CELEBRATING 30 YEARS 14 - 27 September 2015

“Almighty and Eternal Father in Heaven whom we love and worship, on this day of dedication we come unto Thee in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ.  We are assembled in this holy house which we present unto Thee….Beloved Father, our hearts are filled with gratitude on this historic day in the chronicles of Thy work in this nation.  We are mindful of the first missionaries who arrived at Cape Town in 1953, and of all who have labored here in the many years that have followed.  We thank Thee for their faith and devotion, and for their trust in Thee in their labors.  We thank Thee for all who have accepted their testimony of Thee and of Thy Son…..Thou great Elohim, it is Thy house and the house of Thy Son, our Divine Redeemer.  Wilt Thou sanctify it and make it holy unto all who shall enter.  Wilt Thou ratify in the heavens those sacred ordinances which will here be performed in behalf of the living and the great hosts of the dead.  Wilt Thou whisper peace to Thy people by the power of Thy Spirit when they come here with burdened hearts to seek direction in their perplexities.  Wilt Thou comfort and sustain them when they come in times of sorrow.  Wilt Thou give them courage, direction and faith, when they gather, as to a refuge, from the turmoil of the world.  Wilt Thou reassure them of Thy reality and divinity, and of the reality and divinity of Thy resurrected Son.  Wilt Thou endow them with love in their hearts for their ancestors who have gone before and with a great desire to labor in behalf of these their forebears…….We pray for peace in this troubled land.  Bless this nation which has befriended Thy servants….We look to Thee for strength and guidance.  Hear our pleas. Forgive our sins and smile with favor upon us.  Direct our lives for the accomplishment of great good.  Accept our thanks and answer the petitions of our hearts we humbly ask, acknowledging that Thou art the giver of every good gift and that every power is Thine…..” (excerpts of the dedicatory prayer)

On 24 August, 1985, this beautiful Johannesburg, South Africa Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley (at the time he was a counselor).  On 16 September, 2015 we celebrated this momentous occasion for South Africa by inviting dignitaries to the temple to introduce them to the importance of our temples.  Dennis and I enjoyed being part of this celebration.  Sunday, 20 September, there were firesides throughout South Africa with a special video produced by the Area Presidency.  This week, 21 – 26, everyone was invited to attend the temple and they followed the admonition and came in droves.  What a pleasure to be here in Johannesburg at this time.

Tuesday, 16 September, we made final preparations with the committee for the celebration.  They have been a wonderful group to work with.  Later that day, we had the “going home” elders and the senior couple, Elder and Sister Winward, from the Joburg mission in the center to share the part they played in South Africa church history.  It was also Cecil Wood’s birthday, so of course we had a cake for him. (Shame, no picture) His son leaves for his mission tomorrow. 

Our departing Joburg elders, Pres. and Sister Dunn and Elder and Sister Winward.

Wednesday, 16 September we were out of our flat early.  We went to the Gatehouse on the temple grounds to decorate.  The Gatehouse was part of the original structure before the land was purchased by the church for a temple.  They requested that the building remain on the grounds.  It is now the place where the children wait for their parents who will be sealed.  This is where our open house was to take place.  Our guests entered from the underground parking lot, up the stairs to the Gatehouse where they were greeted by us and a display of the temple during the different stages of building, then to have their picture taken with the temple in the background, greeted by the temple president in the foyer of the temple and then driven down to where the luncheon was to be held.  It was one of the highlights of our mission.  It was such a spiritual few hours to participate in this event and to be able to share testimony of the importance of the temple and to do it with the temple in the background…..the joy was overwhelming.  The committee that planned the luncheon did a fabulous job.  It was a grand day!

Decorating the Gatehouse

The construction pictures of the temple

The committee for the Gatehouse open house

Entrance from the parking garage

Bottom of the stairs before you enter the Gatehouse

Gatehouse – sure looked different than when I babysit here!

