So we wake up this morning to a dark and gloomy rainy day...in multiple ways. My comp goes to the bathroom and while he's in there he looks around and notices that my toiletry bag is missing...with all my stuff in there...so he just thinks that i must have moved it. (I'm still in bed at this point) and then he runs to our study area and all i hear is "dude wake up! we've been robbed!" so i get up and to my luck my skateboard was still on the wall...:) I go to the study and we find both our bags missing. My shoulder bag with books in it, and his little carry on bag with personal things inside of it, his mp3 player mission, and a few other things. Including some stuff from the bathroom...Well last night it was soo freakin hot we slept with the window open...which just happened to be the only window on it without burgler bars...(almost all windows have burler bars on them cuz it's SA...) Well that window is pretty dang high up...so there was two of them. We looked by the window and found finger prints and even on the outside walls. One helped the other up and they got in, walked around, went by our beds into the bathroom, grabbed stuff, chucked it out the window and what what...all while we were sleeping. And this is what we woke up to this morning. Luckily we ran down the street to where some bushes are and just happened to find papers and things lying around, of which they took our stuff there and dumped everything out looking for valuables, and left the things which they didnt want. So we got some stuff back. They left my PMG, my black binder with all my notes from beginning of mission, they left Turner's personal papers from home, his planners, and a couple other things. The stuff that was taken tho was his mp3 player, a watch, our bags, luckily my new razor that i just bought was on the sink and not in my bag...but they got my old razor, all my lotions, and everything else...and my shoulder bag. Luckily we really didnt have too much of value so we got lucky. They could have easily taken other things on the desk but i guess they didnt have time...So yeah that's what happened last night.
But of course we were watched over last night...and nothing happened to us...fast asleep...
So as for the rest of the week...it was quite good. We had workshops in which i was able to see Elder Fragar again and they gave a great workshop on using members effectively. That was really something we needed. Got to have the usual interview with President Probst just about the area and what what. Things are good. Turner and i are doing just fine.
Now that the holidays are over we've finally been able to see more of our investigators and have been blessed finding some new ones too. Even father led families. Including one white family! Yo...this is a miracle. They are Catholic but found out some bad things about their church and haven't been going for the past 2 months. We hopefully caught them the right time as they are very nice and willing to listen. If we were to teach them...(family of parents and three kids...24, 18, and 11) then this would be...i think...the first white family that i've taught my entire mission. It's kinda a rare thing...But we'll see what happens. Other than that...Just been busy. We're teaching another father led...Betty and Elijah...she's from Zimbabwe and he's from SA i think. We have a problem with getting them to the church as it's like a 20 minute drive to the chapel and they dont have a car and taxi is expensive...but they're probably the next up for baptism we would think...maybe sometime next month if all goes well.
Yeah there's not too much else to report on. It's been a good week...it's been super hot lately but this is the first day that it's rained which is nice...although it sucks it has to be on a pday...o well. K well much love!
Elder Devenney
Monday, January 11, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Jan 4, 2010
So the week went and has been just a little bit better than the previous week. We've been on the hunt for some new investigators and have been going through to find some new ones...and we have had some success this past week that will also flow into this week. We're starting to organize more fellowshippers to come with us...as people in this area have actual lives it's hard to get even the young men to come out with us for the day. Back in township...ysa and ym and what not would come with us all day no problem, 5 days a week or more, and they wouldnt be tired of it. But here it's a different story...So we've had to work around that.
We taught this great guy Kabika from Zambia. Pres. Probst was telling us to teach everybody during this holiday season...even if they're just here for a couple of weeks. So that's what we did. Found this guy from Zambia that was staying in his sisters house for the Christmas season and we just started teaching him. We met him 3 times in the past 2 weeks and had a great First lesson with him just a few days ago. He was stoked about the BOM and everything that we talked about. He unfortunately never came to the church as things came up...but we'll be passing his name on to the elders in Zambia i'm sure. The seed was planted...
The members are still taking great care of us...feeding us and always offering anything they can do for us. We've been working on a ward garden for each family...i might have told you...it's about the size of a doorframe and each family in the ward is encouraged to have a veggie garden that size, and we've kinda been getting it going. Starting them up for the families and diggin and what not. It's been good. Our ward mission leader Bro Flowerday is awesome, we worked his garden and got fed and what not. As well as other families. Bro Flowerday is an awesome guy. They lived in England for a while...he's freakin loaded...they almost bought this castle house but didnt, they have 3 kids, one about to go on mission, he's a previous bishop, he's freakin smart and is a professor in charge of universities around here...anyway...yeah they take good care of us and invite us over all the time...
