HAPPY 2016 EVERYONE!

Dearest Friends and Loved Ones:

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to the best 2016 has to offer.  Wow, January  is almost spent and we will be returning to the States on February 16th.  Yes, hard to believe that we have been here 16 months already!  Christmas in South Africa was a little lonely without our family but we did have a beautiful, peaceful few days in the province of Limpopo.  We rented a small cottage in the gorgeous sub-tropical forest of Woodbush and it truly was a paradise. We were getting a little worried because you definitely needed a 4 x 4 to get into the forest. The cottage looked very quaint and charming, sort of in a Thomas Kinkaid motif but wow when you opened the front door it was just spectacular!  Floor to ceiling sliding glass doors in the lounge (living room), dining room, master bedroom, master bath all facing the jungle!  well sub-tropical forest.  Birds of every color  and wonderful Sobongo monkeys in the trees.  There was a wonderful deck with a small pool (endless) and not a soul around!  The large tub was all surrounded by glass and the shower was actually out doors! The owners checked on us once to make sure we had everything we needed but we didn't see them again until the last day.  They observed that our car never left the car port so they assumed we were enjoying the river walks, reading on the deck, soaking in the tubs and all in all just relaxing.....which we were. I asked the owner about the beautiful stain glass windows in the kitchen and front door and she invited us to her glass studio.  Beautiful!  Dragon flies in exquisite shades of blue, green and purple, jewelry, plates, frames and oh so much more.  It truly was beautiful and on top of all that the herb cottage sets in the middle of an avocado orchard....yes fresh, ripe avocados every day!Of course time was all too short and we had to be on our way but it certainly was a Christmas never to be forgotten.

 The temple opened on the 29th of Dec. and then we closed again on Dec. 31st and Jan. 1.  Now we should be open until the closure in February when the major cleaning and refurbishing work is done.  Of course we will be leaving on Feb. 15 and the other couples are leaving for Safari then so this is the last few days and weeks for many of us.

It has been an exciting time to be in the temple.  The workers have been able to contribute many of their own family names, supporting the temple work here. As you are aware we are now able to not only research and clear names for temple work on our PC but we can now print out the family cards too!

In early January we went to the Dinakeng game reserve.  It was quite the place where we were able to see tons of birds, giraffes, ostriches, kudu, wildebeest, springbok, and so many others.  We really enjoyed our day but since this was quite a new reserve we sort of got lost and couldn't find an exit.  Finally we saw a car coming in and went through while the gate was open on his side!  Another adventure!

South Africa has finally been blessed with some much needed RAIN! It has been wonderful to hear the thunder and see the lightning in the late afternoons.  Normally we are all in the temple and miss out on these amazing thunder and lightning storms but I have been ill for a few days and have actually enjoyed being at home and watching from my Flat windows! Heavenly Father has heard the prayers of these humble people and sent the beautiful rejuvinating rains to this country.  Feel so blessed!

The trees in South Africa are so beautiful.  Have I ever mentioned that this City supposedly has more tress that any other city in the world! Well that is what we are told.  And most of the trees  have gorgeous flowers!  It's amazing with the droughts how these trees continue to bloom and grow and make everything around them beautiful!

I noticed the other day in the temple some of the given names of our African brothers and sisters are so thought provoking.  Here are a few that I have picked up in the temple.  Many have an African name like, "Thembole" followed by a Christian name like " Incredible".  Here are a few I have heard:  "Relieved", "Poison", "Temptation", "Blessed", "Future", "Precious", "Priceless", "God Knows".  I don't think I will ever hear some of these words again without thinking of the beautiful black, smiling face that goes with it.

Well dear friends and family it has been quite the journey here.  It is with bittersweet feelings that we look towards home and all of you who are so very dear to us.  We can't wait to see you and hug and visit and laugh together again but we will never forget these beautiful people we have come to love and who have changed our lives forever!

God be with you 'till we meet again!

Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis
jkjarvis@gmail.com
6306 No. 5600 East
Preston, Idaho 83263

435-327-0415

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM SOUTH AFRICA!

IBA NOKISIMUSI OMUHLE (Happy Christmas To You)

Greetings from beautiful South Africa! We hope this finds you all well and happy and enjoying this glorious season of the year! Christmas is very different here in Johannesburg with temperatures in the 90's and everyone talking about going to the beach while our family at home shivers in the 20's and 30's with snow all around. But one thing is the same!; Our testimony and love for our Savior, Jesus Christ is definitely something we share with these dear, dear people. It has been 15 months since we arrived in this beautiful land and began our service in the Temple. How we have grown in our love for each other, our fellow missionaries our temple presidency and these humble African Saints! We have learned so much from our temple service, our callings in the ward and the wonderful experiences we have shared in this land.

Our greatest blessing is our wonderful family and we were so blessed to welcome home two of our missionaries this year. Joseph (Jennifer and Jeff's eldest son) from the Alpine German Speaking mission in May and Nathan (Mary Kathryn and Leon's son) from the Canada Toronto Mission in October. We of course were not able to be at the Salt Lake City airport to welcome them in person but we were able to share the "joy" with our sweet family on FaceTime and phone calls. We continue to hear wonderful things from Elder Jarvis (Zachary), Jamon and Laura's son serving in Jamaica! He will return to us in August of 2016. Speaking of returning home, Elder Jarvis and I will be heading home in mid-February. Yes we will be released February 15th! Wow this has been the fastest year and half ever. We probably won't miss the "power shedding" or being without water on many occasions or the very warm temperatures but that said this has been a wonderful experience and it is definitely with mixed emotions that we leave this beautiful people and amazing Africa! Christmas in Africa is very different from all the bright lights and festivities at home but we are reminded "maybe Christmas indeed doesn't come from the store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more". we have been blessed to spend many joyful and happy times with our fellow temple workers and Presidency. We were invited to the Area Presidency's Christmas Family Home Evening earlier this month. Elder Carl Cook, Elder Ellis and Elder Hamilton, of the 70's, and their wives opened up their beautiful homes to us for a very special FHE. The messages were inspiring and helped us all to feel the miracle of our Savior's birth and his great love for each of us. We also shared a wonderful progressive dinner with our Temple Presidency and the Temple couples and workers. It was a tender evening for us as we anticipate leaving these special people that we have shared so much with the past 15 months The beautiful talks given in our Kagiso Ward by the humble members who have shared their feelings and love for the Savior have warmed our hearts and souls. We continue to welcome to the temple our brothers and sisters from all over Africa; Mozambique, Congo, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Reunion Island, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Madagascar and so many other places. They have changed our lives forever and we will never be the same. Their love and sacrifice for the Gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing and humbling. They have taught us so much.

It was announced last week that the groundbreaking for the new temple in DC Congo will take place in February. I can't begin to explain what that will mean to the people of that land. President Cook announced last week that another Stake has just been formed in the Congo. The work moves on! And not so slowly any more!

We are so blessed to have been here at this time. We thank the Lord for his goodness to us and to our loved ones. We bear our testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We love our Savior. He is our Redeemer, Lord and King. May you each feel His great Peace and Love during this beautiful time and throughout the days to come. We send you our love and best wishes for a very Happy Christmas and wonderful New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

GESEENDE KERSFEES - Afrikaans

Joyeau Noel - French

Tratrin'ny Krismasy- Malagasy

Makorokoto christmas- Shona

Halala Christmas - Zulu

Iba Nokisimusi Omuhle - mixture of several African languages!

Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Grandmother and PaPa Joe
Mom and Dad
Joe and Kathy


Photos include:

Elder and Sister Jarvis standing in the entrance to the beautiful Johannesburg Temple.

One of my beautiful piano students from the Kagiso Ward...Nora

Our fun "Shrimp Boil" with all the Senior Temple Couples.

