We have had a fun, busy week! Ü Thursday was our Swaziland Zone Conference in Mbabane with Pres. and Sister Leavitt. It was GREAT!  We fixed the lunch ~ a taco salad bar and chocolate cupcakes. (They were both a BIG hit!!) Ü  Friday, was interviews with President Leavitt and Friday night was a special district husband/wife fireside on "How To Make a Good Marriage Great".  We had about 40 people in attendance in Manzini. Elder and Sister Foote, Africa Southeast Area Mental Health Missionaries came from Johannesburg for the weekend. (They are from the ward that my nephew, Erik Egan and Julie are in, in Flower Mound, TX and they know them well! Erik is the bishop of the ward but the Footes have moved to the other side of Dallas now.) They also did a presentation at our mission zone conference on "How to Avoid Contention" in companionships.)  

Saturday morning Elder and Sister Foote did a fireside for all the youth in the district on Pornography.  About 42 youth attended.  (I made 72 oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for refreshments for that and they were gone in 2 minutes!)  Saturday afternoon, we were supposed to have a meeting with the youth conference committee for the district youth conference scheduled for the first week of September, but no one showed up. So we met with Pres. Sithole and discussed it.  At 3:00 pm there was another presentation on Counseling for all branch councils.  It ended at 5:00 and we got home at 6:00 pm.

This morning, we drove to Nhlangano for a baptism at 9:00 a.m. and attended Church in that branch.  I taught the song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" to the Primary children using my picture chart.  They sang SO well!  We met with the seminary and institute teachers and students the third hour and HOPEFULLY they are FINALLY off to a good start this week!! They had not met yet!??! So we got things decided, on when and where they will meet this week, and told them which lessons to start on! Ü  (I brought brownies for them, after talking to four youth who came to Manzini yesterday for the fireside and requested I bring them some.) Ü 

Our Swaziland Zone Ü 

We have just 12 Elders and we are losing 5 in just one more week!

We were told we may not get five to replace them, 

as the number of missionaries in our mission is way down.

President and Sister Leavitt and Elder and Sister Foote

Our newest Swaziland Elder, Elder Bowen (from Las Vegas), 

who has been serving in Johannesburg and is now serving here in Nhlangano, Swaziland.

Crazy Elder Francis (Provo) found Elder Wold's name tag on his suit

coat, lying on a chair, and put it on to see if he would notice.... Haha! 

Our Swaziland youth, ages 12-18, after their fireside, Saturday morning in Manzini

Today's baptism in Nhlangano was Sister Lunga, performed by Elder Feliciana,

who taught her with Elder Bowen.  Lunga's husband and darling baby also attended. 

I LOVE the 1 1/2 hour drive through the mountains to Nhlangano! 

I always have to take more photos... 

 This tree near our flat is one of MANY we see everyday with bright orange blossoms.

I FINALLY got a picture of it... They are SO pretty!!! 

Saturday, Easter decorations went up at Corner Plaza near our flat.

I got a picture of just one of the decorations that are all through the Plaza.

You can't really see it, but there is a basket with a bunny in it in the middle 

of the draped fabric and three big fabric flowers. 

(Our favorite Chinese restaurant, Luxy Garden, is shown, up on the 2nd floor.  

We stopped there Saturday after 6:00 p.m. when we had been in Manzini 

since 10:30 a.m. and had had nothing to eat all day! )

We had the best zone activity today at Hlane Royal Game Park here in Swaziland! We were able to take all 12 of our Elders there for P-day!  The weather was perfect and everything went well! Here are some photos....

Elder Schwalger and Elder Feliciana got their travel itinerary for April 3rd

when they will fly home to San Diego and Brazil! We'll miss them!!! 

The Manzini District surprised Elder Wold with a matching shirt they had 

made for his birthday.  He wore it with them on the game drive. 

Elders Nogueira and Sinclair on the two ends with the Manzini  District,

Elders Willey, Francis, Brown (and Myeni, who was in Mbabane to get paperwork

going to go on his mission to Sierra Leone)! 

Elder Schwalger and Elder Feliciana joined the group!

Elder Wold with the Manzini District 

Elder Smith in his shirt someone made for him in Mozambique

The Swaziland Zone....eating muffins before we headed out!

The first jeep with Elder Schwalger, Elder Brown, Elder Willey, Elder Francis,

Elder Feliciana, Elder Bowen and Elder Sinclair.

Our jeep with Elder Smith, Elder Nogueira, Elder Cox and Elder Pace

Elder Wold with jeep #2 (actually a Toyota Land Cruiser)

Elder Cox riding "shotgun" and wearing the guide's hat

Heading off with our guide, Manqoba

Huts you can stay in overnight

There is also a campground if people want to camp out.

A male elephant was eating the acacia bushes with two females

We think he is one we saw in October with just one tusk.

Close encounters with the male elephant....

Looking for lions....

We spotted two lions and were THIS close! 

One was just lying down and the other wandered off in the tall grass.

She never did come out of the tall grass but I got a few pics anyway...

These are nyalas, a type of antelope native to Southern Africa. 

The females are brown and the males are a dark gray color. 

These are impalas. They have three black stripes on their behinds

that look like an "M".  They are the most hunted animal of the big game

so people say the "M" is for McDonald's for the big animals! Ü 

They were leaping and running across the road! When they feel threatened,

they can jump 9 meters in distance and over 2 meters high! 

We found three hippos at a watering hole. They

kept standing up for a minute and then lying back in the water. 

There were LOTS of cool birds around the hippos' watering hole.

I didn't get good pictures of them. These nests are weaver birds' nests.

 We drove all over trying to find a rhino after seeing its tracks.

The other jeep got photos of it standing up with its baby, but our guide's radio went out
and by the time we found it, it was lying down. 
We could see the baby moving behind the tree.

The Swaziland Zone (minus Elder Myeni)