May and June - the beginning of Winter

Today is Fathers’ Day and it is winter here in South Africa but winter here is a piece of cake.  It has cooled down, but it is very pleasant so far and is generally between 65 and 75 degrees.  We have had a fair amount of rain and when it rains it pours, but much of the rain is at night.   People have gardens growing all year round.  It gets light late in the morning and dark by 5:15 PM, so the days are short.  With the change in seasons we both came down with the flu and colds and this has gone on for about 5 weeks but we think we are on the winning end right now.

The first week in May we traveled to Durban to say
good-bye to Elder Shadrack Mwita who returned to Tansania.

Elder Kamara and Elder Fisher brought flowers for Mother's Day

Sister Chirwa and Sister Nzama bundle up for a temple prep class.
It is just after 5 PM.  It is so dark we have to use this flashlight.

This is how dark it really is!  (We turned off the flash on the camara.)

We lost some very special elders on the 17^th of May, due to transfers. It was difficult to see them go. Elders Castleberry, Tualufo, Fisher, and Adams all moved on. We again received some great elders to take their places. We welcomed Elders Mashiloane, Nkambule, Keeble and Martin. Now it is time for transfers again. We will find out Sunday, June 26^th who will be leaving.

Our transfer news dinner where we found out who would be leaving.
left to right: Elders Armstrong, Shokane, Fokuo, Tualufo, Castleberry, Kamara,
Mead, Ngwenya, Fisher and Adams.

 

Elders Nkambule, Keeble, Mashiloane, and Martin tranfered to our zone.

Elders Castleberry, Tualufo Adams and Fisher got calls to leave us.

May continued to be a busy month as we had to prepare for our District Conference.  We were blessed to have a General Authority, Elder Watson of the 1^st Quorum of the 70.  President Von Stetten asked that we entertain the Watsons and the Von Stettens on the Saturday afternoon prior to the Sunday conference and take them to dinner that evening.  (Elder Nuzman being the social butterfly that he is was not looking forward to it.)  We had visited all the branches to publicize the Conference and obtained commitments to attend.   The branches are anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 ½ hours out of Richards Bay and very few members have any transport.  The district agreed to pay for the transport (taxi’s) to bring them into Richards Bay.  Sister Nuzman wanted to do something special for the Watsons  and the Von Stettens .  She created beautiful gift baskets with a traditional African basket, an African Nativity, Swazi soap, boxes of African cookies and maps and brochures of Richards Bay, all beautifully wrapped.  They were a hit.  We went to an African basket weaving village to obtain the baskets and nativities.  When Saturday arrived we met them at their hotel and took them to the beach first and then to the mouth of the port.  The port at Richards Bay is the largest port in South Africa.  The weather was beautiful and the Watsons were delightful and very easy to be around as were the Von Stettens.  We all went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Jack’s Corner, which turned out nicely as well.  What was even nicer, is that Elder Watson picked up the tab, bless his heart.  It was a wonderful day and Elder Nuzman’s stress was unfounded.  Conference was well attended and it was a spiritual feast.  We were very pleased with the way everything went and hope everyone else was pleased as well.

Ilala Basket Weavers on the way to Kosi Bay
We got the Zulu baskets and nativities here.

Elder Nuzman, Elder Watson and President Von Stetten
walking on top of the jetty at Richards Bay

Sister Watson and Sister Von Stetten checking out their cameras

Here we are at the lookout point on the jetty.
President Von Stetten took the picture.

The next weekend was the Father and Sons, Priesthood Commemoration.  All the priesthood, from the district, gathered at the Richards Bay Chapel on Friday afternoon for activities, dinner, spiritual talks, movies, and a sleepover.  The next morning there was a breakfast and a service project.  It was another success.  Elder Nuuzman opted out of the sleepover and went home to his bed and returned early the next morning to cook breakfast.  Not only did sleeping on a hard floor not appeal to him but Sister Nuzman was concerned about staying alone.  We are more cautious since our robbery.

At Zone Conference in Durban at the Berea Chapel

June 9^th we had a Zone Conference in Durban.  Our zone and two other zones met together.  It was very spiritually uplifting.  The bar continues to be raised as zone goals are set.  Our Elders are working so hard!  Last P Day they did a service project at a school for orphaned (due to HIV) and vulnerable children.  They actually suited up in special gear and cleaned the pit toilets.  After completing the project they played games with all the children.  Those running the facility were so impressed with these “sons of Helaman”.

Elders Martin, Nkambule, Shokane, Armstrong and Mead suiting up.

The elders with the Peace Corp volunteer and the children at the school

On June 11th we headed to Kosi Bay for our assigned visit. We were excited to see that they are now
meeting in the new building they built themselves. Their spirits are high as they endeavor to find investigators.

Zamokuhle prepared a lovely dinner for us on Saturday
which she prepared in her one-room dwelling.

Elder Nuzman and Sipho Ngubane outside the new building in Kosi Bay

Setting up for church in Kosi Bay.  We were the speakers for
Sacrament Meeting and then Clyde taught the combined adult class.

On our way home we checked out Sodwana Bay.

These signs at Sodwana Bay were interesting.  We especially enjoyed:
"Missing visitors must be reported at the main gate."

We were notified by our property manager that the owner of our rented house wants to take possession of the house as soon as possible.  The owner’s sister has married and they want her and her new husband to live in the house.  We started looking immediately. Most places that are available are town houses with stairs and are in bad condition.  We were getting discouraged but finally found another house (bigger than we needed) out in an area called Meerensee.  It is further out than we wanted, but it is nice and looks safer than where we now live.  The rent was considerably higher than we wanted to pay, but our property manager negotiated it down to what we are currently paying so we took it.  It has been a hassle getting the lease drawn up and now we get the great opportunity to pack this place up, clean it, and get settled in a new place.  We are going through everything and getting rid of a lot, so there won’t be a lot of outdated and needless clutter.  We move on June 24^th.

Just a few days after deciding to move to Meerensee, it was reported that a lioness was spotted in our new neighborhood just roaming around.  Comforting, don’t you think?  There is a stretch of open bush between us and the beach where she can hide.  It is believed she has wandered here from a game reserve about 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of here.   Interestingly, a couple of months ago after a meeting with all the branch presidents in the district, at Richards Bay, Elder Nuzman was asked to take two of the branch presidents back to their townships.  It was quite late and he took one to Nseleni and dropped him off and then proceeded to take the other branch president home and got on the highway (N2) to eSikhawini and not long after, he saw (or thought he saw) the hind quarters of a very large cat going into the bush.  He asked President Nyawo if there were lions in the area and he said he didn’t think so.  Perhaps his eyes weren’t deceiving him after all. They still haven’t been able to catch her.

Our family at home just keeps growing and doing great without us.  We had a new granddaughter arrive in April and we have a new grandson expected in November.  Our oldest grandson, Ethan, graduated from high school and received a full ride scholarship to the University of Delaware.    Christian, Ethan’s brother, is in Chile for the summer immersing himself in Spanish.  Alcy, our oldest granddaughter, just completed her first year of college at Utah State and is in Arizona working for the summer.  Greg, our son, is moving to Washington D.C. for a few months on a special assignment at the National Guard Readiness Center.  He does get to have his family come with him.  You can see we are not really needed at home; everything is just going on fine without us.  We have been asked to extend our mission here in Africa, so we will be staying until July, 2012.

We are teaching two seminary classes, one English class and one temple preparation class.  We have two sisters going to the temple for the first time this month.  We are very excited for them, they are such special ladies.  The Johannesburg Temple is close to eight hours away and that presents a challenge for these wonderful women of humble means.  We are grateful for our small part in helping them get there. 

Waiting for temple recommend interviews with President Von Stetten:
Sisters Mlondo, Chirwa, Mntungwa and Nzama

Today, President Vilane, who is back with us after another stay in the hospital, spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  He gave a very interesting analogy.  He said we need to be more like snails as we go through life.  A snail leaves a mark as it travels.  You can see where it is coming from and it moves steadily along its path.  Likewise, we can influence others as we travel through life.  Others can see our Christian attributes and watch us as we move toward our goal to return to our Heavenly Father.  President Vilane is such a special man.  He loves the members of the Nseleni Branch and it shows.  Today we had sixty people in attendance.  Several were investigators.

