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
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Jan 19, 2009
So as you can tell this past week was a good one...I'll get more into it here in a bit.
Things are still going really good with me and Elder Power. We're just having a good fun time. We're like the same, so it's easy. Last week we played some soccer at a park and we did some nice skating ouside. He used to skate a little so i had to see some of his moves..i was quite impressed. haha.
We had the interview for Sister Davids on Friday. The Zone leaders came in to do it. She did pretty well and passed, but something kinda funny...we had been emphasizing about praying more about Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson to know that they were prophets. Well she must have misunderstood us cuz in the interview she told Elder Pappoe that she had been told to pray in the Name of JS and Pres Monson. I laughed when he told us that. Obviously she wont be receiving any answers to prayer if she does that...but elder pappoe reassured her that no, that's not what they told you to do, and clarified it. So that was all fixed up and what not. Other than that he said she seemed ready and knew her stuff...
We had a great baptism yesterday. Sister Pauline Davids...ya know...she got baptized. She's my first! Getting to baptize her was an amazing experience..but it always takes a little while for things to actually set in. But it was a great service. Tons of people came out from the branch to support her and she even had a friend who i think was Roman Catholic there too. Two people gave talks...they were really good...from what i could pick out...since it was in Afrikaans. haha. Then as we got ready to do the baptism i sort of explained what and how it would happen. We have a font in the church, just so you know. We got there, said what i needed to say, and did it. She was pretty emotional about it, and i can tell that she was so ready for it. She has been very commited already from the time that i first met her. She's come to church 11 times before her baptism. That's a lot. Many times it's just like 3 or 4 before people get baptized...So she was definitely ready for it.
That was basically the highlight of the week...
We've been continuing with the Bakala Bidzou Family. They're awesome. I think Brenda has a lot of stress right now. She just started a new job and has to put Jovica, their daughter, in the cresh. (day care). I think she does a lot of the work with the kids and Bidzou just kinda relaxes and doesnt do much work. It must be hard. We're probably going to talk about how it's a two person relationship when it comes to the family, ya know, try to get Bidzou more involved and more responsible. The Congolese people just have their own ways of tradition. It's more the wife does everythign...and the husband works. But yeah...they're good. haha. idunno what else to say there...
At sports night we filled up a bunch of water balloons before and in the middle of sports we told them we were going to play some soccer outside and we ended up bombing all the little kids with water balloons. It was sweet! Earlier this week there were like 15 kids, outside of Alpha's place, that had grapes they were eating. Well they started throwing them at eachother and then i threw one at one kid..well bad idea. It was me, elder power, and robbie, we were all victims here..they started launching grapes at us left and right, i got pelted on the head and then i had to take a little kid for cover, it was a battle in the streets of flying grapes! our car got graped up, our clothes were gross, my hair was nasty for the next day...yeah but it was hilarious. They just wouldnt stop either! I tried to take cover but i just couldnt escape their skills..Alright well that was a pointless story. But where it ties in is we're planning on doing some drive by water balloon launching at those kids to get them back...yeah that'll teach them to mess with us.
I dunno what else to tell ya...Just lots of the usual teaching/finding/service/yeah...that stuff. ya know mish work. Things is good! Thanks!
-Elder Devenney
Things are still going really good with me and Elder Power. We're just having a good fun time. We're like the same, so it's easy. Last week we played some soccer at a park and we did some nice skating ouside. He used to skate a little so i had to see some of his moves..i was quite impressed. haha.
We had the interview for Sister Davids on Friday. The Zone leaders came in to do it. She did pretty well and passed, but something kinda funny...we had been emphasizing about praying more about Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson to know that they were prophets. Well she must have misunderstood us cuz in the interview she told Elder Pappoe that she had been told to pray in the Name of JS and Pres Monson. I laughed when he told us that. Obviously she wont be receiving any answers to prayer if she does that...but elder pappoe reassured her that no, that's not what they told you to do, and clarified it. So that was all fixed up and what not. Other than that he said she seemed ready and knew her stuff...
We had a great baptism yesterday. Sister Pauline Davids...ya know...she got baptized. She's my first! Getting to baptize her was an amazing experience..but it always takes a little while for things to actually set in. But it was a great service. Tons of people came out from the branch to support her and she even had a friend who i think was Roman Catholic there too. Two people gave talks...they were really good...from what i could pick out...since it was in Afrikaans. haha. Then as we got ready to do the baptism i sort of explained what and how it would happen. We have a font in the church, just so you know. We got there, said what i needed to say, and did it. She was pretty emotional about it, and i can tell that she was so ready for it. She has been very commited already from the time that i first met her. She's come to church 11 times before her baptism. That's a lot. Many times it's just like 3 or 4 before people get baptized...So she was definitely ready for it.
