AMAZING WHAT A NAME TAG CAN DO

ELDER and SISTER LOMBARDI   The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints.  That is all it says but what magic it performs.  Wherever we go, that name tag summons people to us.  It is like a magnetic force that pulls them to us with the desire to know what message we have to share.

The Zone Elders have been given a challenge to find 5 investigators a week.  Dennis and I decided to accept that challenge also.  Today was the end of the week and we have found 7. (Not really we – mostly Dennis.  He begins the conversation and then I come in.)  The Lord provided opportunities right and left for us to talk to, share our message and receive names and phone numbers from them.  We then proceeded to share the information with the Elders and they have called and set up appointments.  We hope to assist in some of these teaching moments.

We thought Wednesday was a total waste, but when I look back on it, the Lord’s work was accomplished.  Dennis had to take our bakki in to get it serviced.  Remember, I said in an earlier post that we were miles behind in our service, so the bakki was grounded.  Well, we really did have to continue using it and so by Wednesday there were a lot of miles over the 45,000.  But Dennis got up early and left by 6:30 a.m. to be at the dealership by 7:00 when they opened.  I decided to stay home and work on things I was behind on.  Eight hours later Dennis returns home.  It took them that long to get the bakki serviced!!  First, they did not get it in for a long time even though he was the first one there; then they took forever, then they went to lunch!  It is really a good thing that I did not go with him.  I might have been in a missionary spirit the first few hours but I am afraid after that I may have had to remove my name tag because my looks and words may not have been too Christian.  But all was not lose.  Dennis was able to get two referrals!  One was the man at the desk, Tony.  After talking to him for a long while, he told him about some of his problems financially and how he was hoping for a new job.  He asked Dennis to pray for him and told him he was looking for religion in his life.  The other was the security guard at the dealership.  His company was Italian Scorpion which was written all over his clothes.  So, of course, Dennis had to compare the Italian roots, haha.  Again, referral.  All was not lost on this day.  I spent the day writing to families of our Elders.  Again frustrating.  I have been trying to do this since about three days after we got here.  The emails I received from the elders are NOT correct.  I have been writing these letters two and three times for each elders.  Of course, I do not know how to retrieve the letters that come back, so I have to rewrite them all.  I still have a few that I cannot get to their families.  I also baked and helped elders that came over.  We, also, were waiting for a courier to come with important papers that we need for transfers.  So I waited, baked and wrote!  Dennis called the courier and he said that they would be there late because he was stuck at the border.  We waited but he never came.

Thursday was spent waiting some more.  Since we could not leave our home, the Manzini district came to us for their DDM, District Development Meeting.  We love being a part of these meetings.  The District Leaders do such a great job.  They had asked me to share a few thoughts about some attributes of Christ.  I enjoyed studying and sharing .  I then served them lunch, goodies and they left.  Finally, the courier came and then we immediately left to get this passport to Nathi, who is the young man who does all our government work for us and the elders.  He has to get the passport stamped and back to us by this weekend.  That night we went with the Elders to a home and talked with the family.  There are two members there – a granddaughter who is 16 and a son.  We talked with the grandfather mostly bearing testimony of why he is not too old to change.  He is catholic and says that he has already been baptized and cannot see a reason why he has to do it again.  His sweet granddaughter bore a very strong witness of the gospel and why she wanted him to join.  The grandmother and daughters were also there but they said very little.  I am not sure we got very far with him.  But he did consent to let the missionaries come again.  It is fun being part of this work.

We arose early Friday morning to get to the border as early as we could.  Because our bakki’s in Swaziland are bought in South Africa, they have to cross the border every 30 days.  As I mentioned earlier, we had tried to go on Monday but the line was huge.  We had only a few days left to get the bakki over.  So off we went Friday morning.  It was COLD.  Whoever told me it does not get cold here, was mistaken.  This morning was colder than nippy.  So I dressed warmly which ended up to be a mistake also.  We get to the border and everything is going well.  Out of the blue, this young man approaches us and said that he saw our name tags and that we look happy and wants to know what we have to share.  We went outside and we talked to him about the church.  He wants to know where our church is and we tell him that we have one in Mbabane, Ezulwini, Manzini, etc.  He tells us he lives in Mbabane and needs church and  Christ in his life.  He is not married and works for the tourism of Swaziland.  We tell him that our church teaches of Christ and we also have a great organization for young single adults and he would love being with them.  He asked if he was to come, would he feel warmth.  We told him definitely!  He gave us his name and number.  His name is Comfort.  You gotta love these names!!  The Elders have contacted him and have an appointment on Thursday.  He was sad that his work had scheduled him for this Sunday.  He is in our prayers.