A magnificent Kudu Bull taken on one of our many trips into the Bush to see some of Heavenly Father's amazing creations!

NOVEMBER in JOBURG ---SPRING?

Moannatana Everyone:  (Malagasy for Good Afternoon, or Good Morning):

Here I am again.... in NOVEMBER! I feel like I just updated this blog but that was a whole month ago.  Yes this is supposedly Springtime here but it's more unpredictable than Spring in Utah or Idaho.  I do remember snow in May on occasion in both Utah and Idaho and last week there was actually snow in the mountains near Cape Town.  The weather here has been glorious.  Only in the 70's again and the nights are quite cool but I fear that is on its way out as 90's are predicted for next week. I'm sad to say that the jacaranda trees are about through blooming but there are still blossoms covering the walkways and I will definitely miss this incredible sight next year. Hope some of you saw the pictures I shared on FB.

The work at the temple moves forward.  We have another new South African couple who have joined us for 6 months and we are so pleased.  They are a lovely couple originally from England and I am enjoying their wonderful accent.  Yesterday I was able to help a beautiful young sister preparing for her mission to England.  I was so excited for her and know she will love, love the UK.  We had a fun farewell brai (bar-b-que) for two young missionaries who have finished their service mission. We held it in the garden here at Duke's Court. They have been on a special assignment because of Elder Nyandoro's blindness and Elder Molema's severe Asperger's. They have done amazing service at the temple because Elder Nyandoro was able to memorize all the ordinances so quickly and even though Elder Molema's condition would not allow him to watch a regular movie because he would get agitated and restless he could sit through the whole 2 hour temple session with calm and peace because of the spirit. We will all miss them.

I mentioned in last month's blog about our Primary Children practicing for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation.  Well we had it on the 27th of October and it was absolutely wonderful!  The Primary President had asked each of the children to wear a white shirt or white top for the program.  Well Sunday morning they arrived in beautiful white lace dresses (for the girls) and the boys in long sleeved white shirts and bow ties.  They looked exactly like a choir of angels and when they sang 'I know He Lives" it was incredible...not a dry eye in the chapel! They each did their parts totally memorized and spoke right up!  After the program the Bishop got up to say a few words and he was so emotional that he just thanked them and sat down.  After the closing prayer I started to play "I Know that My Savior Loves Me" for postlude and as the children left the stand they all started singing again as they walked out....it was such a beautiful day and I know the Savior was pleased.

Excitement in our family last month!.  Our grandson, Nathan Erasmus, returned from his mission to Toronto and gives his report tomorrow in Draper.  How we will miss being there.  We are so proud of our grandchildren.  We have had three serve missions already and a 4th is currently serving in Jamaica. Exciting times for the old grandparents!

On our PDay last week we went with another couple out to a bird refuge, Marievale.  Not too far from Joburg and yet you feel like you are in another country.  Not only did we see amazing birds: widow birds with their long,long tails, avocets, herons, egrets, snipe, ducks, geese, red winged starlings, etc. etc. but we also saw 3 baby jackals!  They were so cute jumping and playing with each other.  On an earlier trip we had seen an adult jackal and thought that was amazing but to see these cute little guys up close was pretty fun! w

Lest you think we do a lot of playing I must hasten to say we have had a wonderful group of members from
Zimbabwe this week at the temple.  They are so humble and so appreciative and happy to be in the temple...it makes everyone feels good. Its amazing how far people in this temple district have to travel and yet they arrive happy and so excited and grateful  to be there.  Elder Bednar told the Africans to stop wishing they were more like the Saints in the US and that the Saints in the US are the ones who need to be more like the Africans, simple and spiritual!  

