Sorry about not writing last week...i spent forever trying to set up a new "myldsmail" account...so as you can see this will be my new email for the next little while. It's good though because it's basically the same as gmail. I no longer have to worry about a little amount of space and constantly having to delete old emails like i had to with the old system...so they actually did something right this time in setting it up through gmail and hopefully i'll be able to attach more photos and things like that. But yeah, that's the reason why i didnt write anything last week...
This week has been interesting, but good i'd say. Even last week was good. I can sorta try to fill you in on the previous week first. We had a DL training thing, and will no longer be having workshops anymore with the AP's. It's just gonna be DL training meetings instead...but it went well. We just spoke about how the DL's role and how important it is etc etc. Things are going really good right now tho in the district as well as with us personally in our area. I cant really remember too much last week...so i'll just go on to this week...
It started great...played tennis again on monday for a few hours with Coultas...it was super hot but so fun. Then we had a great FHE with the King's family. A single mother and her 5 kids. Good family in the ward tho. So that was pretty sweet. That night i went on exchanges with Elder Larson in his area. We had a blast. So i was there all of tuesday as well and got back to my area tuesday night. We walked forever i swear...about 8 kms in the morning because we had to take the car to get serviced and so we tried to see some people but things didn't exactly work out...but we still made the best of it. Then got back, had some great appointments with some people in their area that are progressing toward baptism in the coming weeks. Yeah, it just went really well and we enjoyed ourselves.
Got back in my area on Wednesday and had a good day. Once a week we get together with Ethan Flowerday, our Ward mission leaders son who just got his mission call this past week to go to the London South mission. He's pretty stoked about that. Leaves at the end of May. But we get together with him and watch the PMG dvds and talk a bit about mission and things. He likes it and the parents appreciate it. That night we were supposed to have a great lesson planned with an investigator family and they were even going to give us food but we ended up having to change that appointment because Pres. Probst came in and wanted all the EL elders to have interviews that night. Pres. and I had a good interview and things are going well. He asked a lot how the members were liking us missionaries...(they've had some jokers and the members in this area can tell a lot if missionaries are serious or not and things like that) anyway...i told him that we have a great relationship with the ward and the members. Which is very true. I'm pretty sure everybody likes us. So that basically ended our night after interviews.
Thursday we drove out to Butterworth. About a 120 km drive north of our area...dont go there too often, just once a transfer or so to see a Part member family up there. They only come to church once in a while but came a couple weeks ago and brought their 24 year old daughter and she's pretty interested and wants to learn more. So we spent a few hours out there and taught her the restoration and things like that, and it went really well. Butterworth is pretty junky tho...big township and not a white person to be found. But i guess it's nice sorta...haha. That night we just drove back, got back late, and had a good correlation meeting with Bro Flowerday. I think he's pleased with our efforts and stuff.
Friday, had the usual, District meeting and what not. A lot of our appointments didnt hold. We saw an 18 year old kid and taught him, visited a few others, but then the day kinda fell apart. That night we hadn't eaten so we needed to take our dinner hour and decided to go to Guidos, a pizzaria place. Dang good! We went there last weekend for dinner also. We decided if we dont have a dinner appointment with a member on friday that's where we'll go and eat. It's cheap too for the two of us to just share a large pizza or something.
Saturday we did some good work. We took out a Less active guy, bro Somonono to fellowship with us. We just found out as he's trying to come back to the church, and looking for employment, that he's been smoking a bit, so he's been feeling really bad. But we took him out and had a good time. Got to see a couple people, knocked on some doors and got in a taught some great lessons to some families about faith. Things went great. We dropped him back in Beacon Bay and met another fellowshipper, Leon Kaschula, (Bishops son) he's an RM and what not. We took him to that white family, shaun and karin who were referred to us and who we were supposed to see on Wednesday but had interviews instead and had to cancel. Well it was good to have Leon there because he's local and wha tnot and they were able to meet some other members. Well It had been about 10 days since we last spoke with them, and the first appointment went so good they were really happy with us. Found us really mature and liked what we had to say. But it looks like satan crept in...Karin, who does most of the talking in their relationship, and knows a bit in the Bible, apparently did a bit of research on the internet about the church and of course came across some anit-mormon stuff. Yo, it was bad! We couldnt even get through the entire Restoration because she had already read so much bad stuff about Joseph Smith. And she wouldnt have anything to do with the Book of Mormon anymore. We were there for about an hour and a half trying to explain things. But she would always jump the gun and try to say something that we were just about to answer if she'd just stay quiet. It wasn't the best lesson, and both Cooney and Leon were getting a bit anxious to say things. Luckily we didnt just bash or anything like that, but she basically expressed how they dont want to be involved with this type of church and she doesn't even want to read the BOM. She almost gave it back to us, but i told her that she should give it back to Barbara (the member that gave it to her) out of respect. So yeah it was a shame that it happened like that...there's no way she was willing to listen to us too much. I have had anti mormon stuff been brought out on us before, but not that bad. I just felt bad for the whole situation...it's stupid what some people put on the internet...
