January, a time for new beginnings and commitments to be better. When January arrived a funny thing happened; the Monday after New Years everyone came back to work, traffic got crazy and fun and games were over...well almost. The temple became busy again with people out of the country coming to visit in large groups. We would see them in the parking lot and in the lunch room.This is a group from Malawi by the Distribution Center that we pass every day to go to the lunchroom that they call 'the cantina.'
Sean got back from his vacation and was so busy getting caught up that we hardly saw him the entire week, but we did have a meeting with the head of the Family History Department, Wayne Van As, to talk about our government visitors coming from the Congo. We discussed some visa problems and hopes that all would be solved in time for them to come in January. Duties were assigned to everyone...hotels had to be booked, food purchased for meals, materials ready, goodies to put in their rooms, a tour set up with South Africa Archives and meetings with the Area Presidency. In the Congo, they speak French, so we also had to try and find some French speaking people to be with them while they are here. Sean can speak French, but he was not going to be there one of the days. The Area Presidency wanted him to go with them to Uganda to record their trip with Elder Bednar. They also went to Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo.
A few days later we found out that the trip had to be cancelled, because of one person who could not get her visa in time. We rescheduled for the first week in February. Sean will be there, so it will work out better for us. Elder Kyle has been working hard to reserve everything and keep track of the hosting event.
The twins had a birthday on January 5th and I had one on January 6th. It seemed weird not being with our family for the special days, but we got to talk to them and hear all about their celebrations. The twins got to celebrate at their other grandparents home on their actual birthday. The following Saturday they got to go to a trampoline place and party with their friends. My birthday somehow appeared on the Area Office Calendar, so everyone knew it was my birthday.
Sister Shupe got me a plant and card. I receive a card from my friend Jackie in Arizona and a candy bar and balloon from another sister. It was way more attention than I wanted, but nice. The Shupes had us over for dinner, my best present, as I didn't have to cook dinner. They have been very nice to us since we have been here. Sister Shupe gets assigned to do a bunch of things on the computer for Sean. It has been fun helping her learn Excel and other programs that she has never or has rarely used before. She frequently admits that office work is not one of her talents and she is way more comfortable teaching seminary or working with the youth, but she is a bright spot in the office, always smiling and outgoing. Her husband is a lawyer and working with the head lawyer to keep us out of trouble and keep everything legal. It is a little harder to do in Africa, whose rules are so different.One of those countries is Botswana, so Sean suggested we go there and set up a meeting with our PA councils, priesthood leaders and our lawyer there and get them to create a government plan. We began to plan our trip to Botswana. We decided to drive there the next week and just stay for the weekend.
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We also worked on Helping Hands 2014 and learned that an Area Director of Helping Hands would be called soon. We were in a meeting with Elder Hamilton for our Quarterly Report and he told us the man would be called soon and we should be ready to GO once he was called. With Sister Shupe's help, we began to go through 2013 materials and change dates on those things we could keep. Sean and I worked on a single sheet describing 2014 Helping Hands and with Elder Hamilton's help we came up with a focus for this year, "Hand in Hand with Local Government." We are hoping this theme will create larger and longer Helping Hands projects in Africa, involving other faiths and members of the community. I created materials with the new information and new photos. Elder Hamilton sent us a letter he wanted to send out to the Priesthood Leaders and asked for our input. We made suggestions and sent it back to him. He sent it out to all Stake and District Presidencies. Our office will be pretty busy with Helping Hands stuff, creating packets to send to the units will be huge, but we've already started on it and have it well in hand.
