Reflections on as deep a Temple and Garden of Eden experience as possible

It was special to be at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Cape Town South Africa Temple on Saturday 25 October 2025. The land was dedicated from the Temple and for each one of us who will spend time on it.

Sally and me turning the soil

My father particularly loved this picture of Jesus Christ.

I love to reflect on some significant things regarding this special site. 

We could see Lion's Head where the church work started in South Africa, and maybe in Africa as a whole in 1853. The journal of Elder William Holmes Walker

'On May 23rd we all went on the top of a mountain called The Lions Head, the guide for all approaching ships, to pray and council.
'We organized a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, composed of 3 members. Returning in the evening, we continued making every possible effort to get an
opening, in every direction.'

This site of the Temple would have been close to where these three missionaries walked very often. They may well have walked on the very spot where the Temple will stand.

I love Heavenly Father's sense of humour - across the Liesbeeck River from the Temple Grounds is Devil's Peak. But Pam Cerff pointed out that there are also views of Groote Schuur Hospital, a place of healing, and University of Cape Town, a place of learning. Then someone else pointed out that on the other side of Table Mountain are the Twelve Apostles. 

My father often said (and I love to repeat this ) that Kirstenbosch is part of the Garden of Eden that has remained intact, also in view beyond UCT. DNA studies show that human DNA traces back to southern Africa, and fossils show that stone age people were in the Dell at Kirstenbosch. We don't know if the Garden of Eden was one hectare or a million hectares, or what... Nice to dream about Adam and Eve maybe treading on the soil where the Cape Town South Africa Temple will stand . I love that when we leave Kirstenbosch through Gate 1 we go out from the east side into the lone and dreary world.

Ja well, no fine, I love Cape Town and all that we enjoy here. We look forward to having the Temple here! My first ancestor came here in 1806 when Britain took the Cape, and then formally moved here in 1820. My parents were married here in 1943. I moved here from the West Rand in 1981. And our original ancestors come from 'here', the Cradle of Humankind. What better place to live on Earth? And now we look forward to having a Temple here.

Who's Who of Southern Africa and the World

My father was featured in Who's Who of Southern Africa 1975 and my sister Judy posted the page on a blog honouring him
http://charleskennethpowrie.blogspot.com/search/label/Who%27s%20Who

Some time ago when I was given a distinguished title of Deputy Director: Information Technology Advisory Services at South African National Biodiversity Institute, I was invited to be featured in Who's Who of the World. I thought that I did not deserve this honour as much as my father did in southern Africa, but I submitted some information anyway. I came to consider afterwards that maybe it was more a vehicle for mobilising invitations to talk at or attend various conferences ranging from agriculture to medicine to engineering to geology and so on... Also, all sorts of new contacts databases seem to link to Who's Who, resulting in my receiving a lot of uninvited e-mails and so forth. I was always amused at the title Deputy Director because, although reflected a rank in the Public Service, I did not direct anyone! We later changed the title to Biodiversity Information Specialist that made much more sense to me.

Well, for what it is worth, here is what I submitted and it appeared for about three years.

 POWRIE, LESLIE WARD, research scientist, deputy director; b. Krugersdorp,

 Gauteng, South Africa, Feb. 23, 1 954; s Charles Kenneth Powrie and Beatrice

 Philippa Dryden Dymond; m., Sally-Ann Barnes Swindell, June 27, 1981; children:

 Shelly Lee Herbert, Colleen Lynn Schwartz. Andrew James, Cindy Jean Wentzel.

 Richard Daniel. BSc with honors, U. Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1979; MSc, U.

 Cape Town, South Africa, 1986. Lab. technician Cape Provincial Adminstrn.,

 Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa, 1981-82; tchr. Herzlia Mid. Sch., Cape

 Town, Western Cape, 1983–84; scientist, edn. officer, technician South African

 Nat. Biodiversity Inst., Cape Town, 1985–2000, chief info tech. adviser, 2000–11,

 dep. dir., info. tech. adv. svcs., 2011–. Author: (book) Common Names of Karoo

 Plants: Strelitzia 16. Bishop Ch. of Jesus Christ Latter=day Saints, Cape Town,

 1982–83, 2014– clerical mem., 1983–. Cpl. Engrs., 1972–82, Kroonstad.