But on a better note, right after that appointment...We were invited by Bro Flowerday and his family to go out to eat at Ocean Basket for his birthday. So we were pretty stoked for that. It was a fish place, dang good, but pretty pricey...anyway. it was a nice night. Sunday was stake conference out in Mdantsane...the second largest township in SA...but they have 2 beautiful chapels out there and so that's where it was held. It was in the morning and then after we were fed by Sister Human at her place...and even some other elders came and hung out there. We then visited a Less active guy for a while. Then taught a great Part member family from Nigeria that we found. Very very powerful lesson. The home was a great place and the family was so awesome. So something could happen there. The mother is the only member and we happened to knock on her door and find her. She just had a baby about a month ago and so she cant really go anywhere. Then that night we just spent time with the landlady and the family where we stay. Had some dessert and got to visit with them for a while, so that was our night. Things are on a high. We had a bit of an increase in our stats this week which was really really great to have. So it felt pretty successful for the most part. Other than that...nothing much going on. Still healthy for the most part and enjoying it here. I'm pretty sure i'll stay here for another transfer...but we'll see. Next week is when we'll find out about transfer news...but yeah...things are good. Thanks! Elder Devenney
please forward this on to the usual people if needed...thanks
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Feb 8, 2010
The week started out quite well...last monday after all the usual, Elder Coultas from England and I played tennis for about 3 hours. I was so stoked to play. I hadn't played all mission and i pretty much felt like i was just as good as before i left for mish. So i was pretty happy about that. No one else wanted to play so it was just the two of us. We played 4 sets. I won...(not to brag but just to tell ya...) it was 7-5 6-4 3-6 6-3. So we were pretty evenly matched for the most part...but i prevailed!
I went on exchanges monday night through tuesday with Elder Gouws. Remember my 3some in Cape Town...yeah so he's the new ZL i'm sure i told you but yeah we hung out and worked in my area on tuesday and it went really well. We had some great lessons and we able to follow up on a few referrals that were given to us. This week for some reason has been a great referral week. We've received quite a few. And they've been really good ones as well. Father leds. We got this one from a member who came up to us last sunday and told us to visit this family, she was going to give a BOM to them and we were to do the rest...haha. So we get there, i cant remember which day exactly...o it was saturday...i'm jumping ahead...but it's ok...and we got there and it's a white father led family who had been going through a lot of junk at their last church. And havent been back for about 8 months. Their names are Shaun and Karin. They also have kids...But yeah apparently there was a lot of gossip and false things being said about the family...like that they were witches and false christs and weird weird things...even as they tried to defend themselves the pastuer or whatever just made things worse..so they left. And haven't been back. But luckily as we got there...we were able to answer their questions perfectly and got to talk about a lot of different things. Ranging from Faith, to the plan of salvation...gospel of Jesus Christ, and the BOM. We were there way too long, about an hour and a half. But at the end they were very "impressed" as they said...and really gained respect for us. At first when the wife saw us come in she of course doubted cuz we're just young guys...(especially Cooney since everyone thinks he's 16) but yeah...it was a great appointment. We're going back soonish and they even offered to feed us and we could teach. On our second appointment! We were pretty stoked about that. haha. But we're excited about them.
We've also seen the Harty family and had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation with a member...an older lady, Sister Joan came with us and bore an excellent testimony which helped a ton. I think they really liked what we have been saying and now we just gotta get them to church...still working on that one.
