Hi Everyone:
It's so hard to believe it's Thanksgiving this week. Still in the low and mid 70 s. I am going around singing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and I'm afraid it will definitely be a dream this year. The flowers are unreal beautiful right now and the jacaranda are still blooming their heads off! Today was our Stake Conference in the Soweto Stake, Our Temple President is the former Stake President of this Stake so he and his wife asked if they could go with us. They also invited the 1st counselor and his wife, Poor Dad had to drive the van with both of then in it, in tons of traffic and pouring rain! But he did great and we arrived without incident one hour early! It was a great conference. It was broadcast from Salt Lake and we had Elder Bednar, President Uchdorf, and Elder Gay of the Seventy. The talks were amazing. It was just to the saints in Africa,. The stake house was full a good half hour before it began and many people stood thru the whole thing,. When I heard those hundreds of African Saints sing "Redeemer of Israel" it brought tears to my eyes...in fact I've about given up mascara...I seem to always cry when they sing....it's so beautiful. We have had a whole week of rain! Yes it is the rainy season but I had no idea it would rain every day. But the flowers and trees and grass are so gorgeous right now...it's definitely needed.
I guess our Thanksgiving will be rather short. The temple is open that day so we will have a Thanksgiving lunch and get back to work! But I will be thinking of all of you and the pumpkin pie and turkey and especially the sweet potatoes! We are so short handed at the temple right now and we are losing 4 workers in December. We are praying that we will have some more couples by the first of the year! Tell everyone they are needed more than anyone knows!
We have had a great week. Saints from Congo, Madagascar, Cape Town, and Durbin have all been here and it has been glorious. We love the work but miss you all like crazy...especially right now.
Take care and write when you can.
Love,
Mom
Grandmother and PaPaJoe
Kathy and Joe
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Johannesburg South Africa Temple Missionaries
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
JOBURG IN NOVEMBER!
Dear Friends and Family:
Well, here we are in week 8 of our temple mission! Wow if the whole thing goes by this fast, we will be home before you know it. We have been so very busy at the temple. Which is good but I am definitely feeling my age. Joe on the other hand never seems to get tired. He is like the Energizer bunny....just keeps going! We have seen quite a bit of this enormous city lately. I had no idea it was so enormous and so crowded. Well for anyone from Mink Creek a city of 12 million + is overwhelming. We have so enjoyed the gorgeous Jacaranda trees and now the carpets they are making of purple blossoms....beautiful! The gardens around the temple are unreal beautiful. Roses, hydrangeas, vinca, geraniums, palms, birds of paradise and so many others! We have had two excursions from the MTC this week. 17 elders in one group and 30+ in another. They are so young and so ready to work. We also had a bus of people from the Congo this week. They stayed all week in patron housing. I really enjoy these people. Most of them speak French but several speak English and I really enjoy visiting them. Besides that I am beginning to pick up a few French phrases. . .well a very few! We live in a large apartment building called Dukes Court. We are on the 3rd floor. There are 5 floors but also elevators, or lifts as they are referred to here. Also stairs, which Elder Jarvis insists on using every day. There are floor to ceiling windows in the living room and sun room (office) which face another apartment complex but there are many palm trees, banana trees and other fruit bearing plants which wonderful birds visit regularly. We have even seen flamingos fly over on occasion. Monday we are going bird watching again with President and Sister Atkins. As I have mentioned before they are avid bird watchers and it is so fun to go with them and be taught about all the different species!
It will be Thanksgiving soon and I get sad just thinking of my wonderful family all together...especially the annual football game! How we will miss all our darling grandchildren. Hopefully you will all be together and take tons of pictures to post for us. We, well all of the Senior Couples, have been invited to a Thanksgiving feast hosted by the Area Office. It will be sort of a pot luck but it's on a day that we serve in the temple so there won't be too much time for feasting I'm afraid! We are not sure what we will do for Christmas! Some of the couples are going on a trip to a resort...in the rain forest country but we only have three days so not sure what we will end up doing. I want to be close to talk to my kids though!
Last Sunday I started helping the ward choir. They are working on their Christmas Music! Seems impossible that it's that time. They really sing quite well without me helping but I am excited to be involved. There was a young man playing the piano after church last week and I sat down by him and he played beautifully. It was all his own music he had composed. He plays by ear and pleaded for me to teach him to read music...so how can you turn that down.
I think I mentioned that our computer crashed! Well we finally got a new hard drive BUT the worst part is we lost everything. Pictures, addresses, phone numbers, well you get the idea. Please send pictures. We would love to see the family. We were so foolish not to bring many with us and we are surely missing them. One sad note: we just got word that Doyl Ipson passed away on Sunday. We have been emailing back and forth because Doyl and Kathryn served here in the 90's and they have been so kind to share some of their experiences with us. Just when we became reacquainted he is now gone. Our prayers go out to Kathryn and their family.
