We had a number of reasons to go up to Johannesburg, but the main reason was experience another transfer meeting. As I have mentioned before there is a special spirit that is there when a large number of missionaries get together.

But before that we went to the distribution center near the temple. When we drove up we saw lots of members – young and old – dressed to go to the temple. There were so many together it was obvious that this was a special organized visit. As we parked an senior elder – I am kicking myself for not taking his picture or remembering his name – told us that the group had flown in from Kenya. The youth were going to do baptisms, many were going through for their own endowment, and one couple was to be sealed. He and his wife had extended their mission a week so they could share this experience. It is about 1800 miles from Nairobi to Johannesburg and take about 4 hours. The members who made the trip had to pay their own way and some saved for years to come to the temple. 

I thought about how blessed we are to have easy access to a temple. At home in Provo we are a mile from the temple – soon to be 15 mintues from another – and here we are less then 2 hours from the Johannesburg temple.

The next group we met was some elders from Mozambique on the way to their missions. Some of them had spent as long as 4 months serving in their country because of visa problems  and were very happy to finally being able to go where they were called. I felt that the smiles on their faces came from the depth of their spirit.

So you can see that we were spiritually blessed even before we got to the mission office and transfer meeting.