Hey, another week has gone. What i can say is that it's been pretty decent...We moved out of our old place where we were living with two elders..awaiting our new flat that we'd move into...as we got there...we found it a bit different than expected. Small. Definitely. Lacking in mirrors, cupboards, and odd and end things...plus the hot water runs out super quick. But hey, now a week living there...it's not too bad. There are two mdantsane (zone near by) elders who are also living next door to us that just moved in...their place is super small! haha. But for my last month or so...it'll be fine to stay it. It's still getting worked on, and there's lots of construction going on around the house, but we'll deal with it. The week had it's ups and downs. We focused on a lot of finding. As our teaching pool is basically zerooo. We have maybe one progressing investigator who we might give a baptismal date to this week...but other than that...the other elders really didnt work our area much...and so we're starting from ground up. We've found some good people, and do have a lot of appointments set up for this week. So hopefully things will be ok...We've definitely already started sifting through those that are most exciting and we see could have potential..and kinda dropping those who dont. It's what we gotta do. This last month of mine is too short to waste it with jokers. We're struggling to find solid families to teach..so we hope that will change when we follow up on these appointments through the week. The only good thing is we found a guy, saw him 3 times during the week, and he came to church yesterday...so that was nice. His name is Kaya. He's 23 i think. A good guy. We always had to teach him outside on the grass for the first 2 times...but then the last time we saw him a storm was coming so he thankfully let us come into his house...and we had a good chat about the BOM and prayer...And i think he enjoyed church so that was good. Church was nice because it was ward conference so we were able to see the stake presidency talk...and it was focused on 1 nephi 8 and the tree of life. Mostly about the families as well. Good talks...and overall just a good attendance at church. It was fully packed in the room and so they had to open up the back for more seats..which hasn't happened in a long time. So as we've been knocking around on doors all week...well not all week...but at least an hour a day...my comp has been getting more comfortable i think. Even in his teaching. I still do a lot of the talking...which is what i'd rather do anyway...i seem to put things a bit better...but of course he's improving it just takes the time. The two of us are getting along just fine. Anyway, i for some reason have lost my desire to write this email because i'm being distracted. But yeah, things are fine, totally crazy people we're finding, but we're enjoying it. Thanks! Enjoy the week!
Elder Devenney
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
August 23, 2010
Well, there has been a bit of a change again in my location of the mission, as well as my assignment of responsibilities. No big deal tho. What has happened is that I'm no longer a Zl, but training instead. Which is exactly what i wanted to do before i left this mission. I'm no longer in Port Elizabeth, but headed back to East London, just a different area and different ward. So i used to be in EL 1st ward, but now i'm in EL 3rd ward...which is just a bit different. What's nice about it tho is that since i was here 6 months ago, i already know some of the members in this ward, and i basically know my way around the city, so that's a huge blessing in itself. I'll tell you more about it just now... Elder Moorcroft and i were definitely bummed to say goodbye to eachother, but it had to happen i guess. Yo we had a blast together..probably one of my top favorite companions for sure! I've been so blessed in that area of my mission. I just hope my comps feel the same about me...Anyway, we got a call wednesday morning that i'd be transfered and that i'd be training. I said some good byes to a few peeps and then hopped on a bus that next morning at 6:30 AM! where we travelled to EL. It's about a 4 hour trip. We were thankfully on a nice bus over, they had tv screens and they played some funny jet li movie and then some movie with John Cena in it. We got to EL about mid afternoon, then i got my companion soon after that. His name is Elder Naylor. He's from Centerville, and looks like any greenie would look. A bit awkward, out of place, all that good stuff. I've been trying to make him feel as welcomed as possible so he's not homesick or anything. He's a pretty chill guy tho for sure. He graduated in 2009 and yeah, seems like we'll get a long just fine together. The ward used to have 4 elders in it, then about 6 months ago, because of the shortage of missionaries, they had to take two out. So the ward has only had 2 missionaries in it for that last 6 months. So with my comp and i, we were put back in, and now the ward again has 4 elders. We're basically working an area that has had hardly any work done to it in 6 months. I really dont think we have too many progressing investigators, just a couple Recent Converts, but that's about it. So my comp and i have our hands full to get this area back on it's feet. From our first couple of days in the area tho, we've found that it has a lot of potential. It's a bit of a distance from the chapel tho so that's a bit of a bummer. Well really not too bad, only like a 10 min drive i'd say. But not everyone has cars...It's a bit of a lower class area for the most part. Well not all of it, we have variety to work with