World wide training on Handbook

20 Nov 2010
Went grocery shopping this morning, early, so the store would not be crowded.  Couldn't find cranberries. We had bought some dried ones in South Africa.  Am trying to reconstitute them and make sauce.  They sure don't look very appetizing.  We went to Manzini for the World Wide Training on the new Handbook of Instructions; the DVD was hooked up to a laptop and was not successful, had to bring the television out of the strong room and hook it up, then no problems.  After the meeting, Elder Blackburn was talking with President Shongwe and Sister Jill and President Shongwe asked Sister Jill "where is your calendar?" she replied "you have the calendar", he said "I want a calendar of the Relief Society events" she replied "What events, we don't do anything". They have never calendared ANYTHING.  A whole new concept for everyone.   I don't think there will be a calendar!!! Relief Society needs so much training here, they even think that they can only have 1 teacher and she is the "Relief Society Teacher"!!  Sister Blackburn told the new Relief Society President in Ezulwini, after her Teacher was sustained that "now you need 2 more teachers" and she was so shocked that she needed more.  We had over 50 at the Training Meeting, these leaders are so concerned and want to do everything right.  It will be fun to see how they implement the new concepts.

19 Nov 2010
We went over to the new Church to see  how the remode is progressing and they had the old roof off and were putting new tin  on so Sister Blackburn telephone the Elders and asked them to take some of the old tin and one of the old doors over to Sister Jill's house, she had said her roof leaked.  The Elders were very good to come right away and do that.  They will probably schedule a service day and go put the tin on for her.

Patriarch Courtney

18 Nov 2010

Blue Pumpkins but orange inside

Went to Manzini to try and find a Truck Driving School for Elder Mbuli, talked with Elder Allen of PEF and he will accept the application (finally), after we talked with Elder Blackburn's brother Bill to help us get this rolling for this young returned missionary.  It was great to get out of the house, still cloudy and may get rain today too.

13 Nov 2010
Elder Blackburn and Patriarch went to Nhlangano to conduct interviews and give Patriarchal Blessings - 7 blessings were given, each blessing takes 1 hour so he was very tired when he finished.  Sister Blackburn had dinner waiting when they got back to Ezulwini.  Sister Blackburn had several young adults over to learn how to Line Dance, she gave them lunch of Chicken Enchiladas and pumpkin pie, they thoroughly enjoyed their day. The had to show the Patriarch and Elder Blackburn, Elder and Sister Cox what they had learned. Patriarch wanted the recipes for Enchiladas and Pumpkin pie.

14 Nov 2010
Went to Manzini for Church, Patriarch Courtney did 4 more blessings there.  Sister Blackburn met with Sister Ntshalintshali and District President Simelane to discuss how the sewing machines destined for Swaziland will be taken care of and stored.  President Simelane wanted to know who would "own" the machines and Sister Blackburn stated "the women of Swaziland" "with the Relief Society protecting them."
He was much pleased with the project and gave us his ideas on how he would like them stored.  We then went to the District Seminary Graduation and about 150 seminary and young adults attended the graduation, Elder and Sister Cox had the Branch Presidents call forward the ones advancing and the ones graduating.  It was a really successful event.  Elder and Sister Cox, Patriarch Courtney then came to our house for dinner, we served pork roast, mashed potatoes and vegetables with brownies and ice cream for desert; again Patriarch Courtney wanted the recipes to take home.  He particularly liked the brownies.

15 Nov 2010
Patriarch and Cox' went back to Durban this morning; we met the Elders and went to the Ngwenya Glass Factory where they use recycled glass to make glasses, statuary, etc.  They blow the glass there and allow visitors to watch.  Then we took the Elders to Friar Tucks for a buffet luch.  Then home to rest.

16 Nov 2010
Went to the Dentist today, one tooth has really been bothering Sister Blackburn; good Dentist, nothing wrong with tooth, just the bite off and hitting the opposing tooth  too hard, so he ground it  down and we will see. 
Met with Sister Wendy Anderson about the Elders boarding in Mbabane to discuss when she will scrape the mould and get the house painted and get the sliding door fixed.  She "has been in a mental hospital because she is bipolar and is now on meds and doing much better."  Zone Leader and District Leaders left for New Castle for training for 2 days.  We picked up 2 pumpkins to cook for Thanksgiving and got one cooked, the electricity went out before the 2nd one got cooked, so we just turned the stove off.  It was the worst storm we have had to date. 

17 Nov 2010
We stayed home and finished fixing the pumpkin, enough for 6 pies, we will share with Nuzman and Ward Couples.  Rained all day and was chilly, we wore sweaters all day and did not go out.  Electricity and Internet was on sporadically all day.

Kruger National Park and the week

A large herd of Cape buffalo

a closer look at the herd of Cape Buffalo

An Elephant, one of many

On Tuesday 2 Nov 2010 Elder and Sister Blackburn decided to "run away" so they got into their car and drove to Kruger National Park about 3 hours from where they live in Swaziland.
We saw many, many elephant; a great herd of Cape Buffalo which Elder Blackburn said "made the trip worthwhile"; Pretty Ugly to me.  Giraffe in the distance, we have seen a lot of them; a Wild Dog it was also pretty ugly;  We enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery during the drive.  We had hoped to see some big cats; but the employees said they were hiding today.  It really was a good relaxing day.