Relief Society in Nseleni Branch

It may be a while until we write again as it will take several weeks to get our DSL line at our new place.  Please know that our testimonies continue to grow as we serve these special people.  We love you and thank you for all your prayers in our behalf.   

This is the moon shining above one of the factories here in Richards Bay.

                   

Nine Months Already?

Well, at long last we are updating our blog.  We know it sounds trite but we really have been busy doing the same things as before.  We can't believe how fast time is flying by.  If we stay for 18 months, we are half-way through but we may extend.  We haven't quite decided.

Here is Elder Nuzman loading a food order into the boot of our car.

 In March we had a very exciting visit from Nicole, Jeremy, Aurora and Eve.  Oh how great it was to see some family!  We took a few days off and just enjoyed being with them.  They met many of our friends here and we even traveled to Swaziland.  Of course everyone here immediately fell in love with them and they now ask about them all the time. 

Thandie Nzama and granddaughter, Eve, Nicole, Aurora and Jeremy
Thandie taught Nicole how to make putu (mealie) and sugar bean curry

Nicole and family visit the Port Durnford Branch

Gabriel, Shaka, Gugu and Mellissah Sanchaze,
Nicole, Aurora, Jeremy and Eve in Nseleni

Elder Nuzman, Aurora, Eve and Sister Nuzman at Timbali Lodge in Swaziland

Jeremy and the girls enjoying the Indian Ocean at St. Lucia

Eve wanted to see hippos on her birthday.

Eve and Aurora gaze at the beautiful scenery at the game reserve

Here we are at the Port of Richards Bay

Our car that was stolen was finally found out in the bush.  There wasn't too much left of it.  They even took the wheels.  We will never recover any of the other things that were stolen, but most everything has been replaced.  We still feel very blessed that we slept through the whole thing.

We also had a visit from our grandson, Owen, who sent himself as a paper image.  We were to take him around to all the places we go and take pictures of him in the various surroundings.  We had a lot of fun with this project and hope that he will like all the places we went when he receives the pictures at his school.  Of course it would have been even better if he had been here in person.

Here is Owen at the beach in Richards Bay

Owen with the Elders

Owen meets the Vilanes

Owen in the sugar cane

We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference; perhaps we enjoyed it too much.  We watched all the sessions via internet and hooked it up to our tv so we could watch it with the elders.  Then a week later we capped out of internet time and we realized that all the sessions plus theYoung Women's broadcast added up to about twelve hours.  So we used our portable modem for a couple of weeks, sparingly, and now we are back in service as of May 1st.  So we can Skype again! 

Watching General Conferrence

Saying goodbye to Elder Denning at the last transfer

Once again we are teaching two seminary classes and are starting a new English class.  Keeping up with the elders really keeps us busy as well.  We routinely inspect their cars and boardings and have zone and district meetings with them.  We have gotten so attached to them and now some of them are going home to their own countries.  We haven't been able to face the fact that we may never see them again in this mortal existence.  Oh, what giants they are in the gospel!  They will be future leaders throughout the world.  We surely have learned to love them and they are so kind to us.

We had the priviledge of taking Elder Sandile Chirwa to the mission home to be set apart for his mission in Johannesburg.  He is from Port Durnford.

Sandile Chirwa says goodbye to his family.

A few weeks ago President Vezi of the Port Durnford branch heard noises coming from a chicken coop by his house at night.  He went out to investigate and once inside the coop discovered a python killing his chickens.  He couldn't get out the door of the coop so he called for someone to bring him a spear and he wrestled the python until he was able to kill it with the spear.  It was three meters long.  It was a female and now he is watching for the male which is much larger.

President Vezi, a true Zulu warrior



Last week we took a couple of days and went to visit our friends who are serving in Swaziland.  We wanted to visit their branches to see how things are done there.  While we were there we made a quick trip to Kruger National Park.  We were so excited to finally get to go there.  We had a marvelous time and saw all of the Big Five.  The leopard was back in the trees and we saw his long tail held high in the air.  It was awesome! 

These children dance on the side of the road to attract
customers to their family curio stand.

An impala in front of the elephants

A blue wildebeest

A hippo enjoys the water

This cape buffalo walks toward the road with its baby still nursing

This monkey is enjoying a piece of bread that was part of a loaf
that we saw stolen off of a picnic table by another monkey as the
people were setting out their lunch.

