June 8, 2009

Wow it's actually a bit chilly today...
Got lots of good stuff to report on this past week...
First off...things are really in motion right now. We got lots of good stuff happening in the coming weeks. One of which is the Movie Night that'll be on the 19th of June. We've organized it all and we're hoping to watch the Emma Smith movie. We hope! The word is in...but they just have to send it up from Cape Town. We've been busy printing tickets...flyers...etc etc. We handed out tickets to everybody at church yesterday...one for them, and one for a friend. We've been spreading the word even here at our famous internet shop. We invite all. It should be one of the biggest activities the branch has done...maybe ever. We're going to make banners...organize food...all that good stuff. We're trying to involve as many people as possible. This is really going to be a good opportunity for us for finding. We will have a system of everyone that comes will put all their information on a paper, so we can contact them in the coming weeks. It's really a big missionary effort on our part to find more investigators in a way that's fun and just outside the normal church, ya know.Other upcoming events are Public Affairs...We've organized about 30 YSA to go to Parliament at the first week of July. We're going to have 2 training sessions...because we dont want people to look like fools in front of a bunch of politicians ya know. Anyway...that's up and coming in the next few weeks...so we'll be pretty busy with all of that.
As for people we're teaching and stuff that happened this past week...it goes as follows...I'll start with Rovy. Of course we met with him a couple times this past week...everything went great. But the highlight was that on thursday night we decided to go see him actually perform. He's in a band with him and his younger brothers...they're so sick! it was a place called Zenzo and it was an outdoor place where food was served and they just played...it was chill. We ate, and just listened to him perform. He even dedicated a song to us...josh groben. haha. It was tight. He plays guitar and lead vocals. But yeah they played a wide variety from...eagles, enrique englasies(?), some new stuff, Hotel California, a bunch of other stuff too, some spanish songs. Anyway...it was tight. It was the first time i had to talk over music when i was talking to someone. Then we got pics with the group and just chatted with him for a while. Then Friday came around and he came to the Scripture study class. And saturday we saw him early in the morning, just read from the BOM, then later that day we went out to lunch together in town. Went to a nice outdoor place. Then of course he came to church. So yeah...Rovy is cool. It's just tough still cuz he's not planning on marriage for a while...and he's living with that older lady. But it's all good...just good to be his friend.
Fausta...we've invited her to be baptized. We've given her two options...either the 4th of July, or the 18th. She hasn't decided yet. But she really likes the church...and she comes every week. She's makin lots of friends too so it's good.
Last is Miriam. Met with her and taught her at the Heymans. Her and her daughter. Went really good. She's got a hard life with her husband not giving her much of support...and she so wants to be a member...it's kind of sad.
We met with this Shalihu family. I think i might have said something about them before...they have a daughter who's 14 and her name is Ana. She loves us coming. Just watched Finding Faith in Christ DVD..but it went really well. They've been struggling right now and are just having problems with the family...finding workers...and Ana and her gymnastics. Ana travels all the time to SA and Zim and all over for her gymnastics, and wins a lot. But they're looking for a sponser for her. If i wasn't a missionary we would help her out so much more, anyone that could just listen to her talk would just melt and couldn't deny her a sponser. The family just has to pay for all the travels and competitions out of their own pocket...and they're struggling to do it. So yeah...we're trying to help them out. We've been sending them spiritual scripture texts each night too...to help them out. But yeah the big surprise came at the end when we were just about to leave...Ana runs into her room and then comes out with $N40 dollars to give to us. We were like "no way!" you need that more than us. But she insisted...she said it was prayer money. I think she just really wanted to give it to us and she just thinks we should get paid for it. Anyway...we're hoping to take that 40 bucks and double it and buy her a birthday present cuz she had a birthday like a week ago. Should be a good surprise.
We readjusted our Saturday schedule this week and got out in the area at 830 in the morning. We got to see a lot more people...cuz not everybody was drunk...as they usually can be at night. Then we just did our studies mid day..and had normal schedule at night. We're thinking of making it a district wide thing...which will help everybody out a lot.
Well that's about it basically...things are going really well. Just staying busy...Yup yup...hopefully we dont run out of steam these next couple of weeks...Hope all is well! thanks!
Elder Devenney