So first off Merry Christmas and a happy new year from the land of many colors! It has been a pretty legendary week to say the least and I can't wait to talk about it so lets go for it...
So first things first I'm an unlce and that's just about the coolest shiz in the world and man I can't wait to see that kid and do all kinds of crazy uncle/nephew stuff with him. I hear he's a big dude and has shiny straight hair so ladies look out. :D man its so cool to be an uncle let me tell you words can't describe the awesome so maybe you'll just have to see in 18 months or so...
Christmas was sweet but lets start with how the week was. It began with a Christmas party in central Jozi where I caught up with all the old MTC crew and we had an awesome chat/feast/singing/picture with santa haha it was so cool and rad to hear the testimonies of over 100 missionaries. plus to hang out with my old MTC district minus the sisters who hopefully now are enjoying the cold at temple square.
We then drove back 5 hours to Nelspruit and the heat and had two 12 hour days of tracting in 45 Celcius... that's 110 for you folks back in the states and 85 percent humidity which was straight up murder. It rained for 15 minutes one day and just made the roads steam and turned all of Mpumalanga into a giant sauna... but we found some sweet families which always makes it worth it... the only problem is everyone is leaving for the holidays so we have to wait for January 5th... but then we have 20 names to call. so that's pretty sweet.
The hilight of teaching this week was definitely justice and his family. we've taught him 3 times now and is already calling us life changers and thanked us for no joke like 20 minutes fro bringing the gospel and book of mormon into his life. I'm so pumped for those guys but once agani they will be gone in Swaziland for 3 weeks so that's a bummer. Work is difficult now as everyone is gone but we still have a lot of fun through the trial.
So Christmas eve we spent at the flat singing, reading Luke 2, and combining Christmases from Madagascar, Uganda, Idaho, and the STG so it was pretty dang fun and then we woke up Christmas morning to Weetbix, Strawberry Jam toast, and presents (new ties and MOTAB CD's) from santa which was awesome. We then went to Mama Africa and had a sweet Christmas braai of Kudu, Buffalo tounge, ham, and turkey plus a bunch of Potato salad which for some reason I can't get enough of now. we had it in a sweet thatch roofed bungalo overlooking the mountains and we got to play with monkeys... one of which bit me which was so flippin cool. We then got to call home and I heard the news of "little carlito" DJ, Eli, my nephew being born and got to talk to him over the phone about some future plans haha... then also to the family which was awesome and just completed the day... We then went to the Atkinsons and had rootbeer floats and watched the Christmas devotional and then ate pillow back at the flat...
Sunday was the slowest day in the world... with just 11 people at church we went home after sacrament and then tracted all day with no one home... but something Legen wait for it... dary happened... While tracting in Kamagugu a small rich township just accross Enos Mabuza drive and Crocodile river. so we were just rolling into the township when a hippo... no joke a hippo was sitting in the middle of the street. so I drove closer... and it charged our car haha so I peeled out backwards up the street and it turned around and ran to the river... then all the people in township saw it to and we all ran after it and got some awesome pictures. man that thing was big it would have smashed our little aveo into bits and we saw it blow steam out of its nose and charge the car... legenDARY!!!
So just one more of many to brag about my mission... We get charged by hippos driving through town... but of course NBD just another day in Africa.
So anyway time is just about up but mission is sweet. hard to believe its already been like 6 months and I have so much adventure to go. being an uncle is sweet, and so was climbing to the tallest mountain in Nelspruit this morning. it was straight up like a Vietnam movie set. Jungle, misty mountains, crazy thick trees and brush, and wild animals. It was sweet and we've got some awesome pictures so much fun, hard work, and life changing experiences. Mission is AWESOME!!!
Enjoy your week
Sala Kahle from Nelspruit
Elder Robinson
Monday, December 27, 2010
Christmas in Jozi/Nelspruit/Africa
So welcome to this weeks email... so to begin... today I am still notan uncle which is honestly very disappointing but well who knows thecoming hours could say otherwise... as for my news from back homecongrats to Uncle Weston on the Alpine Germany Mission call that isflippin fantastic and Spence good luck out there man... I want to sayits gonna be a pretty crazy christmas this year... we're gonna startoff with the phone calls of our two african missionaries and then goto the Mcarthy's (Karl, Lisa, Barney, and "mama Africa" + the kids)and its going to be us, the kanyemazane missionaries, and theatkinsons our awesome senior couple... I believe we are going to enjoyPaptart (maize meal, potatoes, cheese, mince, russians, viennas, andcorn) so super awesome and some Kudu meat... so we are gonna have anAfrikaaner Christmas... Some sweet news is I'll get to call home andtalk with everyone which I am pretty pumped about and that is allgoing down Christmas morning... So to the week this week was so super awesome compared with last week.we tracted a lot... and I mean A LOT. but we found 3 super sweetfamilies we have already taught and some others we will be teaching inthe coming days. I'm excited to say I think things are gonna turnaround and we'll some some growth in the branch very soon. One awesome family we are teaching now is Justice and his wife andkids who for some reason haven't told us their names yet because it ishit and miss with them... but they are from Swaziland and they alreadyhave a testimony.. also, we met this guy named lucky who was taught bymissionaries in the past but when he moved they lost him... he askedlike the greatest question ever... " so when I know this book istrue... and from what I've read it is... what do I need to do?" hahathat's like asking me... "Elder robinson would you like some chickenwings?" boom I love the spirit and prepared people... this week also was awesome in terms of meeting crazy people haha wemet this lady margaret for example... so we knocked on her gate andshe came out... and was like "oh we're christians here but if I didlet you in what would you share?" so we did a 2 minute version oflesson 1 and bore sweet testimony... then she was like " that'snice..." "by the way so my neighbor came the other day and was like doyou know jesus? and I was like yes.... "no margaret... do you knowjesus?" yes... "let me explain... do you know pastor Chris? (a famouspastor with like a flippin huge house, church, and like 200 books)well yes I've read some of his books.... "so if pastor chris waswalking down the street would he say hello margaret how are you?" wellno... I don't know him that well... "that's why I ask... do you KNOWJesus?" then she was like that day I learned who Christ is and so I don't needyour church thanks though... Man we laughed for like the next 5 hourshaha.... but the ditch of the week was this We met a woman named florence in Nelsville who told us to come bysunday afternoon... we showed up on time for our appointment and sawher like 7 year old daughter outside... she was like oh you guys...just one second let me get my mom... 30 seconds passed by... "my momsays that no one is home...." priceless... hahaha... alright tell yourmom thanks... "okay!!! bye!" I love tracting haha these little day to day things make missionarywork awesome.... Well still kind of an uneventful week... some hard core rain...driving through the bushveld with monsoon like winds and rain whileyou see duikers run across the road and hear hyenas was pretty sweetthough... yeah what's up I serve in Africa take that! :D anyway not a whole lot more to talk about so I just wanna wisheveryone a merry Christmas von Africa to go along with the card andenjoy the holidays and stay safe everyone! much love from Africa I'mgoing to enjoy the mission wide Christmas party in Roodeport today andwe are singing Away in a manger so I'll leave you all with thoughts ofmy velvety smooth voice singing time loved carols haha... justkidding... but seriously happy holidays and remember what its allabout... Peace out from South Africa Elder Robinson
Monday, December 13, 2010
This is Nelspruit" -Elder Kantu
Well hello and Ayoba from Nelspruit... to begin with let me just say... The church is true... I left Benoni, friends, family, and my home away from home, and I gained a testimony haha. So let me take you through my typical day so far... wake up at 6:30... crack out 500 pushups eat a bowl of weetbix with some toast and plum jam and take a shower. next thing you know it is 8 and time for study til 10. He're is where the fun begins. leave the flat and tract (knock doors, gates, push the intercoms, yell, shout) until 2 or 3. then we have lunch which as of now consists of top raumen because my alotment is gone because I sent a box home (enjoy the presents and pictures!!!) and then go tract again. By around 5 or 6 we may have one appointment and then we tract until dark 7:15 then go see a member pump them up for missionary work/ask for referrals and then head back home. plan til 10. enjoy a delicious Black cat peanut butter and jelly delightful sammich and then eat pillow.
Man the days are long here and the work is super tough. I've never been rejected more in my life haha no one wants us in, no one wants what we are "selling" and everyone is "too busy come back on weekend". But let me tell you something. when you wake up and you realize bam I'm a missionary and this stuff is true and you study and then you go out all day and see how much people whether rich or poor need what you are sharing. its super comforting.
Well lets share the top 3 rejections of the week...
#3 brings us to Stone Edge... we met this guy knocking doors and said yes guys I'm looking to get back on the path come tomorrow at 4... we show up... knock... and his two huge german shepards run up to the gate. he says sorry guys I'm not interested and if you knock again I'll open this gate and they will hunt you down... :D
#2 takes us to white river. so everyone here has dogs and a lot of them so we were knocking gates and this guy comes out yelling at us in Afrikaans and then switches to english when we smile "stop molesting my dog!!! (Elder Robinson "sir we didn't touch your dog") angry man "your presence here is disturbing my dog FUTSAKH" (Afrikaans for piss off you dog.)
and #1 brings us back to Nelspruit where we saw a sign on a gate that said "Warning... My dog Bites... you have been warned... If you are from 1. The church of latter-day saints 2. Jehovas Witness 3. 7th Day Adventist or any other Sect. You can turn around and leave right now.... Also no salesmen or women or any other low life... if you are not a friend, relative, or the mailman leave now.
so congratulations to our winners and thanks for playing.
See we have fun even in trial.
So my goal for this area is to leave it better than I found it by strengthening members, tracting all day every day to get those who are prepared, and studying and developing my teaching until my brain explodes. also to always seek the spirit in contacting, and teaching... hopefully that will make things turn around here but honestly it is going to take a ton of work and prayers... But that's why I am here to work hard...
Some big change I noticed is when I first came out I was so excited for the African experience, languages, the animals, and all that which is still nice... But now it is like I care so much for these people when I can't teach them its like nothing else matters. so I may go crazy tracting here but I'm gonna give it my very best...
Enjoy the week talk to you all soon.
Elder Robinson
Man the days are long here and the work is super tough. I've never been rejected more in my life haha no one wants us in, no one wants what we are "selling" and everyone is "too busy come back on weekend". But let me tell you something. when you wake up and you realize bam I'm a missionary and this stuff is true and you study and then you go out all day and see how much people whether rich or poor need what you are sharing. its super comforting.
Well lets share the top 3 rejections of the week...
#3 brings us to Stone Edge... we met this guy knocking doors and said yes guys I'm looking to get back on the path come tomorrow at 4... we show up... knock... and his two huge german shepards run up to the gate. he says sorry guys I'm not interested and if you knock again I'll open this gate and they will hunt you down... :D
#2 takes us to white river. so everyone here has dogs and a lot of them so we were knocking gates and this guy comes out yelling at us in Afrikaans and then switches to english when we smile "stop molesting my dog!!! (Elder Robinson "sir we didn't touch your dog") angry man "your presence here is disturbing my dog FUTSAKH" (Afrikaans for piss off you dog.)
and #1 brings us back to Nelspruit where we saw a sign on a gate that said "Warning... My dog Bites... you have been warned... If you are from 1. The church of latter-day saints 2. Jehovas Witness 3. 7th Day Adventist or any other Sect. You can turn around and leave right now.... Also no salesmen or women or any other low life... if you are not a friend, relative, or the mailman leave now.
so congratulations to our winners and thanks for playing.
See we have fun even in trial.
So my goal for this area is to leave it better than I found it by strengthening members, tracting all day every day to get those who are prepared, and studying and developing my teaching until my brain explodes. also to always seek the spirit in contacting, and teaching... hopefully that will make things turn around here but honestly it is going to take a ton of work and prayers... But that's why I am here to work hard...
Some big change I noticed is when I first came out I was so excited for the African experience, languages, the animals, and all that which is still nice... But now it is like I care so much for these people when I can't teach them its like nothing else matters. so I may go crazy tracting here but I'm gonna give it my very best...
Enjoy the week talk to you all soon.
Elder Robinson
Monday, December 6, 2010
mathias_mhike@colpal.com
From: mathias_mhike@colpal.com
To: kcrob477@hotmail.com
Subject: Good Day
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 15:08:52 +0200
Hi Elder Rabinson,
How are you, its like a year missing you here l hope you are ok . here we are fine but our problem is miss you only. we miss your teaching and the word awaresome you are a great person to us very friendly and kind. l hope you are doing well and teaching others as well.
God Bless you for everything you are doing.
Thank you very much for encouraging us to be the members of the Church , we are proud of that. we say as family thank you million times
Greeting from me, Abigail, Tinashe, Shyline
From lovely
Mhike Family
To: kcrob477@hotmail.com
Subject: Good Day
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 15:08:52 +0200
Hi Elder Rabinson,
How are you, its like a year missing you here l hope you are ok . here we are fine but our problem is miss you only. we miss your teaching and the word awaresome you are a great person to us very friendly and kind. l hope you are doing well and teaching others as well.
God Bless you for everything you are doing.
Thank you very much for encouraging us to be the members of the Church , we are proud of that. we say as family thank you million times
Greeting from me, Abigail, Tinashe, Shyline
From lovely
Mhike Family
From Elder Blake Williams
Elder Robinson and Elder Alder (both in my MTC group and both the best missionaries in the world) got the transfer of a lifetime! They went to the same flat up in a zone called north east. it is Jungle and is said to be the best place in the mission. They have waterfalls, wildlife, and crazy diseases in their area! (they even have to take a daily pill so they wont die!) I am so jealous
Transfer news winners are?!?!?!?!?!
