February 21-17, 2016

Such a nice Sabbath Day. We went to Madadeni 1 branch which starts at 11:00am and then came straight home afterwards. It made for a relaxing day which we have not had in a long time.

Reminds me of Erin - little Mama, big chunky baby

Could this little one be anymore adorable?

On Monday we had our usual crazy day. We went to Madadeni first thing in the morning to pick up a young couple we are working with so they could make copies and do some emailing and faxing at our house. They are trying to get jobs. We don’t realize how challenging it is for them to email, fax and make copies. These things are expensive for them and yet they are nothing to us.

We went out to the cottage meeting and then home for FHE. In our lesson we asked everyone to focus on the Savior as we lead up to Easter. We encouraged them to take the Sacrament more mindfully and to always remember Him. We had fruit and crackers for refreshments.

I had two big projects this week. I distributed the sustainable feminine hygiene kits at Ncando School on Thursday. I planned and hosted the New Beginnings activity on Saturday. So some of this week was taken up with planning and preparing for those days.

I had to finish my online training for the hygiene kit distribution. And then sort the kits by size and plan my lesson. For some reason I was really nervous about it but it went fine. We will be going back next week and handing out the rest of them to another class.

Learning how to use the kits

We were encouraged to let the girls try them on over their pants. This girl was the brave one.

I think the girls really were happy to get these.

These girls are prepared. That is the principal in the green and the women in the blue jacket is Sister Zikalala, my hero.

We are so excited about the young couple we are trying to get married. It seems that in order to marry someone here in South Africa you must take a class to become a Marriage Agent. Our branch president can’t do it but the 1^st counselor in Newcastle will be able to tie the knot for them. We will be taking them to Newcastle branch on Sunday so they can meet with him and begin the paper work. This will be a big step forward. We gave them a marriage lesson (Sunday School marriage manual) and the sister told us that it was exact lesson she needed. We like to hear that.

Program and invitation to New Beginnings

Decorated for New Beginnings

I had Young Women’s New Beginnings On Saturday. Most of the Young Women came. I think I had 15 girls there but no parents. I wonder what keeps them from  coming?  The Laurel president conducted the meeting. Some of the girls gave opening and closing prayers and others gave brief talks on each of the virtues. I gave an overview on Personal Progress and then the girls sang, “Arise and Shine Forth”. I know it is not the current Mutual theme but the girls know it well and I was trying to keep things simple. I want to set an example on how to do these kinds of activities. I want the activities to be nice but I need to keep them simple enough that they can be done by anyone. I am not only teaching the girls but I am teaching the Young Women leaders. After the program we had cookies and brownies and punch for refreshments. I had a little goody bag for each girl.

Some of the Young Women. Note the ribbons around their necks
That was their idea.

While I was busy with New Beginnings Elder Hind was in a District Council Meeting in the chapel. The Madadeni building was busy that day. There was a Relief Society activity in another room. Elder Hind had to bring refreshments for the Council meeting. It was so well attended that he had to dip into the New Beginning refreshments in order to have enough.