Happy 67th Birthday to me!! It's been a REALLY FUN day!  I had Jamie and her kids call and sing early this morning (10 pm last night), many of the Elders called and sang to me, our zone leaders came over and surprised me on Thursday with a birthday present all wrapped up, and today they got the YM and YW during Sunday School to help them decorate our truck with balloons! What a surprise when I went out after church! 

At church, I went into Primary to take my birthday treats at the break and the 25 Primary kids all sang to me as soon as I opened the door! Siphiwe said she needed me for a minute and all the YW sang a FUN birthday song to me, and the RS sisters also sang to me after the closing song in RS!  (I was asked last minute to teach the lesson in RS ~ Devin Durrant's talk that I was very familiar with, and I could even share stories about his family and being in their home, when I used to babysit him, when I was a teenager! Ü)

Thursday I had had a terrible headache (for over a week) along with bad arthritis, and was feeling kind of down, when the zone leaders called to say they wanted to bring me a chocolate cake on Sunday for my birthday.  Elder Wold told them I was trying not to eat sugar and didn't need a party.... (I wasn't in the mood... : / )  The next thing we knew, here they were at our door, with a butternut squash that had "Happy Birthday Sister Joyce Wold" written in sharpie on it,  (the healthiest thing they had in their flat they said) and these darling gifts! And they helped Elder Wold give me a priesthood blessing besides!  (I am pretty sure one of them ~ Elder Jolley ~  got the cute table runner, dish towels, stocking, and Holly "Jolly" plates in his Christmas package....? Ü) It was SO sweet of them to think of ME!!  It sure made me day and really brightened up our flat! There is NOTHING like that here.... 

We sure love these three Elders!! 

Elder Wold took this out the window when he caught the YM, YW and our

zone leaders in the act, decorating our truck with birthday balloons! 

I took about 80 Rice Krispie Christmas trees and gave them out after church for my birthday! 

We also delivered them to our neighbors here in our compound. (Thanks to Jamie for bringing me gumdrops and colored toothpicks  so I could make them!) They were a hit!

Next Sunday, the YW, a few YM, and the Elders are singing "O Holy Night" in sacrament meeting. So we practiced today after the block. They sounded GREAT!! 

Elder Reneer and Elder Jolley sounded SO good.  

They are going to sing the 2nd verse all by themselves! 

The YW

Front: Mshoza, Boniswa, Fufu, Sikanyiso, 

Back: Tema, Philiswa, Ivy, Mary, Londiwe and Elizabeth

I LOVE these darling girls!!!

(YM ~Jesse, Thando and Menzi joined them but aren't in the photo...)

Last night I was wishing I had some decorations for the tables for our Zone Mission Christmas Braai on the 24th of December.  I found the instructions to make these trees  online! And the star placemats were at Pep, as well as red curtains with white dots that I am using as tablecloths!