Friday and Saturday, May 31-June 1 Ukhozi mtg and Indian neighbor children

Friday, we went to the missionary office and picked up some copies of Sunday morning General Conference. We then drove downtown to Ukhozi radio station and dropped off six CDs with a letter to all their management team, basically I told them that we are aware of their love of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and in particular the song, "Come, Come Ye Saints." I told them that the choir sang that song at the conclusion of the Sunday morning session of General Conference, so we thought they might like to hear and see it. It's kind of a sly way to get them to watch General Conference.

We then picked up a few things at the store and came back to continue our search for a concert venue. We got some call backs from our yesterday efforts and two of them said they had that day available. They are hotels, which are not ideal, but at this point we are glad to have some options. We made appointments to see them both next Tuesday. They are both located downtown close to the beach. I am praying that at least one of them is perfect! They cost less money than others, so we are praying for the best. I also found out that August 9th is Woman's Day and they celebrate that here in a big way. Most hotels are booked with events for the entire weekend. Yikes.

We also got an email from Sister Stark in the mission office telling us that we have some mail and that she would like us to do an apartment/car inspection of three pairs of missionary residences. We called the missionaries and set up appointments for Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday is filling up rapidly, as I have a doctor's appointment, we have appointments to see hotels and we are visiting one of the missionary residences that day. Everything happens at once. I've heard some pretty funny stories about inspecting missionary apartments. One apartment was inspected by Sister Shumway and she said she went in the bathroom and the shower had black mold all over it. She told the missionaries to clean it and they told her she would have to go to the store and get them some cleaning supplies. She told them it was not her responsibility...they were to buy their own cleaning supplies. She then said she would be out in the car waiting until they were finished cleaning it and there better not be any black stuff when they were done. Ha. Now I don't know what to expect. It could be very interesting.

Saturday is a beautiful, sunny day, but our landlord is coming over with a crew to replace the floor boards in the upstairs guest room. Apparently it suffers from termite damage. They arrived and started tearing things up. The first thing they did was tear out the wooden closet at one end, then take out the carpet and pad. What they found was no termites, only water damage on one end of the room. They replaced a piece on the outside wall of the room about 3 feet wide. Unfortunately for them, they had already torn out the closet on the other end of the room and it really didn't need to be torn out. They were here the entire day, so we could not leave, but I decided Elder Kyle could stay while I took a walk to the mall to purchase some ingredients for cookies, which I will take to the elders when we go to inspect their apartments. The weather is beautiful and I am so happy to get the exercise and be outdoors. It's only a few blocks and being by myself is something that hasn't happened too often since we've been here. I could actually walk around the mall and go in all stores that had groceries and see what they have. Before we were always in Elder Kyle's  "Get what we need and get out" mode. I discovered lots of treasures for future reference and enjoyed myself immensely. I still haven't found regular mustard or tomato sauce. Who would have thought those would be items we could not get here. They had one mustard labeled American mustard, but it was not yellow and it said it had sugar in it...not American at all, more like all the other mustard here...sweet. I cannot make potato salad the way we like it without regular mustard and mayo. Their mayo here is like miracle whip. Everything has sugar in it. Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

The little girl next door came over to see us. She is five and as cute as can be. She calls us Uncle and Aunty. Her brother is seven and not quite as sociable, but they are both cute. Their mother died about a year ago (which I think I mentioned on an earlier blog). The dad's hair is all gray, but the children seem to be coping well, with their grandmother living there and taking care of them. Can you imagine being eight months pregnant and having a stroke where neither mother or child survived? How hard that must have been on that family. He is the guy that took Elder Kyle out to the road to get water from the water truck when the water main broke. He watches out for us and we for him, so it will be tough when they sell their side of the duplex and move out. It's been for sale for about a month now.