I am still trying to find stories for Mormon Newsroom and Facebook. The Cinquinis (now in Durban) sent me this article from a young man in the Pinetown Ward that we attended while in Durban. I posted it on Facebook. His name is Lwazi Mchunu. "Finding a book without a cover drew the curiosity of a young sixteen year old boy. As he read the introduction he knew the book would change his life. Since then a lot has happened to Lwazi Mchunu, now twenty-four years old, who will be leaving on his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Sa...ints (Mormons), January 9th, to serve in the country of Kenya. When asked how he was feeling about serving a mission he said, "I have two feelings, first I am very excited because I always wanted to go on a mission and I believe this will be the foundation for the rest of my life; and second, I am emotional that I'm able and worthy to pay my Heavenly Father for his kindness to me." To read more go to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SouthAfricaMormonNewsroom and scroll down to the story.Also in January, I got the answers to some questions I wrote and sent to our PA person in East London. A member of the church had just been put in as Executive Mayor of a Municipality and I asked him to ask her these questions. He sent back the answers and I put it into article format. Her name is Nozibele Makanda and I posted this story on Facebook and Mormon Newsroom South Africa on January 7th:
Mother of Six Appointed Executive Mayor of Lukhanji Municipality. Recently Nozibele Makanda, a mother of six and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was appointed Executive Mayor of Lukhanji Municipality located in the centre of the Eastern Cape Province, Queenstown, South Africa —
Lukhanji is composed of Queenstown, the townships of Mlungisi, Ezibeleni and Ilinge, plus surrounding rural areas of Whitlesea, Sada, Dongwe and Hewu and contains over 200,000 people. When asked if being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints affects her position as Mayor, she readily explains, “The teachings of the Church, in particular the gospel principles, have helped prepare me to first, understand the position is that of a servant and must be discharged with humility, honesty and integrity; secondly, the principle of loving those you serve has taught me to accept people and be patient with them. Everyday teachings from the church manuals and conference addresses help sustain me and provide answers to some of the challenges I face. Prayer and scripture study make it possible to have courage to face daily challenges.” To read more of this story, it is also on the Facebook page above.
On January 10th the couple from Swaziland, the Lombardi's, asked if when they picked up their daughter and her family at 10:00 at night if they could come to our flat and sleep on the floor. We have a one bedroom flat with a very small room that we use as an office, so we couldn't imagine where four grownups and four children would sleep, but we said, "Sure."
This poor family had such a struggle getting here, cancelled connecting flight, lost luggage and being stuck in Chicago two days with snow and no coats. They had no change of clothing and had to wear the same thing for days. Two of the children had to wear pajamas. We were thrilled to have them, but because of their long flight, we asked another couple across the hall from us if they could sleep some people over there, as they have a three bedroom. So the daughter and her husband and two youngest slept there. Elder and Sister Lombardi slept on our living room floor and the two oldest children 'slept' on two of our couches.
The children were adorable and not upset by the travel problems at all. They even had a one-year-old. Mom didn't look too happy though...ha. Their last name is Bytheway. Sound familiar? We woke up to children's voices and Elder Kyle whispered to me, "Sounds like Mia and Trey." It was a treat for us, even though they left first thing in the morning. I got to serve some cereal and cinnamon rolls. The 3-year-old girl asked for the granola and kept picking out the dried fruit and then didn't eat the cereal at all, but ate the dried fruit. The little boy picked the nuts out of the cinnamon rolls. It was funny. Very cute kids and so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa! We were sorry to see them go.
January 14th I got a photo of Elder Hamilton and Wayne Van As (Department Head for Family History) introducing the new booklet for family history called, "My Family." It is a cute little booklet with places to fill in about your family and encouraging ways to involve the children in doing family history. They think this will increase the work in the temple and get families excited about doing their own work. It is a brilliant little book with cute illustrations.
On January 19th we attended Church in Segunda. More people attended today, which is a relief. We would hate to see them shut down. The people who do come are very faithful. The others live far away and it is hard to get transport to come. The first speaker was Branch President Soko's 13-year-old daughter. She spoke about baptism and quoted Matthew 3:14-17 ¶
14 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
"When we are baptized all our sins are washed away. Through baptism and confirmation, we also become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We show our willingness to follow the Savior's example. He too was baptized. All who seek eternal life must follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. The gate by which we shall enter is by baptism. We then keep the covenants we made at baptism. When I was baptized I remember being nervous to step into the water, but after my baptism, I felt my heart, mind and soul were clean and that I made the right decision." {She then began to bear her testimony and was very emotional...cute girl}.
The next speaker was a returned missionary from Secunda. He talked about how at work Friday they had safety training and learned the hazards that can cause problems at work. They discussed the values of the company: safety, people, integrity, excellence and continuous improvement. These values are important because they tell the world what the company believes in and what they strive to achieve. The also provide the guidance we need to become a global company. Because we are Latter Day Saints, we have been baptized so that we can strive to be like Jesus Christ. We are responsible for our own safety. When we were placed her on earth we were given counsel that would keep us safely on the right path. Just as an employer provides employees with safety equipment, we have been provided with the scriptures as our safety equipment. The Lord also provided us with other tools that enable us to be aware of the safety hazards and avoid them. Think before you act. Pray and ask "What would Jesus Christ do" - then do as he would do. If we do so, we shift to the safe side of the Lord. When we make choices based upon what we want rather than what Jesus would want us to do we drift away from that safety net. One of my favorite songs is 'Choose the Right'. "Choose the right, there is peace in righteous doing. Choose the right, there's safety for the soul. Choose the right in all labors you're pursuing - let God and Heaven be your guide."
