20 July 2010
Elder Nathi called Elder Blackburn to help him get his South African Visa; so we picked him up and took him to the Police Station; the government hospital; he had not filled out any of his application papers; very frustrating dealing with him; he is 24 yrs old going on 16, I would swear.  I called South African Travel Office and got the information he needed for the packet;  we will meet with him next week and see if he did anything we asked him to do.  We have to go to Durban on Tuesday and will be gone 2 days; then the Callisters will be coming to Ezulwini for 2 days and staying with us.
13 July 2010
We had our marrieds class and Elder Blackburn and I did a team teaching presentation, it went pretty good; first time for him to teach a class since his mission when he was 20 years old.  He did pretty good.  We only had 2 couples, the Branch did not announce it on Sunday; next class we will send the Branch President an email asking him to make the announcement.
14 July 2010
Elders have a broken sliding door that we need to attend to;
15 July 2010
Going to Stiki to check on the area and see if it is possible to locate members there.  Then we will meet Elder and Sister Bingham at the Mozambique Border when we take the Bakki for the road tax.  Stiki is a dumpy little town, no way to find anyone there.  We then went to Hlane Big Game Park and spent two nights. Did a mini safari and saw a Lion, Elephant, Rhino,Hippo,Giraffe and Wart Hogs. There were also a huge herd of Antelope.

17 July 2010
Met the Binghams at the Mozambique Border, had lunch at a small local cafe, it was really good;  some kind of bean stew and rice with french bread;  it has been interesting to see how the world has incorporated the foods from the Americas into their culture;  Swaziland uses beans and maize for their protein and starch.  They eat maize porridge, bean porridge and fruit and vegetables, tomatoes, chocolate; very little meat;  Mozambique uses maize and beans. And also rice.  These foods were brought by the Portugese explorers to the African Continent.  Italy has a maize dish callen Polenta (very similar to the Swazi Pap).  We really enjoyed our day with the Binghams, their mission president gave them permission to come to Swaziland for the day, so we had our game park pass and took them on a self drive and they were able to get some great pictures of the animals.


18 July 2010
Delivered Patriarchal Blessings to Mbabane and Manzini Branches; they were happy to get them.  Stayed for Sacrament in Manzini and the District Councilman spoke, he was very passionate and learned in the scriptures.  He spoke on keeping the Sabbath Day holy and shared a very strong testimony with us.  He reminded everyone that "today is the day of repentance"; We were impressed with that statement.

19 July 2010
Went to Manzini for District Meeting; the Elders were very late so it was a short meeting; it was Elder Ndlovu's birthday so we took them to a small hole in the wall for lunch; we all had "bunny chow".  An indian dish made with curry".