Well it's an interesting story of where i'm currently at...i'll get there in just a bit...but it's been a good week.
Transfer news came in on Tuesday of last week and i found out that i would be serving up in Windhoek (Vind-hook) Namibia for the next little while. Usually when they send missionaries to Nam they usually leave them up there for 6 plus months. So that's where i'll be for the next little while. Well thursday came around and i got everything packed and we had to be in Cape Town by 9pm but me and Elder Power got things done pretty quick...well me...and we just drove down early and hit up Century City. A big mall here in Cape Town. Walked around forever cuz we hadn't planned anything for the day. And ate some all you can eat pizza which wasnt even that good. Well we picked up Elder Power's new companion and slept over in some other elders boarding for the night. We were a 5some. It was a terrible night's sleep. Woke up the next morning and we had Zone Conference here for the Cape North Zone. They kept us and we had planned on leaving for Namibia after the Zone Conference. The reason they had it early, the Zone Conference, is because we had Elder Watson of the Area Presidency come and talk to us. He was also going to speak later on that night in Bellville (part of CT) he served as Secretary to like 6 previous Presidents of the Church and the Quorem of the Twelve. It was a decent talk...he told some cool stories. His wife also spoke for a little while. Well after that we headed back to the mission home and everyone that had to hop on a plane did and the rest of us, (going to nam) had to wait til Saturday for our flight. Well we found out right then that all of our Visas had gotten rejected to go up to Nam so long story short...I'm currently in a 3some serving in Bellville for the time being. It's about 35 Kms from Paarl. Towards Cape Town...in the same area. My Comps are Elders Lotuleli and Gouws. Gouws came up from George in the Eastern Cape where he had been serving for a while. He's a skater...so we have much to talk about! ha! He's from SA. Elder Lu is from West Valley and he's tight. He's just been in Bellville for one transfer. He's a big Tongan guy...way chill. I dunno how long i'm going to be here in Bellville...maybe a week...maybe a few weeks. not quite sure. But it's cool either way. It's been pretty good this past few days.
Things in Bellville are a bit different. It's a HUGE area. As for the missionary work it's a bit more difficult as for finding anybody new and for teaching..compared to Paarl. They're lucky if they find 1 investigator a week. And for stats and everything...it's just harder to do stuff. Bellville in general is a beautiful place tho. Very high class. Got some very nice people that i've already met...O and funny story...
Yesterday at church we met a lot of people and one lady came up and when she greeted me she was like you're Irish huh. I was like yeah i think so. So she starts telling me that her family's name is Deviney or something weird and how they always used to pronounce it Devine. Basically she said that me and her are related some how...and she wants us to come see her. Apparently...as i'm told by Elder Lu that she's a little crazy. haha. But we're going to try to see her sometime so maybe i'll find out i have some Devenney's down here in Bellville. Funny stuff!
As i said we met some great families here and our Branch President in Paarl, President Kruger, lives here in Bellville so we're going to his house tomorrow for a FHE. Cuz i saw him at that Fireside on Saturday night with Elder Watson...So i have some connections here in Bellville. Actually a lot of people recognized me at church yesterday..and when i tell people i was up in Paarl they usually know somebody up there.
Well things are doing good and I'll keep you posted when i go up to Namibia. Thanks everybody!
Holly i got your package with alex's stuff and pics so thank you!
See ya!
Elder Devenney
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Im such a bad sister!
Apparently- Ive got two photo cards of Corys now and I havent finished posting the last of his photos....so Im going to try really hard this week to get more of his photos uploaded so I can send back one of his cards .....ek. Sorry Cory!!!
Feb 16, 2009
How's everybody doing? Hope everyone had an excellent week. Things here were intense this past week and i'll get to it all in just a bit. We worked hard and broke a few records here when it came down to stats...so we're pretty stoked about that....
