Christmas Post

Well this week has been a bit better as I’ve gotten more familiar with the area and what what. Last Monday we played some nice soccer at our chapel on the field. It was the East London Zone against the Mdantsane Zone. So there were way too many players on the field…needless to say with Schamel, myself, and a few others…we were unstoppable. Haha. Well not really…but it did come down to 4 – 4 and we needed last goal wins…and of course I dominated and put the last goal in…it was a good ender.This week has been a pretty mixed up one tho…Tuesday was a long day. We’ve been helping a member in the ward move and they had SO much stuff it was ridiculous. Long hours…about 6 of them on Tuesday we were moving boxes back and forth and it was getting quite tiring. They moved into a house that must have been half the size and I really don’t know how they’re going to fit everything in. There were only about 4 or 5 of us helping out on
Tuesday…then the rest of the ward members were going to come on Wednesday. So after helping on Tuesday later on that night we went to one of our appointments…got dropped by the mother of the family…in which she hated me but liked my companion because he was south African. She was Dutch Reform, and wanted us to meet her minister…just another crazy person. But yeah that sucked that we got dropped…she said we could come back in a years time.
Wednesday morning we again helped move the Theron and Hill Family. We had a Christmas Talent Show with all the missionaries at the chapel. President and Sister Probst were there and we started out the activity in the morning watching a movie titled “The Christmas Shoes” and I’m pretty sure every missionary was holding back the tears…it was a sad show. But it was a nice one to watch (since we don’t watch any in the first place) after the movie we had a nice lunch of pizza, then the talent show. I did a bit of Tae Kwon Do and taught a couple other missionaries how to do a Volly Kick (dunno if that’s spelled right) but yeah it was pretty fun. Other talents included singing…poetry, stand up comedy (my comp) impersonations, soccer juggling, and a bunch of other stuff. It was so funny. That was only a few hours in the day then we went back to work in the evening. Just visited more members and got fed and visited other Lessactives and what not. That was about it.
Thursday we had Zone Conference and it was so long, but good of course. It went from 8:30 in the morning to 4:30pm. Things in the mission are continuing to change a bit…tighter schedules and just stuff president wants us to do. He wants us consistently out of our boardings by 10 AM, since the start of mission we’ve usually just either done service right in the morning or taken our lunch then and gone out by 12 or so. But he wants us out in our areas all day and just taking a sandwich or something with us. But it’ll be alright. Zone Conference is always good...it always gets us pumped up.
Friday after district meeting, went out to eat, then went to work. We focused a lot on finding new people, and we had a little bit of success. We have been told by our ward mission leader, who is awesome by the way, to work Gonubie and try to find some people up there…apparently it hasn’t been worked too much. It’s only about a 10 to 15 min drive from where we live, and it’s still part of our area…it’s just far from the church. Probably a 20 minute drive. But yeah…got in a couple of houses…not too successful tho. I don’t remember what else we did…
Saturday we played some volleyball with the ward in the morning…then soccer…(not that it’s our pday or anything) but then had to again do service for another family, the Thornhills, who were also moving. This move wasn’t as bad. We had a lot of help and their place was pretty small so we got everything done within a couple of hours. But I was beat after that. Later on that evening we just tried to do some more following up and find new investigators…idunno what happened…it’s all a blur. O wait…we had a surprise Braai with a member family who called us up and invited us over. It was dang good. Just talked for a while…there were about 10 or 15 people there…but way good food. That ended our night.
Sunday was good. Church was good. We did a singing thingy with another family singing Silent Night and I’m pretty sure we all started off tune and singing a different version from what we practiced…so it wasn’t the best. But it was alright I guess. Then the rest of the day we went around talking with members and others because the ward wants us to start helping members plant gardens…so we got spades and other things the other day…but yeah we just have been planning when and where for the members and less actives. That really concludes all our week.
It’s been good tho…I hope everybody has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!Much love!Elder Devenney

December 14, 2009

Hey there!Well it’s been an interesting week with transfers and all. Mkhize and I had planned out what might happen to the two of us…we assumed because he had been there in Ilinge before me that he would be the one that was going to be transferred. We waited patiently on Tuesday for transfer news but nothing came. Not until the next morning. And it was a bit of a surprise. Instead of Mkhize leaving and me staying, it was the other way around. Mkhize would stay and get a new companion, and I would leave to go to East London 1st Ward. East London is about a 2 hour drive towards the coast, quite a big city. So that news came Wednesday morning and I left Thursday morning for East London. A nice long drive in the morning…then finally arrived and got my companion. Elder Turner is his name, from South Africa, Jo-burg. The area in which we work is COMPLETELY different from what I was previously working, which means that it’s going to take a while to adjust. I’m still a district leader of 4. The are is predominately white rich people. It’s a beautiful area as I’ve been able to work and go around the past few days. The area is called Beacon Bay, also work Gonubie, and even way north is called Sunrise on Sea. It’s a large area, and the work is a little slow. It’s completely different when you go from township missionary work, to white area missionary work, you cannot do the same things in the two. And I’ve hardly been in white area my whole mission, so I was kinda stressing about it at first. Mostly we’ve just been trying to visit the members and get to know them better. Our teaching pool is small…and as for the work it can be a little slow as I said…we struggle to get people coming out to teach with us…struggle finding new investigators…basically we could knock all day and no one would want to let us in…plus it’s holiday so it’s even worse. I’m not a big knockin on door fan anyway…so we’ll be working in a different way this transfer to try to increase our teaching pool.
Let me try to let you get a picture of what the area is like. Yes, it’s huge. We’re driving…of course. But parts of it are just beautiful…right on the beach…we take a daily drive on a road for about 10 minutes right along the coastline that looks at the ocean. We’ve gone on the rocks and found some seashells and relaxed a bit to figure things out. I love the smell of the ocean. So it is a beautiful area…which is a blessing…but it’s a difficult one…probably one of the hardest in the whole mission when it comes to success.
Elder Turner has already been here for 3 months. He’s a good guy. We’re getting along just fine. Saturday we had the ward Christmas party up at Bishop’s farm, which is far north in our area. I got to meet most everybody, had a nice braai…people were swimming…playing pool…just hanging out. So it was really nice and a way fun party. Church on Sunday was nice. The chapel is a very nice building and the members are great as well. Oh and the bonus of the rich areas to serve…is that we get fed all the time. That really is a change from my last area…so that is a blessing…if I don’t get too fat! Haha. Other than that idunno…just things are fine. There’s really not too much to tell…I’ve just been trying hard to learn the area…and know the members. There’s really not much else I can report on. Hope this is good enough of an update…Thanks!
Elder Devenney