Missionaries!!!!

 

   On Sunday the 11th we left at 7:30  for Osizweni 9AM Sacrament Mt 1 hr and 15 min away.  We had made contact with seminary and institute teachers and needed to deliver their assessments.  Of course I forgot mine, but only had one I was going to have to email.  I took their pics in my Name Shark.  It has saved my bacon(yeah iphone app).   The chapel was a modular in the poorest neighborhood, in a township, we had been in yet.  They started singing "Welcome Welcome Sabbath Morning" and I lost it while climbing the stairs. It was so strong and beautiful and accapella.  When we saw how many people were there, we could hardly believe it.  We then had the Primary Sacrament meeting, South African style.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  They were all sitting facing the pulpit,  A teenage boy led some of the music with another sister.  There was no accompaniment but they knew every song.  Only one song was supposed to be in the program but there was plenty of music even if there was no theme to it.   When it was the children's turn to speak, young and older all said ,"Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,"  and then bore their testimonies and sat down. They all wanted that mike.   One little boy said, "Good morning Brother and Sisters, How are you?"  Everyone laughed!  English is the second language and of course hello greetings are the first thing you learn and he learned the whole thing!
  Being the "Scripture Power" delivery person that I wanted to be, made it really hard to leave and go to the next Sacrament mt we had scheduled to visit.  But wait?  I had to find the little girls room before I left and wouldn't you know it, I found a lady from the Primary program there and told her what a nice job she did with the children.  She promptly  told me she just happened to be there from District Primary Board over the music.  She was just the person I wanted to run into.  I launched into my chorus of "Scripture Power" and showed where to find it on the phone app and my job was done. (Kent said he could hear it in the parking lot, but I'm sure that's not true.)
  We were so late because we got lost in the township.  GPS apparently is not accurate in these places.  We sort of followed our nose and looked up the ward in LDS Tools and  were guided there by our phone .  We were so late, but got to visit Madadeni 1 and 2 just fine.  We heard most of our friends, the Hinds' talk, before they head  home to the States.  They were a huge asset and will be replaced by the Browns. Brother Hinds was in the Mission Presidency and did most of the leg work for the Mission President in the "bush".   We had a nice lunch at the Hinds' Boarding and left as it was getting dark.  We had such a nice visit in New Castle and Bro. Hinds was happy about the Forgiveness Program going through for the District.  The branches had really gone in the red, financially. He had worked on that project for a long time and finally he saw the fruits of his labor completed and could go home feeling happy about the outcome.  Monday was sort of a P day but mostly a marathon with 6 elders, dinner and FHE.  The  elders were using our computers for emailing so it was taking a lot of time.  We had Zulu flash cards and played a game with them.  I think the chapels computers have worked a total of twice since we have been here so the elders use our computers.  The IT person from Durban can not seem to handle his work load  because of the distance.  It was now a scramble to get my lesson done for Tuesday.   On Tuesday night we got home and found our water to be off and it was for 24 hrs.  That made us scramble to get more of a water supply.  Wednesday we tried bunny chow.  It's a half loaf bread hollowed out and some kind of meat--chicken, mutton beef, is stuffed inside with a little greens.

The chunks of meat are small but almost always with bones.  The natives always eat chicken bones with their chicken but Kent was not impressed.  Sis  Sabalala came on Thurs and I again worked on lesson for hours.  Kent showed me some short cuts on the computer and how to find the good videos we could download for our lessons.  They are just short but add a lot to the lesson.
   Friday was of course Dundee,but we had lined up our friend Suren and his girlfriend Rashicka to go

 out to a different good restaurant.  He took us there and it was so fun.  Suren likes to have the missionaries and us over for dinner every Wednesday night. and he loves cooking and I'm liking Indian food more each time. ( He won Kent over with his curried chicken gizzards last week.)   I had not had confidence in my cooking yet so Kent offered to pay for the dinner.  In South Africa meals are the entertainment.  You plan on staying there a long time and just socializing.  It was a good restaurant in a part of town we had never been in.  We never would have found it and still can't on our own.  It's really part of a B&B with a swimming pool in the courtyard with indoor and outdoor seating.  Kent loved his food and had to take a pic with BBQ pork ribs and shrimp.

