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!!