Anyway...new years eve we were told not to work very late...only til about 5pm or so. So then we hooked up with some other elders...went to the CES building and played some ping pong till the end of the night. That was pretty fun. New years day we were told not to go out and work at all...(mostly cuz all the parties and drunk people that would be out etc) and so our zone and some other elders from the mdantsane zone came to our chapel and we just played sport for a while. Played some volleyball...soccer...i skated a bit...then when it got dark we played mafia which was awesome. O and for lunch just my comp and i were invited to a braai with the Dixon fam, as well as the Flowerdays were there...it was soo dang good. but then we went to the chapel for sport.That kinda concluded our new years...then it was back to work the following day.
Uh...yeah just in summary...things are going fine. Most of our investigators are back in town and we should be back to the normal teaching schedule and everything with them...it's been a bit tough with the holiday season. So yeah that's kinda it...Hope that's good...Thanks!
Elder Devenney
We taught this great guy Kabika from Zambia. Pres. Probst was telling us to teach everybody during this holiday season...even if they're just here for a couple of weeks. So that's what we did. Found this guy from Zambia that was staying in his sisters house for the Christmas season and we just started teaching him. We met him 3 times in the past 2 weeks and had a great First lesson with him just a few days ago. He was stoked about the BOM and everything that we talked about. He unfortunately never came to the church as things came up...but we'll be passing his name on to the elders in Zambia i'm sure. The seed was planted...
The members are still taking great care of us...feeding us and always offering anything they can do for us. We've been working on a ward garden for each family...i might have told you...it's about the size of a doorframe and each family in the ward is encouraged to have a veggie garden that size, and we've kinda been getting it going. Starting them up for the families and diggin and what not. It's been good. Our ward mission leader Bro Flowerday is awesome, we worked his garden and got fed and what not. As well as other families. Bro Flowerday is an awesome guy. They lived in England for a while...he's freakin loaded...they almost bought this castle house but didnt, they have 3 kids, one about to go on mission, he's a previous bishop, he's freakin smart and is a professor in charge of universities around here...anyway...yeah they take good care of us and invite us over all the time...
Anyway...new years eve we were told not to work very late...only til about 5pm or so. So then we hooked up with some other elders...went to the CES building and played some ping pong till the end of the night. That was pretty fun. New years day we were told not to go out and work at all...(mostly cuz all the parties and drunk people that would be out etc) and so our zone and some other elders from the mdantsane zone came to our chapel and we just played sport for a while. Played some volleyball...soccer...i skated a bit...then when it got dark we played mafia which was awesome. O and for lunch just my comp and i were invited to a braai with the Dixon fam, as well as the Flowerdays were there...it was soo dang good. but then we went to the chapel for sport.That kinda concluded our new years...then it was back to work the following day.
Uh...yeah just in summary...things are going fine. Most of our investigators are back in town and we should be back to the normal teaching schedule and everything with them...it's been a bit tough with the holiday season. So yeah that's kinda it...Hope that's good...Thanks!
Elder Devenney
Monday, December 21, 2009
Christmas Post
Well this week has been a bit better as I’ve gotten more familiar with the area and what what. Last Monday we played some nice soccer at our chapel on the field. It was the East London Zone against the Mdantsane Zone. So there were way too many players on the field…needless to say with Schamel, myself, and a few others…we were unstoppable. Haha. Well not really…but it did come down to 4 – 4 and we needed last goal wins…and of course I dominated and put the last goal in…it was a good ender.This week has been a pretty mixed up one tho…Tuesday was a long day. We’ve been helping a member in the ward move and they had SO much stuff it was ridiculous. Long hours…about 6 of them on Tuesday we were moving boxes back and forth and it was getting quite tiring. They moved into a house that must have been half the size and I really don’t know how they’re going to fit everything in. There were only about 4 or 5 of us helping out on
Tuesday…then the rest of the ward members were going to come on Wednesday. So after helping on Tuesday later on that night we went to one of our appointments…got dropped by the mother of the family…in which she hated me but liked my companion because he was south African. She was Dutch Reform, and wanted us to meet her minister…just another crazy person. But yeah that sucked that we got dropped…she said we could come back in a years time.
Wednesday morning we again helped move the Theron and Hill Family. We had a Christmas Talent Show with all the missionaries at the chapel. President and Sister Probst were there and we started out the activity in the morning watching a movie titled “The Christmas Shoes” and I’m pretty sure every missionary was holding back the tears…it was a sad show. But it was a nice one to watch (since we don’t watch any in the first place) after the movie we had a nice lunch of pizza, then the talent show. I did a bit of Tae Kwon Do and taught a couple other missionaries how to do a Volly Kick (dunno if that’s spelled right) but yeah it was pretty fun. Other talents included singing…poetry, stand up comedy (my comp) impersonations, soccer juggling, and a bunch of other stuff. It was so funny. That was only a few hours in the day then we went back to work in the evening. Just visited more members and got fed and visited other Lessactives and what not. That was about it.
