So the greatest news is we got 2 baptisms on Sunday! so that was sweet Mbuso Fortune Sikumbuzo Shumba and Thandiwe Emelda Ngomane were baptized at richman poorman furniture store parking lot yesterday and it was so flippin sweet. you know... sometimes you tract 12 hours a day 6 days a week and get rejected time after time, have to kick a dog in the face that is chasing you, put up with blisters, cuts, swarming bees, and all kinds of other problems but then sunday comes and you see the change in two peoples lives and you get to be part of it and you look back and say it was all worth it. what a January is all I can say.
Also cool this week... well actually today WE GOT THE CAR BACK!!! so now we can visit all of our investigators again, make it to appointments on time, drive to locations to tract rather than walk 2 hours, and enjoy AC! just some more awesome ways the Lord hooks us up
we had two pretty sweet rejections this week... one is from the headliner "guy's we've got a boat... we don't need Jesus." and another favorite was "LISTEN!!! I'M DRINKING RIGHT NOW AND I DON'T WANNA LISTEN!" ah we have fun tracting haha seriously it is fun just the simple day to day fun of missionary work you just have to live to understand.
Our members are working on missonary work now and also sweet is that we should have 11 on date for baptism by the end of this week so I really hope we can work well with these guys and help this branch grow. I just think it'll take a lot of work but luckily we got 2 baptisms to kinda put the fire back in our hearts. and the car helps a lot too haha.
Man so super bowl this week... hard to believe that much time has gone by I mean it's february tomorrow what the heck. you get shocked more and more how fast time goes by like I just look now and say 7 months gone Elder Rama keeps telling us haha you've hit 6 months you guys are dead... me I might as well be on the plane it's crazy.
anyway it was a good week... but long... but sunday made it all worth it and we're now pumped to go back out and work again.
Elder Kantu is going to be leaving to Botswana but we don't know when yet which will really mix things up out here as far as transfers, future transfers, and what kind of missionary that will be coming.
this week we are going to Tzaneen for zone conference which is a 5 hour drive part way through Kruger National park so that'll be cool and we'll get to see the baboons who sit on the side of the road and wave at cars. So all in all good week, some new investigators we'll be seeing this week and two baptisms... what up nelspruit.
Have a splendid week
go Steelers
happy February
Elder Robinson
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Hotswana, the car back!... for one day..., bafana bafana, and 2 count em 2 baptisms.
Welcome one welcome all to KFC south Africa... yeah so we got our car back not last monday but last thursday 13 days after loosing scardizio (our Aveo) and enjoyed the colonels 11 herbs and spices in celebration of happy feet, air conditioner, and being able to make it to our investigators again. and then we went to Lydenburg... we had an epic drive through the mountains and mist and it is an incredible view it kinda reminds me of those pictures you see of stone hendge like big green rolling hills, waterfalls, rivers, and this huge sun. So that was sweet. we met with President Sigauwke who has a new investigator for us and we introduced the family mission plan to members out there. They are the strength of our branch in Lydenburg so I'm worried that if they start to see a lot of growth they'll open a branch there and Nelspruit would die so hopefully something works out for the best the problem is it is 98k's from the church so... yeah... and then the night came. and our car wouldn't start. we assumed eh maybe it just needs to be jumped but no so appearantly the starter is dead so a guy basically hot wired our car and we drove back. We had a sweet drive back though fog so thick we had to drive like 50k's an hour the whole way... like 35mph and we saw duikers all over the road which is basically like a midget gazelle and we almost hit one haha. and then we arrived back and ate pillow for the night. then without a car once again we commenced tracting in the blazing sun with barely even being able to plant passalong cards. so haha once again we're struggling in the work because we can't make it to our humble areas and we've tracted almost every where else...
This week we also found out that they are still having problems getting Visas in Botswana for more than 90 days so we may be having an emergency transfer with the Botswana Elders and Elder Kantu may be leaving Nelspruit sometime this week. we'll get the phone call tonight. I think he is ready to leave but I think he wants to see progress from the families we're teaching and of course our two baptisms this sunday.
Speaking of that... bam two baptisms this sunday to basically kick off my 2 months in Nelspruit.It's crazy to see the time go so fast but looking back I feel like i've been here a LONG time. but still much work is to be done. Mbuso and Thandiwe will put us on track to make our trimester and will give us drive to keep planting seeds, tracting, and getting rejected. and of course teaching a humble few.