We get over to South Africa side, drive two minutes and turn around.  So now we have to go from South Africa to Swaziland.  We walk in and approach a young lady with our passports.  She looks at us and asks where we are going.  We say Ezulwini.  She says “Ezulwini Sun” (which is a hotel) “for your honeymoon!”  We looked at her and both of us just smiled and laughed.  I said, “Yea, we have been honeymooning for 41 years.”  She grinned.  She continually grinned through the whole stamping process of the passport.  Then she looks up still smiling and says, “you just have love all over you!”  I told her that was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to us.  It made our day, week, month, year, life!

After leaving the border, we continued to a town called Mpaka, middle of the country, to visit Ady and Ryan Hall.  They are a peace corp couple living here for two years to help with English, the HIV/AIDS problem and whatever else is needed.  You know how I said that dressing warmly was a mistake?  It was hot in Mpaka and according to the Hall’s, it is always hot.  This sweet couple live like the ordinary Swazi.  They walk, live humbly with a host family, cook on a propane burner, showers outside, has an outhouse, volunteers at a refugee camp and schools, rides a kombi to Manzini every Sunday for church.  It is amazing that they would be willing to give 2 years of their life to serve in this manner.  They were highlighted in the Saints in Swaziland.  We enjoyed our visit.  What great people!

This is their shower!!  Can you imagine??

Then off to Hlane, the Royal National Park.  We decided to drive through the park instead of taking a jeep tour because of time and money.  We probably should have taken the tour because we did not see a lot of the animals we wanted.  We will do it again.  We saw hippos in the lake, a lot of rhinos – very close and personal – a few elephants, deer, wort hogs, pelicans (I think) but we could not find any giraffes!  Tell me, how could a giraffe hide?  They are tall and the trees were not that tall in this area.  We drove around and around looking for the giraffes and never saw one.  But we kept having to turn around because the rhinos were in the middle of the road.  We really did have a great time.

When we started the day today, Saturday, we needed only one referral to make our five.  We were wondering how we would do it because the morning started with m I serving pancakes for elders that kept coming by for assistance.  I would get one bunch made and cooked, and then another group would show up hungry, of course.  I made a large batch of cookies because we have transfers coming up.  We went and took some pictures that I had taken to a member who has a booth at the Ezulwini market.    We were looking for a gift for an Elder who is leaving for home on Tuesday.  The Zulu booth did not have what we wanted, so she sent us to another booth next to her.  After finding what we wanted, this sweet lady wondered if she could ask me something.  She asked why our church never comes to talk to her about our Bible and church.  Her name is Cindy (a name I can actually pronounce) and wants to learn the gospel.  We are going back on Monday with the Elders to make an appointment.  While I was talking to her, Dennis was talking to another lady in another booth.  Her name is Precious and she told him that she wants to learn of our faith and can we teach her!  Bingo!  Two referrals.  The Lord had helped us accomplish our goal.  The Elders are thrilled.  We decided to go find the silver smith store that the Blackburns showed us and to talk to them.  We enjoyed our visit there and then looked at some other shops.  Then we saw Swazi Trails sign in front of a store.  So we decided to go in to see about taking some trails for hiking.  It was more of a sight-seeing reservation place.  But we started talking to the young girl there about some things to do when people come to see us (hint, hint).  What a great visit.  Her name is Nombulelo Zwane and she is delightful.  She will be perfect with our Ezulwini Single Adult group.  We were able to share what we are doing here.  We are going back to invite her to our YSA party we are having here at our home on Friday!  They will love her if we can get her to come!  What a great afternoon and it even gets better!

We drove to the Mbabane chapel for a baptism of a young man.  He was suppose to be baptized on Sunday but could not make it.  It was simple but so nice.  As he came out of the water, he gasped with joy and also because the water in the font was cold (they have no hot water).  But then he had the opportunity to bear his testimony and expressed how clean he feels and his desire to follow his Savior.  What a way to end our day.  Dennis also was able to interview a young man, Thulani Simelane, who is leaving for his mission in May.  Couldn’t be better!

Elder Castleberry, friend, Bro. Ndumiso Gamedze, Elder Kanyembo

So, seven referrals this week. (Dennis had obtained some earlier in the week.)  All because of a name tag and the joy we feel being here serving the Lord.  I pray that we can continue to be an “example of the believers” and that we will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places..”  Our prayers are getting longer as we include all these wonderful people that have the desire for Christ in their life:  Sarah, Tony, Cindy, Precious, Nombulelo, etc.  May you remember them in your prayers, also.  Between all of us, they do not have a chance!