Johannesburg, South Africa and the Temple

 

    What an absolute joy to meet Persuade Arimoni at his first temple experience in Johannesburg, South Africa. It's been a wonderful week of firsts for this special young man: first time leaving Zimbabwe and crossing the border, first time in South Africa, first stay at a hotel, first soft bed with a mattress, first elevator ride, first real "warm" shower, first restaurant (last month), first revolving door, and many more firsts to come! It's fun to see the excitement and innocence on his smiling face. We asked him if he took a hot shower and he responded, "It was like I dream!" We take so much for granted and while visiting Johannesburg, we felt like we were back into the 21st century.

    Elder Anderson is always a missionary. He continued to share the gospel in the airports, with every Uber car driver, in every store we went to, the hotel employees, waiters, and people we met on the street. We wished we had more Books of Mormon to give out; but, Bruce did get most of their names and contact numbers to send the missionaries to teach them all. Bruce is a great example of never holding back and listening to the Spirit when sharing the gospel.

Persuade in front of Johannesburg Temple LDS sign. Persuade made a wonderful new friend, Tatenda, another member from the South Stake. 2023.09.05

We met several senior couples from Utah serving at the Johannesburg temple or in the 

Family History library. They helped the two young adult groups from Zimbabwe with their family history and inputting information for their family trees. Persuade retold one sister his amazing conversion story and how his father had died in his arms when he was 19 years old. She said, "How sad and hard it must be for you." Persuade replied, "It's OK because I pray and now God has sent me a new mom and dad," pointing to Bruce and I. We are honored that he calls us his parents and it makes it all worth it. His beautiful smile tells it all! Persuade made many friends on the bus trip of 20+ young adults. The Lewis senior couple from our mission also went to the temple to meet the Mutara ward members and go to Victoria Falls and Botswana that weekend. We stayed in the same hotel, The Hilton at Sandton, as the Lewis's, although our schedules didn't get us together. It was interesting to be in Sandton, the most expensive square mileage in all of Africa. It definitely was being back in the 21st century. Even the roads and highways were paved smoothly without potholes to dodge! Even though, we missed Zimbabwe and the simplicity of life there.

Tuesday night, we took an Uber car to Anton Fourie's home in Pretoria. His wife, Nicolene made us a delicious homemade meal of pumpkin fritters, salad, steak (brie), and other treats. It was fun to be around the Fourie family again and get to know Anton's children. 

The next day, Wednesday, we took Persuade and Tatenda to Montecasino, an Italian-designed village, shopping center, and bird refuge. What fun it was to see Persuade go around the revolving door entrance several times until he could do it really SMOOTH like a cool dude! We walked around the bird sanctuary and saw a show with hawks, parrots, and owls. We had lunch and treated everyone to an ice cream. Then we went by our hotel to change for the temple. Persuade and Tatenda were amazed by the hotel and all its amenities. Bruce took them out by the pool side too.

    That afternoon, Bruce and I went to help in the baptistery. The temple matron and president asked if we'd help out. They were double booked and short-staffed. We happily passed out towels and clothing and organized the young adults in the baptistery. Since we were in charge, we made sure Persuade got to get his baptisms completed. First Bruce baptized Persuade for his father, Amos Arimoni. Then Bruce taught Persuade how to baptize him for his grandfather. Then Persuade baptized me for his grandmother, Patuma Tumu. I had helped Persuade add the names to his family tree several weeks prior to this trip. Wow, what an amazing experience to see this work completed, and hope they've been waiting on the other side anxiously for this work to be done. Later that afternoon, Bruce and I completed the initiatory and endowment for his father and grandmother.

Wednesday night, we went to Tang Restaurant in Nelson Mandela Square, a recommendation from Eric Lewis. He told us to be sure to have the dry ice dessert, which ended up being a birthday surprise and hot lava cake with fruit over dry ice. The food and experience was delicious and unique. The only stressful part was getting an Uber car home in a safe part of town without getting mugged or robbed. South Africa is known for its crime and robberies. We had difficulty getting the internet to call a car but finely figured it out trying to go up and down the floor levels to find reception and an exit.

The next day, Thursday, Bruce promised to let me go shopping before our flight home. It's not his favorite thing to do. We purchased some needed pharmaceutical and grooming supplies we could not find in Zimbabwe. Fouries suggested we go to Rosebank Mall, which was only 15 minutes from Sandton and had an African craft mall. We had fun looking at crafts, jewelry, and artwork from artisans of Africa. We are slowly collecting Christmas gifts for our trip back to America in December. We had to barter our prices and keep from getting the owners of the booths to commandeer our attention, but that's half the fun of it all. Bruce insisted I buy some Zulu tribe beaded neck and headgear. I settled on not as elaborate of a necklace and bracelets I would actually wear. We had extra room in our luggage this time for all our purchases.

Afterward, we enjoyed the sun rays of the hotel's poolside. Bruce doesn't look much like a missionary below! We really enjoyed our little vacation and flew back to Zimbabwe arriving at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday night. Petersons were so kind to pick us up at the airport.

There were fun artisan stores in the airport while waiting for our flight. 2023.09.07