Well the week started out well as we went to Cape Town to hike up Table Mountain last week on Monday. We got a late start but it was all good. The weather was nice and sorta cloudy so it wasn't too hot to climb, which was a blessing. First off, we get there and we're ridin with the ZL's in their car while other missionaries are in other cars. Well as we get to our parking spot anytime the car backs up there has to be a missionary behind the car at all times. So one of the missionaries hops out and directs elder Nyoka in his backing...i think Elder Nyoka wasnt even paying attention, and idunno what the other missionaries that were driving were thinking...but in short, Elder Nyoka backed straight into the other car. Totally dented both cars. At least my accident wasnt out of pure stupidity! haha. I just laughed. But as for our hike...it continued on a long step up all the way to the top. It was an intense hike...took about an hour and a half to get there...and i basically had to stop every 5 minutes after we had gone for the first half hour. I thought it might die...literallly...haha. Well once we made it there it was beautiful. You'll soon see the pics but it looked over Camps Bay and Cape Town on the other side. We just walked around for a couple hours then hiked back down. We hit Cape Town traffic on our way home and it was basically too late to do anything once we got back to Paarl. It was fun tho and i can at least say i've done it. Next time i'm taking the Cable Car...
One day this past week...dunno when exactly...but we were just walking in this neighborhood and we stopped to talk to this one guy. Well his name was Allon, not knowing it til he came outside, but he was handicap physically. and mentally i guess...But just more physical. He was a little slow but we started to talk to him anyway. As we talked to him we actually found out he was quite smart, and knew a lot, and believed in a lot of good things. I thought about how i think i might judge too quickly...cuz he even told us that he was just a little handicap and dont let his appearance bother us becuase he was fine mentally. Well we talked to him and he had a lot of interesting questions for us. He said that just 4 weeks ago he had talked to missionaries from our church and they told about the Book of Mormon and they said that we didnt believe in Christ...this was a surprise for us because we know we're the only missionaries in Paarl and we had never talked to him. And surely we would not, or any other missionary wouldnt, say that we dont believe in Christ when it is the biggest thing on our name tag. We clarified some stuff and we couldnt figure out who he must have talked to...Jehovah Witnesses? who knows...It was interesting.
O yeah i hope everybody had a good Valentines Day on Saturday...I know i did. Me and Elder Power had a date at La Romantica! with eachother...haha. We actually celebrated on Friday...and i wasnt too impressed with the place. Elder Power finished off my food...but we got to watch some good Rugby. That sport is brutal!
At church this past uh...yesterday we had a great speaker from the High Council in Cape Town come in. He spoke about Preach my Gospel...I dunno what's going on over there but they're stressing every member have one of these in their homes. You know it's what us the missionaries study from each day...yeah...well it was powerful. He spoke about the importance of the basics in our church and it's funny to think i probably couldnt have explained the Restoration to anyone before i came on mission...that's pretty sad....
Good news for the week...we have a Baptismal Date for Sydney which is going to be on the 15th of March. He's a great guy. So we're pretty stoked for him. Well all i can say is we stayed was busy...very busy...as it was the last week of the transfer. I hope everyone is doing good and thanks for everything!
-Elder Devenney
Well the week started out well as we went to Cape Town to hike up Table Mountain last week on Monday. We got a late start but it was all good. The weather was nice and sorta cloudy so it wasn't too hot to climb, which was a blessing. First off, we get there and we're ridin with the ZL's in their car while other missionaries are in other cars. Well as we get to our parking spot anytime the car backs up there has to be a missionary behind the car at all times. So one of the missionaries hops out and directs elder Nyoka in his backing...i think Elder Nyoka wasnt even paying attention, and idunno what the other missionaries that were driving were thinking...but in short, Elder Nyoka backed straight into the other car. Totally dented both cars. At least my accident wasnt out of pure stupidity! haha. I just laughed. But as for our hike...it continued on a long step up all the way to the top. It was an intense hike...took about an hour and a half to get there...and i basically had to stop every 5 minutes after we had gone for the first half hour. I thought it might die...literallly...haha. Well once we made it there it was beautiful. You'll soon see the pics but it looked over Camps Bay and Cape Town on the other side. We just walked around for a couple hours then hiked back down. We hit Cape Town traffic on our way home and it was basically too late to do anything once we got back to Paarl. It was fun tho and i can at least say i've done it. Next time i'm taking the Cable Car...
