It sure is hard to say good-bye to our elders who leave.... We had two leave this morning! 

Elder Bowen (Las Vegas) has been serving in Nhlangano just since April 3rd and he is being transferred back to Johannesburg.  : /  We will really miss him! 

Elder Nogueira has completed his two years and left for Johannesburg this morning to fly home tomorrow! : /  In the photo above,  he is with his companion, Elder Siale (from Tonga), who we were there to pick up and take to the dentist.  He lost a filling and had to get his tooth fixed this morning in Ezulwini. 

  In the photo below, Elder Nogueira is with Elder Siale's new companion, Elder Francis (from Provo, UT).  Elder Francis and Elder Nogueira have both been in Swaziland for a year, since it was put into the Johannesburg mission from the Mozambique mission, where both of them were originally called to serve. (We have only four elders left in Swaziland from the Mozambique mission.)

The Mbabane Four

L to R: Elder East, Elder Nogueira, Elder Sinclair and Elder Siale

Elder Smith (far left) drove to Johannesburg this morning to take Elder Nogueira and Elder Bowen (in the middle).  Elder Musumhi (far right from Zimbabwe) and Elder Molteno (next to him from Cape Town) are also going with them to Johannesburg to pick up their NEW companions, straight from the MTC and be trained to be new trainers! We LOVE our Elders!

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Elder Daybell (above) from Rexburg, ID and 

Elder Rodgers (below) from Colorado Springs, CO

arrived late Tuesday night from Johannesburg and we got 

to meet them Wednesday morning!  They are straight out of the MTC!

Left to Right: Elder Rodgers, Elder Daybell, Elder Musumhi and Elder Molteno

Updated wall....

The sky last night between our 5:00 appointment with Bakezile (12 year old sister of Lungile YSA) and 6:00 appointment with Ntsiki, (sister of Nelly who is married and Lindelwa, a YSA)

 We got a call from our zone leaders asking if we could go with them to Elangeni to give Sister Rose (mother of the Mbuli family) a blessing.  She was so thankful for Elder Wold's
blessing.  I didn't take any photos of her, but I did take these, as we were driving away. She lives HIGH up on the hill above Ezulwini Valley.

I didn't get it in the photo but the banana tree on the right was FULL of bananas!

It is SO pretty around Elangeni! 

We also went with the zone leaders to visit Sister Thuli, who was baptized with her husband in 2012, RS President in 2015, but has been less active.  She has been coming back to church and we are hoping her husband will come too, someday soon. She is a sweet sister! She gave us names of two sisters who were active when she was RS President, who no longer attend. We hope to find them.  Her baby girl is one.  She has three other children.  The oldest is 17.

We were parked in front of this home and these two cuties came out 

and waved and waved and called to us in siSwati! 

Elder Nogueira on the right is completing his mission and heading home to Brazil! 

He will drive to Johannesburg with a couple of other elders on Monday, so we had

a "farewell" lunch for him at Galito's in Mbabane, (after the YSA Activity this morning).

Here he is with his companion, Elder Siale from Tonga, Elder East from Wales, and 

his companion Elder Sinclair from Queen Creek, AZ! They loved it and also the 

chocolate dipped ice cream cones afterwards. They are all great elders! 

(The YSA Activity had 23 YSAs there!! We took Cowboy Caviar, Sweet Chili Doritos

 and a Texas Sheet Cake to help out with the activity.  But I forgot to take a photo!)

We'll miss Elder Nogueira!  He knew NO English when he came to serve in Swaziland

from Mozambique!  He really speaks English amazingly well! (Bad hair day for me!) : / 

I have on some Swazi jewelry today.... 

The bracelet is made from hair from an elephant's tail!

(They promised me the elephant was not hurt... Ü )

I LOVE these two photos we got this week from two of our missionary grandkids! 

They are both SO happy and both are doing SO well!!! 

Well, this was certainly a Father's Day to remember!! Ü  It was definitely unlike ANY other! We were asked to do several different things and had to choose what our top priorities were. We sent candy bars with the zone leaders to give to the Fathers in Ezulwini Branch and I told Sister Gertrude (new RS Pres. in our Ezulwini Branch) that I will teach RS another week!

So we drove to Mbabane Branch and picked up Mabel, the District Primary President, at 10:00 after her sacrament meeting, and drove to Manzini, so she could attend Ngwane Park's Primary and I could play for Fairview Branch's Sacrament Meeting. (A Hindu family was going to be attending Fairview Branch and Sister Simelane called and said they HAD to have Sister Wold playing the organ!) 

After Fairview's sacrament meeting, Mabel and I trained the whole new Primary presidency and nursery leaders and Elder Wold trained the new Sunday School President in Ngwane Park Branch.  That went until 1:30 and at 2:00 pm the party started!!  President Simelane (counselor to our mission president) is on the Inter-Faith Council and is the Public Affairs Representative for Swaziland.  He has a good friend, Rag (pronounced "Rodg") also on the Council and it was his 50th Birthday today, so the Simelanes let them have his 50th Birthday Party / Father's Day Party on the lawn of the Manzini chapel!! (MOST of those attending were members of the District Presidency, the Manzini Elders, us, and members of the Manzini branches!) 

 Rag, the one turning 50, is from Sri Lanka, and he grew up in Ethiopia and now lives in Swaziland. They are the nicest family! (Their last name is Ragan. Pres. Simelane called them Hindus, when he talked to us awhile ago about them, but they must be Christians, because they told Simelanes they wanted to celebrate with the Mormons, because they love God! The comments all during the party were all very much about God and family. Ü 

Here are some photos I took....

