25-09- to 05-10-2011

05 Oct 2011
This morning Sister Blackburn removed 6 sutures from Elder Jenks head.  The wound was from the truck wreck in GeGe.  Then everyone met at Zone Meeting which the Zone Leaders had done a wonderful job with the training and spiritual development of the Elders.  They are building a good brotherhood now.   Sister Blackburn had baked birthday cakes for the Elders who were to have birthdays this transfer cycle.  Elder Blackburn went to Mbabane for a Temple Recommend interview and the sister had not been to the temple since about the 1990s and was still wearing the same one pair of garments that she had purchased at that time.  He instructed her to purchase new ones and she said she did not have the money so he gave her $15.00 which will purchase 4 pair and she was so grateful.  Elder Blackburn also worked this evening with 2 prospective missionaries to make sure their papers were complete so they could have their interview with President Von Stetten, their names are Junior Verde and Thulani Mabuza.  They both seem really anxious and happy to serve a mission.

04 Oct 2011
Elder Blackburn spent the day doing errands, picked up bicycles from repair shop and returned them to Elders, big shipment of teaching materials that had to be distributed to the Elders - Book of Mormon and phamplets, got the car washed today.  Sibusiso Mbuli walks 1.5 hours to our house to wash our truck, it takes him 2 hours and we pay him $15.00.  He never misses a week.   Then it rained on the truck all evening, at least the inside will stay decently clean for a week.

03 Oct 2011
Rained all day, this storm is out of the Antartic and is really cold, supposed to rain for 3 days.  We even had to turn our heaters on to get rid of the humidity and warm the house.

02 Oct 2011
Went to Manzini to Church, Testimony meeting went so fast, people would come up one after another without a break, what Testimony Meeting should be.  Sister Blackburn gave Sister Ntshalintshali, the District Relief Society the packets she needs for the Branches to teach the sisters how to dry vegetables and fruits, she also gave her a string of green beans that she had dried so the sisters could see how they were done and how they would look.  There are so many things we know how to do because of our technology that the people of Africa could use to improve their lives, but do not have any way to get the knowledge.  Elder Blackburn encouraged the District to plan a Temple trip for the youth so they can go do baptisms before the end of the year, we really hope they follow through with this activity.

01 Oct 2011
This morning we went to the Temple with the Nhlangano Branch, Sister Mabuza was able to obtain her Endowment, she was so attentive during the session, after the session, Sister Blackburn gave her a gift of a temple veil and she was so touched.  Sister Blackburn was her Escort.  There will always be such a sisterhood between us after going to the Temple together.  Sister and Brother Smith was also there and went through the session with us.  They spent the night in Patron housing.  We spent the night with Elder and Sister Callahan and had such a good visit with them, it just was not long enough.  Then we drove 4.5 hours back to Swaziland.
Sister Mabuza after the Temple Session.

30 Sept 2011

Got up early and drove to Johannesburg, we are to meet the Nhlangano Branch at 3:30 to do an own endowment session at 6:00pm.  Brother and Sister Smith followed us over there, they were told there would probably be an extra room at the patron housing for them.  We waited and waited for the Branch to get there, Elder Blackburn went to the 6:00pm session while Sister Blackburn waited for the Nhlangano members, two sisters are supposed to do their Endowments this trip.  The Branch finally got there at 7:00 pm.  There was a lot of road construction on the way they drove over to Joburg.  Sister Blackburn had purchased 2 pair of garments and 2 veils for the 2 sisters.  One sister had changed her mind and did not come,which was a great disappointment to us all.  We hope she will be able to make it before the end of the year.

29 Sept 2011

Elder Blackburn had a Mission Presidency Meeting on Skype today.  Elder Blackburn ran errands all morning.  He had a meeting in the morning with Presidnet Simelane to see how he feels about his job and how the District is performing, so he could report to President Von Stetten.  We have felt some concern lately, the President has not been holding his District Meetings and seems distracted.  After the meeting, Elder Blackburn felt that President Simelane would try to get more done.

28 Sept 2011

Elder Blackburn had to go to GeGe Police Station and take pictures of the wrecked Bakkie, then he took Elder Jenks to the Doctor to get his head sutured, there was a gash that he was hesitant to take care of.  Elder Blackburn said, "In my mind I could hear Sister Blackburn telling me that he needed to be sewn up and to take him to the doctor."  He was glad he listened to that prompting, Elder Jenks needed 6 sutures to close the gash.  Elder Katize needed to see the doctor because his back was bothering him.  He was told to come back for xrays in  3 days if he was still hurting.  Needless to say, these errands took all day and Elder Blackburn was happy to get home.

27 Sept 2011

Today the Zone Leaders and District Leaders drove to New Castle for training, they will be gone until tomorrow evening.  At 8:30pm we received a telephone call from Elder Katize telling Elder Blackburn that he has a problem, when asked what the problem is he replied that he had wrecked the Bakkie and it was turned over.  Elder Blackburn ascertained that no one was seriously injured and then called Brother Malinga in GeGe to go check on the truck and the Elders which he readily agreed to do.  Elder Katiza and Elder Jenks were on their way to GeGe to have dinner with the GeGe Elders and Elder Katiza was driving too fast and lost control of the vehicle.  Brother Malinga got the GeGe Police and they towed the bakkie to the police station, then brother Malinga had the Elders come to his place and they spent the night with the GeGe Elders.  Tomorrow we will sort everything out.

26 Sept 2011

Today Sister Blackburn baked cupcakes to take to the Maseko family in Mbabane, he is the 2nd Counselor in the District Presidency and they have 2 little girls.  When we got there, he was still at work and would not be home for quite a while, we had to wait for Sister Maseko to get home.  We did spend about 1 hour with them and left the cupcakes for the family to enjoy.  The Swazis enjoy american deserts.