We had zone conference today in Mbabane! It was great! It was just us, our 12 elders and Pres. and Sister Leavitt. We also had our interview with President Leavitt after the conference today, instead of driving back up tomorrow afternoon at the end of his other interviews.  He is a wonderful mission president!  Elder Brown is home now, so I am the only one who can play the keyboard in Swaziland!  We ordered pizzas from PIZZA INN and made a BIG salad and Chocolate Caramel Poke Cake with whipped cream for lunch.  They LOVED it!!  Here are some photos...

Our Swaziland Zone

L to R Front:  Elder Francis, Elder Siale, Us, Elder Musumhi and Elder Daybell

Back: Elder East, Elder Sinclair, Elder Souza, Elder Mtyobile, Elder Rodgers, Elder Molteno, Elder Chikoore (ZL) and Elder Smith (ZL)

This was the "crazy one".... Elder Wold gets the prize for the craziest! 

President Leavitt, in the question and answer part of zone conference, answered the question: "How can we keep the fire burning everyday?"  His answer was: "Through work, obedience, and love.  One of our elders said, "If you add diligence you get WOLD!"  

Haha!!  So I made this sign for our wall!  Ü 

What a FUN surprise to get the August Liahona and find Elder Pulley on page 53 in Madagascar!  He along with six others served here with us in Swaziland for six months after the plague broke out in Madagascar.  He was a zone leader here in Elzulwini 

for several of those months. 

Today is a holiday (King Mswati III's  father's birthday) so there was no school.  All of the YW came here to make cookies and take them to people. They are learning what it means to "minister'!  We were together for 7 1/2 hours!! (Long story....but the car that was helping to transport them got a flat tire that couldn't be changed....) They had a lot of fun together! Here are some photos and videos...

                                 

The Young Women who were able to come were L-R: Philiswa Hlophe, Busiswa Zwane,

Elizabeth Mayala, Ivy Ngubeni, Skanyiso Dlamini, and Mshoza Dlamini (below in the hat).

They made the cookies and thecards to go with them. Siphiwe Shongwe (back far right) is their YW President.  Nhlanhla (or Michael) Khosa a YSA in our Ezulwini Branch, volunteered his car to drive them to deliver the cookies.)

First we visited Siphiwe's gogo who just turned 88 last week! 

The girls sang "Happy Birthday" to her, as well as a couple of her favorite hymns. 

She loved it and sang along.  

                                         

Siphiwe also brought her favorite beverage to her ~ a COKE! 

Each of the girls introduced themselves to her.

Inside her home....

She invited us all into her home to say a prayer.

(She didn't want to say it outside she wanted it to fill her home with the spirit.)

Gogo Elizabeth Shongwe

What a darling lady! She used to be a teacher and a volunteer nurse.

The view from her home up on the side of the mountain, next to her son, Jerome Shongwe,

our branch president's father.

I love this little stream with a school and the mountains behind it.

This was where the car got a flat tire.  We walked to the next home 

to deliver another plate of cookies.

Siphiwe told us about John, who is very crippled and has a hard time speaking too.

He loved hearing the girls sing! He would close his eyes and smile. He wouldn't eat a cookie

until we found the little boy who always helps him, so he could share with him.

(He's in the green below.)

This little boy came out of his house behind us and just stood there 

listening to the girls singing "I Am a Child of God". 

We delivered three more plates of cookies but I didn't get photos.

(The sixth plate they gave to Nhlanhla for driving them.)

While the girls were making cookies at our flat, Elder Wold went to get his hair cut 

and run some errands.  He got these photos of the monkeys around the Royal Swazi Spa.

What a WONDERFUL Sabbath day!!  We had FOUR baptisms after church today in our Ezulwini Branch!  They were Ntsiki Mahluza (sister to Nelly Shongwe & Lindelwa Thwala), Boniswa Dlamini (Gogo Shabangu's granddaughter, age 13), Bagezile Nkabindze (Lungile's little sister age 12) and Lwandle Mdluli (Thato's son, age 9). It was a REALLY nice baptism.  (Lwandle was scared of water and it was freezing cold, so they shut the doors to the font and we had to wait awhile for him to stop crying and be okay to proceed! He was very brave! )

Left to Right: Boniswa, Ntsiki, Lwandle and Bagezile

Nelly, Ntsiki and Lindelwa

Gogo Shabangu with her grandson, Sibusiso, and Boniswa

Elder Smith, on the left, baptized Ntsiki, Lwandle and Bagezile.  Sifiso Silindze (on the right) baptized Boniswa. Sifiso is YM President and Institute teacher in our Ezulwini Branch.