so it should be alright. On saturday, it was the Mormon Helping Hands, and there were over 100 peeps that showed up from the ward to go to these two different childrens homes and fix them up, we made a garden, that sort of stuff. It was really nice. And Elder Schamel is now back in EL1st ward, (where i used to be) and so we were together again for this Helping Hands. We were companions during last years helping hands in Namibia so that was pretty sweet to see him again. It's been about 7 1/2 months since i've seen him. Shortly after that, which took most of the morning, we started just knockin around in our area doing some finding. Surprisingly enough, we had tons of success. We taught 2 lessons and got a few good solid return appointments. During this time Elder Naylor turns to me and is like, "do people always want us back this easy" i told him no, so don't get used to it. But truly we've already found some good success and prospective people to work with. We're very grateful about that. Also, this area feeds missionaries a ton! My last area we hardly ever got fed but guess what, the ward has it set up that we have 1 DA every day! that's so sweet! I might just get fat in this area before i come home! haha. K maybe not, but we'll see what happens. On sunday, the church is very nice. It's a different style building. The sacrament room was packed, so that was nice to see. We have an awesome bishop, who i've met before when i used to be here...we actually are living in the back of his house. He's bishop Van Heerden, he's like 28 or something. Very cool guy. After church we took this guy, Andisiwe, who was a little strange, but got to show us around for a little bit. We taught 3 powerful lessons, of which were basically my comps first real lessons being taught. One of which we gave out the BOM and he's like, "technically that was my first BOM placed." He's a goon. He's still learning a lot and has definite room to improve...at one point in the lesson he was teaching about the Apostasy, then stopped, looked at me with a horrid look and had to ask what was next. I kinda just smiled and told him what to say. He's doing really well tho. I'm proud of my boy! And i think he really enjoyed the tracting...probably because we actually found success. O and he even had his first door slammed in his face by this Afrikaaner who i started talking to about Cape Town, specifically Bellville, and i said it was a nice place, and he said "you obviously dont know sh*t" and slammed the door. I told him that one was worth a journal entry! haha. Overall, we have a lot of work to do this coming 6 weeks. I'm excited for the new challenge of training and i think Elder Naylor and i will definitely be doing some good work here. I hope you enjoy the week and i hope this gives a good idea of where i'm at! O yeah, and on last monday we went to Kragga Kamma game park, you'll see a pic or so, and then also we checked out the nelson Mandela Bay soccer stadium in PE. We toured it and it was cool! The pics are me and moorcroft. I'll send others next time.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Post update
Good morning! The week was a bit up and down. We were hardly here in PE at all...since we went and took a road trip down to George and Knysna for exchanges. We left, took some sweet pics along the way...and got down to Knysna. We were in Knysna with the 2 elders there, Elder Randriamalala from Madagascar, and Elder Leach from Washington. It was a good day down there and we for sure enjoyed our exchanges. Our very last appointment we were sitting (elder rand and i) with these 3 dudes around in a little shack and i could fell i'm giong to get sick...i just knew it was going to happen. So as we left Knysna that night, (thursday night) to drive an hour or so to George, yup, i was sick and it all started there. We got to George, and that next morning i woke up with runny nose and the works. I almost didnt feel well enough to go out that day with Elder Frost but i felt that i had better go since it would suck way bad for him not to go on an exchange with me for that day. We just followed up on a bunch of people...then just had one real appointment where i was constantly leaning my head back so snot wouldnt drip out of my nose. But yeah, we spent one more night there, then drove back on Saturday morning, always stopping at sweet places and taking some pics. It's about a 4 hour or a bit more of a drive there, so it's quite a hefty road trip. Elder Moorcroft and I really enjoyed ourselves tho. It was way fun. We got some good instruction given to the Elders and everything, but just the time in the car is the best. We went to tsitsikamma the largest bungy jump in the world, stopped there took some pics and watched some people jump. Eventually we got back to our area, tried to see a couple of people, we saw Deng, made sure he was ready for sunday and the confirmation. Yeah, that was about it on saturday. Sunday i woke up and was still not feeling too great...went to church and all that, it was good. Then we had a way nice meal...o of which i could hardly taste anything that i was eating. That was the biggest bummer. We tried to see some people...but a lot just wasn't working out. Then we went to Bishops house and he gave us a bit of food, at the end of the night, and we just chatted for a little while. We got back and i hit the sack. I'm feeling a bit better today...i've been taking some med and it's been helping. But yeah, that's really all that's going on. I'll just try to send a couple of pics, i think that would make this email so much better. Thanks for everything! Sorry this is short and sucky! Enjoy the week!