Our good friends, Elder and Sister Blackburn

Our first spotting of a lioness

One of our favorites, a giraffe

Plastic bags are hung over the bananas to protect them
from the monkeys

Here we are enjoying Africa!

Another African Experience

It has only been a couple of weeks since we belatedly updated our blog but we feel we need to update you now. February 22nd we lost four great elders that we miss already, but we gained four new wonderful elders. What sharp young men they are! We love them already. 

Our new Elders in Richards Bay waiting to go on a game drive:
left to right:  Elders Armstrong, Fokuo, Shokane and Kamara

 Elder and Sister Heninger, the mission public relations couple, came into town on Wednesday, the 23rd, and we had the privilege of meeting them and hosting them. I took them with me to District Council, that evening, and they gave a very enthusiastic presentation to the council. It was close to 9 PM when I was able to come home and I was quite tired. We all talked for a while and then we all retired for the night about 10 PM. Normally we leave our bedroom door open but since we had guests we closed it. At about 4:30 AM Yvonne got up to have a drink of water and went into the kitchen and noticed that the sliding glass door was wide open. I was walking up about the same time and I heard her gasp. She immediately realized the television was gone. We looked into the office and our computer was gone. Then we looked out the window and saw that our car was also gone. We had been robbed, while we slept just a few feet away. They had entered by cutting the lock on the rear steel grate over the sliding glass door and then pried the door open. How blessed we were that we hadn’t awakened and startled them. We looked around and we had been cleaned out and our guests too lost their computer. To say the least it was a sickening feeling, not so much at what we had lost, but that intruders were right in our home just a few feet from us. It is not an unusual occurrence in South Africa but a first for us. The Heningers were scheduled to leave on Thursday but they decided to stay until we were situated. How grateful we are that they would offer to do that, after what they had just been through. They are truly gracious people. Without their help things would have been so much worse as we were now without a phone, computer and car. They had a cell phone and their car which they shared with us. Within the day we purchased a new computer. When it is all put into perspective, it has been a major inconvenience but it is behind us now.

Friday afternoon our good friends the Blackburns, who serve in Swaziland, came and brought us a car and a new telephone from the Mission office. How lucky are we?

Thanks to the Durban Mission we have a new car and a new cell phone!

The Blackburns stayed Friday night and on Saturday morning while Clyde was gone, Sister Blackburn found a small puff adder on our front step. Elder Blackburn got rid of it before Clyde got home (another tender mercy as you know about Clyde’s aversion to snakes)!

"Puffy" the puff adder is no more, but where is his mother?

We had a wonderful visit with the Blackburns, as we always do. We all attended the District Career Fair and District Social. They were both a success. Elder Blackburn met people from his first mission to South Africa as a youth. We had a super evening with the Blackburns, DeKlerks (whose farm we visited a few weeks ago) and the Petersens, the Employment specialists. The Blackburns had to leave early Sunday morning for Swaziland.

Eating fish and chips at the beach with the Blackburns

Elder and Sister Blackburn serve in Swaziland

Chivalry is not dead!  Elder Blackburn wipes the sand
from Sister Blackburns feet after she went wading in the Indian Ocean.

Richards Bay District social, a braai

Elders waiting for the food!

We are getting everything back into order; all new locks, and securing the sliding door; getting training on the security system on our home. We have had to put together our seminary class materials and records, since all of that was in the boot of the car along with many other things. The work goes on in spite of it all. We are wiser now and not quite as naïve. We know we are supposed to be here at this time. We know we were protected while we slept. Thank you for all the prayers in our behalf.



Yesterday, March 7th we went on a game drive with our Richards Bay Zone.  It was a very hot day and we didn't have a lot of time.  Consequently, we saw very limited wildlife but it was great to be together.  It is such a great blessing to work with these strippling warriors!

Our Richards Bay Zone on P Day at the game park
top row left to right: Elder Fokuo, Sister Nuzman, Elder Castleberry, Steve Killick (our guide),
Elders Tualufo, Shokane, Denning and Ngwenya.
bottom row left to right:  Elders Adams, Fisher, Nuzman, Kamara and Armstrong

                                                 We had to wait quite a while for our lunch.

                                        On our way home we had to wait for cows on the road: