The Day I Asked & the Day I didn't need to

The Day that I asked & the Day I didn't Need To

                          By Debbie King

I was raised to believe in Santa Claus.  My Mom loves Santa, my Grandmother loved Santa.  It was magical!  I remember going outside to listen for his sleigh bells & I remember really hearing them one night!  It was so thrilling!  A rush!  But as I matured although still very young, I began to question.  I couldn't imagine how it could be true; flying reindeer, going down chimneys, holding presents for the whole world in a sleigh & delivering all in a night!  I thought long & hard & finally asked.  Mom didn't want to tell me.  She asked me “do you really want to know?” & that in itself was the answer to me.  It was as I supposed. Although he was not real his spirit of giving and of joy and of love was very real. The tales that bring every child a sparkle in their eye and desire to be good were very real.

I was also raised to believe in Jesus.  My Mom loves Jesus, my Grandmother loved Jesus.  It was magical!  I remember feeling a special warm loving feeling when I did something good.  It was joy.  It was a hug from God.  As I matured, many around me began to question.  “How could someone from another planet be aware of me?”  “God doesn't listen or answer my questions so I don’t believe.”  I thought long & hard about their questions.  Something in me whispered that he does listen & answer but in ways that we don’t always understand.  His perfect understanding of me, answers my prayers in ways that help me grow & get on his good list.   Our actions place us on his lists of naughty or nice.  I didn't ask if Jesus was real because I didn't need to, but if I had asked, Mom would have said “yes he is real”.  Yes it is true.  How did she know?  In the same way that I knew.  It was a truth felt deep inside.   

 In all my days, I've seen nothing but proof of his existence.  He is the "Santa" who can be all over the world in a night giving gifts that can’t be wrapped or broken only lost if not used.  He needs no chimneys to enter but he does need good hearts.  Our eyes can be deceived but not our hearts.  Someday he will come & we will know him because he has always been with us.  We have felt him.  It’s just true.

He is the Gift

This is such a wonderful message!!

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Worlds Largest Nativity!  Very beautiful with a most amazing lighting effect at the end!!!

Today in Tembisa

Precious and Phumlani
preparing to be sealed in the Temple

Me and little Thembi

Isn't she cute!

Christmas with Area Presidency

Area and Temple Presidencies
Back; Ellis, Cook, Hamilton
Front: Atkins, Eppel, Ranaivosoa

President Eppel and Elder Cook

Elder & Sister Cook taking a video of us

                                 

And here we are!

Elder Ellis

Elder Cook holding a picture I took of the Chitiyo family
when they were sealed in the temple.

 

Elder Hamilton serving cookies

Looking more like Christmas!

Harare Zimbabwe

After our meeting with a great bunch of brethren in Zimbabwe!

We met with the financial secretary to the mission president on Friday, spoke at the coordinating council on Saturday and then met with these wonderful brethren from audit committees following the coordinating council. How we admire these brethren.  We then took our Assistant Auditor, Godfrey Matsika, out to lunch and enjoyed a lovely chat.

Notice this lady has a bag in each hand, a baby on her back
and she is carrying a pack of 60 eggs on her head!!!
Now that is true multi-tasking! :)

We gave away 3 Book of Mormons and one was to this beautiful girl, Cecilia.
She was so excited to receive it, she nearly cried.

I love these people so much! We gave away 3 Book of Mormons. One was to a security guard who wanted us to preach the word of God to him. Two went to the two adorable girls working at hotel reception.  They were so joyful that we cared enough about them to give them a gift.

The sweet humility of the African people so touches my heart. I will deeply miss them. I hope their African spirit will always stay with me.

Carved statues for sale covered at least a block!

Whisk brooms and rug beaters for sale.

Here are a few words from church today...from the African hearts:

*I was baking cookies and fell asleep while they cooked and they burned up. My friend woke me up and said "Mr Mormon!  You burned up your cookies!"  And ever since then I have been called Mr. Mormon.
*When we get on our knees we should pray 'Lord, change me.' (rather than change circumstances)
*God created YOU!  Don't put yourself down...you are His creation
*Heaven is not so far away.  Heavenly Father's spirit can be felt with us when we follow the principles of His gospel.
*Wisdom is of God.  Reading our scriptures and having the HG with us can give us wisdom that no man can give.
*I'm thankful for another testament of Jesus Christ and I have 3 messages to say. 1. Read the Book of Mormon. 2. Read the Book of Mormon. 3. Read the Book of Mormon.
*I joined this church and told my friend, 'if I die now, I will be with God.'  My friend asked "If you don't die now, where will you be?'  Then I realized it is not about the distance, it is about the direction.

Nelspruit & KaNyamazane

In the Right place at the Right time...again! :)

Friday we drove to Nelspruit in the province of Mpumalanga. (in Northeast part of South Africa) Nelspruit lies along the Crocodile River.  

Saturday morning we met with two new Branch Presidencies to do some training. They are wonderful brethren.  Nelspruit is a lovely city and the branch meets right down town in a shopping center. 

A few brethren in discussion

After the meeting on Saturday, the councilor in the Branch Presidency asked us if we would please come to his ward on Sunday (KaNyamazane) instead of the Nelspruit Branch.  This ended up being one of those small miracle times when we were right where the Lord wanted us. The branch ended up needing us to speak in Sac Mtg and they also were planning a combined priesthood/RS lesson on self reliance and thought perhaps that lesson would be better coming from us than them.  We're getting pretty good at this! ha ha

Branch Presidents little boys

So we taught self reliance once again to people who just have so little. There are so many who live poorly and therefore pay no tiths or fast offerings. We teach them to trust the Lord...doing things His way brings His blessings. Payment of tithing and fast offering will open the windows of heaven and bring them blessings. We had great participation and it was well received.

The Branch Pres afterward pointed to all the stuff we had written on the chalk board and said "we need to read all this into our hearts."

A sister told me of one of their recent converts who said  "what you have taught me has filled the gaps in my heart. I want to join this church not just for me but for my future grandchildren. I want them to have the legacy of the gospel."  Wow...he truly had the vision of the gospel!

After church we attended the branch council and then Chris helped them with MLS questions.  

Dinner Saturday night with
Elder & Sis. Swan and Elder & Sis. Scott

Scenes from town

Interesting in this community all the produce was all hanging instead of stacked

This didn't turn out very well but it's the familiar pile of clothing in the market.

Visiting the gardens after our meeting

Knobbly Fig Tree.  Click to enlarge and see how
the fruit grows right on the trunk and branches.

We got finished too late Sunday to drive back to Joburg so we stayed an extra night and drove home via the Blyde River Canyon on Monday.