It's EASTER!! What a fun day it has been!  We attended church in Ezulwini and Sister Ketsiwe was not abe to come last minute, so I had Primary! (I felt impressed to prepare an Easter lesson just in case.... Ü ) I had 14 kids who were just glued to every word I said, as we talked about the last week of the Savior's life and Gethsemane, the crucifixion and the resurrection.  I taught them the song JESUS HAS RISEN and also showed them videos, lots of photos and the video to DID JESUS REALLY LIVE AGAIN. They were able to tell the story using the cut-outs from the lesson at the end.  I made them each an Easter card with the pass-along card of Jesus with Mary by the tomb. They loved it! They were so sweet!

Tonight we had an Easter dinner and farewell to Elder Feliciana and Elder Schwalger.  Elder Pace and Elder Willey thought they were leaving tomorrow too, but their Madagascar visas have expired, so the office is working on that.... Also Elder Myeni's visa has not come yet for Sierra Leone, so he is not leaving tomorrow either. After dinner, we watched the church video, HE IS RISEN, from my laptop and then had a testimony meeting with about 8 of us sharing testimonies.  It was really good.  The Spirit was so strong! 

We cooked four 4 lb. gammons (which are cured but uncooked hams). They were REALLY good! I cooked them (simmering in boiling water for 2 hours) yesterday, then put on a maple and brown sugar glaze and baked them for 30 min. more this afternoon. I made my orange sauce and also ham gravy.  Mbabane made mashed potatoes, Manzini made fruit salad, the ZLs made homemade rolls and Nhlangano brought the drinks. I also made my Easter cupcakes ~ lemon cupcakes with green coconut frosting and chocolate Easter eggs on top. 

L-R: Elders Smith, Bowen, Sinclair, Francis, Schwalger,

Brown, Myeni and Willey.

Elder Wold carving ham # 3 and #4...

L-R: Elders Feliciana, Nogueira, Pace and Cox

Our wall today with the Easter eggs for each elder... With transfers
this week, there will be lots of changes!!

We went  over early to set the tables and there were about 10

monkeys (three baby ones) just hanging out in front of the ZLs' flat! 

If you look carefully, you can see this mother carrying her baby under her!

It was hard saying "Good-bye" to Elder Feliciana from Brazil

and Elder Schwalger from San Diego.... We will really miss them!!

Elder Feliciana

Elder Schwalger

Yesterday, we took the Msibi kids to see their mother in Mpologeni, on the other side of Mbabane.  We have been teaching them about Family History and temples and they needed to find out more about their mother's ancestors and siblings for their MY FAMILY booklets.  Their mom has not lived with them for 5 years and Masebenza had not seen her for about 8 months.  She was SO excited to have us come. We are getting a Book of Mormon in Zulu for her, since she cannot read English and it has not been translated into siSwati.  Zulu is very similar.  The fog came in as we talked and it got REALLY bad by the time we drove back to Ezulwini!! She lives 25 minutes down a dirt road. We were happy we found our way home!! 

While we waited for the Msibi kids, we pulled over to take a picture

of the PRETTY bright orange wildflower daisies and about 9 kids crowded around my window!  I gave them soft, chewy mints and we talked about Easter and I showed them the photo of our grandkids! They LOVED it and one girl kept saying "Beauty, beauty!!"

It was SO nice to finally meet the Msibis' mom, Busisiswa.

Their sister, Thandezile was not at home but her little boy, Junior 

was there and he is SO cute!  Busisiswa cannot afford to go to Ezulwini 

and the kids cannot afford to go visit her, so they don't see her much at all.

Uncle Simphiwe

Aunt Venus

The weather on the way there....and on the way home!

Jeff and Karen went to General Conference and Rick saw them at the Saturday morning session and got this photo.  He also met them after the session and got a picture of them with Sister Spilsbury, serving her mission there! FUN!! 

Two new apostles, Elder Ulysses Soares and Elder Gerrit Gong

Also announced were 7 temples, no more high priests group ~ elders and high priests are combined into one quorum, new YW General Presidency sustained, no more Home or Visiting Teaching, but "Ministering" instead, also involving YW!! 

Great changes for our worldwide Church! Ü

Friday night in SLC, was the Miss Africa Utah Pageant. 

Our cute friend, Yvette Bugingo participated in it as Miss Rwanda. 

We met her family in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after they joined the church there.

The family is from Rwanda originally and fled during the war there to the Congo.

When war broke out in the Congo they fled again to Ethiopia. My brother, Rick sent

me these great photos of Yvette in the Pageant! We are so proud of her!

Yvette with her sisters, Aliyah and Ines