So this week has been quite a good week, but of course as always it has gone super duper fast as always and it is already Monday, but we have had a really good week!
We taught 16 lessons to investigators this week which is really exciting! Nothing big coming up soon, but still teaching and still progressing with these people. Sometime this week we are going to re-contact all of the ones that we want to start teaching again and hopefully it will all pick up! We have like 30+ investigators we just lost contact with many of them.
Holidays here can be difficult because for 2 weeks now it is the Easter holidays, so people are going to be hard to get a hold of and also all the college students that we teach will all have gone home or on holiday, so it might slow down for these two weeks but we will still keep working hard.
We are working hard though and I love it! It is awesome to come home at night and say yes we did work hard today. It's just teaching teaching teaching and the time flies by! Soon it's 4pm and then it's 8pm and then it's home for the day! It's kinda scary.
I also made dinner for myself this week.
Mashed Potato, carrots and fish fingers! It was an adventure but it turned out to be quite nice. The most important thing though was definitely the tomato ketchup I had, that really is a missionaries best friend!
The weather is getting a bit cooler. Still quite warm at 29 Celsius today and very sunny, but nice and cool, and bearable! I was able to wear my suit yesterday without dying of heat! Although I think that I won't be wearing my suit again on Fasting Sundays :P
Elder Bonifaz was ill this week. He has the flu and a terrible cough. Although strength to keep working, he gets up a little late and we went and rested for an hour or two sunday afternoon, where he slept. But after that we went out and started working again which really pleased me.
Still driving a lot, but the car has a big rattle but we think thats just the spare tire not being screwed down, we're gonna have a look at it today before we go get it washed.
We went to see Sister Bobbie this week as well which was a wonderful trip. It was lovely to see her, and to help her and uplift her. she is really strong og a lovely lady. She as always gave us some encouragement and instruction on how to be better missionaries! Which we really want to be.
Funny comparison, so we went to see a less active who lives about 15 minutes from the chapel by car. She doesn't come to church because she can't afford the taxi... which is like R40 or something (£2) But last time we visited her, someone gave her R100 to come to church....... which when it happened screamed against my basic instinct, but I remained quiet. So she came to church that week, but she wasn't there this week..... and when we visited her this week, she went in a kinda.... sermon (bit like what happens to born again's when they start reciting) about how we should do missionary work. At this point I kinda got a little defensive, I didn't say anything but I wasn't too receptive.
But I learned a lot from that. In that we have to be understanding and not preach to people, listen to them, but also that I need to be more humble. Something I am working on and something i am trying hard at so :)
The language barrier with some people is kinda a problem but we are getting through and the work is going well.
Elder Bonifaz has told President that I am ready to train another new missionary or something which I'm like, yeah I could do that, but being Junior Companion is very nice too. Although I hope I stay in Potchefstroom. I love it here and the people are so nice. the street names are quite funny as well :P
Lots of love,
Jack
So this week has been quite interesting!
On Tuesday it was transfers! We were out driving for 12 hours and drove over 500km!
From here to Veereingang, to Roodeport, to Soweto, to Centurion, to Benoni, back to Centurion (Elder Benson left some stuff in the car :') ) back to Veereingang, and then finally back to Potchefstroom. So very hectic and tiring, but worth it.
My new companion! Elder Bonifaz from Madrid Spain. He is such an awesome guy, he's got about 6 months left, and we get along very well! He is a great teacher and is just a funny person. He's very chill and is quite relaxed, which is really nice. I feel that we are kinda more relaxed now, but still working hard, but not so much stress :P
I'm leading the area too though which I was a little concerned about, but it's going fine! We've also been doing some tracting which actually I kinda enjoy! I feel confident when talking to people. First had my first real rejection yesterday, which was a little sad to see. Mainly because we know that this message can and will help people in their lives more than they can see themselves. But we must always respect that God has given everyone free agency to choose for themselves.
We also tracted into a "born again". Which started out well , but at one point it flipped and she (a gogo who was about 80), well her countenance changed..... they like to talk a lot about being cleansed in the blood of Jesus, a lot, which isn't such an attractive thought to think about. But we were polite and resisted the temptation to argue. We are not in the business to prove right or wrong, we just teach what we believe and let people choose themselves.
But we have been working hard! And I love it, truly the harder we work the happier we are, not just in missionary work but especially in missionary work!
We also had 3 investigators at church this week! And hopefully a baptism next week which will be super exciting!
The picture of my face.... yeah we were doing an activity at district meeting, and I was getting a piggyback, and the elder tripped so I face planted the concrete, only half a metre from the grass, and we weren't actually messing around, but I'm okay now and healing well :P
(It is only 4 years ago since Jack smashed his face last time and made the front page of the newspaper with this "Boy's lucky escape after lorry collision")
I hope that everything is going well. I love my mission, yeah it's hard work at times but very rewarding.
Might be getting some ice cream today, because fasting in 32 degrees isn't too nice :P
Love you lots and hope that everything is going well
Elder Jorgensen
So happy to hear from you all, really makes my week when I hear from everyone.
Look at these children, they are super happy too.
People are still welcome to post me a letter as we missionaries LOVE to receive letters.
So this week had gone so very very fast! I can't believe it!
Monday we did the American thing and went and played basketball with 2 members. It was really fun and I enjoyed it, and then when we sat down we were in the shade a police "bakkie" drove up, and Gomolemo said that oh yeah they might come and search us because he look like we might be smoking weed, but luckily they didn't approach us, they might have seen the basketball so it was all good.
We had World Wide Missionary training too, which hasn't happened for over 10 years! And it was amazing! I learned so much! And it was wonderful to listen to the Apostles, and they really taught us a lot! I paid really close attention and it was the fastest 2 hours of my life. It was also really nice because beforehand is when we had interviews with President Dunn and it was lovely, the mission home is amazing. While we were also being interviewed Sister Dunn did a little thing on finances and they might be getting Blenders for all the flats! So we can make smoothies! We also had a talk on how to save money and stuff which will be good for me! There are more pictures of us here
So transfers are tomorrow!! The news........ Elder Benson is leaving :( but he is going to be a District Leader!!! He's going to the Centurion Zone, Rabbie Ridge 2, which is a Zulu township. His new companion is going to be Elder Carr who was in my group and is also from England! So still an english elder :P
I'm staying in Potchefstroom, I'm getting Elder Bonifaz from Spain, who is also going to be the District Leader. Our current, Elder Bergman from Sweden is leaving to be a Zone Leader in Benoni! We think he might die there (die = finish your 2 years), he's been out 18 months and this new area will only be his 4th!
Sad to see my father (father is missionary slang for your first companion) leave, but am excited for my new companion!
Yesterday we also had 2 lunch appointments and a dinner appointment, we mixed up our schedule, and it may seem like a good idea, but
really, not at all. We have to eat because these people put a lot of effort in! But we were so full and it was so hard! And as well a member gave us ginger bread and pancakes at church! so we are sorted.for like the next 50 days! ;)
One of them, who isn't a member he gives us a Braai! (Afrikaans for a BBQ) and also Malva pudding, which is quite like golden syrup sponge but is delicious! I will have to make it for you when I get back!
We also had exchanges so I got to go with Elder Bergman, who is a great guy and we saw some really amazing people. This one guy, Tshepo (Meaning Hope) is super strong, they gave him 3 pamphlets and he'd read them all, read the scriptures and took a test at school, and was able to teach us what he learned! He is so powerful and it was great to meet with him, he is really progressing and is going to be powerful.
We also went to see a RC but ended up meeting with his friend who isn't a member, we started teaching her, touched on families, and while we weren't saying anything, she broke down into tears because she was going through a divorce. Just out of the blue, people really trust us, and so we comforted her and told her that the gospel could bless her life, so hopefully she will learn more! Apart from that the exchange went really well and I learned a lot. That is also when we got the leadership calls! And also at the end we were driving back but realised Elder Zitumane who'd been with Elder Benson still had our phone and transfer news was coming! So we had to turn around and drive there, we didn't get home till like 11pm!
But I got some bad news when we were switching back.... one of our investigators, Moses, who we were really excited for and we'd just started teaching one on one, and we'd taught repentance and about the atonement ... we found out had hung both himself and his 2 year old child. It was really hard to take in when you get to know people and you see there is hope for many of these. We just wish we could have reached him earlier to avoid such a tragic event.
Anyway onto better things we have two father led familes so really excited for that!
Love you lots!
Elder Jorgensen
So this week has been quite a good week, but of course as always it has gone super duper fast as always and it is already Monday, but we have had a really good week!
I also made dinner for myself this week.
We went to see Sister Bobbie this week as well which was a wonderful trip. It was lovely to see her, and to help her and uplift her. she is really strong og a lovely lady. She as always gave us some encouragement and instruction on how to be better missionaries! Which we really want to be.
Elder Bonifaz has told President that I am ready to train another new missionary or something which I'm like, yeah I could do that, but being Junior Companion is very nice too. Although I hope I stay in Potchefstroom. I love it here and the people are so nice. the street names are quite funny as well :P