 Achievements include patents pending for SkyHose, airborne hose for fighting bush

 fires; first to develop combination of various ecological, species distribution and

 gazetteer databases for facilitating georeferencing of biological specimens and

 species Research, Wood Badge, Boy Scouts of South Africa 1993. Office: South

 African Nat Biodiversity Inst Kirstenbosch Rsch Ctr Pvt Bag X7 Claremont Western

 Cape 7735 South Africa Home: 45 D'Urban St Bothasig Western Cape 7441 South

 Africa Home Phone: 27-21-558-4693.  Office Phone: 27-21-799-8703.; Office Fax:

 27-21-797-6903, Home Fax· 27-8319-83579-3933. Business E-Mail:

 l.powrie@sanbi.org.za.

Well, now that I have retired, some of the information like work phone number is no longer valid, but I am still who I am.

My parents' stories of their conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

My father Charles Kenneth Powrie 

Born 5 November, 1921 in Lydenburg, Transvaal (Mpumalanga), South Africa

New horizons were there to conquer a year later in the form of an offer of a job by a former shipmate who asked me to move to Johannesburg to join the firm of Stanley Motors, Limited. This I accepted and -in 1946 we moved to Krugersdorp and here we found happiness and joy in building a home and in rearing our two children. Timothy was born here in 1947.

This was a strange, quiet life which seemed to be the calm before the storm. Finally in May, 1950 the change came, quietly and determinedly, when two young Americans knocked on our door with the offer of a message of great importance. My wife, Philippa, as though moved by some unforeseen force, invited these young Elders from Utah and Idaho to come inside whilst the week's wash-for a growing family became of secondary importance.

Mother led the way in this new intellectual exercise, whilst father tagged along in somewhat polite boredom, bred of post experiences which had resulted in such religious excursions. They had provided nothing more than a temporary distraction ending in on obscure wilderness. This time, however, it seemed different, as mother's arguments (given to her so strongly by her mother) appeared to be losing ground in the face of truth which was irrefutable. This resulted in talk of baptism and then why not both of us taking the step? On the 10th of September, 1950 we entered the waters of baptism at old Ramah to join what we now know to be the only true Church and Kingdom of God here upon the earth. We shall always remember with affection the four missionaries who spent time and effort in our conversion, Elders E. Mauary Payne, Parry D. Harrison, Farrell J. Roberts and Dean D. Baxter. Thus started the new life in a Church which, in its temporal appointments, showed very little sign of being the one and only Church of Jesus Christ, for we met in dingy halls and other humble surroundings in limited numbers and with very inadequate facilities. However, the true sweet spirit was there to guide us as we, like infants, crawled, then toddled, then stood upright and walked with our heads high yet humbled by the testimonies which we felt growing within our hearts.

The wisdom of the Lord in prompting growth and testimony through activity soon became manifest in my being called to one assignment after another - branch clerk, branch teacher, counsellor in the Krugersdorp Branch Presidency and then, after having been a member of the Church for just over seven years, the staggering and humbling call to serve as the Transvaal District President. This call in itself was one of the highlights of my life. The day as Transvaal District Conference, 13th April, 1958. We had returned home between sessions and, during that time, received a call from the District President, Brother I.C. Louw, requesting that we come in early. We duly arrived and were ushered into the presence of the Mission President Glen G. Fisher and President Louw, who dropped what I described in my diary as “the bombshell”. I had anticipated some call or another but certainly did not think of a position as the District President! Philippa and I looked at one another in astonishment, but the spirit whispered to us that we could do nothing but accept this high and wonderful calling. We appreciated the sobering honour and I was set apart by President Fisher that he admonished me to recall the promise given to Nephi of old that the Lord would not do anything save he would open the way for them to accomplish that which they had been commanded to do. This had the effect of helping me to recognize the promptings of the spirit in this calling and has been a blessing and a testimony. I have felt my inadequacy fall away in the face of the strength and guidance of the spirit which has helped me to do many things beyond myself and has indeed brought the treasures of Heaven into my life in this great service to the Lord.