Thursday we had Zone Conference and it was so long, but good of course. It went from 8:30 in the morning to 4:30pm. Things in the mission are continuing to change a bit…tighter schedules and just stuff president wants us to do. He wants us consistently out of our boardings by 10 AM, since the start of mission we’ve usually just either done service right in the morning or taken our lunch then and gone out by 12 or so. But he wants us out in our areas all day and just taking a sandwich or something with us. But it’ll be alright. Zone Conference is always good...it always gets us pumped up.
Friday after district meeting, went out to eat, then went to work. We focused a lot on finding new people, and we had a little bit of success. We have been told by our ward mission leader, who is awesome by the way, to work Gonubie and try to find some people up there…apparently it hasn’t been worked too much. It’s only about a 10 to 15 min drive from where we live, and it’s still part of our area…it’s just far from the church. Probably a 20 minute drive. But yeah…got in a couple of houses…not too successful tho. I don’t remember what else we did…
Saturday we played some volleyball with the ward in the morning…then soccer…(not that it’s our pday or anything) but then had to again do service for another family, the Thornhills, who were also moving. This move wasn’t as bad. We had a lot of help and their place was pretty small so we got everything done within a couple of hours. But I was beat after that. Later on that evening we just tried to do some more following up and find new investigators…idunno what happened…it’s all a blur. O wait…we had a surprise Braai with a member family who called us up and invited us over. It was dang good. Just talked for a while…there were about 10 or 15 people there…but way good food. That ended our night.
Sunday was good. Church was good. We did a singing thingy with another family singing Silent Night and I’m pretty sure we all started off tune and singing a different version from what we practiced…so it wasn’t the best. But it was alright I guess. Then the rest of the day we went around talking with members and others because the ward wants us to start helping members plant gardens…so we got spades and other things the other day…but yeah we just have been planning when and where for the members and less actives. That really concludes all our week.
It’s been good tho…I hope everybody has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!Much love!Elder Devenney
Tuesday…then the rest of the ward members were going to come on Wednesday. So after helping on Tuesday later on that night we went to one of our appointments…got dropped by the mother of the family…in which she hated me but liked my companion because he was south African. She was Dutch Reform, and wanted us to meet her minister…just another crazy person. But yeah that sucked that we got dropped…she said we could come back in a years time.
Wednesday morning we again helped move the Theron and Hill Family. We had a Christmas Talent Show with all the missionaries at the chapel. President and Sister Probst were there and we started out the activity in the morning watching a movie titled “The Christmas Shoes” and I’m pretty sure every missionary was holding back the tears…it was a sad show. But it was a nice one to watch (since we don’t watch any in the first place) after the movie we had a nice lunch of pizza, then the talent show. I did a bit of Tae Kwon Do and taught a couple other missionaries how to do a Volly Kick (dunno if that’s spelled right) but yeah it was pretty fun. Other talents included singing…poetry, stand up comedy (my comp) impersonations, soccer juggling, and a bunch of other stuff. It was so funny. That was only a few hours in the day then we went back to work in the evening. Just visited more members and got fed and visited other Lessactives and what not. That was about it.
Thursday we had Zone Conference and it was so long, but good of course. It went from 8:30 in the morning to 4:30pm. Things in the mission are continuing to change a bit…tighter schedules and just stuff president wants us to do. He wants us consistently out of our boardings by 10 AM, since the start of mission we’ve usually just either done service right in the morning or taken our lunch then and gone out by 12 or so. But he wants us out in our areas all day and just taking a sandwich or something with us. But it’ll be alright. Zone Conference is always good...it always gets us pumped up.
Friday after district meeting, went out to eat, then went to work. We focused a lot on finding new people, and we had a little bit of success. We have been told by our ward mission leader, who is awesome by the way, to work Gonubie and try to find some people up there…apparently it hasn’t been worked too much. It’s only about a 10 to 15 min drive from where we live, and it’s still part of our area…it’s just far from the church. Probably a 20 minute drive. But yeah…got in a couple of houses…not too successful tho. I don’t remember what else we did…
Saturday we played some volleyball with the ward in the morning…then soccer…(not that it’s our pday or anything) but then had to again do service for another family, the Thornhills, who were also moving. This move wasn’t as bad. We had a lot of help and their place was pretty small so we got everything done within a couple of hours. But I was beat after that. Later on that evening we just tried to do some more following up and find new investigators…idunno what happened…it’s all a blur. O wait…we had a surprise Braai with a member family who called us up and invited us over. It was dang good. Just talked for a while…there were about 10 or 15 people there…but way good food. That ended our night.
Sunday was good. Church was good. We did a singing thingy with another family singing Silent Night and I’m pretty sure we all started off tune and singing a different version from what we practiced…so it wasn’t the best. But it was alright I guess. Then the rest of the day we went around talking with members and others because the ward wants us to start helping members plant gardens…so we got spades and other things the other day…but yeah we just have been planning when and where for the members and less actives. That really concludes all our week.