The last speaker was the High Council Speaker. He said: "Keep the faith; you are the pilot of this ward. The young sister that spoke of baptism reminded me of my own baptism and the importance of that day and the importance of 'Safety' as we navigate this life is so true. He then spoke from a talk give by Elder Christofferson in the November Conference issue, Moral Force in My Life. He talked about the ten commandments and the importance of keeping them. He specifically mentioned 'Honor thy father and mother...' and 'train up a child in the way he should go...' He advised parents to notice how the child is doing by the way he or she behaves when they come home. Parents usually are doing the best they can to teach righteous principles. A woman's influence in the home is 'safety'. This safety is best taught by a father and a mother. The mother is the heartbeat of the home, but if either parent is gone, something is mission for that child. If we look at our lives, we can see our mother's influence. As teenagers in my home, we did not want to go to church. It's boring we would often say. But in Joshua 24:15 "Choose ye this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Christ offers a warning to us of three things that can destroy our safety:
1. Disintegration of homemaking - raising children. We do not diminish these parts of motherhood. Children receive their moral influence from their mothers.
2. Attitude against sexual morality. Where once a woman set the standard of sexual responsibility, now women are being encouraged to be the ones to initiate immoral behavior.
3. Those who want to push women to be more manly and take the role of violence. This is evident in movies today. There are enough women who are tough. We need women who are tender, who forget vanity and are more virtuous. It is dangerous to lose the distinct qualities of a man and a woman that God gave us.
When I was growing up in a home of three boys and two girls we were taught to do chores. If we didn't do our chores, we were in trouble, so we did them. I am so grateful my mother taught me, because when I went on my mission I knew how to cook and how to look after my money properly. My companion spent all his money on food. When he ran out of money he would wake me up to tell me he was hungry. The moral force of women is essential to the future generations safety and well being."
Also late in January, Phutajitjhaba, in the Free State, had an open house for it's new building. They bought an old supermarket on a well-known street in this large township. The store was remodeled and made into a church meetinghouse complete with all the various meeting rooms. The missionaries got a lot more investigators when the remodeling started and when the building was finished.
Displays for Relief Society, Primary, Young Men/Women, etc. were used in the rooms for the open house and refreshments were served. It was a neighborhood celebration for members as well as nonmembers. It is amazing the type of excitement something like this can create. Curious people in the neighborhood now know more about the Church because of the open house. Hopefully they will get some nice photos for the walls. In the photos, the walls looks a bit stark. We started working to help the Andersons, senior couple in that area, when we were in Durban, but the Mission President, who is over this branch could not be there at that time and wanted to postpone it until he could. We turned it over to the Cinquinis, who took our place in Durban and they did a good job of helping with this open house activity and provided a story and photos to me after it was over. I put it on South Africa Newsroom and Facebook.
This was also a sad month...we found out my brother, Pete was rushed to the hospital with a brain tumor that covered 1/3 of his brain. It was an aggressive tumor, but they got it all and he will start chemo and radiation as soon as he is strong enough. It has been a very difficult time, but the Lord has blessed all of us and we are grateful my brother made it through the surgery. He is so fortunate to have sweet daughters that can look after him. My son and daughter flew down to Phoenix and helped him celebrate his birthday in the hospital. They even Skyped us so we could sing happy birthday. It is hard to be so far away, but we are grateful for modern communications that allow us to keep in close touch with each other. This is Ryan in the hospital holding my brother's granddaughter. You can see the pizza boxes in the background...quite a birthday celebration.
