Temple Bound
God's children are searching in greater numbers for answers and hoping for miracles as they look to Jesus Christ for relief. On 'Temple Bound,' hosted by Will Humphreys, explore how temples offer not just solace but also powerful tools for navigating these turbulent times through faith in Jesus Christ.
Tune in every Monday to hear Will Humphreys engage with guests who bring inspiring stories, profound teachings, and insights into accessing divine guidance through temple service.
Each episode promises to enrich your understanding and strengthen your connection to the Savior in unique and transformative ways.
Whether you're seeking answers, yearning for peace, or in need of a miracle, 'Temple Bound' is your weekly spiritual refuge, helping you anchor your soul to the Savior. Join us on this sacred journey to deepen your faith and discover the blessings of temple worship.
Temple Bound
Brenda Angle’s Impossible Africa Temple Journey
Join us for an incredibly powerful episode of TempleBound with the remarkable Brenda Angle. Featured in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Newsroom article, "Tanzanian Saints Visit Nairobi Kenya Temple Open House: The Impossible Journey," Brenda shares her awe-inspiring story.
What started as a simple idea to bring 25-50 people from Tanzania to the Nairobi Kenya Temple open house for their first temple experience quickly snowballed into a miraculous undertaking. Hear how Brenda, driven by a deep love for the people of Africa, organized transportation, accommodation, and even passports for hundreds, overcoming immense logistical and financial challenges.
In this episode, Brenda recounts:
- Her personal calling to serve in Africa, leading to 15 trips over seven years.
- The unwavering faith of the Tanzanian Saints, who made extraordinary sacrifices to attend.
- The miraculous provisions of funds, food, and solutions that appeared when needed most.
- The beautiful chaos of getting over 500 people, including 98 orphans, to the temple.
- The profound impact of the temple experience on individuals who had never left their villages.
- Inspiring stories, including that of Molly, a former street child who became a wealthy man and adopted 35,000 children, and his profound experience in the temple.
This episode is a testament to the power of faith, the adversary's opposition to sacred work, and the boundless love of God for His children. It will ignite your soul and deepen your appreciation for temples.
Special Challenge: In this episode, we issue a "Go as if you've never been before" temple challenge. Listen in to find out more!
You are in for a treat, guys. Today we have Brenda Engel. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just did an article on her called the Impossible Journey, and today's episode is her story. I'm not going to introduce too much about this. Brenda is a wonderful member of the church who, on own accord, has gone to Africa to start serving people through different organizations, and when the Nairobi Kenya temple was opening, she decided you know what? I'm going to get some people from Tanzania, a country just South of there. I'm going to help get them over to be a part of it. It started as a very simple, low grade like service project. It was her third time in one month to go over there and it just snowballed. You guys, you're not going to believe the story. It changed my life and I'm not exaggerating. Um, it was such a powerful episode. I can't wait for you to hear it. And at the end of this episode there's a very special um bonus that I can't wait to share with you. So enjoy the episode and please share this one with everyone. You know it is going to help everyone become Temple Bound, all right. Well, brenda, thank you so much for being on Temple Bound.
Speaker 1:This story was featured yesterday in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints newsroom. The name of the article is Tanzanian Saints Visit Nairobi, kenya Temple Open House the Impossible Journey. And this is your story of this journey to the open house at the Tanzania, nairobi. I'm sorry, tanzanian Saints Nairobi, kenya Temple Open House. So let's talk about first of all, brenda, thank you for being on the show. What's your background in Africa Like? How did you get involved in Africa in the first place?
Speaker 2:I just my heart was just drawn there. So I met a good friend who went to Africa often and I said I want to go. She's like, yeah, everybody says that, and I'm like, no, like I I'm going, like you're being called there, yeah, it's it, it it's just in my heart. And so I I went and I loved it. Like I just I just loved all of it and I the most thing that I loved about it was that we could go into the schools and teach about God and I could teach the boys to protect girls, cause God wants you to. And they're like really Like we thought they were for us to use to haul water and to have at our pleasure, and and so I would leave there with the boys fists in the air saying we are their protectors. And that was, that was, I thought, why I was supposed to go there. But uh, it got bigger, bigger, and so I, I just I'd loved it. I've been there probably about 15 times over the last seven years, so it's.
Speaker 1:you know, africa is an interesting place that gets under your skin. We went as a family for the first time a year ago, next month, in June, and we went with care for life, which is where you and I met.
Speaker 2:We were at the careful life event.
Speaker 1:They were piloting um, this program that we're now promoting in careful Life, about these family experiences where they want, you know, people who can later become donors and supporters to go down there and have that experience because it gets into your soul. We went with my wife and four boys and we're in Mozambique for the week. Have you been to Mozambique?
Speaker 2:My daughter has. She went with Careful Life, jenny. She went there a long time ago and so I've been yeah, I've been with Careful Life, acquainted with them for a long time, and that's actually the first introduction to Africa was care for life.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah. Well, quick plug to the audience please If you have any desire to change your family's lives forever and impact a country in the world, go to Mozambique to care for life. It was such a powerful experience and it gets under your skin, and so for you, that's what happened. How old were you when you first went to Africa?
Speaker 2:I was probably, oh goodness, uh, 60. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is like, this is recent. You're in a position where you went, and you've been how many times again.
Speaker 2:Like 15.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, so do you go every year, every couple of times a year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, COVID put a little stop in it for one year but we we still went over there. They were, that was. That was tough on them and during COVID, so anyway, yeah, that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:So now we're we're talking about the I'm going to pronounce this wrong and I apologize. It's Nairobi, nairobi, nairobi. This is the Nairobi temple gets announced and then they're building it and there's an open house.
Speaker 2:So tell the let's just start this story of, like this impossible journey to the open house of the Nairobi Kenya temple, like, tell me about the beginning of that. Well, we're going to this branch in Moshi and they just opened up a couple years ago, started out with just a few members and every time we're there they do baptisms and they're growing and they are the most sweet, wonderful people, just loving god and loving the gospel and and you know it was there's just something that hooked us that wow, they they've never seen a temple. They don't know what temples are, they're, they're, they're hearing about it in conference or you know somewhere they're, they're reading about it or something, but they don't really know. And so it's like let's get them there.
Speaker 2:So Alan Jackson and I just both started thinking let's get these guys over to the temple and we'll just put it out there, we'll put them on a bus and we'll take them over and let them have this experience, because then they'll come back and say they'll shoot for it. If we get young people there, they're going to want to go there, they're going to want to go on missions. We can, if we can get people endowed and get, it'll just move the work forward, like it will just explode this area. So we we thought 25, 50 people.
