Seen my first dead body

So first of the main thing this week was that on Thursday we get a call from the Zone Leaders asking us to come and help them with some service, so we cancel our appointments and as it turns out that they needed some people to help them move house! The good thing was that there wasn't a lot of stuff and we were able to make it all in one trip, using a flatbed truck, a bakkie, and a couple of cars.

It was us missionaries (6 of us) and another guy with his 2 sons who owned the truck who came and helped with it. It was actually quite fun moving everything, getting everything onto the truck and loading it, then I got to ride on the back of the truck on the 2-minute drive to make sure that nothing fell off. It was actually quite fun, and the guy who we were helping to move was so very grateful for our help for moving and stuff so that was nice :) He took us to KFC afterwards which was pretty good :)

The funniest bit though was the guy who came to help with the truck, his name was Duke, anyway he was a really funny guy and I really liked him! So all in all it was a pretty good day!

I really like this area, the people we have are really awesome and i like them a lot. Also we are going to be having a baptism in 2 weeks! Durrity is going to be baptized and he is really powerful. There is also a couple more maybe, Tsepang, and also Brother Rams. Brother Rams I have to mention, so he is a friend and coworker of a member, and he has been taught for over 2 years now, but we have finally got him to accept a baptismal date. He has had lung cancer I think and has several operations on his jaw, but he is a super sweet guy, a retired scientist and really clever. So that will be really exciting. Going to try to get pictures with everyone this week!

The thing I've really learned is that people have to make decisions for themselves and discover for themselves. Some religions here are trying to force things on people but you can't do that, you really can't force anyone to do anything even if you are right. They have to make that decision for themselves.

Another investigator that we found this week, accepted everything we said concerning apostasy and the like, but as soon as we showed him the Book of Mormon he got all funny and was a bit wary, which is quite funny :')

Other than that this week has been another life in the missionary life!

Tuesday was super duper hot, like I was sweating in a lesson, the thing is is that during the day in the sun it is really warm, but at night, it gets quite cold. And none of the houses in the township have proper insulation or heating... so it's interesting (saying that neither does our flat)

So iI also saw my first dead body this week! We were driving to Klipfontein (another township) and there had been an accident in the road (involving a taxi as always) anyway there was this human figure shape lying on the floor so obviously a dead body, luckily no accidents for us!

Although on... Friday i think it was, we were waiting for the other guys to come pick us up, it gets to 9:30 and they're still not there, as it turns out there was a massive traffic jam (it is really funny because the drivers here are crazy, they completely blocked the traffic lights by trying to get through and as a result it was gridlocked! That was at 6pm and there were still queues by 9. Anyway they told us that they couldn't get through and we had to walk to them. Now we stop proselyting at 8 because it gets dark and a little dangerous, and the way they wanted us to walk was through a passage, (wide enough for a car) but it is right next to a pub, and to mention someone had got beaten to death there... last week! So I was a little concerned, particuarly because I'm white, but thankfully the two twins, their sister, and then another member came with us, so we got to the car safe and sound with no problems :)

One of the other things that brought back memories is that one of our investigators owns a tuck shop, and in the front he has this old arcade machine with Kingdom Fighters on it (don't worry we haven't played it :P) but it reminded me of the stories my dad told about how people used to play on these arcade machines before games consoles.

I really grateful to be on my mission. It is such a great opportunity to help and serve people and to see and experience so much in such a period of time so it really helps you grow and mature so quickly. My dad always said there is no other time where you grow and learn so much that will also be so useful for the rest of your life.

Anyway, on to another week full of surprises.

Love

Elder Jack Jorgensen

Attacked by flour and egg

So the weather has been warm here, it's actually quite like a British summer, I can wear my short sleeve shirts, the only problem is that it gets quite cold at nights. But for me, I can take it, wearing shorts for 2 years I discovered the secret of not getting cold. You still get cold, you just don't show it :P But it's all good. Especially because we are walking we feel the weather, luckily it hasn't actually rained, saying that I think it has only rained a couple of times in the past 2 months! Not like back home eh :P

We are walking too, which I really like. I've really grown to like walking areas. We get to talk to many more people and it makes me feel like a proper missionary! Walking with my name tag and everything!

So the work is progressing really well, we have someone scheduled this month, and 5 others in the pipeline for the coming months which is really exciting! They are all solid people too (exception of 1) They are all (almost) adults and are very sincere. But something that I realised and discussed with someone in my group at Zone Conference was that the people who are progressing the most and are on track, are those who we have the best relationship with as they are sincere.

Another experience was that one guy we meet confided in us some serious problems that he'd had with his wife and how things had got quite bad for them (His wife had gone to a Sangoma, witch doctor, and had come back, finding her taking a bath in the blood of a chicken she'd slaughtered..... yeah that happens!) we finished the plan of salvation which he liked and he said that whenever we come he feels happy and good. Leaving the appointment I thought to myself, wow, I really don't have or have had any real problems in my life!

My back, luckily, is getting better. I can now run and it doesn't hurt as much, only when I've been sitting for a long time, like at church. But I've resolved to exercise every morning, and I'm actually getting up early every morning to learn Afrikaans for an hour. I have a book that I borrowed from Elder Benson to learn it from, it's actually very similar to English, apart from the grammar is a lot simpler. So gonna see how that goes. I got the idea from one of the Elders that is dying (slang for going home soon), Elder Clegg. He can speak Afrikaans, Zulu, seTswansa and Spedi, and he's from America!

So we had zone conference on Wednesday which was really nice, I learned a lot from it and it got us going again, then the temple on Friday which I really enjoyed too! It was nice to go to and learn some more which is always nice.

One big struggle we had this week was we were at this teaching appointment with this family, and the mother has been a member of her church forever, now this is the thing, she believes the Book of Mormon to be true, but doesn't see the need to be baptized. I totally respect if people don't believe what we say but to believe part of it only doesn't make sense. We are going back on Thursday with the Bishop.

We are having zone activity next week (4th of July) and they asked me to be the captain of the "British" team because we are going to do capture the flag.

Also, I had someone offer me their child and wanted me to take them to England with me.... so :)

The real disaster actually happened to one of the other Elders. So Sunday night (last night) they were an hour late to pick us up, as it turns out he'd been 'attacked'.

What had happened was that a group of kids had come at them with flour and eggs and basically attacked them. His companion Elder Musiiwa was clean because he'd just ran, but he had gone for the car and got nailed. He had his good suit and an 80% silk tie on.... so he's gonna need to get it dry cleaned. Which while thankfully didn't happen to me, it reaffirmed my resolve to not wear my good suit or tie in the township! 

Township is "crazy"! Especially during load-shedding! (Loadshedding is when the power goes out because there isn't enough. The government gives free power to the houses in the township, but only like 1 power station, so they buy a lot of their power from neighbouring countries, and load-shedding is when there isn't enough power for everyone, so it goes out!) Which means the street lights go out too!

Well that was all for this week.

Take care.

Elder Jack Jorgensen