August 26, 2013 P-Day with Gambit the giraffe.

Being p-day, we did a couple of errands (tithing to the bank, municipality to get some help for Sister Van Rensburg on a sewer leak on her property, and took Bro. Maboso’s cell phone back to him…he forgot it last night).  We went to the Municipality to try and have somebody stop the sewage leak running through Sister Van Rensburg’s property, up to the house, around the garage and into her back yard. She has made several attempts to get someone to look at it over the last two weeks phoning and even going in person with no results. Everybody promises but nobody shows up. 

We actually got someone to go with us to the scene of the “ Van Rensburg sewage spill” after looking at some pictures we took of the mess caused by the leak. 

He took pictures, and then said “he would have somebody check on it”.  Someone did!!!! They put some chlorine pellets on it which greatly help with the horribly smell and then later covered it with sand. They stopped the leak and will be repairing the damage.

 Elder and Sister Sherbert came over and we visited Mansfield Game Park, once again, to see Gambit the giraffe.  The Sherberts wanted to get some photos with him for their Christmas cards. Today for the first time we have seen, he had an attitude and wasn’t very friendly. He just walked off when anyone got near him.  Rick thought it might be the smoke from some fire that are burning around here that had him a little anxious.  We were able to get a few pictures, but not as much as hoped for. 

We then went to Guido’s for a pizza lunch, then back to our boarding where they hoped to get some photos we had taken on our last visit. 

This evening we went to the Ngcibi’s for FHE with the elders.  We were joined by 4 investigators who the Ngcibi’s are fellow shipping. We had a great time, especially during the games and they loved my cookies.

August 25, 2013 Johannesburg Temple President

Church today was great.  President and Sister Armstrong, the Johannesburg Temple President, spoke, giving a good talk on the importance of going to the temple. 

 

We had Stephen Maboso,  his roommate, Hloni Kekana who is from a place in northern South Africa along with the Elders for dinner tonight. 

Brother Maboso and his roommate are going to flight school at the 43 Air School here.  Brother Maboso is a return missionary from Durban.  He is married with a 34 year old son but they are not with him here while he is going to school.  He has been a great blessing to the Port Alfred Branch with great priesthood strength.  He is here for about a year for training. It was a nice evening with them.

August 23, 2013 One year click day

Today we had combined district meeting with Grahamstown and it was our turn to go there. Our elders rode with us.   Elder Ingram is the DL and did a fine job teaching the lesson on grace.  We had lunch at the church courtesy of Sister Chase…spaghetti, salad and cheesy bread…it was very good.  It was Elder Andersen, Elder Krieger, Elder Ingram and Elder Raharizoandrinirina one year  “click day” and Elder Andersens wanted something special so I brought the famous cocoa brownies as per his request.

Our Elders, Elder Andersen and Elder Sanders and the Grahamstown Elders Elder Krieger, Elder Ingram, Elder Raharizoandrinirinna and Elder Chamberlain, who, by the way, is from Walla Walla, WA. 

We then went to Brother Alan Bamford? who lives in Grahamstown. He is quite elderly and a little quirky, but knowledgeable about history.  He even does tours of Grahamstown.  

He spoke to us about the apostasy and about the history during that time and about the setting up for the restoration of the gospel that would later happen.  He was very interesting.  After that, we headed for the spring to get some more water in our jugs. Every trip to Grahamstown always includes a stop to fill up our drinking water supply This time we put the Elders youth to good use by having them tote the water for us old folks.

August 22, 2013 Marriage in Grahamstown

Today was the day we drove Brother and Sister Matshotyana to Grahamstown to be married in a civil ceremony.  They have been married for nine year in a traditional Xhosa marriage. The Xhosa marriage is recognized by the country and honored by the church, but Sister Matshotyana also wants to have a civil marriage, it is very important to her.  We were able to be a part of their second special marriage day.

The lady who married them was very nice, especially after we asked if we could take her picture with the newly married couple.  She loved that. She then wanted her picture taken with us.  She now wants to visit us in America, asked for our USA address and a copy of the pictures we took.  We told her she is welcome to visit us anytime!! 

The Matshotyana’s  are very happy.  We took the opportunity to instruct the newlyweds on the finer points of marital courtesy like the husband opening doors for the wife and holding hands while walking together.  They kept on telling us “thank you” over and over again.  This has been a great thing.

We took them to lunch at Spur in Grahamstown and then they wanted to see the Grahamstown chapel, which is quite a bit bigger than ours and very nice. They were impressed. It was a great and happy day for them and us!! Our last counsel was to tell them there is one more goal for them to look to, which is to prepare to go to the temple and become an eternal family.  They thought that was a great goal.

August 21, 2013 Visit from the AP's

The AP’s stopped by with our elders for dinner.  We had a good visit and dinner with them about 8:30pm. Elder Jones is from Alberta, Canada and Elder Chakara is from Johannesburg, SA.  They decided to spend the night with our elders to get to know them better. 

President & Sister Stumm, Elders Andersen, Sanders, Chakara, Jones.