Nambiti Again?

 

We saw these teenagers in October and they have grown!

So our Elders on P Day wanted to go to Nambiti and we had to go and help with transport.  Durbin said ok as long as they were not over their "kms".    One of the Elders arranged everything and we had to go at 4pm which we thought would be hot.  It was cloudy and cool all day and the most perfect weather.  I even needed my jacket before dark.  We left at 3 and got home at 8:30.  I had been cooking a pot of ham and beans all day and it was the perfect dinner for all.  (I do feel that I cook a lot!)

  A couple eventful moments on the drive were seeing water buffalo in a herd.  We had not seen any buffalo on our previous drive.  They don't like people and can be very dangerous.    We saw them at the beginning of the drive and when we were leaving in the dark the whole herd shows up along the road.  Our driver has a spotlight with a red filter.  Our memory will forever be waterbuffalo heads 2 feet from us with red eyes.  Not one off us could take a picture and chance a flash, but they checked us out as much as we checked them out.

  The reason we were so late was because of the lions.  We were leaving the park when we got notice on radio of the lions in a certain area.  We approached slowly to an area where people were watching with binocs and so we did too. All of sudden from behind the truck walked the 2 teenage male lions
who were also watching us and watching their parents frolic. Both laid down as if going to sleep on the road, blocking it.    We snapped lots of pics and then out walked a female and another big male.  They stayed a minute and then walked on.   Many minutes went by and one of the teens gets up and walks to our truck and lays down right under our bumper.  We weren't going anywhere.  When eventially the bumper guy walks back to the road our driver slowly backs up and carefully heads through the bush and over the rocks to go home.

They look cold because Nambeti was cold.  It had rained most of the weekend and it was good for soup that night

.  We were there at least an extra 45 minutes at the standoff.  It was so dark when we got home.  Stories to tell!
 
 

Christmas Begins

This guy hitched a ride on our windshield for 15 miles until we got home.  We don't have hummingbirds here because the bugs are bigger.  (my theory)

 Got home from Richards Bay at about 3pm on Monday and went grocery shopping and went to eat dinner so we could start our fast for the 40 day fast experience.  It was our turn to fast for the Ezakheni branch--everyone is taking a turn, each for one day.
   Missionary prep was Tues and it always takes about 31/2 hours from leaving to coming home.  We have a short-cut and it takes about 20 minutes each way.  We never start on time.  We ended the fast at 6:30 with the Browns dropping by.  They wanted to go to dinner, but we were so sick of eating out that we stayed at home and just had taco salad.  Good thing because it thundered and rained with hail and wouldn't let up.  They still had an hour to go home, so we sent them home quickly.  Storms can be very violent.  They said that they had hail, lots of wind and lots of slanting rain as they drove home.
   The reason that the Browns had made this little trip was kind of sad.  We had 2 missionaries go home for different reasons from different parts of the mission.  They made a few trips to pick up and take companions and had to take an Elder to Durban and another to an airport.  We are never envious of a Mission President's job.   The Browns were recently just put in the mission presidency and have stepped up their travel a lot.  They still  have from 8-10 missionaries and help the District president a lot.

   Used my new Belgian chocolate chips and they were great.  Since I had cookies we decided we would go see Melenghi and our Elder Swane at the bus stop in the middle of town.  They are off to Durban to fly to the Joburg MTC.
   We are fixing cookies for the Branch Christmas party at 2 on Saturday.  They had not had one for 3 years.  Wow!   What a spread.  They wanted me to bring a salad and "sweets".  I made a big fruit salad with all the different melons and grapes and tropical stuff I could find.  I put it on the serving table and it kept disappearing.  I started talking to the ladies in the kitchen and apparently a fruit salad even without dressing is considered dessert and they were waiting to serve it later.   Fruit salad--- joke on me.  I pulled it from the desserts and we ate it for dinner.

  The Braai (BBQ}was amazing.  They always do charcoal and 4 kinds of meat.  There must have been a lb. per person and that's counting  the babies-- 50 or 60 lbs at least.  Kent brought Mr Krueger's Christmas for entertainment but it wasn't long enough.  They wished for a full length feature because there was no other entertainment.  We got out of there at about 6 PM and all seemed pleased.  We didn't see a decoration or sing a Christmas song but then maybe they forgot!  We'll remind them next Christmas!


