The Journey Continues to be Amazing!!

What an amazing journey a mission is.  No two days are the same!  Every day you wake up and just know it will be an exciting day and different from any other day you have had on mission!  The experiences we are having, would never happen in any other place, than on a mission.  We wake up every day grateful for another day to share our love of our Savior Jesus Christ and his mission.  Sharing the “Plan of Salvation” with the people of Lesotho is like eating hot apple pie mounded with two scoops of ice cream. And we get to do this day in and day out!  It is a fabulous experience and we will be eternally grateful.

Our mission seems to be focusing around a few main events.  One is teaching and preparing others to go to the temple.  Everything in the Church leads to the temple, so to be an instrument in the hands of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in helping others to obtain that goal is a rich blessing indeed.  Right now we are teaching 5 families and 3 older single sisters in preparation for their temple experience.  Since we last blogged we have been able to take Elder Matlanyane and Sister Magumela to the temple in preparation for them to leave on their missions.   Then a couple of weeks ago we took President and Sister Mukura and their family from Leribe.  This week we went with Sister Tsimane and Sister Segoete from the Masionokeng Branch.

Each experience is wonderful and unique with these delightful people as we share with them their first experience in the temple. I want to tell you about our experience with the Makura family.  They have two girls, 14 and 8, who had never been out of Lesotho, so what an experience they had!  Just to stay in Patron Housing (similar to a hotel) was a wonderful experience for them. They were in awe at the beauty of the temple grounds and skipped and sang everywhere they went.  It was so delightful to spend those three days with the girls. They had never eaten at restaurants and were so excited to order from the menu. Then tasting milkshakes for the first time was beyond their little taste buds wildest dreams.  Their eyes were as big around as saucers.  Just going up and down on the escalators in the mall was such an exciting experience for them.  However, those girls were quick studys and went up and down many times.  We all take these simple things so much for granted, but to them it might just be the only experience they have in their lifetime away from their little country home. However, the next day at the Temple was absolutely the best. President Makura was so ready to go to the temple.  (Sister Makura had been to the temple a couple of years ago had been patiently waiting for President Makura to go with her).  The experience in the sealing room is just so hard to write in a blog.  We saw three families sealed, two families were from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  One family had 4 living children and 3 children that had passed and all were sealed for eternity.  President Makura was proxy for one of the sons who had passed away. Then it was the Makura family’s turn to be sealed for time and all eternity! Oh the joys and happiness of serving a mission. 

The 2^nd thing we have settled into on our mission is teaching at both the EMT college and at an orphanage young adults.  We teach a morals class.  The Spirit is powerful as we share together experiences of life and learn from the “For Strength of Youth” pamphlet.  One week we were in Johannesberg and I guess the class missed us, because when we walked through the door, they burst into cheering and yelling and clapping that we were there. We just melted and wanted to cry. They have such love for us as we do for them and the spirit is strong each week!  One Tuesday was Entertainment and Media discussion. Elder Chandler and I had the part to teach about Pornography.  The Spirit was so strong and they felt it. They asked many questions and some were in tears about being able to be forgiven of past sins.  It was an amazing class. 

The first time at the orphanage sponsored by the Apostolic Church, we had over 100 youth that came.  We taught the “Plan of Salvation” and so many had questions.  The ages varied so much that the director is dividing them up.  We are teaching 18 years and above now in one class.  I hope we are able to start teaching on a different evening the other younger teens.  They too would love to learn the same guidelines of safe passage through this dark world that the older young adults are learning. The Reverend is so grateful we are there to teach. He talks to the youth in their language to help them understand what we have just taught.  It is a teamwork effort.

All work and no play makes Tommy a dull boy, so we went to Bloemfontein to see the BYU Young Ambassadors sing and dance!  It was incredible and we enjoyed our trip immensely! Such talent and entertainment (sad we had to be in Africa to see them perform for the first time, when we live 30 minutes away from BYU.)

One Friday we were on our way to Bloemfontein for a Zone conference with President and Sister Zackrison, when the phone rang.  A sister asked me to please prepare the activity for the next day’s Relief Society activity. Yikes!  (But nothing getting up early in the morning couldn’t plan for, right?) We did the "Hold to the Rod" with blindfolds and tempters (Elders).  Only one sister let go.  Such a wonderful sport to show how Satan promises, but doesn't actually give you all he promises.  She ended up with a little strip of fabric, an apron, a couple of pieces of mixed matching jewelry, and orange soda that was mostly salt and water etc.  You get the picture.  The sisters were giggling and laughing so hard hanging on to the rod so tightly (PVC pipe) and trying not to listen to the tempters and the sister that let go (she too was trying to get them to let go)!  Then after, we played 4 different games about "The Tree of Life" going to the scriptures, matching answers to pictures.  The word strips in the balloons they had to pop with their darts (they had never throw darts before) and then match to the paper.  One room they had to pop their balloons however they could and inside was and instruction to draw a certain part of the "Tree of Life" story.  Now that was funny!  Watching these bigger ladies trying to sit down hard to pop a balloon or step down hard was hilarious!  It was just a fun day. 

One day we went with a family (preparing for the temple) to their village to get documentation for her to get a birth certificate.  We were only going to be gone for a couple of hours, but it turned out to be an all-day trip.  It was fun traveling through endless villages and finding out the road to her village had been washed away in the rains, so a new trail lead to their village.  We finally wound around and around until we found the right trail.  Only to find out that the chief of the village had just passed away and he had no replacement yet.  Some people near the chiefs home suggested we go to a different village to get a letter and an official stamp, so we stumbled around in a few other villages only to find, the chief had left the village that day and the office was closed.  What is amazing in that all day trip were the two little ones that were with us, a three year old and 6 month old.  They were happy all day.  The three year old sang “Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning” & “I am a Child of God” in English (about the only English he knows) and several other songs for almost an hour.  It was such a peaceful experience to enjoy two small children for such a long day. You will see the humble circumstances of her family by the pictures. They are going to the temple in September or October to be sealed as a family.

We still have water that goes off about once a week, which is usually the day I have chosen to do laundry!  The traffic is still the very hardest part of our mission.  It is too hard to explain the complexity of the traffic and the taxi’s here.  Let’s just say, it is hard to stay happy and positive when you are out in traffic.  We are beginning to think that there are many traffic suggestions, but not many rules, because no one follows the law!  It is a man eat man world in traffic anywhere in Lesotho!  It is the one thing we will not miss when we go home.

Our lovely granddaughter Monica has completed her mission in Florida and is home now.  Our grandson Jacob received his mission call to Spain and leaves in August.  He is off to college for a quick summer term and then leaves two weeks after his sister Megan gets home from her mission in Peru.  It is indeed a privilege to be serving a mission at the same time 4 of our grandchildren are or were serving.  Our grandson Mason is serving in Spain right now too. 

We love our mission and are so grateful for this blessing of being here.  We love you all.  Keep up the good work at home!

Mphethe Family

Sister Mphethe and her family still in the village.  Grandma is 89 years old.

Lesotho inventive tongue for a truck bed

Sister Mphethe's Aunt in her lovely garden

Sister Mphethe's Uncle with his old Massey

Solar power for their electricity

The darling Mphethe children.  Bophelo the singer of "Welcome Welcome Sabbath Morning"

Elder Vanwinkle and Elder MaSinga teaching the "Plan of Salvation" in the orphanage.

The youth at the orphanage studying the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet

Youth answering questions.

Gerald has looked his entire life for the true Gospel upon the earth! He finally found it!

Gerald's wonderful non-member family supporting his baptism.

Elders teaching all these people in Gerald's village.

Relief Society "Hold to the Rod" activity day!

The gigglely sisters "Holding to the Rod"

This is how Lesotho Sister's teamwork looks!

Someone caught us drawing the story of the "Iron Rod"

Anyone for dart throwing!

Scriptures are being translated into the Sesotho language.  Matt Jorgenson, thank you!

The Makara family is one of our favorite new convert families to have over to dinner!

Remember MaLucy and the pig project.  FHE at MaLucy's.

Sister Segoete and Sister Tsimane at the Johannesburg temple.

Esther, Bernice, and Sister Chandler in front of the temple.

The Makura children at the temple.

Makura family in the waiting room of the temple.  Such happiness and joy!

What an amazing day at the temple for us and the Makura family!