Ran Out of Time!

Hey everyone!

Things here are so good! I honestly can't complain! I ran out of time today trying to respond to individual emails and all that stuff. So I apologize.

Yesterday we baptized four people into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Chuma Majozi- Lives across the street from the church. I found, taught and baptized him myself yesterday. 

Monwabisi Mbangi (Happiness)- Found him again, taught and then baptized him as well yesterday. Probably the most loving and happy guy I have ever met. He wants to come live with us in Utah by the way family!

and then one was a ward baptism of an eight year old kid and then the other guys (ELder Bohn and Pitsoane) Baptized a guy named Zanithemba. 

The work is truly moving forward! I am so sorry I ran out of time and didn't give more detail on how things are going! I love you all so much though! Please keep in touch.

Love Elder Thayne

Ukulele dayz!

Ukulele dayz? What am I talking about. Lemme tell you.. Well things here were going extremely well. Then our car broke down and was in the shop for 2-almost 3-days. So that pretty much blew our week, but on the upside, I got really good at playing my new ukulele. 

We now have written a total of three songs. One is about Banana Pancakes. The other is about "The Girl I Left Back Home." Which is a funny missionary love song. Then we are writing one about mission life. So maybe I'll send a video of us singing and rapping them for you guys sometime. It's been really fun. I bought an instrument so I could try to expand my talents and improve in a lot of different areas on mission. I decided that I would use mission to change and improve myself, so why not get better and singing and playing an instrument. I think I am getting semi-close to mastering the uke though, I may just need to get a guitar. It's been quite entertaining for all of us. We preformed for sister pat and half the ward on Saturday. So that was pretty fun.

Sidenote: Dad I totally learned Somewhere Over The Rainbow. I know how much you love that song as well!

Things here are going well! We are a bit bummed with how some things ended up happening with our baptismal dates. After teaching and preparing them they all of the sudden went MIA on us! Satan definitely starts working SO much harder after you help someone do the right thing. Anyways, a few didn't come to church which resulted in us pushing back their baptisms, and then we also had to push back a few dates because we want to use them getting baptized as an opportunity to teach their families and educate them on what their sons are preparing to do! That way we can hopefully teach and prepare the whole family for baptism. So I think that'll go well. It is working well with the two guys we are pushing forward for baptism next Sunday. Monwabisi (Happiness) and Chuma who are cousins and doing SO great. We met with their families and are going to meet with them again this week. So I think this will go well! They are doing great and I am SO excited to see how things go with them. So pray that all goes well and you will get some pictures of people dressed in white next week!

I went on an exchange with Elder Bohn and we really had a great time. We met and taught a family. They are really awesome. They loved what we taught and I really think the Father is willing to make the changes that will be necessary. So things in their area are going well. Elder Bohn is a very obedient and hard working missionary. And on top of that we are pretty tight. We are really similar! He is the one that I sing and rap with all the time. Elder Ngobeni and Elder Pitsoane like to rap with us as well though. I think Elder Bohn and I may room together after mission with some other friends. It's a thought at least.

Our investigator Thandi stabbed our less active Zolani that she is living with. So we went over there and talked with them. It was pretty crazy, but we tried to help them solve it. We are going to go see them in the next day or so.

I don't know. There isn't too much more to report. Just a picture of our district and stuff. Mom, don't worry I am cutting my hair today!

Keep in touch everyone! Thanks for all the love!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Gangsta's Paradise‏

Mmm, well it's been another interesting week. Sadly, the work was slow due to rain and lots of people smoking weed and drinking. It was basically another party week. I guess I should be used to that by now because generally every other week people are partying, but it still is just as annoying as it was two weeks ago!

Life in the Khayelitsha/Mandalay area still goes on though. We had a few fails this week, so I'll start with those and end on the good stuff. It's been a pretty ghetto gangster week.

-We went to go see a girl named Limo that we had taught up till the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She was progressing really well until a few weeks ago. Apparently, she started hanging around with girls that really weren't a good influence. They started partying and never being at appointments that we set. One time I ran into her on the side of the road and she was kinda drunk and trying to hide from us. Anyways, we decided to just drop in on her and see what is up with her. We went there and her sister got sent out and told us that Limo didn't want to see us anymore and that we shouldn't try to talk to her again. We also had her friend tell us the same thing. It was pretty sad honestly. Because we were really feeling so good about her and how she was doing. But now we officially have been dropped. I guess it was just sad to see someone who was doing so well and feeling the joy's the gospel brings, then see them turn away from it. 

