Johannesburg Temple Trip with Orange Farm Sisters

Friday, February 10th, I spent the day getting ready for the trip to the Temple with the Sisters. I was emotionally exhausted. I went to the mall and shopped a little, tried to come home and read but I couldn't concentrate. So I headed over to the grocery store to get eggs and salad makings. I stopped in to say hello to the ladies at the nail salon. The receptionist asked how Mr. Bruce was. I took a photo for Bruce of our sweet friend. 

 I texted  President Nyama to see how many sisters would be joining us. He was working and Sister Mazwi was at the Temple so we didn't know until 10 pm that there would be 16 sisters. I was amazed. I quickly realized that I would need more food for lunch. I made more egg salad and Charlene made rice krispie treats for dessert. 

Saturday, February 11th

Charlene and I left the house at 7:30 to meet the sisters at the temple. It was so exciting to see the Combie pull up in front of the temple and 16 ladies and 1 young man pile out. What an awesome day. 12 of us did Baptisms and the other 4 ladies did a Temple session. One young woman who joined us was a new member of the church and she had baby who had just gotten out of the hospital. All the ladies who did baptisms were at the temple for the very first time.

 When we finished with the baptisms we went to the Family History Center where Charlene met with the group to tell them how to submit their family names for the Temple. 

 They were so attentive. Then we joined the other Sisters in the canteen where I served the ladies sandwiches and salad for lunch. They seemed to like it. Then Charlene gave a lesson on expressing love in our families. It was so informative and the group asked questions and participated in the discussion. They loved Charlene. 

I stopped to take a photo with the guard, David at the gate who always saluted Bruce when we came through the gate.

We took some photos and then piled into the combie to head back to Orange Farm where I would spend the night with the Nyamas again. Sister Mazwi walked home with us. When we arrived we were locked out so we sat and waited for the children to return home with the key. We sat on the couch and visited and then I asked if we could go back over to the neighborhood by the church where Ellen and Leah live. So we went visiting. We stopped at Sister Ellen's but she wasn't feeling very well. Sister Menzi and her two daughters stopped by while we were there. They said they had been at the church for Institute but nobody else came. After a few minutes we headed to Sister Leah's. I visited for a minute then went out to see the game Provie had set up.

 Provie used the chalk I brought to draw a game in the street and she asked me to come out and play. Sister Mateka joined us. Then several of the neighborhood children came out to play. They had to go ask a neighbor if they had a plastic bag and a sock that they could make a ball out of.

Soon Nduduzi and his brother Nati joined us. (I didn't get a photo of Nati)

 It wasn't long before I had to find a place to sit and watch the children play. I met a few neighbor children while I was there.

Sepokazi's dog, Rex kept chasing everyone.  

We noticed the sun was setting and decided we better hurry on home before it got dark. 

I can't express how happy I have been with my weekends in Orange Farm. Everything has been just as I had hoped it would be. I loved being in the township. I loved walking the streets and watching the people who were carrying babies on their backs, plastic bags on their heads and passing all the stands selling fruit, vegetables, and hardware supplies. I loved stopping to say hello to church members who were sitting on their lawns visiting.