Congratulations to all of those who guessed Mpumalanga... That is right I'm now a proud member of North East zone and I am serving in a province with only 3 other missionaries... So this means my area is Bombastically big... my area is Nelspruit South Africa which was a host city for the World cup, is a dominantly white area... meaning work will be HARD, includes Kruger National park the largest concentration of African native wildlife in the world (I honestly can here the Zebras at night), there is hippo and crocodiles in the rivers right across from our flat, and I GET TO TAKE MALARIA PILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so my area is pretty dang sweet. I can see Mozambique from my area as well as Swaziland and I am in the same flat as Elder Alder my MTC companion which is super sweet they are the Kanymazane elders... But the next closest missionaries are about 5 hours away so we are out in the sticks haha...
My new companion is Elder Kantu from the "Pearl of Africa" Uganda... he's a sweet guy and reminds me hard core of Gonzo from the muppets... we've been having a lot of fun and doin some pretty good work so far I just feel he's a little tired of the area because he's already been here for 3 months and this area is basically the toughest area in the mission... 2 baptisms in the last year, big BIG houses, and lots of stubborn Afrikaaners... But hopefully with prayer, fasting, hard work, 1000% obedience, and lots and lots of doors knocked things will come right here... In fact we already had a pretty awesome experience after 2 straight days of 10am to 8pm knocking doors with no results I spent a lot of time thinking and praying of where we could go and we talked and decided to go to kamagugu in just about 5 hours of work there we've already found about 5 families to teach and 10 individuals... I am praying so hard they progress this area needs the gospel hard core... I left Benoni with 10 baptisms and 10 others I left there should be getting baptized in the coming 3 weeks. I hope to leave here with similar results though the work will be tough... its really gonna take the "miracle quadrant" of positive attitude and positive effort. But things will come right.
The branch is so sweet though like our members are awesome I just hope they start giving us referrals because if not there is gonna be some big matata haha... Oh and BTW mom we have a second mom here Sister Smith she is awesome haha in her testimony yesterday she just poured her heart out to us and was like if you want blessings, feed the missionaries and give them referrals haha she is the bomb.
I am gonna have a sweet time exploring this area it is seriously like Jurassic park here there are electric fences everywhere to keep the animals off the roads I just really hope the work is as sweet as the area but I'm sure with hard work it will be... It seems as though I'll be spending 6 months here if I follow suit with the other previous missionaries which means when I peace out I'll be 10 and 1/2 months gone and about ready to make the downward climb... honestly it shocks me how fast time is going I mean its Christmas in 19 days for pete sakes... Speaking of that... I'll enjoy my 90 degree days with monsoon like rain every other day and the green mountains, waterfalls, flowers, and wildlife that surround our area... hope you enjoy snow, smoke and the like in winter that side... the funniest things are the santa is coming this summer signs...
anyway time is gone\
Elder Robinson!!!
My new companion is Elder Kantu from the "Pearl of Africa" Uganda... he's a sweet guy and reminds me hard core of Gonzo from the muppets... we've been having a lot of fun and doin some pretty good work so far I just feel he's a little tired of the area because he's already been here for 3 months and this area is basically the toughest area in the mission... 2 baptisms in the last year, big BIG houses, and lots of stubborn Afrikaaners... But hopefully with prayer, fasting, hard work, 1000% obedience, and lots and lots of doors knocked things will come right here... In fact we already had a pretty awesome experience after 2 straight days of 10am to 8pm knocking doors with no results I spent a lot of time thinking and praying of where we could go and we talked and decided to go to kamagugu in just about 5 hours of work there we've already found about 5 families to teach and 10 individuals... I am praying so hard they progress this area needs the gospel hard core... I left Benoni with 10 baptisms and 10 others I left there should be getting baptized in the coming 3 weeks. I hope to leave here with similar results though the work will be tough... its really gonna take the "miracle quadrant" of positive attitude and positive effort. But things will come right.
The branch is so sweet though like our members are awesome I just hope they start giving us referrals because if not there is gonna be some big matata haha... Oh and BTW mom we have a second mom here Sister Smith she is awesome haha in her testimony yesterday she just poured her heart out to us and was like if you want blessings, feed the missionaries and give them referrals haha she is the bomb.
I am gonna have a sweet time exploring this area it is seriously like Jurassic park here there are electric fences everywhere to keep the animals off the roads I just really hope the work is as sweet as the area but I'm sure with hard work it will be... It seems as though I'll be spending 6 months here if I follow suit with the other previous missionaries which means when I peace out I'll be 10 and 1/2 months gone and about ready to make the downward climb... honestly it shocks me how fast time is going I mean its Christmas in 19 days for pete sakes... Speaking of that... I'll enjoy my 90 degree days with monsoon like rain every other day and the green mountains, waterfalls, flowers, and wildlife that surround our area... hope you enjoy snow, smoke and the like in winter that side... the funniest things are the santa is coming this summer signs...
anyway time is gone\
Elder Robinson!!!
Monday, November 29, 2010
28 November winter weer, hardloop Ute se vel die Cougars
Ah ayoba family from the other side of the world all is swell in Benoni and its good to hear about all the action from back home... If nothing else at least Utah beat BYU this year and that is just awesome the packages arrived and I've had them for a week now... we opened the one and have enjoyed the Pavarotti and Boccelli and we are quite the opera singers as we go about slaying pigeons... in fact just yesterday we hit three within 2 blocks listening to Ave Maria so yeah the death toll is at 47 hopefully I break 50 by wednesday when I leave...
Oh yeah haha I'm leaving Benoni I'm getting transfered and will be out of here around 10AM wednesday. It was super tough to say goodbye in church... they had me go up and share my testimony in Rynfield and Benoni Wards before I left and I just lost it... It was so flippin tough man there were tears in like 30 peoples faces the Lombard boys were crying... I ... almost cried haha it was so embarassing I HATE that crap... But it was really good to see and feel the growth in myself and in the ward. I'm pretty nervous to leave but wherever I go its what needs to happen... I still haven't said goodbye to the Mhike's and should be doing that tonight that'll be tough... Its pretty sweet though the way things will work out with the Sibembe's because they were the very first lesson I taugh in Benoni and they will also be the last tuesday night.
Last night was the Lombards and said goodbye to them... they are the ones with 5 sons under the age of 7 and we got a bunch of good pictures and had a lot of fun it was just so tough to leave though man the Daniel, Corbin, Reuben, Joey, and Ethan were all like we love you elder wobinson and man it was SO tough to say goodbye but I'll be back again someday so all is well....
It's weird your companion, other missionaries, and your ward really become your home and family so its super tough to say goodbye... It's a really transient life haha but its awesome...
Its interesting the PMG is the manual for Priests but that thing is the bomb you have no idea how much you can learn from it... Elder Holland said "this isn't meant to convert your investigators, it's meant to convert you."
Man I miss everyone and tell Breyde He's my BRU the Nigerian way of saying Bro haha... I'm lookin forward to the package and email haha...
That's sweet you'll get to see the Blau's and Nelsons and meet my Godfather and father haha The Wittwers are sweet and we're all going to house of Ribs tomorrow so I'll get to see them too before I go. Anywho enjoy the week and there will be a lot of adventures and news to come next monday in my brand new area...
Elder Robinson signing off from Benoni for the last time
sounds very strange doesn't it... Oh yeah and in 6 days it has been 5 months so crazy stuff... anywho later....
Oh yeah haha I'm leaving Benoni I'm getting transfered and will be out of here around 10AM wednesday. It was super tough to say goodbye in church... they had me go up and share my testimony in Rynfield and Benoni Wards before I left and I just lost it... It was so flippin tough man there were tears in like 30 peoples faces the Lombard boys were crying... I ... almost cried haha it was so embarassing I HATE that crap... But it was really good to see and feel the growth in myself and in the ward. I'm pretty nervous to leave but wherever I go its what needs to happen... I still haven't said goodbye to the Mhike's and should be doing that tonight that'll be tough... Its pretty sweet though the way things will work out with the Sibembe's because they were the very first lesson I taugh in Benoni and they will also be the last tuesday night.
Last night was the Lombards and said goodbye to them... they are the ones with 5 sons under the age of 7 and we got a bunch of good pictures and had a lot of fun it was just so tough to leave though man the Daniel, Corbin, Reuben, Joey, and Ethan were all like we love you elder wobinson and man it was SO tough to say goodbye but I'll be back again someday so all is well....
It's weird your companion, other missionaries, and your ward really become your home and family so its super tough to say goodbye... It's a really transient life haha but its awesome...
Its interesting the PMG is the manual for Priests but that thing is the bomb you have no idea how much you can learn from it... Elder Holland said "this isn't meant to convert your investigators, it's meant to convert you."
Man I miss everyone and tell Breyde He's my BRU the Nigerian way of saying Bro haha... I'm lookin forward to the package and email haha...
That's sweet you'll get to see the Blau's and Nelsons and meet my Godfather and father haha The Wittwers are sweet and we're all going to house of Ribs tomorrow so I'll get to see them too before I go. Anywho enjoy the week and there will be a lot of adventures and news to come next monday in my brand new area...
Elder Robinson signing off from Benoni for the last time
sounds very strange doesn't it... Oh yeah and in 6 days it has been 5 months so crazy stuff... anywho later....
My last week in Benoni
Yep that's right... I'm getting transfered after 4 and 1/2 months in Benoni I am off to a new area outside of Ekurheleini Metro... which means... Possibly Central Jozi... (central Johannesburg), Soweto (the township of townships), Northeast (Limpopo Province... Huts and tribesmen), Mpumalanga (more tribes and hot), Botswana East, Botswana West (a second country on my mission), or Bedfordview Zone which is basically Joburg outskirts like Benoni is.... So any guesses??? feel free to send them... Winners will receive a hypothetical Hi five from accross the ocean and a real one in 19 months or so.... Thanks for playing transfer news...
So to the week. first things first, we had a baptism, we had a baptism, we had a baptism hey hey hey hey!!! Godfrey Thobane Mtembu was baptized by yours truly in the freezing cold Benoni chapel font. Thobane is a sweet guy who was taught by missionaries in the past and didn't take anything seriously so 2 years later he busts out the BOM and reads it and calls us the very next day. He as having a hard time quitting smoking so we shamboked him a bit using the scriptures and dropped it cold turkey... He was baptized in a little over 3 weeks of teaching... that guy is awesome.
On a sad note, 5 of those who were going to be baptized weren't entirely ready and so they will be pushed back until like december 26th or Boxing day in this side of the world... I still don't know what that's all about... so the Moyo family (Alton, Rebecca, and Gumilemo) will be baptized without me here, as well as Zanele Sithole, hopefully Gonzo if he can quit drinking, Monde, Thabile, and others... so I could hit 20 by new years...
This has just been one of those good missionary experience weeks... some devestating news came this week Elder Crawford got dear Johned after 17 months of mission... just imagine that oof that hurts even me haha... So today will be the ceremonial burning of letters, pictures, and random nicknacks from said ex-special-lady-friend...
From my end... yeah... I'm leaving my first area... which means tonight I get to burn a pair of socks... also Elder Nelson is dying so I have completed my two greenie checks and am no longer green as of this wednesday... It goes like this you are no longer a greenie at two of these three things... 1. You are 6 months in the field. 2. you are an orphan and your father has died... (gone home). 3.You leave your first area... So its now Orangy Robinson!!!!
This week was a struggle in a lot of things but we learned a lot of lessons this week about just working hard, doing what's right, and trusting the Lord... I would say those are three life lessons I've learned on mission so far and I've still got a long way to go...
Christmas is very strange when it is 90 degrees outside but I'm sure a cold July will be even weirder....
Let's see running out of stuff to talk about... Packing sucks.... It was super tough to say goodbye to the ward here and I almost lost it in sacrament meeting but fortunately I retained my manhood. It is gonna be so tough to leave here but I'm also very excited to continue the work in my next area.
You can be expecting about 200 pictures in about the next month as I'll be sending my SD card home and starting fresh with a new one....
I'm gonna miss my companion a crap load man this guy is my bro Elder Mhlalase is my south African twin and we both agree we need to open an area to missionary work together... but even if that doesn't happen we'll stay in touch over the years and visit accrross the pond when possible...
Well to sum up... missionary work is sweet. I miss all of you guys but I'm nearly at my 6 month mark and that is straight insanity...so I'll seee you all pretty soon I guess haha. Life lessons get learned and also some sweet tribal skill you should see my Xhosa Bush skills... anyway guys farewell... I'll talk in a week from my NEW AREA!!!!
Elder Kenyon Black Lavender Ingonyama Robinson
So to the week. first things first, we had a baptism, we had a baptism, we had a baptism hey hey hey hey!!! Godfrey Thobane Mtembu was baptized by yours truly in the freezing cold Benoni chapel font. Thobane is a sweet guy who was taught by missionaries in the past and didn't take anything seriously so 2 years later he busts out the BOM and reads it and calls us the very next day. He as having a hard time quitting smoking so we shamboked him a bit using the scriptures and dropped it cold turkey... He was baptized in a little over 3 weeks of teaching... that guy is awesome.
On a sad note, 5 of those who were going to be baptized weren't entirely ready and so they will be pushed back until like december 26th or Boxing day in this side of the world... I still don't know what that's all about... so the Moyo family (Alton, Rebecca, and Gumilemo) will be baptized without me here, as well as Zanele Sithole, hopefully Gonzo if he can quit drinking, Monde, Thabile, and others... so I could hit 20 by new years...