Speaker 1:So we'll, we'll, we. That's not hard Like we can do that. We're going to get 25 to 50 people from Kenya, from Tanzania, tanzania up to Kenya.
Speaker 2:We've got to cross into another country. It's about a seven hour drive, six seven hour drive and yeah, we can do that. So yeah, we started, we just put it out there and uh, people were so excited and I was, I was in Moshi and a guy came up and he said can I bring my two?
Speaker 1:Moshi's in Tanzania.
Speaker 2:And so I'm at church and they had me kind of explain it at church and this man came up to me and he just said, hey, can I bring my two neighbors Because they're investigating the church? And I said yes, we would love investigators. And it just sort of started snowballing. And so then we had two really dear friends, the Lukes, who are senior missionaries in Arusha, who are just absolutely lifesavers to that area for senior missionaries. They could use you all over africa. Wow, they helped get um my dear friend jobe out on a mission, helped him with his mission papers. They just, they just do so much because they come with a lot of experience and they're like we want arusha to go, which is just an hour down the road and there's like six branches there.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, so we're thinking maybe 150 now, maybe 200. Brother Luke's like we'll get, we'll probably get like 200. Like, okay, let's just up our, our thinking here and we can do 200. Wow, that's going to be a few buses, that's going to be a bit. So we're we're like going up and we're like we can do this. This is still good, okay. So now do you want me to keep going?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I just want to. I want to highlight a couple of things here. This is the beginning of this impossible journey. Is that like it started? So small, like everything else in the gospel? I'm thinking of the scripture about the stone that rolled forth from the mountain without that was cut, without hands, and how it just fills the earth. This is probably the best example of that that I've ever heard and this article, which I encourage everyone to read, just the snowballing effect of how, in Africa in particular, where the church is growing. I've read I don't want to say I don't want to be wrong in saying this, but I've heard, I've read that if it's not the fastest growing place of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's one at the top. The church is just exploding over there. So you get those first group of people together. How did you get the word out initially? Like you said, you got the word out initially.
Speaker 2:We just went to the branch there and started telling people and they have a chat and a WhatsApp chat and they have a Facebook page. And then the Lukes did it in Arusha. And then we went over a couple months ago and we got all the missionaries from Arusha, a lot of them from America. Amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2:And they are so excited about this. They know what this will do for these people, so excited. So we just told them and they went out and started bringing people in. So we had the missionaries helping, we had the branch presidents were amazing the Lukes and then me and Alan. Yeah, we just did it. It just start rolling.
Speaker 1:It's interesting as a side note, brenda, before we get into how this this journey starts taking all these crazy turns, and I just want to say this to the saints that are listening, that this is one of the main reasons these temp. This is a perfect example of why the prophets have been told to start opening so many temples. This story is such a beautiful illustration. We all have a sense that it's a good thing, but we've heard that a temple being put on the earth is a beacon of light in the darkening world, and it starts to connect the spirit world to the physical world, bringing the savior closer to the second coming, and this is a literal example of this. So let's continue from that point on, where you have this kind of slowly growing group of people down in Tanzania, right.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's like we want people to come. But we're having lots like sign up now and Alan looked at the thing one day our registration and there's just like Brenda, there's like 200 people on here signed up already and I'm like, whoa, that's a good thing and we don't want to tell people they can't come. So we've got to go raise money for this, because the church will pay out of the temple fund for your first-time endowment.
Speaker 2:So if you're going, they'll give you a portion of it. It's not a stipend, right, right? So they want the people to add to that as well. But this was open house so there's no funding for it. So we've got to raise funds and that number kept growing and so we did a podcast. People were so generous to help people go to the temple. That was hard, it was just truly a miracle.
Speaker 1:How much money did you have to raise? Did you know how much money you needed?
Speaker 2:to raise.
Speaker 1:As the numbers grew, were you tracking it?
Speaker 2:We were. We were kind of tracking it and we just had an estimation because we had to get buses, drivers, hotel rooms, food. We had to spend the night Food and if they need help with their passports and their yellow fever cards, which costs quite a bit of money and that's a fun story for later as well.
Speaker 1:So how much? How much was this amount? Uh, before you started fundraising?
Speaker 2:so we figured we needed about uh twenty six thousand dollars and how long did you have to raise it? Uh, just a couple. We only had like two weeks or something, so you had to raise because the Uh, just a couple.
Speaker 1:we only had like two weeks or so, so you had to raise because the numbers kept right, and that's just a baseline.
Speaker 2:It could be bigger than that, so so, and we had some people give us some some donations on the site so I knew we had some in there. Just some good friends are like we want to be a part of this. We can't go, but we'll send money. I'm like good, thank you. And so we got the $25,000 within just a few days on this podcast.
Speaker 1:A few days. What podcast was it?
Speaker 2:It was Leading Saints.
Speaker 1:Leading Saints. Shout out to Leading Saints.
Speaker 2:So because you did the, podcast.
Speaker 1:You were able to raise that money in a few days.
Speaker 2:I'm in Africa and I'm like I shut down the fundraiser because I didn't want to have extra money, because I don't want to have extra money. Like what am I going to do? This is going to go straight to this and I don't want any extra money. So we shut it down and then we had, like a lot more people, okay, so so you raise the money.
Speaker 1:How many people do you have at this point? Ish?
Speaker 2:I uh, we at that point we we probably had 150, 200.
Speaker 1:So the 20 to 50 people is now 150 to 200 people. You've raised the money. You're shutting it down. You're thinking about shutting it down?
Speaker 2:Yeah because we feel like we've got them all in and it's just. It's just like two weeks away, and so we're we think we got them the ones that want to go. I'm laughing because I know, the story is great.
Speaker 1:So okay, so you get these, these saints come in. You're kind of like recognizing you're putting some boundaries because you can only do what you can do. So what happens next?
Speaker 2:So then we're like a week away and, uh, this, we've got everything lined up. We're very excited. It's like we, the Lord just blessed us with this money and we're going to, we're going. So another hundred people sign up.
Speaker 1:Whoa, so you're at 250 now. Yeah 100 people. And who are these people? Just, friends and friends.
Speaker 2:No, they're members. They're members and some non-members, like some that are investigating the church, the missionaries and said, hey, why don't you go see this temple?
Speaker 1:I see.
Speaker 2:And we didn't expect so many children. Like there were a lot of children, a lot of children. But what was so cool? I looked at, I was on this one bus and I'm talking to him about the temples we're going and I'm doing all this fun stuff with them, and that bus was full of teenage boys. And I was like, oh my goodness, like um missions, this temple will never, they'll never forget this, and I think that was just when it it hit me. It's like we need priesthood there.
