Week 17

Hello everybody!!! hope y'all are enjoying the cold weather in the states! it has been raining this whole week which is super surprising. A lot of people think that South Africa doesn't get rain... well, they do. Quite a bit! I love the rain, because all of the plants and grass that was brown is now becoming green! 

     This week has been one of the best weeks of my life. It all started on Sunday when we had a Multi-stake conference in Midrand with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was amazing. there were over 7,000 people in attendance, when they were only expecting 5,000. Just to put into perspective the church growth here in South Africa, In 1980, almost 40 years ago, there were less than 8,000 people part of the church here. Now the member number is almost to 70,000! just in South Africa. how crazy.

What was super cool about this conference was a guest speaker. Her name is Judith Mahglangu From.... KWA-THEMA. she is a returned missionary part of our ward here. She did amazing, so amazing that Elder Holland Called her up to talk to her, and kissed her on the forehead. One thing she spoke about was her mission in Uganda. She said that every night she would write in her journal, and on hard days she would finish it by saying \, " I have not come this far to come this far." This applies to life. we have not put in this much effort to just turn around and give up. For example, a job. we all have bad days. But, have we gone to school, worked our way up the ranks to just give up? or church. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the gospel, feeling like we know nothing or that others are better than us. It could even be the calling you have, and how much stress it gives you. However, you have not put in that much effort, had those experiences to just turn around and give up on God. That is NOT His plan. We are all different, and God knows that. It is ok!! He will never give us a trial that we can overcome. 

On monday, Elder Holland met with the whole mission and part of the Botswana mission. What an incredible experience. I will never forget that day. I wish I could share the things that he spoke to us about, but they really are too sacred to speak of them. I will Share some of my feelings I had. Elder Holland shared his testimony of the Church being the true church of Jesus Christ. I felt as though Elder Holland used every single word, every phrase he could use to help us know that these things are true. I have never heard an apostle plea for us to believe in Jesus Christ and the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like he did. And I will tell you after hearing him speak I do not have a doubt in my mind that this is Jesus Christs' church, that he leads it and that the apostles and prophets truly do receive revelation from Him. These are smart, educated, successful people who have devoted their WHOLE LIVES to help us follow Jesus. It is not a joke, and it is real. 

The rest of the week was amazing. We are still working with many people who are progressing. We had 2 people confirmed members and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. we are also hoping to have 2 more this upcoming Sunday. I love this area. Yo, I love this world God created, its super cool to think about everything he made. I know Jesus Christ lives, and guides his church in these Latter-Days. Enjoy your week!

Elder High

Pics: 

1) Picture of Joburg while heading to the temple. We got lost and it was pretty crazy :)

2) Banele who was just baptized. He comes to the chapel every time he sees us there, because he lives right across the street from it. 

Week 16

Hello everybody! hope you all had a blessed week. this week here was super great! we started with a very busy schedule. We met a nice guy last week who invited us into his house and we discussed the plan of salvation a little bit. we left a pamphlet with him to read. We came back this tuesday to talk about it more. He said he really enjoyed the message, but had a question about this Joseph Smith guy! well.... the pamphlet doesn't mention Joseph Smith at all, so we knew he's heard about the church! so we jumped into the restoration of Jesus Christs' church and introduced the Book of Mormon. he tried to tell us that it was written by Joseph Smith, se we read a couple verses with him. Let me tell you, this turned a potentially bashing situation into a spiritual moment for us. he actually understood that it is another testament of Jesus Christ, which was pretty great to see. he really had no more questions for us and committed to read it. great.

         besides this everyone else that we are teaching are doing great! this sunday was very busy and amazing! we had two baptisms, one for Lonwabo and for Banele. I'd love to share a little bit about these two: First, Banele. He is an amazing ten year old who loves coming to church! every single week he comes he has his Book of Mormon in his hand. We asked him to share his testimony after he was baptized and I was so happy when he did! In his testimony he asked if he could read a verse form the book of mormon. He shared a verse in Ether chapter 3 that talks about the brother of Jared challenging the Lord to touch stones and make them shine. He talked about faith and how the book of Mormon is true. This kid is 10 and is so powerful! I remember my first week here, I met him and he asked me for a chapter to read, and I told him that he would like Ether 3 and 4 as it talks about crossing the ocean. Telling him this did not seem like a big deal to me, but to him it was a huge deal! This helped me remember that every thing we do might have an impact on someone else. 

     And then there is Lonwabo! the first time we met her was at the temple! she was excited to perform baptisms in the temple, but hasn't been baptized! she is very powerful. She always attends church with her papa and basically knew everything that we talked about! she has a great spirit and was so excited for her baptism. she shared a great testimony and is looking forward to the temple!

     other than that we had two of our recent converts get the Aaronic priesthood also! I am so proud of them and all that they have done to change their lives. Other than that the week has been pretty normal. So happy that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup!!!!! imagine the super bowl.... but against the whole world. that's what it is. super super dope. Kwa-Thema is crazy, always different and crazy people. love you all!

 

Elder High

Week 15

Sawubona everyone! Well another week done and over. This week was pretty great! It started out pretty rough as we had two full days of appointments bunked. Which was very frustrating but nothing that we could do about it. But there is always a rainbow after the storm. Talking about a storm, it FINALLY rained in Africa!! It was super crazy for about ten minutes and then would stop. And then go crazy, and stop again. It actually knocked out the power hear for the whole night on Friday, which we were not prepared for! We used the lights off of bicycles so we could see a little bit. 

    Besides the great rain we got we also taught some very powerful people. One named Bongani is a pretty chill guy. Pretty sure he invited us in the 1st time to just bible bash, but he has actually been really accepting of the gospel! We introduced the Book of Mormon this week and we read a couple verses with him. After this we asked how he felt about it and he said he already believes it to be the word of God. It is really neat to see the power of the Book of Mormon. Because wow he always questions things that we talk about but with this book he already knew it was true! 

     We were able to teach a ton of new people about the gospel. Sometimes we get wrong signals from people. For example, we saw a gentleman walk pass as we were tracting and he dissapeared in his house and locked the doors and closed the blinds. Well we knocked on it about an hour later and he invited us inside. He was a very polite and interested person! He invited us back next week to meet with him and his wife which is great.

          I could share so much more about the work, about service we did, but I dint want to make it too long. So I'll end by sharing my testimony of love. Sometimes it his hard to love others. This is a commandment that God gave us, to love our neighbors. Why would he give us this commandment?? We are all different. Sometimes just a little and sometimes a LOT. But we should love all. I feel like it helps us stay happy and also look at the positives in life. As we show love, the hate we have slowly disappears. I love South Africa, especially Kwa- Thema! I love my friends I have made here. And I love my family, for all that they have taught me. I love our Lord Jesus Christ so much. Hope you all have a grand week!

Elder High