Hey Momma, I hope everything is going good. I'm doing great. It seems the Lord has answered some of our prayers. A few days ago we found a series of flat comlpexes. They are golden, they are full of humble black people. Those are the people that are most receptive to the gospel. I just cant help but think its a place where the law of chastity is broken all to often. That's kind of a problem in all of south Africa. 99 percent of all women 18 years old have a baby. Its really sad to think about.
Anyway we are already getting a lot of success. Transfers is in a couple days. I'm staying in Tzaneen and Elder Kogo is going to Rabie Ridge in Tembisa, near Joburg. My new companion is going to be Elder Ehrenzeller. An American so we are going to drive to Joburg on Wednesday. The car that the other elders use in our flat keeps breaking so we all have to cram in the little car with all of their stuff too. That's going to be a very long drive. Both ways.
Hopefully we are going to have a baptism on the 6th. That would be great news. This is going to be my first time taking over an area, so i really have no idea what that's going to be like. I have been sick a few times, nothing serious though just a cold or two. It happens anytime the season changes. Its starting to get really hot over here. Like 95 to 100 degrees. Its very hot. And since our car is going to be given to the Lenyenye elders we will be on bikes. Hopefully ill lose some weight or something.
There is a church called ZCC (zion christian church) Its the church that Ive found is the is the farthest away from Christianity but they still think they are christian. Sure they read the bible and pray to Jesus and stuff but they are pretty messed up. For Example: Their church service is 4 hours of dancing then they read a scripture or two then they go home. I'm not exaggerating at all. They have uniforms too. They have a badge that they wear after they get baptized. There is kind of a competition between all the missionaries in the mission to get one of the ZCC stars ( the badge). Some people are pretty good at getting stuff. Its just like a thrill of the chase kind of thing. Anyway I think I'm pretty close to getting one. We have become pretty good friends with a ZCC prophet, so we think he is going to get me one. Oh Man some people are so confused. So if a get a hold of one of these stars Ill definitely bring it home to show you all.
Its not as miserable as it was because you kind of get used to it being so hard. So I think its important to know the difference between a easy area and a hard area.
Well I love you all, be good keep the commandments. Ill be home soon.
Benjamin
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
August 17, 2009
Thomela Mama, Lagai? Ee shera linsula modimo. Kina bamissionaries.
How’s a little bit of Sepedi. The week has been okay, a lot of driving. I’ve never driven so much in my life. I drive about 100 miles a day. The Elders that work in Lenyenye broke their car so we have been having to drive them out to their area then picking them up again. I’m so sick of driving.
This week was the worst week I’ve had on mission stat wise. We work so hard but there aren’t any stats to show for it. It’s kinda of depressing because it looks like we are not working. Oh well Heavenly Father knows how hard we are trying.
We were street contacting the other day and this guy called us over to try and sell us something. It’s some herbal stuff. First of all he had no idea what he was talking about. "When your stomach is making noises this one will sweep out your stomach and make you feel better. "Just crazy stuff like that. He went through about 6 different pills and gets to one and then notices my badge." Oh, I can’t sell you this one. It’s for people who have girlfriends. No I can’t sell you this one." Well you can guess what it was for. It was really funny. After that I showed him a Book of Mormon and said this would do all that the pills would and more if he would just read it. Then I said " Except that one, That one is bad. Only after you’re married." He said he would read it. I hope he does. I don’t know… we had a good laugh.
We give out free DVDs to people who call a number on one of the pass-along cards. We are teaching a manager of a furniture store and I asked him if we could play the movie on one of their TV’s for sale. “So people can see how nice the TV. is and the sound, people could see and then they will buy it." I think I said something like that. He said it would be fine. So we left a stack of pass-along cards in the store. So when people asked what that movie was he would just point them to the cards. It has worked pretty well we have given out like 5 DVD’s. So the office is going to send us a box of them.
When you in a tough area you have to think of crazy ways to find people.
I guess I should say "ootaba ichagee lammasoalo" HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom and to Mike. Well I’m sorry I’m running out of time I only have 20 rand today, so I’ll see you later.
I turn 6 months old tomorrow. Weird huh? Time is going by fast. I love you all.
Benjamin
How’s a little bit of Sepedi. The week has been okay, a lot of driving. I’ve never driven so much in my life. I drive about 100 miles a day. The Elders that work in Lenyenye broke their car so we have been having to drive them out to their area then picking them up again. I’m so sick of driving.
This week was the worst week I’ve had on mission stat wise. We work so hard but there aren’t any stats to show for it. It’s kinda of depressing because it looks like we are not working. Oh well Heavenly Father knows how hard we are trying.