This has just been one of those good missionary experience weeks... some devestating news came this week Elder Crawford got dear Johned after 17 months of mission... just imagine that oof that hurts even me haha... So today will be the ceremonial burning of letters, pictures, and random nicknacks from said ex-special-lady-friend...
From my end... yeah... I'm leaving my first area... which means tonight I get to burn a pair of socks... also Elder Nelson is dying so I have completed my two greenie checks and am no longer green as of this wednesday... It goes like this you are no longer a greenie at two of these three things... 1. You are 6 months in the field. 2. you are an orphan and your father has died... (gone home). 3.You leave your first area... So its now Orangy Robinson!!!!
This week was a struggle in a lot of things but we learned a lot of lessons this week about just working hard, doing what's right, and trusting the Lord... I would say those are three life lessons I've learned on mission so far and I've still got a long way to go...
Christmas is very strange when it is 90 degrees outside but I'm sure a cold July will be even weirder....
Let's see running out of stuff to talk about... Packing sucks.... It was super tough to say goodbye to the ward here and I almost lost it in sacrament meeting but fortunately I retained my manhood. It is gonna be so tough to leave here but I'm also very excited to continue the work in my next area.
You can be expecting about 200 pictures in about the next month as I'll be sending my SD card home and starting fresh with a new one....
I'm gonna miss my companion a crap load man this guy is my bro Elder Mhlalase is my south African twin and we both agree we need to open an area to missionary work together... but even if that doesn't happen we'll stay in touch over the years and visit accrross the pond when possible...
Well to sum up... missionary work is sweet. I miss all of you guys but I'm nearly at my 6 month mark and that is straight insanity...so I'll seee you all pretty soon I guess haha. Life lessons get learned and also some sweet tribal skill you should see my Xhosa Bush skills... anyway guys farewell... I'll talk in a week from my NEW AREA!!!!
Elder Kenyon Black Lavender Ingonyama Robinson
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thanksgiving in Afrika
So I'm gonna say I'm a little disappointed this year to not be a part of the world famous snicky snacky night previous to Thanksgiving but hey we got some sweet stuff planned out here... This morning we enjoyed a 5K turkey trot around the bird sanctuary and took some sweet pictures and very shortly will be going to the Wittwers for a Thanksgiving er a Monday the 22 of November feast... also later this week is Elder Mchunu's birthday so we're going to Boma and tomorrow is exchanges and we're gonna get the ever popular AK-47 so it'll be a feast of a week even without ritz crackers, shrimp, and all of the chicken wings I can eat haha....
So to the week... This week was the bomb and needless to say we are back... BOOM BABY! so this week had two pretty sweet stories from tracting... basically we met a life long atheist and he just busted out the age old concerns... you can't see god have you ever seen Christ etc. etc. so man we shamboked him hard core and bore sweet SWEET testimony... then he opened up... turns out he lost both of his parents at age 10 and basically stole and lived on his own for 20 years... he was kicked out of his church and lost like all hope in life so we hooked him up with a plan of salvation pamphlet and a book of Mormon... We also have continued teaching out in Dal Park and have been teaching a lot of Indians and Muslims which is always very interesting we're seeing John on Wednesday who comes from a hard core Muslim background but is starting to accept Christ because of his girlfriend so some more interesting stories to come....
the Pigeon count is now to 43 due to some heavy rain and a lot of worms on the streets so keep your fingers crossed for 50 by the 5th of December that is our key indicator goal haha...
So the work has been a bit tough as far as getting investigators at church and finding legit solid families to build the ward but in PMG it says "You can know you are a successful missionary as you feel the Spirit testify through you to those you teach" and we felt that hard core this week. like there is no denying our message if the Spirit is there and we should be looking at about 20 people on baptismal date before January 12th... We should be getting 8 baptisms in the coming three weeks and so the work is going very well now... we're just looking for a solid family to teach in Boksburg but there are some big gates and even bigger pit bulls... but whatever I'll snap some dog necks call of duty style if I have to... like... Oh er sorry about your dog that blood will come out of the lawn... could we share a wonderful message about our savior Jesus Christ with you and your family? man I can't wait for crazy contacts... OH SNAP Forever Young just came over the internet shop we're goin hard core 80's cheese right now.... sorry about that just I was so excited....
Stake conference is pretty sweet out here we got a broadcast from Capetown with Dallin H. Oaks and Boyd K. Packer so 2 apostles pretty nice haha... they talked a lot about cultural things out here like Lombollo which is like the Johnie Lingo thing where you pay for your wife with cows, and going to the bush which is like a manhood thing where you get circumcised and learn about dominating your wife and how liquor is the only food men should have on a constant basis... hahaha... Give me some Scotch and some Steak!!! man it was intense though...
So 4 minutes to go and not a whole lot to talk about so lets see here... I've enjoyed everyone's letters a lot and its sweet to hear from everyone... this is gonna sound pretty lame but everyone back home... do your home teaching and visiting teaching... like if I had a nickel for every less active story about someone who took offense, or doesn't have a friend in the ward, or whatever I swear I could by my own plane and fly home on P-days it pretty fetching ridiculous so do it haha it makes a world of difference... enjoy the winter weather everyone because here comes the warm nights and rainy days of Africa in December...
This may be my last week in Benoni so you'll hear what's up on monday and all about this sweet place...
enjoy the week and Peace
KROB THE MISSIONarty
So to the week... This week was the bomb and needless to say we are back... BOOM BABY! so this week had two pretty sweet stories from tracting... basically we met a life long atheist and he just busted out the age old concerns... you can't see god have you ever seen Christ etc. etc. so man we shamboked him hard core and bore sweet SWEET testimony... then he opened up... turns out he lost both of his parents at age 10 and basically stole and lived on his own for 20 years... he was kicked out of his church and lost like all hope in life so we hooked him up with a plan of salvation pamphlet and a book of Mormon... We also have continued teaching out in Dal Park and have been teaching a lot of Indians and Muslims which is always very interesting we're seeing John on Wednesday who comes from a hard core Muslim background but is starting to accept Christ because of his girlfriend so some more interesting stories to come....
the Pigeon count is now to 43 due to some heavy rain and a lot of worms on the streets so keep your fingers crossed for 50 by the 5th of December that is our key indicator goal haha...
So the work has been a bit tough as far as getting investigators at church and finding legit solid families to build the ward but in PMG it says "You can know you are a successful missionary as you feel the Spirit testify through you to those you teach" and we felt that hard core this week. like there is no denying our message if the Spirit is there and we should be looking at about 20 people on baptismal date before January 12th... We should be getting 8 baptisms in the coming three weeks and so the work is going very well now... we're just looking for a solid family to teach in Boksburg but there are some big gates and even bigger pit bulls... but whatever I'll snap some dog necks call of duty style if I have to... like... Oh er sorry about your dog that blood will come out of the lawn... could we share a wonderful message about our savior Jesus Christ with you and your family? man I can't wait for crazy contacts... OH SNAP Forever Young just came over the internet shop we're goin hard core 80's cheese right now.... sorry about that just I was so excited....
Stake conference is pretty sweet out here we got a broadcast from Capetown with Dallin H. Oaks and Boyd K. Packer so 2 apostles pretty nice haha... they talked a lot about cultural things out here like Lombollo which is like the Johnie Lingo thing where you pay for your wife with cows, and going to the bush which is like a manhood thing where you get circumcised and learn about dominating your wife and how liquor is the only food men should have on a constant basis... hahaha... Give me some Scotch and some Steak!!! man it was intense though...
So 4 minutes to go and not a whole lot to talk about so lets see here... I've enjoyed everyone's letters a lot and its sweet to hear from everyone... this is gonna sound pretty lame but everyone back home... do your home teaching and visiting teaching... like if I had a nickel for every less active story about someone who took offense, or doesn't have a friend in the ward, or whatever I swear I could by my own plane and fly home on P-days it pretty fetching ridiculous so do it haha it makes a world of difference... enjoy the winter weather everyone because here comes the warm nights and rainy days of Africa in December...
This may be my last week in Benoni so you'll hear what's up on monday and all about this sweet place...
enjoy the week and Peace
KROB THE MISSIONarty
Monday, November 15, 2010
Heilige koei sy die middel van November
Sweet I love primary haha... speaking of primary yesterday was pretty sweet we got to do the primary program and sing "I hope they call me on a mission" with all of the primary boys... man it was crazy I can knock doors, talk to strangers, and invite people to be baptized and tell them their church is incorrect... But to sing in front of people again like I did with the Mr. Dixie pagent and all that again was crazy... It was pretty crazy though like when we sang like all the little kids just looked up at us.... like we sang the 2nd verse and then sang the 1st verse again with the kids and they were all like focused on us it was pretty powerful... As far as last week goes... It was just a lot of thinking and not much big happening... Just teaching a few lessons and nothing too excting and yeah it was a bit interesting to think of Elder Nelson leaving and with Elder McCombs going home in february and all these guys I know well who are like family now are going home... Collin and I have been talking and he's having a bit of a tough time so if you guys could get on dearelder and just find Collin Crowther Guadalajara Mexico misson he'd appreciate it... It's kinda tough on everyone I think to leave and put everything on hold for two years... then you get to something comfortable... like your mtc district or your trainer... or your zone... then boom... 6 weeks go by you might be gone... your friends might be gone and you've gotta start over...
It was mostly just a lot of thinking about leaving benoni and seeing all these missionaries go home... it messes with your head a bit but goes away soon... Mission is exciting its just sad to see people leave or for you to leave yourself... I really think I'm done in Benoni at the end of this transfer which is just 2 weeks away...
But yeah that sucks about rick ence but as you said the big reunion is going on upstairs...
As far as every thing else goes though I'm enjoying mission a lot I just am trying to get in touch with some buddies like Leo... Its just crazy is all the time really messes with your brain... like I'll be 20 in 5 months... 2 years ago from now I was on senior ball royalty... a year ago we were serenading Haley at raintree... just weird stuff...
As far as shopping goes I'm gonna be doin some christmas shopping today so probably look for about 70 dollars to be gone...
To the big letter... enjoy your week
It was mostly just a lot of thinking about leaving benoni and seeing all these missionaries go home... it messes with your head a bit but goes away soon... Mission is exciting its just sad to see people leave or for you to leave yourself... I really think I'm done in Benoni at the end of this transfer which is just 2 weeks away...
But yeah that sucks about rick ence but as you said the big reunion is going on upstairs...
As far as every thing else goes though I'm enjoying mission a lot I just am trying to get in touch with some buddies like Leo... Its just crazy is all the time really messes with your brain... like I'll be 20 in 5 months... 2 years ago from now I was on senior ball royalty... a year ago we were serenading Haley at raintree... just weird stuff...
As far as shopping goes I'm gonna be doin some christmas shopping today so probably look for about 70 dollars to be gone...
To the big letter... enjoy your week
and then it was November
Welcome to this weeks edition of ulwambo von afrika (adventures from africa ... Lets begin with a joke from Brother Lombard who is like our sweet ward missionary/ young mens president/ father of 5 boys under the age of 7... " did you hear about what terrorists are doing now? they are starting to put bombs in cans of alphabet soup!.............. If one of those babies goes off it could SPELL disaster.... and once again we did some service at his house which led to some more awesome quotes from his kids... Daniel... "Joey I'll punch you right in the face and you'll cwy like a little baby!" or the gem of the week from Ethan... (we were in his back yard plowing to plant some corn and he was sitting on the wall... "Elders I know who can jump from this wall to that one...." we were like who's that... expecting a super hero.... "Jesus".... man I laughed so hard.....
Anyway to the work... We've got about 13 people on date and should hopefully have 6 baptisms on the 28th of November which would put us above our goal for November and still well on track for our trimester goal... So things are coming pretty good out here....
On saturday we went out to Etwatwa and painted an entire house which was pretty sweet and we got sunburned hard core... Elder Williams, who is my boy, and I painted about half of the outside walls and discussed opening a zone in Limpopo and all kinds of stuff it was a lot of fun... We also discussed his car... "the chariot of love" and the mean grean k-rob machine... and our plans for a "hustler pad"/ college apartment post mission... some pretty sweet plans... but more on that later....
things have been pretty hectic because we keep having to go to the office on mondays so we never get any shopping, cleaning, or laundry done... so honestly for the past week I've smelt like a reesty hobo... But the Spirit has never been stronger.... haha I've been thinking quite a bit about leaving Benoni because it seems like 95% sure and its been getting to my head a bit I've been kinda thinking a lot about our recent converts and not so much about the lessons but this week I turned it around... I'm pumped again and we got a fist full of awesome at our zone conference so boom Elder Robinson and Elder Mhlalase are back baby...
the pigeon count between the two of us is currently 31 we were thinking we should start putting hash marks on the side of the Aveo WWII pilot style let me know what you think haha...
I love the letters as always and it is sweet to hear all that is going on back home.... is there any engagements I should know about? haha I still remember I predicted Lachelle would be married in 5 months when I left which means she's got about 3 weeks haha.... are there any mission calls...Nick? Chad? Andy? Fetz? any class of 2010 bro's? things are sweet though and things should pick up soon.... like hard core... like 30 baptisms hard core... good to hear about Brock and Kami congrats guys!!! if you need some sweet African name for a middle name let me know haha.... and boom I'm an uncle in 3 weeks what's up world...
BTW we found 3 new white families to teach so pray for us
Check out Romans chapter 8 it is awesome
20 seconds left
By everyone!!! see you next week
Sala kahle
Anyway to the work... We've got about 13 people on date and should hopefully have 6 baptisms on the 28th of November which would put us above our goal for November and still well on track for our trimester goal... So things are coming pretty good out here....
