July Youth Event we drove girls to in Benoni

We have so enjoyed being in the Secunda Branch. President Soko is a great man with a big job. One day a month earlier, we had our ward conference and the girls were told about a youth activity for the stake in Benoni, which is over an hour from Secunda on Saturday, July 27th. It was an all day activity starting at 9AM and ending at 10 PM. My first question to woman from the stake was: How can the girls from Secunda be expected to drive all that way and then come back after 10 pm? Considering the transportation problems in Africa, and especially in this little branch, it seemed like the girls in Secunda would be left our of the activity.

This did not seem fair, so I asked President Soko what he thought about Elder Kyle and I taking the three older girls to the activity (It was 14 and up, so the younger girl could not come). I told him we would come to Secunda the day before and stay in a hotel and get up early to take the girls back towards Johannesburg. Then we would stay in our flat and get up early Sunday morning and go to the Benoni building for Church with the girls and then bring them home. President Soko seemed quite surprised that we were willing to do that. He looked at me and said, "You are willing to do this?" When I said 'yes' he said, "You love those girls too, don't you?" I thought it was such a simple thing to do, but it was obvious he thought otherwise.

The only thing I needed to do was find them a place to sleep Saturday night. After some communication with the stake leader that came to our branch, she told me that the Stake YW President said they could stay at their home and to just bring their blankets and pillows.

So, we drove up to Secunda Friday afternoon to stay in a bed and breakfast that I had found for a reasonable amount. The only problem was there was no breakfast at our bed and breakfast and no heat in the room. July is winter in Africa, so brrrrrrr. But, we got up the next morning and went to meet two of the girls (Deempho and Makhosi, at the Church about 7 am. They were there with all their bedding and some food their moms had made for the trip and they were excited to be going. We were going to meet the third girl (Thembe) at a gas station along the way, which we did and then the three girls got in the back seat and were all giggly about their sleepover and activity. Deempho and Thembe are 17 years old and Makhosi is 18. I asked a few questions and then they talked to each other. I thought to myself that would be great to just listen to them and find our a bit more about them, but they started talking in Zulu for the rest of the trip and I had no idea what they were saying.

Thembe, Deempho and Makhosi

We got to the Church and helped them register, took some photos and told them to have a good time. We made arrangements to see them at Church the next day and took their bedding to the truck of the YW president's husband.











Sunday morning we headed over to Benoni Ward for Church and the girls were all sitting in a side bench with just enough room for us. They said they had a great time and couldn't stop talking about how amazing the home of the YW President was. They said the dance was fun...there was square dancing and someone there to call out the steps (so funny to have that as an activity in Africa). The daily activities were about going on a mission and each got a mission call to another country and then learned about that country. Makhosi got her call to the US and they told her the national food was hot dogs! ha. It sounded like a good activity and they had lots of fun, even though they are shy and didn't intermingle that much. They were very thankful that we offered to take them to the activity and we felt good about doing it. I guess they had missed out on all other activities.

We talked on the way home from Secunda about the difficulty these members have getting to activities, stake conference and sometimes Church on Sunday. Most people in parts of Africa do not have cars. They rely on taking a Kombi (van) taxi where ever they go and if they have no money they do not go. We take so much for granted in the United States. It makes these humble testimonies of the gospel here in Africa all that much more precious.

We feel so fortunate for these experiences.