This is where the personal pictures were taken

The beautiful grounds

The Gatehouse from the outside

Elder Chatora – Temple Recorder

Dennis explaining the purpose of the temple

Khumbanlani Mdletshe and his wife, Futhi

Some of our guests

The grounds of the White House – where the Area Presidency live

16 Joburg Elders were our waiters

President Carl Cook and Sean Donnelly before the devotional

The appetizers

Sister and Elder Hamilton – counselor in the Area Presidency

Liz Burger and Debbie Piennar – dear sisters that work in the area office

Tina and Brian Jackson

Lunch ready to serve

The dessert

This cute young man shuttled all the guests from the temple to the White House gardens

A good day

Thursday, 17 September.  My mother would have been 95 today!  Happy birthday to the most amazing woman whom I have the privilege to call my mother.  There is not a day in the last 22 years that I have not thought of this grand lady.  I pray that as she looks down upon me, she is proud.  Love you Mother.

We did an oral history today with Elder Robert Egan.  They were installing a water filter in our flat so we did the interview there.  Elder Egan was a former Cape Town Mission President.  It was a very spiritual 2 hours – and we didn’t finish.  We are going to complete it later.  He had some amazing experiences to share.  So glad that we were able to be part of his memories.  Later in the afternoon we picked up Elder Mokoena.  It was his birthday a few days ago, so we took him to dinner.  Then we drove to Atteridgeville to see Flora Kolwane and took her a chocolate cake that we promised since we missed her birthday party.  She wasn’t as vibrant as she was the day we interviewed her.  We really think Heavenly Father gave her extra strength to do the oral history with us.  I see the Lord’s hand in so many things that surround us.  I am so much grateful for His loving care in this work that we are doing.  Grace, her daughter, was suppose to meet us there but when we called her, she was in the hospital.  We later found out that her appendix had ruptured and they had to remove it.  She was in the hospital for 4 days.

Elder Robert Egan

Thabang Mokoena – his birthday

Mokoena and Dube

Our birthday lady, Flora, in Attridgeville – 93 years young

Friday, 18 September.  The temple patron housing was full of members coming to the temple.  Rodney, from Zim, had written us and told us his brother and wife from Kenya were coming to be sealed.  It didn’t take us long to spot them – Stanley was definitely a brother to Rodney and his wife was delightful.  We also had families that I took pictures of.  I love working in this area to be part of these members experiences as they come to the temple.  How I love the temple!  We worked at the center.  Then home and took a walk in our neighborhood.  The weather is perfect – a gorgeous spring day.  I wish I could capture for you the smells of Joburg at this time and send them through the blog.  I have no knowledge of flowers but whatever is blooming has a magnificent fragrance.  I didn’t want to go inside.  We sat and enjoyed the surroundings around us and again thanked our Father in Heaven for all His blessings.  As we were walking home, we saw some ladies that we notice every day on our way to work on the street selling their wares.  We stopped and talked with them.  We found out that they are from Swaziland.  One lady has 5 children.  Her husband died in 2008 and she leaves her family to come here to try and make some money..”so I can feed my children”. She says that she stays for 30 days, goes home for a week and then back for 30 days.  Their sacrifice for existence never ceases to amaze me.  How I love these people and what they teach me about finding happiness in the midst of trials.

Judy and Stanley Chikenge from Kenya but moving to Zimbabwe

Family from Kenya

How they love our suckers…..

Mandalay Ward Bishop from Cape Town and his cute family

   

Sister-in-laws from Swaziland…..

Their wares….

Saturday, 19 September was a full day.  I woke early to cook for our party in the evening.  But before that we attended the temple sealing for Bernard Mabena, one of our elders we served with in Swaziland, and his new bride Gracious from Durban.  Bernard baptized her little sister while he was in Durban.  After his mission, they started communicating.  It was a very tender ceremony with lots of tears shed.  There were only a few in attendance.  When these young people decide to marry in the temple, most of their families cannot be present.  That is a great sacrifice for them and for their families.  I honor them.  We went to the center to get a few phone calls in in preparation for our Zim trip.  Then off to look for some chairs for our company tonight.  I haven’t been able to sleep the last few nights worrying about how we are going to sit 30 people.  Again, the Lord blessed us.  We found plastic chairs on sale at Makro.  We bought 8 – all that would fit in our car.  At 5:00 our guests arrived – all of them.  It must have looked like a pilgrimage with 30 people coming from Dukes Court.  We had a great time.  Dennis introduced them to his Kub game which they loved.  We braaied chicken and they brought all kinds of salads, dips and desserts.  So yummy. The weather held out for us.  I was worried because after our beautiful spring weather the day before, Saturday started overcast with rain.  But again, blessed with a beautiful day. We used our patio for the first time….our place accommodated everyone.