On saturday we went out to Etwatwa and painted an entire house which was pretty sweet and we got sunburned hard core... Elder Williams, who is my boy, and I painted about half of the outside walls and discussed opening a zone in Limpopo and all kinds of stuff it was a lot of fun... We also discussed his car... "the chariot of love" and the mean grean k-rob machine... and our plans for a "hustler pad"/ college apartment post mission... some pretty sweet plans... but more on that later....
things have been pretty hectic because we keep having to go to the office on mondays so we never get any shopping, cleaning, or laundry done... so honestly for the past week I've smelt like a reesty hobo... But the Spirit has never been stronger.... haha I've been thinking quite a bit about leaving Benoni because it seems like 95% sure and its been getting to my head a bit I've been kinda thinking a lot about our recent converts and not so much about the lessons but this week I turned it around... I'm pumped again and we got a fist full of awesome at our zone conference so boom Elder Robinson and Elder Mhlalase are back baby...
the pigeon count between the two of us is currently 31 we were thinking we should start putting hash marks on the side of the Aveo WWII pilot style let me know what you think haha...
I love the letters as always and it is sweet to hear all that is going on back home.... is there any engagements I should know about? haha I still remember I predicted Lachelle would be married in 5 months when I left which means she's got about 3 weeks haha.... are there any mission calls...Nick? Chad? Andy? Fetz? any class of 2010 bro's? things are sweet though and things should pick up soon.... like hard core... like 30 baptisms hard core... good to hear about Brock and Kami congrats guys!!! if you need some sweet African name for a middle name let me know haha.... and boom I'm an uncle in 3 weeks what's up world...
BTW we found 3 new white families to teach so pray for us
Check out Romans chapter 8 it is awesome
20 seconds left
By everyone!!! see you next week
Sala kahle
Monday, November 8, 2010
November 7, Sad prestasie in die sokker gister vir Utah
Lame sauce... I felt that would happen just doin to good and overlooked TCU again... oh well TCU will suck in two more seasons when their draft scholarships decline and they are the only thing left powerful in the Mountain west... anyway yeah no shopping spree yet really just gonna pick up some christmas presents and the like...
As far as time goes yeah its pretty fetchin crazy how much I've felt the change and its crazy to see the change that comes from mission... I really hope collin just stays himself because that's all you need to be... you don't need to put on a new badge and become someone else but to go teach the people of guadalajara as himself that's why Elder Crowther was called there... not just elder robotic missionary who has to be fake for the next 24 months... the thing with mission is when your sincerity is there and you are yourself the people love you... you have the spirit when you teach... you don't worry about home, friends, job, college, or any of that crap because you're doin the work his way... Yeah its tough... yeah you get rejected... yeah you argue with companions or get humbled hard core... or run into missionaries there who think they are the bomb or think they know the scriptures backwards and forwards but what really matters is your testimony, sincerity, and work ethic haha because man its a lot of work...
gotta stay in touch with that kid if you got his address hook me up with it... I'll email him too.
So Elder Nelson is dying... (going home) in three weeks and I just got a note from him today...
" Hey... I'm dying... do you still want my weights? or anything else because yeah I'm gone in three weeks Love Elder Nelson.... P.S. I have an heir... (Elder Opondo) and then the spare... guess who that is? haha... give me grandchildren!!!!
So in missionary lingo translated... "I'm heading home man do you want any of my stuff other than the weights? Love dad... By the way I have my first born... or first trained... Elder Opondo... and then the second born... you.... CARRY ON THE NELSON LINE AND TRAIN!!!"
So hopefully I train soon haha don't wanna disappoint dad haha...
I think I'm out of Benoni pretty soon so I'm trying to work extra hard to sort of leave my mark I would say haha but soon some more sweet business should be coming just one of those weeks that wasn't the best...
I'm trying to get a hold of Leo and Paul so maybe could you get me Paul's address because I think email is always busy for him and Leo yo haven't seen that kid in like a year now... but maybe try talking to Kiya's mom, Lachelle, Chrissy, or Katie...
anywho to the big letter
Elder Robinson
As far as time goes yeah its pretty fetchin crazy how much I've felt the change and its crazy to see the change that comes from mission... I really hope collin just stays himself because that's all you need to be... you don't need to put on a new badge and become someone else but to go teach the people of guadalajara as himself that's why Elder Crowther was called there... not just elder robotic missionary who has to be fake for the next 24 months... the thing with mission is when your sincerity is there and you are yourself the people love you... you have the spirit when you teach... you don't worry about home, friends, job, college, or any of that crap because you're doin the work his way... Yeah its tough... yeah you get rejected... yeah you argue with companions or get humbled hard core... or run into missionaries there who think they are the bomb or think they know the scriptures backwards and forwards but what really matters is your testimony, sincerity, and work ethic haha because man its a lot of work...
gotta stay in touch with that kid if you got his address hook me up with it... I'll email him too.
So Elder Nelson is dying... (going home) in three weeks and I just got a note from him today...
" Hey... I'm dying... do you still want my weights? or anything else because yeah I'm gone in three weeks Love Elder Nelson.... P.S. I have an heir... (Elder Opondo) and then the spare... guess who that is? haha... give me grandchildren!!!!
So in missionary lingo translated... "I'm heading home man do you want any of my stuff other than the weights? Love dad... By the way I have my first born... or first trained... Elder Opondo... and then the second born... you.... CARRY ON THE NELSON LINE AND TRAIN!!!"
So hopefully I train soon haha don't wanna disappoint dad haha...
I think I'm out of Benoni pretty soon so I'm trying to work extra hard to sort of leave my mark I would say haha but soon some more sweet business should be coming just one of those weeks that wasn't the best...
I'm trying to get a hold of Leo and Paul so maybe could you get me Paul's address because I think email is always busy for him and Leo yo haven't seen that kid in like a year now... but maybe try talking to Kiya's mom, Lachelle, Chrissy, or Katie...
anywho to the big letter
Elder Robinson
I gave Duran Duran a passalong card.... no joke....
Hello all and welcome to this weeks letter haha... to the headline yeah 100% legit... So duran duran who bring us such hits as "hungry like the wolf" and "Rio" were in Benoni at Carnival city... we shop at carnival mall quite a bit and sure enough they were there doing a meet and greet... so I gave them a passalong card and got shut down hard core... But anyway yeah what's up I tried to convert some 80's legends....
So funny companion story now... Elder Mhlalase has been quite the fan of my slang usage and has been bringing it into his vocabulary... his favorite thing is to overemphasize the first letter of the power word... for example.... "WOO look at that guy yo he is MMMMad...." So we were in the middle of a 4 hour weekly planning session and enjoying some top Raumen noodles and man we were hungry so he just went to work and tried to eat so fast and got burned so spit the soup out and spilt the noodles, broth, and chicken all over his face, tie, and shirt... covered in noodles, sweat, and broth, he said... "Man I'm PPHHissed!!!" I seriously still can't tell this story without laughing hahaha I'm getting interesting stares from those in the email shop.... man that guy is awesome...
So as far as the week goes not much happened other than some super interesting new investigators... there is Doro who lives in Leachville... this guy is super sweet and we met him just knocking doors... This guy has had AIDS for 20 years and ran the Soweto marathon the next day after meeting him... He's like yeah I could be bummed and just sit here and die or I can go out and live... its as simple as that...
And then came the muslims... haha we have been knocking mackenzie park which is just loaded with them and most of them are about ready to declare Jihad on us but a few have let us in and we should be seeing them this week... so that'll be fun
this week we had some sweet rainstorms and like lightning would strike like no joke 10 feet away and it sounds like a bomb going off... hard core dumping rain like so much its like stepping into a shower at Laquinta the #1 guest rated shower head.... haha.... but seriously we were soaked like so much you have to wring your shirt and pants out and you have standing water in your shoes being out of the car for 5 seconds on the way to a door... it is awesome...
But yeah... pretty uneventful week as far as missionary work goes just a lot of finding... Oh yeah by the way we found 5 count em 5 new white families to teach... now that doesn't seem exciting but most missionaries go there entire missions without baptizing any white people here... so yay for us....
Next week hopefully we'll be having a baptism and we have I believe 8 scheduled for the 21st of November so that'll be INTENSE
The work goes forth... and hopefully next week I have a few more exciting stories to share
All the best
Kunjani
Elder Robinson
So funny companion story now... Elder Mhlalase has been quite the fan of my slang usage and has been bringing it into his vocabulary... his favorite thing is to overemphasize the first letter of the power word... for example.... "WOO look at that guy yo he is MMMMad...." So we were in the middle of a 4 hour weekly planning session and enjoying some top Raumen noodles and man we were hungry so he just went to work and tried to eat so fast and got burned so spit the soup out and spilt the noodles, broth, and chicken all over his face, tie, and shirt... covered in noodles, sweat, and broth, he said... "Man I'm PPHHissed!!!" I seriously still can't tell this story without laughing hahaha I'm getting interesting stares from those in the email shop.... man that guy is awesome...
So as far as the week goes not much happened other than some super interesting new investigators... there is Doro who lives in Leachville... this guy is super sweet and we met him just knocking doors... This guy has had AIDS for 20 years and ran the Soweto marathon the next day after meeting him... He's like yeah I could be bummed and just sit here and die or I can go out and live... its as simple as that...
And then came the muslims... haha we have been knocking mackenzie park which is just loaded with them and most of them are about ready to declare Jihad on us but a few have let us in and we should be seeing them this week... so that'll be fun
this week we had some sweet rainstorms and like lightning would strike like no joke 10 feet away and it sounds like a bomb going off... hard core dumping rain like so much its like stepping into a shower at Laquinta the #1 guest rated shower head.... haha.... but seriously we were soaked like so much you have to wring your shirt and pants out and you have standing water in your shoes being out of the car for 5 seconds on the way to a door... it is awesome...
But yeah... pretty uneventful week as far as missionary work goes just a lot of finding... Oh yeah by the way we found 5 count em 5 new white families to teach... now that doesn't seem exciting but most missionaries go there entire missions without baptizing any white people here... so yay for us....
Next week hopefully we'll be having a baptism and we have I believe 8 scheduled for the 21st of November so that'll be INTENSE
The work goes forth... and hopefully next week I have a few more exciting stories to share
All the best
Kunjani
Elder Robinson
Monday, November 1, 2010
and then it was November...
So question... How good was conference!!! MOTAB rocked in the chapel haha the speakers were so loud you could feel your chairs shake on the high and low notes... President Monson's talk on an attitude of grattitude was sweet and so was president Packers... Unfortunately we missed all of Saturdays stuff but it'll be on dvd out here soon enough for a bargain price of 15 rand... 2 dollars!... anywho to the week
First things first baptism number 8 of James Kankangadza from Malawi who was met at the Petrol station just a block from our house... It was Saweet pictures to come soon
A very interesting week for sure... So one of our zone leaders Elder Tyler Danger McCombs my step dad haha got tranfered mid transfer to Botswana do to some visa issues which is just craziness because man it is like dang I'm gonna leave Benoni soon I gotta work hard and rock this place before I go because I'll be out before I know it...
We found out two of our recent converts from the past 5 months have kind of gone apostate so the Bishop called us to go and take care of everything and we'll see how that goes haha appearantly one has become a songoma which is like a witchdoctor and has started his own church teaching from the book of mormon and giving people the priesthood... so that is gonna be super fun lol
Speaking of super fun we got the most hilarious ditch of an appointment EVER yesterday... So this guy was awesome we met him in Leachville and he seemed totally golden like GOLDEN right so we were looking forward the whole week to going to see him and we knocked the front door... Now in township a lot of people just use the back door... so he said go around... so we did... Then best thing ever... we hear the garage open and the car burn out going backwards and we see him just fly up the street and leaving us in the dust HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! then his wife we could see through the curtains so we knock on the door and she looks through the window and just turns up the volume on the tv haha man it was SO Funny... African people are hilarious like its so obvious they don't wanna see us but they don't have the heart to tell us haha
Anywho a ward member... Shawn Tyler has a museum of vintage cars from like 1910-1970 and we got to go and check it out at a dinner appointment... Now this guy's house was HUGE... No that is an understatement GARGANATIONALISTMAGGNAVAROKAL big... I had to invent a word to describe it... Like his house is no joke like the size of 2 and a half Super Walmarts and 3 stories tall... they have like their own private lake and pasture and like 40 dogs... pictures to come haha
But the week was sweet we have a lot of good investigators and the pool keeps building and yeah we're gonna make our goal of 17 baptism for the trimester and then some with the Lord's help...
Saturday we helped Clayton move who is our Elders Quorum president who in one year went from being disfellowhipped to back into activity, went from unemployed to a sweet new job, to getting engaged and converting his fiancee' and then over the past 3 months lost his father, was called elder's quorum president, bought a new house, then lost his job, then Leisel... His fiancee, lost her job... to now... But man is he solid he's a sweet example of patience man he's been through a lot... anywho we helped him move saturday and missed conference but the rest of the day was sweet...
Which brings us to Sunday and the ever more interesting story of the Nceba family... Now I've spoken before of Gonzo and Monde who are both like pretty solid for baptism on the 14th but now Thabile the Mom/ sister/ cousin has been growing A LOT...
So last night we go and just wanna chat and see how things are... So we drop off the movie the testaments and just begin to talk... So we asked her how the prayers had been going and she was like... about what? church or the Book of Mormon or Thomas S. Monson or Joseph Smith? Because I know its all true... So me and Elder Mhlalase were just like shocked because she hasn't been reading or coming to church... Turns out she goes to Oasis of life Church and is like I would say basically the relief society president there... and they have this thing called vision sunday where everyone talks about the week and the experiences they have had... So she talked about us... the two random "Xhosa and American boys" who showed up at her door and offered some service and to teach a message... So she basically wanted to mess with us and to trip us up on scriptures or find something wrong in what we were teaching... But then when we stood the questions and asked her to pray about it she was like sure why not...
