Sunday, June 2, 2013

Letter to Richard - 2 June 2013

Dear Richard

You would not BELIEVE the weather we are having! Winter has truly hit us, and SO different to what you’ll be experiencing! The rain started on Friday, and has been going on pretty constantly, and there isn’t a clear end in sight! But I do love living in Cape Town in pretty much all weather, so it’s all good J There has also been a lot of hail, and after church the kids enjoyed playing in the “snow” where the hail had accumulated at the bottom of the slope at the back of the chapel.

My students wrote their test on Tuesday, so I spent Monday answering student queries, and then I’ve spent the rest of the week on marking, and I’ll spend most of the coming week marking as well… L

We visited Sis Jean briefly  to take her some muffins and see her garden. She and her son have got an amazing vegetable garden going. They have wooden boxes on legs filled with just about every kind of vegetable that you could want! They are also making these boxes to sell now, and they’ve been standing on the corner opposite Super Plants and have sold quite a lot already!

Our lesson in Sunday School today was on temples, and specifically the dedication of the Kirtland temple. I have always thought that it was strange that the Saints didn’t get to do all of the ordinances in the Kirtland temple, and they had to wait until Nauvoo. But I realised during the lesson that before the ordinances could be done there were some things that had to happen first, and there needed to be a dedicated temple in place for that. So a week after the Kirtland temple was dedicated the Saviour appeared to Joseph Smith, and then Moses and Elijah appeared and restored the keys needed to be able to do sealings and other work. And then the temple was used for the School of the Prophets, where many revelations were received that prepared the leaders to be able to perform the ordinances. So all of those things needed a dedicated temple, and if the saints had stayed in Kirtland for a few more years they may have begun the full ordinances there… So just an interesting thought…

Relief Society is doing a fasting challenge at the moment. We all chose someone that we felt needed to be fasted for, and every day one of us is fasting, while all of the rest of the sisters remember that person in our prayers as well. I fasted this week for Sis Cheryl Ann, and I sent her a message to tell her what we were doing, and she was really touched! J It was a really cool experience! And for the past few weeks we have been remembering a different sister in our prayers throughout the day – it’s been great to feel closer to the sisters in this way.

So now you can enjoy your warm winter while we enjoy our freezing cold… What is the winter like in Zim? I assume much warmer than here!

Have a good week J

Shelly

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