Remembering Dad's birthday

2009 - Emily & Dad on his 80th birthday -
getting lots of birthday hugs.

Happy Birthday Dad!
Today, if you were still with us, you would be 85 years old.
Are they celebrating your birthday in Heaven?
We miss you very much.
We are happy to know where you are and that you are well and that we will all be together forever someday. What a great day that will be.
I love you Dad.
Debbie :)  

Newcastle

Akinyemi Gbenga

Today we had an assignment in the Newcastle branch about 3 hours away.  We arrived an hour early to the church for a meeting with the branch president. A brother was in the kitchen filling sacrament cups with water. He heard us coming down the hall, peeked out and said with a big smile "Welcome to your Heavenly Fathers House."

We introduced ourselves to each other and he told us he was from Nigeria and has been a member since 2009.

I asked Br. Gbenga how he found the gospel. His words:  "Its all started when i just moved to a new area i needed to worship at a new church to fellowship with my God.  I remember praying to God about this quest" 

He explained to us that his mother was visiting the US and discovered the Church there.

Benga's family had been Methodist for 29 years.When his mother returned from the US she brought some pamphlets with her and told her family that she had found a new truth that really touched her heart. She wanted to tell them about it, which she did, and she said they should all pray about it.

His words: "while I was reading the plan of salvation booklet I felt I have never been a christian all the while, all the things I read I have never heard it nor read it before in my life.  It touches me alot and I felt the truthfulness of that message contained in it."

Bengas mother had arranged for the Elders to come and teach them.  Benga was so shocked to find how young the Elders were when they arrived. He had expected old men walking with a cane.

His words: "my knowledge about elders was someone very old, bald headed, big tommy, gray hair and probably using glasses and walking stick with a big jeep.  As my family and I waited patiently for these elders to come I became anxious of their coming because of the messages I want to hear.

     Surprisingly,i heard a nock on the door.  With a speed to open - low and behold i saw these two young and smartly looking guys dressed in white shirt and black trousers greeting me with a smile then i asked are you the elders? I asked with lots of surprises on my face."

Benga paused for a moment and tears rolled down his face.He told us that he too was touched by what his mother had told them and he prayed sincerely about it.That night he had a visionary experience where he saw a building and someone brought him a certificate.He saw himself there with a wife and children. He described the dream to the bishop and was told that the building he saw was a temple of the Lord. He had never seen a temple before.

His words: "my first two days of the book reading nothing happened until the third day while reading first nephi something did happened to me which i have never experienced before in  my life.  While i was reading,a deep sleep came upon me and i saw myself in a place,a very clean house particularly in a room where i was with my wife and two children. A man dressed in a white and black walked up to us and said to us to hold ourselves together as he conducts the session and while we held on to one another i was still looking around to find something to say the place was dirty i findeth not and then after the session the man handed to me a certificate and i did collected and then i woke up.  "

Since that time, Br. Gbenga has gotten married in the temple and has two children, which fulfilled what he was shown in that vision.

His words:  "a year later i went to the temple in ABA,Nigeria as a married man with my darling and eternal companion ANGELA with a child in hand named Nephi for the love of the gospel with few months old pregnancy of our now Angel. We were endowed and sealed for time and eternity with the priesthood of God.  A testimony that gave me and my family a firm foundation of the divinity of the book of mormon and truthfulness of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints."

It is so sweet to hear Br. Gbengas own words.  After returning back to Joburg I emailed him and asked if he would mind emailing me his testimony and that is how I have his words above.

Elders Mukonda and Johnson

I took this picture of the elders serving in Newcastle Branch so I could email it to their mothers.

Elder Mukonda sang and spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  He sang "Come to Zion, come to Zion, for your coming Lord is nigh" and asked "How do we come to Zion?  By doing what a Zion people would do - and what is that?  We come to Zion by choosing to do that which draws us closer to the Lord.  Serving others, going to church, reading our scriptures, saying our prayers.  Reading the Book of Mormon draws us closer to God than anything else on Earth."

He quoted from the Book of Mormon: 2NE 33:10 & 11:   "And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.

     And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness."

Limpopo

Tzaneen and Modjadji

Our assignment this week took us to the Provence of Limpopo, the northern most part of South Africa.  As we came closer to Tzaneen the land seemed to change from Africa to Washington!  I felt like we were back home, it was so wooded and green very much like the Pacific NW.  As we drove on it changed from Washington to Hawaii!!  (except the ocean was missing)  We passed mango, guava, hibiscus & plumeria. There were acres of beautiful farms of bananas, avocados & macadamia nuts.  Also many farms of coffee, peanuts and pekoe tea.

Our first assignment was to meet with the branch president and clerk of the Modjadji Branch.

President Sekhula, Chris & Br. Senyolo

These are wonderful brethren who are so well organized it made our job so easy.  One challenge they face is making bank deposits.  They have 30 min to travel to the bank and there is usually an hour and a half queue. We enjoyed our visit and it was a pleasure meeting them.

Papaya growing in front of the branch building

Next stop, Tzaneen, but first a small detour to see this:

Worlds largest Baobab Tree!

This mighty giant is quite a sight!  Chris is standing beside the entrance.  Yes, I did say entrance...to the tree and there are benches and a table and at times they serve drinks in there.  I took a little video of us inside the tree.  I felt like we were in a storybook.  We were little kids playing in the Shire or perhaps we were visiting one of the tree people in Narnia who invited us in for tea.

Ok, must not be late, on down the road to visit with Elder Smith, full time missionary who is also the Branch President of the Tzaneen Branch.

President Smith and his wife are from Los Angeles and are such generous and diligent servants in this beautiful part of the world.  On the church grounds were mango trees but Pres. Smith said the monkeys always get to them before they are ready to be picked!  ha ha

The Tzaneen District was preparing for a temple trip to JoBurg this weekend with 50 members! Eleven brothers and sisters are going for the first time and five families are being sealed together for time and all eternity.  They were pretty excited.

Because Friday was a holiday here in So Africa, we stayed an extra day to see the area.  It wasn't all play as we brought work with us.  We worked the morning and played in the afternoon.

We stayed in this Christian Kibbutz.  It is a community and christian school for K-12.  (It says college but it doesn't go beyond HS) They are far up in the hills where it is so quiet and peaceful.  There is a little village which includes the school a restaurant for special occasions, a pool, cricket field, private residences and a few guest cabins.

A darling little beagle followed us all day.  (boo hoo...I didn't get his picture)  He ran along with his mouth stretched wide over a tennis ball that had soared well beyond the cricket field.  We had fun playing ball with him until he got distracted by monkeys!  Our little buddy lost his ball in the macadamia forest as he chased the squealing monkeys up the trees. We picked up a lemon from the ground and tried playing ball with him Ha ha...he chased it with enthusiasm but didn't keep it in his mouth very long.

Avocados grew all over the village as well as
lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits

All the roads and paths were covered in Macadamia nut shells!
They have so many macadamia trees, they use the shells for gravel!

Cute sign by the kindergarten

Guest house we stayed in

Ah, if only we had more time here.  We walked and walked in the peaceful beauty.  Now time to go home.

But first, another little detour to Kings Walden Gardens.

Monkeys crossing the road

Kings Walden Garden:

Beautiful well groomed gardens are a pleasant delight to behold.  They seem to breath life and order into the present.  This was not such a garden.  It begged to be groomed and resuscitated all the while captivating you with its unspoken stories that oozed from the grounds, the waters and the statuary.  Stories that once lived in the garden now whisper and play with your imagination.

Both kinds of gardens are steeped in beauty.  One in splendor and one in mystery and impressionism. Ah...who doesn't love to breath deeply with ALL of your senses in a garden.

This little goosey gander waddled over wagging her little hiney
like a puppy dog.

Poor little Lucy goosey had laryngitis but greeted us with enthusiasm.  Her muffled sore throat squawking, sang to us like a muted violin.  She sang of her longing for company so we invited her to stroll with us but she had a job to do and stayed behind.

 One more detour before we head home.
Debengeni Waterfall

Children sliding down the smooth bedrock

Long flowing waterfall tendrils cascading over colorful bedrock

Happy Birthday Mom

                                                Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you!

 

                              Thank you for everything you do to make us such an awesome family.                            

Botswana

Gabarone Botswana,

We returned today from Gabarone Botswana where we were pleased to be able to train a new Assistant Area Auditor!  He is our 18th AAA serving in the Africa SE Area.  Our Assistant Area Auditors are so helpful to us in the work as they are spread out into many countries.

