April 20, 2009

This week has been a hectic one...but good to stay busy. It started out good...just been teaching a lot. We've been teaching this guy named Elasmus and his cousin, her name is Fausta. For the past two sundays they've been coming to church. He was previously taught about a year ago, but we picked him back up and started to teach both of them now. They've gotten really interested and yesterday even they were both jotting down notes at church on the talks that were given. They're pretty solid and we're going to start seeing them about twice a week. I'll keep ya posted on their progress.

I cant remember if i told you last week but this guy named Gilbert found us. We were driving and i just so happened to see this guy as we drive past try to flag us down...i thought he was just waving. We ended up stopping just down the street anyway for our appointment and he came running down the hill. Turns out he had just got back to Nam, he had previously been in SA studying for school, but had met with missionaries about a year ago and really wanted us to come and visit him. He was so happy to see us. He still remembered so much too. We saw him and taught him and he basically already knows quite a bit. It was a perfect example of the blessing of being guided to someone that is prepared. He's a cool guy. About 24. His dad isn't too cool tho..so we had to teach him outside of his house...but it was still alright.

Elder Fragar and myself have been keeping quite busy with Public Affairs. He was in charge of it before he was on mission, for about 3 years, all across Aus. That was one reason he was sent up here to Nam, so he can build up the Public Affairs. We already have plans being made for the Mormon Helping Hands project in August and we're just trying to meet with those important people of the country here in Nam. Last week we had a meeting with a lady where we presented our ideas for the city. Even this morning we met with...well not just the two of us...but a lady named Womba who has a calling in the church who is the Director of Public Affairs here, we all met with about 15 advisors of the Regional Department of Health and Services...something like that...at a big round table and briefly spoke about the ideas for the Helping Hands project. They will be discussing it futher and letting us know. In the future we're hoping to also meet the Mayor and Prime Minister. Who knows if we'll be able to tho...but yeah that keeps us busy...more Elder Fragar...but i'm there for support.

Over the weekend we had Zone Conference and i think it was the best one i've been to. It's probably the one that i got the most out of...i had to give a spontaneous talk...but it went good. Then after we were addressed by both Pres and Sister Probst, ate some good lunch and then talked more about things going on and just really gave good direction for us. Pres also spoke about the Parable of the Sower...also comparing it to the vision of the Tree of Life...it was amazing. I wont go into detail but basically we're trying to work with our members and to introduce PMG to them...we want everybody to land on good ground and bring forth fruit...even as the parable says...that sounds kinda stupid but i promise the talk was good. We had Workshops the day before that and really got great ideas on how we can introduce PMG to the members. We're trying to get at least 3 families trained on how they can use it and how they can do missionary work on their own. This is the big focus right now all across the mission. Yeah and then yesterday at church Pres and Sister Probst again spoke in Sacrament...and then i had to teach Gospel Principles Class with them there...it was intense...but went way good and overall at church we had something like 15 investigators there with the district. So it was a good sunday.

Friday we had our Scripture study class for the first time...went good. Small turn out but it'll slowly build up. We're doing Christlike Attributes right now...nothing to report there.

O funny stuff...yesterday there was this guy in a Land Rover sitting outside of this house that we were teaching at...we ran out to get some stuff out of the car and we hear this "Hey guys" but it definitely wasnt Nam or SA accent. It was this guy from the U.S. from Atlanta. He said he had been here since 2007 and he married a Namibian. Anyway he was cool and he basically just called us cuz he said we looked like Americans and he had to find out. It was weird to hear him speak tho...i'm no longer used to that accent of the south. It was funny. But he was cool. His name was Ollie! ha! cool name eh? Alright well hope that's a good enough update for the week! It's been a good one...staying busy...Hope everyone is doing great! Love ya!

Elder Devenney