We took off for Botswana driving for 5-6 hours. Botswana borders South Africa to the north. We had a long wait at the border, but uneventful. We arrived at the Hotel and it was very nice. After some confusion about whether we had a room reserved or not, we went up to our room and got settled in with internet, etc. We then came down for dinner, checked to make sure that we had the room reserved for our meeting the next day and then checked out the reserved room off the main lobby. Everything was in order, so we ate dinner and then retired to our room where we did some last minute preparation for the next day's meeting, made some phone calls, checked emails and then went to bed. At 2:00 in the morning a speaker came on telling us that someone pushed the fire alert and they were checking it out. This voice was so loud and woke us from a deep sleep. The voice said to wait for further instructions, but that we might have to evacuate the hotel. This happened four times. By now I am wide awake and wondering if the place is on fire. I heard voices in the hallway, but no one came back on to tell us to evacuate. I laid there and worried for quite a while, but when nothing happened, we just went back to sleep and heard the next morning that some drunk guy on the eighth floor pulled the alarm.
Friday, we had a quick buffet breakfast and then went to get the room ready for our meeting. The hotel did a nice job of setting up the room with notepads and pens and bottles of water for everyone. Juice, fruit and croissants were on a table outside the door to the meeting. Soon the PA council started to arrive and we became acquainted with everyone.
The Church lawyer is Botswana also came and one of our guys from the Area office who used to have a lot to do with Visas was there, so came to our meeting, so there were two PA council members, our National PA Director for Botswana, Tomas from the area office and the Lawyer, last name of Mpho. Our national director, Lenoard Thebe is a great guy and very helpful in Botswana.His job title is Contracts Specialist/Procurement and Quality Coordinator - CMI for the U.S. Embassy
Elder Kyle then took them through an exercise to try and find out what is working in Botswana and what isn't, with our goal to take these items and create a future government plan that has objectives and aspirations and a plan for the future of the Church in Botswana. We then had a healthy discussion on the Church's image in Botswana. The lawyer, Sister Mpho (pronounced Poe), talked about how Botswana is getting a lot of 'fire churches', that preach hell fire and damnation and try to collect as much money as possible from the people by promising them blessings. They have no qualifications to preach and many of them are rising up. The government sees them as taking advantage of the people in Botswana and not being legitimate churches that benefit the community; therefore, they are suspicious of all churches they are not familiar with. Everyone agreed that we need to better understand their culture and we discussed this at length. Education is very important to people in Botswana and to the government. Botswana has a good economy and they promote and pay for education for most of the people. Because the missionaries are so young and interrupted their education to go on a mission, they see it as the Church is not for education. The government sees the missionaries as children. In their country you are not perceived as an adult or a person that knows anything about preaching to someone else about religion at age 18. Language is also a big problem. Our missionaries are not being taught the predominant language in Botswana. There are many other cultural issues, but that is a major one. This is just one of the cultural differences and there are many more. There a many other issues and many positives too. We have completed many humanitarian projects in Botswana and the Minister of Health likes us. Our primary program is very much liked and some non-members let their children go to primary because they like what they learn there. Those who actually listen to the Gospel we preach love the concepts we believe in. We discussed everything and decided to take this discussion and think about what we could choose as objectives for the next year that will solve some of them. We wanted to get the plan further along, but everyone had to leave after lunch.
Saturday night we met with the Stake President and his wife and Brother Thebe and his wife. We had a nice dinner and even nicer conversation. The wives were also involved. We just sat back and enjoyed the conversation they were having among themselves. The President talked about the point system on the Visas and how they have to score 60 to get a visa. He said 40 points were for religious training and our missionaries don't have anything to show that they received religious training (like a theology certificate). We talked about how the YSA are not marrying each other and each blames the other for the lack of relationships. One Sunday School class at the Young Single Adults Ward had 90 people in it! The girls say the guys don't ask them out and the guys say the girls refuse to go out with them. It was a very funny conversation. The Stake President is very amusing when he tells a story and their wives are pretty funny too. All of them are so bright and care so much about their country and their people. We made some good friends and would love to see them again.
Sunday, we went to church at the Gabarone West Ward. We walked in and saw something we haven't seen since being in Africa, SISTER MISSIONARIES! One seemed Hispanic and was from California. The other was from Hawaii. There were plenty of male missionaries too. It is always fun to see them and shake their hands. We feel like kindred spirits and they always seem so glad to see us.
We sat down and I took some photos. Most children like to have their photo taken and see it when I've taken it. Age doesn't factor in, all like to see their own picture. This little girl was full of smiles. Her brother however purposely did not look at the camera.