  Sunday I had a Christmas talk to give after being asked on Friday night with a text at 9 pm.  That seems the norm for our Branch Pres.  (Kent and I sang Silent Night with the guitar because it was in my talk.)  They have a hard time getting speakers so they wait till last minute and then really have a hard time.  We took Nelson home to a township that is about 20 km out of Ladysmith.  He is such a smart electronic guy and the church gave him a bunch of old DVD players that were broken and he has already fixed most of them and is going to resell them.  He doesn't have a job, but his wife does .  He can fix plumbing or anything.

We ate outside until it rained!  There really is no place to have a party in this building.

Indian Ocean

 

   Monday the 28th our Temple prep class in our home.  This was the last one and the last time I would input family history with at least 3 of the people present.  I think I could be a pro genealogy person as long as there were no records or sources to input.  These are 10 to 12 year younger people than myself and all four of them have lost multiple brothers and sisters already.  They try to remember their dates but we have made multiple changes already because the computer catches many of the mistakes.  The Zulu people live a hard life and die very young on average.  We heard this week that Ladysmith has the most people with active Aids cases in all of South Africa, which may account for some of those deaths.  I also have to research polygamy here.  It is not illegal and even SA's current President has 5 wives.     

   We had a different 4 kids for Mission Prep in Ezekeni this Tues. but on Thursday we saw the kids that are really going on missions or at least in different stages of paperwork.  We outfitted Bobsa with our used hand-me-down shirts,ties, pants and even 1 pair of shoes.  He was thrilled.  His Mom is not a member and really needs the help.  He leaves for Ghana 3 days after Christmas.

Kent wrote the following ...

Sand Art in Durban

African Food (Not a  fan)Kent didn't like Ostrich

3 of these girls spoke in District mt.  Articulate!

   A most enjoyable and profitable weekend! We drove to Durban, spent some time with the office couples, including dinner at an African restaurant on the beach, witnesses some great sand art, and spent the night in a bed and breakfast inn.   (We took a  GPS trip to a special bake shop called "Bake-a-ton" in Durban, Chris was dying for real chocolate chips and brown sugar for the holidays.  We'll go every time!)

In the morning we drove to Richards Bay. We were there because they were having a district conference with an area authority. I attended the priesthood leadership meeting, then we both attended the evening conference session which actually started at 4pm. They don’t have late meetings in South Africa because of the danger of being out after dark. We took a trip to their mall in Richards bay to find something for dinner.  It was exciting to see a movie theatre and such a huge mall even if all the stores were closed.  All over South Africa stores close at around 2 or 3 on Saturdays, with a few restaurants left open.  It is a drag.  1 or 2 grocery stores stay open till night, but you just better plan on doing your shopping on some other day.

It was announced that the area authority would not attend because he missed his plane in the Congo and there were apparently no other flights available that would allow him to make it, so we had no District Presidency changes.  Pres. DePlooy met with us and heard our spiel about S and I.

The general session on Sunday was quite well attended for South Africa---and they were able to fill up the speaker schedule without a problem. In fact, we asked to be able to speak so that we could introduce the new seminary and institute curriculum for the next year. So they gave us 7 minutes and we took 15, but who’s counting.  President Thompson was the concluding speaker but didn’t have a lot of time. He always does a great job!

Taxi's are how almost all people get to District mt.

After the meeting we met our teachers and branch presidents for the first time! We had been communicating by text and email for months and now we got to meet them! We handed out materials for the next school year (starts in January), got names, updated contact information, and made some good friends!

Chris
  We visited with the Colins' after church and they graciously had us over for lunch.  They are the area MLS (member leadership)couple over about 12 Elders and practically run a Branch called Port Dunford.  (currently the Branch has no Branch President).  We were starved to just talk about our experiences and they are  especially isolated but in a nice boarding with a great mall close by.  Malls are great because they are air-conditioned with central-air and all peoples homes are not.  We have a nice 2 wall air home but, most of the population does not  have anything.

One of the biggest harbors in SA

We stayed 2 nights in Richards Bay and Monday Morning walked the Beach and took off a different really green beautiful way home.  We saw so many sugar cane fields on the way in different stages of growth.  It was a fun little trip that we should make about every 6 weeks.

The ladies in the background were killing their chickens and blessing them.  This is some Zulu ritual.