For District Meeting on Friday i usually like to start out with an object lesson and i usually rotate it around the district. But this week i wanted to do it. I did one using my skateboard and tied it into faith...blindfolded all the elders and did a "plan ride" trick...it's hard to explain but it's way way funny and everybody enjoyed it. My district meetings are getting better and i think everybody enjoys them...which is way appreciated because i've been in some DM's that are just terrible and boring. So i try to make them interesting.
Saturday we played soccer and then dug some gardens later for the Van Tonder family. The cute kid family. They have this little girl Shelby who's like almost 4 that i'm pretty sure i wanna take with me. Kids are awesome. haha. Church was also really good on sunday. it was a good fast and testimony sunday...sometimes they can be a bit hard to stay comfortable through...but it was really nice. Both saturday night and sunday night we ate food with our landlady and her family...the Van Tonders...(the ones we dug for was her oldest son and family) but yeah saturday we were invited for a Braai...which was great...then ate there again after lunch. That was pretty much our week i'd say.
It's starting to warm up and the weather is hard to predict...it's just really humid. We golfed today if i havent already said...we already played 9 holes with this Scottish guy who's the father of a member. He's a nonmember. But we had a blast playing, although it was way hot...Still had fun. He's a good guy. Yeah that's all i have to say for now i guess. Thanks for everything! Have a great week!
Elder Devenney
I went on exchanges monday night through tuesday with Elder Gouws. Remember my 3some in Cape Town...yeah so he's the new ZL i'm sure i told you but yeah we hung out and worked in my area on tuesday and it went really well. We had some great lessons and we able to follow up on a few referrals that were given to us. This week for some reason has been a great referral week. We've received quite a few. And they've been really good ones as well. Father leds. We got this one from a member who came up to us last sunday and told us to visit this family, she was going to give a BOM to them and we were to do the rest...haha. So we get there, i cant remember which day exactly...o it was saturday...i'm jumping ahead...but it's ok...and we got there and it's a white father led family who had been going through a lot of junk at their last church. And havent been back for about 8 months. Their names are Shaun and Karin. They also have kids...But yeah apparently there was a lot of gossip and false things being said about the family...like that they were witches and false christs and weird weird things...even as they tried to defend themselves the pastuer or whatever just made things worse..so they left. And haven't been back. But luckily as we got there...we were able to answer their questions perfectly and got to talk about a lot of different things. Ranging from Faith, to the plan of salvation...gospel of Jesus Christ, and the BOM. We were there way too long, about an hour and a half. But at the end they were very "impressed" as they said...and really gained respect for us. At first when the wife saw us come in she of course doubted cuz we're just young guys...(especially Cooney since everyone thinks he's 16) but yeah...it was a great appointment. We're going back soonish and they even offered to feed us and we could teach. On our second appointment! We were pretty stoked about that. haha. But we're excited about them.
We've also seen the Harty family and had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation with a member...an older lady, Sister Joan came with us and bore an excellent testimony which helped a ton. I think they really liked what we have been saying and now we just gotta get them to church...still working on that one.
For District Meeting on Friday i usually like to start out with an object lesson and i usually rotate it around the district. But this week i wanted to do it. I did one using my skateboard and tied it into faith...blindfolded all the elders and did a "plan ride" trick...it's hard to explain but it's way way funny and everybody enjoyed it. My district meetings are getting better and i think everybody enjoys them...which is way appreciated because i've been in some DM's that are just terrible and boring. So i try to make them interesting.
Saturday we played soccer and then dug some gardens later for the Van Tonder family. The cute kid family. They have this little girl Shelby who's like almost 4 that i'm pretty sure i wanna take with me. Kids are awesome. haha. Church was also really good on sunday. it was a good fast and testimony sunday...sometimes they can be a bit hard to stay comfortable through...but it was really nice. Both saturday night and sunday night we ate food with our landlady and her family...the Van Tonders...(the ones we dug for was her oldest son and family) but yeah saturday we were invited for a Braai...which was great...then ate there again after lunch. That was pretty much our week i'd say.