It’s been good tho…I hope everybody has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!Much love!Elder Devenney
Monday, December 14, 2009
December 14, 2009
Hey there!Well it’s been an interesting week with transfers and all. Mkhize and I had planned out what might happen to the two of us…we assumed because he had been there in Ilinge before me that he would be the one that was going to be transferred. We waited patiently on Tuesday for transfer news but nothing came. Not until the next morning. And it was a bit of a surprise. Instead of Mkhize leaving and me staying, it was the other way around. Mkhize would stay and get a new companion, and I would leave to go to East London 1st Ward. East London is about a 2 hour drive towards the coast, quite a big city. So that news came Wednesday morning and I left Thursday morning for East London. A nice long drive in the morning…then finally arrived and got my companion. Elder Turner is his name, from South Africa, Jo-burg. The area in which we work is COMPLETELY different from what I was previously working, which means that it’s going to take a while to adjust. I’m still a district leader of 4. The are is predominately white rich people. It’s a beautiful area as I’ve been able to work and go around the past few days. The area is called Beacon Bay, also work Gonubie, and even way north is called Sunrise on Sea. It’s a large area, and the work is a little slow. It’s completely different when you go from township missionary work, to white area missionary work, you cannot do the same things in the two. And I’ve hardly been in white area my whole mission, so I was kinda stressing about it at first. Mostly we’ve just been trying to visit the members and get to know them better. Our teaching pool is small…and as for the work it can be a little slow as I said…we struggle to get people coming out to teach with us…struggle finding new investigators…basically we could knock all day and no one would want to let us in…plus it’s holiday so it’s even worse. I’m not a big knockin on door fan anyway…so we’ll be working in a different way this transfer to try to increase our teaching pool.
Let me try to let you get a picture of what the area is like. Yes, it’s huge. We’re driving…of course. But parts of it are just beautiful…right on the beach…we take a daily drive on a road for about 10 minutes right along the coastline that looks at the ocean. We’ve gone on the rocks and found some seashells and relaxed a bit to figure things out. I love the smell of the ocean. So it is a beautiful area…which is a blessing…but it’s a difficult one…probably one of the hardest in the whole mission when it comes to success.
Elder Turner has already been here for 3 months. He’s a good guy. We’re getting along just fine. Saturday we had the ward Christmas party up at Bishop’s farm, which is far north in our area. I got to meet most everybody, had a nice braai…people were swimming…playing pool…just hanging out. So it was really nice and a way fun party. Church on Sunday was nice. The chapel is a very nice building and the members are great as well. Oh and the bonus of the rich areas to serve…is that we get fed all the time. That really is a change from my last area…so that is a blessing…if I don’t get too fat! Haha. Other than that idunno…just things are fine. There’s really not too much to tell…I’ve just been trying hard to learn the area…and know the members. There’s really not much else I can report on. Hope this is good enough of an update…Thanks!
Elder Devenney
Let me try to let you get a picture of what the area is like. Yes, it’s huge. We’re driving…of course. But parts of it are just beautiful…right on the beach…we take a daily drive on a road for about 10 minutes right along the coastline that looks at the ocean. We’ve gone on the rocks and found some seashells and relaxed a bit to figure things out. I love the smell of the ocean. So it is a beautiful area…which is a blessing…but it’s a difficult one…probably one of the hardest in the whole mission when it comes to success.
Elder Turner has already been here for 3 months. He’s a good guy. We’re getting along just fine. Saturday we had the ward Christmas party up at Bishop’s farm, which is far north in our area. I got to meet most everybody, had a nice braai…people were swimming…playing pool…just hanging out. So it was really nice and a way fun party. Church on Sunday was nice. The chapel is a very nice building and the members are great as well. Oh and the bonus of the rich areas to serve…is that we get fed all the time. That really is a change from my last area…so that is a blessing…if I don’t get too fat! Haha. Other than that idunno…just things are fine. There’s really not too much to tell…I’ve just been trying hard to learn the area…and know the members. There’s really not much else I can report on. Hope this is good enough of an update…Thanks!
Elder Devenney
Monday, November 30, 2009
December 1, 2009
Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
As for us, we were informed that we should not celebrate Thanksgiving, as it's not a recognized holiday here, and that normal proselyting would continue like a normal day. We all figured that's what would happen anyway, so it wasn't that big a deal.
Unfortunately the week started out a bit bad on my side. I got sick, food poisoning is what i'd imagine it was. I must have eaten something and it ended up making me feel horrible. So both Tuesday and Wednesday we didnt even go out into the area. Just hung around and tried to get some rest and get over it. Tried to drink lots of water, etc etc. It was a bit boring, but we ended up going on some nice walks (because being stuck in the boarding all day blows big time, and we found a nice lake/reserve place and we chilled up there for a while. It was way pretty. O and we had some problems with our electricity. It went out, so we went to go get some more (we have to buy our electricity when it gets low, well mission pays for it, ya know...) So we went to Pick N Pay to get some more (local grocery) and they said we were unable to buy it becuase it was blocked and a whole bunch of other stupid reasons. So we called the office, called the landlord, trying to figure out what to do. Needless to say we were completely out of electricity and they couldnt solve it that day. So we ended up spending the night with some other elders at their place. Same thing happened on Wednesday, still couldn't get any. So we had to sleep over again. But we did finally get it on thursday, which was great to have. Thursday i was feeling a bit better so we went back into the area. It was a slow week for us...but we stayed busy.
On Saturday we went to the chapel for our class that we teach, but found that the YM/YW were having an activity. It was a dance activity. So we hung around and helped out, ate a bit of food, that sort of stuff. It was pretty fun. They were learning how to dance...idunno what kind of dance...and then half of it just reminded me of high school becuase they'd form a bit circle and then random people would jump in for 30 seconds at a time...ya know...and then hop back out. Of course only most of the girls were brave enough to go in. A lot of the guys were even too scared to ask any of the girls to dance. It's funny...doesnt matter where you go in the world, guys are always more uncomfortable and shy when it comes to dancing and what what. So i have now made it a goal of mine that when i get home, i want to take a dance class. haha...but anyway, it was fun and ended up being a great activity for how small the branch is.
Sunday church was really good. Elder Mkhize and I spoke in sacrament meeting. I was the concluding speaker. It went really well...other than the chapel was hot and we only had fans in there...but it went really good. Our theme for sunday was Jacob 3:1,2 and Alma 57:27. It talked mostly about being Firm and Pure in Heart. So i talked a lot of about the stripling warriors, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and of course the Savior. I kept my time of 15 minutes and overall i think it went really well. I tried to focus my talk on how to have a Firm Testimony and how to live to it til the end of our lives like many of these men in the scriptures...But other than that church was good.We had a few appointments and just ended our day. A window of teaching has again presented itself to a PM family, Mama Matiso's family. I think i told you we're teaching her daughter Vuyokazi, as well as her other daughter. Only 2 out of the 5 are members if you remember me saying. But now the husband, although he struggles with english, has expressed how he might want us to visit him as well. We've been praying for fatherled families as this is our main focus. So hopefully this will be a father that we can bring into the church that will be strong support to the rest of his family.
Other than that...not much. Just keeping on going. Thanks for everything everyone! hope you enjoy the holidays!
Elder Devenney
As for us, we were informed that we should not celebrate Thanksgiving, as it's not a recognized holiday here, and that normal proselyting would continue like a normal day. We all figured that's what would happen anyway, so it wasn't that big a deal.
Unfortunately the week started out a bit bad on my side. I got sick, food poisoning is what i'd imagine it was. I must have eaten something and it ended up making me feel horrible. So both Tuesday and Wednesday we didnt even go out into the area. Just hung around and tried to get some rest and get over it. Tried to drink lots of water, etc etc. It was a bit boring, but we ended up going on some nice walks (because being stuck in the boarding all day blows big time, and we found a nice lake/reserve place and we chilled up there for a while. It was way pretty. O and we had some problems with our electricity. It went out, so we went to go get some more (we have to buy our electricity when it gets low, well mission pays for it, ya know...) So we went to Pick N Pay to get some more (local grocery) and they said we were unable to buy it becuase it was blocked and a whole bunch of other stupid reasons. So we called the office, called the landlord, trying to figure out what to do. Needless to say we were completely out of electricity and they couldnt solve it that day. So we ended up spending the night with some other elders at their place. Same thing happened on Wednesday, still couldn't get any. So we had to sleep over again. But we did finally get it on thursday, which was great to have. Thursday i was feeling a bit better so we went back into the area. It was a slow week for us...but we stayed busy.
On Saturday we went to the chapel for our class that we teach, but found that the YM/YW were having an activity. It was a dance activity. So we hung around and helped out, ate a bit of food, that sort of stuff. It was pretty fun. They were learning how to dance...idunno what kind of dance...and then half of it just reminded me of high school becuase they'd form a bit circle and then random people would jump in for 30 seconds at a time...ya know...and then hop back out. Of course only most of the girls were brave enough to go in. A lot of the guys were even too scared to ask any of the girls to dance. It's funny...doesnt matter where you go in the world, guys are always more uncomfortable and shy when it comes to dancing and what what. So i have now made it a goal of mine that when i get home, i want to take a dance class. haha...but anyway, it was fun and ended up being a great activity for how small the branch is.
Sunday church was really good. Elder Mkhize and I spoke in sacrament meeting. I was the concluding speaker. It went really well...other than the chapel was hot and we only had fans in there...but it went really good. Our theme for sunday was Jacob 3:1,2 and Alma 57:27. It talked mostly about being Firm and Pure in Heart. So i talked a lot of about the stripling warriors, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and of course the Savior. I kept my time of 15 minutes and overall i think it went really well. I tried to focus my talk on how to have a Firm Testimony and how to live to it til the end of our lives like many of these men in the scriptures...But other than that church was good.We had a few appointments and just ended our day. A window of teaching has again presented itself to a PM family, Mama Matiso's family. I think i told you we're teaching her daughter Vuyokazi, as well as her other daughter. Only 2 out of the 5 are members if you remember me saying. But now the husband, although he struggles with english, has expressed how he might want us to visit him as well. We've been praying for fatherled families as this is our main focus. So hopefully this will be a father that we can bring into the church that will be strong support to the rest of his family.