So the story continues... her husband who we have yet to meet was like yeah just have these guys come and do service til they get sick of it and give up... and we came... and we came... and we came some more and she started to read and realized the book of Mormon was true... she had prayed about Joseph smith and got her answer too... and had dreams about her family all at the church getting baptized and their family all unified and happy finally...
So she shared all of this in church and her pastor was like FURIOUS... so like her friends in the church, pastor, and other people high in the chuch just questioned and probed and prodded her and she defended us hard core and was like..."have you ever even listened to them?!?!?! just pray and try it!!! It's true!!!
Boom dynamite... so last night she was basically like guys I need your help with my husband... He is a little nervous about you guys and I want him to be a part of this.. Monde and Gonzo have changed so much my mother is in tears about it and wants to meet you too...
So the story will continue when we see them wednesday and Saturday but all I can really say is that this stuff is true... everything about it... even the seemingly pointless commandments or council... It'll bless you hard core and seriously change your life... Be the best you can be and live life as what it is... AWESOME...
Anywho yeah man I feel like old now and experienced its like I left a kid and am a man... like I don't know man mission changes you... not in a bad way... like I'm not gonna go home and be some totally different person but its like yo I get things I didn't before...
Anywho 30 seconds left... enjoy the week
Elder Robinson
First things first baptism number 8 of James Kankangadza from Malawi who was met at the Petrol station just a block from our house... It was Saweet pictures to come soon
A very interesting week for sure... So one of our zone leaders Elder Tyler Danger McCombs my step dad haha got tranfered mid transfer to Botswana do to some visa issues which is just craziness because man it is like dang I'm gonna leave Benoni soon I gotta work hard and rock this place before I go because I'll be out before I know it...
We found out two of our recent converts from the past 5 months have kind of gone apostate so the Bishop called us to go and take care of everything and we'll see how that goes haha appearantly one has become a songoma which is like a witchdoctor and has started his own church teaching from the book of mormon and giving people the priesthood... so that is gonna be super fun lol
Speaking of super fun we got the most hilarious ditch of an appointment EVER yesterday... So this guy was awesome we met him in Leachville and he seemed totally golden like GOLDEN right so we were looking forward the whole week to going to see him and we knocked the front door... Now in township a lot of people just use the back door... so he said go around... so we did... Then best thing ever... we hear the garage open and the car burn out going backwards and we see him just fly up the street and leaving us in the dust HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! then his wife we could see through the curtains so we knock on the door and she looks through the window and just turns up the volume on the tv haha man it was SO Funny... African people are hilarious like its so obvious they don't wanna see us but they don't have the heart to tell us haha
Anywho a ward member... Shawn Tyler has a museum of vintage cars from like 1910-1970 and we got to go and check it out at a dinner appointment... Now this guy's house was HUGE... No that is an understatement GARGANATIONALISTMAGGNAVAROKAL big... I had to invent a word to describe it... Like his house is no joke like the size of 2 and a half Super Walmarts and 3 stories tall... they have like their own private lake and pasture and like 40 dogs... pictures to come haha
But the week was sweet we have a lot of good investigators and the pool keeps building and yeah we're gonna make our goal of 17 baptism for the trimester and then some with the Lord's help...
Saturday we helped Clayton move who is our Elders Quorum president who in one year went from being disfellowhipped to back into activity, went from unemployed to a sweet new job, to getting engaged and converting his fiancee' and then over the past 3 months lost his father, was called elder's quorum president, bought a new house, then lost his job, then Leisel... His fiancee, lost her job... to now... But man is he solid he's a sweet example of patience man he's been through a lot... anywho we helped him move saturday and missed conference but the rest of the day was sweet...
Which brings us to Sunday and the ever more interesting story of the Nceba family... Now I've spoken before of Gonzo and Monde who are both like pretty solid for baptism on the 14th but now Thabile the Mom/ sister/ cousin has been growing A LOT...
So last night we go and just wanna chat and see how things are... So we drop off the movie the testaments and just begin to talk... So we asked her how the prayers had been going and she was like... about what? church or the Book of Mormon or Thomas S. Monson or Joseph Smith? Because I know its all true... So me and Elder Mhlalase were just like shocked because she hasn't been reading or coming to church... Turns out she goes to Oasis of life Church and is like I would say basically the relief society president there... and they have this thing called vision sunday where everyone talks about the week and the experiences they have had... So she talked about us... the two random "Xhosa and American boys" who showed up at her door and offered some service and to teach a message... So she basically wanted to mess with us and to trip us up on scriptures or find something wrong in what we were teaching... But then when we stood the questions and asked her to pray about it she was like sure why not...
So the story continues... her husband who we have yet to meet was like yeah just have these guys come and do service til they get sick of it and give up... and we came... and we came... and we came some more and she started to read and realized the book of Mormon was true... she had prayed about Joseph smith and got her answer too... and had dreams about her family all at the church getting baptized and their family all unified and happy finally...
So she shared all of this in church and her pastor was like FURIOUS... so like her friends in the church, pastor, and other people high in the chuch just questioned and probed and prodded her and she defended us hard core and was like..."have you ever even listened to them?!?!?! just pray and try it!!! It's true!!!
Boom dynamite... so last night she was basically like guys I need your help with my husband... He is a little nervous about you guys and I want him to be a part of this.. Monde and Gonzo have changed so much my mother is in tears about it and wants to meet you too...
So the story will continue when we see them wednesday and Saturday but all I can really say is that this stuff is true... everything about it... even the seemingly pointless commandments or council... It'll bless you hard core and seriously change your life... Be the best you can be and live life as what it is... AWESOME...
Anywho yeah man I feel like old now and experienced its like I left a kid and am a man... like I don't know man mission changes you... not in a bad way... like I'm not gonna go home and be some totally different person but its like yo I get things I didn't before...
Anywho 30 seconds left... enjoy the week
Elder Robinson
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
More baptisms than fingers... A trip to the Temple... Oh and 5 days until African General Conference!!!
To begin... Three awesome experiences with food this week
1. Walkie Talkie... Chicken feet... and Chicken heads... the feet are the walkie the head is the talkie... I'll let you do the rest :D
2. AK-47... No even though Actonville is loaded with Middle easterners I did not eat a gun... This was the MOST GIGANTIC SANDWICH EVER... EVER!!!! it was about the length of my arm and as wide around as both of my legs... This thing was loaded with... Steak, Chicken, Viennas, Polony, Russians, Cheese, Chips (fries... Yeah whats up Brittish influence), sauce, Salad, and Boer Worst... So me and Elder Mhlalase split one at a bargain cost of 60 rand... about 8.50 for all of you accross the pond and no joke I didn't eat for another 2 days haha it was a monster... I'll send pics in time... They call this a township burger someday I'll make this we'll all have an Afrika party night together...
3. Dombolo Bread... This is some sweet stuff... It is like your typical bread... but rather than baking it you steam it... Interesting I know and tasty... Anyway I tried to make it for the first time and man I was steaming it over our boiling pot and the plastic bowl got to hot and melted all over inside the bread and all over the floor... but the bread was still pretty dang tasty... try it some time...
Alright! So big news yesterday Oackes and Nativity Chimwai a couple from Minzanari Zimbabwe were baptized bringing my total to 8... This weekend we have James from Malawi and General Conference so that will be an epic day to say the least... Oh and Our goal for November was 5 baptisms but as of now we have 11 on date for November so soon enough I won't be able to count baptisms on hands or feet as long as we stay obedient and let the Spirit do its work... We got humbled a lot this week through ditches and once again will be moving forward finding, studying, and obeying... Oackes is an awesome guy and used to be a prison warden but now just works as a waiter... He has had like an impossible time meeting with us but got taught in an interesting way... Nativity is awesome and super prepared for the Gospel... She as two little girls named Mitchelle and Memory and after teaching her in the day she stayed up until 1 AM to teach Oackes what we had taught that day... So when the interview came He was just as prepared as her... awesome...
5 days until G.C. need I say more... no I shant... :D next week we'll talk
This week was pretty intense... I went on an exchange with Elder Perryman, Elder Tyler Danger McCombs, and Elder Crawford... and learned a lot... It is always interesting to see different teaching styles and to learn from them... I've been called a master of the analogy... Anyway funny story from one exchange... So we've been encouraged to ask refferrals from everyone and always invite all present to attend the lesson... So I was with Elder Crawford and we were teaching this guy from Malawi and accross the hall a woman came out so we were like hey come and join us... then more and more and more kept coming all kinds of people saying like Pray for me... and I need to stop drinking help me... we ended up teaching 11 people haha it was so funny Elders from Utah teaching an entire apartment building all sitting on buckets... As we were leaving this one lady was like shouting over the fence to take her 10 rand and buy some cigarettes and this lady just yelled at her and was like "DON'T YOU TELL MY PASTORS TO BUY YOU CIGARETTES!!!" She then proceeded to give a 5 year old boy the money in stead and she was like "that's better..." I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard...
Yesterday was sweet we went out with some ward missionaries and Gonzo one of our new investigators was like really opening up to us and we just busted out the atonement totally guided by the Spirit and he was like "Yo I need to get baptized..." I LOVE PREPARED PEOPLE!!! man I can't even begin...
Scripture study is pretty dang sweet check out Alma 5 he shamboks pretty hard core about keeping the commandments and living right...
Its crazy to think of time passing by this is now transfer 3 which means next transfer I'll be 6 months old/ 1/4 done... Holy crap...
Anyway enjoy the week keep it real
1. Walkie Talkie... Chicken feet... and Chicken heads... the feet are the walkie the head is the talkie... I'll let you do the rest :D
2. AK-47... No even though Actonville is loaded with Middle easterners I did not eat a gun... This was the MOST GIGANTIC SANDWICH EVER... EVER!!!! it was about the length of my arm and as wide around as both of my legs... This thing was loaded with... Steak, Chicken, Viennas, Polony, Russians, Cheese, Chips (fries... Yeah whats up Brittish influence), sauce, Salad, and Boer Worst... So me and Elder Mhlalase split one at a bargain cost of 60 rand... about 8.50 for all of you accross the pond and no joke I didn't eat for another 2 days haha it was a monster... I'll send pics in time... They call this a township burger someday I'll make this we'll all have an Afrika party night together...
3. Dombolo Bread... This is some sweet stuff... It is like your typical bread... but rather than baking it you steam it... Interesting I know and tasty... Anyway I tried to make it for the first time and man I was steaming it over our boiling pot and the plastic bowl got to hot and melted all over inside the bread and all over the floor... but the bread was still pretty dang tasty... try it some time...
Alright! So big news yesterday Oackes and Nativity Chimwai a couple from Minzanari Zimbabwe were baptized bringing my total to 8... This weekend we have James from Malawi and General Conference so that will be an epic day to say the least... Oh and Our goal for November was 5 baptisms but as of now we have 11 on date for November so soon enough I won't be able to count baptisms on hands or feet as long as we stay obedient and let the Spirit do its work... We got humbled a lot this week through ditches and once again will be moving forward finding, studying, and obeying... Oackes is an awesome guy and used to be a prison warden but now just works as a waiter... He has had like an impossible time meeting with us but got taught in an interesting way... Nativity is awesome and super prepared for the Gospel... She as two little girls named Mitchelle and Memory and after teaching her in the day she stayed up until 1 AM to teach Oackes what we had taught that day... So when the interview came He was just as prepared as her... awesome...
5 days until G.C. need I say more... no I shant... :D next week we'll talk
This week was pretty intense... I went on an exchange with Elder Perryman, Elder Tyler Danger McCombs, and Elder Crawford... and learned a lot... It is always interesting to see different teaching styles and to learn from them... I've been called a master of the analogy... Anyway funny story from one exchange... So we've been encouraged to ask refferrals from everyone and always invite all present to attend the lesson... So I was with Elder Crawford and we were teaching this guy from Malawi and accross the hall a woman came out so we were like hey come and join us... then more and more and more kept coming all kinds of people saying like Pray for me... and I need to stop drinking help me... we ended up teaching 11 people haha it was so funny Elders from Utah teaching an entire apartment building all sitting on buckets... As we were leaving this one lady was like shouting over the fence to take her 10 rand and buy some cigarettes and this lady just yelled at her and was like "DON'T YOU TELL MY PASTORS TO BUY YOU CIGARETTES!!!" She then proceeded to give a 5 year old boy the money in stead and she was like "that's better..." I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard...
Yesterday was sweet we went out with some ward missionaries and Gonzo one of our new investigators was like really opening up to us and we just busted out the atonement totally guided by the Spirit and he was like "Yo I need to get baptized..." I LOVE PREPARED PEOPLE!!! man I can't even begin...
Scripture study is pretty dang sweet check out Alma 5 he shamboks pretty hard core about keeping the commandments and living right...
Its crazy to think of time passing by this is now transfer 3 which means next transfer I'll be 6 months old/ 1/4 done... Holy crap...
Anyway enjoy the week keep it real
Monday, October 18, 2010
Ups, Downs, 16 Baptisms, oh and a shamboking from an apostle of the Lord :D and Pants on Fire!
