Posts

Showing posts from 2017

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 61

Image
Elders Larsen, LaHue, Simayile & Chaparadza doing a service project in Bloemanda! Merry Christmas!!!!! I won't write very much or reply to people because I will being calling my family later today. That leaves no time to email. I'll respond next week! Hope you understand! Last night we went Christmas caroling at a retirement home complex in Bloem. We sang carols for over 2 hours with all the missionaries in our zone. The people loved it!!! They kept giving us candy, but we gave away everything to other people. We felt that they deserved it more. I had a great time singing, and it really brought the spirit of Christmas in my heart! This morning we handed out Books of Mormon to families for 3 hours. We went to our area and gave out 20 of them as a gift! We met so many families that warmly welcomed us! We even set return appointments with 8 families!!!! Giving out those Books of Mormon was such a joyful experience.  This has been the most spiritual Christm

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 60

Image
Elders Hicks, Burlaka, Atkinson; President & Sister Thompson; Elders LaHue, Larsen, Chaparadza, Simayile, Peck, Lopez-Pelaez, Nielsen, Huff I have a ton of pictures for you all!! A lot happened this week. I'll go in the order in which events occurred. First, we had our zone Christmas party on Monday! I conducted the event. We held it at the Hicks' home from 11-3pm .  We watched a Christmas film, heard from President Thompson, had an amazing lunch (ribs from a restaurant named Rocomama's), played a game, and finished by watching the 2017 Christmas slideshow. The APs put together a collaboration of pictures of all the missionaries from this year. The party was a success and we all had a great time!! On Thursday we drove to Thaba'Nchu for exchanges and interviews. We did a service project in the morning where we cut down some cacti. The place reminds me of Texas! The weather was dry and I got sunburned. Solid day and we were close to Maseru so it made

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 59

Image
I'll be brief because I don't have much time to email. Today is our zone Christmas party! It will be held at Elder and Sister Hicks' place. They are our beloved senior couple missionaries here in Bloem. Last year we had a huge multi-zone Christmas party, but this year they split the parties by zone to create a more intimate spiritual environment. Elder Simayile and I made great progress in Rocklands this week! We set a goal to prayerfully seek to find father-led families. We also established an area near the chapel where we do 80% of our work. This will allow us to get to know the people in the area well and save travelling time. During the week we were blessed to find many potential priesthood holders and a few families! We have been fortunate enough to work with many different members throughout the week. One of them is William, a 26 year old guy. He was baptized 3 months ago and he has already read all of the Book of Mormon and most of D&C!! Working with him

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 58

Image
Elders LaHue, Mnisi, Hoopes, Lowe, Nu'usa December is here!! Things are going well in South Africa. I'll never get used to having Christmas in the summer... just kidding it's always summer in Florida. We have a new Christmas initiative this year: 12 days of service.  We are so excited for this holiday season and for what is represents - the birth of our Savior! This Christmas we are turning our hearts to Christ, and doing acts of service for 12 DAYS! THE GOAL: TO LIFT AND UPLIFT OTHERS WITH THOUGHTFUL PURPOSE & TO LEAVE AN IMPACT ON SOMEONE'S LIFE On Thursday we left for the leadership counsel in Durban. 3 of us were crammed in the back of a truck for 10 hours! It was horrible! Anyways we got to Durban around  5 pm and I got to see 2 of my former companions, Elders Hicks and Dos Santos. There were 18 total missionaries there representing different areas of each mission. We are representing Bloemfontein Zone. The meeting began on Friday and lasted

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 57

Image
Thabang with Elders Blamoh, Mnisi, LaHue & Nielsen! Transfers are here!! Elder Mnisi is leaving to a high baptizing area named Ezakheni. I am getting Elder Simayile, who is in the same group as Mnisi and I, and is also from South Africa. I have heard many good things about him so I'm excited! On Thursday I'll be traveling over to Durban for MLC. I haven't been there since March! Missionary work is improving here. A challenge that we will face pretty soon is the holiday season. People are either drinking or out of town around this time of year. We have found quite a few new investigators recently so let's hope they stick around! We should have a baptism during the middle of the month, maybe a few more as well. November has treated us well. I am almost done with the Book of Mormon challenge we were given in August! We were invited to read it in 100 days and record any spiritual impressions we have. I am almost at Moroni, the last book. This will be the

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 56

Image
Thabang Khomare @ Kimberley Chapel On Saturday, we went on exchanges to Kimberley so that means... road trip! We took our member friend Thabang with us and drove for 2 hours to get there. Kimberley is in the Northern Cape province. It is the only branch of our church in that province. It is also the furthest area away from Durban in the mission! Some missionaries call it outer darkness. We enjoyed! Sunday was a special broadcast from Salt Lake City directed to the Area Southeast Area. It was similar to a 2 hour stake conference. Speakers included Tad R. Callister, Kevin S. Hamilton and Carl B. Cook of the 70, Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, and Elder Neil L. Andersen. The church is developing at a rapid pace in Africa, and the members have been encouraged to participate in programs such as self-reliance. Other topics included the growth of the church in Africa and strengthening our current and future families. It made me excited to get back to weekly family home evenings with my o

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 55

Image
Being a missionary means you never really have plans. You have them, but something always comes up to change them. Appointments cancel, other missionaries do crazy things, people call with tasks for us to do, etc. During the week we went on many exchanges with other missionaries. I'm glad that today I finally got some time to relax! This week we have changed our focus a bit after talking with the Bishop and Stake President. Pres. Nyatshoba showed us a video while we were sharing the stake missionary report. It was a training about how to work with less active members (and recent converts). The insight we gained from that is to bring back members and also use them to find new investigators. Saturday was a great experience for us! There were 3 hours open in the morning where we had nothing to do. We figured it would be a good time to find some less active members. We used a GPS, an old ward membership list, and my memory from being trained here. We found 4 less active f

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 54

Image
We worked closely with Elder Kevin S. Hamilton of the Quorum of the 70! It's back to being hot in Africa!!! We reached 34 ° C (93 ° F) this week. The weather is dry as usual. That doesn't stop the missionaries though!!! Work this week has picked up quite a bit. Our teaching pool is slowly broadening. We had 12 new investigators, and 6 investigators at church. We walked 1 hour to church in the heat with a woman named Palesa. After church we talked to her and she said it was great! I felt so good after walking with her. We had offered to walk with a mother named Brenda and her kids as well, but they ended up getting a ride from her brother and came to church as well! We also met with the Bishop yesterday and talked about working with some less active priesthood holders to help them come back. We passed around a sign up sheet during Elder's Quorum yesterday and many of the brethren wrote their names on it. Next week we are working with and meeting with the stake pr

Rocklands 2 Area - Week 53

Image
Celebrating 1 year with Elders Mnisi and Nielsen! P-Day got moved to Saturday, this week  because Elder Kevin Hamilton, President of the Africa Southeast Area, will be presiding at our zone conference this Monday.   This week Elder Mnisi and I have been working very hard to try and find new investigators. We knocked quite a few doors this week. We are still looking, but I'm sure we'll find some promising ones soon. Yesterday we committed a man to be baptized and he accepted, so that was our bright spot for the week. Hopefully he'll be able to come to church this Sunday so that he can feel the spirit of it. Not much else to report on there, things are slow right now. Instead I'll share a scripture from the Book of Mormon that I read this week. Alma 48: 11-13,17: "And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom