Dear Family and Friends from South Africa Mission Dec. 12, 2010,
We have had a very busy week this week. I want to tell you first about some of the food. The juices all have a funny taste to us. We are getting use to it. We have smoothies with fresh fruit and some of the juices. The beef is not that tasty to us. It is tough and just doesn't have much taste. The milk is really good, very rich. We have very good butter and cream. The eggs they don't refrigerate at the store and when you try to crack the shell you have to really whack the egg on the bowl. The shells are very strong with calcium--I guess. I cannot find gram crackers to make crust for desserts. I finally bought butter short bread cookies and put that in the blender to make the crust for some Hello Dolly Cake. It turned out very good. We can buy jello but I bought strawberry and mixed it up, when I took it out of the fridge it was not red but clear. It was red when I put it in. The sugar is very coarse and brown sugar is just colored brown. Not like the brown sugar in the states. But the sugar is very sweet. The bread and rolls are pretty good here.
Monday started are week off on the go. We had to go to the chapel to meet President Holder about the building. But before we meet him we had to take the Elders to the doctors office. One of the new Elders we got this last transfer has been sick for awhile and had a bad cough. At least he didn't have anything serious. We went back to the church and prepared the bank deposit and ran to the bank real fast. We then had to wait about 15 minutes for President Holder. Elder Hudson meet with him and they took care of business. He brought us a micro phone for the Ezakheni branch. He also had other supplies for the two branches---toilet paper, paper towels, and black garbage bags. This was things the branches needed. We then had to run to Dundee to pay the rent for the meeting place to hold the church services on Sundays. We are meeting at a school up there right now. We secured the school for December, January and February. We had to run to the bank and pull out funds to pay for the rental. We couldn't pull out enough to pay all, but she said we could pay the rest when school starts again in January. The school closes every day at 2:30 and was also closing for summer break on Friday. It is an hour up to Dundee and an hour back. That pretty much took care of Monday.
Tuesday I had to do some laundry and cleaning that I couldn't do on Monday. Then we went out to Ezakheni and taught piano. We had one boy show up at the chapel and then we taught four of the kids in there home. One of the boys was out playing and forgot to come for piano lessons. We will catch him this week. The two girls that we teach had got new Sunday clothes and had them on Sunday at church. I told them how nice they looked and they just beamed from ear to ear. The kids love any complements and attention we give them.
Wednesday we went to Newcastle for zone meeting. We had to be there by 10:30. That takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The meeting went past noon. We had the Elders help arrange the chapel for Thursdays meeting. Thursday would be Zone Conference. Sister Von Stetten had ask the senior couples to arrange a nice Christmas dinner for the Elders on Thursday. Tuesday night the lady Sister Ward had made arrangements with catering the lunch called and said she couldn't do it. This meant that the senior couples would now be cooking the dinner. We went to lunch with the other two senior couples and then headed home to shop and cook our part of the dinner. We cooked until 9:30. I cleaned green beans for over an hour.
Elder Hudson made this big fruit salad, green beans with bacon and onions, and funeral potatoes. We can't buy frozen hash browns, so we cooked the potatoes and graded the potatoes. I peeled and he graded. When you work together it doesn't take that long. I also would wash dishes up when I was without something to do.
Thursday we left for Newcastle at 7:15am and we got home about 7:30pm. The meeting started at 9. We brought plates from Ladysmith and had to put those on the table. Sister Ward planned to cook the potatoes at her boarding. They went to their boarding to put the potatoes in the oven. There power had been turned off. The electricity is paid from Durban and somehow it had been over looked. Elder Ward went down town to pay for his boarding and the boarding for eight Elders. One of the branch members had volunteered to decorate the tables and do the dishes after the dinner. They took the potatoes and heated them for us. We were able to heat the green beans on the store and the ham in the oven at the chapel. It all turned out very good and the Elders ate everything. There was no left overs. We had apple crisp for desert. President Von Stetten had training until 3pm. We then had dinner and cleared the tables. Sister Von Stetten had ties for all the Elders, but made a game of giving them the ties. The first person could keep his wrapped tie or choose someone else. After they went around the table the first person could choose from all the ties. I think the Elders enjoyed the game. Sister Von Setten called all the birthday people for November and December and we sang happy birthday to them. We then had entertainment from the Elders playing the piano, guitar and singing. President Von Stetten played a trombone solo accompanied by one the the Elders. A video had been made of pictures everyone in the mission had taken and sent in to Durban. Everyone loved the video. We sang Christmas Carols with President Von Stetten leading the Caroling. Everyone had a great time.
Friday we had to go grocery shopping and do cooking for a meeting Saturday. I made seven dozen chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Elder Hudson made egg salad, chicken salad, and tuna salad for sandwiches. There was an Priesthood meeting at Ladysmith at 10am. So, Saturday morning Elder Hudson made his sandwiches and we pack the stuff in the car and head to church. We didn't get home until after 3:30. A couple in the Ddistrict Presidency meet with us and were asking for our help. We told them we didn't want to come in and take over the branches here but are willing to help where they need help. They want us to observe and tell the members when they are not doing something the way it should be done. This will help keep us busy I am sure. I think they do a really good job, but maybe there is room for some improvement.
Today we went to church in Dundee. I played the key board for the primary presentation. Elder Thatcher lead the kids in singing. I had three of my boys from Danhouser play the piano. They did a really good job and Elder Hudson and I were so proud. I took chocolate for the kids who sang in the program. Some were late getting there. Elder Thatcher came over to be before we started and said these are not the kids we've been practicing with. But before the program was over four move showed up with strong voices. They sang really good. I find the key board a little hard to play. It doesn't have any pedals.
We are loving the kids and the people here. They are eager to learn and do good. They have a very strong faith. One of the District leaders spent time with Sister Ward and me Saturday and told a lot about herself. She is only the second generation to be a Christian. She told of some of the practices that are still performed I will have to tell you these things in another email.
Love Sister Hudson and Elder Hudson
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