Temple Wedding and More

President and Sister Kwaikwai

Our weekend started out Friday morning with an almost 5 hour trip to the Johannesburg.  We had the wonderful privileged of attending the marriage and sealing of two beautiful young people. Brother Kwaikwai is the President of the Potchefstroom branch and Sister Kwaikwai was a YSA in Welkom before she moved to Spring.  In our last 15 months of working with YSA's this is the first wedding that has occurred and it is so exciting that is was in the temple.  There are many difficulties here with trying to be married and sealed in the temple

Joyce Malerato Rantsho

This is an article I wrote, for the S&I website, about a very special young lady that just happens to be one of our Institute teachers.  We love and admire her for her sacrifice of time and energy to serve the Lord.  This is the kind of wonderful teachers we are privileged to work with.  Lucky us.

 Sacrifice?  It does not feel like a sacrifice to me but a privilege to server”.  Joyce Malerato Rantsho joined the church at age 16.  After her parents had passed on she and her three siblings were moved from place to place and school to school finally ending up in Welkom with her grandparents.  During this upheaval Joyce kept looking for something without really knowing what it was.  She attended many churches and even joined one but she still was not satisfied that she had found what she was looking for.  “No church was there for me,”  she stated.  

She passed by the LDS church in Welkom almost on a daily bases because she lived so close.  She often saw people outside and wondered what it was all about.  On one particular Sunday she saw one of her classmate that she knew well and asked her if she attended this church and how could she find out more.  November 22, 2009, her baptism day, was the beginning of her total commitment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She has served as Young Women’s advisor, Young women's teacher, Relief society visiting teacher coordinator, assistant ward librarian, helping hands committee member, and now institute teacher.

Mosa: Piano Student Extraordinaire

This is Mosa.  She is a beautiful and very talented ten year old girl from the Bloemfontein ward.  She has been asking her mom for a very long time if she could take piano lesson.  When Sister Carlile left to go home she gave Elder Edington two keyboards and books to teach piano to those who are interested in learning.  When Mosa's mom found out that Elder Edington could teach her daughter, the lessons began.  Mosa is amazingly bright and talented on the piano.   She is not afraid to try anything and practices like crazy.  She has already played for family home evening.  The students are given a keyboard with the expectation that they will learn, practice and then play for their ward or branch when they have learned how to play.


We have told her that she will be expected to play for church meeting and also to share her knowledge with others by teaching them what she has learned.  Mosa is already sharing what she has learned with another young lady.   She has to stay after piano lesson while her sister goes to young women.  We stay to teach seminary and one day we saw and heard Mosa teaching a young man (late teens early twenties) what she was learning.  She does not seem to be afraid of anything.  She will be a great asset to her ward as she becomes able to play for church meetings.

Birthday Surprise

Two unexpected birthday surprises came on my birthday March 29, 2015.

First, we attended the Bethlehem Branch Sunday meetings so we could visit the Van Der Leek Family that moved from Bloemfontein to Bethlehem.  Brother Van Der Leek was recently called to serve as the branch president.   After meetings, many of the members of the branch sang happy birthday to me.  Sister Louise Van Der Leek gathered them up and asked them to help sing to me.  It was very fun and not expected at all.



The second surprise came later that evening after we had gotten home from Bethlehem.  Elder Edington and I were watching a movie when we heard a knock at the door.  It was Elder and Sister Hulls and Elder and Sister Woolston carrying a cupcake cake.  They came in and again sang "Happy Birthday" to me.  We each enjoyed a very delicious chocolate cupcake with fondant frosting and a wonderful visit with friends.  It was a pleasant surprise that made me feel very loved.

Time With Brother McMillan, Our Supervisor

 On Tuesday, February 3, 2015 we had the opportunity to have training from our wonderful supervisor Brother McMillan from Cape Town.  We picked him up at the airport just before one in the afternoon.  He came to our home and spent his precious time that afternoon and then again on Wednesday, training and teaching us how to better fulfill our mission call as S&I specialists.
We served him a light lunch and then got to work.

We are so very grateful for Brother McMillan and his willingness to teach and train and answer questions.  He has been a valued friend and leader who has made our job here so much easier than if we had had to try to learn and do all that is required by ourselves.  On Tuesday evening we went to the Longhorn Restaurant for dinner.  It was a nice evening with good food and great companionship.