Today we were meant to be going to "Bounce", a big indoor trampoline centre, but it is a national holiday today so it will be busy so we're going next week instead.
Instead we are going to the Mall of Africa! The biggest shopping centre in the whole of Africa! Not just South Africa! We are going there to look around and also go to Krispy Kreme! The doughnut place! So I can't wait!
I'm getting more and more on top of my finances and I've mastered it now. For my main meal I often like fish fingers, carrots and mashed potato, mainly because it's easy and fairly quick to make. But last night Sunday I was so tired that I simply couldn't. I laid down on my bed for a couple of minutes and fell asleep! I get really tired when I get back to the flat at night.
One of my favourite foods so far here is Kota! They're basically a quarter loaf of bread filled with chips, polony, sausage and stuff, they are very nice but not to healthy :P I will try to make one and send a picture, and I will make them when I get back as well :P One of the members said he'd teach me how to.
One of the interesting thing about talking to people of all faiths is finding out what they believe and how they all interpret Bible teaching different. No wonder people are confused when they see so many different ways. We come across them all.
This week we worked hard, it was tough and we exceeded some goals, we got 12 new investigators, so hopefully that all goes well
I had a little success on the computer side. After church we were wanting to get a ward directory which we needed, (one of the members also went through it with us and helped me divide it into who's area they were in) But when we tried to print it it wouldn't work. So I sat down and looked at it with my basic computer skills and got it to work! (all I did was clear the printer queue and then sent it to print again) :-)
We were also invited to PEC meeting this week, which was good, we had our progress record and everything, and they gave us some really good, needed counsel on a couple of the people we are teaching.
One of the main things this week that i almost forgot about is that we had a "blitz" So we fasted (I've fasted 3 times this week, Thur Fri and Sun, but it's paid off) and then the district went to a main intersection in our area (3 companionships) and just handed out a load of pass along cards, talked to people and got lots of numbers that we are planning to contact this coming week. It was a great experience and I'm talking to everyone! It is working really well! It is amazing how much experience we get every week.
I love all of you.
Lots of love!
Elder Jack Jorgensen :)
What a week. It feels like this week has gone quite slow actually! It's been a long week, I'm glad it's P-Day so I can rest but we have done some good this week!
This week, eish (he he SA word ;) ) It's been interesting.
I quite enjoy my new area. Of course there are ups and downs but mostly it's been okay. I still miss Potchefstroom, and I really liked it but it wont be long before I get to know this new area and the people here.
It is challenging both of us coming to a new area as we both have to get used to everything, where shops are, where people are etc.
We have some real great members here. A 19 year old called Tumi, who's really nice and is almost always able to come with us, then a set of identical twins! Dumi and Hlome. They are 14 but awesome guys and they know their way around.
We don't have a car in this area so we are walking and taking taxi's (which aren't as bad as I thought) or the other guys drop us off in our area then pick us up. It is a bit more challenging when you rely on other people's time-keeping.
My feet are sore because of all the walking, but I can't complain, it means that we get to talk to more people and I have been! The Lord has helped me overcome my fear and now I find it easy to talk to everyone!
The members are okay, Elder Samuel is a great guy. He's from the Marshal islands, and is a powerful, albeit different, teacher to me, so I am very thankful for him as a companion.
I read a powerful article about how we overcome our fears and it is amazing what we can do as long as we will try! It was like a sudden change. As a result we've been able to get 5 new investigators this week!
I'm working as hard as I can, it's difficult, but I find joy when we are working hard. I'm glad it's p-day though, I need a little rest.
One of the biggest challenges here is addresses of where people are. It makes you appreciate the UK postcode system.
Some of the addresses are very vague so we have to hunt over the whole town to find the place! It's difficult but the members have been working with us which is a real help. The only real problem is remembering everybody's name, it's killer, and I think I'm going to need some divine help!
I learned something very valuable and it completely changed my concept of missionary work that this is Christ's work and he will do his work, we just need to be committed to the work! Which has changed my perception and helped me find so much in this work, by working hard!
And to be honest I love my mission, especially the black name tag!
Elder Jorgensen :)))
Again another p-day and another transfer gone. This is my 3rd one now, one more then it will be 6 months! Which is scary to think about!!
Main news this week:
Yes I am leaving the area! :( I got a call on Saturday, looked at the phone and it was President Dunn, like oh snap. I'm whitewashing an area (start from the beginning) My companion Elder Bonifaz is going to be training a new missionary. Another guy in the district, Elder Zitumane, is becoming a District Trainer (DT) and his companion is also training in Klerksdorp.
I'm going to a Zulu township, called Rabbie Ridge, out in Centurion with an Elder Samuel (who I've never met) from the islands, but apparently he's a nice guy so we shall see. It will be interesting starting an area from the beginning. It will be good to come in with fresh ideas and help the local area. My first time leaving an area and going to a new one so I'm excited to see what will happen. I'm leaving tomorrow, and I haven't started packing yet :P So I'll be up late tonight!
The main positive about getting transferred is that I get to go to the temple on Friday! Which I am very excited for because I love to go to the temple!
I am gonna miss the people here, especially the members, because they are really nice. One of the investigators as well, Christinah, she thanked me for all that I did and it was very touching and really nice to see. Gotta write it in my journal.
Crazy thing, from no water last week to too much. Our toilet wasn't 100% so one of the senior couples came out to fix it and they replaced a part on it. After much craziness of trying to turn the water off, the caretaker being out of town, Elder Wells letting me drive his bakkie around the complex!!!!!! I drove a bakkie, very proud of myself.