Speaker 2:We need priesthood leaders and there's all these boys. I don't know why they came. They were good kids dressed in Sunday dress and, um, they were just so excited they they weren't there just for the ride, they wanted to go to the temple right and I was like, okay, this is, this is huge and anyway, that was, that was on the bus, we need to talk about putting them on buses and getting there. And and I we did not know the numbers that we had going until we got home.
Speaker 1:Okay, because it just continually grew.
Speaker 2:It grew and we had it very organized and we were going to put 25 people on a bus because they could all have a seat. In Africa you don't get your own seat on a bus. If you've been there. They cram people in. You're hanging out the windows, there's people on your lap, there's chickens on your lap, there's whatever, and you're hanging out the windows there's people. On your lap there's chickens. On your lap there's whatever, and so we we wanted them to have their own seat because it's a long ride.
Speaker 1:Well, anyway, that was our thought. Okay, how many? How many buses did you guys?
Speaker 2:okay at this point.
Speaker 2:So we we had, uh, we ended up with 13 buses coming from Tanzania and we had two buses coming from Kenya and we'll talk about that but 13 buses and um, and we kept adding them at the last minute. We just had more and more people, so we kept adding them. So the morning that we're ready to go, I fly in the night before. They didn't have a flight earlier, and so I get in the night before exhausted, no sleep, 25 hours on a plane and get up the next morning it's pouring, rain pouring, and for a lot of those people that's kind of a bad omen.
Speaker 2:So we're like we don't even know if people are going to come, like they may not come. And it wasn't just raining, it was like the most horrific downpour I had ever been in in Africa and I'm like this is all going to flop, it's not going to work. And anyway, we get ready, we go anyway, and I'm going to the main branch in Arusha and I'm in charge of seven buses, which we all know that wasn't a good idea because they all had a smaller amount. And so I go in there and these missionaries oh my goodness, they're so amazing, but we had, uh, boxes of passports that we had to get out to all these people, boxes of yellow fever cards that we're trying to pass out.
Speaker 1:The people were coming even in the rain, like that's a big deal for the it's just's an omen, but it's also like just really hard and they don't have like they had to all get on little motorcycles to come and little they had to pay for their expense to get there, which is like impossible a lot of their money or all of it. Such a big deal.
Speaker 2:They came just dressed in beautiful clothes and just happy, smiling kids and everybody, and there's just this excitement in the air. And so the missionaries are up there, pat, you know, reading names, trying to get them out, because they don't know all these people. They're from different branches and, um, and I just like, wow, this is, this is overwhelming, like. And the buses couldn't come down to where the church is. They have a, a big tent that the people meet in, and, um, the buses had to stay up because it's this little tiny road and it's all washed out with water now. So the bus drivers are up at the top. We don't, I don't, speak their language, and they're waiting, for they don't even know what they're doing there. They're just glad to make some money, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:So I run up to the top of the hill, which is quite a ways, and I look and the buses are there, okay, and we've got some people here, so let's send 25 people up to the top. So I organize them at the ones that have all their paperwork. I'm sending them up there to get on. Well, they get up there and the bus drivers are having a soda in a shop somewhere and the buses are locked. I don't know that because I'm down and so they're up there, just up there, and I'm sending the next group of 25 people. So people are like, hey, brenda, you better like check this out, um. So I go up there and I'm like, oh my goodness, so everyone's scrambled down, it's it's it's, they're just, and they've relocated themselves.
Speaker 2:The bus drivers finally opened. They just get on buses and and then I look, and these, they went on to bus number seven instead of anyway, they're just going because they're, they're finding a spot and they're just anyway.
Speaker 2:At that point it was out of control it was chaos, but it was organized in a sense that like they were organizing it themselves yes, they're just, they're just doing what they need to do, but they're so quiet and sweet and calm and they're just, they're just grateful, they just want on a bus. Well then we find out we have like 50 people down there without any papers, any anything, and I and these buses are ready to take off and I've got to be in the lead, but I have 50 people still down the church and I don't know what to do with those people, because we can't get to the border, which is five hours away, and leave people at the border because they won't let them through without their paperwork.
Speaker 1:And how devastating after all this money and time for them to get all the way in their Sunday. Best sacrifice their food money to get to the border.
Speaker 2:I'm like, cause we were going to tell him you know, if you don't have your paperwork, you can't go. I couldn't do that. Oh, my goodness, I had this little man. He was very adorable, old, did not speak any English at all, but he just was so excited to be there he could barely get on the bus. And I just asked him if he has his paperwork and he showed his ID card, which isn't okay. But he said I've gone to Kenya before and I've gotten in with my ID card, so I let him in. Oh no, we get to the border and they're saying, no, you can't. So you can pay him money and still get across.
Speaker 2:So we didn't know that, but we got that man there, but the 50 people that were extra that we didn't have buses for lunches, for anything else. I just had to go with these buses and the missionaries. We had a bus left there for them and they just packed them on that bus and some of them found their paperwork, had it, whatever. And then when we got to the border, we, we, we paid for their.
Speaker 1:Let's pause there for a second, because I think you did a couple of really big things there and this is a wonderful like point of just reflection on this chaos of the scene and I hope, as the saints, as you're listening to this, that you're, you're feeling the angst. Uh, first question to you what was that like for you emotionally, with all this chaos happening and like I'm guessing you were just like God? Please help.
Speaker 2:That it was. We started out with a prayer and it literally was so out of my hands that I just prayed for angels. I prayed for anybody. God had to help us because these people were so wanting to be there and I was just. I have PTSD from it. It was so heavy and it was so whatever, but I just prayed.
Speaker 1:It's such a big deal.
Speaker 2:It was a big deal and this was the temple and to these people it was the world, and a lot of these people had never been out of their hometown.
Speaker 1:Their whole lives.
Speaker 2:They can't afford to leave the village they had not ever left their village, like maybe to go into town, but never past that and so it was just so heavy. And, yes, if we could have parted the the heavens for a second, you would have seen just hordes of angels like they're helping us. They were just getting people on, they were um, they were, they were helping with all of it and they, they knew that it would work out the border. I didn't, we were, we went into immigrations and they told us no, we won't let them across, and asked all the questions, and so I didn't know how it was going to work out. But I had buses taking off and I had to get on a bus and go and left those dear missionaries. I'm like we're like good luck, like we don't even know, so we get going down the road. My phone doesn't work at all.
Speaker 1:So you can't communicate or coordinate these other buses.
Speaker 2:And Brenda.
Speaker 1:One thing that I just want to point out, as you're talking about this scene of chaos, is how I just feel, like I can relate in a different way. I haven't had this type of experience of that magnitude, but I think the lesson I want to just hit hard for the saints, at least that I'm feeling for myself is this idea that when the Lord wants us to do something, it almost always seems to go this way, to some degree, with confusion and chaos and the adversary.
