Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Teaching the Asians!

Area - Kanye, Botswana
Companion - Elder Dlamini
Letter #38

Good afternoon!
 
Man, beach week #2? Jealous! sounds way fun though.  I have such a cool family! haha. Dad, I'm trying to learn the uke also! Elder Dlamini has one. He also has a guitar so we practice our skills. We are hoping to be able to play a song at the next baptism.  Should be sweet!
 
Well this week was good but at the same time it was a big dissappointment come Sunday.  First off the fair was super fun! ...and tiring. We got to talk to tons of people. The sisters in Gabs set everything up and all the missionaries in the surrounding areas got to come on certain days so us, the Kanye elders, got to go on Saturday.  Our booth got first prize out of all the others!  If you go to LDS.org > languages > South Africa > English > yellow box on the bottom of the page you should  be able to see a some pictures of us in a few days.  The fair was all week long and each day we had sheets and sheets of paper filed up with peoples names, numbers, and addressses who wanted the missionaries to come visit them and receive their own copies of the Book of Mormon.  Although there were not many referrals for Kanye there were hundreds for the Gabs missionaries. They're gonna have some work to do this month! ha.  I loved talking to all these people because it was crazy how different people are when they go to a fair than when you knock on their door.  It's way easier to get them interested.  I think I taught a mini version of the restoration or the plan of salvation or the gospel of Jesus Christ each at least 10 or 15 times that day.  Sometimes I would go sit down to take a break and feel like man, I dont want to talk or stand another minute but then I would and the second i started to talk to somebody i didn't have to think about what to say to them or questions to ask. They just came! All of the sudden it wasn't me trying to get them to say something it was them asking more questions than I could answer right then and there.  I'm sure that they could fel the spirit especially with 6 missionaries and the senior couple there.  We were on fire! haha.  Sometimes there would be so many people that wanted to see what was going on or hear what we were saying that there was no space for others to pass.  One time I was talking to this guy and within two minutes there were like 5 or 6 people crowded around me trying to hear more!  I felt like I was a missionary back in the day when they would preach in the streets.  It was cool!   
 
Elder Dlamini and I got the opportunity to teach a couple of Asians.  There are tons of Asians in gabs which is super random but of course most are not Christians. The two that we talked to signed the paper and want to learn more!  They thought the Book of Mormon was very interesting and we even taught them about how they believe in sprits and ancestors and we related it to how we help our andcestors and beleive in the Holy Spirit. That was the most exciting part of the day and yet I don't have much to say about it ha. 
 
One last funny story from the fair.  Elder Kuseni, my zone leader, was talking to a couple of 20 year old girls and they asked about anointing or something.  Elder Kuseni asks me if I have any oil to show them.  I said yes and went to get it.  Meantime he told them that I could anoint them and heal them.  I got back and he says teach them about the oil and quickly dissolves into the crowd.  "anoint us! anoint us!" joy rapture... So i had to explain that I can't just pour oil on their hands and they will be healed but that it has to be done a certain way and they got mad at me!  They were telling me how it only matters about faith and stuff.  Elder Dlamini saw and had something to say to them, I don't know what and I don't care cause right when he started talking I left.   
 
So the rest of the week we had a lot of ditched appointments and only got to teach 9 lessons.  I know that's a lot for some missions but coming off of weeks of 20+ lessons it didn't feel very good.  We really concentrated on helping make commitments of reading and praying and it seemed like it was working cause everybody was excited to come to church.  How many at church? 0.  Not even our 4 recent converts were there.  This week we aren't going to be able to improve much cause we have only 4 days to do missionary work cause of zone conference and presidents interviews but we are def making plans for the following week to help these people.
 
The Molebatsi family scared us when they didn't come to church on Sunday cause the other day we visited them and they said that they believed that other churches were also true and we told them (for the umpteenth time) this is the only true church. They didn't seem like they took it too well so them not being at church was scary!  We went there after church and they were just sick.  And they laughed when we thought that they took offense.
 
I got the packages! BOTH of them ;) the post office corrected it.  They know the church! ha.  Thank you!!!   I'm sorry i didn't wait till my birthday to open the wrapped goods but I knew what it was and i couldn't wait another day to take a picture.  :D  I think you can forgive me yeah?
 
Well that's my week! Talk to ya later!
Love you!
 
-Elder Dirkmaat :D

No comments:

Post a Comment