So some sweet news... in Sudan next week there is an African cup of 16 countries and Bafana Bafana (the national team) is training in Nelspruit right up the street from our flat... so we got a bunch of pics with the team and even run the same hills they do twice a week. so that's pretty cool and we even gave one of the coaches a book of mormon... so if they do well in the tournament you know what's up haha.
well not to much else to talk about other than it's hot, the work is picking up a bit, members are helping a little, and WE'RE GETTIN 2 BAPTISMS... I would dance but it is against mission rules. speaking of mission rules funny story. When Elder Nelson and I were still together he told me a story of a missionary who even defended the mission rules in his dreams and he said now that's an obedient missionary. well this week it happened. I had a dream I was back home with Martin, Wade, Collin, Uncle Weston, (the wonky ballz crew) and we were all gonna go ride motorcycles. and I was like guys... we can't it's against the rules and we need baptisms. then I woke up. yeah when your mind is continually on missionary stuff haha you go a bit crazy.
This week I saw a Baboon and they stand on the side of the road and wave at cars haha it's pretty classic and I've heard you can feed them bananas so maybe we'll try that soon and yep they've got crazy colored butts. We've got some old missionaries that used to serve in Mozambique and Nelspruit and they're pretty sweet haha they even wore their badges to sacrament from 6 years ago so that was interesting. and we enjoyed another sweet Sunday night with the Atkinsons having some ice cream, snickerdoodles (GOD BLESS AMERICA) , and popcorn and chatted about the week which is always nice.
I think I'll close this week by talking about a kind of sort of investigator the Atkinsons are teaching and we help with a little bit. his name is Frek and he's a crazy Afrikaaner with a heart of gold. back in the day Angola and South Africa had a war going on so they parachuted him in to the bush to basically terrorize some of the army and well they forgot about him. He's basically a South African Rambo but a sniper and he's skinny. So basically he survived in the jungle 10 years by himself killing people for food, clothes, money, bullets, or whatever else he needed just doing his job for his country that forgot about him. and then came back to south africa and snapped two times on people who crossed him funny and killed them. but he's got the heart of a champion and they guy is a big teddy bear and bought a suit so he can come to "jesus's true church" every week. so that's Frek... he's the man...
anyway guys time is short but things are pretty good. and I'm excited for sunday and hopefully to have our car back again by tuesday... Next monday I may have a new companion, more crazy stories, and of course a new box of Weetbix... YE....BO!!!
Ke Nako... it is time.... cheers ney?
This week we also found out that they are still having problems getting Visas in Botswana for more than 90 days so we may be having an emergency transfer with the Botswana Elders and Elder Kantu may be leaving Nelspruit sometime this week. we'll get the phone call tonight. I think he is ready to leave but I think he wants to see progress from the families we're teaching and of course our two baptisms this sunday.
Speaking of that... bam two baptisms this sunday to basically kick off my 2 months in Nelspruit.It's crazy to see the time go so fast but looking back I feel like i've been here a LONG time. but still much work is to be done. Mbuso and Thandiwe will put us on track to make our trimester and will give us drive to keep planting seeds, tracting, and getting rejected. and of course teaching a humble few.
So some sweet news... in Sudan next week there is an African cup of 16 countries and Bafana Bafana (the national team) is training in Nelspruit right up the street from our flat... so we got a bunch of pics with the team and even run the same hills they do twice a week. so that's pretty cool and we even gave one of the coaches a book of mormon... so if they do well in the tournament you know what's up haha.
well not to much else to talk about other than it's hot, the work is picking up a bit, members are helping a little, and WE'RE GETTIN 2 BAPTISMS... I would dance but it is against mission rules. speaking of mission rules funny story. When Elder Nelson and I were still together he told me a story of a missionary who even defended the mission rules in his dreams and he said now that's an obedient missionary. well this week it happened. I had a dream I was back home with Martin, Wade, Collin, Uncle Weston, (the wonky ballz crew) and we were all gonna go ride motorcycles. and I was like guys... we can't it's against the rules and we need baptisms. then I woke up. yeah when your mind is continually on missionary stuff haha you go a bit crazy.
This week I saw a Baboon and they stand on the side of the road and wave at cars haha it's pretty classic and I've heard you can feed them bananas so maybe we'll try that soon and yep they've got crazy colored butts. We've got some old missionaries that used to serve in Mozambique and Nelspruit and they're pretty sweet haha they even wore their badges to sacrament from 6 years ago so that was interesting. and we enjoyed another sweet Sunday night with the Atkinsons having some ice cream, snickerdoodles (GOD BLESS AMERICA) , and popcorn and chatted about the week which is always nice.
I think I'll close this week by talking about a kind of sort of investigator the Atkinsons are teaching and we help with a little bit. his name is Frek and he's a crazy Afrikaaner with a heart of gold. back in the day Angola and South Africa had a war going on so they parachuted him in to the bush to basically terrorize some of the army and well they forgot about him. He's basically a South African Rambo but a sniper and he's skinny. So basically he survived in the jungle 10 years by himself killing people for food, clothes, money, bullets, or whatever else he needed just doing his job for his country that forgot about him. and then came back to south africa and snapped two times on people who crossed him funny and killed them. but he's got the heart of a champion and they guy is a big teddy bear and bought a suit so he can come to "jesus's true church" every week. so that's Frek... he's the man...
anyway guys time is short but things are pretty good. and I'm excited for sunday and hopefully to have our car back again by tuesday... Next monday I may have a new companion, more crazy stories, and of course a new box of Weetbix... YE....BO!!!
Ke Nako... it is time.... cheers ney?
Monday, January 17, 2011
January: the hottest month of the year welcome to the southern hemisphere
Well where to begin our car still is in the shop so this week I'm estimating we walked about 115 miles round and about to appointments and things. GM is kinda a joke here so maybe I'll talk you through my 10 days of phone calls about the car. last friday we took it in and they gave us a call about our engine coolant and AC and how they have to order some new pipes. the cost is about 5000 rand so they wanted us to make a down payment and because of being on foot and the distance we had to wait until saturday. Thabo told us our car would be fixed tuesday. tesday comes and we call around 1 o clock and he says "eish boss your car will be fixed friday morning" so friday morning comes and we call. "um your car will be finished monday" so hopefully at 12 o clock today we have our car. if not we may be hoofing it again. But its seriously effected the missionary work because we can't make it to many of our investigators and we've tracted everyone within an hours walk. But all that aside we had a dope week.
Thandiwe is a super cool lady we met at spar. we basically got our groceries, gave her a passalong card, talked a bit, and invited her to church. Sunday came and bam she was there and said "How can I get baptized" now something sweet happens with missionary work. sometimes you walk and walk and knock and knock but what you really needed to do was work hard and be obedient and the lord hooks you up. she'll be baptized on the 30th.
Mbuso is from Joburg and is 19 he's finishing up school and moved up here for his last year with some friends. first lesson asked a lot about baptism and wanted to get baptized. he's also gonna make the 30th hopefully and what's rad is we'll be on track for our trimester goal and 2 baptisms in January is the same as the whole of missionary work last year. so obedience and work pays off. Plus God hooks us up. enough said haha.
we do have some pretty sweet families also who are progressing so we're hoping for around 12 baptisms by April. so hopefully the work continues to go well and with luck and the Spirit everything will be sweet.
Now for a funny story. So we've been trying to work a lot with members lately and Elder Kantu was assigned to talk on the joys of missionary work and member missionary work. so yesterday he gives a powerful talk and bears sweet sweet testimony and promises miracles in the Nelspruit branch and man you could feel the Spirit. so he wraps up the talk and no joke this is the first thing a member says to us right after the talk "don't worry elders you'll get baptisms when you leave Nelspruit" hahahahahaha man that's our branch haha they don't take family mission plan, unites, or any of their work seriously haha but a few do and that's all we ask in fact we have 2 referrals to see this week one of which is a family... so yay :D.
On a sad note a lady we're teaching, Veronica, has a mother who is dying of what is suspected to be AIDS. so it's not very pretty right now but she's still progressing and I think its the perfect time to teach the plan of salvation. Her sister and brother want to meet with us as well so who knows what will come there.
