November 9, 2012

 Elder Van Sickle called Rick yesterday asking him if we could take Delsies’ son, Jeremiah, to meet them near Port Elizabeth so they could take him to a skin specialist for a skin issue.  Elder Van Sickle has been ill himself so Rick and I were more than happy to help him out.  We picked Jeremiah up at 6 a.m.  and were on the road by 6:15am. Record time for here in South Africa. We made great time because there were no trucks on the road to hold us up and meet the Van Sickles outside of P.E. a little past 7:30. 

On the way back we stopped at the Nanaga Farm Stall and got a braai bread sandwich with egg and bacon.  It is great stuff.  They have a number of farm stalls which are older farm houses turned into a kind of country store that sells home made products from around the area. Each one has its own charm and specialties and this is one of our favorites.  I hope to try the braai bread thing when we get back home.

   

We were to have our District meeting today with the AP’s, but they weren’t able to make it. We went to Guido’s for lunch after the meeting and behold, they were able to make that meeting. Amazing the miracles free food can work. Elder Scicluna is now an AP and we are able to spend some time with him, as well as his companion, Elder Grow, who is from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  

 They will be coming over to have dinner with us tonight. It seems like whenever you make or provide free food, Elders show up. I made lasagna and Elder Scicluna’s favorite Chocolate Cupcakes!!  They are spending the night, as well. 

November 8, 2012

 Elder Moangare and Elder Bangerter were in Port Alfred to do baptism interviews for Sister Matshotyana and Comfort Mudodo who are to be baptized on Saturday. 

 It is always nice to visit with Elder Moangare who was one of our first missionaries when we arrived here.  He is our “cookie monster” and I, of course, brought him some cookies.  Elder Bangerter had to do the interviews, because Elder Moangare was involved in teaching them while he was assigned here.  We took Elders Clarke, Moangare, and Bangerter to visit Sister VanRensburg and then the Moore family, where we left them to go to our appointment to the Tunye’s.

November 7, 2012

 While at one of our appointments last night, we received a call from Paul Fryer, our landlord, informing us that our water was now back on.  It has been out since October 17^th a short 21 LONG days ago. Elizabeth told me the water was off because I wasn’t humble enough.  I guess I am now humble enough.  Thank goodness!!

A very sad day…President Obama won re-election…we were hoping Mitt Romney would actually have made it.  Our ballots have not made it here yet so we couldn’t even vote. 

November 6, 2012

 We made several visits today before we headed for our scheduled appointments.  Our first appointment was with the Matshotyana family.  She is going to be baptized this Saturday by Vuyisile, her husband and a convert of less than 4 months. They are a really cute family and the spirit is always there when we visit them. 

 After our lesson, they served us cream soda and cookies.  Now Rick and I like the cream soda served in the states, but what they call cream soda here has no resemblance to that. This stuff is green and tastes like something that would be served to a POW during a torture session and only if there were no UN observers around, but being the good missionaries we are, we drank it smiling the whole time and thanked them for their hospitality. They offered us seconds, but we politely refused. The cookies were good, but we didn’t want to take a chance on them pouring us some more African cream soda.

After this, we went to give the lesson to couple who have had an up and down relationship. She is a member although not active and he is taking the lessons but not progressing very quickly. They aren’t married, but we are giving them the marriage and family relations lessons anyway.  We hope they will get married soon, but we have our doubts.  

 After our discussion together, Thabo asked if he could ask us a question.  He told us he had had a dream about finding his father.  He doesn’t know who his father is but in the dream was told he would find his father in a white church on a hill.  Where this branch used to meet, was on a hill but I don’t know if it was white. After traveling around, he ended up in Port Alfred and started coming to our branch and felt really good there.  He gave a little more explanation on his life experiences and then asked us if President would be his father.  Of course, Rick felt honored and said he would be glad to.  They take this kind of thing very seriously and we are really not sure what is all expected of us as his adopted parents, but we will do what we can.  When we left, he said “bye daddy”.  It was a very humbling evening.

November 5, 2012

 Our P-day started with Rick doing tithing deposit at the bank as usual. We then stopped by a store to purchase an 80kg bag of pig food for Brother Hola’s pigs, since last week’s haul of thrown out produce from the store was very slim.  They didn’t have what we wanted, so we went to Bathurst to get it, which was only 10K out of town. In Bathurst they have a farm coop store that has everything you need to run a small farm. Rick loves going through it. On our way to Bathurst, we were nearly run over by a tractor when he decided to turn in front of us while we were passing it. With some quick maneuvering, a little off road driving and some “Stummluck” we passed another African driving skill test.  That one got my heart moving!!  After  delivering the food to the Holas we headed to Port Elizabeth to do some shopping at Makro’s and Addendorf tool store where  Rick pick up a pair of binoculars and a few tools. We then went to Makro’s where we bought an external hard drive to back up all the pictures and information on our computer (don’t want to lose anything if our computer goes out), cleaning supplies for the missionaries and some food stuff. It was a nice drive and P-day for us.

November 2, 2012

 District meeting is today and the missionaries from Grahamstown are joining us for this one.  It is always fun to have a combined meeting.  Elder Alexander taught a great lesson followed by everyone coming to our boarding for lunch.  I made the crockpot black beans, chicken, salsa, cream cheese over rice dish, which everyone liked very well.  The Nye’s brought brownies for dessert.  We took a group picture for the memory of the experience.

November 1, 2012

 We were scheduled to visit with Sister Hola tonight for her English lesson, but Brother Hola called and said he needed our help.  Sister Hola was sick with a bad pain in her abdomen, but was refusing to get treatment.  When we went over there, Rick helped Brother Hola give her a blessing where Brother Hola made references to bad spirits, etc. in her and hoped Heavenly Father would take them away. A lot of people from this culture feel that when they are sick it is because they have bad spirits in them. They have a hard time understanding that because we are mortal we sometimes simply get ill.  After the blessing, Rick talked to him about that and told him that she was ill and not possessed by bad spirits.  Rick and I took her to the hospital then went on to our scheduled appointment and then went back and picked her up.  She had an infection and was given some tablets. In the end she thanked us for helping her.  Just another interesting day in our lives as missionaries in South Africa.