..... Honestly, now that I think about it, that is about it for fails for the week. There was just a lot of rain and a lot of little issues that came up.

Some real good things did happen this week though:

-Remember Thandi and Zolani? We had all but given up on them. We had tried and tried and tried and tried to help them progress. We used everything we knew how. Love, rebukement, reminder of their responsibilities, promises of blessings etc. The whole nine yards, but they didn't budge. So we left them to stew after I rebuked them and told them their lives wouldn't change until they started making the change by living the gospel. Anyways, I had the impression that we should go and talk to them Saturday night and invite them to church. So we went and spoke to them for a couple minutes and invited them to come.They both said yes. Sunday morning rolled around Zolani showed up! It was his first time in almost two years! Thandi didn't come, but Zolani did and I could tell he really felt the spirit. He enjoyed the lessons and really contributed in classes!

-At church we had a guy named Mfundo show up at church randomly. He said that he lives in Site C and that he used to be taught by missionaries when he lived in East London, but he stopped meeting with them. He said that he wanted to meet with us every week and get baptized. He said he is just ready to change and ready to get serious with the Lord. It was pretty cool, and it was such a blessing to us since it had been a rough week for me. It was a little love note from God reminding me that he has prepared people for us and he was ever mindful. We met with him just yesterday and he accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 10th of August. So we now have seven guys on track for baptism. :] Pretty awesome.

-We also gave a few blessings this week to people that asked. It was an awesome reminder that we need to ever be ready, willing and worthy to use our priesthood for the benefit of our brothers and sisters. 

All in all it was a good week as always, but things were more rough than normal. I was again reminded that God is love. There were a few days this week that I really just was feeling down because of people struggling and things just weren't working out, but I realize that no matter what, we will always have ups and downs in life. Whether you are living a righteous life or a wicked one, you will always have the ups and downs. 

The awesome part with living life while staying close to God is when the ups are there you experience and feel the blessings of righteous living and experience real happiness and growth, but as always, the downs and bad days will come. but when you are living righteously the Lord will support and uphold you as you go through them, and ultimately they result in you growing and learning as well. 

On the other hand we have people who live life for themselves. They don't rely on God and live the way they should. The result is the completely different. Like everyone, these people experience ups and downs in their life, but the real difference is they don't have God to bless them and help them experience true joy when life is going well, and when things aren't going well  them they just have to endure. They don't have anyone to really lean on and have help them. Instead of learning and growing in their trials, they result in loneliness and depression. 

It's such a huge difference that is SO apparent. I always wondered how people could go through SO much but still have a smile on their face. I have realized that even when things were hard, they leaned on God and he was their support.

People need to know that there is someone there who cares for them. God is ready and willing to love and support us even through our darkest days. Not enough people understand that.

I am grateful for the support I have felt from the Lord throughout my life. I have definitely felt of His love throughout this past week and was once again reminded that he is ever near if we are willing to let him help us.

Don't get me wrong, things are going great for me. It just wasn't one of those cloud nine weeks. So it's weeks like I had last week that make me want to work harder to make this coming week even better. 

Real quick, I have the best story to tell before I close: 

While tracting last week we were in a shack area in Site C. We were knocking on the doors and talking to the people. Anyways, this car pulls up to us and the guys get out and start demanding what we are doing... The conversation went like this.

Random Gangster who looks like 50 Cent: "Hey what do you think you guys are doing here!?"

Me: "We are preaching the gospel. What are you doing here?"

50 Cent: "We are getting ready for a party... Where are you from?!"

Me: "America, where are you from?"

50: "I am from Harare..."

There was a few seconds of silence as we all just stood there looking at each other. Mr. Bigshot smiles and starts shaking his head.

50: "Dang," -HA, like he really said that- "you Americans are either really brave, or God is looking out for you... I think it's both. People don't usually talk to me that way. So are you guys looking for someone who needs Jesus? Well I am that guy."

He then apologized for shaking my hand and having a gun on him. We got his info and told him we will have some other missionaries get in touch with him. He was way cool about everything though once I was real bold with talking to him and telling him what we do. I just realized that I really am not scared. I can feel that God is looking out for us, and honestly people respect us for what we are doing. All the gangsters here know us. They just yell, "Hey Eldah Tayne!" Gotta love when the peeps recognize yahh in dah hood. Now dats respect.

