August 7- 13, 2016

After church we went to see President Nkosi at the hospital. They had him on oxygen but he seems a little better. After visiting with him we went out to the cottage meeting and then finally home. The elders came over in the evening and we had a nice devotional and talked about all our tender mercies.

We have been preparing for a Single Adult Conference on Tuesday, the 9^th of August. The person in charge asked us to be the keynote speakers and told us we needed to take up an hour of the conference. Just for fun we decided to do a Power Point presentation. We have never done one before. We had it ready by Monday so we decided to do a practice run for Family Home Evening. We knew our FHE group would not be at the conference because they are Young Single Adults and our upcoming activity was for the 30 and over singles. Anyway our YSAs seemed to like it.

We went to the Newcastle chapel to do a test run on the presentation with the projector and the sound. We got it all figured out and were ready to go on Tuesday. We laugh at ourselves because we have learned so much on our mission. It is never too late to learn new things and try something different.

Elder Hind setting up the projector for our Power Point presentation

We had a great time at the Single Adult conference. The people in charge put an enormous amount of work into the activity. Our presentation and talks focused on the idea that people need to keep on learning and progressing and serving no matter what their circumstances are. We used images and videos from the church website and also a bunch of our own pictures. We gave short talks as part of the presentation and we also did a Mormon Bingo game and gave out candy bars for prizes.

The tables were beautifully decorated. They had borrowed wedding decorations from someone’s relative that is in the wedding décor business. They had hot Milo and scones at the beginning and then served a very nice lunch at the end. They also had a speaker come and talk about self reliance and the issues of being single. It was a great activity.

Beautiful table decorations

President and Sister Ngbane

Lunch

with Sister Letuma

On Wednesday we had to make a run down to Ezakheni because we had been given some mail for a girl there that has been called on a mission to Uganda. This packet was from the Uganda mission so we were anxious for her to get it right away. We drove down there and gave it to her and then drove back. Two hundred and forty Ks round trip. This is why we are anxious for the Rhodes to get here. They are replacing the Taylors and will be here soon. We did not know how urgent this packet was so we didn’t dare wait.

On the way down we came across a huge grass fire. These are common in the winter here because it is so dry and because farmers burn their fields to get ready for spring planting. This seemed to be a deliberately set fire because we saw a man with a tank truck and hose watching it. The winter air always smells and looks smoky.

Fire on the way down to Ezakheni

Blackened fields on the way home

On Friday, we went with the Madadeni 3 missionaries to teach a family. This is a family we have been working with for a while now. We love them!

On Saturday we had District Training. At the beginning of the meeting President Mashego asked me to conduct the Primary and Young Women’s training. Yeah I had about 5 minutes to prepare a 45 minute class. It is times like this that I am grateful for my faithful side kick. No, not Elder Hind, my other faithful sidekick, my Samsung Tab 3. Let me pause now to sing an ode to my tablet. I could not have done this mission without it.

My tablet is just like me, her cover is a little tattered and frayed and her battery does not hold a charge as long as it used to. But like me, it just keeps plugging away.

One reason I depend on her is because she has the Gospel Library. So on Saturday when I had to do some last minute training I simply found Handbook 2: Administering the Church on my tablet. There I found the basics for both the YW program and the Primary. After we had discussed all the important things someone asked me if I had any ideas for Young Women. I just punched the Pinterest app and told them to where to find lots of ideas. I warned them that most of the ideas were probably not very practical for them but they would find some useful things.

If I am asked to speak in Sacrament meeting at the last minute I have lots of things on my tablet that can be used in a talk. I have learned to annotate and tag scriptures on my tablet. So I have many scriptures annotated with accompanying comments by General Authorities. I can easily make a talk out of those.

Probably the most important quality of my tablet is the fact that it is readable even in low light. We teach in many homes that are not well enough lit to allow me to read normal print much less my compact quad.

I have also used my tablet to show videos during lessons, check out books from the Salt Lake County library, or buy them on Amazon, we use my tablet to play Heads Up during FHE, I put together jig saw puzzles on it when I am bored and take pictures with it when my camera is not available. It also contains my planner and calendar and keeps me organized. In addition I have downloaded all the church hymns and Primary songs on to my tablet so I can play music anywhere we need to sing a hymn.

And finally I use it to show pictures of my grandchildren.