Zone Conference was yesterday.  It was great as always. We did lunch again and decided on pizza, salad and Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie squares for dessert. Elder Treasure, our new zone leader, who just arrived on Tuesday night, conducted and taught with Elder Smith.  They did a great job. Ü

Tonight at 6:00 p.m. there is a special meeting with Pres. and Sister Leavitt, our District Presidency and all of the YSAs in Swaziland District. Pres. Sithole asked me to make caramel popcorn for 30-40 people.  Whew!  We just finished and it is pretty good!! I found 
a recipe for (Karo) corn syrup, since we can't get it here, and tried it and it worked great!! 

Swaziland Zone

April 26, 2018

(Two Elders are from the Madagascar mission, and will be going back soon, five from the Mozambique mission, who are here to finish their missions, four from Johannesburg, one 

from Mbabane, Swaziland, who finally has his visa and will leave to serve in Sierra Leone

on May 15th, and US! We will REALLY miss Elder Myeni,  Elder Pace and Elder Willey when they go! )

Pres. Xolani Sithole (far right in back) joined us and taught part of our zone 

conference. He brought Lindokuhle Mbuli, (far left in back), a young man from Manzini, who

came for an interview with Pres. Leavitt, as he is ready to turn his mission papers in!

Elder Treasure from McCammon, ID

Fifty bags of Aunt Lucille's Caramel Popcorn that we made

for refreshments at the YSA fireside with Pres. & Sister Leavitt

and President Xolani Sithole of the District Presidency

(We ended up with 53 bags of popcorn but had 60 YSAs at the fireside!!) 

More changes for our Swaziland Zone! Elder Cox, one of our ZLs learned on Saturday that he was leaving on Sunday afternoon to go back to Johannesburg as a ZL in a new area, where a new stake was just created.  We will miss him! It was a BIG surprise because he 
really thought he would complete his mission HERE.... We will get a NEW Elder from Joburg tomorrow to be a zone leader with Elder Smith here in Ezulwini. 

We fixed tacos with homemade tortillas for Elder Cox for his 

"farewell" dinner (his choice).

Saying a final "good-bye"  to him after church on Sunday....

Early this morning, we picked up Elder Willey and Elder Brown in Manzini,

to take them to Mbabane, where we left Elder Brown with Elder Sinclair,

(see below) and took Elder Willey and Elder Pace with Nathi to the hospital

to get their yellow fever immunizations, so they can complete ALL that's needed 

for them to FINALLY renew their visa and head off back to Madagascar! 

Last Friday, our dear friends, the Bugingo family, were sealed in the Provo Temple!

Elder Phil Bugingo got permission to leave the Provo MTC for a few hours for

the special occasion!!  (Sure wish we could have been there....)

A FOREVER FAMILY Ü

Last night we had a fun birthday celebration and then the WORST THUNDERSTORM we have EVER seen in our lives!!  It is impossible to even describe and I couldn't capture it on

my camera....!!!! 

It was King Mswati III's birthday celebration yesterday, but we didn't get anywhere near where the festivities were in Manzini, so it was a pretty quiet day for us. I'm sure it was on TV but we don't have a TV... 

The Msibi family gave us avocados from their tree, so we told them a few days ago, we would make guacamole and cowboy caviar for them.  It was Masebenza's 20th birthday 

yesterday, so we took them, with Sprite and tortilla and Dorito chips, so they could try them and we also took birthday cupcakes! They LOVED it all!!  We even played a couple of games ~ Categories and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  They really enjoyed them! We were surprised when we drove up, to see their mom, Busisiwe, out front doing laundry.  She was so excited to see us!  She was there for his birthday. 

Apollo wasn't feeling well, so he kept his distance, but he got a kick 

out of the party and he really enjoyed the food! 

We often sit outside to teach, so we carry four plastic 

chairs in the back of our truck. Apollo recently made the cool benches.

We took a candle and lit it and that was fun for

him to make a wish and blow it out. 

Busisiwe brought Junior and he woke up just in time

for a cupcake!

The sky began to get a little dark with clouds, so we packed up

and headed home.... We were JUST down their mountain road a couple of minutes

later, when the CRAZIEST lightning and thunderstorm broke out !!  It was SO BAD!!

We could NOT see a thing in front of us, when the rain started coming down in

torrents sideways and the wind was blowing like crazy!  The sky lit up with lightning

every couple of seconds and the thunder was SO LOUD!!!  We have NEVER seen

anything quite like it! We were on a bumpy dirt road, and it was PITCH DARK!! 