One day this past week...dunno when exactly...but we were just walking in this neighborhood and we stopped to talk to this one guy. Well his name was Allon, not knowing it til he came outside, but he was handicap physically. and mentally i guess...But just more physical. He was a little slow but we started to talk to him anyway. As we talked to him we actually found out he was quite smart, and knew a lot, and believed in a lot of good things. I thought about how i think i might judge too quickly...cuz he even told us that he was just a little handicap and dont let his appearance bother us becuase he was fine mentally. Well we talked to him and he had a lot of interesting questions for us. He said that just 4 weeks ago he had talked to missionaries from our church and they told about the Book of Mormon and they said that we didnt believe in Christ...this was a surprise for us because we know we're the only missionaries in Paarl and we had never talked to him. And surely we would not, or any other missionary wouldnt, say that we dont believe in Christ when it is the biggest thing on our name tag. We clarified some stuff and we couldnt figure out who he must have talked to...Jehovah Witnesses? who knows...It was interesting.
O yeah i hope everybody had a good Valentines Day on Saturday...I know i did. Me and Elder Power had a date at La Romantica! with eachother...haha. We actually celebrated on Friday...and i wasnt too impressed with the place. Elder Power finished off my food...but we got to watch some good Rugby. That sport is brutal!
At church this past uh...yesterday we had a great speaker from the High Council in Cape Town come in. He spoke about Preach my Gospel...I dunno what's going on over there but they're stressing every member have one of these in their homes. You know it's what us the missionaries study from each day...yeah...well it was powerful. He spoke about the importance of the basics in our church and it's funny to think i probably couldnt have explained the Restoration to anyone before i came on mission...that's pretty sad....
Good news for the week...we have a Baptismal Date for Sydney which is going to be on the 15th of March. He's a great guy. So we're pretty stoked for him. Well all i can say is we stayed was busy...very busy...as it was the last week of the transfer. I hope everyone is doing good and thanks for everything!
-Elder Devenney
Friday, February 6, 2009
Feb 2, 2009
This week has been quite interesting...i can name the events and i'll give you details in a bit...1. Car Accident2. Elder Power's ever deforming hand thanks to a Spider Bite3. Went to the Hospital4...other stuff...
Well it's been like a rollercoaster this week. Lots of interesting things have been happening so it's been interesting to see...First off yes...#1 happened. We were going to go see a member, but i realized they weren't home so i made basically just like a wide left turn. As i was going back to the left side of the road a car, which neither me, robbie, or Power saw, came pretty fast and i'm assuming he was trying to pass us before we got to our lane. Well he slammed on the brakes, i was only going like 5 mph maybe...and our left front of the car hit his right driver side door. Basically didnt do much to our car but his was a bit worse of condition. He was driving a little green like smart car thingy...sorta. Well it was 3 guys, all of which i'm pretty sure didnt have a license and they immediately called the drivers dad who lived just around the corner. It was a muslim guy, and everything worked out. I'm pretty sure he's freakin rich anyway cuz the next day his car was fixed. It was just surprising, no one got hurt, but we still have to report it in. Our car is just a bit dented and paint off. No biggie tho. Just gotta be careful. Didnt take me too long to get in my first accident! K that's not something to be proud of..i wish it hadn't happened but hey couldnt help it.
