My
new years was pretty good too. The only thing I regret was staying up
till midnight... We had some other missionaries over at our flat so we
had 10 missionaries in one place! we weren't allowed to go out on New
Years Eve or Day so we were just hangin out for 2 days ha. We put cars
on either end of the complex parking lot and turned on the lights so we
could play soccer for a couple hours that night. Besides that we just
sat around and talked, played games(we have a game of risk to be
continued later hopefully ha) and ate candy and listened to music. New
Years day we just went to church and then back to the flat to hang out some
more ha. It was really weird to have nothing to do. Its just our once a
year rest for the year. We'll be workin' like crazy starting tonight at 6
till New years eve next year! ha. I am officially coming home next
year! ps. its 11:11 make a wish. Apparently it goes crazy here during
new years but since our flat is kinda far away from everything and we
arent allowed to go out we didnt get to see anything. I hope the
flashing lights we saw was actually lightning like we thought...
This week has been pretty good even though we had
less days to work. We still got to teach a lot of people and we are
still getting new people to teach. The only finding(tracting and
contacting) we've done was like 2 weeks ago, we tracted for a couple
hours and contacted for an hour. Other than that people have been
showing up/being there when we go to teach somebody else, so we have
just been going to appointment after appointment every day. One
appointment we went to we parked farther than we thought so we had to
walk a ways and then it started raining pretty good. We showed up
soaking after climbing 9 flights of stairs and walkin' like a mile or 2!
ha. One god/bad thing about the city being part of our area is that we
have a bunch of people that live miles from the ground but its a good
thing cause even though we have a car we still get our exercise in
somehow :D
I have of course been learning lots and I'm getting
better at teaching lessons, asking questions and all that. I realize
more and more every time we go to teach that it's the spirit that
teaches and we are just there to help them feel the spirit and hear the
words that they need to hear. 100% of the time that I am a successful
teacher is when things just come to mind that I have learned for
myself. Sometimes you ask questions or say something and yes, you knew
what you were saying because you had learned about it yourself but it's
the spirit telling you what to say. It's tough to explain but I guess
you could say the spirit triggers your memory and it's up to you to act
on the thought that you have. When you do, everything goes so smoothly
and perfectly. When you don't, you kinda feel bad and are constantly
thinking man, I should have said that. A little before I left someone in
a class said to help you get better at acting on and listening to the
spirit just do everything you feel like you should do. As you do that
eventually you will be able to recognize whats of the spirit and whats not
and also you will just naturally act on your promptings from the spirit.
If you are prompted to do something and that thing is good then it is
from the spirit. Theres a scripture that I am referring to here but I
dont remember what it is right now. But it's in the Book of Mormon! So
find it! Don't be worried about whether or not you should say or do
something, if it's a good thing, just say or do it. I know that when you
act on the promptings you have you will be blessed to have the spirit
with you more often and in greater abundance. People will recognize it
as well and you will be an example to them. I have been able to tell the
difference so much from acting on my promptings. All you have to do is
trust in the Lord and he will direct thy paths for good. Doubt not, fear
not.
Yeah for Preacher Bob. ha. Im so grateful to be here
out on mission in South Africa! When I am teaching people and they
understand the things and feel the spirit it makes me feel so good. You can
see it in someone when they really do feel the spirit and want to learn
more. The other day were teaching a lady and her brother and sister. We
were teaching about the restoration and we thought that they were
understanding it pretty well but we would still periodically ask if they
had any questions and finally they asked. Once we were able to answer
that question it led to other questions and I felt like they truly
understood because they were more involved and talking more instead of
giving really short answers to questions we would ask them. One of them
said he couldn't speak english very well but towards the end of the
lesson he was talking almost prefect english. Obviously that was his
excuse but he definitely opened up because he was feeling the spirit and
wanted to learn more.
The other day we went on exchanges so I got to go
out with the district leader Elder Ncgobo (where the c is a click) and
we had a great time. We found tons of families while tracting and also
got to teach a few scheduled lessons. His area is a township so that's an
area where they have terrible looking houses but way nice
inside (sometimes not nice but) There are always tons of kids and people
all over the place it's such a great place to be a missionary! All the
kids freak out when they see a white guy so they all come running over
to say hi and stuff and then the adults and teenagers freak out when
they find out im from California ha. So I got to take some pictures with
the kids it was cool! Kids always think I am married cause I have my
CTR ring on ha so I get to explain what it is a lot and I decided to buy
some CTR rings when we went to the temple 3 days ago. Im gonna give
them to the kids that get baptized so I gave one to a 9 year old in my
ward that we teach once a week named Elvis. He got baptized a couple
months ago. He's been wearing it everyday cause I saw him at church!
haha.
Well time is short but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! WOOOO!
Love you guys!
Elder Bobby Dirkmaat :D
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