The years have rolled by and our family has been increased in that three other precious souls have been brought to us namely, Jane in 1950, Leslie in 1954 and Ronald in 1959. These three children, sent to us during the course of membership in the Church, have all by strange coincidence been born on the 23^rd of their respective months - an honour we felt indeed to be thus matched in some small way with our prophet Joseph Smith, born 23^rd December.

The Church is our life. We have found the answers to every problem in service and in this association with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Recently we celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary of our wedding day, and Philippa and I are able to bear witness to the fact that the sweeter years are here with us now because of the fact that we have attempted to mould our rebellious, stubborn lives, and the lives of our children, to the restored Gospel. We know without any doubt whatsoever, that these Gospel principles hold the key to that happiness and joy which is the heritage of children of men here upon the earth.

We hope and pray that we may continue to serve in this Kingdom and that-we shall be able to enjoy such precious experiences as we have in the more recent years, in having our eldest daughter, Judy, serve an honourable mission in South Africa. Currently our son, Timothy, is serving a mission in the British South Mission, thus bringing the Gospel to others as we had it brought to us.

Our next goal in life is to visit the House of the Lord as a family, to be sealed thus for time and all eternity. With the blessing of the Lord and with our ability to work in this direction also, we hope to achieve this in July, 1969. We pray that this will lead us to be able to serve better in the future and thus repay our Father in Heaven in some small measure for the great and glorious blessings which he has showered upon us over the years.

My mother Beatrice Philippa Dryden Dymond Powrie

Born 26th September, 1917, Mossel Bay,  Cape Province (Western Cape), South Africa

When Judy was nineteen months old, we moved to Krugersdorp, Transvaal, and Timothy was born there on the 2^nd August, 1947 and we decided that our family was complete!

In May 1950 a friend of mine asked me “Have the Mormon Missionaries called on you yet?” I replied that they had not.

“Well, when they do, you must ask them in just to listen to their lovely accents - you don't have to listen to what they say!”

Meanwhile the Church of England Padre had called on me just a short while before that and during our, discussion I had said “But I don't believe that,” or “I don't believe that either”. He challenged me to do the thing which prepared me to receive and accept the gospel when the missionaries presented it to me. He said “Forget what you don't believe and read the Bible to find out what you do believe. Write out a list of the things that you do believe.” I did just this, reading the New Testament, and my list started with 1. I do believe there is a God. 2. I do believe that Jesus is the Christ. 3. I do believe the Bible to be the Word of God.

This surprised me because my mother had studied and passed on to me Theosophy, Yogi-ism, School of Truth, Unity Church of Christianity, etc. She believed that every time the earth needed a Saviour, one would be supplied and that Jesus Christ was only one of many. Also, she far from accepted the Bible to be special word of God, although she quoted from it so often.

The spiritual climate created by my reading the Bible and writing the list of beliefs – I regret that space does not permit me to tell of some of the fancy and very interesting ideas that came into my mind on, the subject! – was just the perfect one for the reception of the message brought by the Missionaries. When they knocked on our door I said “Oh yes, I've heard about you, come right in.”

We joined the church three months later; I, because I knew that it was true, and therefore was duty-bound to support it, and Ken, so he says, to keep me company. Elder Payne, in his last two Months of mission said that he had never lost his temper with any other investigator, but he used to get really mad with me for arguing in favour of reincarnation. In the end he said, “Pray about it,” and I did, because I knew I was right and I wanted to prove him wrong! The answer came to me one morning in a vivid flash of light inside my brain, “either you must believe in reincarnation or you must believe in resurrection – you cannot believe in both.” I investigated the two ideas and decided that I believed the Bible, so I accepted resurrection, and joined the church.