Br. Donald Cole, our new Assistant Area Auditor in Botswana

We also trained the Stake Audit Committee and attended a portion of the Botswana Coordinating Council Meeting with Elder Van Reenen of the 70 presiding.  It was a very busy weekend and rewarding.

Br. Tembo and Pres Matswagothata, Gabarone Stake Presidency

Gabarone is a lovely modern city and such kind and friendly people.  Everything was lush green as they have been having rains like we have.

Isn't this the most gorgeous flower!
It was firm and furry & about as big as saucer :)

Botswana has a challenge in that they borrow electricity from South Africa! Now that is quite funny if you know South Africa!  Supply and demand problems in Johannesburg mean we have scheduled power outages.  Fortunately the Area Office uses back up generators so there is no lost work.  President Matswagothata warned us that we may not have any power because often on Saturday and Sunday it is out. We prepared for the possibility but were blessed to not lose power the whole time we were there.

President Clement Matswagothata has a very mighty spirit!  He is smart and filled with wisdom and understanding and has tremendous leadership qualities.  We know his mother Rachel.  She was serving in JoBurg in the temple and rode to church with us each Sunday.  Her son Clement is the one who converted her to the Gospel.

Sister Rachel Matswagothata

Due to generous donations from the United States to the missionary fund, missionaries in Africa who cannot afford to go on a mission are able to be blessed to go.  President M handles this correctly in that he expects some sacrifice on the missionaries part...not just a free ride.  One missionary earned what he could and presented it to Pres. M who told him that wasn't enough and he needed to earn some more.  The young man owned 3 cows.  He sold two of them and was then able to go and serve.

Pres. told us that most of the missionaries desiring to serve are the only members in their family. When President talks to the family about helping with the cost they object of course.  They say "you take away our son and now you want our money!"  He asks them to think of the church as a social club that is going to build leadership skills and take care of all their sons needs including food and health etc for two years.  He asks if that is worth something to them and if so, what would they be able to contribute.  They most always agree that it is a great thing for their son.

We loved attending the ward Sunday.  Pres M and Elder Van Reenen were there.  The ward had a great choir who sang not only a musical number but both prelude and postlude and almost all of them were wearing something red.  It was charming.  We got asked to bear our testimonies which is always a privilege.
Elder Van Reenen gave a wonderful message.  He talked about the "most important things" that he feels are "non negotiable" in his family.  That of family prayer, family home evening and family scripture study.  He quoted from Elder Holland of the 12 Apostles who said that we must be true to the faith that we do have rather than going forth in our quest for faith, leading out as it were with our unbelief.  He also quoted Elder Uktdorf who admonished us to doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith.

Sister Stephens, Sis Fuamatu, Sis Nyambita & two ward members

My nephew, Tyler Klingler, was serving here but due to visa problems this mission is down to only about 36 missionaries now.  When I mentioned Elder Klingler to these Sisters, they all did a little jig and exclaimed "Elder Klingler!!  We miss Elder Klingler!!!  How is he doing?"  Sister Stephens is from Hawaii (Big Island) and came to the MTC the same day as Tyler and we were there to greet them and help them check in.  It was fun to see her again.

Hotel breakfast with Elder & Sister Clayton

Interesting effect of windows reflecting windows :)

As we were leaving town we tried to find the building from "The Number One Ladies Detective Agency" that was filmed here but we couldn't find it.  This is a delightful book made into a TV series that can be rented on video.  They only have about 9 episodes but it's so cute.

 As we went through the border crossing from Botswana, a guard asked Chris if he was the King of Kings.  ha ha.  He said no and I said "But we work for the King of Kings."

Back in South Africa, on our way home, we traveled via Mafikeng and hoped to go through the Museum that has an exhibit about Lord Baden Powell.  Sadly, it was closed for renovation.

All the rains have brought forth Cosmos!  Miles and miles of pink and white flowers.  You'd think it was spring here but it is not - it is fall!  We also saw a couple monkeys run across the road.

Twas a very pleasant drive home.  Of course I was riding ha ha.  Poor dear Chris drove the whole long way while I enjoyed the scenery and working on a blanket for the orphanage.