After sacrament, the first speaker was the lawyer from yesterday's meeting! She was a dynamic speaker.
She said she was just put into the Young Women's Presidency and she didn't know much about the program because she joined the church later and was not in the YW program. But, she said she still qualifies because she was a youth once and she is still a youth at heart. She said her talk was about choices based upon a talk by President Monson. "I've been thinking about choices - We all have the tools. Some choices will make all the difference in the eternities. I hope we don't find ourselves as indecisive as Alice in Wonderland who asked the Cheshire cat which path she should follow and the cat answered, "If you don't know where you are going, then it doesn't matter." Unlike Alice, we do know where we are going and the choice does matter. In the pre-existance, all that Lucifer saw was a bunch of people who will fail on earth. He wanted to bid them into correctness, but we knew we would sin and stumble, so Jesus Christ offered a way for us to repent and be forgiven of our sins. Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we still have the right of choice. We must choose responsibility - no middle ground. Either we are of God or we are not. Lucifer knows this and he preys upon our right to choose. The Strength of Youth program is our Liahona and it applies to adults as well as the youth. It helps us with agency and accountability, with dating, dress and appearance. No matter the age, this education is relevant for all of us. It discusses entertainment and media. A man in his eighties was entertaining his teenage granddaughter who asked him why he didn't watch one of her favorite programs on television. He answered that he was not old enough to watch it. All ages have the opportunity to choose friends who will lift them up and not drag them down. We can be grateful, no matter the age. Honesty and Integrity is for all ages. Watching your language, being a good example, reading and listening to good books and good music are for all ages. Keeping the Sabbath day holy and paying a full tithe applies to us all. The main thing we learn in this life is that our choices have consequences and we cannot choose the consequence. Some consequences are temporal and some have eternal consequences, but there are always consequences for wrong choices.
Youth often complain about their parents always trying to keep track of them and tell them what they can and can't do. You are in the driver's seat. Suppose one evening you are attending a church social. Friends want to take you in to a party. You ask your father if he can park your brand new car that you worked summers doing very difficult work to purchase. He agrees, but when you return and ask your father where he parked the car, he tells you that he loaned it to someone, that a boy came by and asked if he could borrow it. You don't really know the boy and it is obvious that your father doesn't know him well either. When you ask when he is bringing it back, your dad says he doesn't know. You cannot believe your dad did not take care of your most prized possession. To your parents, you are their most prized possession; therefore they will not want to loan you out to someone they don't know very well. They will want to know when your date is bringing you back and they especially want you to come back without damage.
If we use the Strength of Youth booklet and follow what it says, we will make the right choices and be on our way to eternal life.
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We returned to Johannesburg on Sunday after church and prepared to have a busy week...upcoming Congo visit, Helping Hands preparation, The national public affairs directors conference, problems with Zimbabwe and Botswana as well as Namibia, Elder Bednar visiting Africa again with Elder Clayton, Sister Stevens and Sister Marriott from the General Primary and Young Women's boards, Law and Religion Symposium in Cape Town, hosting Ukhozi Radio and Durban Premiere to Salt Lake City, events in Rwanda and Burundi, DRC temple and Durban temple progress, finding airplane tickets and hotel accommodation for all national PA directors and couples for the conference in March, get helping hands materials updated and printed. Make sure all of them get out to the units. Work with new Southeast Area Helping Hands Director - Robin Padoa, support couples in other countries with reimbursements, credit cards and materials.
And in addition meetings on visas, humanitarian, Family History, PA council, PA quarterly reports to area presidency, department reports to with Elder Hamilton, meetings with people from our apartment building, social events, Senior family home evenings, parties, etc.
In the Area Office every Monday at 9 am, we have some good devotionals with a song, prayer and speaker. On the 27th, Gregory Kingsley talked about how in December 2000, a week before his nineteenth birthday, he sang with a group of youth in a Stake Christmastime Cantata. He had not yet made up his mind to serve a full-time mission for the Church. His “mighty change of heart” came when he sang the words to the song, ‘I Heard Him Come.’
