June 19, 2012

After visiting and home teaching the Barris and Kenney families we were off to Port Elizabeth and Makro’s where Rick bought a small chainsaw to be used on service projects, and a couple of other tools, since he feels out of sorts without his tools.  There are just some things he needs to have but I’m going to have to put a limit on how many tools are bought or Rick will have a complete set of South African tools before long. 

June 16, 2012

Today, Steven and Leah Moore, Levonique Denston, their granddaughter, and Mary Van Rensburg were all baptized, entering into the first of the covenants that will lead them back to the presence of our loving Heavenly Father.  They were all ready for this ordinance and the spirit was strong. Elder Scicluna and Elder Moangare baptized them while Rick presided and also welcomed them to the branch.

That evening we joined the missionaries on a much anticipated dining experience (especially by the missionaries) at Fish River Sun, a resort and very nice restaurant. 

They had a buffet with fish, prawns, beef, chicken, pork, and other many and various dishes plus a large array of desserts for R155 each person. (About $18). We paid for the evening as Elder Moangare will be leaving this transfer and it was our present to him.  We love both of them, they are a great team, have taken great care of us as we learn our job here and work very hard as missionaries.  We are sad to see Elder Moangare leave, but know that whoever is sent will be the right person to help move the Lords work along.  The evening was also in celebration of my birthday.  We had a very nice evening with them.

June 12, 2012

Another birthday has arrived!! Just getting closer to when I can sign up for Medicare!!! The Elders brought over a birthday cake for me and had fun lighting the candle.  

We have no matches but finally figured we could use the flame on our propane heater to light the candle.  It worked great. 

We were invited out to lunch by Sister Helen Dell who is a great lady in our branch.  She has very little money, but wanted to do something special for me.  Very Sweet. We went to Guidos, where I think it was more than she expected to pay.  However, Rick paid the bill, and I think she was grateful.

We then went to help teach Sister Van Rensburg, her last lesson. She will be baptized on Saturday .  

Elder and Sister Van Sickle who are another senior couple serving in Port Elizabeth came by our flat on their way to East London.  They are in charge of employment and were helpful to Rick with guidance in that area for the branch.  Unemployment is very high in Port Alfred. 

Next we visited the Kondile’s and the Nteyi families, both are great families. 

Brother Nteyi has been struggling a little lately so we wanted to visit with them.  They are the family who just recently went to the temple and were sealed together for all eternity, the first and only family from our branch to be sealed.

Brother & Sister Kondile and Elder Moangare

The Kondiles’ live in Port Alfred, but their families live in Port Elizabeth where they go most weekends and attend church. 

We could sure use them here as they are both talented and strong in the gospel. Our visit went well with them and they said they would attend here on Sunday.  

It was a great day!  

June 11, 2012

Today was P-day.  We picked up our missionaries and headed to Grahamstown to meet up with the Elders there and the Nye’s, the senior couple to go to an elephant sanctuary. 

The cost was R85 each, which is around $10 in our money.  There we “met” four female elephants that were rescued from another game park where they were destined to be destroyed to keep the population down so the reserve would not be over grazed. 

 

We were given a short lesson on elephants and had them perform for us by following a number of voice instructions given by the trainer.   We then were able to feed them, pat them and feel their tusks.  It was interesting and fun feeding then both in the trunk and right into their mouths.  Everybody got goobered on, at least a little bit!! 

We then went back to Grahamstown for lunch and ate at a Steers restaurant where they were having a two for one burger day!  Anyone who knows us, as the tightwads we are, can guess what we had. That’s right, two for one. 

What a deal.

June 10, 2012

Sunday always brings new adventures.  Because of the bad weather, a lot of people didn’t make it to church.  One of those who didn’t make it was a scheduled speaker. No problem, this lesson was learned earlier and President Stumm was prepared “just in case of” and filled the time.  The bad part for me was the speaker is also the chorister, so guess who ended up leading the music.  Yep…me.  That is all well and fine I can do that, except here, the chorister sings the first line of the hymn to give the pitch for people to start on (no one plays the piano here) and then the congregation sings the song.  Well that’s not going to work. I’m probably the most pitch challenged singer around and me getting them off on the correct pitch just ain’t gonna happen, plus I am just plain chicken. President Stumm saw the pure terror in my eyes, was filled with compassion and sang the first line for me.  I love that man!!! 

