He can take one look at someone and then if we pass him on the street then he'll recognise them which is really useful and something I am very grateful for from him. He's also very good with the members of the ward, he remembers most of them, something that I find difficult to do, especially people I may only see once or twice So that is a big help. I am better at organisation so I tend to focus on the taking care of the calendar and todolist so in that way we complement each other. I am learning to take the lead during lessons too.
Something that I've become so grateful for is the childhood I had, especially the nurturing in the gospel. Seminary has taught me many things and skills that I use for studying. And if i use my study in the mornings effectively then I find that something i learn applies to someone that day. Also I'm able to draw lessons from things that I learn and apply to others. Something that made me very happy was actually 3 things.
The first was that one of the members we see on a regular basis was having an off day, so we teach him a lesson about the bread of life, and later that day he texts us and thanks us for the lesson. A similar thing was that the family who we go see on Fridays for family home evening, one of her daughters (who is actually adopted) thanked me for the lessons while we were leaving and she said that they were always good which made me feel good. Then finally one of the other members was Comfort, he's 22 and something funny he said was that he can feel and just sense whenever the missionaries are coming. He later expanded and said that he felt the spirit whenever we came which made me feel even better. One thing that really struck the lesson for the family home evening on Friday this week was emphasising the importance of not excluding people. One thing that was powerful was I shared what i knew about my dad's conversion story, and when I said that his son (having said his son went on his mission) it really made an impact.
One event that happened this week that really showed us that the lord puts people in our path was that we'd just come from a member and were about to walk to a potential investigator when a small kid came up to us and told us that her mother was calling us. So we go over and start talking to her. As a result it turns out that we got a new investigator from it and she sounds really promising. So really we were put into that path to meet that woman. Story about her was that apparently her brother or something had been performing Mooti (black magic) and cursed their house. So they'd called a Sangoma (witch doctor) to come and he determined that there was a snake underneath the house? And they wanted us to pray for their house and protect it. The trouble here is determining what is real and what is just myth. The people here, especially in the township are very superstitious and believe in black magic and sangomas, which are a problem for us, oh no wait I think they'd called a prophet to come and help them.... i don't know. But we gave her a pamflet, introduced the message of the restoration and obtained a return appointment which was quite good :)
So I think i'm on my way to become the chorister here and no one to play but they have one of those automatic pianos but i got asked yesterday to give a talk next week which was interesting. So I will have to think about what I want to talk about... probably missionary work :P We gave a good family home evening lesson on Friday, starting out with a scripture about worship and knowledge.
This one family, the Mlambo family, is really exciting, they're deeply rooted in their church (the Care Bible Church) (the churches here have the most interesting names) but they know what we teach is true, so the challenge lies in helping them transition, and we don't want to loose them because they are really good. The mother believes us and the daughter, Simphwe, she is 17, I showed her the gospel library mobile app and the EFY music and since then when we came back the next week, apparently she hasn't put the gospel library app down and has got rid of all her hip hop music and listens to the music i showed her! So it's really exciting about them.
We're really excited about the Mlambo family and really hope that they come to church one of these days!
Something i miss a LOT from back home is the BBQ's. They call them Braai's here but mostly they are just meat meat meat with nothing green so that is a difference. I shouldn't be thinking about food as I am currently fasting hehe.
We are going to bounce soon. But i'm going to eat my fudge today that i still have from my Christmas presents :P
Going to treat myself to a maccyd's lunch :)
Anyyywayyy thats about it from me :) I hope that you have a good week and all goes well!
As always, lots of love
Elder Jack :)xxx
