April 10- 16, 2016

On our way home from Durban we made another attempt to take the back road and this time we were successful. We got off the freeway in Pietermartzburg and headed home on highway 33. We would pass through Greytown and Dundee and several smaller towns. The road was good most of the way and there was some pretty spectacular scenery.

We just had to stop and take a picture of this view. We were coming down off a mountain

In one little town we came across a narrow bridge crossing a very wide river. Since it was only wide enough for one lane of traffic there was a light so you know when it was your turn. However the light wasn’t working and since we couldn’t see any traffic coming towards us we started across the bridge. Sure enough after getting ¾ of the way across here comes the cars going the opposite way. There was nothing we could do but back up all the way to the other side. When we got back there was a truck waiting there and we just followed it back across the river.

The rest of trip went well. It did take longer so I don’t know if we will do it again. We were glad to get home.

Our Mondays are always busy we went to the cottage meeting and then hurried home to Family Home Evening. 

We went out with the Madadeni 2 missionaries one afternoon. It was great. They got an investigator to enthusiastically promise to read the Book of Mormon. And then we went to visit another investigator who announced that she wanted to teach the lesson. She proceeded to tell us how much she loved the Book of Mormon and how much it helps her. Then she read a passage she liked about covenant people. I asked if she knew what “covenant people” meant. She wasn’t sure so I explained that covenants are promises we make to Heavenly Father. I mentioned that we make promises to God when we are baptized. Then Elder Harper asked her if she wanted to become part of the covenant people. She said yes so he committed her to baptism. It was a great moment.

Elder Hind helping a little boy stand on his head.

Elder Hind demonstrating his head standing skills for the kids.

I had an activity with the Young Women this week. We are learning to cook and are working on our cookbooks. I asked them what they wanted to learn to cook and they said, Pizzas. So I brought pizza dough to the activity and gave them a recipe for it to glue in their books. Then we made individual pizzas. They could pick what they wanted to put on them. It turned out good. I was baking the pizzas on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. When I took the parchment paper off after we were done there were 3 roasted cockroaches on the pan under the paper. I am just glad they were not on the pizza itself. They just sprayed the kitchen for cockroaches a couple of weeks ago but the little darlings are back.

We got transfer news on Saturday night and there are big changes.  Elders Nyirenda, Larsen and Fransen are going to other zones. We will get 3 elders to replace them and then they are opening up 2 new districts Madadeni  and Osizweni. That means four more missionaries in our area of the zone. We have gone from 8 missionaries to 12.

Waiting to hear transfer news.

Elder Larsen and Elder Shinga delivering the news.

Elder Fransen came here as a greenie. He is moving on to new adventures.

Elder Nyirenda used to be a pastor before he joined the church.

Elder Larsen has been a great Zone Leader we are sorry to see him go.

We know the president has committed so many of his resources here because he expects some big things to happen in this zone. We will soon have a new branch in Madadeni and we know that the new building in Osizweni will cause people to inquire about the church out there. We are committed to making sure that this is not a wasted effort. The elders are going to make things happen and we are going to help them.