But basically it has been a pretty good week just flippin hot and I've got some pretty stinky shirts to wash. one day though we got dumped on for about 5 miles and my shoes are still trying to dry. one day it'll be like 100 and 100% humidity and the next day it'll be monsoon. TIA this is Africa. anyway thnigs are sweet and hopefully we get our car back today because my feet feel like wet cardboard that's been ran over like 30 times.
OH and thanks everyone for the Christmas cards I'll try to write back but mail has been getting stolen lately so I'll just thank you in advance we just got our mail this week.
Aufwiederzehn von Afrika
Elder Robinson
Thandiwe is a super cool lady we met at spar. we basically got our groceries, gave her a passalong card, talked a bit, and invited her to church. Sunday came and bam she was there and said "How can I get baptized" now something sweet happens with missionary work. sometimes you walk and walk and knock and knock but what you really needed to do was work hard and be obedient and the lord hooks you up. she'll be baptized on the 30th.
Mbuso is from Joburg and is 19 he's finishing up school and moved up here for his last year with some friends. first lesson asked a lot about baptism and wanted to get baptized. he's also gonna make the 30th hopefully and what's rad is we'll be on track for our trimester goal and 2 baptisms in January is the same as the whole of missionary work last year. so obedience and work pays off. Plus God hooks us up. enough said haha.
we do have some pretty sweet families also who are progressing so we're hoping for around 12 baptisms by April. so hopefully the work continues to go well and with luck and the Spirit everything will be sweet.
Now for a funny story. So we've been trying to work a lot with members lately and Elder Kantu was assigned to talk on the joys of missionary work and member missionary work. so yesterday he gives a powerful talk and bears sweet sweet testimony and promises miracles in the Nelspruit branch and man you could feel the Spirit. so he wraps up the talk and no joke this is the first thing a member says to us right after the talk "don't worry elders you'll get baptisms when you leave Nelspruit" hahahahahaha man that's our branch haha they don't take family mission plan, unites, or any of their work seriously haha but a few do and that's all we ask in fact we have 2 referrals to see this week one of which is a family... so yay :D.
On a sad note a lady we're teaching, Veronica, has a mother who is dying of what is suspected to be AIDS. so it's not very pretty right now but she's still progressing and I think its the perfect time to teach the plan of salvation. Her sister and brother want to meet with us as well so who knows what will come there.
But basically it has been a pretty good week just flippin hot and I've got some pretty stinky shirts to wash. one day though we got dumped on for about 5 miles and my shoes are still trying to dry. one day it'll be like 100 and 100% humidity and the next day it'll be monsoon. TIA this is Africa. anyway thnigs are sweet and hopefully we get our car back today because my feet feel like wet cardboard that's been ran over like 30 times.
OH and thanks everyone for the Christmas cards I'll try to write back but mail has been getting stolen lately so I'll just thank you in advance we just got our mail this week.
Aufwiederzehn von Afrika
Elder Robinson
Monday, January 10, 2011
Legen.... wait for it.... DARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So what to say about this week other than it has been awesome. We tracted the crap out of kamagugu and found 6 new families and 17 new investigators we should have quite a few on baptismal date soon and will be progressing to achieve our goals. an awesome family is Solly and Happy. they are the best and its one of those families you teach and it doesn't matter how bad your day has sucked or not but you just leave happy. So I'm happy this week was sweet and hopefully everyone will be back by today so we have our full arsenal of investigators back.
time is very short haha so I'll save a lot about our new people for next week but lets just say they are awesome and 2 weeks of nothing were worth it. haha.
So story this week our cars coolant pipe broke so we've been without a car since Wednesday which means walking about 20 miles a day. haha so it has been pretty intense one day super hot getting chased by a swarm of bees the next walking in 3 inch deep rain getting blisters.
So all of this walking kind of leads to being really tired. now we take malaria pills every day and they have been known to cause strange dreams. this week I had two gems. Friday night I had a dream we were in Kruger national park and we some how ran into country legend Kenny Rogers. I simply gave him a pass along card and I baptized Kenny Rogers the next weekend. Why Kenny Rogers I don't know but I wasn't complaining and man we had good chicken after the baptism haha. Dream two and my personal favorite involved president Sigauwke our branch president. appearantly he was mad so he told us to go burn down a less active families house because they were ruining his home teaching stats and then told us to take their names to the temple for baptisms for the dead. its surprising how real these dreams seem haha.