My mother taught me the Law of Tithing, in principle, although as far as I know she never paid tithing herself. A month before we were baptized, when the Missionaries, who were staying with us paid their first month's rent, I said to my husband, “Now can we start paying tithing?” I believed that tithing was the Lord's due, although it still did not seem to matter to me which church we paid it through, so we have been paying tithing ever since, for one month longer than our membership.

We also decided to have a larger family – Elder Harrison said I was still young enough to have four more, but that fourth one has never come. Eleven months later Jane was born on 23^rd August, 1951. Leslie followed on 23^rd February 1954 and Ronald on 23^rd January, 1959 - we began to wonder if the “23^rd” has any special significance for us!

Citation:

Extracted from their autobiograhical entries in a collection of Autobiograhical Sketches.

Wright, Evan P (Editor). 1969. Autobiograhical Sketches - South African Mission - 1969. South African Mission, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Johannesburg, South Africa

A miracle in my life at 3 years, 11 months

I was told a few times of an incident in my childhood when I was riding my tricycle and following my sister who was going to visit a friend. Then, unable to stop at the main road, I fell off my tricycle as a truck caught it and carried it some distance along the road. I wanted to use this experience in a talk that I am giving, and so decided to check the details. I asked Judy, Tim and Jane what they recalled, and Judy and Tim had no memory of it. I wonder if they might have been at boarding school at the time, so not aware of it.

First reply from Tim said 'Sorry, I know nothing at all of this event.' 

Then Judy said 'I’m sorry to say I have absolutely no recollection of this event! Therefore… I do not think I was involved?'

Then Jane said

Hi Les
I was the sister involved and I remember very little.   We were going down the hill on Havenga Avenue and the intersection next to the old gaol on Goldman Street was the place. I remember a lady who lived opposite the gaol a couple of houses up from Goldman Street taking me into her home and (I think) phoning Mom.  If you were still riding a tricycle you were probably about 4.
I'm sorry that I cannot give you any more information than that apart from Mom and Dad commenting on how you were protected.
Love
Jane

Since my father kept a daily diary for as long as I could remember, I decided to search his writings to find what he might have recorded. It was a good guess that if I was on a tricycle and had followed my sister some 1.1 km on a tricycle, I must have been somewhere between two and about 5 years of age, probably closer to 4 years as Jane suggested.

Tim has been scanning Dad's Diaries and putting them online so that his descendants and others can review them, and he had completed 1959 (the year that Ronald was born) and part of 1955, but not the intervening years. So, he brought the diaries for me to look through. After scouring three of them, I found what I was looking for. The entry for 23 January 1958, when I was three years and 11 months old, precisely a year before Ronald was born, and about two and a half months before 13 April 1958 when Dad was 'asked to be Transvaal District President' to which he recorded 'Phil and I could not but accept.' Maybe this miracle was fresh in their minds?

The entry for 23 January 1958:

Misty & cloudy am. Cleared pm late to sunny. Heavy clouds again then steady rain in night.

Travelled in with Rambler. 

Walked down to Lasts for Belladonna lunch time. 

A miracle! Jane & Leslie rode down 7th Avenue on Bike and Trike respectively. Leslie unable to stop at Goldman Street & got hit by a lorry. Rushed off to hospital but nothing but bruises & abrasions. A blessed occasion of the ministering of guardian angels. Thanks be to God. I came home at 4 pm. Elders Wright & Butler came to administer to Leslie with me.

Made fudge evening.

Had a letter from Tim - settling down much better. 

I remember Mom surmising that for some reason the tricycle might have swerved causing me to fall off it just before the truck connected with the tricycle and dragged it off, leaving me lying on the road. Whatever happened, I guess my mission on Earth was not yet complete. I am still alive now 56 years and four months later, so I guess my mission is still not accomplished. I hope that I do not fail the Lord!