Speaker 1:Because if this is true, what we really believe and what we're doing here is really God's will. That means there's an adversary who's working extra hard to create disruption and chaos and there's an element of chaos that's created simply in the act of or, excuse me, there's an element of chaos in the act of creation that just simply exists. What did we learn in the temple? There's matter unorganized, so you know, in this case, the matter unorganized where these buses of people.
Speaker 1:But what I found so inspiring in that story right now, brenda, was this idea that, like you know, you started this element of creation and then they, with their limited means, because of their high commitment to the Lord and to their families, they made it work. You said it. They got into the buses, they found their seats, they stood, they paid whatever money they didn't have to get to the buses. It's hard to talk about this without getting a little emotional. They paid whatever they could to get to the buses and then, on the buses, they were like fine, seven hours stand with my two kids on each hip. I'm in.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I just they're all in.
Speaker 1:There's this element of all into the story. That is probably my most favorite aspect of like people who just demonstrate this all in nature in the gospel of Jesus Christ, come what may. And so here you are at the border. Are we at that point?
Speaker 2:Well, one story. I just remembered getting on this bus, there was a mom who had a few children and she had all the paperwork except for the one for their baby and she wanted to go so bad and she was on there and she was sitting on there but she didn't have the paperwork for the baby and I'm like we can't leave your baby at the border, like we can't do do this, and what happened was that paperwork went to another branch, to another, the other bus area and we didn't have it with us, so my phone doesn't work for some reason.
Speaker 2:It usually works there. It was completely if we want to talk about opposition like I felt. Those powers, um, for this whole trip, from the beginning, all the way through, the powers of darkness were, were there, and and then this other side of just glorious, beautiful, whatever, and so I, I was gonna have to tell this mom to get off the bus and she did her eyes like I, I, but I can't take you, uh, with without your baby having these papers, and, um, just as we were getting ready to take her off, someone showed up and said I got them and she got her, she got her papers.
Speaker 2:Yes, I just remembered that story when you're talking. So we closed the door and let that bus go.
Speaker 1:What a miracle, what a miracle, oh yeah. What was that like to witness that?
Speaker 2:It was just my heart, was just out on my outside my body, just like feeling all of this stuff. But in this chaos, if you saw the people, there was no chaos. They were peaceful, they were calm, they had smiles on their face. They weren't in chaos.
Speaker 1:They're the lilies of the field that was in chaos.
Speaker 2:It was me with this big picture of getting these people there, and you know just just that. But these, they were not in any chaos.
Speaker 1:Man, what a lesson for Americans, this idea that, like we get so worked up over things, um, they had no one sacrificed more than the Africans right and by the way, I'm relating to you on a million levels here, but I just think there's such a powerful lesson for me around this concept of, like the lilies of the field, they toil not. These people had given away so much of their material possessions to be there and they, they literally have nothing and they're sitting on a bus not knowing the outcome and there as calm. And you said something about how like something I want to punch real quick you said earlier, before we hit record, was how calm even the babies were.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. While we were sitting in the chapel trying to get all of their stuff, I heard a baby cry and I went and gave him a little toy, because I'm known for a bag of stuff that I take for the children. I love the children and so I gave this little baby a toy. That was the only time in two days that I heard a baby cry.
Speaker 1:Even when the buses were packed.
Speaker 2:No, I was on all those buses, I'd jump on and I would ride with different buses and talk to them. Never had a baby cry. They're so peaceful, you know, look at us at the border, all these people trying to get through customs and lots of children and they're standing by their parents. They're not running around. I never heard a child yell. I never heard a baby cry. They just they. They just, you know, held them and whatever I don't know like. And it took us a long time to get through customs.
Speaker 1:You had three windows you had to go through one person at each thing right these lines are just out the door um and just for the listeners, we're talking about going from tanzania to kenya big deal and it can be a scary thing, uh, but we were just blessed from there.
Speaker 2:So, with all the opposition, we had opposition until we got to the the temple grounds and and then, uh, just that part was just uh, okay, let's cut that out because we don't want to talk about that yet. Okay, yeah, so we're at customs and we, we get all these people through, even this older man who didn't have his paperwork. Um, we worked it out. It worked out and it was just a lesson for me. Like brenda, you don't, you don't have to make sure everything's okay. Like heavenly father is he wants these people to go to the temple.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, and I knew that, but it's just that side of me that needs to like make sure it's all okay.
Speaker 1:It feels it feels it really does feel it's an.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting challenge in mortality for me that I relate to, as you're talking of this idea of it's my decisions that will impact my future Exactly. I have freedom of choice, but yet there's this thing called mercy and this thing called the most powerful, loving father in heaven, able to do whatever he wants and, of course, he's going to bless these things. So it's a balance of having faith that things will end up the way they're supposed to, after we've done the best that we can, and not holding on a second more. I struggle, and I'm hoping a lot of saints can relate to this of just maybe holding on too tight, oh, absolutely, and just being and, and, by the way, it's not a minimization of that, but it's just. Again, you look back at the people on the buses with their kids just on their way to the, on their way to the temple. Maybe they'll get there, maybe they won't. It means everything to them, but they don't think about what's at risk, whereas we do a lot. That's right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So one other little miracle was we were in there pouring rain. These people are just coming, coming, coming before we get on the buses and the rain did stop. It just stopped.
Speaker 2:So all that rain, all that, and then they get on and the rain immediately ceases ceases, yeah, and so we were very, very blessed there and, yeah, just lots of, lots of really sweet little miracles along the way, which that's why I love Africa. They have so much faith that we just say a prayer and I'll watch the miracles happen. I mean, stuck in the mud and we can't get out, and I'm like, hey, why don't you guys say a prayer? And it just goes, it gets out, it goes like I love that because we have so much. We have doctors, we have instant everything that we can take care of our problems. Uh, but they don't have it, and they, they learned to use faith, and that faith is what took them to the temple. It was their faith that did this, it was not mine.
Speaker 1:I would argue accumulation, but I will say that it's beautiful how they were able to let go and trust God, and it was God who got them across. So so you have no idea how many people you've got with you at this point. You're just surviving across the border.
Speaker 2:We were going to be organized and we have no idea Now. The Moshi group and those guys Alan down there, they were more organized, they had their numbers, they got on their buses but I couldn't communicate with them, I couldn't tell them hey, I'm in trouble up here.
Speaker 2:And so those other my phone was not working, um, and so I they. They got on and they left. They were an hour behind us. They had an extra hour to go and so I had no idea where they were. They actually ended up stopping at that church and picking up some of those people because they were communicating with the missionaries or something. So they grabbed some of those extra people and put them on their bus. It just worked out.
