Sister Mahlangabeza

This is Sister Mahlangabeza, (To say her name correctly, when you get to the hl you put the tip of your tongue behind your front teeth and give a half clearing your throat/half air out both sides of your tongue.  The "beza" part is with a long a sound not a long e.) and this is the story of her conversion.

Sister M is from the East Cape.  She became a school teacher in Durban.  This was during apartheid.  She took a trip to Cape Town and was arrested because she didn't have a pass, or permission to be in Cape Town.  Because she could prove she was a teacher they released her with a warning.  This experience caused her to have bitter and angry feelings against whites.

As she was telling us her story she remembers dates and days...unfortunately I don't...but this is shortly after, a year or a few after apartheid ended.  She is married with children and she looks out her window and see 2 "white boys" coming up to her house.  She thinks a number of things...what do these boys want here?  Are they trying to get themselves killed?  Are they coming just to my house or all the houses?  Who do they think they are?  She was getting ready to get rid of them but her husband had answered the door and....HE INVITED THEM IN!!!  She was less than happy with him but his mother had taught him to never turn away anyone who wanted to talk about God or Jesus.  So they sat through the lesson...and she thinks, good...now they can just go.  But they ask her husband if they can make an appointment for another visit and....HE SAYS YES!  She was pretty angry.  The weeks go by and each week the elders come back for another visit.  Sometimes she stays for the visits just to harass the elders.  They taught about life after death and she tells them...well if there's life after this one that's when I'll change.  Sometimes when they came in the front door, she would go out the back.  As she's telling this you can feel the anger that she felt back then.  Her lip will go up with a sneer.  If she was a spitting person she would spit out the bad taste in her mouth.  One Sunday her husband and children actually went to that "white man's church".  When they came home she grilled her older daughter asking what happened there.  Her daughter described a fast and testimony meeting.  (One Sunday a month we fast 2 meals and donate the money we would have spent on food as fast offerings.  This money is used to help those in need in our own areas. Our Sacrament Meeting is then a time for members of the congregation to express their love and testimonies of the Savior and His Church.)  The elders would encourage the family to read the Book of Mormon, but she never would read it.  One week she decided she would read the scriptures that they asked her to read so she could grill them and harass the elders further.  This is the scripture that they had assigned: Alma 34:32-34

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

"And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

"Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God.  Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

She had been telling the elders that she would repent in the next life...but these scriptures told her that   she would be the same person in the next life.  She did have questions for the elders...but they were more humble and not antagonistic.  She and her children joined the church...BUT NOT HER HUSBAND!  Which she thinks is pretty ironic.  After they had been members for about 7 years one of her sons was giving a Family Home Evening lesson about the celestial kingdom.  Her husband asked...who will be in the celestial kingdom.  Her son replied: families.  He was eventually baptized.

It was so amazing to hear Sister M tell her story.  There is not a kinder, more gentle person that she is.    And I am amazed by the contrast of who she says she was!  The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives for the better.  When we see each other we give hugs, she'll kiss my cheek and we say, How is my good friend?  I love Sister Mahlangabeza.  She is a wonderful example to me of forgiveness, humility and kindness.  Her example and influence are blessings that I will take home with me from South Africa.