These two photos from Google Maps Street View show the intersection where this miracle occurred. The slope seems so much less than I remember it being. Walking or cycling, especially at ages 6 to 12 years may cause one to consider it to be steeper! But because of the terracing to construct the road the slope within about ten metres of the road is somewhat steeper than the general slope.

What a blessing to have such a record faithfully kept by my father. My children are not so fortunate. I keep a professional journal at work, and have Blog entries and keep my talks, and some correspondence, but I hope they do not have to look for something like I did. They might not be as fortunate as I was to be able to find out what happened at some specific point in their lives.

It was fascinating to read what he recorded. Elders Naudé and Park (André and Mack?) had lunch with them 17 Aug 1958. He recorded the first American satellite launched 1 Feb 1958, and the first Russian satellite. He recorded that his basic salary was £10 with EA (whatever that means - Executive Assistant or Employee Allowance?) of £5, and Tim's and Jane's glasses cost around £6 each, so relative to a salary of R15000 that would be about R6000. They paid a gardener 8/, presumably for a day's work, equivalent to about R670 compared to that salary of R15000.

I love seeing Mom's writing in Dad's diary. She would communicate with him, reminding him to do something, asking him to do something, or thanking him.

26 February 1958: Thank you Darling for every time you pump my bike, I really meant to thank you last time. This is to make sure I don't forget again. I love you.

4 July 1958: If I'm 3 months pregnant, m. sickness should stop from now. Otherwise another 4 weeks? Heaven help us!

17 April 1958: Nats in with 103 seats to 53 although in minority of votes, by about 30,000 - Democracy! 

26 May 1958: Mr Eb Wells died in hospital after having received a cut from sheet metal car part at Plant.

7 June 1958: Jane, Leslie, Phil & I off to Potch. 8.45 - got there about 10.15, picked up Judy and Tim then off to Lake for day. Out in boat pm. Left there about 6.15 back about 7.45.

I remember those trips to Potchefstroom to fetch Judy from boarding school, and at this time Tim was also there.

17 July 1958: Crisis in Middle East. British troops land in Jordan. Americans in Lebanon.

11 August 1958: Atomic US Submarine 'Nautilus' sailed across earth under North Pole.

4 September 1958 (the anniversary of their wedding): IC [Louw] phoned am to tell of visit of Apostle Harold B. Lee early October to dedicate chapels. Did church work evening - wrote to British Mission re dedicating of Temple and to Pres. David O. McKay for his birthday Sept. 8. Bed by midnight.

I could not find it again, but he recorded the day that parking meters were first used in Johannesburg.

Fascinating, too, to see names of people and cars that I remember, and many that I had forgotten, but reading them bring them to mind again.

He recorded a very busy trip to England and France 25 October to 1 December 1958. His entry of 24 October says 'A hectic day! Received news am to get moving to Paris. Booked for SAA tomorrow pm 3.30.'

Blessed memories! Blessed heritage! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I thought I would add another two incidents that I recall to do with not stopping at stop streets. Round about 1965 I was cycling to Florida Primary School on my Fairy Cycle, with 16 inch wheels, as I recall, and back-pedal brakes. I was riding down Havenga Avenue to cross The Highway. 

I did not stop at the stop street, and then suddenly heard screeching brakes to the left. A traffic officer was approaching and I think he stopped primarily to teach me a dramatic lesson. After I mumbled an untrue excuse of my brakes not working properly, and he talked to me, he said that he would possibly send me a summons. Boy! Was I frightened! I knew that I deserved to be reprimanded, and I think I thought at the time that he may summons me, but may also just be threatening me to teach me a lesson. But I felt really bad!

Another incident, about 1981, when I was about 27 years of age, I was on my way from our flat in Vredehoek to work or Church and riding my Lambretta scooter.

I approached the stop street, and did slow down to nearly a stop, but I know that it was a rolling stop. As I went around the bend I saw that there were traffic officers watching, and I stopped properly, but probably some 5 m or 10 m beyond the stop street.