Speaker 1:So you were in the first group. You were in the first group, I was the very lead first. Yes, and and. What a lesson in leadership, guys. The first one through the first time through anything is the bloodiest Like there's a phrase in business, the first one, through the wall, is the bloodiest.
Speaker 2:It's like that idea of you were leading the tip of that spear, so it makes sense that you'd be catching all the chaos as well. Actually, there was two buses out front that left, so I was on the third one, but I was supposed to be on the front. It all worked out Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you get to the border. You guys cross through. Anything else you'd want to say about?
Speaker 2:that no, we got everybody through Everyone.
Speaker 1:Every single one, not a single person was lost. No, and you don't know how many people yet. So listeners, stay tuned, because we'll reveal the number at the end. So you break through.
Speaker 1:I make it sound like you ran through it but the miracles, miracle after miracle people not having papers, mothers not having papers for kids that show up at the right time, all these things happen, not a single person. And many of these people showed up. I think the news article says in the church that, as you were leaving, another 50 people just showed up to jump on the bus they were getting on.
Speaker 2:They didn't want to be left behind, and so I think I'd have a bus set and then, uh, then there'd be more people on there. I don't know where they came from. I can't, I can't talk to them because of the language, and yes, and so we just did it. It was.
Speaker 1:So after the border, how long would drive? Is it to uh?
Speaker 2:it was about five hours to the, to the border four to five hours depending on where we left from and you guys had two hotels completely booked up. Yes, oh so from and then from the border, yeah, to our hotel was another probably two hours.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see yeah.
Speaker 2:So we had another couple hours to get into Nairobi Nairobi's huge but the border and then we go away. As we get into Nairobi, we get to this hotel, which was a miracle in itself. Why Just this lady we met? She just said hey, I'll, I'll set you guys up, I'll take care of this. She rented out the whole hotel and two of them for it, and Kate. We said well, what if we need more? We don't. This thing keeps growing. And she said I've got you covered. It's right next door.
Speaker 1:So she had a hotel rented out for the people that you knew were coming and you said there might be a few more. Yeah, and she goes well, I'll just rent out a whole nother hotel.
Speaker 2:They did.
Speaker 1:Oh, my word.
Speaker 2:So we had two hotels that they gave us the best price. They didn't even charge us for five and under and I have no idea how many kids we had five and under price $35 and adult price $40, I think, and just, and they were so organized for us. They had refreshments when we drove in. We made them sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, because it's about all I could think to do for them. So we just made hundreds of peanut butter sandwiches in there and as they got off their buses, we gave them that and chips, and then they had drinks and whatever and they got assigned their buses. We gave them that and chips, and then they had drinks and whatever, and they got assigned their hotel room and went. Well, we clean up the sandwich mess and another bus pulls in.
Speaker 1:We're like what who knew? We, we had another whole bus we had everybody here.
Speaker 2:Oh no, this whole number 13 pulled in, we get all the stuff out we had enough food left over. That was a miracle. We made them all sandwiches and we don't know where they were.
Speaker 1:There's so many miracles, brenda. I have to interrupt you because there's so many miracles. You're like, and there's a miracle, and there's a miracle. Like you're just going so fast, like you almost ran out of food but then another bus comes and somehow you fed all those people.
Speaker 2:I know it's. Who would have even known who counted the buses? 13 of them. Somebody should have, but we didn't. So and we got them hotel rooms and everybody just went into their, into their hotel rooms quietly and went to bed and we were just like what just happened? We can't think about it, because we've got to get up in the morning and the big day and there's just this excitement in the air, just this really sweet, very peaceful excitement.
Speaker 1:You overcame the challenge. You're in the hotel room, you're realizing we did it. And it's the night before the big excitement thing. What was that night like? And I?
Speaker 2:had not had sleep for a few nights because of the flight, so I think I just slept which was great.
Speaker 1:So pure exhaustion, I just exhausted. That's a hard trip. By the way, going to Africa is one of the hardest I've ever done.
Speaker 2:So you, you just like, and I had already done it twice this year, so this is my third trip in three months and so third trip in three months, which don't do that.
Speaker 2:That was just dumb and so, um, but I had to get all this stuff lined up and so, anyway, yes, so we woke up the next morning and they're up and they're in there and they've got this beautiful hotel, had just this marvelous spread of buffet food. So we walk in there and these people have their plates just piled high. I mean, they're just like this was exciting for them. They've never seen food like this before. They've never had. Most of them have never had an opportunity like this. And you see little kids with just plates and they're just just smiling, happy, and people are chatting and they're, they're just this excitement. But, yes, that that food had to be of their not the highlight, but definitely something they'll never forget.
Speaker 1:Isn't that interesting. That's something we take for granted. Um that, that was like one of the highlights of the entire trip for them was the meal.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, that meal and then the other one we'll talk about later, which was another miracle. So then we tell them we're going to just take a couple of buses at a time, and uh, uh, so you, so you might as well just stay out in the courtyard or something and wait. Oh no, we are not missing this, they're, they're on the bus. They all just finished their meal, got on the bus and they don't care if they sat there for a couple hours, which they did yeah and they just, they just weren't gonna take a chance on this, so they're on the buses.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, and so we take off and we get there. We can't find the temple. Our GPS takes you somewhere else.
Speaker 2:GPS wasn't working, uh the temple is in this twisted little neighborhood. It's in it kind of a uh, uh, I say a rougher area, but Nairobi is all a rougher area. So anyway, and it was, it was hard to get. So we're trying to send pins and I sent a pin to someone uh, someone gave me their hot spot and so my phone was actually working right there and one of the sweet little guys on the on the bus he's like use this and it worked.
Speaker 2:That was another miracle. I had a phone I could contact, so I sent a pin to someone that was lost and it took them to a hotel somewhere, like it wasn't working. So we're just hoping these buses show up and can find the place. And we're there, we walk on.
Speaker 2:It's raining yeah now it's raining and we're like, oh, my goodness, we've got all these people coming and and rain. And as soon as we stepped on, the rain stopped and again and they are already there. They know.
Speaker 2:I've talked to the temple department and the the church department there, they know we're coming and I kept sending them the updated numbers and they're like, oh, okay, I'm like okay, we're going to spread them out for you so we don't overwhelm you. And they're like, okay, that would be great. And and I don't know if they really believed us or if we really get there with that many, I don't know, but they had a lot they called in a couple missionaries and others around to be there and to greet us and President the area authority, president Tungo, was there and he was welcoming the little kids and just very, it was just exciting, just smiles, happiness, wonderful, as people got off those buses and they just kept coming and coming and coming and they would take them into holding rooms and then into the chapel to watch the movie and then they would head off and go through this temple.