That was basically the highlight of the week...
We've been continuing with the Bakala Bidzou Family. They're awesome. I think Brenda has a lot of stress right now. She just started a new job and has to put Jovica, their daughter, in the cresh. (day care). I think she does a lot of the work with the kids and Bidzou just kinda relaxes and doesnt do much work. It must be hard. We're probably going to talk about how it's a two person relationship when it comes to the family, ya know, try to get Bidzou more involved and more responsible. The Congolese people just have their own ways of tradition. It's more the wife does everythign...and the husband works. But yeah...they're good. haha. idunno what else to say there...
At sports night we filled up a bunch of water balloons before and in the middle of sports we told them we were going to play some soccer outside and we ended up bombing all the little kids with water balloons. It was sweet! Earlier this week there were like 15 kids, outside of Alpha's place, that had grapes they were eating. Well they started throwing them at eachother and then i threw one at one kid..well bad idea. It was me, elder power, and robbie, we were all victims here..they started launching grapes at us left and right, i got pelted on the head and then i had to take a little kid for cover, it was a battle in the streets of flying grapes! our car got graped up, our clothes were gross, my hair was nasty for the next day...yeah but it was hilarious. They just wouldnt stop either! I tried to take cover but i just couldnt escape their skills..Alright well that was a pointless story. But where it ties in is we're planning on doing some drive by water balloon launching at those kids to get them back...yeah that'll teach them to mess with us.
I dunno what else to tell ya...Just lots of the usual teaching/finding/service/yeah...that stuff. ya know mish work. Things is good! Thanks!
-Elder Devenney
Friday, January 16, 2009
As promised pictures!
(Sorry- its been a crazy week and I havent been able to post as much- Cory sent about 200 photos so ill upload as much as I can next week...stay tuned!)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Jan 12, 2009
Well first off, transfer news came in last week and we found out that Elder Holt would be leaving to Kwa Nobuhle, which is a township down by Port Elizabeth...and also that i'd be staying in Paarl and i'd get a new comp..of course.
Well Elder Holt and i parted ways, said our goodbyes, and i welcomed Elder Power as my new companion. He's from South Africa, Petoria in fact, chill guy. This is going to be a good transfer. We get a long really well. Like a lot of the same music, same sports, he's big into soccer but he used to skate back back in the day so i'll see what he can do later today. We've been playing some nice soccer in the flat where it gets crazy! it's fun! i cant explain it...but yeah he's been out for 15 monthsish...something like that. Way good guy. So yeah...
As for this week, the first half was really just saying goodbye to a lot of people for Holty and that sort of stuff. We went into Cape Town for transfers on Thursday and he left, picked up new comp, and headed back.Friday we went up on Paarl Rock and had a little district meeting up there..is was pretty chill. Uh...we've been workin hard already but we've been having a lot of fun at the same time. I'll learn a lot this transfer i can already tell.
Sister Davids who is getting baptized this coming sunday invited us over for a good sized meal on Saturday. We had some fat cook, basically scones, and some Potchicos (dutch oven)...it was really good. It was her birthday too so wish her a happy bday mmk. She's getting excited cuz the day is coming up quick.
Our sports night was crazy on saturday. There were like 20 random little kids that came who i had never met before. haha. It was awesome. Played some soccer indoors, that sort of stuff. Plus we had all the usual guys so it was a really good turn out.
Other than that...not too much going on that i can tell you...Things is good. Starting to warm up again...but it's ok. Hopefully it wont be too bad. Yup yup...sorry if it's short but i hope everyone is doing good and i hope to hear from some of you soon! Thanks!
-Elder Devenney
(Hey Amber here- Cory just sent his photo card so check back in a day or so and Ill have uploaded a bunch of his photos !!!)
Well Elder Holt and i parted ways, said our goodbyes, and i welcomed Elder Power as my new companion. He's from South Africa, Petoria in fact, chill guy. This is going to be a good transfer. We get a long really well. Like a lot of the same music, same sports, he's big into soccer but he used to skate back back in the day so i'll see what he can do later today. We've been playing some nice soccer in the flat where it gets crazy! it's fun! i cant explain it...but yeah he's been out for 15 monthsish...something like that. Way good guy. So yeah...
As for this week, the first half was really just saying goodbye to a lot of people for Holty and that sort of stuff. We went into Cape Town for transfers on Thursday and he left, picked up new comp, and headed back.Friday we went up on Paarl Rock and had a little district meeting up there..is was pretty chill. Uh...we've been workin hard already but we've been having a lot of fun at the same time. I'll learn a lot this transfer i can already tell.
