It was so fun to take Elder Hind’s family to church with us this week. We liked showing them off to the branch and we liked showing the branch off to them.  Everybody was kind to them. President Zackrison spoke in church so we were able to introduce him and Sister Zackrison to our family. Mallory went into Primary and they promptly handed her the sharing time manual and let her do sharing time. Then she came into Young Women with me and was instantly everyone’s best friend. She is so outgoing and nice and to top it off she has all that long blond hair. The girls all thought she was beautiful!

Mallory and kids

Mallory and Young Women

Mallory and Karen

Doug with deaf friend (that is my purse he is holding)

Doug even found a deaf women in Madadeni 2 that he could talk to. Everyone took a lot of pictures after church. A lot of the children and young women wanted their pictures taken with Mallory. We had a temple prep class to teach in Newcastle so everyone else went home to enjoy a quiet Sunday afternoon. I had promised to make the family a typical South African dinner on Sunday. So we ate rice, chakalaka, butternut squash and creamed spinach. We had a milk tart (custard pie) for dessert. I could have served pap (kind of like grits) instead of rice but I haven’t cooked pap before and I like rice better.

Monday was a fun day. We went grocery shopping and then ran out to Madadeni to bring some baby formula to a family we are working with. We introduced our family to the mother of the baby. She was doing her wash. All by hand in plastic tubs. Then we drove to downtown Newcastle to visit some of the street shops there. I have been wanting to buy a pleated traditional zulu skirt. I got a black one without beading on it, just a little ribbon trim. That way I can wear it when I get home and no one will realize it is traditional Zulu clothes. Everyone picked up a few things. Then we went to lunch at my favorite place, Ocean Basket. Everyone else liked it too.

Mallory likes Ocean Basket too

We took our family out to Madadeni for a cottage meeting there. The elders were late getting there so we started without them. They asked me to give a spiritual thought so I was able to speak about our divine nature as I had just taught that in Young Women. It was a good meeting.

Elder Hind singing to the children

 After it was over we had to run off to Family Home Evening at our house. Brother Benga, who is moving back to Nigeria, taught the lesson and he did his usual fantastic job. We are going to miss him. The Newcastle elders have really made our FHE fun because they have so many investigators plus they make it a point to invite the young people from the branch.

Our guys

Tuesday morning we all headed to Durban for some more fun and adventure. We stopped at the Mandela capture site on the way down to Durban. This is where Nelson Mandela was captured and sent to prison for 27 years. They have a museum there and a really wonderful sculpture.

This is the walk way down to the Mandela sculpture

This is a portrait of Mandela made of metal bars 

We had to say good bye to Mallory here because Doug and Karen took her straight to the Durban airport and Elder Hind and Carol and I went to the beach. We had lunch on the beach while we were waiting for them. They called us and told us where they were so we went to find them. They were on another part of the beach. They had lunch while waiting for us.

One last picture with Mallory

We spent a few minutes on the sand. It was too cold and windy to consider swimming although there were a few people in the water.

We found our Bed and Breakfast accommodations (Huntley House) without too much trouble. Elder Hind and I had stayed there our first night in South Africa and we had fond memories of this place so we booked them for our Durban stay. After checking in we went looking for something to eat. There wasn’t much choice near our B&B but we managed to find enough to keep from starving.

The next morning our hostess treated us to a tasty English breakfast and then we were off to explore Durban.

The first thing we did was go to the Mission Office to pick up our new car. We had to trade our Nissan in for a Toyota Corolla. When the mission cars get so many miles on them it is time for a new one. This will probably be the only new car we will ever drive.

It is interesting that our guests have come during one of the worst droughts they have had in twenty years. And yet it has rained a lot during their stay. The rainy day made things we had planned difficult. We ended up going to the Ushaka Marine World because fish don’t mind the rain. We saw a great dolphin show and wandered through an old ship wreck that is now an aquarium and then ate lunch on the ship.

After Marine World Karen and I rode in a rickshaw type carriage. It was fun but a little scary. I was afraid he was going to drop us on our backs.

Then we went to Victoria Street Market for some serious shopping. Every shop we went into people would say, “We give special discounts to elders.”  I guess they see a lot of souvenir shopping missionaries. We bought a bunch of stuff but the best was Elder Hind’s drum. He saw a drum in St Lucia that he wanted and was happy to find a similar one at Victoria Street. The shop is owned by a member of the church. She give me a price and I offered an amount considerably lower and she accepted it. (I should have gone even lower). I don’t know if we got a good deal but Elder Hind is happy. Now if we can just get it home in nine months.

A shopkeeper (who happens to be a church member)
is showing off her head carrying skills
That is Elder Hind's drum on her head

Elder Hind's drum (hope it fits in a duffel bag)

We went back to our B&B to rest up and then everyone decided to just go to the grocery store to get things for dinner. We had a big lunch and didn’t need a lot. I elected to stay at the B&B. For the most part my knee does not bother me a lot but I think spending the last couple of days on my feet had made the arthritis in my knee and my feet flare up. Karen dosed me with ibuprophen and essential oil. That and a good night’s sleep had me feeling great in the morning.

On Thursday we went to the Moses Mabhida stadium (2010 Soccer World Cup). We rode in a kind of tram up the side of the stadium and then you can get out on top and enjoy the view. On weekends they allow you to walk up the side of the stadium. Elder Hind really wants to do that. We got to tour the stadium and we enjoyed that. It is really big. They have people bungee jumping off of it. Elder Hind wanted to do that also, but he didn’t want to spend $75 to do it.

A fun place to eat on the beach

We went to lunch on the beach and then it was time to say good bye and send Doug, Karen and Carol off on their own while we get back to work. The plan was for them to travel north along the highway and maybe see St Lucia and whatever else they can see. Then they will come back to Newcastle before going home. We didn’t worry about them too much as they are seasoned travelers.