Speaker 2:And you have to realize that most of these people have dirt floors, right or live in just like huts, like, just like really, really tough places, and they're going into this, this building that they have never seen, and it was a very simple beauty. It wasn't, it wasn't gaudy, it wasn't, it was just a very simple beauty, it wasn't gaudy, it was just a very simple beauty. You know how the temples are Local artwork, just a very small temple. But for them to go in and see and you know we do temples right, we do them, they're for God and we do them right and to come in and feel that and see that, so they're, they're going in, coming out, we have more buses coming, going and then, and then, um, we say, for the very last we had, we had a busload of orphans from Nairobi, which is a whole nother story. Uh, I would love for you to to do Vanessa one day and do her temple experience.
Speaker 1:So this is Vanessa who had the orphans that was her journey of getting the orphans here Okay, so definitely have her on the show.
Speaker 2:Yes, she would be amazing. She speaks English. So this this Vanessa. She grew up, uh, in the orphanage and became a member of the church orphanage and became a member of the church and she had two helpers that helped take care of the orphanage. They both passed away this year, so now she is the only one. She's 24. She just found out that she has a giant lump that is around her nerves and she's actually in surgery right now getting that taken care of. We just got her some help so she can do that. She's had it forever but she didn't have money to take care of it, so she's the mom now of 270 orphans.
Speaker 2:They were wiped out in a flood last year and the big nairobi flood and they're there, if you can call it a house. Two structures a boys and a girls structure got washed away and so they have been living around Kenya at different like Christian churches or whatever, for for this whole year and the community's had to feed them. It's not a great situation. They miss their siblings, they miss their. It's just a very, very tragic situation.
Speaker 2:So we're we're in there trying to help her, but she, um, she wanted to come the temple and she's asked me to take her to get her endowments, and so I'm looking forward to that. But she said she would bring like 50 of the orphans to the temple, and so we sent a bus for her, and I didn't know how many she brought, but they just kept coming. These kids just kept coming and coming and coming, and not until later that day, when we were feeding them and counting them, did we know that she had brought 98 of them, and they were all on one bus. So do I wish I had a picture of 98 orphans on one bus? Yes, and we didn't get one. But um, she is just an absolute doll breath of fresh air.
Speaker 1:Vanessa, vanessa, let's say, and says you're listening to this. Please pray for Vanessa and these orphans, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Pray for her. That whole orphanage. We've got to get them taken care of. And one of the little girls she came to the temple. Her name is Ashley and she has an infection in her leg, this giant sore all up and down her leg, and it's gone into her bone. So we're trying to take care of her, but her desire is to be baptized in the church. She's 16 and she feels like in Africa. A lot of times when they have something wrong with them they're born with a deformity or have a serious illness they feel like the tradition is that it's from Satan, because God doesn't do that, and so this is from Satan and it means you're bad and not that you're good, and it's opposition. It's that you are bad. And so she she inside her heart, she knows she'll never be able to be a member of the church because of this horrible thing. So I've got a lot of work to do there, but she's. We're trying to get her help. So this girl comes with her and she can hardly walk.
Speaker 1:She's there. How many people were at the open house outside of the groups that you guys are connected to?
Speaker 2:Just a few people here and there there were carloads coming in, a few minivans.
Speaker 1:Did you guys bring the majority of the people who attended?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I don't think they ever had this many people at one time. They were through the whole thing In Africa.
Speaker 1:it's amazing how the United States because they're planted in these, you know usually geographic areas and everyone can drive like you just have days of people going through. Oh yeah, it's a steady stream.
Speaker 2:No, there were people like just you know a few people here and there, cars that would come and go Right, and now that I don't, I'm curious, but I'm sure they didn't have this many ever on any other day.
Speaker 1:Well, the church department was clearly shocked as you were telling them oh yeah, there's a 13th bus, and one bus is all teenage boys, and so everyone goes through these wonderful open houses and thanks for framing that so beautifully how they go from these dirt huts into these beautiful not ostentatious but very beautiful homes that represent the Savior and his love, and then they're coming out. What was that like for?
Speaker 2:them Just glowing. One guy came up to me and he just said I never thought I could see a temple in my lifetime, in my lifetime. And then on the bus home, uh, one of Peter, uh, he said, uh, I didn't know it would be possible for me to get my endowment, so I will be back, you know, and you just see these people starting to, they feel very, very, very blessed and, uh, it's just, it's just a dream come true for them, like, yeah. Unbelievable. What was that bus?
Speaker 2:ride back with all the people oh just um, just quiet and uh, just quiet. And peace is the only word. These people are just very peaceful. And you know, if you try to talk to them about stress and anxiety which I'm a life coach and I I do that and I had a huge group of them. I was talking about stress and anxiety. They didn't know what I was talking about. And I'm like that's what I do here is.
Speaker 1:I help people with that, but and they live in the most stressful yeah, their lives are very, very.
Speaker 2:They don't know where food's coming from tomorrow. A lot of them or whatever, but they, they don't know that because they have a lot of trust and it's just so sweet. So one other bus from Kenya was from Mully. So we have to talk about Mully. He is an incredible man. Please watch his movie, it's M-U-L-L-Y. I was able to take him to welfare square two years ago because he got the freedom award in Provo, the Provo Freedom Award, and so I took him to welfare square. Elder Gong heard we were there and showed up and met us there and told Molly I've watched your movie three times and just honored him because Molly was was an orphan and he grew up and became very wealthy one, a very wealthy man in Kenya, and one day the Lord said sell everything you have and help my street children. Well, he had been a street children. So that's what I call making your mess your message.
Speaker 1:Making your mess. Your message, yes, and that's as a coach. Please listen to that.
Speaker 2:That's as a coach, is what I do. I have people come with big messes and it's like let's make it your message. What are we going to do with this? Let's do something good, and that's part of why I'm doing all this is because I'm making my hard stuff in my life, my message and so anyway. So Moli drives in and Elder Matungo they're all waiting for this man.
Speaker 2:He was just the special guest on the choir at Temple Square Christmas concert square christmas concert wow and so, and it was amazing, it will come out this next did he have his cowboy hat?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, he always has a cowboy, never yeah, he.
Speaker 2:He has it on always and it's his kind of trademark and so he's a christian man. He's a preacher. He's adopted 35 000 street children and he they worship God twice a day. When I go to their church meeting I cry through the whole thing. The little children are worshiping God, morning and night. They love him, they love God and he's raised them to love God and to love other people and to forgive people. All these street children will come up and they have stories, just like Molly. My mom, you know, prostituted me out or left me here or there, and they always say and I've forgiven them. That's how they end their stories.