Elder Devenney no pics...i suck...they wouldnt get smaller
august 9th
Alright well this week has been pretty good. I'll probably be brief as i've got a few things to do here as well as write this email to you. Um...Really there's not too much to tell. haha. The focus for the week throughout the mission was to improve our Personal and Companionship studies...and Elder Moorcroft and i did decent at it...idunno why but we sometimes get distracted with other things during our studies which cause us just to forget time. There are many great things tho that we talked about throughout the week...actually. One day we had a good deep conversation about some stuff, others we actually felt it better to just do some intense updating in the area book...things like that. But it was a good thing for us to work on, and there's definitely some room for improvement. There's some great things happening, or about to happen with us. Deng, our Sudanese dude who's studying here at the University, should be good to be baptized this coming sunday. So we're pretty stoked about him. He got up and bore his testimony yesterday at church and all i can say is he's awesome. Such a good guy, so yeah that'll be happening this coming sunday. Also at church, we've been teaching this family, the Canterbury's, a white father led family, with kids and everything. Yesterday, one of the sons mark and his gf candice came to church. They're probably like 20 or so...mark is a little strange...i think he might have some funny thing going on in his head. We're teaching about the POS to his family on Saturday and he'll just randomly say, "why do the dogs always bark when the birds are out, does that mean that they know eachother are there?" or he commented on this spray mist that cleans out your eye and takes away all the bad air particles...random stuff! We'll ask him a question, and the response will be just like, "have you guys read that book?" Or something crazy...we kinda just laugh it off or try to relate whatever his answer is to some gospel principle like, "yes mark, that's right, opposition in all things!" haha. K it's hard to describe the situation, he's not mental or anything, just alittle out there i guess...haha. But anyway, him and his gf showed up to church yesterday, his gf is a normal person, but not attractive (thought i could mention that) and it was so funny, as the water was coming around for sacrament, mark was like "i think i'll have two" and took one in each hand, took them like a shot, and put em back in the cup holder. My comp was passing, and i looked up at him and we both couldnt restrain ourselves...luckily we saved a good laugh about it later on. I guess it's just you gotta be there...But anyway...yeah church was good...just a little dry during testimonies... The week has been up and down. A lot of things fell through throughout the week. BUt we still managed to see our usuals. We saw the Rodericks after a few week break from them. It was mostly a just resolving concerns appointment. Kinda about "why does God allow bad things to happen to good people" things like that..they were satisfied with the answers tho. We did quite a bit of Less active work as well. Probably spent a good sufficent time with LA's each day and more in total this week than i've spent since i've been here in this area. Overall things are fine. We're planning some good things today and have a pretty busy day as it is. We have 3 solid appointments later on tonight, so our pday might be a bit shortened. But hopefully we'll be playing some tennis and bball before that. K anyway, really, not too much to tell ya. There's really lots of good stuff happening...so just know we're busy lots of the day...haven't had to do much finding this week since we do have a pretty decent size teaching pool. O and there were these 2 girls from Holland here...and at our Dinner Appointment we got to know them a little bit more. They're here for a service for 8 weeks or something. But yeah, good from far, but far from good. We went to the Fourie family, totally a crazy family. Reminds me of home just a tad. But yeah, tons of food, so good, loved it! it was the best meal for sure of the week. Bro Fourie is nuts tho, it was his bday and he makes the craziest comments ever. I cant explain cuz you'd just have to be there... That's all i have i suppose...Thanks! Elder Devenney Pics this week! One pic is My comp and I and the Cleary District. Elder Malobola on left, Rogers, Tanner, Bagenzi, Me and Moorcroft. Another is from Cleary with the branch pres and 1st coun. Pres Barendse and Bro Pullun. Pres on my left. The other is i think just the soccer stadium at night.
