Saturday, November 9, 2013

Our First Branch Activity

We have been serving in Nelspruit for the past year.  We finally had our first Branch Activity since we've been here.  They did have one scheduled before Christmas last year, but because of a mumps outbreak, it had to be canceled.  Other attempts to plan an activity never panned out for one reason or another.  Finally, the Primary had planned a picnic.  The Branch decided to include the whole Branch in it as well.  The venue, "Mac Mac Pools" was the selected location.  Oddly enough, it is the one that we suggested last October.  We had discovered this area when we stopped for lunch on our way to Tzaneen for Zone Conference last year.  Upon our suggestion, several negative remarks were made, and nothing ever came into being.  The Primary's first location was the Botanical Gardens, but upon checking, they discovered that it was too cost prohibitive.  After checking, Mac Mac Pools was finally decided upon.

Because this venue is about an hour away, and because many people don't cars for transportation, we decided to meet at the Church to car pool together.  The day was sunny and warm and everyone was excited to come.  As they were planning a menu,  they immediately started talking about what to braai, or bar b q.  I suggested that we have something already to serve like Sloppy Joes, and just bring salads and other things to go with it.  They didn't know what Sloppy Joes were.  When I explained what they were, everyone agreed that it would be a great idea if I would make it.  I agreed, and plans were set.

Friday was spent cooking up pan after pan of hamburger, or "mince" as it is called here.  I filled my crock pot as well as Sister Hunt's extra large crock pot. Worrying that some people might not bring enough salad and other things, which seems to be the case in other Linger Longers that we have had, I made a large potato salad, and large pan of brownies as well. That night I sat out several items from the kitchen that I thought we might need as well as several plastic table clothes.  You never know how clean the tables might be in an outdoor area.

Saturday morning, we began loading our car with all our food items.  The potato salad seemed especially heavy when I lifted it out of the fridge, so just for fun, I put on on the bathroom scales.  18 pounds!  Well, that should be enough to feed a crowd of hungry people!  We also brought our 2 gallon drink jug of ice water, since we thought with the hot day, it would help quench thirst better than juice, which is what they usually drink.  I also filled two other large bottles of water to refill the jug because I wasn't sure what kind of drinking water they might have.  We also loaded in some games, balls, and bubbles to add to the fun.  Each organization was supposed to bring a game or an activity.

Several people were waiting at the 'church when we arrived.  Others came and when we determined that  all were here that were coming,  we loaded the cars and headed out.  The day was gorgeous and everyone was excited for this get together!  The cost was  10 rand, which is about one dollar, to enter the area.  Just as we parked, the Elders and other young people came to assist us in carrying all our load up to the picnic sight.  Several people who lived closer had already gathered.  It didn't take long to get games going.  The water in the pool area was low because of no rain for quite some time.  Several children had brought their "swimming costumes" and were anxiously hurrying to the water while the moms enjoyed visiting while they kept an eye on their children.  The children waded around, caught tad poles and splashed each other, having a great time!





Adults joined in the fun as well.  This game was one that Elder Baxter started where you start out with one tennis ball which you throw to someone, they in turn throw to someone else, and keep it going until it has gone around the circle and everyone has had a chance to catch and trow the ball.  Then you add a second ball and do the same thing, always throwing to your same partner and catching it from the same person.  The goal is to see how many tennis balls you can keep going without someone missing.



Others had fun playing paddle ball, similar to tether ball.

The wind was blowing just enough to make it difficult to keep the table clothes from blowing off.  
We discovered that if we tied a knot in each corner, they would stay on!
Notice the shoes kicked off on the grass.  Evidently some people aren't bothered by 
walking on dry stubble with bare feet!  Ouch!!

Soon it was time for lunch.  Diane, our Primary President started getting the plates ready for the food.
Notice the white plastic bowl.  It had green salad in it.  After sitting in the hot sun, the salad and dressing turned to a small pile of wilted sog.
Just before we started to serve the food, I asked the person who was assigned to bring the drink and cups if they had brought a container to mix the juice in, since  they had brought two large gallons of concentrate.  No, they hadn't thought about that, nor water to mix it with or anything to stir it with.  We ended pouring it into the water container.  I had brought extra utensils, just in case, and we were able to stir it to mix the  juice.  We used the extra bottles of water to make additional juice.

Lunch consisted of sloppy joes, potato salad, 2 green salads, chockolaka, which is a spicy veggie-bean dish, a type of relish type dip, all kinds of chips (on another table) and desserts.


It was interesting to me that people brought their food and set it down on the serving table or dessert table, without checking to see if it was uncovered ready to serve, or if it had a spoon in it.  The people who brought cakes or other desserts never brought a knife to cut it with or a spatula to serve it with,  Good thing I threw in my portable kitchen.  I think we need to have a few more Branch Activities before we finish our mission, so I can show them what to do.  :)

Members enjoyed eating...

And visiting... and face painting...

And visiting...

And more face painting...


YSA Convention - Conference



   Our YSA, Young Single Adult, Conference was scheduled for the last weekend in September.   We had three young people and two former members from our Branch who expressed a desire to attend the Conference.  Because of the distance to drive them there, we decided to go along as chaperones for the three day event.  

Thursday, we spent most of the day shopping for a variety of things to go in the Santa Christmas Boxes that the YSA were doing for a service project at the Conference.  Many of the things in the boxes were school supplies which needy children will need when they start the new school year in January.  We got enough things so we could have a box for each of our YSA from our Branch plus Lynn and me. 

We thought we would get an early start to the conference since we had a 5-6 hour drive ahead of us and still had to pick up one of our members who was riding with us.  Thursday afternoon, Lynn discovered that the two back tires kept going flat, so he left at 7 Friday morning to have them checked.  I finished packing and had everything ready to go in the trunk when he arrived.  After a couple of other stops, we were finally ready to leave.  

The camp was at the Konka Camp outside of Rustenburg.  We arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon.   We got checked into our rooms and were surprised to find that we had been assigned a very nice suite,  compared to the other rooms.  The room was very large!  It had a King bed, tub and shower, fridge, TV and our own private porch.  The door had a placard with our names on it.  We felt really special.    Our other members arrived shortly, and got checked into their rooms.  Some had 8 girls in a room and had to go down the hall to the bathrooms and showers.  There were approximately 450 YSAs at the conference.  

    Friday night , they held a "get acquainted dance" with a variety of get to know you activities,
                                as well as the dance.  The music was BLASTING loud! 
                     We had to step out every little while to see if we still had our hearing. 


                   Part of their fun was getting Sister Baxter to join in the dance moves with them.




 One member came up to me and asked if he could use our phone because he was out of minutes.  He wanted to call his wife, who is an investigator, but says church is boring.  She likes the loud music etc. at her church.  He wanted her to know that we do listen to loud music, just not at church.

Saturday was pretty much a free activity day.  You could choose what you wanted to do.  They had soccer, rugby, cricket, archery, swimming, zip line, canoeing, rock climbing wall, repelling, obstacle course, and some other high tight wire, log walking things, which made me have a sick stomach just to watch them.  The kids had a ball.  Everyone got a little sunburned.

Getting our instructions for the day from the Conference Director.

Elder Baxter trying his hand at Cricket.


Trying my hand at archery.  It's been a day or two 

Lorraine & Maggy getting going with the oars.

That takes some type of bravery, even if you are in a harness!

Another activity we didn't stand in line to do!  They are about 30 feet up!