So to begin the joys of missionary work rock you at all times... for example just 2 minutes ago our car was hit right outside of the email shop and guess what the first words out of our mouths were... "Hi we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints and you have just struck our vehicle... Would you mind if we set up a time to meet with you and your family to share a message about Jesus Christ and how families can be together forever?" Man he was shocked hahahahahhaahahah So... lets begin... BOOM this week was awesome... So It begins with Monday and yet another Epic adventure... So the Lombard family who are members in Benoni Ward asked us to do some service so we went by in the evening and they wanted us to clear out some felt (which is basically tall dry savannah grass) now they wanted us to do this in the lot by their house and to clear out some of the freakin huge rats that were there so the boys wouldn't get sick when they play... they have 5 boys under the age of 7 haha man that's a dream life right there haha... anywho so we put out some news paper and a little bit of gas all while we were in suits and ties haha it was quite the sight... anyway so we lit it up and man it was like an awesome inferno like 20 foot flames or higher and I have some pretty impressive pictures I'll be sending soon haha. Anyway so the wind picked up hard core and we were cornered in the wall by the one tree we were trying to save haha... Brother Lombard and Elder Mhlalase were thinking lets climb the tree and hop the fence... good idea but there was barbed wire and electric fence so I was like peace... I jumped through the flame and jumped the shorter wall on the side in a stellar motion of finess and grace... well kind of haha my pants lit on fire and I got a bunch of hair singed all over my body but survived... I then looked back over the wall to see 10 foot flames where I just jumped and was like fetch those guys are trapped... So I said a quick prayer something along the lines of help them... Brother Lombard and my comp meanwhile were chillin in back and panicing so Elder Mhlalase just jumped that crap and got on the roof and brother lombard followed haha... so in an epic effort of 3 silent prayers and quite a bit of manliness we all jumped out of that place and watched the yard burn to the ground... Man I can't wait to send the pictures... We then met with James from Malawi who will be baptized on the 31st and enjoyed a wonderful meal of dombolo bread and chakalaka... dijo de menate (tasty food in Sotho)... anywho Tuesday... we went out and just had a rockin day teaching some families and finding new people to teach... So that is pretty dank... Wednesday some awesome sauce happened... So I went on an exchange with Tyler Danger McCombs and we had a lot of baptismal interviews... our first one was with James and Boom he passed... then we met with Nativity and her husband Oackes... So Nativity is super solid but Oackes works all the time and we never meet with him but he just wants to be baptized so we figured eh lets get him an interview... Turns out Nativity has been teaching him our lessons every night, reading scriptures, and even randomly asking him questoins about quitting coffee and the like... He passed with flying colors haha and they'll be baptized sunday the 24th... The day went on pretty sweet and we met with an awesome family in crystal park but the night would be the best in Leachville...
So we met this family and its a bit tough to explain but there is Thabile the Mother and her husband... Then there is Gonzo, Mark, Monde who are cousin, brother, and brother respectively... When we first met them we were like hey can we share are message and they thought we were watch towers... so they were like eish nah... and we then were like no problem by the way do you need any help maybe gardening, painting, dishes, laundry etc. and they laughed and were like sure come do our washing on saturday... So we did... and they were blown away... then we taught them... Turns out the father was like telling us to leave from the get go and got proved wrong hard core... but he is afraid of meeting with us because he got us so wrong so he has been studying and reading incognito while we teach the others... Which brings us to Thabile... She is AWWWEEESOME... so she reads the book of Mormon and has not put it down she says its like a novel and goes like perfect with the Bible she is super interested and man is so prepared... Now we have Gonzo and Monde who always hang out together and we teach them... They read 2nd Nephi 31 and were like "what is this straight and Narrow path and how do we get on it?" so we read the chapter and they were like " sounds like we need to get baptized... how does this happen..." that's like asking me " hey do you want some nachos?" OH man the Lord brings miracles... turns out Gonzo has been taking the train to work everyday and has been reading the book of Mormon outloud to those around him and NBD or anything but he has 11 people for us to teach... MIRACLES happen man... Awesome...
Anywho.... Thursday was sweet got a few ditches and Elder Mhlalase hit 3 pigeons bringing his death toll to 27... hahaha and then friday Elder Holland...
So we drove to roodeport in the mission office and it was quite the adventure we got stuck in traffic on the N12 and thought we were going to be late... We're told that we had to be there by 9 so we sped, and sped, and sped some more and made it at 8:58!!!! We then had a line up and shook his hand... man he stares you right to the soul but it was sweet... His talk was the best though... He began by talking about a previous meeting in Joburg with Missionaries and how mad he got... confirming the myth we heard that about 7 years ago he had all the missionaries line up after being super irreverant and giving them numbers.... 3, 2 ,2 ,1 ,3, 2,... etc... then he said 1's you are fine keep it up... 2's visit the mission president and repent, 3's go home... NOW... hahah man they don't call him the shamboker for nothing... Anyway he talked about PMG and how its number one goal is to convert the missionaries to the gospel and to never let them fall away... " Don't let me get started on less active RM's I just go balistic... call the fire department Hollands at it again!!! I just wanna put my knee in their throat and tell them to wake up!!!... There is no real world when we get home from mission... This is how you should live your life... don't go holy for 2 years and forget it all... MY MISSION MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME... MAKE IT THE SAME FOR YOU... LEARN IT NOW..." man he was powerful I wrote 13 pages of notes which I'll share in 20 months or so with all of you haha...
Saturday uneventful but nice.... Oh wait... Friday after elder holland we went for chinese and days of our lives was on TV and I was like "Hey my mom watches this!!!" and everyone in the whole restaraunt laughed haha they were like yo this one is bad that's why its on at 3 o clock and not at 7 like real tv shows.... haha sorry mom...
Anyway sunday was also sweet just a nice day with a bit of rain in the morning after an epic week of thunderstorms and just chilled out and taught some sweet lessons....
So a pretty awesome week and we always bring new goals to grow and move farther forward... Transfers are this week but Elder Mhlalase and I are both staying... as far as around us Elder Williams, who is my boy, is getting a new companion and Elder Onsongo is leaving to a new area... but other than that they are keeping us all here... personally I think I'll be here just 6 more weeks and then I'm off to Botswana that is what destiny has held for the last 3 missionaries who were trained here... But only the Lord knows...
Frisbee what the heck man why haven't you written me I'm calling you out haha and hit me up with your mailing address... As for the rest of you... thank you for the letters and emails they are awesome and always pump me up for the week and I'm so thankful for your prayers... But anywho two more weeks until conference and all that sweet stuff and the same until November... Seriously time is flying... Keep Africa in your prayers and the missionary work... and enjoy yourselves and have a fabulous 4th week of October...
Elder Robinson the iginyama....
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
what the flip 2 transfers are gone...
AGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man it has been an awesome week!!!!!!!!!!!! so lets begin Elder Holland in 3 days is coming and man am I excited... All you lucky guys across the pond are still have 3 weeks until conference and it hurts!!! haah but tons of awesome stuff is going on until then... So the week began awesome we found some new families to teach, had an awesome pday, had lessons set for the whole week, and boom we were feeling good... Oh and BTW I saw my first rain in like 8 months haha and AFRIKA rain is intense like thunder that shakes cars, strong wind and like lightning strikes in every direction every 2-3 seconds, oh and the rain drops are the size of strawberries haha it is so intense Voortrekker street was a river in like 5 minutes no joke... But then the trials came... Ditch after ditch after ditch, and we knocked door after door after door, and nothing... Frustrating but actually kind of fun haha like I love peoples excuses " Um I think I have uh food in the oven..." or my personal favorite, "my brother is calling me on sunday at 1 so I can't come to church at 9:30...." these are 100% serious haha or just I have my church and you WON"T Change me go away... Or my personal personal favorite of favorites, "My Bul Bul (a freakin huge dog) can make it to the gate in 2.8 seconds... are you sure you can run that fast?" Oh man I laughed so hard...
Speaking of laughs funny story... so we have this finding method called a life survey where we ask questions like "what is the purpose of life" or "do you believe God has a plan for you and your family," or "if you could ask God one question... what would it be" so we go around and do this in town because it opens people up... so we were knocking doors and it was raining pretty good and we're told to ask the questions to everyone old or young so we push the intercom and this girl answers and she says she's coming out and she sound like 17 so I was like eh I can ask her these questions... turns out she's like 9 years old but it was like she came out, it was raining and I already said we would ask a few questions so I did...
Now this sounds nice but these questions are deep and I'm flipping through thinking what can I ask this little girl... and I just opened my mouth and out popped the stupidest thing I could have said " what is the purpose of life?" Like seriously I asked a 9 year old what the purpose of life is haha Elder Mhlalase was just like Elder lets go we'll be back another time hahaha oh man we laughed and laughed...
Oh and this other guy we asked if he thought there was some plan for him after life and he just said "I don't know man but I know its gonna be @#$%@#$ up! theres gonna be fire and explosions and people burning and I'm gonna just sit back and have a beer..." CLASSIC....
Anywho so the week continued and man we were struggling ditches left and right so we just prayed, and fasted, and prayed some more and BOOM families coming left and right, referrals from members, lessons coming together, and............... 17 people on date for baptism by the 21st of November... and we have plans to put 10 more on this week... The lord hears prayers baby and things are pretty flippin sweet... We met this awesome family called the Moyo's and they were just like... "so this church has the priesthood and like is the right church?" "can we follow this, how do we join?" That's like asking a missionary "do you wanna come over for dinner tonight? we're having ribs?" man I love missionary work I can't say it enough...
So other big news this sunday we should be baptizing... James from Malawi... Nativity Chimwami from Zimbabwe... Possibly Nativity's husband Oakes... and possibly Joseph who is James roommate... Awesome story about James... He was found by the Wittwers at a gas station and through him he's just started inviting friends and we've found 6 others who are all preparing for baptism... NBD haha...
A Sweet story in the scrips for the week comes out of Alma 31... this is where Alma, Ammon, Aaron and the gang run into some apostate nephites who say prayers like "we are so glad we are better than everyone else and that you are gonna bless us and curse others..." Now I love personalities in scriptures and in one verse it says "when they had seen this they were astonished beyond all measure..." not exceedingly, or just astonished but "beyond all measure" man I laughed haha I can just imagine like Ammon and Aaron being like "Fetch! we gotta teach these guys?" but its a really awesoms story...
Anywho time is short... But I love the letters and emails... please when you send something get me your mailing address so I can write back... More sweet stuff to come and boom I'm 4 months old on mission now... 2 more and I can burn a tie and 4 more and I "get baptized haha" sweet stuff and plenty more adventures to come
Elder Robinson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of laughs funny story... so we have this finding method called a life survey where we ask questions like "what is the purpose of life" or "do you believe God has a plan for you and your family," or "if you could ask God one question... what would it be" so we go around and do this in town because it opens people up... so we were knocking doors and it was raining pretty good and we're told to ask the questions to everyone old or young so we push the intercom and this girl answers and she says she's coming out and she sound like 17 so I was like eh I can ask her these questions... turns out she's like 9 years old but it was like she came out, it was raining and I already said we would ask a few questions so I did...
Now this sounds nice but these questions are deep and I'm flipping through thinking what can I ask this little girl... and I just opened my mouth and out popped the stupidest thing I could have said " what is the purpose of life?" Like seriously I asked a 9 year old what the purpose of life is haha Elder Mhlalase was just like Elder lets go we'll be back another time hahaha oh man we laughed and laughed...
Oh and this other guy we asked if he thought there was some plan for him after life and he just said "I don't know man but I know its gonna be @#$%@#$ up! theres gonna be fire and explosions and people burning and I'm gonna just sit back and have a beer..." CLASSIC....
Anywho so the week continued and man we were struggling ditches left and right so we just prayed, and fasted, and prayed some more and BOOM families coming left and right, referrals from members, lessons coming together, and............... 17 people on date for baptism by the 21st of November... and we have plans to put 10 more on this week... The lord hears prayers baby and things are pretty flippin sweet... We met this awesome family called the Moyo's and they were just like... "so this church has the priesthood and like is the right church?" "can we follow this, how do we join?" That's like asking a missionary "do you wanna come over for dinner tonight? we're having ribs?" man I love missionary work I can't say it enough...
So other big news this sunday we should be baptizing... James from Malawi... Nativity Chimwami from Zimbabwe... Possibly Nativity's husband Oakes... and possibly Joseph who is James roommate... Awesome story about James... He was found by the Wittwers at a gas station and through him he's just started inviting friends and we've found 6 others who are all preparing for baptism... NBD haha...
A Sweet story in the scrips for the week comes out of Alma 31... this is where Alma, Ammon, Aaron and the gang run into some apostate nephites who say prayers like "we are so glad we are better than everyone else and that you are gonna bless us and curse others..." Now I love personalities in scriptures and in one verse it says "when they had seen this they were astonished beyond all measure..." not exceedingly, or just astonished but "beyond all measure" man I laughed haha I can just imagine like Ammon and Aaron being like "Fetch! we gotta teach these guys?" but its a really awesoms story...
Anywho time is short... But I love the letters and emails... please when you send something get me your mailing address so I can write back... More sweet stuff to come and boom I'm 4 months old on mission now... 2 more and I can burn a tie and 4 more and I "get baptized haha" sweet stuff and plenty more adventures to come
Elder Robinson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Oktober in Afrika
To begin today lets tell some funny stories of the week... Just last night we were tracting in Leachville and we came to a house... Elder Mhlalase was like yo this house is trouble it sounds like 20 something year old girls... and sure enough it was haha... So we walk in and it is instant awkward because we are like... "are your parents home?" and they are just like no but we can sit with these two strong men in suits and we were like no we can't haha because its a rule we've gotta have a member with us to teach girls our age... but yo they didn't get it... anyway so we kept trying to leave and finally got out after like 10 minutes of them flirting and "By the way Elder Robinson I LOOOVE your accent it is superb come by and see us real soon" haha man it was so awkward we probably looked like 12 year old boys trying to get out of there haha... When we left Elder Mhlalase was like "that is why people in Africa break the law of Chastity" man I laughed so hard I couldn't even talk at the next two doors we knocked... Also this week appearantly Elder Littlefield cooked hard boiled eggs and they blew up all over the flat and they had to repaint it hahahaha man I love mission so so so many crazy stories...