Speaker 2:It's a sweet experience. So he's got a busload of these kids coming and he comes in a car and that was a really sweet experience. They greeted him very well. We did a vip tour with molly going through the temple. So imagine this man who's a christian man.
Speaker 2:He's never heard about pre-earth life right and because I've specifically talked to him about that, returning back to a god that we lived with and families can be together forever. So I remember being like just in the ceiling room where elder matungo was explaining to him about, uh, being sealed to your family. Well, he has a pretty big family. He loves them. He has his own children, just amazing children. His wife is. The love he has for her just exudes from the for each other, for both of them and what they've been through so beautiful and and here he's hearing I can have these guys forever and he's just quiet.
Speaker 2:And it was the most reverent sweet experience and, um, he, he, he had a lot to go home and think about and, uh, it was just a beautiful experience. So we're glad that we tacked that on to our trip as well.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And so we had all these different elements. We tried to get a picture of all of them at the temple, which some of them were still going through, so we got most of them and it's just this massive. And we got Elder Matungo in the middle of it and all these the missionaries and everybody there and it, it. It was just incredibly great. So we, we, finally we're way late now, we're, we're hours past when we were supposed to meet at the school for lunch and I had a Relief Study president that just said we will take this on and do it.
Speaker 1:This is after the open house.
Speaker 2:This is after the open house, so we've got to feed all these people now, and so it's like 2 in the afternoon and they were set up ready for us at noon and there's Relief Study lady and all her friends Shirley is her name. She's like incredible. They're all down there. They we rented out a little school and I had a big gathering room and then they cook on pots that are this big. So everything you don't know fast food, know anything, it's like beans, rice, you know whatever, and chicken, and they have just giant pots all over and they've cooked for all these people.
Speaker 2:And I keep adding more numbers to this poor lady, sure, and she's got to run to the store and get more food and more food and more food. And my phone didn't work and I couldn't tell her we had and I think we got more and like all the stuff. So, um, we take off, we start sending the buses over there to eat and, um, and I'm on in a car that can't find it, we get lost, everybody's there and I'm still coming. So, as soon, can't find it, we get lost, everybody's there and I'm still coming. So as soon as we left the temple, it's like the opposition started. It's like ah.
Speaker 1:I'm tired of this. It's interesting the adversary always hits hardest before and after.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:Right after a spiritual experience.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, so I get there after everyone. They're all there, and even moli made it there before us and he elder matungo, took him in and showed him his genealogy, which just was the sweetest tender mercy for him wow like just incredible things, that's all anyway. So we get there and there's just people everywhere eating, talking, happy, whatever lines of people to get food, whatever. We still don't know how many people we have. We know that we had over 500 people at this point.
Speaker 1:So you're at five, okay. So now we're updating the numbers. We're clearly over 500 people. What? What did you think when you saw that number? Was it kind of like, oh yeah, that makes sense?
Speaker 2:I'm like adding it up and we don't know for sure how many people are on which bus, and we don't know for sure. But I'm like we're over 500 people and, um, you know, we don't even know if people got on the same buses. Like a miracle. This is a miracle for me, just as a mom. We didn't leave anybody at the temple. We might've left one older guy and he found his way there.
Speaker 1:There's so much chaos and you don't have like a name. They're not counting people and like check-in systems.
Speaker 2:We needed to have, yeah, and the bus yes, and so we didn't. We did leave. I heard we left one guy who found his way over there. I don't know who that was or if that's even true, but I heard that. But other than, that we didn't leave anybody anywhere.
Speaker 2:Like seriously, I mean yes, and so anyway, everybody gets to this this luncheon thing, just people everywhere. And moley had brought his choir and these choir, just look them up on youtube. They are incredible and if you go to his place I'll take you there. I take people there all the time to his his place with all these thousands of people and they'll just sing to you for like two hours and it is their music is just gorgeous.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, they just sing praises to God. That's what they do, and so they had just been through the temple and they're up. They're singing while everybody's eating, and that is. It is just a sweet.
Speaker 1:what a beautiful scene to have this beautiful choir to have all these people who had, just like, sacrificed everything it was fulfilled. They're eating, they're being spiritually and physically sustained in this moment of completion. And meanwhile, I just want to acknowledge the fact that the adversary is working on you and the leadership of this like crazy, right? Because I just want all the people out there who just sometimes feel exasperated when they're serving and they're trying to balance the home and the work and their callings and they just man, how's this all going to work together? That it serves a purpose, and these people who are able, who suffer way worse than we do, to have this moment of rest at our, at your, at your expenses, in the right word, but at your anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just whatever. What a great. And you just have to keep saying leave me alone, get the hands, I. We're doing this. And you know, and um, at that point it was a little bit more relaxing because we knew we'd gotten them to the temple and that that was what we mission accomplished, it was like that and then we had to get them back home for them.
Speaker 2:Now they're gonna get. We're so late that they're gonna get home way after dark, which is very dangerous for them, because they've got to somehow get clear out to their villages and clear out so they spent one night in a hotel, one One night in the hotel.
Speaker 1:So seven hours one night. Like the temple, the lunch seven hours, get back before dark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they didn't get back before dark and so we just prayed that they'd all get home safely. Uh a ruch is a little bit, uh, rougher place than than uh Moshi, but they still had to get get all these children, everybody, home. And we just kept praying that that everyone made it. And people would check in with us and say, we think, we think everyone made it home. Okay, we're okay and we we've never heard anything negative or hard about that. So that's another huge miracle, like for those people really to get to find transportation and get home. And you know what, if they didn't have money to get home, how did and get home? And you know what, if they didn't even have money to get home, how did they? They just figured it out. So I just I love them. They're so amazing.
Speaker 1:So anyway, what a beautiful story, brenda. This is such a great thing. Do you know what the final number was at the end of the day?
Speaker 2:So we think 537.
Speaker 1:Yes, um, some really interesting elements here. In the article that came out yesterday on May 20th this is being filmed on May 21st you know this whole thing about there's a quote here that says you were saying about the people. These beautiful people have a sense of peace that just emanates from them. It talks about that lilies of the field moment. You said later being at the house of the Lord was a time of heaven on earth for these great, for these beautiful people. Their gratitude, their love for God radiated through the temple grounds. And then later Mercedes, who was one of the attendants at the temple, said I got something attendees. No, she was one of the people on the buses.
