Aug 28 – Sept 3, 2016

Spring has finally arrived on the High Veld. Night temperatures are not as low so our house does not get cold. When we wake up in the morning we are not freezing to death. I don’t think we have used our heaters for over a week now. The weather is so lovely.

The Ezakheni Branch President asked us to speak in his branch this week. He said that we probably wouldn’t be out there again before we go home. He also asked Elder Hind to do some interviews. We spoke in Sacrament Meeting and then Elder Hind did his interviews and Sister Hind waited and waited. Our leaving is starting to get real. We won’t be back to Ezakheni again.

While Elder did interviews Sister Hind entertained herself buy taking pictures
of the children in Ezakheni Branch.

We had a devotional with the Elders in the evening. We love to do this. It is so nice to meet with the elders at the end of the Sabbath day and talk about all the good things that are happening to us. And then share a treat. It is one of the things we are really going to miss.

We won’t be doing many more Family Home Evenings with our missionaries and the Newcastle YSAs. We played Bean Boozeled one last time. We always try to play it once every transfer. We realize that we are doing many things one last time before we go home.

Playing Bean Boozeled for the last time

We decided we needed to go to the Johannesburg temple one more time. We called and made a reservation at the Temple Patron Housing.  We drove down Wednesday and checked into our accommodations and made reservations for dinner in the cafeteria. Then we did two endowment sessions in the temple. Then we had dinner and went to our room. The rooms are very nice and the bed was comfortable but our room was on the side of the building that is near a busy street. It was pretty noisy but we managed to get some sleep.

The next morning Elder Hind wanted to visit the Area Offices which are on the temple grounds. He wanted to talk to them about some branch financial issues. But the offices don’t open until 9am so we went to breakfast at Mike’s Restaurant which is near the temple. We had passed this restaurant every time we went to the temple and so we decided to try it. The prices were reasonable and the food was very good.

We enjoyed eating breakfast outside in the garden

Restaurant cat 

Elder Hind enjoying his hot chocolate

Mmmm...bacon and poached eggs on English muffins covered with Hollandaise sauce

After breakfast we went back to the temple grounds. I waited in the car and read a book while Elder Hind went in to the office. He wasn't gone very long but he came back a very happy man. He has been trying to get the finances in all the branches sorted out and he has been successful. He has been working on this project almost our entire mission. 

On Friday we went to Madadeni and picked up a member and her children. She wanted to use our computer to apply for college. Elder Hind entertained the kids while I helped their Mom fill out her application.

Elder Hind babysitting

Saturday we went over to the Newcastle boarding to clean. We are tired of cleaning this place. I hope the next missionaries that come here appreciate how nice we have made it. However, It could use a paint job and a carpet cleaning.

Elder Hind doing some serious cleaning

It is time to start preparing to go home. The church will pay for our flight home but because we have family coming they want us to book our own tickets and they will refund us later. So our tickets are bought. Our daughter Cydnee and her husband Eric and their four kids are coming here and spending some time visiting and then we will fly home the same day she does. We are excited to show her around this amazing country and introduce her to the wonderful people we have met.

It won’t be long now.