My companion woke up Wednesday with a red mark on his wrist. Basically by Friday it had gotten worse and it was like a zit on his arm. We popped it a couple of times and it would have nasty white juice come out :). Well Friday we went to the Chemist and got some cream and just some pills. By Sunday it was hurting him so bad he couldnt even move his arm. We decided to leave church early and go to the hospital. We paid a bunch to see a doc for 3 minutes to have him tell us something we already knew. It was retarded. Basically every day it would be burning him constantly, and his whole hand is swollen. It's doing ok now but it's still looking disgusting. We have it wrapped up. I'll keep ya posted if he turns into Spiderman anytime soon...We took some nasty videos too, it's awesome!
For missionary work it's kinda been up and down. Thanks to Power we just chilled back at the flat and have been taking it easy this week. He cant really stay awake and focus all that much. It just drains him of all his energy.
We went to go to an appointment the other day to see this little family and the wife was waiting at her gate for us. She had the BOM in her hand. Basically when we got there she told us she didnt want this book and she didnt want us to come back. She said she had been talking to some people and they told her what we do. I asked her what she had heard but she wouldnt tell us. This happens a lot. People start brining out false accusations against us and we dont even have time to reply back. It's dumb. So she dropped us. I feel bad, but whatever you cant really help it. People rely on other opinions way too much. She hadnt even read what we wanted her to read so she has no idea what it really says when i'm sure they told her more anti stuff...well whatever i'm just venting. I'll stop...
We're just staying busy with lots of stuff...as usual. Nothing too much coming up. We might have 2 or 3 Baptismal Dates coming up so we'll see. We'll probably set them for sometime in March tho...But yeah just a heads up. One guy from Congo, his name is Sydney. I'm sure i've mentioned him before. Way cool guy. Then Sister Brinks (RC) daugther Celeste and her neighbor Alisha. We'll see tho. Well there's not much else to tell. We buzzed our heads the other night...and Elder Power did mine with his one hand...it was funny. but we look smart. We watched the Testaments for sports night...haha. Alright that's all the news. Thanks!
-Elder Devenney
Well it's been like a rollercoaster this week. Lots of interesting things have been happening so it's been interesting to see...First off yes...#1 happened. We were going to go see a member, but i realized they weren't home so i made basically just like a wide left turn. As i was going back to the left side of the road a car, which neither me, robbie, or Power saw, came pretty fast and i'm assuming he was trying to pass us before we got to our lane. Well he slammed on the brakes, i was only going like 5 mph maybe...and our left front of the car hit his right driver side door. Basically didnt do much to our car but his was a bit worse of condition. He was driving a little green like smart car thingy...sorta. Well it was 3 guys, all of which i'm pretty sure didnt have a license and they immediately called the drivers dad who lived just around the corner. It was a muslim guy, and everything worked out. I'm pretty sure he's freakin rich anyway cuz the next day his car was fixed. It was just surprising, no one got hurt, but we still have to report it in. Our car is just a bit dented and paint off. No biggie tho. Just gotta be careful. Didnt take me too long to get in my first accident! K that's not something to be proud of..i wish it hadn't happened but hey couldnt help it.
My companion woke up Wednesday with a red mark on his wrist. Basically by Friday it had gotten worse and it was like a zit on his arm. We popped it a couple of times and it would have nasty white juice come out :). Well Friday we went to the Chemist and got some cream and just some pills. By Sunday it was hurting him so bad he couldnt even move his arm. We decided to leave church early and go to the hospital. We paid a bunch to see a doc for 3 minutes to have him tell us something we already knew. It was retarded. Basically every day it would be burning him constantly, and his whole hand is swollen. It's doing ok now but it's still looking disgusting. We have it wrapped up. I'll keep ya posted if he turns into Spiderman anytime soon...We took some nasty videos too, it's awesome!
For missionary work it's kinda been up and down. Thanks to Power we just chilled back at the flat and have been taking it easy this week. He cant really stay awake and focus all that much. It just drains him of all his energy.