Anywho this week we got humbled hard core haha we've been trying to obey all the rules and schedule better but we've been lacking a bit and one day we just got Shamboked so hard core we got ditched by 9 appointments in one day... just imagine 9 in one day yo it hurt... its like going to work and finding all of your papers, projects, and everything missing man we decided we needed to obey 1000% and follow as close as possible...
So as far as work goes, we've really cleaned out our teaching pool and are only trying to teach really serious people like its insane we may meet with 30 new people a week to find some who are actually willing to act... but its good... keeps us busy and we are finding people... As far as those who are prepared... We have Nativity who has finally got her answer and told the ward all about it during testimony meeting yesterday and it was so awesome man just like huge smiles all around... we have James from Malawi who is just golden man after our lesson on the word of wisdom he just was like guys I need to thank you for these changes you've been making in my life... I've never felt closer to God and life has never been better... boom its sweet we actually try to commit people to a baptismal date within the first 3 appointments and with all these new people we've been finding I think we're gonna have to get more fonts haha... I'm really excited to keep the work going and can't wait to keep being obedient to see the blessings...
I have a real testimony of the power of prayer... It changes life and God always provides when we ask in faith for what is right because man I see it all the time out here when people pray about these things...
Satan is working hard against us tossing women, prostitues, broken cars, struggles, ditches and everything, but we've got work to do and can always make things happen with obedience, work, and prayer.
I love all these people and missionary work is so fun its like any time you are around missionaries its like a party hahaha especially the daveyton Elders: Onsongo, Kelly (my Australian brother who some day I'll go roo hunting with) Littlefield, and Williams, who is my boy, man investigators, tracting, church, dinner appointments, cleaning, cooking, all of the crazy things that happen I wouldn't trade for anything... its been three months and there is so much more awesome to come...
Collin, Uncle Weston, Leonard, Tanner, Andy, my sweatette brothers, Fetz, all you guys who are getting ready and who are already out yo I can't wait for you guys this is seriously such sweet work and live it up the 2 years will be gone soon and we've got a bunch of catching up to do but for now baptize, teach, and rock the Spirit... because that's what its all about...
Everyone have fun with life back home and write every now and again dear elder .com is free and I'd love to hear whats up... be sure to include your address so I can actually write back haha
Ndi hamba but I'll talk again in just 6 short days... I'm about to go enjoy a feast at the Royal Boma Buffet for just 60 rand or about 9 dollars... haha quick story Daniel Lombard one of the members sons who is 4 is like my bro right now haha he always wants me to teach primary and when we go over for family home evening is like I need to sit by Elder Wobinson haha I love that little guy I'll send pics soon... anyway take luck ya'll and enjoy the week I know I'll love mine
Elder Kenyon Sigonia Robinson out
Boom Shakalaka...
Sondag 3 Oktober, groete uit Ma en Pa
Ayoba! family howzit going acrossed the pond? Yesterday I just enjoyed my first african rainstorm and it was intense... the wind picks up to probably about 45 mph and thunder and lightning are just smashing all around then it dumps... it was so sweet... Good to hear Utah is doing well and hopefully another legit BCS bowl is in the future... how is the rest of the mountain west namely TCU doing because I have a feeling they may be a challenge... anyway yeah things are sweet and I'm so pumped to blow a kudu horn in just 20 short months haha it'll be intense... As far as needs... maybe for the christmas package send some of that back soap dyoxi whatever its called... Yeah Elder Crawford is Elder Alders father and since he's my brother he is somehow my step father which just adds more and more branches to my family briar patch... Elder Williams, who is my boy, is seen on a pretty regular basis and we hope it stays that way for a while... the only problem is we've been lacking in our morning soccer games but hopefully that picks up again... Township is like small homes and shacks (squatter camps) that take up a pretty big area... they are usually dirt and paved roads... like if you google earth Wattville its a pretty nice township but there is a big squatter camp area in Tamboville... just like the sheet metal and tarp homes you see in invictus they are all over the place... Its just the two of us in our flat and we had bikes... mine was called the storm trooper... but it got a flat tire so we usually just walk or take the car... except today our car is in the shop again because of messed up brake pads and an unusually high idol around 3000 rpm... but yeah its always an adventure to get around... We actually get conference out here on the 30th and 31st of October and we can go to every single session... because of the 10 hour time change its a little ridiculous but yeah I just have to thirst for conference for another month... but I'll have a nice little snack with elder holland in 10 days. I have really started to realize just how fast the time goes... for example... its been 3 months... now a transfer cycle is 6 weeks and this transfer ends in 2 more weeks... I'll then be gone for almost 4 months... there is 16 transfers in a mission and I've been through like 2 and a half... so in just a few transfers or by November I will have been gone for 6 months and I can burn a tie for the mile stone... 4 more transfers and it has been a year... then I can burn a shirt... then it is all the down hill slope... also by the time I call on Christmas... I'll have been gone 6 months... then when I call on mothers day i'll nearly be a year... 2 years is a long time but 6 months sure isn't... and especially when you leave areas... for example I'll probably be only in Benoni another 7 weeks or so... then I move and learn new people and a new area... its just crazyness...
As far as clothes go everything is holding up pretty well I'm just frustrated because they so called wrinkle free shirts can't be wrinkle free because we don't have a dryer... but that's not a big deal... I've officially named all my ties and have been trading them with companions... I gave Elder Nelson Lorenzo and in return got the Leviathan... so soon enough I'll be trading with Elder Mhlalase... anywho better get to the big letter but enjoy your monday
As far as clothes go everything is holding up pretty well I'm just frustrated because they so called wrinkle free shirts can't be wrinkle free because we don't have a dryer... but that's not a big deal... I've officially named all my ties and have been trading them with companions... I gave Elder Nelson Lorenzo and in return got the Leviathan... so soon enough I'll be trading with Elder Mhlalase... anywho better get to the big letter but enjoy your monday
Monday, September 27, 2010
Happy eerste week van die lente
So first things first... Do the Kudu horns make a noise? like do they actually work as a Kuduzela??? Next item of business... Micheal Sean Fahey... is about 44 years old and was born in Johannesburg, South Africa... He is a Plumber/electrician/roofer/mechanic by trade and works about 12 hours a day... He has had a crazy life of ups and downs near suicide, drugs, divorce and all kinds of crazy business... But he has a heart of gold and has a ridiculous drive in doing good and improving himself... lets see... He was baptized yesterday in freezing cold water and I now have 5 baptisms on mission so far!!!!
Good to hear Utah is still doing well and well Dixie can still always beat canyon view... Thomas Brock is one of mine Paul's and Sam's friend he is actually the same kid who carved the africa necklace thing and was trying to get help on eagle scout from you guys at one point in time... Good to hear everyone is doing well and ish I miss cafe rio hahaha... Um honestly as far as a package or food or anything tortilla chips, tortillas, and perhaps a little bit of popcorn.... there is a lack of corn products in this country hahaha! Elder Ncube Mhlalase is awesome ( Nnnn (dental click) so suck your tounge back off of your front teeth... oooh bay) and (Mmm hhhcchhhllll with a bit of pflegm ahh say) he's awesome we seriously have so much fun out here haha and a bunch of work is getting done.... the Malawi crew... James Joseph Isaak and Innocent are all on baptismal date for the 17th of October and our goal this week is to have 19 on date for the next to months so yeah haha the work is taking off hard core...
Good to hear people are finding me on facebook and I hope all keeps going well... If you hear anything from Andy about a mission call let me know... time for the big letter... see y'all in a week
Good to hear Utah is still doing well and well Dixie can still always beat canyon view... Thomas Brock is one of mine Paul's and Sam's friend he is actually the same kid who carved the africa necklace thing and was trying to get help on eagle scout from you guys at one point in time... Good to hear everyone is doing well and ish I miss cafe rio hahaha... Um honestly as far as a package or food or anything tortilla chips, tortillas, and perhaps a little bit of popcorn.... there is a lack of corn products in this country hahaha! Elder Ncube Mhlalase is awesome ( Nnnn (dental click) so suck your tounge back off of your front teeth... oooh bay) and (Mmm hhhcchhhllll with a bit of pflegm ahh say) he's awesome we seriously have so much fun out here haha and a bunch of work is getting done.... the Malawi crew... James Joseph Isaak and Innocent are all on baptismal date for the 17th of October and our goal this week is to have 19 on date for the next to months so yeah haha the work is taking off hard core...
Good to hear people are finding me on facebook and I hope all keeps going well... If you hear anything from Andy about a mission call let me know... time for the big letter... see y'all in a week
Amu Mameli Rhloqo!!!! (YOU NEVER LISTEN!!!)
Hello all and welcome to this weeks edition of adventures in Johannesburg, South Africa!!! first things first Yesterday (September 26th) was my 5th baptism of Mike Fahey an Afrikaaner from Joburg... he is the first white guy I've baptized and supposedly it is quite the rarity to baptize anyone white out here so yay for that... Seriously he's an awesome guy he has like a heart of gold and is just super Lekker... Just one problem though the water was freezing haha our chapel has no water heater so it was like cold enough to drink water haha.... But the spirit is so powerful when you baptize someone that like you don't even notice... Also yesterday, I was part of the Confering of the Priesthood to Mathius and Tinashe and man it was powerful the Spirit was super strong and man they take it so seriously and know that its a huge responsibility...
But lets talk about the week... last monday we had a dinner appointment with the Lombard family which is the young mens president in Benoni... He has 5 sons all under the age of 7 so their house is insane!!! haha their second youngest son Daniel is like the funniest kid alive... We met with them to start U-nite or a large scale family home evening in Boksburg... This we hope will bring less actives, members, and investigators together for just a nice block party....
Elder Mhlalase and I are working like super well together so well in fact that we've been getting all kinds of new investigators... But this comes from the power of prayer and faith so... Story Time... last friday was a 100% bust on appointments we had a training meeting, two ward correlation meetings, and 3 ditched appointments so we went out to our brand new discovered township leachville and began to tract.... Now We've been told to pray for miracles and that those who are prepared may be put into our path so we did just this and I felt really good about it. So with the last 30 minutes of daylight we had we embarked down the dusty township roads... and something sweet happened... I felt impressed to turn down Santyhout avenue and to just knock doors... and guess what? every single house we knocked was a father led family and all of them had serious questions about life, and the gospel that we could answer... and they are all super prepared for our message... In just 30 minutes we found about 17 new investigators in 6 families... Boom baby prayers are answered as long as we have faith and are worthy to receive the blessings....
So that is my pump up story of the week and though our goal for the next 3 months is 17 baptisms 5 of which we already have!!! :D by the end of this week we hope to have 19 on date and after some well calculated planning we believe 30 is possible with faith... A TON of hard work, help from members, and of course God....
This week I went on exchanges twice with Elders Crawford from Layton Utah and Mchunu from Richards Bay South Africa and its always sweet to go on the exchanges and learn a lot... I really feel myself getting better at teaching, finding, asking questions, and extending commitments, but always room for improvement...
Funny story of the week... Elder Mhlalase is a serial Pigeon killer and no joke in the 2 and a half weeks he's been hear has killed 17 with the car hahaha... But I was driving on Wednesday and I hit one going about 70k's an hour or in the correct American terms about 45 Miles an hour... but the crazy thing was it lived I hit it full on with the bumper there was a poof of feathers and it flew away half naked like nothing happened haha I was laughing about that for like 5 hours hahaha!!!
Misison is full of awesome stories, people, experiences, struggles and all that business and then the next thing you know... you've already been gone for 3 months... Ish soon enough I'll be leaving Benoni and who knows where else I may go but I'm gonna make the most of it... For all of you though just live up whatever you're doing... whether on mission, preparing to go, at college, working, live it up because man things fly by... I mean shoot I'll be 20 in 6 months crazyness....
A sweet and pretty dang funny scripture is in Acts chapter 12 it talks about paul being smacked by an angel and freed from prison as well as Herod boasting of himself being killed instantly by an angel and then eaten by worms haha
Mission is awesome... Life is awesome.... I can't wait to keep working hard and see what happens
Elder Robinson!!!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Spring/Summer is here baby!!!
So first things first I love Africa's weather haha everyone is like uh! it's 24 Celcius that is so hot!!! which I think if my math is right is like 80's... so I just laugh and say try St. George's 46 in the summer or like 113... anywho so spring is here and there is an awesome holiday called spring day which is like a nationwide water fight haha kids run around with buckets totally drench you and then yell Spring day!!! man I can't wait to introduce that to america hahaha...
Other random South Africa facts... Let's start with some slang... if you ask some one Howzit? they say Shawp shawp or (sharp sharp)... but my personal favorite is... "is it?" this is the South africa way of saying really? so for example we were teaching the Monde family and they were like so elder Robinson where are you from? I was like St. George Utah... It's like an hour drive from las Vegas... and they say "IS IT?" or like for example my day has been sweet "Is it?" it makes me laugh everytime because its like terrible english but I can't help myself from using it hahaha
Anyway to the mission work and the week so far... Big news I get my 5th baptism on Sunday and I'm baptizing Mike Fahey who is seriously on fire right now... He quit smoking in one day and now says he's addicted to raisins hahahaha but he's been totally clean for 13 days and this sunday is the day... We're doing a lot of restructuring out hear in Benoni and now are working with both the Rynfield ward and Benoni ward which makes for really crazy sundays haha... But between referrals, contacting, Family Mission plan, and just talking to everyone we found 11 new families to teach this week and like 7 other investigators... we really want to meet our trimester goal of 17 baptisms and because of that we are really working hard and trying to find those who are super prepared... This week we are trying to put 9 people on date for the next two months... so the work goes forth which is just rockin...
