CHRISTMAS IN JOHANNESBURG

HAPPY CHRISTMAS as they say here.  Hope it's a wonderful one for all of you.  We will certainly miss our kids and grandchildren this year and all the traditional things we love about this time of year.  We are so busy at the temple with excursions from Botswana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique and Congo.  We are down to only 5 couples and 1 single sister.  We have lost 4 couples and 2 single sisters since we arrived in Sept.  We had been told that December was such a slow time but not so this year...which is a wonderful thing.  Just wish we had more help.   Sure missing the snow!  Yes we really are.  The weather is gorgeous but it's just not Christmas with 85 degree weather and all the flowers and trees in bloom! Last Sunday our Ward had their Christmas Devotional.  They don't have a party.  The Devotional was at 4:00 in the afternoon and even though the members live quite a distance they were all back for the program.  They had put together a beautiful video of the Savior's life with words by President Monson.  Then they had the RS choir sing (several men also joined us), The Elder's quorum sang, the YW sang, the YM sang and the young single adults sang.  The speaker was the area seventy, Elder M....well I forgot his name but it was an incredible talk and the capacity crowd sang "Oh Come all ye Faithful" with such enthusiasm I'm certain the neighbors all heard it too. He shared such a beautiful and thought provoking story called "Mary's Dream".  You can google it. I found it very easily. I played the piano for them and they were so grateful.After the meeting two little boys came up and sat on the piano bench with me while I was playing the postlude. I asked them if Santa was coming this year and they just looked at me with their big black eyes and shook their heads no.  Then I asked if they were getting presents from Mom and Dad and they shook their heads no,.  But when I asked them if their Grandparents and cousins would all be coming to eat dinner together for Christmas they smiled as big as they could and said "oh yes, all of them". Such a sweet moment!  We will be working in the temple through Tuesday and then the temple is closed on the 24th, 25th and 26th.  We are open again on Sat. the 27th.  The other senior couples are going on a trip for the 3 days but we will be here.....well sort of. The Temple Presidency counselor has invited us to go bird watching with them on the 26 so that will be fun....I know what you are thinking but honestly the birds around here are just unbelievable and I know how much Dad will enjoy it.  We have been invited to a Christmas Eve dinner with some couples who work in the Area Office and also a Christmas morning Brunch with missionaries from the Family History Library. Actually I was hoping to sleep and talk to my kids on Christmas Day so hope that is still on the agenda!  I have actually done a little Christmas baking.  Cherry Winks, Russian tea cakes and lemon bars to deliver to the other missionaries and the presidency.  So that helped to remind me that it is Christmas.  On P day this week we went to Pilantsburg.  It's about 2 hours or so away and we saw baby giraffes, baby rhinos, baby wart hogs, baby spring boks and even two enormous bull elephants with huge ivory tusks!  Of course we saw all the mother animals too and it was an amazing experience. This definitely wasn't a zoo.  We couldn't even open the door of the van to get better pictures....that's how close we came to them.  Fabulous
day.  I loved it.  We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your family and loved ones close by.  That is what is getting me through this time of year.  It's the beautiful memories of Christmases past with my wonderful family, children, grandchildren, parents and brother together!  How I love you all and miss you like crazy but like I said, the memories are such a great gift to be able to reflect on our wonderful times together. I am thinking of our nativity on Christmas Eve, after we had bored all the neighbors with our caroling, Mary would be our Christmas Angel perched high on the ladder, Jen would sing Silent Night, Jamon and Beau were usually shepherds and Great Grandfather would read the story of the Birth of Christ from the Bible. We would con poor Dad into being a wise man with Uncle Greg and Great Grandmother insisted on being a sheep.  Later we would add Leon as our best dressed wise man, Jeff as the king of the shepherds and of course Jamon and Beau graduated to being wise men too.  In the early years each of our adorable grandchildren would be the "Baby Jesus" and later  the newlywed couples would assume the roll of Mary and Joseph. I know some of those Christmases were pretty chaotic with all the little ones but they were wonderful to Dad and me. Now we are scattered all over the world, Austria, Canada, Jamaica and South Africa but the memories will get us all through.   So as the song says "I'll be Home for Christmas, if Only in my Dreams".