We were street contacting the other day and this guy called us over to try and sell us something. It’s some herbal stuff. First of all he had no idea what he was talking about. "When your stomach is making noises this one will sweep out your stomach and make you feel better. "Just crazy stuff like that. He went through about 6 different pills and gets to one and then notices my badge." Oh, I can’t sell you this one. It’s for people who have girlfriends. No I can’t sell you this one." Well you can guess what it was for. It was really funny. After that I showed him a Book of Mormon and said this would do all that the pills would and more if he would just read it. Then I said " Except that one, That one is bad. Only after you’re married." He said he would read it. I hope he does. I don’t know… we had a good laugh.
We give out free DVDs to people who call a number on one of the pass-along cards. We are teaching a manager of a furniture store and I asked him if we could play the movie on one of their TV’s for sale. “So people can see how nice the TV. is and the sound, people could see and then they will buy it." I think I said something like that. He said it would be fine. So we left a stack of pass-along cards in the store. So when people asked what that movie was he would just point them to the cards. It has worked pretty well we have given out like 5 DVD’s. So the office is going to send us a box of them.
When you in a tough area you have to think of crazy ways to find people.
I guess I should say "ootaba ichagee lammasoalo" HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom and to Mike. Well I’m sorry I’m running out of time I only have 20 rand today, so I’ll see you later.
I turn 6 months old tomorrow. Weird huh? Time is going by fast. I love you all.
Benjamin
August 10, 2009
August 10th
Things are going alright. Time is going by very fast. I’ve almost been gone 6 months, that’s weird to think about. The work is going alright we still spend a lot of time finding. The thing we do the most is Business tracting. We do that in the morning. It is going around to the businesses and talking to the people in there. We do that because people won’t be home they will be at work. We have had some success doing that.
We still tract a lot, but there is a severe disadvantage to tracting in town. Everyone has a gate. Some people have call boxes but sometimes they don’t work. It’s a lot easier to say no to someone when you can’t see them. Most of the time we have to bang on everyone’s gate to get them to come outside. About 90% of the time as soon as we say we are missionaries, they turn around and say "Nier dankie" (no thank you). So then we move on. Every once and a while you will get someone who just looks at us and waves us off before we even say anything. Whenever someone does that I always yell " Well we were going to give you 1 million rand but I guess we will just go to the next house." We have a good time tracting.
Street contacting doesn’t work because no one stays in town. They all come from different villages outside town. We don’t give up. Lately we have been trying to teach some of the late night security guards. Because 7 o'clock is too late for these people. The guards have nothing better to do so we teach a lot of them.
I’m learning a lot of the language here. It’s Northern Sotho. I can greet someone and ask where they stay what church they go to and even teach a little bit. The only disadvantage is as soon as I get transferred I’ll have to learn another language.
Church is alright. The Branch Pres is a cool guy. You can tell he works really hard. Most of the time he is the one speaking in church. He doesn’t mean to he just forgets to assign people. We are in charge of the cottage meeting in Motupa. We bring the sacrament and teach them from gospel principles. Yesterday sucked though. Sorry to use that word but there were only 3 of us there. Elder Kogo me and the owner of the house we used. It feels terrible when you work so hard to teach someone and they don’t even come to church. We just feel like we wasted our time teaching those people.
Last week we drove down to Joburg for mission tour. It’s when a GA tours the whole mission and speaks to the missionaries. This year it was Elder Bricknell. He is a very cool guy. It was the most spiritual meeting I’ve been to since my setting apart. I’m also reading a lot. There are so many books around for me to read and study I’m learning so much stuff. That’s one of the things that I think that I’ll bring home is studying. I would love to be in that habit when I get home.
Be nice and keep the commandments. I plan on going to the celestial kingdom. Whether you guys are coming or not, lol.
Benjamin
Things are going alright. Time is going by very fast. I’ve almost been gone 6 months, that’s weird to think about. The work is going alright we still spend a lot of time finding. The thing we do the most is Business tracting. We do that in the morning. It is going around to the businesses and talking to the people in there. We do that because people won’t be home they will be at work. We have had some success doing that.
We still tract a lot, but there is a severe disadvantage to tracting in town. Everyone has a gate. Some people have call boxes but sometimes they don’t work. It’s a lot easier to say no to someone when you can’t see them. Most of the time we have to bang on everyone’s gate to get them to come outside. About 90% of the time as soon as we say we are missionaries, they turn around and say "Nier dankie" (no thank you). So then we move on. Every once and a while you will get someone who just looks at us and waves us off before we even say anything. Whenever someone does that I always yell " Well we were going to give you 1 million rand but I guess we will just go to the next house." We have a good time tracting.