It's starting to warm up and the weather is hard to predict...it's just really humid. We golfed today if i havent already said...we already played 9 holes with this Scottish guy who's the father of a member. He's a nonmember. But we had a blast playing, although it was way hot...Still had fun. He's a good guy. Yeah that's all i have to say for now i guess. Thanks for everything! Have a great week!
Elder Devenney
Monday, February 1, 2010
Feb 1, 2010
Hey there! Well i'll start from the beginning of this past week. We went golfing believe it or not...for last pday. It was 4 of us driving around getting lost trying to find this golf course a little ways out...well we eventually got there. It was a nice cloudy overcast day...and even started raining about half way through but we didnt mind. We only had 2 sets of clubs with us...and did all 18 holes. It was basically my first time golfing all mission. So it was pretty fun. We were the only ones on the course i'd say...and it was cheap cheap! it was 45 rand for 18 holes...so like 7 bucks. Yeah it was awesome. it took us like 4 1/2 hours to finish tho...so that was the downer...but it was way fun. The course was close to the ocean...and we could see it from some holes...and we even had families of springbok running through some of the course.
The next day we saw the Harty family. That white family that we're teaching and taught about the BOM with them...they new some...but nothing that was really correct...so we helped them get a better understanding about it as well as the bible. We invited them to come to church and the wife was way into it...at the Catholic church she's never been able to take the sacrament there because she's not a member so that's always bugged her but we told her she could at our church and she was happy about that. The wife was more excited about coming than the husband and he said that he didnt want to promise...well unfortunately they didnt come...which kinda sucks but hopefully next week we will. We're planning to take Bro Flowerday our Ward mission leader with us this coming week. So hopefully that'll be successful.
We're still teaching betty and elijah but i think they have some concerns a bit...and they flaked out of coming to church this sunday which is way stuipd...so we're kinda just thinking about what to do next with them...
We had Zone Conference on Thursday which was pretty good. I got picked for another spontaneous talk that was way gay and i'm pretty sure no one prepared for...i had written some things down but didnt really understand it nor did anybody else...so i kinda just made some stuff up and i suppose it made sense...haha. It was some scripture in D&C 29 i think...about spiritual vs temporal laws...but as for the rest of the conference it went really well. Our focus this transfer is on Health and budgeting. Keeping ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. So we went over exercising a lot and also about how to budget our money. It's a big thing they're pushing for. So we got a chart and everything to track all our purchases and what what. Trying to make it so our money doesnt run out before the 2 weeks til we get more...but yeah that's about it. It was pretty good.
Had a nice district meeting on Friday morning...I focused on just safety when driving and as well just all the followups that we've gone over in the past. It was really good...After lunch on friday we went over to Michael and Mandy Van Nikerk's place and helped them move a bed to another room...well it sounded easy...but it wasn't. It was like this huge bunk bed log bed that needed to be taken apart and put back together and it had a huge desk thing on the bottom...Michael and Mandy are great...they always have us over for waffles and stuff and invite us for food lots...recently married couple in their 30's i'd say...mandy has been a member forever and has a boy and a girl, 16 and 11. Michael is a convert of only about 2 years...but yeah mandy is prego with another baby. They're awesome...anyway...that took about 3 hours to move that bed...it sucked. haha. Then we just had appointments after...
Saturday we played soccer in the morning...that was nice. We got a referral from a member family in the other ward of a lady that lives in our area. So we went and saw her. She's about 25 going through a divorce and we were able to meet with her and her mother and sister and some other kids...it went really well. At the end of our discussion...which was basically about faith and just kinda building the relationship and getting to know eachother and sharing thoughts what what...she expressed that she's had many people from other churches to their house in the past and we were the first ones that she's really felt good about and completely agreed with what we shared. So we felt pretty happy about that. Then after that we went to the Flowerday's again and we helped make dinner. We made Calamari and it was dang good! That took a while. Jackie...the mother...had her brother pass away just a few days ago...so it was kinda a cheer up dinner thing. But it went really well. Great family...they do too much for us...haha.
Sunday church was good...nothing too much going on...our original DA that we were supposed to have with the Faku family fell through and the Flowerday's just said come over and they'd feed us. So we did...and that was super nice. We ended up watching our SACTM end of year dvd slideshow with them which was great because Ethan is about to get his mission call in the post hopefully in the next week or two and it was kinda encouragement to get excited...It was a good ender to the night. That's about it...