Keepin' it real gangsta and keepin' up my PMG game.

Elder Mitchell Ryan Thayne

Stars and Stripes.

Lets all have a moment of silence for the USA soccer team. They were knocked out by Belgium in the World Cup...

Okay moment of silence is over. It truly was a sad thing though. I never got to see any of it, but I heard it was heartbreaking... this is coming from an African's point of view. Apparently our team is getting better. Hurrah for 'murica!
This week has been an interesting one. It was a bit slower because of a few things.
#1 It was raining SO hard this week. On an off though. So we would be at someones house and it would become all sunshine and rainbow's outside so we would assume we could leave. Right when we are walking away from the house Satan himself would start blowing winds that the big bad wolf would be impressed by, and rain would start coming down like the earth was destined to be flooded a second time. Then we would take refuge in a members home nearby only to have it clear up. Then once we would leave the same process would take place over and over again.
#2 I became deathly ill due to all the rain and long days. I was so destroyed by this illness that I wasn't allowed to go to the area by my district leader on Saturday. And then Friday in all honesty, I wasn't the best teacher while we were in lessons. I was struggling. But I am on the upswing now, so don't stress mum. 
#3 It was drinking week this week. So basically anyone and everyone we spoke to or were working with was drunk, or planning on getting drunk within the hour. So that was a bit of a bummer, but this coming week people will have to get back to their lives and stay sober... until the weekend that is.
So yeahh, like I said, those were a couple things that slowed us down, but it's alright. No unhallowed hand can stop the work of God. It continues to move forward. I got news that Siphenathi Nake, my first baptism, recently started coming back to church. His whole family is almost baptized. All the other recent converts are doing amazing as well. So that was something that really brought joy to my soul. In the missionary Preach My Gospel manual it says, "It is not enough for people to come into the church, they must come to stay." How true that is. People must come and stay and continue to enjoy the blessings that come through righteous living. So it made me so happy to hear those I taught and loved in Mdantsane are going strong.
Some highlights from this week.
#1 We got our new mission president. Our new president is awesome... apparently. I haven't met him yet. He recently outlawed iPods and said if any Elder is apostate, especially in leadership, he will step them down immediately. He is going to have elders start training earlier instead of waiting till you are over a year and a half to train. And with our old president everyone trained. No matter what kind of Elder you are. That's going to be a good change. I am excited to meet him and see what else changes during his reign. ;]
#2 We committed Happiness' cousin Chuma to baptism as well. And then also we committed a guy named Vuyusile, who is dating a member girl, to baptism. He said he wants to get baptized then get engaged and go to the temple with her. I am so excited for them. So there is a future eternal family that we are having a hand in helping. What joy comes from serving and seeing people grow close to God and find purpose in their life.
#3 Also, brother Gcina and I and whoever my companion will be (it's transfer week this week) are going to be opening up a new part of our area that has never been touched before. It's called drift sands. It's basically shack city. I am so stoked. That is where you find those who are truly searching.
As I said, it's been a good, but slow week. I am looking forward to the coming transfer. We are planning on a lot of baptisms as well as a lot of new work ahead of us.
Shout-out to Talmage for being a stud, and to my entire family for all the love.
And another shout-out to all of you who write and support me as well. I really can say it means the world to hear from you guys! 
Last shout-out to Tanner Clegg for heading out on a mission here in SA!
Real quick, I would challenge you all to study up on the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is such a foundation for everything that we do and believe. I can honestly say I know that Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. In fact, I have never been more sure in my life. I came to that understanding and that conclusion through diligent prayer and seeking for a personal testimony. The sacrifices that he, Jesus Christ, and so many others have made for us to have this gospel amazes me. I would ask that we don't take what we have for granted. 
Love,
Elder Thayne
Pictures: Last P-Day with Elder Olsen. Jumping on a bouncy house. Don't worry, I asked the guy for permission.
Featuring: Elder Olsen, Elder Bohn, Elder Mashigo and yours truly.

Real Quick...

So my mass email was way late... I know. Sorry about that. We usually are doing the emailing thing on Mondays, but because of issues with the network at our internet shop we weren't able to finish our emails and send stuff out. So we came back today to send them all off for you guys.