Waiting to go into the temple.  Most of the wedding party had to continue to wait outside.

Two former missionary Durbanites!

Elder Masaya, Kuwanatsoka were also there but could not stay.

Mabena and his mother

His father, who Elder Zweli Dlamini baptized, Bernard, his bride, Gracious, and his mother

 

Our senior couple and ex-pat party – had such a great time

Susan Peterson, Marva Peterson, Suzanne Turnbow, Sharon Berg

Paul and Ginny Graf – they just arrived less than 24 hours ago.  Lookin’ pretty good for no sleep!

Enjoying watching the game…

Our cooks……..Liz Walton and Brian Jackson

Martha Egan, Lane Davis, Richard and Suzanne Turnbow

Look at my atmospheric light on the patio in the background….love it!  This home was made for us!

Elder Weeks blessing my life or should I say, Dennis’

Roberta & John Clayton – they leave us in just a few weeks

How I am enjoying all these couples here.  This definitely is the blessing of serving in the area office.  We had all but two couples that joined us.  It was a good evening!

Sunday, 20 September was a day of mishaps.  We wanted to attend the Kwa Thema ward, but their clerk wasn’t going to be there.  So we decided to go to the Joburg Ward.  We were there at 8:50 but discovered that they started at 8:00.  So left to do something and came back at 10:00 for the Joburg 2 Ward.  Home to eat just in time to leave to go to Soweto to pick up Patricia and her family so we could attend the special temple fireside with them.  It went longer than we anticipated and while we were taking them home we found ourselves in a terrible traffic jam.  I was so proud of Dennis…he went over a curb onto another street and found an alternative route in Soweto!!!  We finally got them home safely and then back to the area office for our couple fireside with Elder Ellis at 7:00……we were just a few minutes late.   He talked to us about the calling of a new apostle and then some rules of serving here in the area office.  Up late blogging and talking on the phone to friends and family.  I have such energy at night.  I feel like a new born baby who wants to sleep all day and then ready to go at night.

This chapel has so much history.  This is the chapel that was found by the Moses and Franc Legwati group from Soweto when they were looking for the church that had the “Blue Book”.  This is where they attended while they were waiting to be baptized.  Also, where Bobbi Swanepoel attended when she was asked to go to Soweto to help them establish the gospel there.  Can’t believe that we are in the middle of all this church history in South Africa. 

Sister and Elder Ellis in the left corner…

Special Temple Fireside held in Soweto

The week between 21 – 27 September was designated as “come to the temple” for all the members in South Africa and many heeded the call and came.   Thursday was a holiday, Heritage Day, and usually the temple would be closed but due to this special week it was opened in the morning and they performed almost 1000 ordinances.  Dennis arrived in the center at 8:00 and he could not find a parking spot.  In fact, they were parked down the street.   A day that they have off work and they come to the temple. So proud to be here with members that love their temple.

Here in the Area Office we celebrated Heritage day on Wednesday, 23 September.  Dennis and I were invited to join a group that learned an African song and dance to perform to the employees and couples during lunch on Wednesday.  It was so fun to be a part of something so African.  I wore my Swazi skirt and we bought a shirt for Dennis.  After the activities, a group started the South African anthem and they all joined in.  Beautiful.

