I will have to try and think about everything that has happened because I normally write the major events in my planner, but I left it in the car!
So driving is still going well! No crashes!!!
One of the most interesting things, actually they both happened sat and sun, was that we were first contacting at a mall that we have in our area, and it goes really well, we find some great people that we are going to call, but eventually, as it always happens, the security came over and asked us to leave, and they came up with a really stupid reason of the fact that "if we give them pass along cards, they'll just drop them, and then the cleaning companies have to pick them up" .... we were just really nice to them and talked to them a bit. By the end of it the security guard had changed his mind and said we could stay because we were "working for God"
He came over a couple more times but every time he walked away saying that we could carry on. Poor guy, we think he was being told by his manager to kick us out, but he just couldn't!
On Tuesday I went to the Chiropractor and the Doctor.
Met someone from England!! She had just come over for holiday and was from Buckinghamshire! So that was nice to talk to. She was a baptist.
Was about an hour late to the doctor, because the Chiropractor forgot about me! There were actually like 7 missionaries there! But we made it to everyone so it went okay! The doctor gave me some cream to put on and it's actually working really well, it's got loads better so!
On Wednesday we went on exchanges! So it was me and Elder Souza together! We had a really good time! We compliment each other on teaching really well, swapping the lesson back and forth! Ah it was really good.
We met this Afrikaaner guy for the first time, and my goodness, he has problems! He's got a court case on his hand about a restraining order from his ex girlfriend who moved out and wont pay the rent for the place that they were staying together! And he's having trouble at work too!
I didn't agree inside with everything, but we were nice to him! He likes to talk, and we think he just needed someone to talk to! So hopefully he'll be able to find that peace and happiness through faith in Christ.
This is also an approach that we've been trying, to focus on the fact that our message is about gaining faith in Christ, and not converting them to the (true) church!
A lot of people canceling on us this week which was a bit frustrating. People forgetting, not keeping appointments but there were some gems among it all!
We went to a member to try and have family home evening with them, turns out they were out, but the husband was home (not a member)
And we had a powerful lesson with him! So hopefully we can try and get him to seriously investigate the church!
We also had another good experience. One investigator, Sibusiso, when we first went he didn't want to let us into his house, he wasn't very keen, but I felt good so I pushed him quite a bit and finally he let us in, (my dad taught me how to do it). We shared about the Book of Mormon and left it with him. As is common he missed the follow-up appointment, but we finally caught him when we were going past, and his attitude had completely changed! He was super friendly with us! And had been reading the Book of Mormon!!!
And we are teaching his brother now as well!!!!
Great experience!
The other thing mainly was that we had the temple trip on Friday! It was so nice to finally go back to the temple after almost 3 months of not being able to go! I learned a lot and had such great feeling while I was there! So peaceful!
On Sunday the people from Stake came, Stake President and everything, which was quite funny because last week was Stake Conference!
Oh yeah, there is an Apostle coming to our mission sometime soon. They don't know who it is but they are coming!
Something I learned this week is that house cleanliness is not dependent on the house but the person.
I've seen some shacks that are well organized! Many back home could learn from that too.
I am so grateful to have seen the church on a global scale and seen so many aspects of it while out on my mission. It has really strengthened my testimony of the church.
I don't know what is happening for transfers! We will find out on Saturday! so :)
We shall see!
Love you lots!!
Jack
So our weather here has been a bit funny too! It started to get kinda cold when the week started, and then yesterday the weather was awful! It was raining hard!! No sun! It was a big surprise and we think that winter is just spiting us until summer breaks through! So I wore my jersey for the first time in a couple of months!
It was nasty, but the chapel was warm!
This week was also Stake Conference! So we went up to Centurion and I got to see some of the members from Rabie Ridge there!
Which was really nice. The weather is a big factor here about whether people come to church or not!
