Ewe. (YES) Suffering for the Lord.. Score!
Sickness has taken over us eZibeleni elders. Elder Stegelmeier and myself have been fighting off two real bad flu's for the past week. So it made us a bit slower, but we were still able to accomplish some good things. We have been sifting through our teaching pool. We see who is really progressing and ready to change, and then we also have seen those who need some time alone/. So we just left them and we will follow up on them in the future. One of them is our Methodist pastor that we were so excited about. He loves the Book of Mormon and loves what we share with him, but because of pressures that he is getting from all sides, he hasn't been good with meeting with us or keeping commitments. So we talked to him and are just going to leave him be for a couple months. Maybe with my next companion we will follow up on him and see how he is doing.
Elder Mohale has a great vision for our district, he set a goal with all of us to place to copies of the Book of Mormon a day. This guy is pretty much a boza (boss). He is from Jo-burg and talks like he is lil wayne. He has the same voice too. Anyway, so far Elder Stegelmeier and I have been able to do it, and it's been a great experience for us. We, as of late, have been leading with the Book of Mormon in all our finding activities. And it is drawing people in MORE than just leading with the Restoration. We have taught the Book of Mormon FIRST then we followed up with the Restoration. It has been really a cool experience to see the power that the Book of Mormon has when you place it in these individuals hands. People really have been loving it. It's part of the miracles we have been seeing.
Yesterday, before church, Elder Stegelmeier and I were counselling on who is really progressing. We were worried about many people in our teaching pool. Then we went to church. In Elders Quorum we were having a lesson on the Book of Mormon (surprise, surprise) and Elder Crowell was baring his testimony on the power that the Book of Mormon had in influencing him to come on mission, then our Investigator named Anamandla leaned over to me and said, "I also had an experience with the Book of Mormon." I of course immediately focused my attention on him. He then said, "I was reading, where you had read with me, about how Lehi read from the book and felt the spirit. Then later he left EVERYTHING to follow God and keep his commandments. I want to be like Lehi and do that. I want to follow God so badly. So then I knelt down to pray like you and Elder Stegelmeier have been telling me and I asked God if these things are true. I felt a burning in my chest and I was just so at peace and I felt so happy. Then all I could think about was coming to church. I just kept thinking about how bad I wanted to come to church and learn more. I am just so happy to be here." I of course was in a state of shock, but after a few seconds I recovered and bore testimony that he truly had received an answer. Earlier, while teaching Anamandla and Lwando the Plan of Salvation, we felt impressed to not only invite them to baptism, but also to invite and commit them to preparing to serve a mission. As we extended the invitation, they both enthusiastically accepted. Bishop is excited about them and meeting with them next week.
Also, one cool story from a Member Visit that we had. We taught a family, the Nkomfe's, about the importance of missionary work. We shared how we can be missionaries and what we can do to invite others to feel the blessings of the gospel. We then asked them all to make a goal for how they wanted to be missionaries that coming week. Some wanted to invite a friend to church, others just wanted to bare testimony and some wanted to have a friend meet with us missionaries. Well we then taught them how to pray and covenant with the Lord and ask him to help prepare someone. Then we invited them to all go off, for ten minutes into different parts of the house and pray and ask God who they should invite. They all did. All of them had at least four names of people they wanted to invite. One sister, Sinelizwi actually prayed, she said as she sat there all of the sudden she saw four of her friends faces, they were all looking at her and smiling. She wrote their names down and was so excited. It was really great. They are going to also make a family mission plan. So we look forward to seeing how that goes with them as well.
So I guess I'll just wrap up with saying, the Lord will give us revelation when we ask for it. Not always in such a dramatic and cool way, but he will send thoughts and ideas and plant them in our hearts. Seek his guidance and revelation. He will give it, but only ask you ask for it. As missionaries we seek his guidence and spirit to be with us daily. It's a daily pursuit.
I love you.
Love.
Mdala Mitchell Ryan Thayne
Feel free to write me. It's been a while since I had some letters.. and you know how it is, us missionaries base our individual worth on how many letters we get each month.
Elder Mitchell Ryan ThayneSouth Africa Cape Town MissionPO Box 181, Observatory,Cape Town, 7935Republic of South Africa
Sickness has taken over us eZibeleni elders. Elder Stegelmeier and myself have been fighting off two real bad flu's for the past week. So it made us a bit slower, but we were still able to accomplish some good things. We have been sifting through our teaching pool. We see who is really progressing and ready to change, and then we also have seen those who need some time alone/. So we just left them and we will follow up on them in the future. One of them is our Methodist pastor that we were so excited about. He loves the Book of Mormon and loves what we share with him, but because of pressures that he is getting from all sides, he hasn't been good with meeting with us or keeping commitments. So we talked to him and are just going to leave him be for a couple months. Maybe with my next companion we will follow up on him and see how he is doing.
Elder Mohale has a great vision for our district, he set a goal with all of us to place to copies of the Book of Mormon a day. This guy is pretty much a boza (boss). He is from Jo-burg and talks like he is lil wayne. He has the same voice too. Anyway, so far Elder Stegelmeier and I have been able to do it, and it's been a great experience for us. We, as of late, have been leading with the Book of Mormon in all our finding activities. And it is drawing people in MORE than just leading with the Restoration. We have taught the Book of Mormon FIRST then we followed up with the Restoration. It has been really a cool experience to see the power that the Book of Mormon has when you place it in these individuals hands. People really have been loving it. It's part of the miracles we have been seeing.
Yesterday, before church, Elder Stegelmeier and I were counselling on who is really progressing. We were worried about many people in our teaching pool. Then we went to church. In Elders Quorum we were having a lesson on the Book of Mormon (surprise, surprise) and Elder Crowell was baring his testimony on the power that the Book of Mormon had in influencing him to come on mission, then our Investigator named Anamandla leaned over to me and said, "I also had an experience with the Book of Mormon." I of course immediately focused my attention on him. He then said, "I was reading, where you had read with me, about how Lehi read from the book and felt the spirit. Then later he left EVERYTHING to follow God and keep his commandments. I want to be like Lehi and do that. I want to follow God so badly. So then I knelt down to pray like you and Elder Stegelmeier have been telling me and I asked God if these things are true. I felt a burning in my chest and I was just so at peace and I felt so happy. Then all I could think about was coming to church. I just kept thinking about how bad I wanted to come to church and learn more. I am just so happy to be here." I of course was in a state of shock, but after a few seconds I recovered and bore testimony that he truly had received an answer. Earlier, while teaching Anamandla and Lwando the Plan of Salvation, we felt impressed to not only invite them to baptism, but also to invite and commit them to preparing to serve a mission. As we extended the invitation, they both enthusiastically accepted. Bishop is excited about them and meeting with them next week.
Also, one cool story from a Member Visit that we had. We taught a family, the Nkomfe's, about the importance of missionary work. We shared how we can be missionaries and what we can do to invite others to feel the blessings of the gospel. We then asked them all to make a goal for how they wanted to be missionaries that coming week. Some wanted to invite a friend to church, others just wanted to bare testimony and some wanted to have a friend meet with us missionaries. Well we then taught them how to pray and covenant with the Lord and ask him to help prepare someone. Then we invited them to all go off, for ten minutes into different parts of the house and pray and ask God who they should invite. They all did. All of them had at least four names of people they wanted to invite. One sister, Sinelizwi actually prayed, she said as she sat there all of the sudden she saw four of her friends faces, they were all looking at her and smiling. She wrote their names down and was so excited. It was really great. They are going to also make a family mission plan. So we look forward to seeing how that goes with them as well.
So I guess I'll just wrap up with saying, the Lord will give us revelation when we ask for it. Not always in such a dramatic and cool way, but he will send thoughts and ideas and plant them in our hearts. Seek his guidance and revelation. He will give it, but only ask you ask for it. As missionaries we seek his guidence and spirit to be with us daily. It's a daily pursuit.
I love you.
Love.
Mdala Mitchell Ryan Thayne
Feel free to write me. It's been a while since I had some letters.. and you know how it is, us missionaries base our individual worth on how many letters we get each month.
Elder Mitchell Ryan ThayneSouth Africa Cape Town MissionPO Box 181, Observatory,Cape Town, 7935Republic of South Africa
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