Today we had a fun Relief Society Activity ~  a braai, a lesson, and visiting with each other!  We had 12 RS sisters in attendance, one YW helping with the braai and three YM also helping cook the meat (which is not in the photo and neither is the big pot of pap)! I made salad and brought two chocolate cakes for Sister Gertrude, RS President whose birthday was Wednesday, and Sister Thato, whose birthday is tomorrow!  I took this photo and we sang to them! 

These are our Relief Society sisters who were at the RS activity today. 

L to R:  Pontso, Bahle, Nelly, Thuli F., Thato, Fikile, Sylvia, Gertrude, Gogo Shabangu, Thuli N., Thandekim, and Ivy, (Fikile's daughter and Bahle's sister, 

a YW who came to help with the braai.)

Bahle and Amanda (YSAs cooking the meat on the braai)

Pap (made from mealie meal, which is ground white corn) mixed with water, grilled meat (borewors) on the braai, chakalaka (baked beans with onions, green pepper and seasonings) and salad ~ a typical Swazi braai !! 

Friday, September 28th

Yesterday, we went to Motjane Care Point (20 min. away on the other side of Mbabane) to visit a pre-school for orphaned children ages 3-6.  They performed for us, singing "Fishing for Jesus" and shouting a prayer with their eyes closed.  They were SO cute!! 

Their school, which also feeds them lunch between 10 and 11 a.m.

Their playground

A cemetery just down the road in their neighborhood

Hooray!  It's jacaranda season again!! 

Beautiful purple blossoms are everywhere!! 

This bush has both purple and white flowers on it!  

These bushes are also found all over Swaziland. They are SO pretty!! 

The one below is on the other side of a chain link fence by the driveway to our flat.

This tree was so interesting with some kind of little round fruit (?) 

growing all around the trunk!

These trash (rubbish) bins are just outside our neighborhood. 

They get like this every few days... There are usually people going through the bins.

Again, our Swaziland sky, clouds and sun are spectacular at sunset! 

We drove out to Malkerns yesterday.  We saw more fun bushes with flowers on them and also watched one of the guys at the Swazi Candle Factory make an elephant from warm wax in less than 5 minutes!  Wow!  It was amazing!  We also visited the storeroom there and they shared with us how they make the candles.  Their animal candles are all made in Malkerns in the Swazi Candle Factory there, but they said there is also a factory in Matsapha, that makes all the square, rectangular and cylindrical candles. We will have to look for that factory too! I LOVE the candles they make!!  

These pretty trees are all over! I LOVE these flowers!

It is so interesting to me that so many trees have flowers on them here!

These flowers were by Sister Sylvia Dlamini's home on Saturday. SO pretty!

We pass this "council tree" everyday and I finally got a picture.

These pretty flowers look a little like lilacs, but they have no smell...

We stopped at "House on Fire".  I have taken photos before

but didn't have one of this fun countertop with all different colorful tiles.l 

I have also never taken a photo of the LED candles in the shop. 

You can see the pretty designs so well with them all lit up

 

We watched this worker make an elephant shaped candle in no more than 5 minutes!  It was amazing to see him take a ball of soft white wax then a square of the designed wax on the bottom and the top and bring them together, shaping them into an elephant.  After covering the ball, and making the head, ears and trunk, he cut slits and formed the legs. It was SO cool! It is then placed in cold water to harden, then a wick is placed in the top and last it is dipped in hot wax to make it smooth and shiny. Ü 

We drove to Johannesburg yesterday (Thursday) morning and got home this afternoon.  We had to pay for our petrol for our truck for the past 6 months, before Elder and Sister Wagner go home next Wednesday!  We have enjoyed them so much!  We will really miss them!!  Elder Wold also had an ENT appointment and got his ears cleaned out (every 3 months) so that was good too! We took money to Patron Housing at the temple for Mbabane Branch's temple trip and also got a few things for people at the Distribution Center, even though the temple is still closed until Sept. 25th.

Sister Linda Wagner & Elder Clarence Wagner

from Spokane, WA

Driving in Johannesburg....

I just LOVE all the trees! Ü 

I LOVED these beautiful flowers on the temple grounds! 

I have not seen them before! 

This rose tree was gorgeous!

I had to laugh at this framed sign on the inside of the toilet stall 

at Thrupp's in Joburg

Just a few photos of some of the homes we see on our way from

Joburg to Swaziland....

We taught Bakezile and her sister Lungile with the zone leaders on

Tuesday night.  Just before we left, Bakezile whispered to me that it was her 

13th birthday on Thursday!  She wondered if I could bring her something. So

Wednesday night we took her a little chocolate birthday cake and sang to her, 

since we knew we would be in Johannesburg on her birthday.  She was SO happy! Ü

Tuesday night as we were getting in our truck at Lungile's and Bakazile's place, 

the moon looked SO cool!  It was just a little sliver that looked like a SMILE! 

(This is the best photo I could get....)

