ELDER AND SISTER MICKELSEN: Happenings for the week of 20-26 April

Our office work this week has been spent trying to tie up loose ends that aren't tying up very well--patience is a virtue we are trying to work on! After several months of campaigning, elections were held on April 22nd. These will be the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era – happening every five years. There was an expected 80% of the registered voters going to vote and the final count was 77%. The Pretoria High Court ruled in February this year that South African citizens living abroad should be allowed to vote in elections. We are guessing from the way it was announced, that this is something not allowed before. From the news broadcasts, we could see ariel photos of lines at least 2-3 city blocks waiting to get into the voting stations. It was decided by the election board, that if the people were in line at 9 pm (when the polls were to close), they would still be able to vote. This caused many voting stations to remain open until well after midnight. The ballot is a large tri-folded sheet of paper with pictures and the initials of 40 different parties. The person voting makes an X on one party-folds up the ballot and puts it into a cardboard box. These ballots are hand counted and will take several days to get a final count. As you turn in your ballot, the person giving out the ballots takes a black permanent marker and colors in the white on the left thumb nail and then makes a mark from the top of the nail down to the first knuckle. If the voter was a coffee drinker, he could go to one of the local fast-food places and get a free cup of coffee after showing off his left thumb! Saturday evening, the voting results were made public with the ANC's (African National Congress), with Jacob Zuma as president, being declared the winner. This was accompanied by lots of dancing and singing. Zuma is a Zulu, so native dancing was very prominent and this is fun to watch. Now Zuma is referred to in the news as the President-in-Waiting. The results were as expected as South Africa has basically a one party system since the ANC is so dominate.
Saturday afternoon, we went near downtown Durban to teach the finance class for Elders Goldsmith and Holmes, but again much to their disappointment there were no takers. These great elders had been told by some of the ward members, including the bishop that they would be there, but Saturday afternoons might not be the best time for people to remember. They were using a room adjacent to a public library, which looked very much like one that would be found in the States.
Sunday, under gloomy and rainy skies, we made a trip to Richard's Bay (a two hour drive north) and visited the eNseleni Branch. They meet in two rooms of the city library building, which shares a barbwired fenced compound with the local fire department. The missionaries bring a lace tablecloth to cover a small table on which is set a small wooden podium and a portable sound system. Sacrament Meeting brought a couple of surprises for us. The missionaries have had great success in this area and there were five confirmations to be done, all young men which are so needed to bring priesthood strength to the area. There are so few priesthood holders in the branch, that a single young man was called to be the president and he was just able to go to Johannesburg to receive his endowments. Arlo was invited to come and be part of the priesthood circle and then immediately asked to do the first confirmation! Three speakers, two who had just been confirmed, bore testimony and gave short messages on a assigned subject, but this only took ten minutes or so. The branch president has a very quiet voice and strong accent, making it difficult to understand at times, but just before the rest hymn, we could make out the words, Elder and Sister Mickelsen, and knew we were being asked to speak. There were several young people that wanted a PEF orientation, so we did this during the second hour, since the members have to vacate the building after two hours. One sweet, quiet single mother came because she wants to matric and then do further schooling. To matric is the same as graduating from a high school. If there is a good plan for school after matric, PEF will consider making a loan that enables the student to finish. It is wonderful to be a part of this great, inspired program.

eNseleni community library where the eNseleni branch meets

During the second hour of the meeting block we pulled some chairs into the foyer and held an orientation with six young adults interested in applying for a PEF loan.