Got the toes in the water and the air and water were both warm even though it was cloudy 

Wednesday Thanksgiving Works

   MONDAY AGAIN!  We went walking that morning but that was to be

Boer house that looks like Zulu

the first and last for the week.  At 10 we met the Elders and went to an historical old Boer War battlefield outside of Ladysmith north about 6 miles called Rietfontein.  It's "P" Day and we get to do stuff like that.  Kent made friends with an old English codger,  John, who is an historian and bought the hundreds of acres and old field hospital that stands on the battlefield.  The one battle was on 24th of October 1899.  After this battle was the Siege of Ladysmith, which was way more famous and captured the worlds attention for over a month.  This is basically the war with the latecomer English in Ladysmith and the Boers ( Africaaners  or Treckers or pioneers as they were known),  who were everywhere else north of Ladysmith to Joburg.  We had one history major in our group and he loved the S. African history.  The others were polite and at least the guns and stories  were interesting.  One of the stories was that Ghandi was in Ladysmith as a young attorney and joined up to help as a medical orderly during this war.  They can't prove he was there at the Rietfontein battle but  he could have been there later because the Indians were neutral  and this was a big central hospital for most of the Boer War.

 On Tues. we did  Zone Leaders (from all over the mission) Training for 20 or so Elders and the

17 late pizzas for 24 people ! Is that a record?

Brown's were in charge of getting pizza and breakfast for the guys with us as major support.   We had a long day with "Tday"preparation, and making pies and rolls on this day.  My neighbor Uticka helped with the peeling of the apples with good chatter, but it was such a long day.

The wonderful Browns!

   We taught Temple prep on Wed morning with our cute couple again, but they were there till after 12.  Since our Thanksgiving feast was to happen at 6PM with 7 Elders, I had to get our twin very small turkey birds(7and 8 pds) into their oven bags and generally fly.  I had the Elders peel and mash potatoes but  only 1 had ever done it before.  They were comical and helpful because they did do the dishes at the end of the meal.   One Elder remembered that the previous Thanksgiving in his boarding  he had rice krispies for dinner and that this Thanksgiving was a big improvement.  (That's all I needed!)

  Thursday ,  was wash and clean and welcome Bro. Baldwin from Richards Bay for the night.  He is one of our seminary teachers and needed to be at the Mission presidency meeting in Ladysmith, so we had him crash and have leftovers on the real Thanksgiving night.

  Friday, had Kent back and forth with the big meeting and his keys and the computer guy, Ray Holder.  Since Kent has become the resident techy guy,  he got the info on the brand new computer and the passwords.  (don't let it go to your head, honey!)  We took the out of towners to our Nursery lunch place and it poured.  It was fun to have ta huge downpour in the middle of the day because it is usually at night that it rains.

Looks guilty! BYU football hilights!

   Saturday the Browns were back from Newcastle for our leadership meeting in Ezakheni.  I had a heads up that she and I would take the Primary and YW for an hour. Last time we just had YW but I decided to take my playdough recipe  and I was glad I did.  They are a Branch  that has unique problems, so I took the 4 sisters in Primary and we hashed through them.  They have 45 active Primary kids in the tiniest room, with a 16 year old Primary president, that is also the music leader.  She has one class of Senior P. and 1 class of Junior P. kids.  We talked money strains, Sac mt. program, and logistics.   They were trying the 2 sharing times idea the very  next day, they were so excited to try it.  The big news --They sang "Scripture Power"- 45 kids strong, the previous week in their Sacrament program.  It would have been way different than my 8 kids in the Ladysmith Branch on the same day.
   Sunday saw us pack up the pulled pork and coleslaw and head off to Dundee for our missionary, Mhelengi's farewell. We had a spiritual feast and a feast afterwords.  Our song went off without me crying in the middle and we got home  at 3:30 and collapsed.  We love the DeKlerks and the big news there is that we may not have to travel to Dundee and teach S and I next year.  He wants to try new teachers if they will take the calling.

Elder Smith and his Mini-Missionary soon to be Real Missionary in Botswana!

I'm amazed we survived this week -not all are like this, but just writing about it makes me tired.  Lots of food prep. --but it was Thanksgiving and we were most thankful to be surrounded by such good people to feed.

Christmas is coming!

The DeKlerks

Ice cream and Chicken Forever

   It's Monday again and time to say sanibonani and even though this week has not been super eventful, we will do some reporting.
   We went to Jenny for haircuts on Monday and talked with her about her mentally challenged 20 year old daughter.  She has language and although she can't read yet, she might be able to decode with Distar reading.  I sent her some info on the program and all about the parent guided book.  She wants to try it but not too sure if she can get it.  She has always thought that she would teach her daughter to read, but was never sure how it was happening.  Everything is special delivery here.  No, there are very limited and poor resources for special needs children here.  This little girl was blessed just to be born into this loving stable Mom and Dad home.

