24 Lessons!

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #75



Zone activity dinner at The Harvard!  Pizza is 1/2 off which means we get a large gourmet pizza for 35 rand, that's like $4!

 

Here comes the rain dun no dun no here comes the rain and I say...

 

Baptism of Kgaugelo

 

Caricatures!

 



Chez Dirkmaat ;) Chef du jour!

 

Foti vode Taufi (picture from the baptism of Swiss!)

 

Baptism for Ofentse!

 

WOOOO! That means Nate's call is probs coming this week! Or....in 6 more weeks haha. You should ask bishop what the status is so you know if it's still in process, ready for assignment, or what. I'm so excited! That means I have to guess! Alright let me think... Stateside: Massachusetts Foreign: Paraguay - Nate is powerful! Now Ollie is gonna get the Stripling Warrior award before he is even 17! haha. Have they thought of a reward like that for the young women? What did Nate do for his Eagle Project?

Where did Pres. Crickmore go to become Mission President? Has he already started or does he start in July?

Alright so here's the theme song of the weekend: "Yesterday" by The Beatles. Why? Because Elder Martin is leaving. :( Another one transfer companion. I'm scared that if I get too many companions my luck is gonna run out and one of these times I'm gonna get a companion that I don't like! Having a baptism still made the weekend super! Ofentse is the daughter of Carl who was baptized in February. Elder Martin is sad that he is leaving cause we are planning to have many baptisms these coming months. One of our baptisms for Sinothemba didn't happen cause his mom went to Nigeria and so we have to wait until she gets home. Another guy that we are teaching, Daniel, told us when we went to visit for Elder Martin to say goodbye that I'll probably be the one baptizing him. Bittersweet. He's been investigating since July and his wife has been a member for a very long time.

This week was crazy good for some reason. Usually it is hard to have 20 lessons in a week but we had 12 by the end of Wednesday and finished with 24! We are teaching tons of families which is awesome. All the families we are teaching are on date for baptism in June so I hope I will still be here! Since Elder Martin is leaving now it is possible that I won't... The time is getting shorter and I don't like it at all! Too many things to learn, people to teach, things to organize etc etc. There are always days that there is hardly anything to do and then other days where you are struggling to get everything done that you are supposed to. For example, families can usually only meet in the evening after 5 and before 8 and we gotta visit each family at least twice in the week. Between the times of 11 and 3 there are very few people that we can visit. I wish there was a way to just have public sermons like the early latter day saint missionaries and teach everybody at the same time and be able to get the gospel to tons of people quickly!

Kgaugelo received the priesthood yesterday so now he is a Priest! This guy loves the gospel. You can tell by the questions they ask and how they tell you how excited they were to learn blah blah in Sunday school when we go visit them later in the day. Ever since we had the lesson where Lorenzo Snow teaches us that we can become like God, every singe prayer he says he includes something about asking to help us be more like Him. He is really trying his best! All of his friends that we are teaching all of the sudden got really busy with work and school and family things and so we haven't been able to visit them as much. It's a bummer but I am sure that even if we don't get to teach them, Kgaugelo is still gonna be great example to them and they will eventually learn the fullness of the gospel and follow through.

There's not much else to say but let me share a quote I heard:

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not." - Dr. Seuss

Have a great week! LOve you!

-Elder Dirkmaat :D

Missionary Work is Grrrreat!

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #74

WAZZUP!?

Is this the week that Nate and Dad are in Mexico? Did you watch General Conference this weekend? How was it? Sara did and she said it was awesome! I don't get to watch it until the 20th and 21st and I cannot wait! Elder Martin and I have been trying to watch one speaker a night from the last Conference. We are gonna have to double up on some nights cause we are falling behind!

