They finally arrived in Johannesburg on Saturday, November 17th at 8:30 a.m. We drove straight to Swaziland, just stopping briefly at ALZU halfway there and at the Ngwenya Glass Factory just over the Oshoek border.
Hooray! They are FINALLY here!!!
Animals at ALZU...
Jacaranda trees at the border crossing
At Ngwenya (which means crocodile)
Watching the glass blowing at the glass factory
As we drove to Pick N Pay, we stopped to show them where
the elders live and we saw a beautiful bird and a mama monkey and her baby.
They loved the cute little zucchinis, corn, carrots and eggplants
at Pick N Pay and found some fun, different snacks and candy to take home.
We made five pans of brownies for Seminary and Institute Graduation on Sunday afternoon.
SUNDAY
Sunday, they came to our Ezulwini Branch and Jamie came into
the Primary Program practice with me. Sister Ngubeni asked
to have her picture with the girls.
Sifiso, who left on his mission to Accra, Ghana on Wednesday,
spoke in our sacrament meeting and we got a picture with him at graduation.
He was our Ezulwini Institute teacher.
Youth and YSA in our district after graduation. Pres. Ntshalintshali is in the center
of the front row. Our instructors are also in the photo.
I played for the graduation and Amy, Ashlyn and I sang a special
musical number, "I Will Be What I Believe", with Jamie accompanying us!
We only practiced once after our block and I had never heard the song before!
(Elder Reneer, our new ZL, back row center, came up and sang with us!)
Our excellent instructors L to R: Thando Simelane, Sifiso Silindza, Seth Nkambule,
Mandla Mantinto, Zwakele Shoba, Simile Similane, and Mabel Nkambule
Mabel Nkambule is our district president's sister. She was the first baptized
member in all of Swaziland! She's our District Primary President too!
Zwakele Shoba returned from her mission in Uganda in December.
I teach her keyboard lessons every Wednesday afternoon in Manzini.
President Mahlalela, counselor in the District Presidency is a great guy!
So is the other counselor, Xolani Sithole, who was at his brother's funeral and was not
able to be there. Here he is with Futhi, his wife, and his family (below).
MONDAY
We made pies Sunday night and Monday morning made stuffing
and turkey gravy for our zone Thanksgiving Dinner at noon. Thanks to
Jamie we had pumpkin pie filling, and candy corn and even Thanksgiving
plates and napkins! I was SO happy! No turkeys here so we had KFC!!
Elder Behunin, one of our Mbabane elders was sick, so the other three
stayed home with him. (So we had no rolls or salad....)
Elder Mbaki also made malva pudding but it was still in the
kitchen when this picture was taken...
Before the blessing, we sang to Elder Sinclair since it was his birthday!
Our Swaziland Zone
Front: Elder Sinclair (ZL), Elder Clawson (Preston, ID), and Elder Souza (Brazil)
Back: Elder Mayisela (Manzini but left the next day for the Brazil MTC to learn Portuguese to serve his mission in Mozambique), Elder Rodgers (Colorado), Elder Reneer (CA), Elder Daybell (UT), Elder Mbaki (Cape Town)
President Mthetwa, Manzini Fairview Branch President,
and his wife and baby came to the chapel so we invited them to join us!
After we ate, we drove to Motjane to paint the walls
in the Care Point orphan pre-school.
Ashlyn painted the house.
(The teacher told me what she wanted on each wall.)
Amy did the colors and shapes and numbers and
also the days of the week on another wall.
Jamie painted the four seasons
Bob painted the chalkboard
And I did the alphabet and the little boy with
body parts labeled.
That night, our branch president, Manqoba Shongwe and his wife,
Pontso and daughter, Naledi, came by, so we invited them to have tacos with us.
After they left, we got out our few Christmas decorations and Amy and Ashlyn decorated our little Christmas tree! I love my Zulu Nativity with beaded African animals!
We were SO sad to hear that Bro. Majaha Gamedze (35) passed away!
He was our branch mission leader and EVERYONE loved him! He had the greatest
smile and personality. He was a great missionary. He had TB and then got pneumonia....
We had to miss the services for him, because we were in Johannesburg this weekend.
He was buried early this morning (Sunday, Nov. 25) after an all night vigil....
TUESDAY
The Manzini and Nhlangano elders and our zone leaders say good-bye to
Elder Mayisela as he finally got his visa and flew to the Brazil MTC on Tuesday.
Bob went with the ZLs to take him while I took the girls to see some sights...
Elder Mayisela with his mom at the airport
We went to the Swazi Candle Factory and shopped at some
of the shops and the arts and craft market there.
We also stopped at the funky House on Fire.
Next, we went to the Swazi Cultural Village and Show
Jamie was chosen by one of the dancers to go up learn one of their dances.
She was a GOOD sport and did a great job!
We walked through the village and saw the performers making pap for lunch.
We had to get a photo by one of the beehive huts with Execution Rock in the background.
We stopped at Mugg & Bean for lunch.
The girls couldn't get over the HUGE burgers there!
We had a little time to visit a few members of our branch.
Bob met us at the Msibis. They were excited to meet our girls.
They loved watching the mama hen with her 10 baby chicks.
That night we took them to the Royal Swazi Spa Buffet.
WEDNESDAY
We packed up and drove to Mbabane to see Pine Valley, Sibebe Rock and
the Swazi Mall. We ate at PIZZA INN and also let them try pap for the first time!
Sibebe Rock
Pine Valley
First time trying pap and peri-peri! They really like both!
Then we drove to Nelspruit, which is 2 hours away in South Africa.
The scenery was SO pretty all the way there!
Ashlyn LOVES avocados and ours here are SO huge!
They took some to Nelspruit with us and had a snack when we got to Pensao Guest House.
We went to i'langa mall and ate at Panarotti's
THURSDAY
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK
We went on a safari from 7:15 a.m. to 1: 15 pm.
The weather was PERFECT! The day before, it was 103* and the
day after it rained! We were lucky!!
Cape Water Buffalo
(one of the big 5)
Wildebeest
Hyenas (one of the Ugly 5)
Leopard (Big 5)
(Which is very rare to see up close!)
It was BEAUTIFUL!
Leopard tortoise
My favorite...
 |
Warthogs (another of the Ugly 5)
Lion resting in the bushes.... (Big 5)
We saw SO many elephants! (Big 5)
It was SO much fun watching the babies with their moms in the water.
Then they crossed RIGHT in front of us! Awesome sight!!
Crocodile
These are just a few of the dozens of photos we took!
Our guide was "Nomatter". He is the same one we had last July.
I just had to take a picture of these cute animals in the Gift Shop.
They are made of beads!
It was a beautiful day, so we decided to drive to some sights in the area.
The first was "God's Window". It was foggy the day we were there before,
with the senior couples, so we were excited to finally get to see it! Wow!!
Our next stop was Bourke's Luck Potholes in Blyde River Canyon
We had to get some COLD Iron Brew after hiking around....
Two favorite things.... Iron Brew and pretty flowers!!
We drove back to our Guest House as the sun was setting....
What a FUN day we had!! It was SO fun to show the girls Kruger and
the BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, African animals!! 💗
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