On January 10th the couple from Swaziland, the Lombardi's, asked if when they picked up their daughter and her family at 10:00 at night if they could come to our flat and sleep on the floor. We have a one bedroom flat with a very small room that we use as an office, so we couldn't imagine where four grownups and four children would sleep, but we said, "Sure."  |
| Elder Lombardi with granddaughter |
This poor family had such a struggle getting here, cancelled connecting flight, lost luggage and being stuck in Chicago two days with snow and no coats. They had no change of clothing and had to wear the same thing for days. Two of the children had to wear pajamas. We were thrilled to have them, but because of their long flight, we asked another couple across the hall from us if they could sleep some people over there, as they have a three bedroom. So the daughter and her husband and two youngest slept there. Elder and Sister Lombardi slept on our living room floor and the two oldest children 'slept' on two of our couches.
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| Sister Lombardi entering the gate to our flat |
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| Elder Hamilton and Wayne Van As |
January 14th I got a photo of Elder Hamilton and Wayne Van As (Department Head for Family History) introducing the new booklet for family history called, "My Family." It is a cute little booklet with places to fill in about your family and encouraging ways to involve the children in doing family history. They think this will increase the work in the temple and get families excited about doing their own work. It is a brilliant little book with cute illustrations.
On January 19th we attended Church in Segunda. More people attended today, which is a relief. We would hate to see them shut down. The people who do come are very faithful. The others live far away and it is hard to get transport to come. The first speaker was Branch President Soko's 13-year-old daughter. She spoke about baptism and quoted Matthew 3:14-17 ¶
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| Bishop Soko's daughter |
"When we are baptized all our sins are washed away. Through baptism and confirmation, we also become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We show our willingness to follow the Savior's example. He too was baptized. All who seek eternal life must follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. The gate by which we shall enter is by baptism. We then keep the covenants we made at baptism. When I was baptized I remember being nervous to step into the water, but after my baptism, I felt my heart, mind and soul were clean and that I made the right decision." {She then began to bear her testimony and was very emotional...cute girl}.
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| Secunda Missionary |
The last speaker was the High Council Speaker. He said: "Keep the faith; you are the pilot of this ward. The young sister that spoke of baptism reminded me of my own baptism and the importance of that day and the importance of 'Safety' as we navigate this life is so true. He then spoke from a talk give by Elder Christofferson in the November Conference issue, Moral Force in My Life. He talked about the ten commandments and the importance of keeping them. He specifically mentioned 'Honor thy father and mother...' and 'train up a child in the way he should go...' He advised parents to notice how the child is doing by the way he or she behaves when they come home. Parents usually are doing the best they can to teach righteous principles. A woman's influence in the home is 'safety'. This safety is best taught by a father and a mother. The mother is the heartbeat of the home, but if either parent is gone, something is mission for that child. If we look at our lives, we can see our mother's influence. As teenagers in my home, we did not want to go to church. It's boring we would often say. But in Joshua 24:15 "Choose ye this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Christ offers a warning to us of three things that can destroy our safety:
1. Disintegration of homemaking - raising children. We do not diminish these parts of motherhood. Children receive their moral influence from their mothers.
2. Attitude against sexual morality. Where once a woman set the standard of sexual responsibility, now women are being encouraged to be the ones to initiate immoral behavior.
3. Those who want to push women to be more manly and take the role of violence. This is evident in movies today. There are enough women who are tough. We need women who are tender, who forget vanity and are more virtuous. It is dangerous to lose the distinct qualities of a man and a woman that God gave us.
When I was growing up in a home of three boys and two girls we were taught to do chores. If we didn't do our chores, we were in trouble, so we did them. I am so grateful my mother taught me, because when I went on my mission I knew how to cook and how to look after my money properly. My companion spent all his money on food. When he ran out of money he would wake me up to tell me he was hungry. The moral force of women is essential to the future generations safety and well being."
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| Phutajitjhaba ward members |
Displays for Relief Society, Primary, Young Men/Women, etc. were used in the rooms for the open house and refreshments were served. It was a neighborhood celebration for members as well as nonmembers. It is amazing the type of excitement something like this can create. Curious people in the neighborhood now know more about the Church because of the open house. Hopefully they will get some nice photos for the walls. In the photos, the walls looks a bit stark. We started working to help the Andersons, senior couple in that area, when we were in Durban, but the Mission President, who is over this branch could not be there at that time and wanted to postpone it until he could. We turned it over to the Cinquinis, who took our place in Durban and they did a good job of helping with this open house activity and provided a story and photos to me after it was over. I put it on South Africa Newsroom and Facebook..jpeg) |
| My son, Ryan at hospital with Pete's granddaughter |
This was also a sad month...we found out my brother, Pete was rushed to the hospital with a brain tumor that covered 1/3 of his brain. It was an aggressive tumor, but they got it all and he will start chemo and radiation as soon as he is strong enough. It has been a very difficult time, but the Lord has blessed all of us and we are grateful my brother made it through the surgery. He is so fortunate to have sweet daughters that can look after him. My son and daughter flew down to Phoenix and helped him celebrate his birthday in the hospital. They even Skyped us so we could sing happy birthday. It is hard to be so far away, but we are grateful for modern communications that allow us to keep in close touch with each other. This is Ryan in the hospital holding my brother's granddaughter. You can see the pizza boxes in the background...quite a birthday celebration.
