ELDER AND SISTER MICKELSEN: Happenings of the week 10-16 August

Monday, National Women's Day was officially celebrated, even though August 9th is the record date. So schools and businesses were closed. This commemorates the national march of women on this day in 1956 to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed an African's freedom of movement during the apartheid era. 20,000 women stood silently for 30 minutes outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria, many with their children on their backs. The women sang a protest song that was composed in honour of the occasion: Wathint'Abafazi Wathint'imbokodo! (Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock.). In the 54 years since, the phrase "you strike a woman, you strike a rock" has come to represent women's courage and strength in South Africa. Our traditional Family Home Afternoon was spent with the Johnsons, Griesemers. The Markums are in Swaziland touring with their son and daughter-in-law. Watched BYU-TV and learned more from the study of the Four Gospels which included discussions on the raising from the dead of Jairus' daughter and feeding the 5000.
Tuesday was our second mission tour on this mission and we had Elder Koelliker, First Quorum of the Seventy, as the visiting authority along with his wife. We met them when we first arrived in Johannesburg at a pre-Christmas party/family home evening and they seemed to remember us in our brief conversations together. Elder Koelliker is the new President of the Southeast Africa Area as of August 1. After our meetings, the Sessions, Mickelsens, Manns and Koellikers went to Butcher Boys for lunch and visiting. By the time we had finished, it was time for us to head over to Pinetown Chapel and give Khona his computer lesson. He is so excited to be able to learn and has tried to practice some, but since he has started work there wasn't much practice time available. Elder Koelliker presented a fireside that evening for the Young Single Adults and spent much of the time talking of the importance of temples in their lives and preparing themselves to go and then to attend as often as possible. He shared some personal experiences he had had while working for the church in the Temple Building Department. There is a hope that one day a temple might be built here in Durban, maybe on property adjoining the Pinetown Chapel. If it came to pass, it would surely be a temple on the hillside overlooking the city.
12 Aug 2009 – Received a SMS from Xolisa (deaf) wanting to meet at the Employment Center in Berea, but he never showed up. It is a worry. But we did our shopping, just not able to pay our rent because the office elders were at the other Mission Tour meeting. We were supposed to have dinner at the mission home with the Koellikers, but plans changed and it was probably for the best. Arlo was not feeling too great-maybe a relapse of his cold, which seemed to go away faster this time than usual.
Thursday, we prepared lunch, sloppy joes, chips, veggies and cake, for Elders Basooma, Rothenberger, Hansen, and Meistre. As we finished it was apparent that Sandy had made sufficient and bought enough rolls, that we could send home the leftovers with each companionship for another meal. Elder Meistre even asked if he could take the cherry tomatoes left in the bowl, so that he could have some vegetables! Sandy put the bottle of Knorr Ranch Dressing (doesn't even come close to what we normally enjoy) on the table, if anyone wanted ranch for their veggies. The two elders who are not from the United States were intrigued by this and seemed to really enjoy ranch dressing and veggies. It is nice to have them in our boarding to share a meal and some gospel messages. They are great missionaries wanting to do all they can in their missionary labors.
Friday we felt the need to get ourselves out of debt, so drove into the mission office to pay our monthly boarding/expense bill. Elder and Sister Johnson had come in to do the same thing, so we visited a few minutes with them and the Sessions, before returning to our boarding. President Mann walked into the office, looked around, and commented that couples conference wasn't until next week!
Our second PEF Orientation meeting was held Saturday morning at the KwaMashu Chapel with three young women and a father of a girl who couldn't attend. We asked the father if he would close our little meeting with prayer, but he seemed not to be comfortable with the question. Within a minute though, he asked if he could offer the prayer in Zulu. What followed was a prayer, not unstandable in words by the two missionaries, but one of intense feeling and expression felt by us all. The word for father is “baba” and we could pick that out many times in his prayer. Decided to go up to Gateway Mall, walked around and enjoyed lunch at Mugg and Bean. Arlo has come to really enjoy a traditional African dish called bobotie. It is a dish that has been known since the 17th century and is made from beef or lamb mixed with curry powder, other spices, chopped onions, and dried fruit, usually apricots or raisins. An egg mixture is poured over the top of everything and baked. It is garnished with chutney, bananas and a yellow rice is served on the side. As strange as the whole thing sounds, it is really pretty good, and the bananas are a great condiment.
Sunday was another one of our visit two wards/branches in the same morning day. Our purpose was to give PEF orientation meetings to the Umlazi W and Umlazi BB wards. These two wards are in the Umlazi township, which is the second largest in South Africa. W Ward had no one interested at this point in time, but BB had seven wanting to apply. This program is truly inspired and we are very blessed to be a part of the work.

During our recent mission tour, each zone had their picture taken with the visiting general authority. We were included in the Pietermaritzburg Zone even though we do not belong to a zone with our area PEF assignment. In the front row is President and Sister Mann on the left and Elder and Sister Koelliker in the center.

Courtesy of Elder and Sister Wilson in Swaziland is another traffic sign picture to add to our collection. This sign is warning of speed bumps.