With our dear President Thomas S. Monson's passing on Tuesday, January 2nd, we have a NEW prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  President Russell M. Nelson is our Prophet with Pres. Dallin H. Oaks and Pres. Henry B. Eyring as his counselors.  We watched the special message (first time this has been done) from Pres. Nelson to all of the members of the Church at 6:00 pm (9:00 am in SLC) and the Press Conference at 7:00 pm (10:00 am in SLC) with our four Ezulwini elders at our flat on Tuesday, January 16th.  (We had root beer floats afterwards!  We found Frankie's root beer for the first time and bought vanilla ice cream. )  Ü  Their messages were WONDERFUL and they handled questions from the press in such an inspiring way!  We LOVED hearing them and our testimonies were strengthened SO much.  We KNOW they have been called of God and are SO thankful for prophets on the earth today!

We LOVED getting to watch Pres. Monson's funeral live online on Friday night at 9:00 pm (12:00 noon in SLC), What an AMAZING life he led and what an inspiration he is to all of us!   We will never forget his wonderful counsel, his fun sense of humor, his dedicated life of service and his example of ALWAYS responding to promptings!!  His counsel to read the Book of Mormon DAILY has made such a difference in my life!! Ü  How we love him and will miss him... (Our Maybree got to attend the viewing and the funeral with Temple Square missionaries in her district.) 

We drove to Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon, when we found I could get 

an appointment on Thursday with the specialist in Johannesburg on Thursday morning.

We had GREAT news!!  Thanks to prayers from our family and mission friends, after an ultrasound and thorough examination, the doctor informed me that there is no need for surgery!!  HOORAY!!  I am SO thankful and SO relieved!!  What a blessing! Ü 

Here are some more photos taken on the drive between Swaziland and Johannesburg...

African animals behind the AZLU Petroport halfway to Joburg...

I am still fascinated by the huge boulders on mountainsides and just 

lying all over the ground in Swaziland....

These trees are so interesting! There are NO branches most 

of the way up the pine trees!

We are in such a BEAUTIFUL place!!

Sister Wagner found this fun Zulu Nativity! I will look for one next Christmas!

She has been looking for animals to go with it...

They are all made of beads!

We went to the Church Distribution Center in Johannesburg near

the Temple to get some things for our District Primary Training on 

Feb. 3rd.  I found this book and the personal stories of members in

our Africa Southeast Area are SO inspiring! We know some of 

the people whose stories are in the book. Ü  (Tirhani Ngomane, 

Lungelo Victor Nyoni, Thoko Shongwe, and Elder Bukenya)

Woo hoo!  The taco seasoning packets didn't make it in Jamie's package but 

look what we found at Thrupps in Johannesburg! We hit the jackpot!

We were walking back to our car last week from Sister Ketsiwe's home

in Lobamba and I found "baby's breath" growing all down the sides of the 

road and a big field full of it!! I have never seen it for sale but here it was 

in Joburg. I think someone in Lobamba should consider selling it....?? Ü