Speaker 2:She was yeah, she's a member of the church that came and that's in her broken English that she wrote that out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm going to read it. It's going to sound a little disjointed, but that's how she said it. I get something emotional when I enter the temple. I feel more spirit, especially in celestial room. I was getting something special. I never seen it before. And then, lastly, this last quote, which I love. You said, Brenda, in the church article youth will never forget how they felt. Some will welcome the missionaries to teach them the gospel. This trip will accelerate the growth in the church in Tanzania. Getting priesthood holders to the temple and families united for eternity will bless the Arusha and Moshi areas. It was a privilege for us to participate in helping to gather Israel, an experience we'll never forget. When this event was over and all the adversaries' efforts have been foiled, what was your experience reviewing that in your mind? What was that like once this whole thing had been completed? What was your experience reviewing that in your mind? What was that like once this whole thing had been completed? What was your feelings, your thoughts, what was your experience?
Speaker 2:My thoughts are always to the future and what this is going to do.
Speaker 2:It's always about this bigger picture of how many people are going to go back and get their endowments go through youth.
Speaker 2:If we can get youth there to do baptisms now and to have just have it build on that, something that our youth are doing all the time, but to just get them back there and then to see the priesthood grow in that area, leadership grow in that area, young men and women going on missions, like if, if this, this did trigger that for many of them. I just I got a message a week or so ago from a young man that, um, I don't know if he was on the trip or his sister was on the trip, but he said I want to, I want the missionaries to teach me, I want to get baptized, I want to serve a mission. Yeah, and I mean I just have all this stuff pouring in, and so it lit things on fire and that's where my thoughts go. It's like this was a catalyst to something really big that I don't understand and I can't even see how big it is, but it had an impact that is massive.
Speaker 1:I have to ask an obvious question just because I think I want the listeners to hear this but was it worth it?
Speaker 2:Oh yes, absolutely. I am so glad I did it now to talk about doing that again.
Speaker 1:I said I don't know if I could go three times in a month.
Speaker 2:We would do a lot of things different. Um for sure, but absolutely worth it. Oh my goodness, it was why I went to Africa to do this. I thought it was to teach the boys and to find Moli and to all of these things, but it was to get people to the temple. That's why I go to Africa.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, obviously the show is temple bound, and so this episode is probably one of one of the most literal like experiences of that phrase, cause you know the idea of of us being sealed together, bound to the Lord, and also the the work it takes to go to the temple. And you know, this morning, um, I'm embarrassed to share this, to be honest, but I, I woke up, had no plans to go to the temple, felt like I was supposed to go to the temple, so I did, and I didn't go begrudgingly, but I didn't go with like the most, like you know, I just kind of went. You know, I went, um, I was even a little bit irritated at some of the little bottleneck things that I was experiencing. I called myself out, repented of it, but it was one of those where, like, literally, I was just going through it, cause I'm, like you know, I got to get here. I have a podcast in the morning. Like you know, I go thinking in that mind and the.
Speaker 1:The gift of this episode for me is this idea that, you know, the, the people of Tanzania have demonstrated what being temple bound is really all about being calm, trusting, happy, faithful and so I want to challenge all of the people who are listening at this point.
Speaker 1:This is something I've never done on the show, but I want to challenge everyone to go to the temple, like the people in Tanzania just showed us how, whatever that looks like for them, maybe it's going 15 minutes earlier, slowing down, taking our watch off, like Elder Perry Wickerman's once. There's just this thing about embracing it with joy and giving yourself just once. Maybe you do it repeatedly from this point on, but I challenge you, everyone who's listening, to go to the temple, as the people of Tanzania demonstrate us how to do it. So, brenda, what would you? One thing I like to ask at the end of the episode is what I this is part family history to temple and family history go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like the sandwiches you made miraculously hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and you were out, and yet there were more.
Speaker 1:I wonder, you know, brenda, real quick, before we get to this how many miracles I wonder that you didn't even see, like if that's how many you saw.
Speaker 2:I am so excited to get on the other side and look at it from that perspective because I could feel all of that happening. But you know, it's like I can't see it, but I could feel it.
Speaker 1:There are so many miracles.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like I can't see it, but I could feel it. There are so many miracles, Like God is an individual God and he was taking care of every one of those individuals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yes, and so I would add to your temple thing to go as if and I'm going to do this go as if it's your first time going, like it's your first time that you get to go, the first time you've seen a temple. You've waited your whole life to go to one. Go with that gratitude and that like, as these people went, like the anticipation, the preparation that President Nelson asked us to do to go before. Because I do, I'll just hop in and go Right and not prepare, not whatever. And I love the temple but and there's nothing wrong with that?
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong, it's you know.
Speaker 1:But there's a missed opportunity, we'll still get some kudos for that right but.
Speaker 1:But there's a lot more there that we could be missing out on, and so that I appreciate that challenge Okay, that's the official name of the challenge that go as if you've never been before challenge. So, guys, I want to hear from you, I want to hear in any way that you're listening to this in the comments or, and all those things. I let's keep this rolling. And, um, brenda, the last question I always ask people is you know, for family history, part of the inspiration for doing the show is that your kids, grandkids, your legacy, are going to hear this. In your case, they have lots of different examples of you, but what would you want to? I would like for you just to have a chance to speak to them directly, because they're going to hear this, probably as an adult. What would you like them to know about this experience and what would you want them to know?
Speaker 2:yeah, in general, I would just say to them I love the temple, I've always loved the temple and I would love them to love the temple. I've always loved the temple and I would love them to love the temple, to look forward to going there, to go as often as you can, to always stay worthy, to go to not just have a temple recommend, but be worthy of that recommend and to love it, honor it, cherish it and wear the temple garments with just great gratitude and um that reminder of what covenants we've made in the temple and um I, I would love for them to just experience a portion of what these african saints experienced and just hold that in your heart, keep it and just keep on going, because it will bless your life more than anything else I can think to.
Speaker 1:To tell you Any one thing is to make the temple just a part of your life, like Brenda, thank you so much for taking time to be with me today and thank you so much I mean, I'm sure you've had some things here and there, but thank you for the impact that what you did and what it did for me. I can't thank you enough for that Like this has changed my life, just hearing about it. And, yeah, thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Come and go with me next time and help me with my seven buses. I'm in.
Speaker 1:I'm in, I'm out. You know I'm a part of careful life. Let's go. And if you'd like to learn more about uh, Brenda's story, if you'd like to learn more about how you can support um, her efforts and the different things that she's doing, or care for life or any of those things, please reach out We'll. We'll put some information in the show notes, but please reach out to us directly. We'll make sure to have that contact information in the show notes. But just remember, guys, as you're wrapping up this episode, to remember that challenge to, as you're going, temple bound, go as if it was your first time. Thanks for tuning in everybody, until next time. Thanks again for listening to today's episode of temple bound. If you enjoyed today's show, make sure to join us over on Instagram at temple bound podcast to receive additional information as well as previews of our upcoming episodes. See you over there.
