We went to Nhlangano for church today, Elder Blackburn had some interviews to do. While there we were asked to teach the Temple Preparation class and it was a very successful class. Everyone was so interested and just hung on to every word we said. We stopped in Manzini, on the way home, and Elder Blackburn attended his District Presidency Meeting, the President had read a little out of the Celestial Marriage lesson book and was so excited about arranging classes for the adults and young adults in the District. So, that will probably be our next big project - to teach a different marriage culture. We were fixing dinner and there was a knock on the door and a former missionary and his mom were visiting Swaziland, he had served here 3 years ago, Elder Crane. They were having a great vacation visiting the people he had baptized and those members he had known. Every Missionary's dream, this mom had saved for 3 years to make their vacation possible. We received a very nice email from Barbara, she seemed to be reflective. Her first child to get married!!
13 Aug 2011
We stayed home all day, Rachel called us on her way to the Temple in Las Vegas, we had been waiting for some kind of call since it was her wedding day. It was such a pleasure to share a few moments with her on her special day. We are looking forward to the pictures. It was a good pday.
12 Aug 2011
Brother and Sister Smith came by and we took them to Mbabane to do some immigration duties. Went to DHL to mail missionary info to the Area Office for Muzi Mabuza. Took the Smiths to the Silversmith, they wanted to get rings to wear. They loved the silver and giraffe hair jewelry. At 3:00p.m. Elder Blackburn had an interview, then we met the Smiths at the Manzini Chapel and all missionaries went to an orphanage the missionaries had selected to teach personal hygiene and give out soap, towels, combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste. Brother Smithe filmed all of it for a potential documentary to be shown at General Conference. The children got into line to receive their dinner after getting their bag of goodies.
Just ran errands all day, getting electricity, cell time, groceries, etc.
10 Aug 2011
We got up early and went to the Immigration department and got all the new Elders Passports stamped with their residence permit and right to work for six (6) months. Took 3 hours standing in line and waiting. The upside to this is that they are legal to come and go throughout the Kingdom.
The Smiths went with us to the Ngwenya Border Post to meet the truck delivering the wheelchairs. He was on time, it took us 4 hours to get all the paperwork put into place. When we got to the Swazi side, we were told, "you need a second stamp" so we had to go to the government office of Swaziland Revenue Service for paperwork, then to the Customs office for the stamp. We went to 5 different offices in Customs until someone in the hallway took us to the right office where we were told, "you do not need a second stamp, we keep telling the border posts and they keep sending people back to us." Anyway, when we got back to the Border Post everything went smooth. Brother Smith was prevented from filming on government property so he filmed the truck coming through the Swazi side, then we drove to south of Manzini to St. Josephs School where the Wheelchairs are being stored until the official handover to FODSWA and delivery to the receipients. All the Ezulwini Elders and Manzini Elders joined us after we called them to tell them that arrangements had not been made for unloading the truck - they were great to come right then. 143 wheelchairs, 4 hours at the border, 1 hour to warehouse, 1 hour to unload. A very good project.
09 Aug 2011
Transfer day, Elder Smith met us out our house and we drove to Piet Retif and exchanged him for Elder Jenks and Elder Shannon. When we got the new Elders in the car, we asked them if they had eaten, they had been traveling since 6:00p.m. the night before and traveled by bus to LadySmith so they were really hungry, they had only had what snacks they had brought with them. We fed them at Nandos and they were soooooo grateful. Elder Smith is going to be Zone Leader in New Castle. Elder Jenks was so happy to have been transferred to Swaziland. He will really work hard here. This took all day.
08 Aug 2011
We had Mbabane District Development Meeting at our house today with a barbeque, Elder Cooley will not be transferred this time and neither will Elder Diseko because of Elder Reeder's father being ill with terminal cancer. So we had Barbara do a honary Swazi citizenship for Elder Cooley, we are always teasing them about becoming a citizen when they are not transferred. Elder Cooley will have been here 10 1/2 by the time he is actually transferred. He was so cute when he opened it. All the Elders thought it was hilarious and wished it were them. They really needed a barbeque and some laughter at this time.
07 Aug 2011
We went to church in Manzini so Brother and Sister Smith and their son Zack would have a familiar face at Church. After Sacrament we went to Mbabane to say goodby to Elder Reeder, he had gotten a call from the Mission President that his father was close to death with terminal cancer. They had thought Elder Reeder could finish his mission before he died, so President Von Stetten decided to release him 6 weeks early so he could go home and be a support to his mother. He is the oldest child. He has been Assistant to the President and has been Zone Leader here in Swaziland so he is really a good young man.
06 Aug 2011
We came back from Richards Bay today and met the Assistants at the Lavumisa Border and we had them follow us to Swaziland so they could pick up Elder Reeder on Sunday, he is going home to help his mother at this difficult time. When we got to Ezulwini the Elders from Mbabane met them and took them to their house for the night. They also brought bicycles for the Manzini Elders to ride instead of walking everywhere.
05 Aug 2011
Spend the day in Richards Bay waiting for test results for our missionary. We had fish and chips on the beach,then came back to the house and had a very light supper. Blueberry muffins and hot chocolate, boiled eggs.
04 Aug 2011
Got a call from Elder Reeder early this morning that one of his Elders was not feeling very well and we called Sister Von Stetten and we were told to go ahead and take him to Richards Bay since he has not been feeling good for some time. So we went a picked him up and drove to Richards Bay, we all spend the night with Elder and Sister Nuzman, they are so good to help when anyone needs the help.
02 Aug 2011
We met Brother and Sister Jon and Anne Smith and their son Zack at the Matsapha airport. Brother Smith is going to teach at the Swaziland University on a Fulbright Scholarship for the next 10 months they will do documentaries of the Big Game Parks and our Humanitarian projects and anything else we find for them to film. They were very down to earth and we feel we will become great friends.
01 Aug 2011
President Dean and Elaine Christenson of the Johannesburg MTC came to Swaziland and we were fortunate enough to be able to spend the day showing them around and getting to know them. We had fix sandwiches for lunch so we would not have to use our time eating. In the evening, after all the sight seeing we went to dinner at Summerfield. We all loved the day together.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful missionary experiences - the good, the bad and may seem at the time ugly. But each experience seems to strengthen our testimony and bring us closer to our Savior.
ReplyDeleteI think every missionary who has served in Swaziland and any visitor from the mission or area has bought one of those great, and inexpensive rings from the silversmith...I imagine that with the price of silver as high as it is the cost has gone up but they are still inexpensive when compared with what they would cost here.