We went to go to an appointment the other day to see this little family and the wife was waiting at her gate for us. She had the BOM in her hand. Basically when we got there she told us she didnt want this book and she didnt want us to come back. She said she had been talking to some people and they told her what we do. I asked her what she had heard but she wouldnt tell us. This happens a lot. People start brining out false accusations against us and we dont even have time to reply back. It's dumb. So she dropped us. I feel bad, but whatever you cant really help it. People rely on other opinions way too much. She hadnt even read what we wanted her to read so she has no idea what it really says when i'm sure they told her more anti stuff...well whatever i'm just venting. I'll stop...
We're just staying busy with lots of stuff...as usual. Nothing too much coming up. We might have 2 or 3 Baptismal Dates coming up so we'll see. We'll probably set them for sometime in March tho...But yeah just a heads up. One guy from Congo, his name is Sydney. I'm sure i've mentioned him before. Way cool guy. Then Sister Brinks (RC) daugther Celeste and her neighbor Alisha. We'll see tho. Well there's not much else to tell. We buzzed our heads the other night...and Elder Power did mine with his one hand...it was funny. but we look smart. We watched the Testaments for sports night...haha. Alright that's all the news. Thanks!
-Elder Devenney
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Jan 26, 2009
Well this week has been another pretty good one. We had Zone Conference down in Cape Town on Wednesday. Me and Elder Power got a bit lost..thanks to his terrible directions he was giving me...so we were pretty late..but it's all good. We got there eventually. Cape Town is pretty crazy and i dont really know my way around there too good...but i'm starting to. The Zone Conference was very nice. It's basically all day, well til about 4 or so...President Probst and his wife talked to us a lot of course...those two are amazing. Especially Pres Probst, he knows ALL i swear. We had a deep doctrinal discussion part of the conference where we could ask him any questions we wanted. That guy knows a lot...anyway...so yeah that was about it for that. Just eat lots and speakers and what not...
Thursday night and Friday we had the Zone Leaders come up for exchanges. It was Elder Nyoka and Elder Pappoe. They sleep over and then we just split the area and go with one of the ZL's. I'm sure you've figured this out by now...but yeah i was with Elder Pappoe. He wasn't feeling too good...but we tried doing some stuff and making the best of our time. Elder Pappoe is a 24 year old from Ghana. He's a professional soccer player...i can say that because he's played his whole life. He basically grew up training for the world cup and when he was only 15 his team won. He finished school and then decided to come on mission. He played in Ghana and all over, but his decision to come on mission was final and everyone in Ghana, including all the clubs and teams etc, said that if he goes on mission he's not going to be playing soccer in Ghana for the next 7 years. Well he took the opportunity anyway and left. Since he's been on mission his manager back home has still been working trying to find him a place outside of Ghana. Well good news for him because he's now signed a contract to play for Liverpool when he gets home. He only has one transfer left. It was quite a big sacrifice he had to make to come, but you can see the outcome of blessings that he's receiving as he's going to continue with his soccer career. Pretty crazy huh! So yeah the exchange went good...
He tried to skate a bit...i was a little scared for him...
On saturday we were visited by Elder Powers second family...well basically. They were on holiday in Cape Town, somehow got our number, and wanted to take us out for lunch. it's not quite allowed...but it's all good. So we ate at a chinese restaurant and then they took us shopping for food. Basically she hooked us up for the next 2 months of food and everything else we ever need. It's ridiculous. This family is very well off and the spend a lot on us! it was crazy! but we were grateful. It was fun and i know my comp enjoyed seeing them since they're from his home ward. So yeah that was most of our Saturday.
We got to confirm Sister Davids and Sister Brink as members of the church yesterday. It was Branch Conference here in Paarl so we had some members of the Stake here giving talks during sacrament meeting. Neither of us did any confirmations, we had a member and the branch pres each do one. It went really well and everything. But yeah since it was a special sunday it was crazy to see all the different people come to church. I have never seen so many white people at church before! haha! It was a good turn out.