The elders were following behind us in their truck and it was quite an experience!!! 

These photos are really bad....It was impossible to capture it!

Julie sent these cute senior pictures of Cambryn! 

She also sent some of Miranda for her mission! 

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 19th, is King Mswati III's 50th birthday. He is the King of Swaziland and he has 14 wives.  It is also the 50th anniversary of Swaziland's independence from Great Britain.  There will be a big celebration and these signs and billboards are up all over Swaziland.  There are armed guards all over to make sure the King is safe as he rides through the streets tomorrow on his way to give a speech.  A member told us yesterday that anyone who is also turning 50 between April 1st and the 19th gets to sit at a special dinner with the King! 

 The banners on the footbridges say 

"Celebrating 50 years of peace, quality and development"

Elder Duane and Sister Barbara Hunt worked in the mission office when we arrived here.

They, along with Elder and Sister Duncan, came to Swaziland the week before we got here and cleaned our flat and got everything we needed and had it all set up for us when we arrived. They were SO sweet! They had to return home to OK, early from their mission, for health reasons, back in November.

Our grandson, Elder Adam Wold, serving in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Mission just got transferred to Wagoner, OK. We looked on the map and realized that he is just 45 minutes

away from Gore, OK where the Hunts live! We hope maybe they can meet sometime! Ü 

Elder Siale, our elder from Tonga, finally got his birthday 

cupcake today and we sang to him! 

We met the four elders at their flat when went home for lunch.

Elder Nogueira on the left and Elder Siale serve in Sidwashini Branch

and Elder Pace and Elder Sinclair are serving together in Mbabane Branch.

I love the flowers in front of their flat!

I saw these the other day and thought they were SO interesting!

They have 3 blooms on each stem!

We have bougainvillea at home in Mesa, but these leaves

were very different... This is a small plant in front of Shoprite, but it is

common to see them reaching 12-15 feet in height!

I thought this was an interesting tree. 

I love the ruffly pink flowers.

This tree at The Gables has so many bird nests!

Some branches have 3 or 4 in a row! I think they are

the nests of the weaver birds.

Driving near Lobamba yesterday we had about 16-20

cows walking right towards our truck! By the time I got my 

camera out, most of them had already gone around us....

The sun was SO pretty shining like a silver ball behind the clouds

last night as we drove home.  I didn't quite capture it....Again, you had to be there...

Whew!!  What a DAY!! We worked so hard on the Ezulwini Branch Activity this morning!  It turned out to be REALLY fun! There were 10 of us in RS there, plus two YW daughters, and four more little ones of Sister Thuli Fakudze. (They walked all the way there and arrived about an hour and 15 minutes late.) Typical "Swazi time"!  It was to start at 11:00 and there were only four there so we played a game and at about 11:45 there were a few more and by 12:30 we had all of us there but one, who came even a little later. But I have just learned to "roll with it". We just ate after the first game, then I gave my message and we played the last game, and ate some more... (I planned food for 20 so everyone got plenty. Everything was eaten and enjoyed!)  Here are some photos....

We started with a fun getting to know your sister game where they had to have a sister sign

each square.... (see below) They had fun with that!  (But we got started SO late ~ Swazi time ~ There were only about 4 there when we started!!) 

Bob took these as I was giving the message and we listened to and then sang

with Gladys Knight on youtube  "SISTERS IN CHRIST"! 

   

When they finished the game, they got a treat and also a keychain.

We had Chicken Salad Croissants, Lay's Spring Onion and Cheese chips

and Fudge Nut Bars and frosted heart cookies for dessert. They all asked for the recipes! 

We played "Speed Friendship" where we visited with each other

for 2 minutes and then rotated and visited with each sister until got to the end of the row.

Bob came in to take a picture at the end before we started cleaning up

and everyone really got into the posing!! We had a FUN time together!! 

I LOVE these sisters!! 

The activity ended at 2:00 pm and we had to hurry out to Elangeni

after we cleaned up, to pickup Masebenza and Venus Msibi to meet

the Sidwashini elders and introduce them to the Msibi mom, Busisiwe, 

and her two daughters, who live with her, Thantezile and Wendy. Masebenza

is 19 and Thantazile is 22.  They hadn't seen each other for almost a year!

When we got back to the Msibi home, after dark, Simphiwe

and Masebenza took Elder Wold out to pick avocados from one of 

their 41 avocado trees!!  They also have about 30 mango trees!! 

This is the nifty little picker they made! It works really well! 

They gave us a WHOLE bag full!!  Can't wait to make Cowboy Caviar and Guacamole!!