Well, I didn't mean to write an epistle! Better close for now. I am attaching a few pictures and hope they come through.  Thank you for your prayers and your emails..we love hearing from you. 
We had the wonderful opportunity of having Sister Bednar and Sister Hallstrom at the temple last week. Elder Bednar and Elder Hallstrom were here reviewing the Africa SouthEast Area and the Area Presidency wives brought the sisters to the temple.  Such beautiful, kind women.  I had a particularly sweet experience with them.  Elder Hallstrom spoke to all the temple missionaries at a Devotional at the temple and Elder Bednar spoke to the area missionaries.  We were blessed to also hear Elder and Sister Cook and Sister Hallstrom.  It was a beautiful day and I will always remember it. My piano students in the Kagiso /ward are really doing well.  I have hopes for one of them to take over as the ward organist when we leave here in just  4 months!  Can it really be? There will be three couples leaving in March and the President indicated they will have two new couples coming then so that will be good but they are so short handed I can't imagine how they can manage with any less than what we have now.

We are so very grateful for this wonderful opportunity.  We have been blessed in so many ways.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
We will be seeing you in 2016!

Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Mom and Dad
Grandmother and PaPa Joe
Joe and Kathy

October -Our 13th Month in Africa

Greetings Everyone:
Well here we are again!  It's supposedly Spring here but this week the temperatures have been in the 90's. Certainly not like last year's Spring! The people are telling us it's because of El Nino. We will be having an extra warm Spring and Summer. Lots of exciting thing happening in this part of the world! Hope you were able to see the World Report between the sessions of Conference. There was a great piece on Mozambique and the growth of thechurch there. We were blessed to welcome many of our Mozambique membersto the temple last week. Also the country of Gabon has just opened up and we had 3 couples who were endowed and sealed this week. We have a new senior couple  from Idaho serving with us and we were so excited to welcome them. Such a small world. Their granddaughter is serving in the same mission that our grandson, Joseph, just returned from. The Alpine German Speaking Mission. We are so excited that our grandson, Nathan,will soon return from the Canada Toronto mission. Our grandson, Zach is serving in the Jamaica  Mission and had escaped two major hurricanes this month. We are so grateful!We continue to be quite safe here in South Africa but have suffered several "power shedding days" this month.  As I mentioned before every few weeks they cut the power to certain areas in the city because they can't begin to supply enough to this city of 15 million+.  So it's a little hard to come home from the temple at 9:00 p.m. and the crock pot dinner is cold and raw!  I celebrated another birthday last week and my fellow missionaries took us to a fun African restaurant where we were able to taste some fun African  delicacies  i.e. roasted springbok, ox tail soup, malva pudding, and many more yummy offerings. There were dancers and singers who sang Happy Birthday to me in Zulu. Fun day! Wasn't Conference  just wonderful? We were so blessed  to be able to see it here even though the Sat. and Sunday  afternoon sessions were on at 10:00 p.m. and went until midnight. In our ward we are getting ready for our Primary Sacrament  Meeting program and our Primary children were so excited to hear the tabernacle choir sing "I Know that my Savior Loves Me". Wish you could all see the beautiful  children in our ward. All of them have their parts memorized and the program isn't until Oct. 25th. One of my piano students is the chorister for Primary and I get to play for them. I love it.

Last week the temple missionaries were invited to attend Temple Bethel Emmanuel and their celebration of the Feast of the Tabernacle.  The Rabbi and his family had visited the temple grounds during the 30th anniversary of the dedication of the temple last week and they extended the invitation to us.  I was unable to attend but Joe found is very interesting. We had about 30 Area Missionaries and most of the Temple missionaries in attendance and the Rabbi seemed very pleased.  Oh yes we also had a "Tail Gate"  party on the day of the BYU/UCLA game.  We had a braii (barb-que) and everyone wore blue and white and we sang the fight song....well sort of. Our temple president found it a little strange but he loves us so it was O.K.
Because of the Anniversary celebration we have had a wonderful, busy month.  Many people at the temple during the week of the 24th to celebrate the dedication.  We were able to do over 1700 ordinances on Thursday the 24th of September. Friday and Saturday were record days too. It has been very exciting to be here at this time. Many of the Africans wore their tribal clothes and the sisters especially were so beautiful in their colorful dresses and headdresses! So exciting to see them in the temple.   On our Pday last week Joe took me to the botanical gardens again.  So exciting to see all the beautiful flowers in bloom and the colorful birds in their mating plumage.  You can't believe the trees here.  They all seem to have flowers!  Even though we have had so little rain everything is celebrating Spring! The jacaranda trees have begun to bloom this week too and it is a haze of purple everywhere.  They are so very beautiful.

