FIVE MONTHS IN SOUTH AFRICA!

GREETINGS!

Yes, so hard to believe we have been here 5 months.  If the rest of this mission goes this fast we are almost on our way home! Although I am missing my family more than words can say I have a feeling there is much left to be done. The temple just reopened yesterday after a two week closing for cleaning and repair.  We were able to take a road trip with some other missionary couples to Cape Town.  Wow what an amazing trip that was.  We saw some of the most beautiful scenery ever and experienced magnificent birds, monkeys, zebras, cape buffalo, kudu, and even a lion in the desert. It was a lot of days in a car but it was certainly worth it.  We marveled at Heavenly Father's creations,.  How he must love his children to create such a magnificent place for us all to come.  The Cape of Good Hope and Table Mountain were amazing and I had to pinch myself often to make sure I wasn't dreaming.  Anyway we returned to the temple yesterday and had a large group of saints from the Congo to assist.  The temple president told us that they had had such a difficult time to get there,  They had first driven from their village on a very poor dirt road for over 7 hours, then crossed a river by ferry and driven another 3 hours to an airport and then flew to Johannesburg on a 3 1/2  hour flight.  They were so thrilled to be there with their families to receive their endowments and be sealed to one another! We had 21 children in the youth center!  What a thrilling day for us as workers to feel of their spirits and share in their joy and excitement.  They mostly spoke French but there were also several Swahili speaking families.  No matter we don't know their language ...the language of the spirit is the same for all!  Great Day!

We had missed two Sundays in our ward here and when we returned last Sunday I had 3 more piano students who were waiting to begin lessons.  So now our Sundays begin at 7:45 when we drive to our ward and don't get home until 3:00 or so but I love working with these people.  They are so anxious to learn and they love music, especially the hymns.  Elder Jarvis is the manager for all the Temple Missionary flats.  It's quite a big job as he has to answer to everyone's problems with plumbing, electrical and anything else that goes wrong.  He is also in charge of preparing new flats for the incoming missionaries.  Oh, it's not a job, it's a calling! The weather continues very warm.  actually it's their August now so high 80's are the norm but on our trip to Cape Town it was gorgeous at only mid 70's....perfect!We just lost another Senior Couple.  They were released on Monday and we are down to 4 full time couples and two South African part time couples.  We are starting to get a few South Africans helping us several shifts a week but for the most part it's just the missionary couples.  One of the counselors to the Temple President went home to Madagascar for the two week break and became very ill.We really miss him and his wife as they speak both French and Malagasy. We are praying that he recovers soon and returns to the temple.  On our road trip we attended the  Somerset West Ward near the Cape.  We met so many wonderful people and a new missionary couple from Utah who had just arrived there.  They were very happy to see someone from "home" and it was great to see their excitement and enthusiasm for the work.  In our ward on Sunday the bishop announced that the ward could be divided not only into two wards but three and then he said if we would each do our part at fellowshipping Kajiso Ward could even become a stake!  I'm certain this is true.  The building is filled to capacity for every meeting we have and sometimes not everyone even gets a seat! The Area President has told us that we could easily have 19 new stakes and 93 new wards in the Africa South East Area in the very new future....exciting stuff.

Well it's almost time to leave for the temple again so I had better close.  We send our love to each of you.  We are excited to hear about all the activities and accomplishments of the family and our friends.  Thank you for your love and prayers in our behalf. We feel so blessed to be able to serve these wonderful, humble people.  They are so appreciative of everything.  We have learned  much from them.  The gospel is everything to them it is their life and as they say each day "I am so much grateful for my many blessings".  Me too!