The Heritage Day Dancers

Each of the ladies talked about their traditional clothing

Singing the South African Anthem

Elder Ntombela came to see us

Grace came to the temple…..she is feeling much better

Monday, 20 September we came home to no electricity.  That sure changes your plans quickly.  We ate sandwiches and then went to FHE at the Beckstrands – who had electricity.  It didn’t come on until we were going to bed.  Tuesday, Iris Nield from Zimbabwe came to the temple with her daughter, Sharon, Tom her son-in-law and Shelby, her granddaughter.  Shelby is leaving for the Paris, France  mission the following Tuesday and they came for her to receive her endowments.  They invited us to join them.  We were chosen as witness couple which made the occasion even more special.

Shelby and Sharon Spencer (I didn’t get one with Iris)

Shelby, Tom and Sharon

Lunch in the canteen – our numbers have grown

Elder and Sister Barton are leaving for home a few weeks early.  We all got together to say good-bye.

Some thoughts – In Swaziland I made brownies every morning.  This mission in Joburg I make chocolate birthday cakes 3 or 4 times a week.  Also, thought you might find it interesting that Campbells Cream of Chicken soup here is $3.00.  The no name cream of chicken soup is around $2.20.  As much as I used it at home, I have slowed down the use of it here.  We added a few new additions to our home…..

Basket is from Swaziland and the African dolls from Art Africa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Katie, 22 September.  I will forever be grateful that Katie joined our family a year ago.  I couldn’t have hand-picked a finer young lady for my son.  Hope your day is full of happiness.

Thursday, Dennis showed up at the center at 8:00 because we thought we were going to work with Matt Heiss and Leon Holmes.  The electrician was coming to check on our oven so I stayed behind.  But they never showed up.  Apparently, since it was a holiday, they had other plans and it didn’t get to us.  So Dennis came home and we went to the Military Museum.  It was pretty amazing.

This bird of paradise flower is all over Joburg right now.

Thabang Mokoena has been chosen as a volunteer here

Friday, 25 September we worked at the center.  Most of the couples didn’t come in today.  They took a long weekend.  But the temple was full of patrons.  We invited some couples over for dinner and games that evening. Another great evening with these amazing couples we serve with.

Lane and Eileen Davis, Ginny and Paul Graf, Margaret and Karl Blake – another new couple in the area office, and Dennis

HAPPY ONE-YEAR-OLD BIRTHDAY JONAH.  This cute little bundle of joy stole our hearts from the moment he was born.  Can’t believe he is ONE!  How I miss these little ones.

Saturday, 26 September we got up early and met the Davis’ and Graf’s for breakfast at Olive and Plates Restaurant.  It is a culinary school at Wits University.  They fix great food at a responsible price and their presentation is so creative. I had been there once and wanted Dennis to experience it and to know where it was.  We went shopping, home for the owner of the flat to come with a new oven, went for a ride, for a walk, visited with the Peterson’s and home for dinner.  It was a relaxing day.

Breakfast at Olive and Plates

Dennis’ omelet and my french toast

Old……

The owner of our flat, Joseph Rasiuhetshele, and the electrician

……NEW!  Now we’ll see if my brownies cook.

That group of buildings in the middle are apartment complexes where we live.

Sunday, 27 September we attended our Kagiso 2 Ward.  Love these people.  Then home and went to a Jewish International Faith ceremony at a Jewish Synagogue.  It was really interesting and enjoyable to be part of such a ceremony.

Looks like a true rabbi

The man in the African shirt, is the rabbi of the group.  The others are leaders of other faiths.

“….May the presence of Thy house on the soil of this land bring blessings to the entire nation.  May guardian angels stand watch over this holy house we humbly ask Thee.  May it be preserved from destruction or defilement.  May it be a place of holiness, a haven of peace, a sanctuary from the storms of life.  Prosper Thy faithful people as they contribute their tithes and offerings to the storehouse of the Lord. May they and the generations who follow them be preserved in peace and security by Thine encircling arms, for so long as they worship Thee in spirit and in truth.  Shield them against the forces of evil which otherwise would overtake them….We so pray in the name of our Redeemer, Thy Beloved Son, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Jerome and Thoko Shongwe and children, Mphilisi, age 7, Manqoba age 2 and Machawe age 1,  sealed in the Johannesburg Temple on Saturday 28 October 1989.