January 31, 2013

 We stopped by the Tunyes tonight and their son was outside with a few of his friends. We took this opportunity to give each of them one of the small cars the Hale family sent for the children here.  They were excited and happy to receive them.

January 28, 2013

 The best part of the day was a boat ride up the Kowie River.  The Cockbains had invited us to do that sometime and since Tim will be pulling the boat out of the river in a few days, we cleared our evening and left around 4:30.  What a nice, peaceful ride.  Unfortunately, we didn’t bring the camera, since I didn’t take my purse but we got these from the Cockbains.  

 We saw some great wildlife…bushbok, and a secretary bird, which is rare to actually see in the wild…fish hawks…lots of other birds.  After the ride, we had dinner with them at their home.  A great evening.

January 24, 2013

 Rick hauled three loads of gravel to Brother Moore’s home from the church today in the trailer.  

 
 They are digging out along the short driveway to the back of the building and hauling it away.

 
They will reline it with black plastic and put some smaller gravel in, which will look a lot better and there will be a barrier to keep the weeds out.  

Before

After

 
 The Moore’s are putting in a water tank and could use some of the old larger gravel for the base of the tank.

January 22, 2013

 While at the church this morning, the Elders stopped by and brought us a package we received in the post.  At last, the package Bob and his family sent had arrived.  Christmas again…what a treat…and I mean treat!!!  Included in the package was two kinds of M&M’s, a really yummy peanut brittle, almond Roca, chocolate covered cookies, and Crystal Lite drink…along with letters and pictures from and of the kids and Kira the dog.  Also, a really neat shawl Sara knitted, and warm socks for the winter here.  It was great.  

This afternoon, Rick was finally able to start training the new membership clerk, Brother Matshotyana.  Then we went to his house and shared a message with him and his wife.  They have the baby that is really cute and really likes me.  It is great!

January 20, 2013

 We enjoyed the Sherberts talks and also handed out certificates of completion for the last years seminary attendance to Ayabonga Mgadi, Magret Tunye and Sinalo Nteyi.  During Sunday School, there was a loud bang. Sister Barris heard it, jumped up really fast and then fainted.  Rick saw a couple of the sisters hurrying to get some water and found out she had fainted.  He came into primary and got me to help with Sister Barris.  The other sisters really had it under control by the time I got there but she was pretty shaken up as was her husband who thought she had been shot and had died. The noise was pretty loud.  She is 75 years old and he is 84. They were pretty shaky the rest of the morning. 

I found out later from Elder Alexander that he had turned on the organ and some children must have played with the controls for the sound system since they were all turned up to the maximum and when he did that the loud  bang happened.  I teased him about trying to kill off the members of the branch!! 

January 19, 2013

 Today the CES senior couple, Elder and Sister Sherbert, came to train me on the upcoming seminary year.  We had dinner here for them and they spent the night, since they are speaking in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow.  They are a very nice couple who stay in Port Elizabeth and are from St. George, Utah.  They also have some sort of family connections with Elder Dale…I forget exactly what that was. It is always nice to be able to visit with another senior couple for a while.  We really enjoyed their visit.

January 17, 2013

 We met our new Elder tonight…Elder Van Zyl.  He comes from Durban, RSA and is a very happy and positive person.  He will be a great asset to Port Alfred.  The Elders were going to come by last night, but both were quite tired after the long transfer day. 

January 15, 2013

 Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Clarke will be leaving.  We said our good-byes to him tonight.  We will see him again as he is now assigned to East London.  Since we go there for zone conferences, we will see him occasionally. 

January 9, 2013

 Rick officially sold the trailer to Patrick Nteyi, our Elders Quorum President.  Since money was donated from a member at home, the proceeds will now go to get water tanks for some of the members who don’t have them and can’t afford them.

We had a family from the branch over for dinner tonight.  The Mgadi family is a great family who let us use their home each week for seminary. After dinner, Rick took Brother Mgadi and the girls, Ayabonga and Bethesh, down to the beach while sister Mgadi and I sat on the balcony and talked. When they came back from the beach we played a couple of games of Rummikub. Brother Mgadi is less active at this time but has a testimony of the gospel. We just need to help him desire the blessings of the gospel to be more fully in his life. They had a good time and Ayabonga told her mom she needed to get the recipe for lasagna that I made…another from my head recipe!  I will have to try to write it down.

January 8, 2013

 I gave the Elders haircuts today…I don’t think Elder Clarke was terribly excited about his.  I told him to give it two weeks and it will grow back. 

January 7, 2013

 After we had lunch we received a phone call from our Elders who had a couple of packages for us from America…the package the Hale family put together for us to distribute to the children in the township

and a package from Brian and Risa…Christmas all over again!! Brian and Risa sent a beautiful Christmas pillow cover, which will be used next year when we get home. I’m sure Risa had fun making it.

January 6, 2013

 Well, it is Sunday again and it seems we always finish with a new adventure of some kind.  Both Rick and I taught two lessons today.  He ended up teaching the youth Sunday school class and YM and I taught the primary and YW lessons.  I knew I had the primary lesson but thought the YW’s was covered. However, the counselor in the YW had been away last week and did not communicate with the YW president about the lesson she taught last week. The president prepared the same one but luckily, I had gone over the lessons for YW, since it was the new program and I was going to help the presidency put it all together, and taught the next lesson.  They really haven’t connected on the program yet and need to coordinate better, it seems.  We will get there, just a huge learning curve!  Rick knew about YM, but, wasn’t sure about Sunday school, since the teacher has not made it in three weeks.  She was how ever in Sacrament Meeting. It was fast and testimony and was embarrassed by what someone said during their testimony, (they told a story and used her name) so she gathered her family up and left right after the meeting.  So, Rick taught Sunday school for the youth, also.  Sometimes the intrigue gets a little much here…so many cultural things!  We did some visits after church and hopefully helped to minimize the damage and share the principal of forgiveness with them.

January 4, 2013 

 District Meeting was held in Grahamstown today.  The District Leader there is Elder Olyabo, who gave a great lesson.  The other elders from Grahamstown are Elders Swenson, Von Brughan and Khumalo. Elder and Sister Stokoe were also there on temporary assignment until a new senior couple is assigned.

 
We like the trip to Grahamstown…that is where we also get water from the natural spring right outside of town.  The water is good and it’s free!!  We had to be back to our boarding by 3:30 where we were to meet a realtor taking pictures for the owner. We needed to be there and let them in.  I hope they don’t sell this place before we leave in October!!  Don’t want to move.  We then made several visits.  We saw Comfort Mudodo and gave him some pictures of his baptism day…boy was he excited. Things that we take for granted like pictures of important events the people here are not use to and they find great joy in having them.  We visited a while, listened to some of his problems and I think made him feel better.  I hope so.

January 2, 2013 

 It is kind of nice to get back on a visiting schedule.  We are trying to take some of the new curriculum to the teachers and presidencies.  Because of hurricane Sandy, the shipment of our 2013 supplies has been delayed so we are having to download the material from the internet and then training each group how it should be implemented. This new way of teaching is going to be great, but it will take time for members to catch on.   

January 1, 2013

 Happy New Year!!  Today we will spend the whole day at our boarding.  Because of all the partying and drinking that accompanies this time of year, the Elders and senior couples are not allowed to go into the townships. Even though it is raining and all of the people who would probably be out parting are staying home, we are obedient missionaries and will have the Elders come over, play some games, eat food and watch “17 Miracles” which is still a very powerful movie even after having watched a number of times.