Elder Mhlalase is the man seriously we have so much fun and do so much good work together like yo it's awesome.... It's like two excited overgrown kids/men doin the lords work, finding, teaching, baptizing, and eating lots and lots of chicken polony hahaha....
I'm having some seriously crazy dreams haha like they almost always involve teaching and me trying to speak like zulu or Xhosa or Stwana and its just like so real and I wake up and just think like snap I"ve lost it... I caught myself talking in my sleep saying "will you commit to plant the seeds of faith by praying to know if this is true..." man haha I'm so lost in missionary work... which is of course totally awesome...
Some big sacrifices out here people have to make is getting work off on sundays... we would honestly have like 40 investigators at church if it weren't for this... This then leads to a lot of fasting and prayer and it's crazy because like you get used to fasting... back home man I couldn't make it like over 14 hours but now like ish I guess the Spirit helps haha...
We've been being led to a lot of interesting people who are like totally ready for the gospel... Like we knocked a door and taught a 45 minute lesson because the people were like... Hey what's different about your church? and maybe you can tell us why there are so many churches today? Boom silver platter baby haha no seriously I love missionary work its honestly the shizz...
I've been doing a lot of reading of G.C. talks lately and really love Elder Holland man that guy is powerful... Oh and BTW he's coming to Joburg on the 11th and I get to meet him! yeha baby Dixie High Grad Elder Robinson and Dixie High Grad Elder Hollland are going to meet in the birthplace of mankind... Anyway things are great... I hope you all enjoy the pictures and man some sweet stuff has been happening out here and the members are nothing short of amazing...
Oh and yeah the rainy season is coming which means monsoon like rain for weeks at a time!!! man I'm excited...
Clayton who we do FHE with every week just got made the Elders quorum president and oh more awesome news haha we're going to start playing rugby on Pdays with the stake presidency out here hahahahaha man I'm excited...
Things are great, we're finding, we're teaching, and there is always more we can do... The Johannesburg Temple is awesome but super small inside but just awesome as always.... Soon we'll have more stories to come but keep Africa and Missionaries in your prayers... The world needs it and its by faith and prayer that these miracles come... And of course God can't forget that but I love you all and love hearing from you...
Nsari Zhakanaka
Elder Robinson
Monday, September 20, 2010
Raging Leeu en die Cheeta
Ah hello all its good to know you are all together and that you got my pictures already wow that was fast... so I just barely got the new SD card on Friday at the temple so I think mail takes about 1 month to get for me and it takes like 10 days for you... anywho yeah the lion park was pretty dang sweet... good to hear the Utes are awesome and well it's a shame with Dixie but class of 09' was the pinacle... anywho yeah the Mhike's are flippin awesome they'll be getting the priesthood this sunday and their conversion story is nothing short of a miracle like they were accidentally contacted by salt lake and the rest is history... Um their mailing address would be something like J&L flats, Boksburg, Gauteng, South Africa #11 but I'll get it for sure... Tinashe is 15 and Shyleen is 10 and I hope you liked the pics of them it is such a rockin family... as of cheddars present for me I honestly couldn't stop laughing when I found it and I actually used it to prank elder Nelson hahaha... Um yeah everything is pretty dang sweet out here and its already getting hot... dang less than 4 months and I'm an uncle from half way across the world what's up! Elder Mhlalase was converted in 2007 and man he's awesome we actually have a ton in common and its just like 2 overgrown kids serving in Benoni we have a ton of fun and get a lot of work done. He kinda reminds me of an African nick haha... Um I've been getting quite a bit of mail which is always sweet and maybe hold off on another package for a bit... but there is another kid named riik he's one of the Van der Westheiyzens and I said I'd try and get him a sweet birthday present from america... He's 13 so I think you guys might have some good ideas.... I'm excited for the language books I'm actually learning a bit of Xhosa from the new comp and its sweet there are a ton of clicks :D... Collin wrote and it was super funny like he was talking about how people will stop him and uncle weston and be like " aren't you in a band like seargant nasty or something? We haven't seen you guys in a while.... and then they are like "eah well... our bassist is in Africa" so then i guess everyone is super like taken backed and shocked like " oh wow these guys are big!" so that's pretty legit. I guess he's getting a bit nervous because he leaves in about a month now... If there is any news on Fetz's call, the Frizfish, or Andy's or of course uncle weston's mission calls that would be sweet.
You guys should make tshakalaka though it is a way awesome south Africa delight... you get carot shavings, onions, green peppers, some seasoning of choice, and baked beans and mix them all together plus some rice and chicken and that's probably a typical dinner appointment meal... Anyway more crazyness I've been in Africa 2 months now and in like 16 days been gone for 3 months so yeah in mission time I'm just about to go to nursery hahaha... anywho yeah crazyness it's almost October and hoof man next thing you know November... Mission goes by too fast it scares me... like and they say your first 6 months is the slowest that scares me haha... anywho time for the big letter...
Oh and before I forget... if you can get a working Kuduzela from the real animal that would be sweet... no need to send it hear just keep it at home awaiting my triumphant return haha....
Monday, September 13, 2010
A new transfer, a new companion, an antichrist, and one incredible week! Sept.13,2010
So to begin with I'll discuss my headline... I've officially been on mission for nearly 3 months and a transfer cycle is now complete holy cow does time fly... My new companion is Elder Mhlalase (Mmmm khhlll ah see) um I don't really know how to spell it phonetically haha. He is from Port Elizabeth South Africa and is Xhosa so that is pretty dang sweet I'm going to get a lot better at African languages. He's been on mission now for about a year and man is this kid a Spiritual giant wow every lesson is just like fireworks.... Now time for a sweet story the Anti-Christ.... so Elder Nelson and I were wrapping up our last few days together when we had a referral from a member... this guy was a pastor in the 12 apostles church and heard that we had the authority from apostles that his church had... Now our first lesson he was super receptive and was like yeah I believe all that stuff and I'll have to study this Joseph Smith guy.... so then came monday we sit down and he is like you guys teach lies your church doesn't have authority mine does... we were like yeah we kinda expected you'd say that... but did you pray... He just ignored us and was like yeah you have to get authority from in the flesh not a dream and we were like exactly... that's what happened... then he just started bashing and bashing and bashing and then whipped out perhaps the most crazy quote ever... "Jesus was the word... Now I am the word and the way..." Oh my gosh you should have seen Elder Nelsons face he was like ready to rip the dudes head off! he was like that sir is blaspheme we are leaving so yeah haha we bailed and honestly were just laughing for hours haha the dude was straight up crazy and tripped himself up so many times... another sweet story was that we met this drunk dude on the corner and he kept trying to hook me up with his daughter and I was just like uh... maybe in a few years hahaha I'm a missionary.... and then something amazing happened haha he smelt me and was like ah you smell like a noble tree you must be a man of God hahahahahahahahahahahahahah (Breath) hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! I couldn't stop laughing anyway its pretty dang sweet because the work goes forth even when we get smelt by crazy people....
This week I got to confirm Mathius Mhike and it was awesome but super sketchy because man are blessings intimidating! We also got to teach a 3 hour primary activity on saturday and oh boy are little kids crazy hahaha it was absolute chaos for 3 hours we just went home that night crashed and didn't even move until like we absolutely had to.
Our big focus now is working with the members because our pool is getting a little small now so we've started introducing the family mission plan, a ward mission plan, and now something called U-nite... This is like a big FHE for an entire neighborhood where we invite members, recent converts, less actives, and then they all invite friends... It's still in the process of building but I really think it's gonna explode out here. Um our goal up til december is for 16 baptisms 4 of which we already got with the Mhike family... We have Mike Fahey who will be getting baptized on the 26th and man is this guy awesome...
So he had a super tough life growing up and now is living next to a member she introduced him to the gospel and man he has the heart of a champion... In 2 days he entirely quit smoking and has become addicted to raisins hahaha and he asked me to baptize him so that will bring my total to 5 which man its crazy Africa is seriously on fire and I love that guy he oof man he's the bomb...
We've also been teaching James and some of his friends Innocent, Joseph, and Issak from Malawi and we met James at a gas station... We were filling up the other night and he was there and was like yo! guys I love the Book of Mormon! I really think I'm getting my answer I'm so happy I met you guys!!! so we are teaching him tonight and I honestly can't wait man Benoni is sweet.
Really something I've found out is how much of an asset every member is to the ward whether the bishop, greeter, or home teachers it really makes the wards awesome and makes people want to stick around... today is a fantastic 26 C and its great to be on mission and in Africa... I don't know what's coming around the corner but I know as we keep working and following all of the rules 100% I'm doin all that I should be...
Hopefully the miracles come... Pray on Y'all and keep it real... Stay Sharp... Nsari Zhakanaka... See you all in a week!
Response to letter from Mom and Dad Sept.13,2010
Ah hello from the other side of the world sounds like you've had quite the week and so have I... That is sweet with the whole Silver Beaver thing and I'm glad it was fun hopefully everything keeps going well with sports back home too. Lets see I got the package on wednesday at transfer meeting so it could have been there for at least 1 week but it was nice the tortilla chips were gone before we got back from roodeport so I decided I needed to go sparingly on the tortillas and honestly I forgot how much I love hot sauce... Um yeah the hair clipper story haha so out here I was told that anything that requires a lot of electricity so : hair clippers, my alarmclock radio, etc would have a tough time running even with the converter so the first day here my clock blew up but I forgot to mention that so I've just been using my watch and the mission cell phone. the clippers worked at first but got louder and louder and louder then caught on fire hahaha so I threw them on the floor and smothered them with my pillow haha. It's awesome you saw the sisters I guess I'll have to try writing them again though it'll be a little while before I'm back to the office. Oh but maybe next friday because we are FINALLY going to the Joburg temple. That's sweet with the Kudu Zela and I'm definitely going to keep looking around... Leon our ward missionary said he thought he knew a place so I'll probably just give him some money for one... So the letter from Mathius was awesome and definitely I'm glad you could write back to him... The whole family is from Zimbabwe and are just super awesome they all speak Shona and honestly like Zimbabweans are all just so humble and awesome. I just confirmed Mathius yesterday and man the Spirit was strong oof its crazy how ridiculous it works out here. In fact all of the Mhike's are baptized and confirmed and man I can't wait to see where the whole conversion goes. It's sweet to hear Thomas is off to Carlsbad as well now I know 7 missionaries there... Summer is just around the corner hear so there are even sweeter sunsets over the Joburg skyline and man I can't wait for rain it is so dry. Glad to hear all is well with Kasey and the family and yeah the lion bite is becoming a scar because I keep picking it on purpose haha. Um I heard from Fetzer and Alexis which was awesome and am so happy for that kid and hopefully soon all of the papers will be done. Transfers were tough haha um it was tough to see Elder Blau go and it looked a bit rough for him too we'll def need to stay in touch but I guess its just part of the circle of mission they say the transfers get harder and harder because you know the missionaries better and better then the next thing you know you're on the way home. and the crazy thing is I've already been through 1 of my 2 winters here and 1 of my 2 springs is half over... honestly I don't know where the time goes... They say the weeks feel like days the months feel like weeks and the years feel like months but the days feel like lifetimes hahaha and it is so true we are constantly working, praying, studying, and it is really rough but there is nothing I'd rather be doing right now and hearing that from the Mhike's seeing the change in them and spending time with other investigators and members just make it awesome...
If you could maybe forward Elder Blau's last email it'd be a good thing to look at to remind me what the work is all about...
Glad to hear you're enjoying the missionary moms and Elder Yugawa from Hawaii's first name is craig if that helps you find his mom... anyway gotta get to writing the chain mail everything here is sweet though...
Elder Blau's last email from South Africa
to everyone well this is my last time emailing on a mission in South Africa and so im goin to go out bearing my testimony. but before that i love being a missionary and i know that there is a time and a season in all things and my season and time are running fast. ive made some awesome friends and have been able to baptize many of our brothers and sisters. ive planted seeds and ive harvested others and my own. the most important helper on my mission however is the companionship of the Holy Ghost, he is the man, he has taught me and testified to me many time that our eldest bro Jesus Christ has come here to this earth and has brought me mercy and the atonement to cure me and cleans me. i love studying about Christ he is so amazing everything about him makes him who he is. ive learned something very important from the church its "its one thing to know about Christ, and another thing to be like Christ" and so thats what the church is doing helping us to be like Christ, we deicide to be like him then the atonement takes over to help us on our way to Perfection. the awesome thing about perfection is that Christ himself has told us to be perfect not just told us but encouraged us and commanded us. and the Lord will give us no commandment that we cant keep, I love the people here in africa i loved my mission i think its safe for me to take Elder Hollands words " My mission means EVERYTHING to me!" and thats true for me. i am different no doubt but different in a since that Christ has given me the atonement. This church is true, Jesus Christ did come and this is His church, Joseph smith is awsome and he is The Prophet of the Restoration, and Thomas S. Monson is a true Prophet, the Book of Mormon is our evidence of this. i love it here and i am excited and scared about leaving. i hope everything goes well everywhere.
With love
ELDER Brendon Blau
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