   Saturday was rainy and cold but we had the Woods from the mission office visiting  for lunch and had fun visiting.  (We don't get many visitors.)  Must shop and try to find a pork roast for pulled pork for the President's visit on Sunday.  He had marathon meeting scheduled on Sunday and Elders' interviews on Monday.
   Cooking is fun times--Have I mentioned that nothing is the same?  No pork roast that's boneless can be found!  When I found someone that spoke good enough English, I explained that I wanted something that would pull apart after cooked and was pork.  I got a loin chop roast before they cut it for chops.  The meat looked lean enough but I sweated the bones in it thinking that it was not  the right kind of cut.  I had to trust, but I cut it in half so that I could have a second try and cut as chops in case this messed up.  They don't call the cuts of meat the same in the States so you just feel your way through this.  This recipe was supposed to be like Cafe Rio sweet pulled pork and we had nice rolls and would make sandwiches  with it.  I only found 1 spice out of 4 that I was supposed to have, so this was going to be interesting.  Started in the crock-pot on Saturday night to cook it because it looked a little tough..  Started it again on Sunday at 6AM and walked in at 2PM and it was falling off the bone and just fine.  I did sweat that one but no need!  (is actually so cold here that we turned on the heater for the first time).  We had a nice visit with the President Thompson and Kent went with him to deliver another call to Elder Zwane at the Ezakeni Branch.  It was a fun day with me in primary, meeting our  Branch President for the first time and going into Young Women.

   We have a cute mini missionary from Dundee waiting for his mission call and serving as a Ladysmith companion to Elder Smith.  He is a mini missionary because we have been short companions for our fulltime elders and it gives a taste of what's to come. Since we are the Senior couple over all these Elders, we got the call from Joberg that his paperwork had been stopped for the second time because of his teeth.  The first time this happened, we sent him back to Dundee to get the work done that they said needed to get done but didn't do.  This is a free clinic in town and the xray machine was broken.  He had cavities,needed cleaning, and xrays to find out about the wisdom teeth.  This was the Monday that we took Mhlengi to the real dentist in Ladysmith with a real drill and xray machine and everything. 3 cavities were filled, cleaned his teeth, and we found that he needed all his wisdom teeth out.  We paid for this work to be done but drew the line on the wisdom teeth because that could be as much as R6000 or about $450.
   The church does not have dental insurance for missionaries, so any work must be completed before missions.  Mhlengi's Branch President is a wonderful Africaans guy that understands the problem of money with these kids.  He told us he would get fast offering money for the wisdom teeth and he would be good for it.  The hard part here is giving money back to us.  We can't take checks from the church or even cash a check from anyone.  Bank transfers and cash is how they live down here other than bank cards. Anyway we got the work done and made the appointment for wisdom teeth.

Singing Happy Birthday Elders style.

   Later that day we had Elders on computers, made Kent's carrot cake from scratch,(which will now be known as the egg-sloth incident),and studied for class the next day.

 We were celebrating and having a party with Dundee students so we needed the stuff to be ready.  On the way home we met with Bart Anderson to pick up his acceptance letter for Sierra Leone.  He was reluctant and scared to accept but took a few days and wrote his letter.  We gave some encouraging words and emailed the letter off!  Missionaries-Missionaries!!  We have lots to do with the goings and comings of African missionaries going and the missionaries already serving in our mission. S& I is taking a back seat it seems, at least for now.
   Thursday was study for Friday and Sis Shabalala.

Sis Shabalala

 She did not go to the temple for lack of people to fill up the van.  Friday was all day S and I and we made Herman for the kids.  Kent worked on Herman for 10 days and the end result was as good as ever.  We take treats twice a week but that is ending in January with the new school year.  Will they still come?  That is the question!!