August 2
So i hope this email will be decent. Really i'll just update you overall on how the week went probably. Time is limited as it always seems to be unfortunately. We're pushing to go bowling and we've been writing reports for the past hour + and it's been pretty hectic. But hey, i dont wanna leave this email out so i'll at least write a little bit. The week ended a lot better than last week. We had like no one at church last week, but yesterday we had a bunch of investigators come. It was great. Obviously we planned to have more come than those that actually did, but it's still alright. We had a family of 5 come to church. It was pretty dope! They were friend shipped quite well and got a warm welcome from everyone, and even stayed all 3 hours. it's a family from Rwanda. Father is named Celestin, etc etc. I dunno their surname. But yeah, very nice! Others also showed up, including mama mudapakati, the ma that should be getting baptized soon but yeah, still not ready. Also had Deng! Idunno if you'll remember me saying anything about Deng, but before the world cup he was progressing great. For holiday he went back to Sudan and visited family, and just got back this last week for school starting. He's going into Civil Engineering and is way cool. We saw him friday for the first time back and he's just so ready to be baptized. We gave him a baptismal date for the 8th of august, and of course he said yes. He's so humble, but very wise. One day i'll show pics of all these people...But yeah then we saw him saturday, and he of course came to church...he's sweet. So yeah, he's really our only baptism coming up now...Also had some others come to church...but yeah... Elder Moorcroft and i are doing just fine. I think we laugh too much...every situation we find something to laugh about after. People are just crazy...whether it's the people themselves, the fellowshipper, whatever whatever. That's what's making a good companionship for the two of us. We just get along fine and it makes the work a lot more fun. We're finding a lot of success as well as we're finding and stuff. I went on two exchanges this week...one going back to Cleary with Elder Tanner in his area. I got to see some familiar faces of those that i was teaching when i was there, as well as some members. Including Gine and Tiffany...the recent converts...they're sweet. At least they wont forget about me when i'm home...haha. I built a good friendship i suppose when i was there so it's always great to see them again. I also had Elder Masika, just here in the district in the Lorraine ward, anyway we went on exchanges and it was kinda interesting. He's a good man from Kenya. Yeah he's good just kina young on mission and pretty quiet. Nice guy tho. Oh we also had Zone Conference on Thursday and it was fine. The focus is on "working to strengthen relationships with stake and ward leaders". And we did a workshop about how to make a more effective progress record...which went just fine. It's a long day as usual...and got pretty tiring but it was still nice to see some people. It was a combined zone conference with P.E. and Kwanobuhle zones together. There were lots of things discussed so i wont bore you with that stuff... Our days are getting more and more full and we've just been teaching like crazy it seems. Already our week right now is full til Thursday...almost every hour of the day is packed with appointments...which is a good thing but it can get tiring as well. But we're doing fine. I'll just look at it like a good thing no worries. K idunno what else to say...i'm drawing a blank. I'm enjoying myself....my comp is chill and we get along as i said. No problems nor anything out of the ordinary except random people not wanting to see us for various reasons, rejection, slammed doors, dog chases, sickness from eating greasy egggs that my comp made for me and now i feel a bit weird, yup yup all the usual. I'm good and that's all for the week. Sorry it's a lame one...but Bowling is what we're going to go do and i've been here for wayyy too long already. Peace Elder Devenney
Elder Devenney no pics...i suck...they wouldnt get smaller
august 9th
Alright well this week has been pretty good. I'll probably be brief as i've got a few things to do here as well as write this email to you. Um...Really there's not too much to tell. haha. The focus for the week throughout the mission was to improve our Personal and Companionship studies...and Elder Moorcroft and i did decent at it...idunno why but we sometimes get distracted with other things during our studies which cause us just to forget time. There are many great things tho that we talked about throughout the week...actually. One day we had a good deep conversation about some stuff, others we actually felt it better to just do some intense updating in the area book...things like that. But it was a good thing for us to work on, and there's definitely some room for improvement. There's some great things happening, or about to happen with us. Deng, our Sudanese dude who's studying here at the University, should be good to be baptized this coming sunday. So we're pretty stoked about him. He got up and bore his testimony yesterday at church and all i can say is he's awesome. Such a good guy, so yeah that'll be happening this coming sunday. Also at church, we've been teaching this family, the Canterbury's, a white father led family, with kids and everything. Yesterday, one of the sons mark and his gf candice came to church. They're probably like 20 or so...mark is a little strange...i think he might have some funny thing going on in his head. We're teaching about the POS to his family on Saturday and he'll just randomly say, "why do the dogs always bark when the birds are out, does that mean that they know eachother are there?" or he commented on this spray mist that cleans out your eye and takes away all the bad air particles...random stuff! We'll ask him a question, and the response will be just like, "have you guys read that book?" Or something crazy...we kinda just laugh it off or try to relate whatever his answer is to some gospel principle like, "yes mark, that's right, opposition in all things!" haha. K it's hard to describe the situation, he's not mental or anything, just alittle out there i guess...haha. But anyway, him and his gf showed up to church yesterday, his gf is a normal person, but not attractive (thought i could mention that) and it was so funny, as the water was coming around for sacrament, mark was like "i think i'll have two" and took one in each hand, took them like a shot, and put em back in the cup holder. My comp was passing, and i looked up at him and we both couldnt restrain ourselves...luckily we saved a good laugh about it later on. I guess it's just you gotta be there...But anyway...yeah church was good...just a little dry during testimonies... The week has been up and down. A lot of things fell through throughout the week. BUt we still managed to see our usuals. We saw the Rodericks after a few week break from them. It was mostly a just resolving concerns appointment. Kinda about "why does God allow bad things to happen to good people" things like that..they were satisfied with the answers tho. We did quite a bit of Less active work as well. Probably spent a good sufficent time with LA's each day and more in total this week than i've spent since i've been here in this area. Overall things are fine. We're planning some good things today and have a pretty busy day as it is. We have 3 solid appointments later on tonight, so our pday might be a bit shortened. But hopefully we'll be playing some tennis and bball before that. K anyway, really, not too much to tell ya. There's really lots of good stuff happening...so just know we're busy lots of the day...haven't had to do much finding this week since we do have a pretty decent size teaching pool. O and there were these 2 girls from Holland here...and at our Dinner Appointment we got to know them a little bit more. They're here for a service for 8 weeks or something. But yeah, good from far, but far from good. We went to the Fourie family, totally a crazy family. Reminds me of home just a tad. But yeah, tons of food, so good, loved it! it was the best meal for sure of the week. Bro Fourie is nuts tho, it was his bday and he makes the craziest comments ever. I cant explain cuz you'd just have to be there... That's all i have i suppose...Thanks! Elder Devenney Pics this week! One pic is My comp and I and the Cleary District. Elder Malobola on left, Rogers, Tanner, Bagenzi, Me and Moorcroft. Another is from Cleary with the branch pres and 1st coun. Pres Barendse and Bro Pullun. Pres on my left. The other is i think just the soccer stadium at night.