   Pres. Madonsela and his brother Alfred showed up at 11 to do Family History and get Alfred set up in Family Search with a password.  Alfred and Ivy are going to the temple on the 17th and we will be going also.  Ivie and Mable, the 2 wives were not so lucky getting set up, and I need a call in to find out why we are having trouble.  We taught our first temple prep class with Ivie and Alfred on Wednesday and they all helped translate for Ivie.  We did the "circle"(Plan of Salvation) lesson and she had comments and had questions.  It was visual so maybe it really helped.  They will have the session for her in Zulu with the earphones in the temple so that will also help.
   Our cute-across-the way neighbors, (3 little kids under 5 and Indian) had us over for dinner on Friday.  We took "Don't Eat Pete"  and the little girls of course loved the Rascals and M&Ms.  Universal!You never would have believed the feed they put on!.  Mutton curry, with rice and mashed potatoes.  Greens and carrot salad, puff-pastry chicken pie, baked chicken, roasted veg, and ice cream and cake. They thought we would be picky eaters and so they just made everything they could find. We are still stuffed!  I just got to hold the 4 month old right after we talked to Dempsey on Facetime, so I was a happy camper!
   Saturday had us at the Primary Saturday activity and practice for the Sacrament Meeting Program.  So confession time.  I wasn't sure how this was going to work and I did mention that when there's an activity that the children should have a snack.  So--that morning I made cupcakes with my hard to find Pillsbury cake mix, and had them in the car for insurance purposes.  When  the long  practice was over,  Kent came in and said, "don't worry about getting the cupcakes.   They've got it covered."
   

KFC was served with their little loaves of bread and sticky juice.  Everyone loves the chicken including us and then they bring out cake and ice cream.  This is the only Primary activity the children have all year so they do it up big.
    I practiced the church piano like mad Sunday morning, but I still messed up a little.  On my signature song "Scripture Power" I skipped a line at the end and never did recoup!  Great finale!  But the kids were great---Kent has video......

   Sorensens, the office couple,  will be going home soon on December 13, so they stopped by to say goodbye (and to fix the Elder's GPS that accidently slipped into Russian and wouldn't go back.)  Elder Sorensen is Mr fixit and is over vehicles in the mission and both he and she will be sorely missed when  they go home.  We had a Braai with steak and those millions of cupcakes--(we were so prepared.)  Kent and I commented on how we really must be isolated because we don't like people to leave.  We just need to chat!  This couple lives in Glendale Arizona so we will run into them again!  




We have new elders in our Dundee Branch, Elder DePriest, from Colorado and Elder Shinga from Zimbabwe. They are zone leaders. Can you guess which one is which? The former zone leaders both transferred out---Elder Martin to Durban and Elder Diehl to Lesotho (a landlocked country inside South Africa). We will miss them, They were good missionaries! These guys will be good too!
 
   
     

Watermelon and Halloween

 

    Sanibonani!  On the 28th of October, we were asked to pick up a returning missionary from Capetown mission.  The bus stop was 20 minutes away on the Durban road and then we were to pass the Elder off to the Ezakheni Elders to take home on their way to Ezakheni.  As usual we left early but the bus was 1 hour late and our 1 hour deal was about 2 1/2.  After all the wait, the Elder did not get off the bus.  We walked around the Gas station thinking he got off without us seeing.  They looked ready to leave so Kent walked up to the stewardess and asked if anyone on the bus had a suit and tie with a badge like his and she said yes.  The Elder was watching a movie and said he was waiting for the Ladysmith stop.   He was kind of shocked that his stop was on the freeway in the middle of nowhere far away from Ladysmith.
   We went to church that Sunday in Ezakheni and heard the Elder speak at his homecoming.  He was impressive and very well spoken.  When we mentioned this to the Branch Pres. he said that all the missionaries  come back with better English than they left with and stronger church knowledge.

   The 40 day fast was set up on this day and 40 people signed up for a 24 hour each fast for the Branch.  They need leadership and families to move in.  The Branch Pres is single and 26 and about the oldest adult in the Branch.  There are only 4 cars in the parking lot on Sunday with the Elders included.  (The chapel is filled to capacity). They have a young 17 year-old running Primary with about 60 kids.  The Second Counselor in the Branch Pres. is leaving for his mission on the 8th of Dec.  and the President is feeling the crunch with 9 missionaries out and 5 kids in different stages of leaving for missions.  Money is worse than tight and he feels inspired to do this fast.  We will help with this but he's right he needs to see miracles.  (update our Elders are teaching 2 families already)
 

Our pictures say it all --Since it's not too Fallish here, there are no pumpkins to be found.  Our Elders asked if they could have a Halloween dinner and carve watermelons if they bought them and we thought it sounded like fun.  We had a braai (BBQ)with watermelon punch.  They wanted to have a contest but only 4 out of 8 participated so we just enjoyed the mess and were glad we could set up a table and hose up afterwards outside.
   Tues -Sat. was the most frustrating days of our mission to date.  Salt Lake hasn't put me on the Wise program and so we both  get on the program at the same time.  It sputters, stops, locks us out and generally has a wheezing fit.  We need to print S and I Certificates for graduation and participation for the previous year.  January starts the new year and we will start fresh but for now we are finishing old business.  We go to Madadeni on the 12th and need those certificates done!  Of course all teachers need to report in and give us their rolls so that the program will print those certificates.  Since there is no transport, hardly, they take pictures with their phones, of the rolls, and text the pics to us.  Then we can't make out the names and have to call them about their 4 months work anyway.  The next week is crunch time to get the data and put it in the program and print.
   We also had boarding checks, (off to Dundee), and phone calls to Jo Burg Temple.  We are trying to arrange the Brother and Sister-in-law of our Branch Pres.'s,  first time temple trip.  The problem is, is that they want to arrange and input  the names of 2 brothers and a sister for work to be done when the Branch goes on the trip in December.  Everything is to be done in one day because there is a holiday on the Friday before and even the Temple and housing is closed.  I'm hoping we can talk them out of so much in one day, but they usually only go once a year.  Transport again!  We'll have them over soon to work on our computer to  get their LDS account and scan documents.  We pray that we won't need signatures from living husbands  or wives.  Everything is so hard for these people but they have so much faith.

   We took our Dundee "white-out Elders" out to dinner before they get transferred on Saturday.  (White-out means both in the companionship leave at the same time and they don't do it often.)  They were our zone leaders and so good, we will miss them.  (Dehl and Martin).  The one Elder was being plagued by little girls from the Branch and spreading gossip about him.  He asked to leave, and the Pres. agreed.  We haven't even seen the new Elders yet, but will in a few days.
   This last Saturday was 1/2 of our big District Conference leadership meeting.  It was our goal to get the Certificates printed and in the hands of Branch Presidents.  We got Seminary done, which was the biggest group, but not Institute.  I was up till midnight inputting and got done, but we could not get the Institute certificates to print.  We still have time for it but at least Seminary graduations can go on.
  We were slated to give an S and I presentation for Saturday and we had so little time to prepare, but it went well. (miracle #2--#1 was finding Madadeni Chapel since I lost everything in our GPS).
   The big thing was from the night before on Friday at 11:00 pm we got an email from the District Pres asking Sister Brown and Sister Rhodes to do training for the Young Women.  I went to bed at 12:30 and didn't worry about it.  The spirit didn't forget us all day but especially with the Young Women.  I had met the new YW President because she was a Seminary teacher and so we had a bit of a rapport.  We talked to them about them and their calling.  They opened up and we then could address some of their concerns.  We showed a 4 min video Kent so sweetly downloaded(thinking I might need to fill time) and the Pres and her counselor left feeling better.  We were not left alone that day because we had no clue what we were going to do for an hour when we went into that room.  Time is so valuable when you get anyone to a meeting in this country.

   Sunday was a practice for Primary sacrament meeting program with me on the piano.  The Primary  President was there and it went great because she is also the music person. We'll do it next Sunday with our cute, good 10 kids.  They know their "Scripture Power" with the best of them!
   Today is Monday, November 14, and we are caught-up. Yeah!  In 2 days we will have been in Africa for 3 months!   (It only took me 3 months to get caught up on this blog!)
 
   

Anniversary

  The day we left Nambeti was our real anniversary, but Kent apparently set us up the night before with the anniversary package.  This is what our tent/room looked like when we got back from the animal drive.  Those are candles floating in my tub with rose petals in the water and geraniums around the tub.

We had candy and Grapetizer on ice (sparkling grape juice) a gift of truffles and wow it was such a surprise.

   We slept in and then had breakfast with the group and then a short meeting.  We then left for our boardings to fight the good fight again for another day, re-energized. We ran into these guys on the way out, though the hippos could have cared less!

