We went to the Newcastle Branch this week. We have been to their garden to work but haven’t actually attended church there until this week. We could only attend their Fast and Testimony Meeting because we had responsibilities in Madadeni. The Branch President asked us to bear our testimonies so we introduced ourselves and spoke for a couple of minutes. We had to run off after the meeting and we hated that. Sometimes we feel we are pulled in a lot of different directions. The other branches feel bad because we are not assigned to them. It is nice to be wanted.

Newcastle Chapel

 

We went to Madadeni for the last part of church and young women and the older women all watched Women’s General Conference. It was great! Elder Hind and the other men and boys watched priesthood.

Monday, for FHE we showed “Meet the Mormons”. If was fun because all the members that were here and some of the older missionaries know Elder Armstrong. He is the missionary in the last part of the movie. His last area was Newcastle. He has a reputation for being a great missionary.

I made a dentist appointment for a missionary but we were late so we had to reschedule. We were late because when the woman on the phone said 9:15 I thought she said 9:50. It is one of our great frustrations. English is everyone’s second language, whether you are Zulu, Afrikkan, Indian or something else. We struggle to understand what people are saying because of their accents. Of course that goes both ways. A woman who was helping us with our internet had to call the mission office for some information. When she got off the phone she said to me, “That woman has the thickest American accent I have ever heard. I could barely understand her.” Anyway, we are gradually getting better at understanding but it is still pretty hard to conduct telephone conversations. We can’t even clearly understand all of our elders when we talk to them on the phone.

We had our first Zone Training Meeting this week. We weren’t sure what our responsibilities were (as in food) so we called the Taylors, our Mentors. Sister Taylor said we could serve lunch or we could just do refreshments. I opted to do lunch. Just hot dogs, chips and apples. We figured 2 hot dogs per elder. It really wasn’t enough. Missionaries are bottomless pits!! We will have to do more next time.

We took time this week to get pampered a little. Elder Hind was getting a little shaggy (the young elders were starting to comment) so we went looking for a place for haircuts. We found a nice place and I just randomly asked if they did pedicures. They do, hurray! So while Elder Hind got his luscious locks trimmed I enjoyed a pedicure. They do them a little different here but it is great to have good looking feet again.

We were finally able to get our missionary to the dentist and get his tooth fixed. He got a temporary cap so we will have to take him back to get the permanent one installed.

Elder Jena's tooth was broken in the car accident

 

Elder Jena wanted me to put him on my blog. Here he is with his new tooth.

We worked in the garden again this week. All the little plants are starting to come up. We spent some time preparing more beds for spring planting when the time comes. The missionaries love it when Elder Hind shows up because he does twice the work of anyone else.

After working in the garden we went out to Osiweni to a branch activity. The elders there were so cute, they made Mother’s Day cards for all the mother’s in the branch. They got the youth to sing a Primary song for their mothers and then they showed “Meet the Mormons” and served popcorn. We had to leave early because we had a Seminary and Institute training in Madadeni. But the elders told me later that the members all loved the movie and they all knew the missionary in the movie.

Sometimes the traffic in Osizweni can get a little heavy

 

This adorable baby was afraid of my pasty white face.

The Osizweni elders made these cute cards. They used sparkle pens. :)

After the S&I training (It looks like we are going to be called to be Institute teachers) we went out to see the new member family that we always visit with the Newcastle elders. Elder Hind had fixed a broken dining room chair for them and they were so thrilled they asked him if he will fix their coffee table next time. Actually the mother asked me if it was ok if my husband fixed their table. They are a sweet family. I brought their younger girls a Primary Songbook and they were thrilled with it. Sometimes they feed us Rooibos tea which is an herbal tea that everyone around here drinks. I googled it and supposedly it can help you lose weight. I think I will be drinking a lot of Rooibos.