Our favorite beggar/drunk must have over slept because we made it all the way through Sacrament meeting before he blessed us with his presence. When he came, I was in primary and didn’t know about it until later, but he was extra drunk this time and obnoxious. He was again escorted out after a number of loud verbal exchanges colored the air. About 10 minutes later he was back, so this time the police were called and they hauled him off in a paddy wagon.  We really feel sad for him and would like to help but all he wants to do is beg for money and if he doesn’t get any he just causes trouble.

June 8, 2012

Our first zone conference, thank goodness for the GPS or we never would have found this place.  It was held in the stake center, a real church building with all the things we took for granted back home and miss so much where we serve. 

A Real Relief Society Room

The conference was very good, right on par with other regional conferences we have attended. President Wood, his wife and the AP’s taught on the need to better teach everyone about and how important repentance is and what repentance really entails. There were about 50 missionaries there along with 4 senior couples and President Wood and his wife. After the conference lunch was provided and one thing I am learning is the Elders don't leave until all the food is gone no mater how much there is.

June 3, 2012

Today was fast Sunday. Interesting Sundays seem to be the norm since we arrived here and this one was no exception.  First of all about 8:45 am the missionaries SMS us (text) and said that they are walking with some investigators to church and were running late.  Rick looked around to find only one other priesthood holder present, and since the full time missionaries constitute about 1/3 of the priesthood in the branch, he thought it a good idea that I should call them, find out where they were and go pick them up. My thoughts were why are they out in the township walking, what happened to their car and how I’m I ever going to find them. Sister Cockbain, the RS president extended a tender little mercy and volunteered to come with me, which I was grateful for.  We finally found the missionaries – they were walking with a family of investigators and had gotten a late start. I picked up one Elder (so at least they would have enough Priesthood to administer the Sacrament), loaded as many others as I could in the car and drove them to church, then went back and picked up the rest of them.  When we finally got to church, they were just starting to pass the sacrament. You would think that would be enough excitement for one day, but the best was yet to come. After a few testimonies had been borne, Alfred, our friendly professional neighborhood beggar and alcoholic decided that he should add something to our meeting. Now he had been to church before and had been told that he was welcome as long as he sat quietly and didn’t go around hitting people up for money during church. Rick thought they had an understanding so when he had come in late and had taken a seat without his usual begging he thought things would be alright. He was wrong.

As Alfred was walking up to say something, Brother Hola, Ricks 2^nd councilor, stopped him.  Unknown to us he had come up during testimony time in a previous testimony meeting and started cursing at everybody so Brother Hola was not going to let that happen again. They tussled a bit and after physical exchanges and some bad language by our friendly drop in we were able to help him outside where Rick stayed and talked with him. Rick and Alfred were out there awhile during which time we inside were having an adventure also.  First, I will tell you about Ricks adventure with Alfred and then ours.

Friday when we were at the church Alfred had dropped by begging and saying that he was so hungry and please didn’t we have something for him. We told him that we didn’t have anything to give him at that time. Rick decided after that to always carry something to eat with us that we could give he because we were not going to give him money which he would spend on alcohol. As Rick and he were talking Alfred said that he was very upset that we would not let him go up and tell people about Jesus. To make this short, he was told again that he needed to not be under the effects of alcohol and needed to be respectful of how we worship. He asked for money and was told that he would not be given money but Rick did have some food for him if he was hungry. That did it. He went off like a wild man cussing’ telling Rick that he had plenty and should give some money to him. He said Rick was judging him and had disrespected him by offering him food and he wouldn’t take it. He went away, but not happy.

Now for the inside story.  After Rick went out with Alfred, Elder Moangare went up and bore his testimony followed by an investigator named Pumbla. We have talked about her before and thought that maybe she really wasn’t all there. Today she helped confirm that belief. She started by saying my name is Pumbla “Viva la” something – I couldn’t really understand what she was saying.  She spoke really loud and not understandable and ended by raising her fist in the air and shouting “Viva la” something again. Strange lady.  Seeing that Rick was still outside with our friend, Elder Scicluna got up and bore his testimony and tried to set things right. He let the investigators know that this was not the way testimony meeting is and shared what it should be. I also bore my testimony.  It is amazing how many times a week we now bear our testimony.  It is really kind of neat!  The meeting ended well, then on to the rest of the meetings.  I spent my time with the only two children in junior primary.  It is not easy filling two hours when the children are very young and do not speak English and I don’t speak Xhosa.  It has been an interesting Sunday!!

I successfully made lasagna for dinner tonight from scratch.  It was pretty good.  I put some of this and some of that in until it tasted really good. Mozzarella cheese here is similar but not the same as at home. It's firmer in texture and has a slightly different flavor.  It was good.  Success number one and hopefully not the last.