August 2
So i hope this email will be decent. Really i'll just update you overall on how the week went probably. Time is limited as it always seems to be unfortunately. We're pushing to go bowling and we've been writing reports for the past hour + and it's been pretty hectic. But hey, i dont wanna leave this email out so i'll at least write a little bit. The week ended a lot better than last week. We had like no one at church last week, but yesterday we had a bunch of investigators come. It was great. Obviously we planned to have more come than those that actually did, but it's still alright. We had a family of 5 come to church. It was pretty dope! They were friend shipped quite well and got a warm welcome from everyone, and even stayed all 3 hours. it's a family from Rwanda. Father is named Celestin, etc etc. I dunno their surname. But yeah, very nice! Others also showed up, including mama mudapakati, the ma that should be getting baptized soon but yeah, still not ready. Also had Deng! Idunno if you'll remember me saying anything about Deng, but before the world cup he was progressing great. For holiday he went back to Sudan and visited family, and just got back this last week for school starting. He's going into Civil Engineering and is way cool. We saw him friday for the first time back and he's just so ready to be baptized. We gave him a baptismal date for the 8th of august, and of course he said yes. He's so humble, but very wise. One day i'll show pics of all these people...But yeah then we saw him saturday, and he of course came to church...he's sweet. So yeah, he's really our only baptism coming up now...Also had some others come to church...but yeah... Elder Moorcroft and i are doing just fine. I think we laugh too much...every situation we find something to laugh about after. People are just crazy...whether it's the people themselves, the fellowshipper, whatever whatever. That's what's making a good companionship for the two of us. We just get along fine and it makes the work a lot more fun. We're finding a lot of success as well as we're finding and stuff. I went on two exchanges this week...one going back to Cleary with Elder Tanner in his area. I got to see some familiar faces of those that i was teaching when i was there, as well as some members. Including Gine and Tiffany...the recent converts...they're sweet. At least they wont forget about me when i'm home...haha. I built a good friendship i suppose when i was there so it's always great to see them again. I also had Elder Masika, just here in the district in the Lorraine ward, anyway we went on exchanges and it was kinda interesting. He's a good man from Kenya. Yeah he's good just kina young on mission and pretty quiet. Nice guy tho. Oh we also had Zone Conference on Thursday and it was fine. The focus is on "working to strengthen relationships with stake and ward leaders". And we did a workshop about how to make a more effective progress record...which went just fine. It's a long day as usual...and got pretty tiring but it was still nice to see some people. It was a combined zone conference with P.E. and Kwanobuhle zones together. There were lots of things discussed so i wont bore you with that stuff... Our days are getting more and more full and we've just been teaching like crazy it seems. Already our week right now is full til Thursday...almost every hour of the day is packed with appointments...which is a good thing but it can get tiring as well. But we're doing fine. I'll just look at it like a good thing no worries. K idunno what else to say...i'm drawing a blank. I'm enjoying myself....my comp is chill and we get along as i said. No problems nor anything out of the ordinary except random people not wanting to see us for various reasons, rejection, slammed doors, dog chases, sickness from eating greasy egggs that my comp made for me and now i feel a bit weird, yup yup all the usual. I'm good and that's all for the week. Sorry it's a lame one...but Bowling is what we're going to go do and i've been here for wayyy too long already. Peace Elder Devenney
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