Things for me are going really well. I am just trying to work hard and stay focused. The past couple weeks I have felt a lack of focus and drive. I am not really sure what it is, but it's something I haven't felt for most of my mission, so it's a weird feeling. I am wanting to stay on top of it and continue to stay productive all hours of the day. So any suggestions? Anything with videos or talks that you think would help give me a bit of a boost? No worries, I really am doing well. I just could use a bit of inspiration if you know what I mean. :]

I met a guy named Elder Mitchell Best. Him and I used to sms back and forth when we were both home. We found out through facebook, that we were going to the same mission. Some friends connected us. Anyways he was all cool and supportive of me as I was wanting to go but kept getting delayed. He actually is a way cool guy. I saw him once at the mission home when I first arrived, but on P-day we were able to play soccer and really have fun and get to know each other. Just a random side note.

I loved getting all the pictures and hearing about how Tal is getting a new apartment and stuff.. it looks DANG nice. I am jealous! Brendon actually just told me he is getting sent home 3 weeks early. So that's weird. He come's home Oct. 7th. Can you believe he is already almost done?! Ahh so weird. Anyways, time just flies. I am on my fifth companion. It's weird how used you get to constantly living with and being with someone... I really love people, but I don't think two humans are supposed to be within sight and sound of each other 24/7. My comp and I get along real well, but this is just a general observation.

Life is good. Mom I know sister pat loves talking to you so much! She is such a sweet lady.

Love you guys! talk to you next week! If you could print out some talks and send them to me in the mail that would be glorious.

Ohh and Dad, HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY!

Too Early.

Okay, I know I am not TOO early with writing you guys, but I am trying! Sorry for the lack of new details in my mass letter, but not too much happened after Elder Bohn and I had our exchange. Things are good here though. I am just really tired. Haha Elder Mashigo is too tired to be in this area. I hope that next transfer I get a new companion who can come and work extremely hard with me. Mashigo has just been here for too long, you know? He is just tired and too comfortable. 

People lately have been frustrated with us as missionaries. Apparently we aren't visiting them and hanging out with them as much as they used to, so they feel like we aren't focusing on them enough. I almost started laughing when someone came up to us and said that. I mean, our purpose is not to come here and help members feel loved and important. We are here to invite others to come unto Christ. We are here to strengthen and support the ward by bringing lost sheep back and helping others come into the fold. So it makes me laugh almost when people complain they aren't getting enough attention. I am not here to make friends, I am here to save souls. Making friends is just a bonus, it's not my purpose.

Well I am excited for you guys to be able to go out on Trek! I know Grayson will have SO much fun! Tell Dallin hi for me! I hope he is doing well. I love that guy so much. He has always been such a good guy and such a great friend to Talmage. I will forever respect and love him for that. True friends are hard to come by these days.

This week is the fourth of July! I am going to miss the fireworks and happy times. Independence day is second only to Christmas. I love it so much. Maybe we will have a braai or something. I know on thursday we are going to Panorotties which is an all you can eat pizza place! That'll be fun!

Alrighty, well we are going to go to the nike factory and look at stuff then probably go play some volleyball. Hurrahh for SACTM!  (South Africa Cape Town Mission)

:Love you guys!

