December 1, 2009

Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
As for us, we were informed that we should not celebrate Thanksgiving, as it's not a recognized holiday here, and that normal proselyting would continue like a normal day. We all figured that's what would happen anyway, so it wasn't that big a deal.
Unfortunately the week started out a bit bad on my side. I got sick, food poisoning is what i'd imagine it was. I must have eaten something and it ended up making me feel horrible. So both Tuesday and Wednesday we didnt even go out into the area. Just hung around and tried to get some rest and get over it. Tried to drink lots of water, etc etc. It was a bit boring, but we ended up going on some nice walks (because being stuck in the boarding all day blows big time, and we found a nice lake/reserve place and we chilled up there for a while. It was way pretty. O and we had some problems with our electricity. It went out, so we went to go get some more (we have to buy our electricity when it gets low, well mission pays for it, ya know...) So we went to Pick N Pay to get some more (local grocery) and they said we were unable to buy it becuase it was blocked and a whole bunch of other stupid reasons. So we called the office, called the landlord, trying to figure out what to do. Needless to say we were completely out of electricity and they couldnt solve it that day. So we ended up spending the night with some other elders at their place. Same thing happened on Wednesday, still couldn't get any. So we had to sleep over again. But we did finally get it on thursday, which was great to have. Thursday i was feeling a bit better so we went back into the area. It was a slow week for us...but we stayed busy.
On Saturday we went to the chapel for our class that we teach, but found that the YM/YW were having an activity. It was a dance activity. So we hung around and helped out, ate a bit of food, that sort of stuff. It was pretty fun. They were learning how to dance...idunno what kind of dance...and then half of it just reminded me of high school becuase they'd form a bit circle and then random people would jump in for 30 seconds at a time...ya know...and then hop back out. Of course only most of the girls were brave enough to go in. A lot of the guys were even too scared to ask any of the girls to dance. It's funny...doesnt matter where you go in the world, guys are always more uncomfortable and shy when it comes to dancing and what what. So i have now made it a goal of mine that when i get home, i want to take a dance class. haha...but anyway, it was fun and ended up being a great activity for how small the branch is.
Sunday church was really good. Elder Mkhize and I spoke in sacrament meeting. I was the concluding speaker. It went really well...other than the chapel was hot and we only had fans in there...but it went really good. Our theme for sunday was Jacob 3:1,2 and Alma 57:27. It talked mostly about being Firm and Pure in Heart. So i talked a lot of about the stripling warriors, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and of course the Savior. I kept my time of 15 minutes and overall i think it went really well. I tried to focus my talk on how to have a Firm Testimony and how to live to it til the end of our lives like many of these men in the scriptures...But other than that church was good.We had a few appointments and just ended our day. A window of teaching has again presented itself to a PM family, Mama Matiso's family. I think i told you we're teaching her daughter Vuyokazi, as well as her other daughter. Only 2 out of the 5 are members if you remember me saying. But now the husband, although he struggles with english, has expressed how he might want us to visit him as well. We've been praying for fatherled families as this is our main focus. So hopefully this will be a father that we can bring into the church that will be strong support to the rest of his family.
Other than that...not much. Just keeping on going. Thanks for everything everyone! hope you enjoy the holidays!
Elder Devenney