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| Our hotel in Gabarone, Botswana |
We took off for Botswana driving for 5-6 hours. Botswana borders South Africa to the north. We had a long wait at the border, but uneventful. We arrived at the Hotel and it was very nice. After some confusion about whether we had a room reserved or not, we went up to our room and got settled in with internet, etc. We then came down for dinner, checked to make sure that we had the room reserved for our meeting the next day and then checked out the reserved room off the main lobby. Everything was in order, so we ate dinner and then retired to our room where we did some last minute preparation for the next day's meeting, made some phone calls, checked emails and then went to bed. At 2:00 in the morning a speaker came on telling us that someone pushed the fire alert and they were checking it out. This voice was so loud and woke us from a deep sleep. The voice said to wait for further instructions, but that we might have to evacuate the hotel. This happened four times. By now I am wide awake and wondering if the place is on fire. I heard voices in the hallway, but no one came back on to tell us to evacuate. I laid there and worried for quite a while, but when nothing happened, we just went back to sleep and heard the next morning that some drunk guy on the eighth floor pulled the alarm.
Friday, we had a quick buffet breakfast and then went to get the room ready for our meeting. The hotel did a nice job of setting up the room with notepads and pens and bottles of water for everyone. Juice, fruit and croissants were on a table outside the door to the meeting. Soon the PA council started to arrive and we became acquainted with everyone.  |
| Elder Kyle with Brother Thebe |
The Church lawyer is Botswana also came and one of our guys from the Area office who used to have a lot to do with Visas was there, so came to our meeting, so there were two PA council members, our National PA Director for Botswana, Tomas from the area office and the Lawyer, last name of Mpho. Our national director, Lenoard Thebe is a great guy and very helpful in Botswana.His job title is Contracts Specialist/Procurement and Quality Coordinator - CMI for the U.S. Embassy
Saturday night we met with the Stake President and his wife and Brother Thebe and his wife. We had a nice dinner and even nicer conversation. The wives were also involved. We just sat back and enjoyed the conversation they were having among themselves. The President talked about the point system on the Visas and how they have to score 60 to get a visa. He said 40 points were for religious training and our missionaries don't have anything to show that they received religious training (like a theology certificate). We talked about how the YSA are not marrying each other and each blames the other for the lack of relationships. One Sunday School class at the Young Single Adults Ward had 90 people in it! The girls say the guys don't ask them out and the guys say the girls refuse to go out with them. It was a very funny conversation. The Stake President is very amusing when he tells a story and their wives are pretty funny too. All of them are so bright and care so much about their country and their people. We made some good friends and would love to see them again.
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| Gabarone West Ward missionaries |
Sunday, we went to church at the Gabarone West Ward. We walked in and saw something we haven't seen since being in Africa, SISTER MISSIONARIES! One seemed Hispanic and was from California. The other was from Hawaii. There were plenty of male missionaries too. It is always fun to see them and shake their hands. We feel like kindred spirits and they always seem so glad to see us.
We sat down and I took some photos. Most children like to have their photo taken and see it when I've taken it. Age doesn't factor in, all like to see their own picture. This little girl was full of smiles. Her brother however purposely did not look at the camera.After sacrament, the first speaker was the lawyer from yesterday's meeting! She was a dynamic speaker.
She said she was just put into the Young Women's Presidency and she didn't know much about the program because she joined the church later and was not in the YW program. But, she said she still qualifies because she was a youth once and she is still a youth at heart. She said her talk was about choices based upon a talk by President Monson. "I've been thinking about choices - We all have the tools. Some choices will make all the difference in the eternities. I hope we don't find ourselves as indecisive as Alice in Wonderland who asked the Cheshire cat which path she should follow and the cat answered, "If you don't know where you are going, then it doesn't matter." Unlike Alice, we do know where we are going and the choice does matter. In the pre-existance, all that Lucifer saw was a bunch of people who will fail on earth. He wanted to bid them into correctness, but we knew we would sin and stumble, so Jesus Christ offered a way for us to repent and be forgiven of our sins. Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we still have the right of choice. We must choose responsibility - no middle ground. Either we are of God or we are not. Lucifer knows this and he preys upon our right to choose. The Strength of Youth program is our Liahona and it applies to adults as well as the youth. It helps us with agency and accountability, with dating, dress and appearance. No matter the age, this education is relevant for all of us. It discusses entertainment and media. A man in his eighties was entertaining his teenage granddaughter who asked him why he didn't watch one of her favorite programs on television. He answered that he was not old enough to watch it. All ages have the opportunity to choose friends who will lift them up and not drag them down. We can be grateful, no matter the age. Honesty and Integrity is for all ages. Watching your language, being a good example, reading and listening to good books and good music are for all ages. Keeping the Sabbath day holy and paying a full tithe applies to us all. The main thing we learn in this life is that our choices have consequences and we cannot choose the consequence. Some consequences are temporal and some have eternal consequences, but there are always consequences for wrong choices.
Youth often complain about their parents always trying to keep track of them and tell them what they can and can't do. You are in the driver's seat. Suppose one evening you are attending a church social. Friends want to take you in to a party. You ask your father if he can park your brand new car that you worked summers doing very difficult work to purchase. He agrees, but when you return and ask your father where he parked the car, he tells you that he loaned it to someone, that a boy came by and asked if he could borrow it. You don't really know the boy and it is obvious that your father doesn't know him well either. When you ask when he is bringing it back, your dad says he doesn't know. You cannot believe your dad did not take care of your most prized possession. To your parents, you are their most prized possession; therefore they will not want to loan you out to someone they don't know very well. They will want to know when your date is bringing you back and they especially want you to come back without damage.
If we use the Strength of Youth booklet and follow what it says, we will make the right choices and be on our way to eternal life.
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We returned to Johannesburg on Sunday after church and prepared to have a busy week...upcoming Congo visit, Helping Hands preparation, The national public affairs directors conference, problems with Zimbabwe and Botswana as well as Namibia, Elder Bednar visiting Africa again with Elder Clayton, Sister Stevens and Sister Marriott from the General Primary and Young Women's boards, Law and Religion Symposium in Cape Town, hosting Ukhozi Radio and Durban Premiere to Salt Lake City, events in Rwanda and Burundi, DRC temple and Durban temple progress, finding airplane tickets and hotel accommodation for all national PA directors and couples for the conference in March, get helping hands materials updated and printed. Make sure all of them get out to the units. Work with new Southeast Area Helping Hands Director - Robin Padoa, support couples in other countries with reimbursements, credit cards and materials.
And in addition meetings on visas, humanitarian, Family History, PA council, PA quarterly reports to area presidency, department reports to with Elder Hamilton, meetings with people from our apartment building, social events, Senior family home evenings, parties, etc.
In the Area Office every Monday at 9 am, we have some good devotionals with a song, prayer and speaker. On the 27th, Gregory Kingsley talked about how in December 2000, a week before his nineteenth birthday, he sang with a group of youth in a Stake Christmastime Cantata. He had not yet made up his mind to serve a full-time mission for the Church. His “mighty change of heart” came when he sang the words to the song, ‘I Heard Him Come.’
He looked on me—He must have felt my gaze. He came t’ward me—through the crowded maze, and I a leper, in shame hid my head ‘til someone said, ‘Jesus is his name!’ He looked on me, as he had once before, saying, ‘Teach my word to all for evermore.’ Shortly thereafter, Brother Kingsley turned in his mission papers and was called to the England Leeds Mission. It was a great story, so I put it on Facebook with Sister Shupe's help in getting some photos and urging him to give us a copy of his talk. We meet some great people here at the Area Office and love hearing their stories.I do not claim that this is all...I am sure I am missing loads of stuff, but my hands are tired, my eyes are crossed and my brain is fried. I hope that means I can stop for now. Enjoy and let us hear from you.
