September 27, 2013 Zone conference day again in East London

It is zone conference day again in East London.  We enjoyed dinner last night with the Woods, Boyces and Chases.  This morning we started off with breakfast at our B&B and then off to the Amalinda chapel to help set up for the meal at the end.  There will be 55 people who will eat…46 elders…4 couples plus Alan Bomford from Grhamstown who will be speaking on the great apostasy.  We have heard his presentation before while visiting in Grahamstown and it is very good.  He will just have to cut it down to half an hour.  Sister Chase and I were assigned to bring dessert for everyone, so, on the counsel of our elders, Elder Andersen and Elder Sanders, we made carrot cake.  I asked their advice on what to make and that was their number one choice. The zone leaders gave short talks on assigned topics.  Each zone presented a musical number  and President and Sister Wood, as always, gave a great lesson on the creation  and the fall and with  combined zones in this zone conference, everyone gives a one minute or less testimony.  However, because this is our last zone conference we were told we could share our testimony with a little more time given to us.  Of course, it was an emotional time for us and at the very end they always sing the SACTM anthem.  When it is the last zone conference before any missionary leaves, they are asked to stand in front and when it comes to the part where it talks about going home, President Wood leaves us standing by ourselves (all who will be going home).  This time it was just us.  It has been a very rewarding and strengthening 18 months for us.  At times it has been challenging to be here but we are so glad we served this mission and do love the people we have worked with. 

We arrived home around 7pm.  The Assistants to the President (AP’s) are spending the night in our boarding and our elders brought them by around 9pm. 

Elder Jones, Martin, Andersen & Sanders Sept 27, 2013

They brought a chocolate cake given to Elder Jones for his upcoming birthday and shared it with all of us.  Along with Elder Jones, who is from Canada, Elder Martin, who is from Moscow, Idaho are the current AP’s.

September 26, 2013 YM/YW Beach Cleanup

The youth in the branch have really scored this week with two activities, both involving the beach.  Today was a beach cleanup and there was a good turnout.  There were twelve youth, seven girls and 5 boys plus Rick and I and Sister Vulindlu the YW 1^st councilor and Brother Kondile the YM president.  

They cleaned up mostly seaweed as there really wasn’t much garbage and then about 11:30 we started ferrying them to the church for an ice cream treat.  All was done at the appointed ending time of 1pm.

Rick and I then headed to East London for the Zone Conference tomorrow and dinner tonight with President Wood and his wife, the Boyce’s and the Chase’s.  We again had dinner at Grazias which is always a good place to eat.  We stayed at Shiraz B&B once again.  We like it a lot. The Chases stay there as well, but are not looking forward to having to find it by themselves when we leave.

September 25, 2013 Back to missionary life

We woke up at 4:45am to take Sister Mabaso to the Port Elizabeth airport.  We left our boarding about 5:50am.  The flight she wanted to get on (she flies stand-by because they get cheap tickets because of his SAA connection) leaves at 8:20am.  It takes a good hour and a half to get there.  We found the airport even though our GPS froze up once again.  Thank goodness for good signs.  We dropped her off and came right back home.  We got home about 9am and then went on with our planned missionary activities. It was very nice to have met her and spend time together. She SMS’d later and told us she made it safely home. 

September 24, 2013 The Mabaso’s say their good-byes

Rick took Brother and Sister Mabaso to the 43 Air School where she was glad to be able to spend the day with her husband.  They went to lunch,  toured the school, town and just spent time together doing whatever else.  After Rick dropped them off he picked up Brother Moore to get some manure for the church garden.  Brother Moore had a source for such stuff and Rick borrowed the Cockbains trailer for hauling it.  Later we picked up the Mabaso’s for dinner.  Sister Mabaso was call the “Queen of Pap” by her husband a number of times so we are going to make the gravy to go with the pap for dinner  and she will show us how to do pap correctly. After dinner we watched some church videos before we had to take them back to the air school, since Brother Mabaso will be flying the next day.  The Mabaso’s said their good-byes and stayed at our boarding as she was quite tired and didn’t want to cry. 

September 23, 2013 YM/YW activity to the Three Sisters Area

We woke up early to make sandwiches for the YM/YW activity today, which was going to the Three Sisters area which is about 5K out of town.  Tim Cockbain told Rick about it a few weeks ago, and he thought it would be a great place to take the youth.  There is about a 2K hike into it.  They all wanted to go…they never do anything like that.  The Cockbains guided and Sister Vulindlu, Sister Ngcibi and Sister Mabaso, as well as Rick went with the youth. 

 

Before Rick came home, he picked up Brother Mabaso and they all arrived back around 5pm.  We had dinner and watched the 1^st movie in the Work and the Glory trilogy.  Brother Mabaso was able to spend the night with his wife since he wasn’t scheduled to fly the next day. 

September 22, 2013 Another Sunday in Port Alfred

Before church started we knew why we were prompted to prepare talks yesterday.  Brother Canny had forgotten to ask someone to speak in place of a speaker who told us they would not be able to speak earlier in the week and he was not ready to speak in place of the one who dropped yesterday.  So, we had Elder Andersen, who was scheduled to speak and Rick and I.  Brother Canny, as the one conducting, was to have a talk prepared just for times like this.  It all worked out though, it always does when you listen to and follow the prompting of the Spirit.

Sister Mabaso couldn’t catch a flight yesterday as planned but did catch a bus and made it to Port Elizabeth after an all-night trip. Brother Mabaso arranged for a ride to PE this morning, picked her up and got to church sometime during the last two hours.  After church we brought them to our boarding, had lunch and left them to themselves while we made a few visits.  Mostly no luck…sometimes people just disappear after church.  The elders joined us and the Mabaso’s for dinner.  

After the elders left, we watched 17 Miracles and then took brother Mabaso back to the air school since he had to fly the next day.

September 21, 2013 Visit from Elder Carl B. Cook

This Saturday was a little different than most.  We were to be at the church at 8:30am to meet with Elder Carl B. Cook, who is in the Area Authority Presidency and two other brethren who came with him. One is the area person in charge of planning and the other the area architect.  

They were here to look how the building was doing, see if it was being kept up and looking good. They asked if it was in the right location, meeting the needs of the branch and taking into account the size and how long we thought it would meet the needs of our growing branch.  They were very pleased with what they found.  They said it was greatly improved from the time they came 2 ½ years ago.  We had about ½ hour with them and Elder Cook asked various questions about number of members, how we were doing and what our greatest challenges are, etc.  We had a quick, but nice visit with them.

After our visit we picked up Nteyi’’s…Nomsa who was going to the RS enrichment meeting at 2pm.  Mihle her daughter came to help with the baby, however Rick put her to work build a small bookshelf for a member out in the “workshop”. She did a great job.

While at the church, Rick found out one of the speakers for Sunday wasn’t going to make it tomorrow, so Brother Canny will be speaking in his place.  Rick felt the need that both of us should also prepare just in case.  We spent the rest of the evening working on talks and other stuff for tomorrow.   Nice day!!!