Sister Davids who is getting baptized this coming sunday invited us over for a good sized meal on Saturday. We had some fat cook, basically scones, and some Potchicos (dutch oven)...it was really good. It was her birthday too so wish her a happy bday mmk. She's getting excited cuz the day is coming up quick.
Our sports night was crazy on saturday. There were like 20 random little kids that came who i had never met before. haha. It was awesome. Played some soccer indoors, that sort of stuff. Plus we had all the usual guys so it was a really good turn out.
Other than that...not too much going on that i can tell you...Things is good. Starting to warm up again...but it's ok. Hopefully it wont be too bad. Yup yup...sorry if it's short but i hope everyone is doing good and i hope to hear from some of you soon! Thanks!
-Elder Devenney
(Hey Amber here- Cory just sent his photo card so check back in a day or so and Ill have uploaded a bunch of his photos !!!)
Monday, January 5, 2009
Jan 5, 2008
Well happy 2009 everybody!
The new year was spent in our flat. A lot of drinking goes on down here for a couple days so the mission didnt really want us out working or even leaving for that matter. So i took a nice nap, wrote a few letters, skated for a bit, and just chilled. It was nice. That was basically our new year celebration...
Well i was thinking of what i might be able to tell you about this week...and there's a few different things. First off...We had a baptism yesterday. It was good. Sister Vernia Brink, that one lady.., got baptized. Elder Holt did the baptism, which was his first of the mission, so i was happy for him, and i gave a short talk. He had to force her down, (she's a big lady) and it was pretty funny. Her foot even came up, but we got it done the first try. It was a spiritual experience for sure, just a good time. She had her family there too and after she told us that we now needed to teach the rest of her family. So that was good news.Since it was fast and testimony meeting, both me and Elder Holt got up and shared our testimonies. I probably wouldnt have, but i figured i should just cuz..and since transfers are this week i might be leaving Paarl, so i just wanted to thank everyone for their love. I was way happy i did it. As you know...i dont get up and do that very often, but after i could totally feel a difference and i was way glad i did.
Sister Pauleen Davids is still getting baptized in 2 weeks, and yesterday was her 10th time at church. She's so awesome. She's powerful. She's got these crazy stories each day of how she can tell she's being tempted to do something, but then she's just like, stupid devil, and doesn't ever do it. Whether that's picking up some money, gossiping, or just other dumb people trying to change her mind about baptism..like the old J-Ho's, she just stands her ground. But yeah she's getting excited and can't wait for her baptism. All the members already think she's a member becuase she's there so often, they don't even realize she hasn't become a member.
So a few of our Priest age guys in the branch have gotten themselves mixed up in a little bad habit that is quite common in SA. Yeah they've turned to drinking. No Bueno. So we've been sorta slowly trying to get them to come fellowship with us and been trying to see them and teach them about stuff...without being blunt and mentioning what we've heard. We can tell that one guy definitely feels out of place, his name is Charlton, and we're doing a FHE at his house tonight with a bunch of other families. So that'll be nice. He's a cool guy and his whole family is awesome. Just the mom and three boys. But we're trying to work up FHE's all over our area. We've already got one going with the members still out in Smarty Town, and we're starting two more, one in Wellington and in Amstelhof tonight.
There is this old lady Sister Swazi Lambert who when we first met her was in the old folks home just sick as a dog. She couldnt even get out of bed. We've been meeting with her every now and again and we hadn't seen her for like 3 weeks and then last week she came out to church, and walked! She was a referral by one of our members, the Julies Family. Hilton comes fellowshipping a lot and Sister Julies is just an awesome lady. You'll see pics soon. Well we saw her twice this week, just a short visit and what not, and then she came to church again yesterday. She used to be in terrible shape, but she's improved so much in these couple of weeks, and she keeps saying she wants to get baptized. It's pretty funny. She's like 86 or something. But yeah it was just crazy to see.
We had an interesting talk with Alpha and Janine Mahoku-Sady, the Part Member Family that we've been teaching. We started this good lesson on new years resolutions, and all of a sudden all of Janine's family popped in and her dad started preaching to us in Afrikaans. Keagan, one of our fellowshippers was with us and they just started battling, or so i thought. Janine's father basically stopped our lesson, and started telling us what he believed, keep in mind he's a preacher of his own church. It turned out ok, although we got nothing out of it and he kept being like "verstan?" which means understand, and of course we didnt. We couldnt stop him either cuz he would just keep going on and in english and Afrikaans...anyway it was just interesting. You definitely cant teach with contention there, so we just didnt say too much. Keagan explained the BOM and so Alpha was happy he did that. It was just an interesting night...it probably doesnt sound like anything since i didnt explain it very good...sorry. haha.