Now I am probably about 95 % complaint, still not 100%, though. I think of the average driver over the past year, and whether they are 50 %, 75 %, or what, but certainly not 100 %. I reckon that I am about 95 % compliant. But when someone goes for a driving license test the examiner is not looking how well the candidate performs relative to the average, or to my performance, but to the K53 standard that involves a complete stop, pulling up the hand brake, letting the car out of gear, checking left and right, mirror, blind spots, putting the car in gear, checking mirror and blind spots and traffic conditions all around, then engaging the gear, and when ascertaining that it is safe to proceed, releasing the handbrake and pulling off without a roll.

I wondered how Jesus Christ would do if He were driving. Would he, knowing all and knowing if there were not a hazard, simply proceed without slowing, or if He would slow, or if He would stop, or do the full K53 routine? We teach our children ‘I’m trying to be like Jesus’, but how do we try to be like Jesus when it comes to stopping at stop streets, or whether drivers or simply pedestrians, if we not jaywalk at pedestrian crossings when the light is not green? Surely we need to try to be like Jesus in all aspects of life, not only in the spiritual things? I am trying to be like Jesus. I know that I am not like Him yet, but I sincerely am trying. Not just in how I treat stop streets, but in all aspects of my life.

Upon reading my journal some time after writing this post I came across the following, written Wednesday 9 July 1980, recalling a miracle in my life.

It is time that I write a little report on my close encounter with the sting of death. When I was about 4 years of age, I guess I was not really thinking about the ‘sting’ of death, or, in fact, even of death. As I think back now, all I recall is that I received a plastic model (about 30 cm long) of a Rambler, and even that is extremely vague.

Mom was probably resting, since she was pregnant with Ronald (hence my calculation of my having been about 4 years old) when Jane wanted to go and visit a friend of hers near the Florida Primary School. She climbed onto her fairy cycle (a small bicycle with about 45 cm wheels) and I decided to follow her on my tricycle. This journey involved our crossing Goldman Street, and there is a steep decline approaching Goldman Street, form our side. Well, a fairy cycle has better brakes than does a tricycle, and Jane stopped, and I did not. The brakes not being there probably did not particularly worry me, as I was probably enjoying the sensation of speed, and this seems to be substantiated by the fact that I turned to look over my left shoulder as I overtook Jane, and I apparently laughed and called to her. This probably saved my life for, as I turned, I caused my tricycle to tip over and deposit me on the ground.

Perhaps it was a careful guardian angel who figured that I could better tolerate a few grazes from the road than a collision with a truck that was hurtling along Goldman Street. I was searching for this word as I described my passing Jane – hurtling past would better describe my activity, while the truck was simply going a regular speed along a main road, hardly expecting a tricycle-mounted lad to cross his path. The driver of this truck brought his vehicle to a halt as quickly as he knew as he thought he had killed me, and indeed that would have been expected as he was dragging my tricycle along with him.

Two gentlemen, following this truck, stopped and took me off to hospital where I was treated for bruises and grazes. Mom needed to get to the hospital and the Dinnies were about to drive her there when Dad arrived home unexpectedly after giving someone a lift home at lunchtime. So Dad and Mom came to fetch me from hospital, and that night I received this gift of my plastic Rambler. I do not know where that model is now, but that serves as my only reminder of this experience. 

The next day the driver of the truck came, distraught, to apologize to Mom, who reassured him that I certainly not be counted as having been his fault, or any reflection on his driving, that I came darting out of a side-street.

Jane, in the meantime, was offered a lift home to come and tell Mom about the accident, but was quite determined that she had received strict instructions to never climb into a stranger’s car. So the kind lady who had offered her a lift had to walk home with Jane to come and tell Mom.

There is a lot in that story, and it was clearly a miracle. What is the mission that I must have in life for which my life has been spared at least two distinct occasions? I recorded the other incident in my entry of 18 June 1980 (the incident with the snake in Kloof Gorge, as a missionary in 1973).