Merry Christmas or Khisimusi Lomuhle 

(As we say here in Swaziland!) 

Here is our Christmas card for 2018!  Elder Reneer took our picture, I sent the photos to Kylie Brinton at home, she did her "magic" and this is what we ended up with!! Jamie brought them to us.  I addressed a few to relatives and we gave some out here to close friends in Swaziland and the rest received it online through email or messenger or What's App!  We are happy with how it came out! 

Top left: We are wearing Swazi traditional clothing (except that they all have bare shoulders and the men have bare legs. I have "emafahlawane" around my ankles (see below).  They don't show up in the photo, but they make noise when you walk. We should be barefoot. We both have "ligcebesha" around our necks (beaded necklaces with the Swazi flag). I have "umhelwane or lihiyo" around my shoulders and tied and a black skirt and white band around my hair, because I am married. Bob should also have a cloth around him and tied but decided instead to wear a shirt made from the fabric. (Good idea! Ü )Most Swazi women have their hair like my "sicholo" (black wig) but nowadays they wear different hairstyles and wear this wig if their hair is not worn this typical way. Bob has a "siphuku" on his head (animal skin) and we are standing in front of a hut or "gucos 'thandaze". He is carrying a stick called a "sagila" used as a weapon and I have a wooden spoon (instead of a sharp knife) used in a traditional dance. 

Top right: I took this photo at sunrise, as we were leaving Kruger National Park near Nelspruit, South Africa in July.  I LOVE the sunsets and sunrise here!

Middle right:  We wore our African clothes made from very popular fabric here and stood with Execution Rock in the background.   We see lots of women wearing dresses and tops with this pattern on them.  They wear VERY bright colors and MANY of the women here wear the scarves tied around their heads, even to church. (Awesome on a "bad hair" day!!) 

Bottom left: This picture was taken at a zone conference earlier in the year.  Seven of those elders have recently completed their mission and returned home, two went back to Madagascar and are still serving there, one from Swaziland is serving in Sierra Leone after receiving his visa, one was transferred and is serving in Johannesburg and Elder Sinclair is the only one still here (the LAST of the Mozambique elders), but finishes his mission and goes home next week!  We decided to put this on the card to show our elders from Madagascar, Mozambique, Swaziland and Joburg! (The group here now are almost ALL "new" elders, who came from Johannesburg! There are only four, who have been on their mission very long at all.)

Bottom right:  I love my Zulu Nativity with the beaded animals!  I have added two or three

more animals since I took the photo...Ü

Women in traditional dress dancing in the cultural show

The woman in the brown is married, so she has the black skirt and wig.  The younger unmarried girls wear a different color skirt.  The umhelwanes or lihiyos tied around them have different types of designs on them, like crowns, shields, flowers, even the King's picture, which is VERY popular.

The guy in back on the right, in the little short "skirt", is a warrior and played the drum

and danced.  The guys dressed like that also wore feathers on the back of their heads.

King Mswati III with one of his wives, in the same traditional dress

(He is the only one allowed to wear the RED feathers.)