Well anyway i dunno what else i can say. Things are going pretty good. We're going to Cape Town for a Braai at the mission home or some park or something with the Zone, playing some sports what not. Should be pretty fun. This tuesday we find out about transfers and if we're leaving or not, then thursday we go. So who knows if i'm leaving or not or where to, but i'll let ya know soon. Hope everyone is doing good and hope you had a fun new years! but not like down here...:)
-Elder Devenney
The new year was spent in our flat. A lot of drinking goes on down here for a couple days so the mission didnt really want us out working or even leaving for that matter. So i took a nice nap, wrote a few letters, skated for a bit, and just chilled. It was nice. That was basically our new year celebration...
Well i was thinking of what i might be able to tell you about this week...and there's a few different things. First off...We had a baptism yesterday. It was good. Sister Vernia Brink, that one lady.., got baptized. Elder Holt did the baptism, which was his first of the mission, so i was happy for him, and i gave a short talk. He had to force her down, (she's a big lady) and it was pretty funny. Her foot even came up, but we got it done the first try. It was a spiritual experience for sure, just a good time. She had her family there too and after she told us that we now needed to teach the rest of her family. So that was good news.Since it was fast and testimony meeting, both me and Elder Holt got up and shared our testimonies. I probably wouldnt have, but i figured i should just cuz..and since transfers are this week i might be leaving Paarl, so i just wanted to thank everyone for their love. I was way happy i did it. As you know...i dont get up and do that very often, but after i could totally feel a difference and i was way glad i did.
Sister Pauleen Davids is still getting baptized in 2 weeks, and yesterday was her 10th time at church. She's so awesome. She's powerful. She's got these crazy stories each day of how she can tell she's being tempted to do something, but then she's just like, stupid devil, and doesn't ever do it. Whether that's picking up some money, gossiping, or just other dumb people trying to change her mind about baptism..like the old J-Ho's, she just stands her ground. But yeah she's getting excited and can't wait for her baptism. All the members already think she's a member becuase she's there so often, they don't even realize she hasn't become a member.
So a few of our Priest age guys in the branch have gotten themselves mixed up in a little bad habit that is quite common in SA. Yeah they've turned to drinking. No Bueno. So we've been sorta slowly trying to get them to come fellowship with us and been trying to see them and teach them about stuff...without being blunt and mentioning what we've heard. We can tell that one guy definitely feels out of place, his name is Charlton, and we're doing a FHE at his house tonight with a bunch of other families. So that'll be nice. He's a cool guy and his whole family is awesome. Just the mom and three boys. But we're trying to work up FHE's all over our area. We've already got one going with the members still out in Smarty Town, and we're starting two more, one in Wellington and in Amstelhof tonight.
There is this old lady Sister Swazi Lambert who when we first met her was in the old folks home just sick as a dog. She couldnt even get out of bed. We've been meeting with her every now and again and we hadn't seen her for like 3 weeks and then last week she came out to church, and walked! She was a referral by one of our members, the Julies Family. Hilton comes fellowshipping a lot and Sister Julies is just an awesome lady. You'll see pics soon. Well we saw her twice this week, just a short visit and what not, and then she came to church again yesterday. She used to be in terrible shape, but she's improved so much in these couple of weeks, and she keeps saying she wants to get baptized. It's pretty funny. She's like 86 or something. But yeah it was just crazy to see.
We had an interesting talk with Alpha and Janine Mahoku-Sady, the Part Member Family that we've been teaching. We started this good lesson on new years resolutions, and all of a sudden all of Janine's family popped in and her dad started preaching to us in Afrikaans. Keagan, one of our fellowshippers was with us and they just started battling, or so i thought. Janine's father basically stopped our lesson, and started telling us what he believed, keep in mind he's a preacher of his own church. It turned out ok, although we got nothing out of it and he kept being like "verstan?" which means understand, and of course we didnt. We couldnt stop him either cuz he would just keep going on and in english and Afrikaans...anyway it was just interesting. You definitely cant teach with contention there, so we just didnt say too much. Keagan explained the BOM and so Alpha was happy he did that. It was just an interesting night...it probably doesnt sound like anything since i didnt explain it very good...sorry. haha.
Well anyway i dunno what else i can say. Things are going pretty good. We're going to Cape Town for a Braai at the mission home or some park or something with the Zone, playing some sports what not. Should be pretty fun. This tuesday we find out about transfers and if we're leaving or not, then thursday we go. So who knows if i'm leaving or not or where to, but i'll let ya know soon. Hope everyone is doing good and hope you had a fun new years! but not like down here...:)
-Elder Devenney
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