Thanksgiving Post

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wish they celebrated that down here...haha. Maybe we'll try to have our own feast, or maybe just me. (Since Canada doesn't have it either...)
We found a nice family of sisters that we've seen a couple times already. There are like 4-5 sisters living in the same house/area with a few kids, (some older) and their husbands. We've just taught the sisters, them ranging all probably over 40 or so, and it's been fun. They're way nice..but who knows how well they even all understand us. Their english isn't very good. That's one thing that's difficult down here. Most people can speak a bit of english, but it's the second language next to Afrikaans. We're always bringing fellowshippers with us to better explain things to those that don't understand, which is nice. Even if they say they understand us, sometimes i doubt it.
So we're doing some finding the other day and a bunch of kids come up to us and ask us for food/money. This happens quite often. They have their whole little "act" that they do. Some will say it's their birthday, etc. They'll just follow us around even if we tell them we dont have anything for them. Sometimes i feel bad cuz i can tell they actually need stuff, and other times i just get annoyed. Sad i know...But anyway...so we end up going to the store, because we were pretty close, and we got them some bread. We gave it to them and i'm pretty sure they weren't even grateful. They said they liked their bread with meat, and didnt even say thank you. Over and over people will come up to us, assuming we have money, because we're white. I love to be charitable to everyone, but it's frustrating that they assume we have so much when in reality we can't give everything we have to every person that asks us for something. ya know? hmm...we ended up seeing those same kids later on that day at another part of town and they did the same thing...it was lame...
One night we had the President of the Branch, President Kruger, come with us. He's this way cool guy from Cape Town, well actually Belville, he's got this strong accent and it's awesome. Hopefully i'll pick one up in the next little while...haha.
We went in for Zone Workshops in Gugaletu. it went fine...not much there to say. Just focused on working with members and finding the "elect". it wasnt very long, maybe like half day. so yeah...
One of the nice things about being in Paarl is how many Dinner Appointments (DA) we have. Seriously. Compared to other places, from what i've heard, this place is the best. We were supposed to have one on thursday friday and saturday. then sunday we always get fed by someone in the branch. Unfortunately our thursday one fell through...but we still had the others. yay! mmm so good!
Saturday we had our first Sports Activity. It's something that me and Elder Holt came up with to get more of the members, less actives, and investigators involved in. Every saturday from now on from 5-7pm we're having different sports at the church, with a bit of a refreshment after. Of course since saturday was our first time...it wasn't that big of a turn out. Even tho we had told EVERYONE about it. There were just 6 of us...haha. We played some bball at the church and then some soccer inside. It was way fun. Alpha and Kenny both came out. Alpha i probably mentioned a few weeks back but he's LA and so is Kenny. We're working with Alpha's wife cuz she's not a member. Alpha served a mission like 6 years ago, he's awesome. from the congo....yeah...way funny guy. Kenny is that kid with the drug problem that we're trying to get back to church. We visit him a lot and it was way good to see him come out and play with us. He's doing a lot better tho, and we can see it in his personality and his attitude.
Sunday was an exciting day at church. It was the primary program that they've been planning for a while now. We told everyone to come out. It was funny. We had more people at church than any other week. With 7 investigators! it was awesome! transfer high! So many people tell us they'll be at church, but dont come. It's frustrating because we'll visit them so much, they'll promise to be there, then they wont come. then they'll promise again, and still they wont come...it happens so often. I wish people just wouldnt promise, then we wouldnt expect them. But anyway...after church there was a lunch. This doesn't happen very much, which is probably the real reason so many people came out. :) It was good...The rest of the day yesterday was a bit tough, all our appointments fell through, but it happens. we made good time of other stuff.
So i'm officially into my second transfer. They're starting this new thing where transfer news comes in on wednesday, and you leave thursday. But i'm pretty sure i'll still be here in Paarl. They're making it that way so missionaries dont waste so much time. It used to be you get the news on Saturday, then leave wednesday...something like that. But yeah...Hey something i'm looking forward to is driving! i can start this transfer. just gotta fill out the paper work and do a bit for like a month, then it'll be all good! i'm excited! haha.
Alright well I hope you all had a great feast! Love ya!
-Elder Devenney