Other than that...not much. Just keeping on going. Thanks for everything everyone! hope you enjoy the holidays!
Elder Devenney
Monday, November 9, 2009
Nov 9th, 2009
Well because of last week i'll try to make up for it by saying a bit of what you would have heard last week, as well as this week...
Starting last week i wrote about one of our investigators named Vuyokazi. A 23 year old Part member family member. Her mother and sister are both members, and now she's getting interested as well. Even the father of the family came to church for the first time yesterday...So There's mama Matiso, (mother) and amanda (other sister) who are both recent converts probably within the past 4 months or so. But are active and excited. So anyway...with Vuyokazi...we've been visiting her for just a couple of weeks now and she's come to church maybe 4 times or so, maybe more. She's a fashion designer, has her own shop here in Queenstown. It's a new business for her tho, so she just started. We talked with her a little bit about faith a few weeks ago and challenged her to act on her faith and do something to increase her faith in the Saviour. We gave her til the next time we saw her, which would just be a couple of days, then we'd follow up and see how it went. Anyway, to make a long story short, she expressed how truly she saw how her prayers were making a difference. She had been praying sincerely that people would come to her store so that she would be able to have enough money for rent, etc, and her prayers were answered. Her business is going well...even with how new it is. I think there's also some issue with her and her father...but i'm excited to find out her thoughts about him now that he visited the church yesterday...Also something else that she told us was that some lady came into her store and told her how nice she was and how great her work was and the lady ended up asking Vuyokazi what church she goes to, surprisingly enough she ended up saying the LDS church. (previously she had been going to a happy clappy church, ya know drums and all...but i know she hadnt learned anything there) and when the lady heard her say that she said "why!? how could such a good girl like you go to THAT church" "why dont you come to my house and i'll tell you all about those mormons and what they believe in". Good thing Vuyokazi ended up sticking up for herself and told her no thanks, even when she's only come a couple of times and at that point we had probably only sat down with her 3 times with short visits. She could have easily found some anti stuff through this lady, but we were glad that she stood up for herself and what she's been feeling and was able to deny that lady. I was happy to hear that. But she's doing well nonetheless. We'll see what happens with that family in the future. We're slowly getting them all to church one by one...
Last week for our book of mormon class we taught about how to introduce the book to people in a sit down situation. Had some practice role plays, evaluated, repracticed, it was pretty intereting. The Ym and Yw have been doing a lot of missionary work for us, going out and talking to people about the gospel, and even tried to teach for themselves...which is something they shouldnt do without us, and luckily we corrected them...but they're really finding joy in missionary work. And they've given us a lot of referrals which was great to see. So this time for our BOM class, this past saturday...we focused on Pass Along Cards. How to talk to a random stranger on the street and invite them to take the card, etc etc. We kinda did the same thing, practiced, role played, then took it to real life and had an activity to give away pass along cards to those walking by the chapel. Everybody was so scared at first, but once they started they realized it wasn't that bad and would want to give away more. We had huge success with it. Including referrals from the contacts they made, with some we've already visited yesterday. The branch is becoming more and more focused on missionary work through classes, as well as the Family Mission Plan of which i've spoken about in past weeks...
As for this week...things are going just fine. We've been having a lot of success in bringing people to church. I think my first couple of weeks we were only getting maybe 2 or 3 investigators at church, now we have usually 8 or 9. So we're feeling good about our efforts on that side.
Silindokuhle, our RC, was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday which is good to see. He's a solid young man.
O on saturday night we had a nice dinner with the Ndlelo's, 1st counselor in BP, and YW pres...i'm sure i've mentioned them before. I had promised to make them a chocolate cake, so that was half the reason of going over there. Which we did by the way and it was fantastic as always. Then they made us some pop and pork and stuff...pretty nice meal.
O yes, we had workshops and interviews this past week which i almost forgot about. On the 18th of this month we're having Elder Hinkley, (Pres. HInkley's son) come to our mission and tour it. Well almost this whole transfer, but on the 18th is our Zone Conference in which we'll see him. The focus for this transfer is Chapter 3 of PMG, all the basic things that we teach. So for ZC when he comes, one companionship will have to teach him The Plan of Salvation in 15 minutes...i'm hoping that we wont get picked for that one. haha. It would be a bit intimidating yeah...So that's what the workshop was on. And that's what we're going to focus on in District meetings and so on...just to prepare for that. How to better teach these lessons...Should be interesting.
Other than that there's really not much else going on. Things are good. Ilinge is fine. No big news there i suppose. Just teaching and having a good time! Hope that was a good update for ya...
Thanks,Elder Devenney
Starting last week i wrote about one of our investigators named Vuyokazi. A 23 year old Part member family member. Her mother and sister are both members, and now she's getting interested as well. Even the father of the family came to church for the first time yesterday...So There's mama Matiso, (mother) and amanda (other sister) who are both recent converts probably within the past 4 months or so. But are active and excited. So anyway...with Vuyokazi...we've been visiting her for just a couple of weeks now and she's come to church maybe 4 times or so, maybe more. She's a fashion designer, has her own shop here in Queenstown. It's a new business for her tho, so she just started. We talked with her a little bit about faith a few weeks ago and challenged her to act on her faith and do something to increase her faith in the Saviour. We gave her til the next time we saw her, which would just be a couple of days, then we'd follow up and see how it went. Anyway, to make a long story short, she expressed how truly she saw how her prayers were making a difference. She had been praying sincerely that people would come to her store so that she would be able to have enough money for rent, etc, and her prayers were answered. Her business is going well...even with how new it is. I think there's also some issue with her and her father...but i'm excited to find out her thoughts about him now that he visited the church yesterday...Also something else that she told us was that some lady came into her store and told her how nice she was and how great her work was and the lady ended up asking Vuyokazi what church she goes to, surprisingly enough she ended up saying the LDS church. (previously she had been going to a happy clappy church, ya know drums and all...but i know she hadnt learned anything there) and when the lady heard her say that she said "why!? how could such a good girl like you go to THAT church" "why dont you come to my house and i'll tell you all about those mormons and what they believe in". Good thing Vuyokazi ended up sticking up for herself and told her no thanks, even when she's only come a couple of times and at that point we had probably only sat down with her 3 times with short visits. She could have easily found some anti stuff through this lady, but we were glad that she stood up for herself and what she's been feeling and was able to deny that lady. I was happy to hear that. But she's doing well nonetheless. We'll see what happens with that family in the future. We're slowly getting them all to church one by one...
Last week for our book of mormon class we taught about how to introduce the book to people in a sit down situation. Had some practice role plays, evaluated, repracticed, it was pretty intereting. The Ym and Yw have been doing a lot of missionary work for us, going out and talking to people about the gospel, and even tried to teach for themselves...which is something they shouldnt do without us, and luckily we corrected them...but they're really finding joy in missionary work. And they've given us a lot of referrals which was great to see. So this time for our BOM class, this past saturday...we focused on Pass Along Cards. How to talk to a random stranger on the street and invite them to take the card, etc etc. We kinda did the same thing, practiced, role played, then took it to real life and had an activity to give away pass along cards to those walking by the chapel. Everybody was so scared at first, but once they started they realized it wasn't that bad and would want to give away more. We had huge success with it. Including referrals from the contacts they made, with some we've already visited yesterday. The branch is becoming more and more focused on missionary work through classes, as well as the Family Mission Plan of which i've spoken about in past weeks...
As for this week...things are going just fine. We've been having a lot of success in bringing people to church. I think my first couple of weeks we were only getting maybe 2 or 3 investigators at church, now we have usually 8 or 9. So we're feeling good about our efforts on that side.
Silindokuhle, our RC, was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday which is good to see. He's a solid young man.
O on saturday night we had a nice dinner with the Ndlelo's, 1st counselor in BP, and YW pres...i'm sure i've mentioned them before. I had promised to make them a chocolate cake, so that was half the reason of going over there. Which we did by the way and it was fantastic as always. Then they made us some pop and pork and stuff...pretty nice meal.
O yes, we had workshops and interviews this past week which i almost forgot about. On the 18th of this month we're having Elder Hinkley, (Pres. HInkley's son) come to our mission and tour it. Well almost this whole transfer, but on the 18th is our Zone Conference in which we'll see him. The focus for this transfer is Chapter 3 of PMG, all the basic things that we teach. So for ZC when he comes, one companionship will have to teach him The Plan of Salvation in 15 minutes...i'm hoping that we wont get picked for that one. haha. It would be a bit intimidating yeah...So that's what the workshop was on. And that's what we're going to focus on in District meetings and so on...just to prepare for that. How to better teach these lessons...Should be interesting.
Other than that there's really not much else going on. Things are good. Ilinge is fine. No big news there i suppose. Just teaching and having a good time! Hope that was a good update for ya...
Thanks,Elder Devenney
Monday, November 2, 2009
Oct 26, 2009
Good morning everybody! It has been another week here in South Africa where the weather has been up and down. Rainstorms, overcast, sunny and hot, it's been it all. I hope you're all enjoying the weather back at home...whether that's hot or cold i do not know...