He is ready to turn in his mission papers!!  ü

The Baptism program I put together last night... and 

my 70 cookies for refreshments after the baptism

Yesterday, after Elder Wold subbed for the Manzini Institute class (and I visited the Manzini  Seminary class and gave Zwakele, the teacher a keyboard lesson,) these YSAs were singing in the foyer.  They sounded SO good! I just had to make a video of them!!

  

Nkosikhona, doing the beat box, used to teach Seminary, until he got a job that kept him 

from being able to be there every Saturday.  I also taught him several keyboard lessons. He is VERY talented musically!  The cute girls have very pretty voices too. The one on the left is a non-member friend that attended Institute for the first time.

Today we met the two new elders from Johannesburg, who will be serving here! 

They arrived from Johannesburg late last night. 

Elder Souza is from Fortaleza, Brazil and is straight out of the MTC! He will be continuing to learn English with his companion, Elder Mtyobile, in Ngwane Park Branch, Manzini.

Elder Chikoore, our new zone leader in Ezulwini with Elder Smith (below), is from Zimbabwe. He will complete his mission October 9th.  Elder Smith will leave October 30th.

Our updated wall... We have had 35 different elders serve with us in Swaziland in only 10 1/2  months!  (That is a LOT, considering that none of the 10, who have been here in that time, from the Mozambique Mission, can serve in Johannesburg, because they cannot get South African visas, except from their home countries! )

These trees with totally bare branches, all of the sudden have 

beautiful, bright red flowers all over them, but no leaves! 

  And these now have bright orange blooms on top! 

I LOVE the trees and plants here!! 

This looked like a rose bush until I got closer to take a picture.

These pretty, red flowers are SO different! 

We drove out to Malkerns on Saturday.  I LOVE the scenery there.  

Yesterday, I sewed up the last five YW book holders for our branch YW.

There were a few who couldn't come when we had the sewing class and the girls made them and three more girls (two are being baptized on Sunday) have come into YW in the past couple of weeks!)  The sewing machine was NOT working, but with lots of faith and prayer....  I was able to finish them all! (Then the machine completely quit!) 

On Friday at noon we met our Manzini elders at SPUR for a "farewell" lunch for Elder Brown, who is completing his mission and heading to Johannesburg on Monday to fly home to Utah Tuesday. 

Saying "good-bye" to Elder Brown, one of the last four of our Swaziland 

elders from the Mozambique Mission 

Our Manzini Elders

L to R: Elder Daybell, Elder Brown, Elder Mtyobile and Elder Musumhi

After lunch we drove about 40 minutes from Manzini to Siphofaneni with Elder Daybell

and Elder Musumhi, to teach this darling family about families, temples and family history.

Bro. Carlos Zandamela is a member, but he has been inactive for many years. 

His wife, Sibongile and daughter Padthwakahle (10) are on date to be baptized 

on August 5th!!  Their baby girl Anele ("Angel") is a "miracle baby".  

Doctors in Pretoria, South Africa said they could do nothing about her condition 

before she was born.  She is healthy and she is what brought them 

back to the church! The little smiling cutie in front is Siphisihle (5).

I was taking a photo and didn't even notice at the time the HEART in the clouds!! 

(We needed it that day...!)

On Saturday, we had a visit with Bagezile (12) and her sister Lungile.

How we have come to LOVE these two sisters! They live alone in Ezulwini. 

Lungile has been a member since 2012. Her sister, Bagezile, came to live with her

this school year and we have been teaching her with the zone leaders.

She had her baptismal interview Sat. and will be baptized next Sunday, July 22nd!

The zone leaders got SAD news last night... Elder Treasure has been 

transferred back to Johannesburg!! He leaves tomorrow!!  So we had a "farewell" 

dinner tonight (enchiladas and fudge bars) and took a couple of last photos.... 

We will REALLY miss him. 😔  These two have been a great duo and a lot of fun!! 

I just realized that I never put Elder Smith's birthday photo on here.

His birthday was July 9th. He is one of the last three elders from the

Mozambique Mission, so he will be here until he goes home in October!