and would not be able to baptize sister Zibani so elder Mbithi will do both.

The morning was cold and threatening to rain as the members started coming in. We thought we had a real problem when we could not get the lights to stay on but finally they did – at least for most of the meetings. Brother Wenzie did a good job getting the meeting started only about 5 minutes late. Which for South Africa is well within the ‘on time’ zone – I guess that is something like the way the airlines figure their on time percentage.

There were some great testimonies. As I mentioned before, there are almost no preaching, faith promoting stories, travelogues, or such. Most people give thanks for blessings they receive and bear their testimonies of the truths they know. Sister Khumalo started her testimony by saying “I know God loves me and knows my name.” I was greatly touched by that thought. It is something that I think is a really important part of a testimony and shows her relationship with God.

While testimony meeting was going on it started to rain and it just kept getting harder and harder as the block went on. For all those who have to walk home or to the taxi stands it was not going to be a pleasant day.

Brother Nyawo taught adult Sunday school – they really need to get a regular teacher. The lesson was on the scriptures and he got the members involved.

Priesthood was another highlight of the day. Brother Mthalane – the recently returned missionary – taught a lesson on the sacrament – the importance of preparing, blessing and passing it with the right spirit. We then read our way through the blessing on the bread and as we did this, I realized that while I had thought of the individual parts of the blessing, I don’t think I ever thought about the order of the blessing. The idea that after we eat the bread in remembrance Christ,  we then witness (covenant) with God to willing take upon us Christ’s name, always remember Him, and then keep his commandments as he has given them…when we do all this then the great blessing of always having His spirit to be with us is assured. I do not think I will ever take the sacrament after this with out thinking about what I learned today – at least I hope not.

After the block we started to organize the cars to get people to the Richards Bay chapel for the baptism services. We ran into a bit of trouble when we found that the branch mission president who was supposed to conduct had left and we could not get him on his cell phone. To make a long story short, Mary and I took one of the young sisters who wants to learn to play the piano home so she did not have to walk in the rain with the keyboard we are lending her and then went to the RB chapel where we found everyone except someone to conduct. It seems the BML got busy somewhere else and was not going to make it. Once more wonderful brother Wenzie stepped in and conducted a meeting he had no idea he would conduct.

The baptism went well – brother Zibani had to be done twice because elder Mbhiti was standing too close to the steps the first time. About the only people who actually watched were a group of missionaries, the couple’s daughter and Yaya Mathe who we think is somehow related. As always I was touched by how simple the ordinance of baptism really is and yet without it there is no entrance to the straight and narrow way that leads to Eternal life. I can kind of picture Phillip baptizing the eunuch in the river along side the road – just the two of them and perhaps some of the eunuch’s servants. Yet this simple scene was greater than the baptism of a new royal child in some great cathedral.

After the baptism we came home, broke our fast, and then I took a nap. When I woke up I helped Mary in cleaning up the house and getting the food ready for feeding the elders. We were ready for them to start to arrive about 7:00 but they ended up arriving later than usual because they had all been working or at least they had been busy in their areas. Elder and sister B were unable to come because of her illness.

Elder Torgerson had an unhappy day because a couple that they have been working with for months and thought was ready to be baptized, told them that they were going back to their old church. As we talked I told him that even if they do not continue to come, the experience that they have had with the church will never leave them and we may never know what that will mean as the years go by.

For the best part of a couple of hours our house was filled with elders happily talking about their work, the food, and what they might do tomorrow if it continues to rain so we can not go to the game park. Some of them – elder Musemare especially – are rather quiet. But for the most part they keep up a continual chatter stopping only to eat a large quantity of food. Just after 9:00 our 12 great elders went home full of BBQ beef, baked beans, corn, garlic bread, brownies and ice cream.  For some of the African elders it was the first time they had BBQ beef and baked beans – all of them like the beef – I am not sure they all appreciated the beans.

After they left I finished the dishes and then we just sat around and relaxed until it was time to go to bed. Any day that I can watch two people enter the waters of baptism is a great day.