Yesterday Silindokuhle entered the waters of baptism! It was really great. He's such a good kid. Monde, one of the other Priesthood holders who fellowships with us on a regular basis did the baptism. It was great actually, neither my companion or i got chosen to do any part of the program. Didnt even have to give a talk. haha. I think it's the best like that. If the members can do the baptism and confirmation and what what, then as soon as we Elders leave it's not a big deal for the investigators getting baptized. Yesterday was a rainy day tho...so i felt bad for those getting into the water...it couldnt have been too warm. As we all huddled around the outside baptismal font, with some watching from the inside, Monde had to dunk him 3 times because Silindokuhle kept floating to the top. haha. It was a pretty funny scene. But it worked out in the end on the 3rd try. :) He'll be confirmed a member of the church this coming sunday by Bro Patha, our 19 year old young mens president who comes to see Silindokuhle quite often with us.
As for other parts of the week...It's been off and on with good things happening and what not. Some days almost everything would fall through...and it would be hard to find productive things to do in the mean time. We did however do some good service this week at the Branch Presidents house, President Mjiba helping him "transplant" grass to another location...it was funny. He's a hilarious man. Then we also helped another member at the local clinic in the garden diggin around some corn, or mealie as they call it. It was good to get out and get dirty a bit.
We've had some really great Lesson 1 lessons this week with investigators. One in particular using an object lesson and at the end she said that if we're telling her the truth and as she finds out about it, she'll have to join the church because she hasn't felt like she's coming as close to Christ as she should have been, but if she does what we've challenged her to do, she'll be making the right step toward Him, she said. It's a mother and a son who is a referral from Monde actually. Just taught the mother, but we feel pretty good about it. We also did see the Nunu Family again, watched the Restoration DVD. There was one case where we tried to watch that dvd with a Recent Convert this past week...unfortunately for some reason half the sound wasn't working...but it was quite pathetic when i could quote the whole movie. I wish i knew how many times i've watched that DVD in the past year...i remember i went on an exchange with this elder in Namibia, and we watched it 5 times that day...sorry just a side note...
So lets see what else...We got that frisbee...and played that and rugby last monday...idunno if i told you or not. But that was freakin fun! I miss playing regular sports...and it's sad that i get winded within the first 5 minutes of playing. I'm still so out of shape...
I'm thinking of something exciting that i could tell ya that's happened this past week but i'm struggling...so i might just leave it at that. Just know that life is going fine...nothing too much has changed. Transfer news will come tomorrow. I'll let ya know if anything major happens...Nkosi!
Mdala Devenney
Yesterday Silindokuhle entered the waters of baptism! It was really great. He's such a good kid. Monde, one of the other Priesthood holders who fellowships with us on a regular basis did the baptism. It was great actually, neither my companion or i got chosen to do any part of the program. Didnt even have to give a talk. haha. I think it's the best like that. If the members can do the baptism and confirmation and what what, then as soon as we Elders leave it's not a big deal for the investigators getting baptized. Yesterday was a rainy day tho...so i felt bad for those getting into the water...it couldnt have been too warm. As we all huddled around the outside baptismal font, with some watching from the inside, Monde had to dunk him 3 times because Silindokuhle kept floating to the top. haha. It was a pretty funny scene. But it worked out in the end on the 3rd try. :) He'll be confirmed a member of the church this coming sunday by Bro Patha, our 19 year old young mens president who comes to see Silindokuhle quite often with us.
As for other parts of the week...It's been off and on with good things happening and what not. Some days almost everything would fall through...and it would be hard to find productive things to do in the mean time. We did however do some good service this week at the Branch Presidents house, President Mjiba helping him "transplant" grass to another location...it was funny. He's a hilarious man. Then we also helped another member at the local clinic in the garden diggin around some corn, or mealie as they call it. It was good to get out and get dirty a bit.
We've had some really great Lesson 1 lessons this week with investigators. One in particular using an object lesson and at the end she said that if we're telling her the truth and as she finds out about it, she'll have to join the church because she hasn't felt like she's coming as close to Christ as she should have been, but if she does what we've challenged her to do, she'll be making the right step toward Him, she said. It's a mother and a son who is a referral from Monde actually. Just taught the mother, but we feel pretty good about it. We also did see the Nunu Family again, watched the Restoration DVD. There was one case where we tried to watch that dvd with a Recent Convert this past week...unfortunately for some reason half the sound wasn't working...but it was quite pathetic when i could quote the whole movie. I wish i knew how many times i've watched that DVD in the past year...i remember i went on an exchange with this elder in Namibia, and we watched it 5 times that day...sorry just a side note...
So lets see what else...We got that frisbee...and played that and rugby last monday...idunno if i told you or not. But that was freakin fun! I miss playing regular sports...and it's sad that i get winded within the first 5 minutes of playing. I'm still so out of shape...
I'm thinking of something exciting that i could tell ya that's happened this past week but i'm struggling...so i might just leave it at that. Just know that life is going fine...nothing too much has changed. Transfer news will come tomorrow. I'll let ya know if anything major happens...Nkosi!
Mdala Devenney
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