Hello, My Sister

Wednesday morning I looked out my window and saw a lovely woman from Tanzania who is here to attend the temple. She looked so beautiful that just had to snatch up my camera and run to ask her for a picture. She was very gracious, though she was struggling with a toddler who wanted very much to jump into the fish pond with the fishies. There were 2 other children with her and they allowed me to snap their picture holding “Flat Nathaniel” (the topic for another blog). If you look closely you can see that the little girl is holding him. The sister was so sweet and told me she is the primary president in her branch and the 2 children in the picture with her are her primary children (her own little one is behind her back and you can’t see him.)


I came into the office and printed the pictures for her on photo paper and took them to her a few minutes later. She was, of course, surprised and so happy. She told me her name, Sister Tiba (Teeba) (meaning treatment or cure) Furaha (meaning Joy), and I went into the patron housing office to borrow a pen and paper to write it down. When I returned the pen the office sister said, “It is interesting that you would take her picture today because she has quite a story.” It seems that when she and her husband arrived they discovered that although they had been married tribally they had no civil documentation of the marriage. Therefore they could not be sealed. They also have an 8 year old daughter who had not been baptized. So everyone scrambled and held a baptismal interview for the little girl to be baptized today and arranged to perform a marriage later for the couple. Then they would be all sealed together.

I found Sister Tiba again (she was in the patron housing kitchen showing her pictures to the other sisters) and told her I knew of her story and would like to take another picture with her husband and both children. As we were leaving the office abt 5:00 we saw them getting ready for their little girl's baptism.

They said the marriage was to be at 8:00 the next morning and they would like to have us come. The temple president told us it would be at the Joburg Ward, but we waited there that morning but when no one came we went back to the office and found them in a room doing pre-marriage paper work. We stayed for the marriage which was not much of a celebration for them and I waited for some time after to take their picture but they were so long coming out (more paper work) that I was unable to get a picture then in her beautiful pink African gown. She came to tell me later that the sealing would be at 6:30 pm and wanted us to be there. It was an honor for us to attend their marriage and sealing and Dad was one of the wittnesses.

This morning I opened my window when I saw her and she called, "Hello, my Sister." I went out and we visited one last time and I learned more of her story. She was born in the Congo in 1978 and is the only child of her mother. Her father took her from her mother when she was 12 and she has lived in Tanzania since then. She was baptised in 1998 and her husband was a friend of her step brother. She doesn't know if her mother is dead or alive because she hasn't heard from her since 1995 when she visited Tiba in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). She was holding my hands and said, "When I saw you in the sealing room I thought, "There is my mother." Of course I cried with her and we hugged. She has such a sweetness about her. She was so pleased to know that I had a son her same age and I told her I would tell my children about her and send pictures of them to her. We promised to correspond and she asked if she could send names for temple work to be done. I told her we would be honored. With one last hug we parted. The tragic part of this beautiful story is that her husband, Felix, and little girl, Debra live in the Kwazulu-Natal where he is employed and Tiba lives and works in Dar es Salaam. She said he does not make enough for her and little Abraham to live with him. But, she said, "He will come."

It was so hard to see them separate and go two different ways as they departed the area offices. Once again I am filled with gratitude for this African experience.