We love you all so much.  Thanks for the memories and for being the good people that you are.  We hope to talk to each of you on Christmas Day so email us and tell us what will be a good time for you.

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

CHRISTMASTIME IN SOUTH AFRICA

Christmas Greetings to all of you!  So hard to believe it's really December 9th today.  The days keep getting warmer and warmer.  86 degrees on Saturday. The mall across the street does have a few decorations up but it sure it nothing like home.  (which may not be a bad thing) The children are all on holiday (as they call summer vacation) and most families travel to the beach or other resorts for Christmas.  Braai (bar-b-que) is very popular and all the displays in the store are for Christmas cook outs.  Many families also go to the bush camps for their holiday.  One of the Senior Couples who is leaving shortly has 5 of their children here and they have all gone to a bush camp for 4 days.  It all sounds very exciting.  They expect to see rhinos, lions, elephants, cape buffalo, giraffes and just about all the magnificent 7 as they call them here.  Last night we had our Christmas Party with the Area Presidency.  It was so nice and we sang carols and really got into the mood.  We have been so terribly worried about how we are going to manage the temple after two of our couples go home and two of our single sister missionaries leave in December.  That only leaves us 5 couples and one of those has had some serious health problems so we found out from Elder Cook, the area president, that we are receiving several South African couples who will also live here in Duke's Court.  Also the Area Presidency's wives are going to help us out in the Gate House (the youth Center where we tend the children while their parents are being sealed.  That will be an incredible help to us.  They even talked about diverting some of our patrons to the Ghana temple because we are so busy here.  Anyway they are determined to help us and we feel a huge relief today. IElder Jarvis has been asked to take over the management of all the missionary and area people's flats here at Duke Court.  Huge job for him but I know he will do great. Its just the time thing.  When you are in the temple every day it's hard to figure out how to get everything done. We had an incredible Saturday this past week.  Everyone of our sessions beginning at 6:00 a,.m, had to be split.  We had people in line to do other ordinances and it was all in all a great day.  Sunday was our fast and testimony meeting at the ward we are assigned to.  Quite a day.  We left before 8:00 so I could get there in time to do the music for them.  However, someone decided to close two of the major highways that we take to get to Soweto.  We think they were filming a movie or an advertisement...anyway we were diverted to downtown Joburg!  Oh my was that scary!  We were taking one of the African missionaries with us to church and she had us stop and talk to the police and they helped us find our way out of the metropolis!  I think Joe could probably drive in Hong Kong or New York City after that experience! Anyway we were a little late for our first meeting but the testimonies were just incredible and the people were lining up to be able to share their feelings.  As I have mentioned before these people really understand what a testimony is.  Even the little children...they are just amazing.

Yesterday was Pday and we went with the Senior Couples to an area with gorgeous waterfalls and rivers about 1 1/2 hours from the city.  There was also a Snake and Animal Park to visit there and of course as always that made my day.  Love these African Animals....well not so much the snakes but the lions, and the meercats just steal your heart1

We have been invited to dinner on Christmas Eve at one of the Family History missionary's flat.  Their name is Elder and Sister Hale.  His Mom is the famous  Ruth Hale from the Hale Theatre.  Anyway they heard we were not going to the resort with the other missionaries and invited us to spend it with them so that was very nice.  We have a week of MTC missionaries, excursions from Congo and Botswana and several wards right here in South Africa so this will be a good, busy week.

Hopefully we can get a Christmas Letter written in the next few days but please know of our love for each of you and we send our best wishes to all for a very special Day as we celebrate the birth of Our Savior Jesus Christ. We love the Lord, we love and adore our precious family and we love the amazing people of Africa.
May the Lord Bless and Keep you always!