Jonathon our Nambiti Driver/Ranger

We invited the Roberts over to spend the night and to show us how to work the Wise CES program.  We thought we were on it but alas only part access was given and it would be 2 more weeks before we were on it.  The Roberts were dead tired because they did not sleep in like we did.  We let them to take a nap and then took them to a nice restaurant that night.The next morning we awoke to a flood in our (their) bathroom (our boarding)where the tub was.  It was definately something we could not fix.  We had to call Dick (HOA Pres.) and plumbers to find the broken pipe.  They had to cut through the roof to fix it.   The Roberts  had breakfast and left for home to take showers.  I felt badly that it ended so abruptly but it was time to start our work.  

   We had several African missionaries that were getting their calls on Friday.  We would sit around 2 hours waiting for the delivery service to deliver a big envelope with 2 envelopes from Salt Lake.  We knew it was for an  Ezekeni Sister  and a Dundee Elder.  We continue the delivery service to those places and watch as they open it with family and friends.  It's always at the church and very exciting for them just like it is for our Elders and Sisters.    

    I also had 2 missionaries that needed more medical done on paperwork.  I had to study the paperwork of other African missionaries to find out what they were missing and why the one's paperwork had been stopped in Joburg.  I learned a lot from that sitting, especially for what was coming up.  Saturday we delivered our Sister missionary's call and gave our first Missionary prep class with 3 attending. The class was doomed from the start because our little sister was so distracted by her call.  It started late and we got done late.  It was getting dark and raining while leaving Ezekeni which is dangerous.  They've had Taxi Wars where people have died -- like gang wars and it is really dark out there.

Sister Sillingile V. Manqele (going to Uganda) ,family and Pres Ngcobo

Pres De Klerk and Mhelengi Nxumalo-- going to Botswana-Namibia

 Mhelengi is our wisdom teeth guy and mini-missionary that we got to know well.We had such a fun visit with the DeKlerks and made cheese-cake for lunch.  It's easier than making cookies because there are so few ingredients. We took the Ladysmith Elders with us for the occasion.

   Kent spent that Sunday morning setting up conference for Ladysmith.  If he had not spent time downloading and explaining and delivering Conference none of our Branches would have had conference at all.  They show it in different time blocks.  Some show 4 hours at a time on a Sunday.  Some show it for 6 hours with Priesthood and RS being shown at the same time with lunch in between.  It is difficult with no transport, and a lack of knowledge of technology.  I wish I was better at it --thank goodness for Kent --my better half.  We do feel that we are equal to 1 person sometimes.

   

The GA tour starts on Thursday and this next week is going to be a blur because we will start  Wednesday night  with the Browns spending the night and helping us.  We have the lunch to prepare, set up and take down.  We planned and purchased the next 2 days after we had P day and cleaned and washed and did our shopping on Monday.

Penny Brown in a previous life was a School Principal and very organized.  Her husband and herself had been on a previous mission to Nigeria.  They were office missionaries and wanted to go as MLS(member,leadership support) missionaries for their next mission and then were called to S. Africa which they were excited about.  (if you are counting that's 2 missions to Africa) They were a  great help with our hamburger Braai at the church.  Elder Palmer was our visiting GA for Zone Conference for 24 Elders and 9 adults.  The food went well and clean-up went well though we barely had enough because of the added mini-missionaries(guys that are waiting for real missions and are waiting for transfers and in-coming missionaries to fill the vacancy). 

  

Pres. Thompson and Elder Palmer of the Seventy

Sister Thompson and my shoulder

   In the middle of all of this - we sent off our first African Sister's  papers and waited on Friday for 3 hours for Elder Xaba's call to come with that same delivery service.  We delivered Sat    

 and were supposed to have Missionary prep with our 4 missionaries and they were no-shows.

Sthabiso Xaba and Pres Ngcobo. 

Going to Ghana-Acra

Sunday was 4 straight hours of General Conference with 10 min break.  Monday was elders and pancake feed.  We need to find a way to get them off our computers.  Tues. was Red letter day.  They finally after 2 and 1/2 months got us fully on the Wise program.  This is the program that helps us with Seminary and Institute.  We are busy now hunting and gathering and entering attendance information to finish out their school year which ended the second week of October.  We can't find some of these teachers, and those that have sent us their attendance have very hard to read records that are sent from their phones.  It's been a bit frustrating because we have a hard time understanding many of the teachers on the phone when we can talk to them .  Seminary Graduation is next with the printed certificates that we print when all the info is in the computer correctly in the Wise program.  Help!