March 9, 2015

Elder Tennent, Elder Truscott, Elder Black, Elder Ratema, Elder Kjeldsen

This week was a really good one for missionary work this week. Dang. I think the best on my whole mission.
The story of this week was exchanges exchanges, exchanges, but it was really nice.
So this transfer President Merrill has chosen 4 elders who just travel the whole mission and go on exchanges with everyone. They have no boarding and they just get a car and go. Its super sweet for them! But for our area its Elder Tennant and Elder Black. They were here in Queenstown this week, so on Monday we had another zone finding thing with them. We went to an area in Queenstown called Mlungisi, and we just split off into different companionships and set some goals. We each had a goal of teaching 3 people the first vision, placing 2 restoration pamphlets, getting 2 return appts with a father led family, and placing a Book of Mormon. I was with Elder Winebrenner, and we did it. We worked for that night and got all the goals. Some funny things happened. So we started walking up to a house, and a lady and guy were coming out, the lady stayed there, and the guy drove away. We started talking to the woman, and she was like "teta isiXhosa qa" which is like "i only speak xhosa".....well she asked us what we do in Xhosa, and we taught about Joseph Smith, and miraculously the gift of tongues was poured out ;) hahaha. She spoke perfect English and we talked with her for the next like 15 minutes and she invited us back and wanted to keep the Book of Mormon we had. Ha ha ha ha. Then we needed one more first vision, and I just pointed to a house at the end of the street. We went there, and ended up teaching a woman who is from East London, and is a young married couple trying for kids. We talked about the restoration and eternal families, and she wants missionaries to visit her and her husband in East London. It was pretty cool.
So on Tuesday we were with Elder Black in Sada. He came with us and Elder Tennant went with Ilinge. With Elder Black we had the goal that day of teaching 5 discussions and getting 3 referrals from people. It was a really good day! We met all our goals, and I learned a lot from Elder Black. He made some hilarious comments in the lessons, and he's pretty much fluent in Xhosa (he's had Xhosa township areas in the Eastern cape for 21 months straight). So he's amazing at it. He just talks to the people and they love it. But we had a great day with him. Ended up teaching 5 lessons and getting I think 6 referrals!
Then the next day we got to be with Elder Tennant. They just switched. So with Elder Tennant he wanted to stop 5 cars on the road and talk to them, and then our goal I said was to get a new investigator. We accomplished all the goals. And learned that stopping cars is very uneffective. Ha ha. But we ended up teaching 9 discussions on Wednesday so it was awesome! Elder Tennant is very cool, I like him a lot.
Then Thursday Black and Tennant were going back to East London before heading to Cape Town to finish there (it’s both of their last transfers). We had lunch one last time with them and we all went off to our areas! We had a really great week in terms of lessons. Wow. In our district total we had 30 member presents alone! It was crazy. We had 17 ourselves in Sada! Total in Sada we taught 32 lessons! Super good and I think that is the highest I've ever had on my mission so far.
Had some great experiences this week. One that I'll talk about was on Saturday we were teaching a guy named Godfrey. He is a cool guy, and he came to church last week. We had planned to talk to him about the restoration focusing on the authority. In the opening prayer I just had the feeling to ask him about if he's prayed about these things. I asked him after the prayer, and he told us that he had, and that he asked God if the church he went to was true and about Joseph Smith. I asked him after that if he's received and answer, he said he didn’t think so. Then we asked and found out he didn’t really know what to look for as an answer. So we ended up teaching him about how the spirit will talk to us and how we can feel answers. We committed him to be baptized on May 10, and it was really what he needed to hear I think. It was a great lesson.
Then I got to go on exchanges AGAIN on Sunday. I have never done exchanges on Sunday before on my whole mission, but it was awesome. I got to see Ilinge ward. It’s something I wanted to do last transfer too, but this transfer they needed a baptism interview and Sunday was the day to do it, so I got to do exchanges then! Sunday was a great day too! We needed a new investigator for both areas, and Sada needed 4 lessons to hit 30, and Ilinge needed 6. Man we worked so hard. Elder Kjeldsen and I were in Ilinge, and I had the goal of getting them 30 lessons. And we did it! Ended up teaching 7 lessons so we both hit over 30 this week!
So this week was great. I'm really tired, I want to nap today. Cause we worked hard, it’s been hot.....my eyes have been hurting, probably from exhaustion. Ha ha. But it was a good week. Hopefully this next week, the last one of the transfer, is good as well! We are planning for Sibu to be baptized next week, and the zone leaders are coming to do his interview tomorrow after zone conference!
Hoping to finish this transfer on a good week.
Oh, and my tooth is still holding up. I pray every night that it won’t fall out again. So far it’s worked!
Love you and Miss you,
Elder Truscott