Saturday, we went with our zone leaders to teach Thuli's next door neighbor, Djabulile and her family.  Her kids and Thulie's kids were all eating these berries off their trees.  I am trying to find out what they are.  They tasted pretty good but stain like crazy!! They said the name in siSwati but it was hard to understand. They grow on big trees.

Yesterday was Amanda Simelane's birthday.  She is our Ezulwini Branch YSA Rep. She wanted my cookies for her birthday, so we dropped some by after church. 

She was SO happy!! She is darling and such an awesome YSA Rep! 

Elder Wold got this photo of her little boy eating an avocado as

I was taking the picture of her. Ü  He ate EVERY drop, scooping it out with all five fingers!

We arrived ONE YEAR ago on September 5th! We had another great zone conference yesterday!  Elder Wold and I did the lunch (sloppy joes, chips, veggies and Fudge Nut Bars. Just for fun, I looked back in my planner and we have done lunch for 8 zone conferences in the year we have been here! (The first one the zone leaders did and it was catered but some got sick...) After the conference, we were invited out to dinner with President & Sister Leavitt at the Ramblas Restaurant, after his meeting with President Ntshalintshali. We really enjoyed spending time with them one-on-one! They are wonderful!

OUR SWAZILAND ZONE 

September 6, 2018

 Front: Elder Francis (Provo), Elder Dos Santos (Brazil), Elder Souza (Brazil) and Elder Mtyobile (Cape Town)  Back: Elder Mayisela (Mbabane, Swaziland), Elder Rodgers (Colorado), Elder Sinclair (Queen Creek), Elder Smith (Ogden), Elder East (Wales), Elder Chikoore (Zimbabwe), Elder Musumhi (Zimbabwe) and Elder Daybell (Utah)

Lunchtime Ü

Elder Chikoore bore his testimony. He will finish his mission 

and return to Zimbabwe on October 9th. 

The Elders surprised President and Sister Leavitt by all singing "There is Peace in Christ".  This is just the first minute or so.... It is too long to send.  We heard that our new Elder Dos Santos sings, so we had him sing the verses and the others joined in on the chorus.  (You can hear Pres. Leavitt harmonizing in the background.  He LOVES to sing!) 

** In my planner I have written many of the times I have baked or fixed food in the past year.  This is what I added up today.... just the times it is written down!

I have made cupcakes 11 x ~ BIG birthday cupcakes for every elder's birthday

I have made 2 pas of fudge nut bars  6x

Rice Krispie treats 7x (double or triple batches) 

Peanut Butter Chocolate ones

and Christmas Krispie trees

cookies ~ 45 x (at least double and sometimes triple the recipe)

banana or zucchini bread 7 x

lunch for inservice S&I teachers 10 x

lunch or dinner for elders in our home 28 x

 took elders out to lunch 7 x

 carmel corn (75 bags) 2x

fudge and caramels for Christmas

brownies 9 x

9 cakes

8 pies 

Ü 

Good thing I LOVE to bake!!) 

What a FUN day this turned out to be!  The 30 kids who qualified to attend the special District Youth Activity today, by attending seminary 75% of the time and doing their assignments, had a great time together!  We met at Hoofbeats, did paint ball (ten at a time), played games, ate a big lunch, prepared by Sister Ntshalintshali and Sister Simelane, had a little presentation on the Youth Theme for 2018, "PEACE IN CHRIST",  taught by Elder Wold and I, had ice cream cones and cookies, and ended with a dance. Ü 

Sister Simile Simelane, Mbabane Seminary teacher and Sister Ntshalintshali, our
District President's wife prepared the food. They had chakalaka in buns for a "snack" 
and then had a lunch of rice, chakalaka, beef stew, vegetable lasagna and chicken breasts and wings.  (I was dishing up food and forgot to take a picture during lunch...)

Two of the groups ready for paintball!

Two of our Ezulwini girls waiting for their turn for paintball,
relaxing in the shade.... Ivy Ngubeni and Londiwe Dlamini

President Siko Ntshalintshali, President Xolani Sithole 
and Brother Nkosingphile Ndwandewe, district council over seminary and institute

Cute Zwakele Shoba, our Manzini seminary teacher

The kids played games while the others were doing paintball...

 

President Ntshalintshali spoke to the kids about keeping their armor on
relating it to their paintball experience, then we talked about the theme in D&C 19:23

After we spoke, we showed the video "PEACE IN CHRIST" and passed out worksheets

and we all sang the song together with the music.  We also gave each youth a framed copy of the scripture to take home to remind them. 

The whole group before the dance...

(We were missing one from Ezulwini, a few from Mbabane and a few from Nhlangano.)

Yesterday and today was the Reed Dance in Lobamba, where around 40,000 young girls dance topless for the Queen Mother and the King.  It is called Umhlanga and is the BIGGEST holiday of the year.  They present the reeds to the Queen Mother for the royal palace.  The King chose his 14th wife last year at the Reed Dance the week before we arrived in Swaziland.  They also do the Reed Dance in a week or two in Nhlangano.

(This photo was online.)  Thousands come to watch from all over the country and actually from all over the world!!!  Lobamba is CRAZY all this week with visitors and booths set up with local people selling things to the crowds.