So I am staying and most likely be staying in Soweto for my last 2 transfers because
I am TRAINING! A brand new missionary! I will find out who it is tomorrow!
My companion is going to Rabie Ridge!! My old area!!! ha ha!
So it is all very exciting, I am looking forward to training, it will be a new experience! Especially my last 2 transfers. It was actually quite funny because President Leavitt asked me the day before what my thoughts were on training, and I just said that I was comfortable with either. Then the next morning he said that we was calling me to do so. So I was expecting it!
Talking about missionaries, I've also got to know one of the APs, Elder Adams, he's from Ireland, the Republic, So I look forward to knowing him when I go home! :)
So Talking about old areas, I got some really cool text messages yesterday.
So Elder Davey (from England) who is serving in Rabie Ridge at the minute and who is going to be my companion's next companion (Elder Bartice).
So he texted me about this investigator that I used to teach in Rabie Ridge. Well when I say teach, me and Elder Samuel found him the first week that we were there, we started teaching him, and I worked with him the whole time that I was there. He was golden and needed the gospel so badly! His only hindrance was that he used to smoke, so we tried to help him with that. But he always used to read the book of Mormon, was always really nice to us, and keep his appointments.
After I left the area I heard that they stopped teaching him. He wasn't progressing as fast as they wanted him to so they stopped. Which was quite sad.
Well when I became a Zone Leader in Centurion, I went on exchanges in Rabie Ridge, and was able to re-introduce the missionaries to him. So they started teaching him again. But it was going to be a lot of work, so I didn't think much of it.
Well the text message I got last night was that he's quit smoking!! He's coming to church every week, and he is going to get baptized!!!!!! AHHHHH I was so happy!! It's wonderful to see that no effort is wasted
The other cool experience was on Sunday
So Sunday was Stake Conference, now I've been looking forward to Stake Conference ever since I came to the area, because it would mean that I could see the members from Glen Ridge again.
Well come Stake Conference, and it was great!!! I got to see a lot of the members again and take pictures with them. But the greatest thing was during the conference.
So we had to get up (we were sitting towards the back) to go to the toilet for my companion. When we come back, someone is sitting in our seats. So we opt to sit out in the hall where they had set up a TV.I sat at the back and was just writing in my journal because we couldn't hear properly.
When the mission president, President Leavitt, started to speak I moved to the front so I could try and hear him. Then this girl sitting next to me, 2 chairs over, asks what it is I'm doing. I respond that I'm trying to hear. I turn to look and to say more, but I stop.... I look at this girl, and her face seems familiar. To try and help me I ask her name (really awkward), turns out, it's VUYO! The investigator that me and Elder Hosmer found and taught while I was in Glen Ridge, and who was baptized 3 weeks after I left the area!!
I was so happy to see her!!!! Literally, the person I really wanted to find while I was there, and I was sitting next to her!!!
Vuyo is the epitome of why we do missionary work!! She was in a bad state when we met her, but now she is completely changed. She's changed her lifestyle, stopped smoking after 5 years (she's like 18) changed friends, and is happy!! Sh has this different look, a different light about her!
It was amazing! I took pictures
Our investigators are progressing nicely, Pule is getting better and better!
We found this sweet new couple, his name is Nathi, he was referred to the church by a friend, found where the chapel was online and came to church by himself! So we have started teaching him!! Look forward to it very much, and he has a fiancee that sounds interested! Watch this space.
We had an awesome experience with one of the members! So Bulelwa is in college at the minute, and last Sunday we went over to their house to pick up Elder Bartice's journal that they had been signing, and while we were there, she tells us of this great experience in missionary work!
So they had been doing an experiment at school, to measure breathing or something, and they needed to be distracted so they wouldn't think about their breathing. Bulelwa remembered that she had a Book of Mormon in her bag that she carried around just in case, so she gave it to her friend to read and let her keep it afterward.
Well, when we were there she was showing us the messages that she had been sending, she had already read until Alma!! And was loving it!! So we were able to show her how to submit a referral online, for her friend, so that the missionaries would be able to go and visit her! It was awesome to see the ways that people are able to share the gospel
One of the other hilarious things that happened was that we were visiting with a recent convert, whose son is preparing for baptism. He doesn't stay this side, in Soweto. But since he is going to be staying here for like a month, he decided that he wants to get baptized here. So we were like SURE!! Ran through the baptismal interview questions, and everything was okay, so we set a date for 2 weeks from now... but I didn't have a good feeling.
We went back the next day and while we are talking. While we are, he asks us for a Addiction Recovery workbook, that we promised him a while ago..... so now i'm curious, I ask him why.... he gives a small answer, and then the spirit prompted me to ask him if he had quit smoking (the Elders that were teaching him had told us that he had a problem)
He said that he doesn't buy cigarettes for himself, but only with his friends........
So I ask: "When did you last smoke?"
"Today"
........
It was actually kinda amusing, but we have moved his date back like a month, and will keep working with him.
Then Today we went on a tour around Soweto with a member!! It took forever!! Especially because we messed up and ended up having to wait for them to cook lunch, so, all in all, it took like 6 hours!! But it was a nice sunny day, and very enjoyable