Last monday we went driving in the mountains and went exploring. It was sweet. We live on one side of the mountains so we decided to go explore the other side of the city. It kinda took us a long time and we kept getting lost and going into random people's vinyards...it was pretty, but not where we wanted to go. So it only took a couple hours but we eventually found the right road and started up the mountain. It was an amazing view. We even saw a family of baboons and another male baboon later up on the road. we stopped and took some pics but i didnt want to get too close for Elder Powers sake...he's too innocent to get attacked by these feroscious?? animals...so we didnt leave the car...haha. But yeah the exploration taht we had was a nice adventure and we took some sweet pics. It would be the ultimate sunset spot cuz we could look as far north and south and west as we could, and we could even see Table Mountain from up there. (which is in Cape Town)
Well the work is still good. Me and Power are getting along way good...almost too good cuz sometimes it's hard to stay focused...haha. But it's alright. We're staying busy and just enjoying the time here. That's about it! See ya!
-Elder Devenney
Thursday night and Friday we had the Zone Leaders come up for exchanges. It was Elder Nyoka and Elder Pappoe. They sleep over and then we just split the area and go with one of the ZL's. I'm sure you've figured this out by now...but yeah i was with Elder Pappoe. He wasn't feeling too good...but we tried doing some stuff and making the best of our time. Elder Pappoe is a 24 year old from Ghana. He's a professional soccer player...i can say that because he's played his whole life. He basically grew up training for the world cup and when he was only 15 his team won. He finished school and then decided to come on mission. He played in Ghana and all over, but his decision to come on mission was final and everyone in Ghana, including all the clubs and teams etc, said that if he goes on mission he's not going to be playing soccer in Ghana for the next 7 years. Well he took the opportunity anyway and left. Since he's been on mission his manager back home has still been working trying to find him a place outside of Ghana. Well good news for him because he's now signed a contract to play for Liverpool when he gets home. He only has one transfer left. It was quite a big sacrifice he had to make to come, but you can see the outcome of blessings that he's receiving as he's going to continue with his soccer career. Pretty crazy huh! So yeah the exchange went good...
He tried to skate a bit...i was a little scared for him...
On saturday we were visited by Elder Powers second family...well basically. They were on holiday in Cape Town, somehow got our number, and wanted to take us out for lunch. it's not quite allowed...but it's all good. So we ate at a chinese restaurant and then they took us shopping for food. Basically she hooked us up for the next 2 months of food and everything else we ever need. It's ridiculous. This family is very well off and the spend a lot on us! it was crazy! but we were grateful. It was fun and i know my comp enjoyed seeing them since they're from his home ward. So yeah that was most of our Saturday.
We got to confirm Sister Davids and Sister Brink as members of the church yesterday. It was Branch Conference here in Paarl so we had some members of the Stake here giving talks during sacrament meeting. Neither of us did any confirmations, we had a member and the branch pres each do one. It went really well and everything. But yeah since it was a special sunday it was crazy to see all the different people come to church. I have never seen so many white people at church before! haha! It was a good turn out.
Last monday we went driving in the mountains and went exploring. It was sweet. We live on one side of the mountains so we decided to go explore the other side of the city. It kinda took us a long time and we kept getting lost and going into random people's vinyards...it was pretty, but not where we wanted to go. So it only took a couple hours but we eventually found the right road and started up the mountain. It was an amazing view. We even saw a family of baboons and another male baboon later up on the road. we stopped and took some pics but i didnt want to get too close for Elder Powers sake...he's too innocent to get attacked by these feroscious?? animals...so we didnt leave the car...haha. But yeah the exploration taht we had was a nice adventure and we took some sweet pics. It would be the ultimate sunset spot cuz we could look as far north and south and west as we could, and we could even see Table Mountain from up there. (which is in Cape Town)
Well the work is still good. Me and Power are getting along way good...almost too good cuz sometimes it's hard to stay focused...haha. But it's alright. We're staying busy and just enjoying the time here. That's about it! See ya!
-Elder Devenney
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