Dear Family and Friends,
We send greetings from South Africa. Thank goodness for the Sunday's. We attended church at Ezakheni today. I played the piano for the service and attended Relief Society with the ladies. We came back home where Elder Hudson made lunch for us out of left overs. Sometimes you just have to eat up what is in the refrigerator. We both have had a restful afternoon.
Are week has been very full this week. Last Sunday the Blackburn's came from Swaziland to spend a few days with us. They didn't get here until 7pm. They had attended church in Swaziland and then had to take care of some business before they could come down. It is about a 7 hour drive for them to come down here. Monday, Elder Hudson made this great breakfast and prepared a Shepard's pie for our dinner Monday night. We then took off to see the Midlands Meander. It is in our back yard and we didn't even know about it until the President's wife brought us a book on the Meander. We drove to Moii River and then got off the freeway there and started our country drive. The country here is beautiful and when you get on the country roads you really have some beautiful country side. What is of interest in the Meander is a lot of little shops of things made here in South Africa by the Zulu people. Some of the shops are closed on Monday and some were just closed down. We choose the ones that were of interest to us. There are a lot of B&B's along the way. Some even have spa's, where you can pamper yourself. The big treat was stopping at a goat farm where they make cheese. We bought a sampler of cheese, soft drinks, crackers and had lunch on the lawn at the farm. The setting was beautiful. You have to drive off the paved road on a dirt road about 2 kilometers. I even have a picture of the goats to show you. We stopped at a leather place that makes purses, belts, and wallets. We stopped at a shop called the Ugly Duckling and they had everything you could imagine. But the things were imported from India. They even had furniture. The bead shop was no longer in business. If you drive too fast you can miss some of these shops as I found out later Elder Hudson had missed some. We stopped at Tsonga Shoes and Purses. They make them at this shop. The women were sitting outside talking and hand sewing the soles to the shoes or hand stitching purses. At this point it was getting late in the afternoon and Sister Blackburn really wanted to go to the quilt store. So, we called Elizabeth and asked if we could come to the shop because she is closed on Monday's. She said yes but she had to leave at 3:45. She wasn't there when we got there she had ran to the post office to get the quilt top we had sent her to machine stitch. It wasn't at that post office we had put the wrong one on our envelope. But she did get it latter in the week. The Blackburn's picked out a quilt that Elizabeth had made in red and white with big stars all over. She also had made continental pillow shams to go with the quilt. If they hadn't taken that one I was going to get it. I wanted one of Elizabeth's quilt. We did buy one of her quilts. The material is South Africa and she calls it waxed material but is like what we call polished cotton. It has one big star right in the middle.. The colors are many--gold, green, blue,orange. I can't remember all the colors. It will be our fall quilt. We then took the Blackburn's to the Howick falls. This river runs through Howick and then just drops off a cliff. We shop just and little and then headed home.
Tuesday, Elder Blackburn said he didn't want to go far. He was tired of riding. We took them over to Winterton. We had breakfast at the Waffle House and then looked a hand woven rugs. Sister Blackburn found a table cloth, place mats and napkins and a runner that were hand painted. They were beautiful. She bought the last one, so I didn't get one. We went down the road to another weaver shop. This is the one we had bought our rugs at. They found one. We had taken ours back because we wanted them to ship our rugs for us. They ended up adding the Blackburn's to our package for all the same shipping charges. This really saved them money. The rugs are going slow boat. We sent them to Utah. Blackburn's live in St George and have a daughter close to where we shipped them. They said their daughter would pick them up. They go home in March and we don't go home until July.
We got back to Ladysmith and they wanted to see the tile we bought with the big five on them. We took them to the building that had them of the floor. We then took them to the shop we had bought ours from. They ended up getting the big five too.
The Blackburn's had lunch with us and then went to Newcastle to meet with the President and Ward's.
We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and we had volunteered to do the lunch for forty people. We had a count of forty-four. Elder Hudson had made apple sauce and pulled pork. We also had chips, store bought cookies, and juice. The Elders ate everything and said how good it was. We had cooked the pulled pork in the crock pot all day for two days. He discovered he had missed a roast and cooked it all night.
We did not teach piano this week with everything that was happening. Thursday and Friday we spent recouping.
Saturday, we decided to spend this day together. I said don't you want to go for a ride. I said we sat home for two days. It seems we are on the go so much it was hard not to go somewhere. We decided to go on the Midland Meander again but go on the other side of the freeway. We went to Groundcover. This is also a shoe store. They make the shoes right on the property. We then went to Dirt Road. They make canvas purses and all kinds of bags. They even make the bag to put your gun into. They also make some clothing out of cottons. Agape Footwear was out of business, but has a lovely setting. It was for sale. We had lunch in Howick and went to the falls again. I have some shops I like and we went back to them. We also went to the quilt store. We bought some material that I can make valances to match the quilt we bought. She is going to mail it all for us.
If you are wondering why I have rattled on and on it is because I am on a sugar high. Jackie sent us some See's candy and it just taste so good, it is hard to stop eating it. Jackie we are truly enjoying a taste of home. The candy here doesn't taste like home.
We have truly enjoyed taking a week off from our work. The mission President did give us permission to see the things that are in the area where we serve. We just didn't know all that was here. The music students are doing great, but they suffer when we miss because the boys in Dannhouser don't practise. So, by us teaching each week it keeps them more on there toes.
We are truly being blessed and love this country and the members we get to work with. Our week ends are really getting full. We have scheduled lots with the members, but will tell you as it goes. We love you all and send our blessing to you.
Sister and Elder Hudson
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