31 July 2009 – Friday

We spent most of the morning at home. We were waiting for our neighbor to send a crew over to mow and clean up the yard. But right at 8 I headed down to the car wash. It was the perfect time to go and I did not have to wait at all but drove right in. However because of the full service they give I was still there almost 45 minutes.

As we planned for the day we realized we needed some new games for the youth. We found a matrix for making a customized Bingo game so we printed out a set of cards. Once she got started Mary made another.

Mr. Justice finally came by at about 11:00 and sent his crew to work on our yard. It really needed it because it has not been done for almost 2 months. During the winter the grass does not grow very rapidly –however the weeds do so it was looking scraggy around here. It bothered Mary more than it did me but it will look better when the crew is done. I took some pictures to show the before and after.

We ate our lunch and then headed out to our area. First we went by the Bartholomews to pick up some games for our youth activity. Sister B had spent the morning having a lot of blood samples taken so they can find out what is wrong. She is still feeling quite bad and I am going to suggest to the elders that we fast for her on Sunday.

Along the way we ran some errands but still got to Esikhawini early. We stopped so I could get some KFC for Thobani Chirwa so he would know we cared that he missed the cast party yesterday. We then went to Port Durnford where we dropped off the list of foods someone with an ulcer should and should not eat at the Nzamas and then went to the Chirwas. After giving Thobani his treat – including one of Mary’s delicious brownies – we took sister Chirwa back to the Nzamas so she could visit gogo Nzama. Sister Chirwa is the branch RS president and takes her calling seriously. If we had not come by when we did she would have walked the 3 or 4 Kilometers as she usually does.

We then went to Esikhawini where we found one of the Buthelezi sons wanting to take the CPU from the branch computer to his home so they could send e-mail to Nkule who just left for her mission and is in the MTC in Joburg. We gave him a ride so he did not have to carry it back to his house.

On the way home we did some exploring and ended up at a couple of dead-ends – there are lots of them in the townships because the South African government under apartheid did not want people to be able to move quickly through them. There are only 6 roads that exit the township. All they had to do was block those and no vehicles could leave without being searched. There are also only 2 roads out of the area – once again so they could easily control the flow of traffic if they wanted to.

But the exploring paid off because as we were finally back on the road we knew, sister Mathe drove by and blinked her lights. At first I did not know who it was and then looked back and recognized her car. We waited while she drove back and we both got good hugs. She is a wonderful and very busy woman and like so many gogos here takes care of many of her grandchildren.

Back at the chapel we had our youth meeting. About ½ of them came. Some were sick and some just did not come. But I think those who did come had fun and enjoyed the treats. The biggest need they have is to develop some leadership among the youth. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves and so they do not have a bonded group as it seems Port Durnford is developing.

After the meeting Mary met with Sister Khumalo as a District RS Presidency. The other counselor did not come – she was working in Mthubathuba which is about 1:40 minutes away. We wondered if she went there each day – because if she does, she spends a lot of time on public transportation.

Once again we got out of the township fairly early so we arrived home just as it was getting dark. Mary made tuna sandwiches and we spent the night reading, writing, and working on the puzzle. I am trying to put together something for president Malinga to help him with conducting his presidency and PEC meetings.

30 July 2009 – Thursday

An eventful morning as I lost the internet once again. But I am getting better at figuring out what is the problem. In this case I had used up my basic amount of allowable GB and for some reason the extra ones that I have paid for did not kick in. So it was off to the mall to find out from my favorite Telkom ladies what was wrong.

To make things really short they could not help so I had to come home and call support, call Vincent, Vincent came over, found out how to switch from one account to another – yes I have two accounts instead of just adding the extra to one account. Two hours after discovering problem it was solved. By the time we leave for home I should be able to fix any internet problem that comes up.

Mary made brownies for Port Durnford, we packed up everything we would need for the day and headed out to fill a food order and then head for Esikhawini. We are getting really good at filling food orders. Although there are some basics that go to each family we are getting better at varying some of the order to better meet the needs of the particular family.

We were so efficient that we got to Esikhawini too early. We decided to visit some of the members. I wanted to see if I could find some of them without the GPS. I found brother Nkosi’s street but was not sure about the house number. I was about to give up when Mary reminded me that we had the map and luckily it had his house marked. He was not home but his non-LDS son was and we talked for a while about the wall he is help to build around the property.

As we were getting to leave a sister from the branch came up and we found that she lived just down the street but we did not have it marked on our map – which we quickly corrected. She is the sister who wants to learn English and we told her we would be there on Saturday. It is fun to start to know the members – we ran into one at the mall earlier and did not know her – so embarrassing.

We then went to their mall and while Mary got KFC, I went and bought ice cream. They have a very nice Pick n Pay and I think they had a better selection of ice cream than our big one in the mall. It is good to see that the mall and the stores are all very neat and clean – rather different from many things we find in the township.

We then went and delivered the food order and got to see Sister Nzama who is looking better but still not eating much. We forgot to get her a list of food that she should eat to take better care of her ulcer. We picked up Thandi Nzama and took her to the chapel for the cast party.

The party was a hit and they appreciated the pictures we gave everyone. We did find that some of them did not care at all for mashed potatoes and gravy. However a couple of the young men thought they were delicious and so they took any that others did not want. The brownies and ice cream were also a hit.

As we were leaving I reminded them that since they could all get to the party on time, I expected them all to be on time next week for youth. On our way back to the Nzama’s we came across Thobani Chirwa hurrying to the chapel – we were told he was in Esikhawini and would not be home in time for the party – unfortunately we did not have anything left for him. I felt very bad and tomorrow we will get something and take it to him because he was very faithful about coming to the rehearsals.

I want to write a bit about how they are very sharing people. Although the party was just for cast members, we could not keep out the little children who live there. Siya and Ayanda fed them off their plates. Fufu saved part of her food to take home and share. As we were leaving they asked for the extra Fanta so they could share with their family. So while they do not have much, they try to share what they have. The song “Because I have been given much” comes to mind but in this case it is “Because I have been given something.” We are blessed to know these young people.

Sister Muke Nzama needed a ride to the mall so she could go to work for something. Since we were going right by it we gave her a ride. If she had to take public transportation it would have cost her R 15 which does not seem like much but is a major expense for people who work for R 75 a day.

As usual the evening flew by and it was soon time to head to bed.

I have been neglectful about posting my journal here…here is the catch up post.

26 July 2009 –Sunday

It was rather hard to get up and going this morning but we made it to Esikhawini in time to open things up and go to PEC. I thought for a while that we were not going to have any PEC but President Thusi arrived about 10 minutes late and apologized. Unfortunately no one else showed up except us and the missionaries. But we had a pretty good PEC anyway. I was glad to hear that they had organized Home Teaching and that they would give out assignments later today in Priesthood. Also they are going to sustain brother Mthalane as YM President for the branch.

We were also the first to arrive at Port Durnford, followed again by the missionaries and then President Machaka. At 9:00 when it was supposed to start there was one sister and her child in the chapel. We finally got started at 9:15. While we were waiting I got a call from President Baldwin asking me to have the same brother Mthalane as District YM President. He had been trying to call Elder B without success so he could do the same in their two branches. I told him I would try to contact him. When he did not answer their phone I called the elders and they got him for me.

After sacrament President Machaka had each of the youth come up and tell about their experiences yesterday. Mainly they said they had fun and liked the food. The last speaker was Ayanda and she gave a great talk. She had made notes while she was at the activity and also wrote after she got home. She covered just about everything and we were really proud of her. I hope that the meaning of the activity will not disappear quickly from her and the other youth.

There were just over 20 people at Sacrament and I wondered where many of the others were. I told Mary that instead of going to the other hour of meetings that we should go out and visit some of the missing members and see if they were OK. We started by going to Sister Joyce’s where we found she had gone to Durban but we came across Sister Chirwa and her cousin. Sister Chirwa could not come because she had to meet with the local Chief so he could approve of a transfer of land from her cousing to her.

We then visited Gabi’s homestead – Gabi was at church but her father was not. She said that he mother was feeling better, but when we got there we found that she is still very ill and her husband had stayed home to help take care of her. He is going to take her to the hospital tomorrow. Earlier we found out from Thandi Zama that her mother was still sick and was not eating anything. We suggested she try chicken broth soup and see if she could keep it down. As I was writing this I had the feeling that we should make some tomorrow and take it to her.

When we were finished there, we headed for Esikhawini where we were able to take part in the last 30 minutes of RS and PH. After the block, Mary played for choir practice and then had her piano class. While she was doing that, I locked things up, had a good talk with Elder Mbithi about the idea that the brethren now testify of that this the True and Living Church and what that meant. Elder Mbithi and I seem to often end up sharing thoughts about the gospel. Earlier I had given him Elder Holland’s great talk at the Mission President’s Training about the Holy Ghost as your other missionary companion.

By the time we got home we were both tired so after a lunch of leftovers, we both took rather long naps.

While I was checking on Facebook, I found that our young friend Vita from Jogya was online and Mary and her had a good chat –while they were chatting two others contacted her including Looky another Indonesian friend. It is a great thing to be able to stay in contact with friends old and new but as I read in an article, most of what is written is lost for future use. No more large files of written on paper letters with thoughts and ideas of the times to be archived.

As usual we went over to the Barts for Sunday dinner with the elders. It is always a great time to meet and discuss what is going on and trade experiences – both recent and past. We have a strong group of mainly seasoned elders in Richards Bay at this time and they all have had interesting experiences while on their missions. Almost all have been robbed – elder Muthoka a total of 5 times including one where he was pistol whipped. But in almost all cases the elders were not being wise and therefore put themselves in danger. In talking to them they do not make a big thing of these kinds of experiences. They just consider it part of their missions. The thing that makes any elder who has been robbed or car jacked the maddest is when the thieves take their scriptures. Another thing I learned is that often the robbers seem nervous because they were raised Christian and know that they are robbing ministers of Christ.

Elder Richey said that when he and his companioned were robbed it was near the church and one of the robbers took the keys for the church and then looked at the church, decided that it was not a good idea to rob a church and threw the keys on the ground.

As the missionaries were leaving, Elder Musemare  came back and showed me the middle finger  of his right hand. He had shut it in a car door and the X-rays came back that it was not broken. But when I tried to straighten it out it hurt very much. I referred him to Mother Bartholomew who suggested we splint it. So we used two sticks out of Magnum ice cream bars and some surgical tape the Bs had bought by accident. I am sure it really hurt for us to mess with it but other than cringing a couple of times he bore it well. The Bs will probably take him in to have it checked again.

We were headed home just after 9:00 and in bed by 10:00. So ended another interesting day in the South Africa, Durban mission for us.

27 July 2009 – Monday

We spent our P-day cleaning house, running errands, starting a puzzle that may take the rest of our mission to finish, caught up captioning too many pictures, wrote e-mail to the other couples who were in the MTC with us, wrote to Tom Alexander asking about what was going on in the ward, and generally enjoying the day. Mary started making chicken soup from scratch so we can take it to a couple of the sick sisters in Port Durnford tomorrow. I read where Kristy was having a tough morning so I called her to wish her well. It seems Charlotte is again not feeling well.

28 July 2009 – Tuesday

The morning kind of zoomed by as Mary finished her chicken soup and I did dishes and laundry. I am amazed at the amount of dishes we use each day. I am guilty of using too many glasses – come on Bill wash out your glass and use it again – and so I can not complain too loudly.

I manage to sweat enough during winter to have to change white shirts most days. I hate to think what is going to be like in summer when the temperature.

We went to do some errands and while we were out I felt that we should call the Barts. I kind of ignored it at first but when it continued I gave Mary the phone – I was driving – and told her to make sure I called. When we got to McDonalds, I called and found that sister B was very sick. The strain of getting the youth activity done, going to two branches on Sunday and then fixing the meal for the missionaries on Sunday night was just too much. By the time she went to bed on Sunday night she had a terrible headache.

I asked if we should come over so we could give her a blessing. They felt like that was a good idea so we had lunch, dropped some things off at home and went to the B’s. We talked for a short time – sister B was obviously not well – and then I anointed and elder B sealed it and gave her a blessing. Hopefully that and some good rest will help her get well.

Our main activity of the day was going to Port Durnford on a Chicken Soup run. That is we went to visit the sick, the missing and others.

At the Nzamas we found that she was at the doctors and that was good. We left the soup with Thandi Nzama. Then we went by sister Joyces and found that she works at her business 6 days a week and so she is going to be hard to catch. We then went to Gabi’s homestead to see her mother who looked so ill on Sunday and found her outside in the sun washing dishes. She does not have good English so we talked a little and left her the soup. Our final stop was at the Chirwa’s where I we talked to Thobani about missing church –he was very tired he said – and found that sister Chirwa needed a ride to the clinic in Enseleni on Monday. We told her we would be glad to pick her up and bring her home. Our last stop was at the Zondi homestead – he is second counselor in the branch presidency – where we met a young man who is investigating the church and is building a traditional shaped house. We had a good time there but later I realized I had not taken any pictures to show in the blog.

The main activities in the evening were Mary making brownies for DDM tomorrow and us trying to work on the puzzle. You know it is a tough puzzle when you are excited when you are able to fit three pieces together in only 15 minutes.

It was good to get out and just visit people. We need to do that most days. By the time we got home we were rather tired – I am afraid we are not as young as we used to be. Hopefully as we visit and serve, we will touch the lives of some of the members  – active and less active – and will help build up the kingdom in Port Durnford and Esikhawini.

29 July 2009 – Wednesday

Mary woke up much too early and could not go back to sleep. Luckily I did not have that problem this morning. We did the normal morning things with the addition of doing a couple of loads of laundry.

We went to DDM with the Esikhawini district. Elder Babeeyo conducted his first one here as DL. He did a good job but it ran a little long. The best part of the meeting was when he had each missionary tell about how why he decided to go on a mission and how he prepared.

Elder Richey had a normal Utah experience, but the African elders all had wonderful stories to tell.

Elder Mholo was trying to decide about going on a mission when he re-read his journal. As he read he felt the spirit tell him he should go.

Elder Musemare was told by the missionaries who were teaching him that if he was baptized it was required that he go on a mission. This brought a number of comments from the rest of us. His parents are not members but supported him when he told them he was going.

Elder Mokopotsa said that he had soccer in his blood. It seemed like it was the most important thing in the world to him. When it came time, he had to choose between a mission and going on to play soccer. He decided to go on a mission and then it turned out that his branch president forgot to send in his papers for 6 months.

Elder Mbithi was the last of a large family, all who served missions but there was never any pressure put on him to serve. However twice he got quite ill and each time it was only when he committed to go on a mission that he got well. When he started getting the necessary papers to go on his mission he ran into all kinds of problems and it took him the better part of a year to get everything he needed.

Elder Babeeyo went to a Catholic boarding school. When the teachers found out that he was reading the Book of Mormon they told him it was wrong, took it away from him and burned it. He did so well in school that he got a full ride scholarship that he had to give up to go on his mission.

I imagine that almost every African missionary has a story somewhat like these to tell. They are true spiritual giants and, if they stay active, will greatly strengthen their wards and branches when they return home.

After DDM we went to the mall to get some lunch and then home for a short nap before heading to Esikhawini for our PEC with President Machaka. It was one of our better PEC with the President and he had a good idea of using some of the branch LUBA to have a braii after the Mormon Helping Hands activity on August 22. It should help get out people to help in the project and branch unity.

After the meeting we went to Port Durnford where we went to see some of the same people we saw yesterday. We had to tell sister Chirwa that we could not take her on Monday because we had a prior appointment that we had forgotten about. She said she can make it on public transportation. They are amazingly flexible people.

We then went to see how what sister Nzama found out from the doctor. It turned out she has an ulcer and so we talked about what she can and can not eat. We called President Machaka about some needs they have and he said he would look into it.

We had an excellent meeting with President Malinga. I am afraid I overload him most of the time but I always remind him that I am just making suggestions and have no real authority. He tells me he is glad to have the suggestions and considers me his coach. He is truly a good man and I think by the time we leave he will have the branch growing and functioning like a ward.

By the time we left his house it was completely dark. I feel somewhat uneasy but mainly about driving where there are few or no street lights more than any physical threat. We arrived home without any problems and ate our lunch leftovers for dinner.

It was another beautiful and spiritual day in paradise.