Temple Milestone: Water-tight Braai Party on HZT

     The Harare Zimbabwe Temple (HZT) site has reached another milestone: the temple is water-tight. The temple is finally sealed as far as windows, temporary doors, and waterproofing of the roof. This calls for a celebration! We, the church, fed all the temple site workers on Thursday, Oct. 26th with a traditional African braai. A braai is like a barbecue, but it's grilling on an open-fire grill with several choices of meat: chicken, pork, and beef. We hired our friend Alistair Gibson to cater the meal for over 250+ workers. He served more meat than the workers had ever seen in one sitting. We also got permission to have the area missionaries come help serve. This was also a great missionary effort. Many of the workers are meeting with the missionaries in their areas or with us at our Welcome Center.

        Harare, Zimbabwe Temple Site workers on Water-Tight Braai Party, 2023.10.26 

    Bruce and I decided to hand out a "Temple" magazine to every worker. We had a lot of trouble initially ordering the magazines and getting them to Zimbabwe for our Welcome Center. Sister Judd ordered 2,000 so we'd have plenty when the temple open house commences. We've been giving them out to members, who visit, and our sincere investigators, who want to know more about the temple. Since all the workers are working on the temple site; we thought it was a great opportunity to let them know what and why they are building "The House of the Lord." Many workers tell us they feel a special spirit in the temple they don't feel in the other buildings on the site. We've given most of the subcontractor groups, ie. masons, plumbers, electricians, HVAC, painters, cleaners, and Rio Douro contractors a tour of the temple and explained what each room was for and some of the sacred ordinances performed therein. 

We placed notes in temple magazines, Roger Platt and Lauren Haiden from Payton Taylor Architects, 2023.10.26

     Our Mendon 3rd Ward's primary children and Young Women had made sweet little thank-you notes, so we placed one in each magazine for the workers. It was fun to see our main architect, Lauren Haiden, get the biggest kick out of the children's drawings and cards. Lauren loves kids, without her own, is a single professional woman. She was taking photos of the little notes saying, "Look they drew the temple or they drew the angel Moroni! How sweet!" Being a non-member of our church; she has drawn the plans for several temples in construction in Africa. She drew the plans for the Harare, Kenya, and DRC (Lubumbashi) Temples, and assisted with the Durban Temple. She loves planning the architecture of the temples and would love to do more.

We recruited full-time missionaries in our Highland area to come and 

help serve at the temple braai. Here is Sister Waltman, Delamar, Sibanda, and Rahitriniana, 2023.10.26

Some of our favorite elders helped too, Elder Delacruz, Kopi, Ricks, and Magunga

We had a lot of meat!!!!

We had lots of meat! Pork, Steak, and Chicken for a real African braai. Bruce and I cooked the pork sausage, called Boerwors, like brats.

Richard and David Pierra, owners of Rio Douro the main contractors for the HZT site

We got very hot turning meat over on the grill, we cooked 300 boerwors (South African pork sausage) today. It was nice we started cooking at about 1030; so we were ready to serve by 1230, lunch hour. The workers really appreciated the food and gratitude for their hard work on our Holy Temple.

Alistair and Gemma Gibson, the church hired Alistair to cater the braai. They did a wonderful job feeding the masses and making sure everything went smoothly. We love this couple. They've become great friends. They play pickleball every Wednesday afternoon with us. They've taken us horseback riding, ordered meat for us (Gemma works for Koala Butchery), and given us great vacation tips since they were both born and raised in Zimbabwe.

Alistair & Gemma Gibson, our dear friends, catered the braai, 2023.10.26

Employees of the different trades all enjoy each other's company eating good food and visiting on the temple site.

Elder Kopi and Magunga pass out temple magazines to all the workers

Niamiaha comes to discuss the gospel and life with us weekly in our office; Elder Anderson teaches Sandra Pierra, owner's wife and Rio Douro Administrator about the temple, 2023.10.26

Many temple site workers eat lunch in our picnic bowery, where they take their breaks.

Persuade Arimoni visits with Elders Magunga and Kopi, 2023.10.26

It was a busy and successful day with our project manager, Anton Fourie, and the South African directors in attendance. We also played pickleball early this morning with Anton, Sister Turley, and Reeve at 0530 a.m. It's good and hot here, it is the summer season. I'm getting a tan, or somewhat sunburned line, from being outside so much. We're drinking lots of water for hydration. Bruce and I went home around 3:00 p.m. and took an hour nap; we were so exhausted!