Elder Thayne

#eleven‏

Things here in Khayelitsha/Mandalay are going extremely well. I really can't complain. I know I say that every time, but it's the truth... every time. 
We had a really weird week this week because of all the different errands and things we had to run. I had to go to the docters office and get x-rays and different things to get me cleared to re-apply for my Visa to stay in the country. Because my visa expires 7 months early! Kind of crazy, but I think since we caught it early it'll work out and be fine. 
This week is President Wood's last week! We are getting President Merrill here on Wednesday I believe! I am so excited to see how he changes things. Our mission has gotten a bit lax on things, and I am eager to see if Merrill will come in here and whip us into shape.
I went on exchanges with Elder Bohn, and it was awesome. We taught our first lesson to a guy that I have been working with for a bit to a guy named Mveleli. He is a great guy. A total church goer and really is always willing to listen to our message. The real issue is the fact that he doesn't seem to understand that our church is the ONLY church with the Authority from God. Meaning, the Priesthood. We taught him the plan of salvation. We answered all his questions and did a good job teaching, the issue was the spirit for some reason was NOT in the lesson. Elder Bohn and I are both good teachers, but we realize that without the spirit we pretty much fail. There wasn't power and authority with us as we taught. Yeahh, we answer questions and taught principals, but the true teacher, for some reason, wasn't there. It really just reminded me how ESSENTIAL it is to have the spirit with you teaching in the lesson.
We then went and taught Happiness the Plan of Salvation as well only to have his cousin walk in and join in the lesson. They both felt the spirit SO much and his cousin Cuma, asked for us to come see him later today! So that will be awesome.
We then went and found that two of our appointments had dropped, so we biked to brother Gcina's to go with him and follow up on some people he wanted us to teach. Basically all of them didn't work out except for a lady named Sibongile. After we told her our purpose and set a time to come see her this weekend we walked out, only to have Gcina then tell us that she was a lesbian, and she has a girlfriend... So yeahh, that kinda puts a kink in our plans, but he said she really has a desire to grow close to God, so hopefully this can help her change.
Continuing on with all the awesome things that were going on for me and Elder Bohn..... We then went and taught a non member father led family. The Mgise family. They are ULTRA united and really big leaders in their church. We taught the restoration. The spirit was so apparent and we taught extremely well. It was just a stellar lesson. Elder Bohn was whipping out scriptures while I was testifying, expounding and teaching. Bohn just knows his scriptures.. we would have been in the same transfer if I had gone out in March when I originally was supposed to... but who cares!? I am here now, I wouldn't have it any other way. Too many wonderful things happened when I was at home and now that I am here. It's been perfect. So yeahh, teaching was awesome. The issue was at the end of teaching the lesson to this guy I invited him to pray and come to know for himself if what we taught was true... he said that he will study and wait for God to reveal it to him... DAHHHH FAIL!!! We kept telling him he needs to pray to receive his answer... he wouldn't budge though. So frustrating. Over time he will hopefully progress.
Then we went and went over the baptismal interview questions with Florence Ncube. She needs to be refreshed on a few things, but I have no worries. She has the spirit of conversion, she loves church, she will continue to learn and do great! We decided that she needs to wait a bit though.. So in a while she will be baptized along with all the other people we are teaching. So I will not have had a baptism this transfer, but next transfer will be when we are really harvesting the fruits of our labors.
Elder Bohn and I then rode our bikes to the chapel, which is just a business complex building that is being rented out, and did hands up stands up competitions with the youth that were there for mutual. Then I was doing my karate kicks while elder bohn was doing the windmill, it was pretty sweet! Haha then we shared a scriptures with all of them and got picked up by Elder Mashigo and Elder Olsen. We had a quick mcdonalds run (second time this transfer, be proud of me) and then we went home and crashed. It was a good missionary day. We usually teach five or more lessons a day. And we did that, so it was a good day. Elder Bohn is a great guy and I learned a lot from him. I cannot wait to be that knowledgeable towards the end of my mission. Elder Bohn and I are FOR SURE hanging out when we are both home and going to BYU.
Other than the exchange with Elder Bohn, it has been a slow week for missionary work. We taught a few other lessons and some good things happened. One lesson was with ANOTHER father-led family named the Daniels. The father, Anthony, is a really great guy. He asked us to come back every day if possible. We decided on just twice a week, because that is all the time we can afford with all the people we need to see! He told us he is emptying his cup of everything he knows and he wants us to fill it with new knowledge and he wants it to completely change him and his family. he wants to come to church EVERY week! it's amazing. Brother Gcina just had a feeling we should try to teach him, and it really resulted in something great.
Also, real quick, we had eleven investigators at church. I think that may be an all-time record for me so far on mission. But if all goes well, next week we should have more like 15-20 at church. PRAY FOR US! 
We also met an awesome girl named Esam. She is so bright and happy. She is twenty five years old, blind in one eye, but a real go-getter. We taught her half the restoration on saturday, and she came to church on Sunday. So I think that is just another great person.
Also we had two guys last week (Zolani and Vuyusile) ask us when they can be baptized. They want to give up anything and everything they need to in order to be baptized... things are all coming together. It's awesome.
Anyways, I have to go. I love you all. Matt 11:28-30 is a scripture I just put to memory. I made a goal to memorize a scripture a week until the end of my mission. So wish me luck with that!
Cheers,
Elder Mitchell Ryan Thayne
Just some pictures of Elder Prisbry and I. He is a guy in the same transfer as me. We are way tight. He is an awesome guy. Then there is a picture of us with Charlotte who is a member while we were all eating at a braai.