But Stake Conference was good, met a lot of people and actually met someone who had served in England a LONG time ago (back when it was the British Mission) and he told me some funny stories, which was nice and we connected pretty well!
On Wednesday as well we had Zone Conference, and it was mostly all about the Book of Mormon and how to use it more. It was really good Zone Conference and I loved it! They also all gave us a present. Our own Book of Mormon with a special cover with our names on and everything. They have a reading plan, we read about 4 pages a day and we will be finished by Christmas!! So it's going well and i'm actually learning a lot at the minute from it!
The thing that I like the most is 1 Nephi 2:12. Talking about Laman and Lemuel. The reason they murmured was because they didn't know the dealings of God. Which I really liked and has a lot of application in our lives!
President Dunn also covered a section on teaching in unity with your companion, which I took something from and hopefully then our teaching will improve now! Me and Chingo are starting to connect really well now and starting to understand each other, so it is going well. We are doing some good work here!
Two people committed to be baptized and have some investigators that are progressing very well! It's been really amazing, and investigators have been keeping their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! One investigator we'd actually lost contact with since she'd missed appointments and doesn't have a phone. So we were going past her house every 1 or 2 days when we had time. Eventually we found her, turns out she'd been reading her Book of Mormon every night and she was getting a lot out of it! We were so happy and she committed to be baptized if she knew the Book of Mormon was true!
So things are going really well
Made friends with a Petrol Station Attendant! We just started talking and he always makes a joke with us. He says that his name is Snakes (from Home Alone) so we always have a laugh when we go through!
Visited a less active family who got offended and have started going to a different church which I have never understood. They now believe the whole "God is 3 in 1, the body soul and spirit..... so that was interesting! I have never understood that. Them being 3 separate beings but 1 in purpose makes sense to me.
Talking about less actives, a better story was that we visited one, his name is Foster. He is a super sweet guy! He's from Ghana and fixes shoes on the roadside next to the chapel for a living. He's a super sweet guy and we all get along well. Anyway we visited him and gave a really powerful lesson and at the end he said that he would come back to church!
One of the members is in the hospital so we visited her a couple of times this week. At first they thought it was mumps, and now they have decided she has an infection in her saliva gland. So it's not nice. Her household has ground to a halt because she's not there (sounds like something that would happen to us!) but she seems okay. We gave her a blessing and the husband wanted me to seal the anointing. Interestingly in the blessing I tell her to be patient with the Lord's timing, we went back on Saturday and she said that that part of the blessing was something that she really needed to hear and has been useful in waiting for her treatment! The same member said "If you don't get sick how are you going to die" She is a very funny person :')
Glad we have free health care back home.
We were in a lesson with a referral, the member who referred us being there too. And as we are introducing the Book of Mormon he asks the standard question of who is Mormon?
Before we can reply the member says "Mormon is our God"
..... silence.....
then we all laughed (as Mormon is the ancient prophet in the book who compiled all the books to make it into one book and then it was named after him)
A member also said "External Life" instead of Eternal :')
That's about it from me this week.
Jack :)
This week has been quite busy, or rather a lot has happened.
First I went to the chiropractor last Monday so she could have a look at my back. I lay down, she took all of about 10 seconds feeling my back and then was like, yeah I know what's wrong. So just corrected it, practically jumping on my back! and it all clicked and felt really good. Things have been better now actually! And it seemed to have helped, I'm going back soon for a check up but all should be well now!
Although I have an infection in my middle finger at the fingertip (where the nail meets the skin at the base) but it isn't too bad, I think Sister Dunn is going to get it looked at soon! But she hasn't mentioned anything yet! I've told her though
Friday was Zone meeting, which was quite nice to see everyone, including the people from my old district! We had a PMG chase (like a scripture chase but from Preach My Gospel) and I won! I got 8, more than everyone else by a lot, so I won the sweets!
The best thing about district meeting is that I got more mail!!
I got 3 more of mums postcards from Friday to Sunday, so it was nice to read about it all.
Speaking about mail, I got a text this week from the senior couple in the office telling me that I have a package waiting for me at the office! So I'm super excited to get that, we are going on Wednesday for Zone Conference so I will get it then, which I am quite excited for!
We are going to the temple a week on Friday anyway so I'm looking forward to that!
In terms of weather summer is here! Ah my goodness it is getting warm! Short sleeves and windows open! Although we have a car and the air conditioning works so that is okay! We just drink a lot of water too, but that means that we have to be a bit!
The kids here have a game, unimaginatively called "Summer Time" And basically all it is that you run around and pour water on people! he he he we haven't had any problems yet, but I almost got nailed once!
My companion Elder Chingomanje is okay! I am getting to know him better. He was at college before he came, studying engineering. He seems to be a cool guy. He is a good Elder and works hard which I can't complain about. I do enjoy working with him!
Met this amazing guy this week (actually we've had some good success this week), found some great new people. One of them is Brother Johannes Rapetswa, he is a retired teacher/government worker, and he came up to us last week outside of church and wanted us to teach him. Turns out his brother is a bishop (of our church) in Pretoria and wants to join our church! So we are really excited for him!
And one of the members gave us a referral!!!! YAY!
On Sunday we went to the Keizer family for lunch! It was such an amazing time that we had there!
She'd made such an amazing meal, it was delicious! Chicken and rice and potatoes and cauliflower and peas and it was all delicious (of course mum you are still the best) but I haven't had a meal like that in a while! I got seconds!
The family though are just such a nice family! They have a nice house with a thatched roof, that is massive!
Anyway they are so nice, one of their sons flies planes in England, and the wife visited Newcastle in May this year!
They are super nice and are very strong in the gospel. Their son served a mission in Durban and he's been home about a year, his name is Dannie, and he is a really cool guy. We had a very good discussion, mainly about missionary life :')
Interesting enough with them, they have every reason to be offended, but choose not to.
In fact, when they first joined the church, she was shot at through a door 5 times, and her husband was put on a hitlist on the internet with a R10,000 reward!
But they didn't let that stop them!
Something I've noticed is that although a lot of the time it can be tough, mission, and you can feel down sometimes, one of the things I know is that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now! I love my mission so much and I am so thankful for your help and encouragement for getting me on my mission! It really is the best thing that I've ever done and it gives me a great sense of accomplishment, I'm doing something very meaningful and changing people's lives which is something that brings an amazing feeling to me! I love my mission and I am so happy here!
Love to everyone.
Jack xx
So my week has been pretty good! It's strange to think that this is only my second week here! It feels like we've been here for quite a while but it's only the second week! ah!
So this week has actually been quite good, a lot more settled into the area and already building a strong relationship with members which is good!
We've been seeing a lot of the members and getting to know them
The funniest thing is that there is this one family, the Kizers (they are the only one of two white families here)
And he is the second counselor and the son is in young men and stuff. Now they don't look like they take a real active role, but they really do and it is great to see.
Anyway they are super nice and it was great to meet with them. We are going to try and work with the son a bit more, he came home from his mission last year and is in college, he served in Durban and has loads of good ideas for us to try which we are hoping for.
The work here is moving, albeit a little slow! The main problem, with the area and the fact we are in a car is that it is harder for us to find people to teach, so we are trying to get more involved with the members, it's working!
The best thing though is that when we go to complexes there are always security guards, and they are normally the first people that we try and teach, because if you get friends with them (especially on the lower grade security) then they let you in!
So we are actually teaching 2 security guards from complexes!
The most exciting thing this week in terms of investigators was actually 3 fold. Sister Inga, Sister Jane and Tandai and Fortune are 3 people that we teach, and we each had the lesson on the restoration with them, and it went really really well!. The spirit was there strong and we had a great time teaching them, so hopefully things will go well with them in the future!
The members really need to help us there but they are always at work :/ so we will see what we can do! We might organize a chapel tour for them! The biggest frustration with many people is that they don't do ANYTHING on a Sunday. They just sit, they don't even go to church!
It's something I've actually seen that I've been very grateful for growing up in my family, it's the Sabbath Day observance. No excuses just do it. It's something I'm really coming to appreciate that my parents did for me when I was younger.
On Wednesday we also had exchanges with Elder Di Ruscio, our Zone Leader, he came with both of us, he's from Italy from a town called Pisa (yes the town that has the leaning tower... the leaning tower of Pisa) yeah he's from there! He's a super cool guy and we got along really well!
We also tried something to try and get more investigators, we went to the local paper and inquired about getting an advert for the Finding Faith in Christ DVD, (we were told it was free...) turns out it was going to actually be about 25 to 50 pound! For 1 issue! We abandoned that real quick, but we left the DVD with them and inquired about how to publish and article... so that is an idea, the question is, what to publish?!
We also helped someone move house this week. It was from Kempton Park's area, and so it was a good sight having two cars pull into their yard and 4 strong young men get out!
The family were actually really nice! I think the father and son are members but I'm not sure about the mother and daughter. The poor mother got a little stressed towards the end, but thankfully as missionaries, you are never in the firing line!
Another funny instance was this little kid of a member, his name is Tuso Mooto. We were having a lesson with the family and he was just being so funny! Saying the funniest of things! I will have to write down what he said!
The other thing related to that was that there was fast and testimony meeting, and I was the first one from the congregation to bear my testimony! It was very good! But then a lot of the primary kids bore their testimony, one of them said "You need to love your family, you need to love your men, you need to love your women" We all laughed a little bit!
That wasn't the best thing, at church though, the best thing was that none of the young men were there early, so we prepared the sacrament. Then it gets to sacrament, we start singing the hymn, the priest pull back the cloth and.... nothing! ha ha ha, there was no bread!!!
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| Jack The Mail Hog |
All credit to the bishopric dealt with it really well. They announced to sing a different hymn and one of the counselors went out straight away and luckily there is a garage right next to the chapel, so he was able to buy some more bread! and so it went okay. I've never seen it happen before but it was very funny! I'm glad it wasn't me! We're going to make a plan to prevent it happening in the future because I think it might!
Another thing was that we were visiting a member and they told us of how they were in Kempton Park that morning (the next area) and six guys came out of nowhere and attacked some G4S security guys who were unloading money. They shot twice and killed one of them! In the middle of the street and took the money. The police and ambulance didn't come for an HOUR! Apparently no one called them! fun fun fun :P
One of the big things is that a week on Thursday our ward mission leader is getting sealed in the temple to his wife, and he want's us to come! So we are going to get permission and I'm looking forward to it, I'm interested to see what happens!
I miss 'Western Food' like sausage pasta. Here it seems to be the same of the same thing. Either Pap or rice, and then usually chicken. Although I will admit, the people here can usually make a really nice sauce or chakalaka (kinda like a sauce with baked beans) and you eat the pap with it, and it's actually really really nice. So it's not so bad here, as long as they don't feed us phuto!
Still trying my best!
Love
Jack!
Met someone from England!! She had just come over for holiday and was from Buckinghamshire! So that was nice to talk to. She was a baptist.
We also had another good experience. One investigator, Sibusiso, when we first went he didn't want to let us into his house, he wasn't very keen, but I felt good so I pushed him quite a bit and finally he let us in, (my dad taught me how to do it). We shared about the Book of Mormon and left it with him. As is common he missed the follow-up appointment, but we finally caught him when we were going past, and his attitude had completely changed! He was super friendly with us! And had been reading the Book of Mormon!!!
The other thing mainly was that we had the temple trip on Friday! It was so nice to finally go back to the temple after almost 3 months of not being able to go! I learned a lot and had such great feeling while I was there! So peaceful!
