Oh my goodness! What an adventure we had today! We drove up to Sister Thoko Shongwe's to visit her and take cookies to her family.  She has not been well.  We had a nice visit with her and then I put Sifiso Silindza's family's coordinates that I found, into my phone and we started for his home. He recently left to serve a mission in Accra Ghana. His mom came to church one week, but doesn't speak much English.  His dad also came another week, but he is from Mozambique and speaks mainly Portuguese. I found three Liahonas in Portuguese when the elders moved from their old flat, so we took them to Bro. Silindza and also took a plate of chocolate chip cookies for his family.

Google maps was having us go up a steep dirt road that was not wide enough for our truck and had deep crevices.... So we parked and got out and started to walk up the road.... We heard someone behind us and there was a young girl who knew the Silindza family and said she would guide us there.... (My map said 1 min. farther by car, but we couldn't make it in the truck.)  So we walked... and walked.... We went past her homestead and her three brothers joined us. (We had given her a cookie off the plate for Sifiso's family and she immediately broke it into four pieces when she saw her brothers.) Ü 

Our guides up the mountain and through the "jungle"!! Ü 

L-R: Owenkhosi (9), Sibonakoliso (9), Phiwaynkhosi (15) and Andile Shongwe (16)

We hiked up the dirt road up the mountain, then across a path to the kids'

homestead, then on a dirt path....also uphill! 

I followed Phiwaynkhosi and her brothers were behind Elder Wold.

We walked forever through bushes and trees on a tiny footpath...

...pushing branches out of our way....

...and we FINALLY got to the Silindza's and went through their gate,

across their garden (below), around the hen house and we were there! It was WAY

up high on the mountain!

Sifiso's sister Rose and her baby Sakhikhule (3 months old), his sister Ncobile (9),

her friend in the green and Rose's older sister Nelly's daughter in the jammies, in

front of both houses on the homestead. .

 What a BEAUTIFUL view of Ezulwini from their homestead! 

(The Conference Center....zooming in!)

 

We took a "better" way down, than back through the bushes, and ended up climbing on up the mountain and then hiking across a field over to a road. Then we hiked down the road, ending up just where we started at Sister Thoko's home!!  Then we had to keep walking back around to our truck!!! Whew!  We hiked and then walked for over an hour! 

This is the road we walked down at the end that ended up by Thoko's home...It was better than the one where our truck was parked... We had a fun visit with the kids.  We told them about the church, about Elder Wold's miraculous recovery from his bike accident, and showed them photos of our family.  (We gave them each E5, a pass-along card and a bubblegum sucker for helping us!) Ü 

A Sausage Saloon just opened at The Gables, so Elder Wold had to give it a try yesterday!

He had eaten at one at ALZU on our way to Joburg.

Sunday after church, the zone leaders said they had a bunch of meat they bought  for a braai with a guy, that was cancelled, so they brought it over with a bag of carrots, 3 bottles of soda, and we added sweet potatoes, a fruit salad, chocolate cupcakes and had dinner together.

Elder Jolley came in this suit that a member in Soweto made for him! 

 

Monday afternoon (P-day) they wanted to see the Swazi Candle Factory and House on Fire in Malkerns so we took a little outing...


Even the plants at House on Fire are weird and different!! 

(Monday night at about 9:15 pm our power went off.  It was off all night and all the next day! They finally got it on after dark Tuesday, 22 1/2 hours later.... only to go back off at 11 pm Tuesday night for another 9 1/2 hours until it was finally back on this morning at 8:30 a.m.!! It was SO hot on Tuesday!! We were "melting" and our phones were dead and computers were dead and no internet, no fans, no AC.... It was a LONG day!!)