We fixed it and that was that. That night I got to bed at 10:30, then I'm woken up by Elder Bonifaz at 11:30, a noise had woken him up, as it turns out, by fixing the toilet, the pipe that is the water inlet for the toilet (thankfully not the outlet) had sprung a leak, so for a whole hour it was spraying water out, and when he woke up the bathroom, half the bedroom, the living area and half the kitchen (our flat isn't big, 3 rooms) were about half an inch or a little less of water....... we try to shut off the toilet but it was still leaking a little. We stay up for 3 hours and try to do our best then we call the ZLs (at 2 in the morning he he he he, it's okay Elder Asay is going home tomorrow) and we were determined to just wait out the night.
But I can't get to sleep, so I have to get up every 30 mins to an hour to empty the bucket that is collecting a small trickle of water. I do it about 5 times then fall asleep and Elder Bonifaz does it another two times. We go to the shop, get a new pipe, put it on ourselves! and then start trying to get the water out the flat. We started at 7 and finished around 12. I only got 3 hours sleep that night so it was an interesting day.
Not much else really but some great lessons, and 58 people at church with a baptism! Here is a picture of the font used.
Don't know what to expect from this transfer, first time going to a new area but I will go where the lord needs me. kinda nervous and exciting.
Not much else this week. We had exchanges with the district and i got Elder Kilgore, who's a really sweet guy from Idaho.
One of the great experiences this week was the fact that we met a guy last week when trying to see an investigator we tracted into. She wasn't there (surprise surprise) but her brother was. So we talked to him and he agreed to let us come over and talk to him. We make and appointment and we go back to low and behold, no one. So we are about to go to our dinner appointment on Thursday, but he have 30 mins spare, so I say let's just swing by. So we do and amazingly he is there, with his girlfriend. They let us in, we teach a short lesson and they agree for us to come back! it was a really great visit. They are Methodists so I got to relate because my nana and grandad were :P
Well I will really miss this first area of mine but life goes on I guess.
Love you all.
Elder Jorgensen :) xx
This week has been pretty good, felt as though it has gone slower than other weeks, probably because this was meant to be transfer time, but this is a 7 week transfer, the MTCs are going back to 3 weeks instead of 2, so extra time in the field for us, but yes, transfers are this week, leadership calls Fri/Sat and then transfer news on Saturday night.
Getting on very well. The main thing for this week is that it has been MUCH cooler. It has been glorious! It was on Thursday we went out, I'm in my short sleeve shirt, Elder Bonifaz has a jacket on and there are people walking around with big blankets on because they are cold :') But honestly it felt just like home! It was overcast and a bit rainy which was nice and cool. So good weather! People were astounded when they saw me, but it was really nice.
Hopefully we will be having some baptisms soon in the next couple of months. We have 5 people scheduled at the minute. One of them will be a bit longer as when we went by him he was high as a kite on drugs, like over the rainbow and far away, he couldn't actually talk properly :-)
The other funny thing, we were out in Extension 6 trying to find this guy, he said his name was Mountain....... and he wanted money, but we had an appointment and resolved that everyone deserves to hear the gospel so we went out and looked for 30 mins but couldn't find his place, interestingly though we did see something funny, it's on one of the pictures. These tin shacks (they call them Mokhu khu) basically have the very basics but most of them still have satellite TV :') Made me smile.
Watched the General Conference this week which was very nice to finally see. I learned a lot actually and took some notes which actually was really important because later that day when we went teaching I actually used some of those notes in our teaching. Going out on Sunday afternoons though is probably one of the hardest times (apart from Monday night after p-day) because we always get fed on Sunday afternoons by the Louws and it's always delicious, and we are quite tired and I just wanna take a nap after, but we keep working! No p-day eve for us :P
Also learned that German is the celestial language :P but also when he was giving that talk and talking about the bombers, i realised that it was our (British) planes that were doing those things :S But it was a really good talk from Dieter Uchtdorf and it really motivated me and helped me realise, that this isn't our work. The fruit of our labours aren't the baptisms we have but the voice of warning that we raise! We are here to teach.
I also liked Patrick Kearon's talk about the Refugees, a lot of people could do with listening to that talk.
Also, in the Sunday Afternoon session, when they announced the last speaker was Jeffrey R Holland, me and Elder Bonifaz looked at each other and were just like yeahhhhH!!!! I really enjoyed his talk too and can''t wait to get the Liahona magazine so we can read them (click here)!
On to more worldly things, we ran out of water this week :') Luckily I still had R600 spare so we could go and by some (86000L) and I'll get reimbursed. So we were only without water for 1 or 2 days.
Then we also were fed Phuto. Now what Phuto is they make pap, then they take SOUR milk (which you buy from the shop) pour some of that on and then also pour fresh milk on and eat...... it is quite interesting, they love it. I finished my bowl, but I was 'full' afterwards :P
The problem we have as well is that many people are poor. They can't actually always afford to feed us, which means they cancel their appointment. which leaves us with a gap. But what we need them to know is that we don't mind not being fed, so long as we can still come and see/teach them! But it's in their culture to feed their guests and feed the best they have. Very humbling experience.
We've also been teaching kids as well 9+ which is interesting experience, we just use lots of pictures and simple words, like waking up for resurrection ;)
With primary, actually we talked to the branch president and thankfully said what we wanted, he said that the 8 and under are the primary responsibility and we shouldn't go and teach them, but we can teach them in their families, which we have done and works quite well actually. We use simple words and lots of pictures. Having the parents is also really helpful, one of the fathers referred to resurrection as waking up, which was very clever.
Thats about it for this week. Will have transfer news by next week and I will see if I am going or staying so that will be exciting.
I love you all.
Love Elder Jorgensen
One of the interesting thing about talking to people of all faiths is finding out what they believe and how they all interpret Bible teaching different. No wonder people are confused when they see so many different ways. We come across them all.
