22 Nov 2011
Today Musa Mbuli came and washed the car then we went shopping for the rest of Thanksgiving dinner; at 4:00pm we picked up Branch President Shongwe and his wife at the Kombi stop and then picked up Musa at the road to his home and we all went to the Matsapha Airport to pick up Elder Michael Khoza. He has returned from his mission to Uganda. Elder Blackburn released him from his mission and then we took everyone to the Shongwe homestead where they all live except Musa. Musa said when he was on his mission in Uganda that Elder Khoza was his companion for a short while and they became better friends even though they were friends before their missions.
The Ezulwini Branch now has 4 returned missionaries to help run the Branch. Elder Khoza has a twin sister, her name is Portia. A few days after they were born, their mother died and their grandmother Shongwe raised them. Their father died at sometime too. It is amazing how many orphans there are in Swaziland. AIDS has virtually destroyed the complete family. Still over 50% are HIV positive even after 25 years of education and medications.
23 Nov 2011
Today Sister Blackburn started preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, 3 pumpkin pies, a huge pan of stuffing, 2 turkeys to bake. Just typing about it makes us hungry.
Each missionary companionship is supposed to make a dish of something from their homeland to share with everyone else. We will have 16 Elders plus Elder and Sister Blackburn.
If you can not be with your family, we can not think of a better way to spend Thanksgiving than with a group of wonderful and always hungry missionaries. We know you had a wonderful one and each elder when home stuffed with turkey and other good things.
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