This is what we saw when we drove into the parking lot of the Manzini building! 

Our table....with a plate of chips and marshmallows to snack on

and a tri-fold with his photo and the program and table # on

The "man of the hour"

The birthday cake, which was a fruitcake 

Our friend, cute Sister Simelane, who is "bigger than life"!  She is from Mozambique and is hilarious and sweet and SO much fun! She calls Elder Wold "007" and "James Bond" because of his cool sunglasses!  She is loud and crazy but the sweetest, most genuine sister in the world!! We love her! 

Our four cute Manzini Elders, Elder Francis, Elder Mtyobile, Elder Brown and Elder Musumhi , sang "Love At Home" for a special musical selection and they did a great job!! 

They joined the choir at the end for the closing hymn and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Cutting the birthday cake.... then we had a toast  with sparkling grape juice

This cute group was the "church choir", a group of YSAs, who sang in sacrament meeting and also did a musical number at the party and sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY at the end too!

The tallest guy JUST received his mission call to Mozambique!  He leaves on August 29th for the Brazil MTC to learn Portugese! The girl next to Mrs. Ragan served in the Uganda Kampala Mission and returned home in December.  She teaches seminary in Manzini. Her brother in the yellow sweater is getting ready to send his mission papers in.

Abi, his 20 year old daughter was the MC and was very cute! 

At the end of the program, they had all the fathers come up and took their picture together and gave them all Belgian chocolate!  Elder Wold is in the back, right behind Rag in the red jacket. (The tall guy next to Elder Wold is from the UK and is married to a Swazi lady who is best friends with the wife of Rag. He lived in Bristol for 3 years so he and Elder Wold had a good visit about the UK! They were sitting at our table with all the missionaries! He is 6'7".)

A typical Swazi meal: 

beef, rice, squash, beets and salad

Rag and his wife with Pres. and Sister Simelane

(They wanted photos of all of us with them.... so cute! )

Pres. Mthetwa, branch president of the Fairview Branch is in the light blue jacket,

seated at the table and his wife is behind him.

Right after the party, we were invited to attend a district training meeting for all Elders Quorum presidencies and RS presidencies on "MInistering".  It was supposed to start at 3:00 pm but started at almost 4:00 pm and went until 5:00 pm. They did a good job with it!  We got home at 5:30 pm. It was a FULL DAY ~ one to remember for sure!! 

What a day!  The YW came to our flat for a sewing lesson and made book holders for their YW materials.  (I got the idea from Sister Wagner in Joburg.)  Prayer works!!  None of the machines were sewing right this morning..... We picked up Sister Ngubeni and she came to take a look at them. (They are VERY different than any I have ever sewn on and are hand crank ones!)  We had a prayer together  and they ALL were working in just a matter of minutes. 💗 She was SO sweet to help me!! We had five girls who could make it, Siphiwe YW President, one mom, (Sister Mayala, who owns a craft shop and sews everyday) and her younger daughter Naomi  (8).  They enjoyed chocolate chip cookies, chips and apples as they sewed...

Siphiwe and Sikhanyiso

Busiswe, Siphiwe, Sikhanyiso, Mshoza and Londiwe at the counter

Left to right: Elizabeth, Sikhanyiso, Siphiwe, Mshoza, Busiswe, Sister Mayala, Londiwe 

and Naomi in front

Every Thursday afternoon, we go to teach Luanhle to help him get ready to be 

baptized.  His mom and 16 year old brother were baptized on Christmas Eve Day,

but his mom felt he was not ready yet.  He is ready now!  We use the Primary 3

manual and review one on one with him.  He just turned 9.

With his niece and best buddy, Thutho, holding the gate open for us

 

We had an adventure today, driving Moses, a counselor in our branch presidency, on assignment from Pres. Shongwe, 40 km half on bad dirt roads, up and down hills and around a mountain to visit Majaha, our branch mission leader, who has been VERY ill, in the hospital, finally having surgery and now recovering at his grandmother's homestead in Luyengo, about 20 km from Malkerns. We bought groceries and took them to him.  He works at the Royal Swazi Spa and has been on a month's sick leave without pay and has to be back at work on July 1st.

We met his CUTE tiny "Gogo" and took a few photos.  She spoke no English but we hugged and she just kept saying "Ngiyabonga kukhulu" (Thank you very much) over and over again. 

It was a very pretty drive but very bumpy!

Majaha's cute little gogo walking all over with bare feet....

Moses, Gogo, Majaha and Elder Wold outside the kitchen

The place where they do all of their cooking

This is the place they keep all of their maize before taking it to the hammer mill 

to make mealie meal for pap. I loved their colorful rooster.

On the drive home...

At 3:30 pm today, we heard that the Sidwashini truck that has been in for repairs, was ready to be picked up.  So we drove up to Mbabane, picked up Elder Nogueira and Elder Siale and took them to Manzini to get their truck.  (Elder Wold had to use his corporate card to pay.)  Elder Nogueira, who completes his mission in just 2 weeks, talked to this girl in the hooded sweatshirt at the shop after she brought paperwork out to sign, and gave her a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet, which she read all the way back into the shop! 

(Zoom in and you can see it....Woo hoo! )

The sunset on our drive home from Manzini to Ezulwini.... 

Tirhani Ngomane, our S&I coordinator from Johannesburg

came this weekend and stayed with us, to do our teacher inservice

yesterday.  It was her birthday this week, so I baked her a birthday cupcake.

She is a cute lady.  We really enjoy her!  She watched BE ONE here last night

for the first time and LOVED it!