Today we hope to play tennis...i've been wanting to for so long...and we organized all the equipment so it should be awesome.
Cooney and i are doing fine. We're getting along and what not...it's taken about a week and a half to get used to eachother but i thnk we're finally past the "honeymoon" part of the transfer and we feel pretty normal around eachother. haha. So yeah...doing good.
Thanks for everything! Much love,
Elder Devenney
The next day we saw the Harty family. That white family that we're teaching and taught about the BOM with them...they new some...but nothing that was really correct...so we helped them get a better understanding about it as well as the bible. We invited them to come to church and the wife was way into it...at the Catholic church she's never been able to take the sacrament there because she's not a member so that's always bugged her but we told her she could at our church and she was happy about that. The wife was more excited about coming than the husband and he said that he didnt want to promise...well unfortunately they didnt come...which kinda sucks but hopefully next week we will. We're planning to take Bro Flowerday our Ward mission leader with us this coming week. So hopefully that'll be successful.
We're still teaching betty and elijah but i think they have some concerns a bit...and they flaked out of coming to church this sunday which is way stuipd...so we're kinda just thinking about what to do next with them...
We had Zone Conference on Thursday which was pretty good. I got picked for another spontaneous talk that was way gay and i'm pretty sure no one prepared for...i had written some things down but didnt really understand it nor did anybody else...so i kinda just made some stuff up and i suppose it made sense...haha. It was some scripture in D&C 29 i think...about spiritual vs temporal laws...but as for the rest of the conference it went really well. Our focus this transfer is on Health and budgeting. Keeping ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. So we went over exercising a lot and also about how to budget our money. It's a big thing they're pushing for. So we got a chart and everything to track all our purchases and what what. Trying to make it so our money doesnt run out before the 2 weeks til we get more...but yeah that's about it. It was pretty good.
Had a nice district meeting on Friday morning...I focused on just safety when driving and as well just all the followups that we've gone over in the past. It was really good...After lunch on friday we went over to Michael and Mandy Van Nikerk's place and helped them move a bed to another room...well it sounded easy...but it wasn't. It was like this huge bunk bed log bed that needed to be taken apart and put back together and it had a huge desk thing on the bottom...Michael and Mandy are great...they always have us over for waffles and stuff and invite us for food lots...recently married couple in their 30's i'd say...mandy has been a member forever and has a boy and a girl, 16 and 11. Michael is a convert of only about 2 years...but yeah mandy is prego with another baby. They're awesome...anyway...that took about 3 hours to move that bed...it sucked. haha. Then we just had appointments after...
Saturday we played soccer in the morning...that was nice. We got a referral from a member family in the other ward of a lady that lives in our area. So we went and saw her. She's about 25 going through a divorce and we were able to meet with her and her mother and sister and some other kids...it went really well. At the end of our discussion...which was basically about faith and just kinda building the relationship and getting to know eachother and sharing thoughts what what...she expressed that she's had many people from other churches to their house in the past and we were the first ones that she's really felt good about and completely agreed with what we shared. So we felt pretty happy about that. Then after that we went to the Flowerday's again and we helped make dinner. We made Calamari and it was dang good! That took a while. Jackie...the mother...had her brother pass away just a few days ago...so it was kinda a cheer up dinner thing. But it went really well. Great family...they do too much for us...haha.
Sunday church was good...nothing too much going on...our original DA that we were supposed to have with the Faku family fell through and the Flowerday's just said come over and they'd feed us. So we did...and that was super nice. We ended up watching our SACTM end of year dvd slideshow with them which was great because Ethan is about to get his mission call in the post hopefully in the next week or two and it was kinda encouragement to get excited...It was a good ender to the night. That's about it...
Today we hope to play tennis...i've been wanting to for so long...and we organized all the equipment so it should be awesome.
Cooney and i are doing fine. We're getting along and what not...it's taken about a week and a half to get used to eachother but i thnk we're finally past the "honeymoon" part of the transfer and we feel pretty normal around eachother. haha. So yeah...doing good.
Thanks for everything! Much love,
Elder Devenney
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