4 Nov 2010
We went to the immigration department to get our work permits; we stood in line about 4 hours and went to 3 different doors, such inefficiency; we did get the permits; Sister Blackburn could not get her passport stamped there was not enough pages, so now we have to go to the American Embassy and get pages added which will cost $160 American Dollars, pretty excessive charges for a few pages of photo copied paper.  We feel it is amazing how much it costs to live in a 3rd world country, because they have so little, what they do have they charge a lot for. We paid someone to wash our car while it was parked in the parking lot at the embassy.  Not unusual for someone to watch the cars, wash the cars and help you back out of your parking place, all for a few cents.

7 Nov 2010
Went to Church in Ezulwini, stayed for all three meetings, new converts shared their testimony and we were impressed with the strength of their conversion.  We had cooked a roast for dinner and we sure did enjoy it with mashed potatoes, veg, ice cream. etc.

8 Nov 2010
Manzini Elders went to Nhlangano for a baptism interview and a situation was revealed wherein the investigator had been a polygamous wife, her husband has passed away, however she still lives next door to her sister wife.  She lives in GeGe.  Elder Blackburn will have to call Mission President before baptism can happen.

9 Nov 2010
Woke up to rain, rain, rain all day; heavy thunder and lightening;  We just stayed home and studied.

10 Nov 2010
Still heavy storms; Elders came to our house for their District Meeting and they stay too long; they didn't want to go back out into the storms anymore than we did.  They left about 2:00pm after peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watermelon.  First melon of the season and was perfect not like the first one we had bought here.  We were finally informed that the natives will cook green watermelon and eat it that way.
We bought a blue pumpkin from roadside market, and Sister Blackburn was assured it was orange inside.  The girl selling the produced picked one out for us, when we got home it was orange inside, got a recipe off internet - Food Network to cook it.  It cooked really good and then put it in a blender and guess what? we are going to have real pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

11 Nov 2010
Beautiful day, Elder Mbuli came and washed the car (I guess we have hired him every week).  After the first request to wash our car, he just keeps coming back each week. Good thing the car needs washing all the red mud.  Elder Blackburn went to the Ezulwini Elders Boarding to wait for the repair man.  They are getting electric shocks when they shower.  Went to the grocery store and spent R1050. our refrigerator was like Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard.  We found a turkey for Thanksgiving, grown in Minnesota by Jennie O.
It cost us $35.00 American Dollars, but we figuered we would spend that much on chickens to feed the Elders.  Talked with Sister Ward last night to plan the Christmas Party for the New Castle and Swaziland District, we had a three way with Sister Hudson, husband had to put their voices in too. So Elder Hudson is going to use Butternut Squash instead of Sweet Potatoes - that will be interesting.  Sister Ward asked me to stop at Spars market in Bollito where we get some American products and see if I could find Libbys Pumpkin, I assured her I would bring her some pumpkin and she kept insisting it had to be "Orange"  She was skeptical that I had pumpkin for pies.

12 Nov 2010
Patriarch Courtney is coming today, he will be giving Patriarchal Blessings for 3 days.  Elder and Sister Cox is bringing him with them and he will stay with us.  The Cox' have Seminary Graduation this weekend.
We woke up today with no water, so we got dressed and went to Mbabane to the US Embassy to pick up Sister Blackburn's Passport, she now has lots of new pages to get stamped.  Our water was finally fixed at 3:30pm today.   What a nuisiance this old house is.  Elder Blackburn has gone to Manzini to conduct Patriarchal Blessing Interviews so the Patriarch can do his work.

Saw this eclipse at 12:00 noon today; Elder Samai called us and recommended that we stop driving and look at it; This evening we had a new member appointment with the Elders and the Dlamini family - the mother, thabisile, daughter Cindy and 3 other children. they committed to obeying the 10 Commandments and expressed gratitude for each member of the family. There was a wonderful feeling of love between them that was not there 3 months ago. A very good way to end the day.

Learning about Electricity

 The Elders called and needed new light bulbs, they have been complaining about light bulbs for months.  We bought a couple of boxes and took them to the Mbabane Elders, Elder Blackburn put one in and they said "see, something is wrong with the electricity, they won't work."  Elder Blackburn walked over, FLIPPED THE SWITCH and there was light.  Elder Mbatini just laughed and laughed, he thought that was so funny.
So then we went to Conference at the Mbabane Chapel and they could't get the DVD player to work; some one went down the street to get another one, meantime Elder Blackburn plugged in a cord and still would not play and then Sister Blackburn said, "Push play". there was Conference at the push of a Button.  Elder Mbatani was almost in hysterics over this one.  Sometimes we forget that some of these young men come from homes without electricity or even furniture of any kind.  So we have had 2 days of Conference, have not seen 100% of Conference in years.  It was worth the time spent, I think we will go to the Church when we get home instead of being so comfortable at home we just fall asleep.