We drove to Johannesburg on Thursday morning, for an appointment I had with Dr. Deseta, a cardiologist from Argentina, that afternoon.  I had an episode Sunday night, with really bad chest pains and numbness in my hands and face.  Dr. Frew at Medisun Clinic, here in Ezulwini, admitted me to be observed overnight.  The next morning more tests were done and Dr. Gina, on duty, was sure it was my heart and thought it could be angina. He gave me a prescription and referred me to Dr. Deseta at Milpark Hospital in Joburg.  Dr. Deseta did a very thorough exam and ECG, stress test on the treadmill, an ultrasound and said my heart is perfectly fine! Yay!  What a relief!!  He was really good! (I have no idea what that was all about on Sunday....but I did have a blessing!)

We went to the Mission Office, to see the Wagners and Boyers but only the wives were. We picked up the order I gave them for Azteca, a Mexican wholesale place in Joburg.  We got  yummy salted tortilla chips, refried beans, corn tortillas, cans of tomatillos to make green salsa, flour tortillas and green enchilada sauce. There are NONE of those things anywhere in Swaziland, except for the flour tortillas (which we have seen here but they are not as good). 

Then we drove to Clearwater Mall nearby and ate dinner and did a bit of shopping, then spent the night at the Mission Home, arriving just as Pres. and Sister Leavitt did at 7 pm.

It was really FOGGY for almost the first hour and a half of our drive to South Africa!

Johannesburg was VERY COLD (colder than Ezulwini for sure)!

I just LOVE all of the streets all over there, where the trees meet in the middle of the road. 

This is Clearwater Mall.  I loved the colorful, hanging umbrellas!  We ate dinner at Panarotti's and bought our first lasagna in 10 months.  (I did make it one night for a 

farewell dinner for two of our elders, their companions and the zone leaders, 

but we had not seen it in any restaurants before.)

Bob went out to the parking garage to get something from our truck 

just in time to catch this pretty sunset! 

He met this cute clerk, (Elder) Motli, at Edgar's in the mall and found out that he served in the UKM the exact same time we did!  He knew a lot of our Elders in Ethiopia, 

who also spent some of their mission serving in Uganda. 

Downtown Joburg

Thursday, we went to the 9:00 session at the Johannesburg Temple. (I didn't get a photo...)

It just so happened that 14 Elders from our mission were on our session 

with Elder & Sister Boyer, one of the office couples.

This is the only picture we took.  We were invited to eat with the Elders after the session, in the cafeteria for the Area Office people, next to the Distribution Center. We met Elder Rash,

who sat by us and is from Mesa, AZ! He went to Skyline High School and knows our friends, Michael & Patrice Hofeling, who Elder Wold taught with at ASU Institute!

This morning we went to THE BIG RED BARN, that we have been hearing about for months and months from the Wagners and Boyers.  It isn't a barn....but booths where people sell handicrafts, food, and just about anything you can imagine! I bought these cute purses made from a LONG zipper!  The girl who makes them was SO cute! She unzips them and rolls them up and puts them in a cute fabric bag with a ribbon tie to give as gifts. 

We had never driven that far north (on the way to Pretoria) and it was fun to see 

some different scenery than we usually see as we drove on the N-4 to Emalahleni. 

I thought these were very interesting buildings!

This pretty chapel was out in the middle of nowhere... We don't even know for sure

what area it was in, but I think it was around Kwa-Guga.

A township off the N-4 highway....

Closeby were these very LARGE beautiful 2-story homes.

There was SUCH a difference in the kinds of homes we saw on our way!

Men were cutting the grass on both sides of the freeway with weed-eaters.  It was interesting to see this tractor going down the middle cutting the grass.  In MANY places

all of the grass had been burned to clear it.  That is the most common sight this time of year!

We always stop for a bathroom break (which is a" toilet" break here...no "restrooms" or "bathrooms") at ALZU, which is exactly halfway to Mbabane (2 hours away).  I never get tired of seeing the wild animals grazing, as we look out the windows, behind the SPUR Restaurant, when we eat there, as we did today.

There are water buffalos, zebras, rhinos, ostriches, 

and different animals from the antelope family...

The sky was a BEAUTIFUL shade of blue as we drove on to Swaziland 

and I LOVED the white fluffy  clouds!

There are lots of forested areas...

The clouds rolled in but we never saw a drop of rain...

(You can see below where the grasses have been burned along the road.)

This was taken just as we were coming into the Ngwenya Border 

going into Swaziland from South Africa.

I took this just north of Mbabane, Swaziland, which is about 20 minutes from the border.

These three photos of the Ezulwini Valley, were taken from the M-3 highway as we left Mbabane. We are only about 15 minutes down the mountain road from Mbabane. From our kitchen window, in our flat, we can see the highway going up to the very top of the mountain into Mbabane.  It is always about 5 degrees colder in Mbabane than in Ezulwini.  

Manzini, 25 minutes south of us, is usually a few degrees warmer than Ezulwini.

We live in a truly BEAUTIFUL country!! Ü