Some interesting observations here are: driving along the major highways you see women walking along side carrying enormous bundles on their heads, families walking to church each Sunday on the dusty roads and looking spotless and perfectly groomed when they arrive, groups of "Zionists church members" all dressed in white robes and veils meeting out in the open for their" religious services", the poor and indigent walking between cars begging for money or food, others walking in unreal traffic trying to sell things like soda pop, candy, children's toys, magazines, etc. They walk right between cars and you never know when someone will appear right at your car window!
Happy Birthday to all our October and November family members! Mary Kathryn, Kirsi, Nick, David, Joseph, Great Grandmother and Elder Zach Jarvis..We love you all so much and hope to hear from you soon!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Grandmother and PaPa Joe
Mom and Dad
Well, here we are in week 8 of our temple mission! Wow if the whole thing goes by this fast, we will be home before you know it. We have been so very busy at the temple. Which is good but I am definitely feeling my age. Joe on the other hand never seems to get tired. He is like the Energizer bunny....just keeps going! We have seen quite a bit of this enormous city lately. I had no idea it was so enormous and so crowded. Well for anyone from Mink Creek a city of 12 million + is overwhelming. We have so enjoyed the gorgeous Jacaranda trees and now the carpets they are making of purple blossoms....beautiful! The gardens around the temple are unreal beautiful. Roses, hydrangeas, vinca, geraniums, palms, birds of paradise and so many others! We have had two excursions from the MTC this week. 17 elders in one group and 30+ in another. They are so young and so ready to work. We also had a bus of people from the Congo this week. They stayed all week in patron housing. I really enjoy these people. Most of them speak French but several speak English and I really enjoy visiting them. Besides that I am beginning to pick up a few French phrases. . .well a very few! We live in a large apartment building called Dukes Court. We are on the 3rd floor. There are 5 floors but also elevators, or lifts as they are referred to here. Also stairs, which Elder Jarvis insists on using every day. There are floor to ceiling windows in the living room and sun room (office) which face another apartment complex but there are many palm trees, banana trees and other fruit bearing plants which wonderful birds visit regularly. We have even seen flamingos fly over on occasion. Monday we are going bird watching again with President and Sister Atkins. As I have mentioned before they are avid bird watchers and it is so fun to go with them and be taught about all the different species!
It will be Thanksgiving soon and I get sad just thinking of my wonderful family all together...especially the annual football game! How we will miss all our darling grandchildren. Hopefully you will all be together and take tons of pictures to post for us. We, well all of the Senior Couples, have been invited to a Thanksgiving feast hosted by the Area Office. It will be sort of a pot luck but it's on a day that we serve in the temple so there won't be too much time for feasting I'm afraid! We are not sure what we will do for Christmas! Some of the couples are going on a trip to a resort...in the rain forest country but we only have three days so not sure what we will end up doing. I want to be close to talk to my kids though!
Last Sunday I started helping the ward choir. They are working on their Christmas Music! Seems impossible that it's that time. They really sing quite well without me helping but I am excited to be involved. There was a young man playing the piano after church last week and I sat down by him and he played beautifully. It was all his own music he had composed. He plays by ear and pleaded for me to teach him to read music...so how can you turn that down.
I think I mentioned that our computer crashed! Well we finally got a new hard drive BUT the worst part is we lost everything. Pictures, addresses, phone numbers, well you get the idea. Please send pictures. We would love to see the family. We were so foolish not to bring many with us and we are surely missing them. One sad note: we just got word that Doyl Ipson passed away on Sunday. We have been emailing back and forth because Doyl and Kathryn served here in the 90's and they have been so kind to share some of their experiences with us. Just when we became reacquainted he is now gone. Our prayers go out to Kathryn and their family.
Some interesting observations here are: driving along the major highways you see women walking along side carrying enormous bundles on their heads, families walking to church each Sunday on the dusty roads and looking spotless and perfectly groomed when they arrive, groups of "Zionists church members" all dressed in white robes and veils meeting out in the open for their" religious services", the poor and indigent walking between cars begging for money or food, others walking in unreal traffic trying to sell things like soda pop, candy, children's toys, magazines, etc. They walk right between cars and you never know when someone will appear right at your car window!
Happy Birthday to all our October and November family members! Mary Kathryn, Kirsi, Nick, David, Joseph, Great Grandmother and Elder Zach Jarvis..We love you all so much and hope to hear from you soon!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder and Sister Jarvis
Grandmother and PaPa Joe
Mom and Dad
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