Lets see so yesterday was a fun Sunday I spoke in sacrament for 20 minutes, taught Gospel doctrine, then taught Combined Elders and High Priest quorum. This is what branch missionary work is like haha.
well I typed faster than I thought so lets talk a little about Solly and Happy. they have had division in their house for about 20 years between the Methodist church and Anglican church and have been questioning a lot about where the divide comes from. Boom we knock their door and boom they are prepared. hopefully they'll be baptized next month.
sorry time is up but next week I'll spend more time on this bad boy and have more stories to share.
Enjoy the week
Bafundisi Robinson
time is very short haha so I'll save a lot about our new people for next week but lets just say they are awesome and 2 weeks of nothing were worth it. haha.
So story this week our cars coolant pipe broke so we've been without a car since Wednesday which means walking about 20 miles a day. haha so it has been pretty intense one day super hot getting chased by a swarm of bees the next walking in 3 inch deep rain getting blisters.
So all of this walking kind of leads to being really tired. now we take malaria pills every day and they have been known to cause strange dreams. this week I had two gems. Friday night I had a dream we were in Kruger national park and we some how ran into country legend Kenny Rogers. I simply gave him a pass along card and I baptized Kenny Rogers the next weekend. Why Kenny Rogers I don't know but I wasn't complaining and man we had good chicken after the baptism haha. Dream two and my personal favorite involved president Sigauwke our branch president. appearantly he was mad so he told us to go burn down a less active families house because they were ruining his home teaching stats and then told us to take their names to the temple for baptisms for the dead. its surprising how real these dreams seem haha.
Lets see so yesterday was a fun Sunday I spoke in sacrament for 20 minutes, taught Gospel doctrine, then taught Combined Elders and High Priest quorum. This is what branch missionary work is like haha.
well I typed faster than I thought so lets talk a little about Solly and Happy. they have had division in their house for about 20 years between the Methodist church and Anglican church and have been questioning a lot about where the divide comes from. Boom we knock their door and boom they are prepared. hopefully they'll be baptized next month.
sorry time is up but next week I'll spend more time on this bad boy and have more stories to share.
Enjoy the week
Bafundisi Robinson
Monday, January 3, 2011
2011... Drunkeness, car crashes, break ins, and racism in the house.
So happy new year everyone and I hope you all have some sweet resolutions planned and nothing lame like losing 10 pounds or something else boring but have some fun. go sky diving or kangaroo hunting or something else sweet. anyway it has been kinda a lame week. everyone in the town left so we tracted, and tracted, and tracted some more and yet no one was home. so we didn't even get the sweet satisfaction of getting rejected. just knocking empty houses for 14 hours a day. but we did however get a hold of some less actives, part member families, and former investigators so hopefully soon our teaching pool will be building and we can help this branch grow. New Years in South Africa is quite the celebration and its like a non stop rave/drinking fest for 2 straight days. So we spent the 31st and 1st cleaning, cooking, chilling, and visiting the Atkinsons and also getting interviewed by president Poulsen which was pretty sweet. but they were some long days. the 1st on the way to the Atkinsons we saw like 11 overturned cars and their neighbor was broken in to and his car smashed and was nearly killed, and our neighbors got broken into this morning. Also at church we had the Kanyamanzane branch with us and some of the members didn't take to kindly to them and some racial comments were made. Now South Africa isn't racist just a few people still are. but that creates some big problems for investigators who attend church. so hehe this will be a fun week to patch up some things and mend some fences. but all part of the job.
But this week should be better because people are finally back in town. which is awesome like seriously I'm so happy. Thanks to the primary for your package that was awesome and I'll be writing you soon. also to all you guys back home enjoy the new year let me know what's up in your lives. Peace from SA and from the Refiners fire here in Nelspruit.
Elder Robinson... Uncle... that's right.
But this week should be better because people are finally back in town. which is awesome like seriously I'm so happy. Thanks to the primary for your package that was awesome and I'll be writing you soon. also to all you guys back home enjoy the new year let me know what's up in your lives. Peace from SA and from the Refiners fire here in Nelspruit.
Elder Robinson... Uncle... that's right.
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