I have very little time this week. I tried to spend more time responding to and encouraging all of you who wrote me individual emails.. Thank you by the way!
All in all it's been a real learning and growing sort of week. The Lord definitely has been pushing and encouraging me to be better and be more than I now am. We had only 2 1/2 days in our area this week. Which is really sad compared to what I am accustomed to. We had several meetings with different people this week. One with the mission president, a couple with Elder and Sister Stapely, one with the Mthatha branch presidency, one with the Mthatha district and one with our Ward mission leader. Yeahh... we are dead tired. But we got a lot of work done that really needed to be done. And I think our work really was able to help the work move forward in other wards and areas other than our own!
We were able to accomplish some good work in our area with our wonderful fellowshipper Brother Siyamthanda. Or Siya. He has been so great. He submits his mission papers in just a week or so! He, like Talmage, is extremely excited to serve and is going to be such a powerful missionary. We started just hunting for potential priesthood holders that we could invite to learn and hear more. We met a few brothers on the street. Then we were talking about how we need someone who could provide transport to others here in eZibeleni to town for church... Just a minute later we saw a brother, driving a big Cara Cara (Taxi Van) down the street. I told my companion to turn around. We chased him down all the way till he parked at a shibeen... which is basically a trashy bar. Well, okay, we may have a word of wisdom issue with this brother, but it's fine... So I walked up to the window and just started talking to him. Eventually we left him with a pamphlet and got his contact details. We should be seeing him sometime this weekend! Hopefully that turns into something!
We also are teaching a Methodist pastor that we found last week with his two sons Azola and Aviwe. They are all LOVING our message. Azola is a fireman for Queenstown and always has a sweet story to share. Last week, there was a guy, who was mugged by two totsi's, then he watched them walk away and saw where they were going, he went inside his house, got a grenade (don't ask me where he got that) then threw it and blew them to kingdom come. It was crazy. I guess the guy just was crazy and shooting and yelling and then the shacks all got on fire and everything. That happened just right by where we work. Whoa. Anyways, we invited these three brothers to baptism and they committed! Score! I'll let you know how it progresses with them.
Then quickly, we took a road-trip to Mthatha to help a wonderful district of elders as well as have a great meeting/training with the branch presidency of the Mthatha branch. We had a training with the Mthatha branch presidency and ward mission leader while we were there. It was really good and I think they heard what we were saying. They have had issues with holding PEC and Correlation. We addressed that. We commended them for their enthusiasm and involvement with the work, but urged them to get things more in order and use the resources they have. We are going to be following up with them on some commitments we left as well in the next couple of weeks. I did hear they didn't hold PEC again this week, much to the frustration of the Mthatha district, but we will see if they do in the future. The Branch Presidency as well as the Mthatha district both separately requested two more Elders to urge the work forward in Mthatha. I explained that they first need to work with what they have and use the elders that ARE there to their potential. Because until that happens, I said they may not be able to receive more. The work really is exploding though!
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Lafond. He is a great elder. Really laid back and easy going. He is from Wyoming. He said he struggled with finding, I told him that was my forte. So we went to work and had some great success. We also went to teach a few Recent Converts and I shared with him that I had found, that instead of teaching and reteaching and reteaching the lessons to the recent convert, start training them and then having them teach you. So we taught this sister and brother how to teach the restoration, and they taught it really powerfully to us. Really made them excited about missionary work since they were able to give it a try with teaching.
Well that is about it for this week. We had another two baptisms in our ward and had our bishop pretty much invite and commit the ward to come this year and gain as much as they can from general conference! I am so excited to see and hear from our Prophet and Apostles. We are so blessed to be able to hear from them.
Life is good. The struggles and challenges we go through are so important for our growth. Something that has been great for me to think about is a quote from M Russell Ballard, "It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best while we are on the Lord's errand." Thankfully, I am on the Lord's errand and I am doing my best. I know I'll be successful in the Lord's way and in His time.
I love you all!
- Elder Thayne -
Elder Mitchell Ryan ThayneSouth Africa Cape Town MissionPO Box 181, ObservatoryCape Town, 7935Republic of South Africa
We were able to accomplish some good work in our area with our wonderful fellowshipper Brother Siyamthanda. Or Siya. He has been so great. He submits his mission papers in just a week or so! He, like Talmage, is extremely excited to serve and is going to be such a powerful missionary. We started just hunting for potential priesthood holders that we could invite to learn and hear more. We met a few brothers on the street. Then we were talking about how we need someone who could provide transport to others here in eZibeleni to town for church... Just a minute later we saw a brother, driving a big Cara Cara (Taxi Van) down the street. I told my companion to turn around. We chased him down all the way till he parked at a shibeen... which is basically a trashy bar. Well, okay, we may have a word of wisdom issue with this brother, but it's fine... So I walked up to the window and just started talking to him. Eventually we left him with a pamphlet and got his contact details. We should be seeing him sometime this weekend! Hopefully that turns into something!
We also are teaching a Methodist pastor that we found last week with his two sons Azola and Aviwe. They are all LOVING our message. Azola is a fireman for Queenstown and always has a sweet story to share. Last week, there was a guy, who was mugged by two totsi's, then he watched them walk away and saw where they were going, he went inside his house, got a grenade (don't ask me where he got that) then threw it and blew them to kingdom come. It was crazy. I guess the guy just was crazy and shooting and yelling and then the shacks all got on fire and everything. That happened just right by where we work. Whoa. Anyways, we invited these three brothers to baptism and they committed! Score! I'll let you know how it progresses with them.
Then quickly, we took a road-trip to Mthatha to help a wonderful district of elders as well as have a great meeting/training with the branch presidency of the Mthatha branch. We had a training with the Mthatha branch presidency and ward mission leader while we were there. It was really good and I think they heard what we were saying. They have had issues with holding PEC and Correlation. We addressed that. We commended them for their enthusiasm and involvement with the work, but urged them to get things more in order and use the resources they have. We are going to be following up with them on some commitments we left as well in the next couple of weeks. I did hear they didn't hold PEC again this week, much to the frustration of the Mthatha district, but we will see if they do in the future. The Branch Presidency as well as the Mthatha district both separately requested two more Elders to urge the work forward in Mthatha. I explained that they first need to work with what they have and use the elders that ARE there to their potential. Because until that happens, I said they may not be able to receive more. The work really is exploding though!
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Lafond. He is a great elder. Really laid back and easy going. He is from Wyoming. He said he struggled with finding, I told him that was my forte. So we went to work and had some great success. We also went to teach a few Recent Converts and I shared with him that I had found, that instead of teaching and reteaching and reteaching the lessons to the recent convert, start training them and then having them teach you. So we taught this sister and brother how to teach the restoration, and they taught it really powerfully to us. Really made them excited about missionary work since they were able to give it a try with teaching.
Well that is about it for this week. We had another two baptisms in our ward and had our bishop pretty much invite and commit the ward to come this year and gain as much as they can from general conference! I am so excited to see and hear from our Prophet and Apostles. We are so blessed to be able to hear from them.
Life is good. The struggles and challenges we go through are so important for our growth. Something that has been great for me to think about is a quote from M Russell Ballard, "It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best while we are on the Lord's errand." Thankfully, I am on the Lord's errand and I am doing my best. I know I'll be successful in the Lord's way and in His time.
I love you all!
- Elder Thayne -
Elder Mitchell Ryan ThayneSouth Africa Cape Town MissionPO Box 181, ObservatoryCape Town, 7935Republic of South Africa
No comments:
Post a Comment