Thanks for your messages and emails.  We love hearing from you.  We are well and enjoying each day.  We have been so blessed through our service.  Each day brings such amazing experiences, We send our love to all.  Until next month.....

Love,
Kathy and Joe
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Mom and Dad
Grandmother and PaPa Joe

September in South Africa

September in South Africa

Greetings friends and family;
Is it really September? Well it may be Fall for you but we are just starting into Spring in the Southern hemisphere. September is similar to March in the US...well sort of...no Spring snow storms but wonderful rain and thunder and lightning storm! In fact I just heard that Johannesburg is the lightning capital of the world. I don't know about that because the lightning on Cedar Mountain was pretty impressive!  We have had another wonderful eventful month here on our mission. Things at the temple have been incredibly busy. We have had not only many groups arriving at patron housing but many individuals and their families coming from near  and far. There are never two days alike in the temple. Each day brings new challenges but also incredible spiritual experiences and even miracles.  We have also been blessed to have our Granddaughter,  Kirsi, come to visit us for10 days.  She was able to serve in the temple with us for her entire visit.  What a wonderful blessing it was for us and how the temple missionaries loved her.  We are so short handed at the temple and her help came at the perfect moment when we were experiencing illnesses among several of our temple missionaries. Anyway it was a very tender experience for us and we will always cherish it. We did have two "p days" with her and took her to Pilantsburg, a game reserve, where she had an amazing "elephant  experience".  It was a little unnerving but oh so exciting.  We were able to visit a cultural village where we witnessed dance, music and foods from many different tribes.

The time passed so quickly and we had to put her on a plane back to Utah way too soon.

We have been in Johannesburg  for a year now but there are still some things that we find a little strange and scarry. The combi drivers  (who drive taxi/vans) who never stop at a red light and cuts you off on a daily basis. They are built to carry about 8 people but we have seen 16+ in a van at a time!  Random police checks where you are pulled over and demanded to show your drivers license and then expected to pay a bribe or be detained for a few minutes; unreal traffic which you can never judge a "slow time"; some of our South African workers and patrons complain about 2 hour commutes and even more. The complex we live in is a short 5 -10 min. from the temple....what a blessing!  Still not used to not finding brown sugar, mapleine, ranch dressing, salsa, green chilies, graham crackers, chocolate chips, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, well you get the idea and actually there are many amazing subsitutes right across the street at the Pic'n Pay. 

As I have mentioned before we have patrons from all over this great continent. Many spend several days and their life's savings to come to the temple. This week we added Cameroon, the Ivory Coast,  and Reunion Island to our guests.  Did I mention before the number of languages we have available here?  Well here is our list; English,French, Malagasy, Portuguese,  Swahili, Shona, Africaans,  Zulu,  Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese,  Zulu and Dutch. AWESOME!  

Perhaps I have mentioned before about our wonderful temple president, President Eppel. He is probably the most Christlike person I have ever met. He is so loving and kind to all. In our daily prayer meeting with him we are blessed to feel the awe of this work and his genuine love for us. We are so grateful for this great opportunity to serve Heavenly Father's children and to be in His Holy House each day.

Last week we celebrated our 55th  wedding anniversary! We figured out that we have been married over 20,000 days. Is that all?  On our Pday we visited the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens and it wad so beautiful. Everything is beginning to bloom and the birds are pairing up and singing their songs to Spring.  We are thankful for our dear friends, our wonderful family, good health and the most amazing grandchildren in the whole world.