Street contacting doesn’t work because no one stays in town. They all come from different villages outside town. We don’t give up. Lately we have been trying to teach some of the late night security guards. Because 7 o'clock is too late for these people. The guards have nothing better to do so we teach a lot of them.
I’m learning a lot of the language here. It’s Northern Sotho. I can greet someone and ask where they stay what church they go to and even teach a little bit. The only disadvantage is as soon as I get transferred I’ll have to learn another language.
Church is alright. The Branch Pres is a cool guy. You can tell he works really hard. Most of the time he is the one speaking in church. He doesn’t mean to he just forgets to assign people. We are in charge of the cottage meeting in Motupa. We bring the sacrament and teach them from gospel principles. Yesterday sucked though. Sorry to use that word but there were only 3 of us there. Elder Kogo me and the owner of the house we used. It feels terrible when you work so hard to teach someone and they don’t even come to church. We just feel like we wasted our time teaching those people.
Last week we drove down to Joburg for mission tour. It’s when a GA tours the whole mission and speaks to the missionaries. This year it was Elder Bricknell. He is a very cool guy. It was the most spiritual meeting I’ve been to since my setting apart. I’m also reading a lot. There are so many books around for me to read and study I’m learning so much stuff. That’s one of the things that I think that I’ll bring home is studying. I would love to be in that habit when I get home.
Be nice and keep the commandments. I plan on going to the celestial kingdom. Whether you guys are coming or not, lol.
Benjamin
August 3rd
It is hard to teach without using modern revelation and the book of Mormon, because everyone knows the Bible better than me. Oh well. It will be interesting to have little chats and stuff about that. There are so many ridiculous things that people come up with. Here’s one example. I’ll send something home to explain it better though. "Jesus is holding a giant party in heaven. And all you need to do is accept his free invitation by saying yes I want to come to your cool party." I’m not making this up I’ll send it to you guys back home.
Well I love you Dad keep up the good work. Faith and Honor.
Benjamin
Well I love you Dad keep up the good work. Faith and Honor.
Benjamin
July 27th
Man there are some days I wish you guys could be here with me. It’s so interesting, some days. I will wonder what you would say to some people we talk to. Like people who say that "we don’t need a prophet, because Jesus left us the Holy Spirit who will teach us everything we need to know." Lol what would you say to that. I don’t know just curious. People are so confused. It’s hard sometimes when people don’t want to exercise any kind of faith, or are willing to search. Here is a good scripture. 2 Nephi 32:7. Perfect way to explain how I feel.
But we are having some success. We have a few people on date for baptisms. So this area isn’t completely helpless. But there are a few days that are hard. Like tomorrow we have one appointment. That’s it all day.
Stay true to the faith.
Benjamin
But we are having some success. We have a few people on date for baptisms. So this area isn’t completely helpless. But there are a few days that are hard. Like tomorrow we have one appointment. That’s it all day.
Stay true to the faith.
Benjamin
July 20th
Hey,
In my area we have only had 3 baptisms so far this year. I hope we will have some more soon.
I wish I could say more about the work but all we really do is tract. We teach a little bit but all we really do is find and strengthen the members. We confirmed our 2 baptisms yesterday. It was great. It always surprises me how much people have grown and the testimonies they receive.
Whenever I feel down I read Doctrine and Covenants section 122. That’s one of my favorites.
You’re second born in the wilderness. Benjamin AKA Hammer
In my area we have only had 3 baptisms so far this year. I hope we will have some more soon.
I wish I could say more about the work but all we really do is tract. We teach a little bit but all we really do is find and strengthen the members. We confirmed our 2 baptisms yesterday. It was great. It always surprises me how much people have grown and the testimonies they receive.
Whenever I feel down I read Doctrine and Covenants section 122. That’s one of my favorites.
You’re second born in the wilderness. Benjamin AKA Hammer
July 13, 2009
Hey,
Things are going pretty good here. The work is starting to slow down a little. It is a very hard area. But the Lord is still blessing us. We found a really cool white family that seems genuinely interested. I am praying and I have faith. We are doing the worst in the zone with stats. They say that doesn’t matter but me and Elder Kogo are trying really hard.
Benjamin
Things are going pretty good here. The work is starting to slow down a little. It is a very hard area. But the Lord is still blessing us. We found a really cool white family that seems genuinely interested. I am praying and I have faith. We are doing the worst in the zone with stats. They say that doesn’t matter but me and Elder Kogo are trying really hard.
Benjamin
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