Thank you for your love and prayers.

Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Mom and Dad
Joe and Kathy
Grandmother PaPa Joe

August in South Africa

Greetings Friends and Family:
We are now in our 11th month serving in the Johanesburg Temple. We have had an exciting adventure these past few weeks.  I will try to share some of our amazing experiences with you.  The temple closed for cleaning and renovations on the 18th of July and we left for our trip on the 20th. We were blessed to travel with two of our South African friends, Ancie and
Richard  Dolldorf who serve with us in the temple. On the first leg of our trip we traveled to Mkuze, a nature reserve in Zululand. We traveled through such interesting country . The plants and trees were so dense and tropical.  We arrived in the early evening and checked into our "chalet". It was really charming with a thatched roof, 2 small bedrooms, a furnished kitchen, living room and bathroom with shower and huge bath tub. We also had
a nice patio with braii (bar-b-que).  We decided to take a little walk which didn't last long because all of a sudden we heard someone screeching and banging pots and pans. We hurried to see what was causing all th commotion. Then we saw it. A baby monkey had
gotten into the camp diner and couldn't  get out. The family of monkeys were trying to "break into the diner and set the baby free". The family of monkeys were really getting upset and the baby continued to yell and scream. Well the cook was banging cookie trays, and pots and pans trying to get the monkeys to leave. Well once Ancie opened the door and let the baby out the others left. Anyway  it was all very exciting. We spent our first evening eating our dinner on the patio by the light of the moon and stars. Our visitors were several nyala (a beautiful antelope), a few bats and many geckos on the screen door!
Little did we know the variety of animals that would visit us the next 4 days. During our wonderful time in Mkuze we were visited by impala, nyala, guinea fowl, monkeys, baboons,  a giraffe and an enormous bull elephant...yes right next to our Bar -B-Q. You could have reached out and touched him...what an experience. During the week we made several visit to the water hole where we saw herds of wildebeests, zebras, antelope of all kinds, vervet monkeys, several baboon families with their babies, a white rhino with her calf and even a lioness in the bush. We also saw many exquisite  and exotic  birds of every color. Several times I had to pinch myself and say "yes, Kathy, this is real! You really are in Africa Do you remember Zazu from The Lion King? Well we saw him. Yes an amazing southern yellow hornbill
and also Pumba the wart hog with dozens of others from his family. So many amimals I can't remembet it all. One day we drove to the pan, a large shallow lake/marsh. It was ful of birds; storks, flamingos, pelicans, and so many more as well as hippos, Crocodiles, water monitors and duiker (small deer about the size of a dog). In the evenings we enjoyed sitting on the patio listening to the nightjar (A bird that makes a sound like an ambulance...amazing) well you get the idea it was just unreal!  For the last 4 days of our trip we traveled  to  San Lucia. What an incredible  spot. We stayed in a tiny little cabin but it was clean and comfy and self catering  with a bar-b-que and surrounded by lush tropical  gardens and birds everywhere. San Lucia is a beach community right on the Indian Ocean  and oh the beautiful white sand and blue, blue sea. Gorgeous,   we walked the beaches, played in the surf and watched the gannets dive for fish. HEAVEN!
Well, less you think that we just play on this mission I had better hasten to tell you the temple opened again on Aug. 4th and we have been very busy. On the first day we had 24 missionaries from the MTC along with a group from DC Congo. It is wonderful to be back inthe temple but I must say I miss the sea air and breezes. Joburg is not kmown for it's  clean air.. We absolutely  love the patrons that come . They are so faithful  and sacrifice all to be able to come. While on our trip we attended church in Richards Bay and the people there told us they only get to the temple about once a year. It will be such a great help when they build the temple in Durbin.

We send our love and best wishes to each of you.  We  love our work in the temple and we love the people. This is an incredible experience. We pray you will consider serving too!

Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis

JUNE IN JOBURG

GREETINGS EVERYONE: Yes, it's June in Joburg but not the June you are used to. More like November in South Africa. However, the weather is still quite nice even though the mornings and evenings are quite cool we still have lots of sunshine during the day. The locals go around all bundled up in coats and hats and even ear muffs but it's only in the 60's so not sure what that's all about. We have had a very exciting few days. Last Saturday our daughter, Mary Kathryn, and some of her family (husband Leon and 3 of her boys) arrived in Johannesburg on their way to Zimbabwe. They were traveling with Leon's parents and brother and his family and sister and her family. As you know Leon's family is from Zimbabwe, or as it was called Rhodesia. Anyway they were on an exciting trip to work and assist a charitable organization doing humanitarian work in Zimbabwe .We were thrilled to have them stop over in Johannesburg for a short visit. We were able to house them here in our complex and were privileged to take them all to church on Sunday. The young people gathered around Ryan, Dawson and Nick and exchanged FaceBook pages. I think the boys had a wonderful time with these African teens. There was a total of 23 in the "Erasmus Clan" and our fellow senior missionary couples helped us with food, transportation and housing.In fact our Temple President traveled with Elder Jarvis to the airport to greet the family and also insisted on the return trip on Monday when they had to leave at 4:00 a.m. Two of our senior missionaries drove vans to pick up the other members of the family. The Erasmus family brought bags of wonderful children's clothing and many new soccer balls with pumps to distribute to the branches and wards. They moved on to Zimbabwe on Monday morning and have been there all week organizing and providing various medical clinics and other help. If all goes well we will be meeting them tomorrow and travel with them to Kruger National Park for a few days. What an exciting thing to share a little of our mission with them. It was wonderful! This has been a very busy month at the temple. Saturday was one of the busiest we have seen since we arrived. We divided session after session and had to add others. We have welcomed members from Botswana, Mozambique, Congo, Madagascar, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia and others. Our Kagiso Ward which was split last month is doing so well. We continue to fill up the chapel each Sunday and my piano students are doing well. Today's Sacrament Meeting was another amazing hour. Great talks by two sisters and one brother. Each one so well thought out and prepared. I began playing prelude music about 8:40 and everyone was so reverent. Yes there are young children and many many teenagers but they are so respectful of the chapel and I have to be sure my prelude is very well prepared since EVERYONE is listening! Even though it is South African Winter now there are still beautiful flowers in bloom and many flowering trees. On the way to church this morning we saw a poinsettia tree. It was covered in huge red flowers! Too bad I didn't have my camera. The roses at the temple just get more beautiful every day. They have never stopped blooming since we arrived last September. As you many know Elder Jarvis celebrated his 77th birthday last month. It was a grand affair. The Senior couples took us out to lunch at a African Restaurant. We were entertained by the dancers and singers who put a crown on Joe's head and sang "Happy Birthday" in Zulu to him. ( On the following day we were invited to a South african couple's home for a (bar-b-que). They cooked calamari, hake(favorite fish here), muscles, steak and shish-ka-bobs! One of our senior sister missionaries baked the most beautiful cake....and a carrot cake to boot! She decorated it with beautiful exotic birds and again everyone sang and teased Elder Jarvis a little about being the oldest one here....guess that's true. All in all I think he had a great day! We will be getting another couple in September so that will be great but we are in need of French speaking missionaries. So many of the Congo only speak French and of course we have some French Speaking from Mozambique too. I wish I had worked harder to learn French a few years ago when I had the opportunity. I could certainly have helped here. The temple will be closed for cleaning and repairs in July and we are planning a trip with our South African friends during that time. They are taking us to San Lucia. Wonderful birding place and also the big five are there....lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard and rhino! We love the people here. They are so beautiful, humble and happy. So blessed by the spirit and so grateful for life! They are teaching us so much. Love to all of you dear friends and family. May the Lord bless you and your families. Sister Jarvis Kathy Mom Grandmother