The missionary work here is going grrrreat like always! We got to being Kgaugelo to teach with us. One day we went to teach his friend Jackson and then afterwards we had a lesson with a sister and we were gong to teach the law of chastity. Jackson said that he also wanted to come with us so we said okay and brought him! Kgaugelo and Jackson could have taught that lesson alone and didn't even need us there! Jackson, who is not even a member yet answered one of her question with power. She asked if financial problems constitute grounds for divorce. Jackson started talking about the eternities and heaven and how we are not going to have material things when we get there so why should we let material things tear apart a marriage that is supposed to last forever and where those material things will not be. BOOM! Spoken like an apostle ha. It was funny cause I was about to answer and he says, "Can I try to answer this one?" and we said sure.

We are hoping to have 2 baptisms this coming Sunday again! A recent convert, Bro. Carl, has a daughter, Offentse, who is now ready and also a boy, Sinothemba, who has been coming to church with the bishops sons for the past few months. Kgaugelo's friends, Vusi, Jackson, and Sipho (cipopodnis! hahaha) are all preparing for the 28th. Kgaugelo is going to receive the priesthood next Sunday and maybe even he will be able to baptize his friends which would be awesome! The Ndimane family is still preparing for June 09. All the kids came to church and even the oldest brought his girlfriend with him. The parents didn't come but we got to see the oldest sjamboc his mom for it ha.

This week we also ran into another family that we tracted a few weeks ago. We found this guy and he told us to come back so we kept coming back and he was never there so we were tracting in the area again and decided to go try one more time. He was home! It turns out that he had lost his job and that is why he was home. His 2 daughters were also there so we got to teach them the message of the restoration. he was asking super questions and event he daughters were really interested even thought they are only 11 and 14. The spirit was so string and I could tell that they had a strong desire to learn more that we even got to give them a baptismal date for June 09 and they accepted! They are the kind of people that when they recognize a little but of the truth they are willing to find out more about it. Kind of like when we taught Wilson and he just had this crazy look on his face, it was the same with the Nkosi family. They had these looks of wonder and amazement. he told us how he stopped going to church a long time ago and then later on he said "Oh! So you're saying that the truth was lost. That must be why I stopped going to church back then. Cause my church didn't have the fullness. I need to come to yours and find this truth now!" YES YOU DO! I love it when people recognize that and actually understand that that is exactly what we are trying to teach them. We also found out that when we had given them the restoration pamphlet when we tracted there the first time the 14 yr old daughter had taken it into her room and was reading and studying it. We are finding some great families and it feels so great!

One other thing is that I also got to learn how to play Rugby. i always thought it was boring but now that I know how to play, it is super fun! Don't worry we were just playing touch, not tackle. ha.

I hope all is well! Have a super week and always listen to the promptings of the spirit to direct our paths for good!

-Elder Dirkmaat :D

Happy Easter!

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #73

Hey!

Sounds like a nice Easter Weekend for you! Can't say that ours was that good haha. We only taught 1 lesson total on Saturday and Sunday combined :( Kind of a bummer. We should be having more lessons on the days that are holidays related to Christ but instead we are just walking through the town a midst drunkards and the sort. It's sad and I really wish that people understood the reason that Easter is so important. Everybody went to church on Good Friday but on Saturday and Sunday it was just party central and even today there are more shops closed than there were yesterday. I am so grateful that we do have a knowledge of the restored gospel and that we have a living prophet to day to "prick [us] in the heart, stirring [us] up continually" in the remembrance of our Savior and the things that he has done for us! What a beautiful gift that we have and how great the importance to share it with everybody that we can! It made me so happy to hear that you had invited that family over for dinner and showed them that movie to remind them of what Easter is all about and even given them a chance to see and hear the prophet of God bear his testimony. I'm so glad that I can be a missionary full-time right now and that Easter weekend is not the only opportunity I have to share the gospel. We are not Christian only on Easter and Christmas; we are Christians full-time! I'm not a missionary only when I feel like it; I am a missionary full-time!

We met a really cool family this week, the Molefe family. We were tracting for a few minutes before we had an appointment. We knocked on their gate and waited for a loooong time and were about to leave and then their little boy came running around the corner followed by his father. Last time it was Elder Martin that said something dumb when the Ndimane family let us in(by the way they are doing awesome and they have a baptism date for June 09) and this time it was me who said something dumb and he said okay come in! Don't know why but he was excited. We met his wife and his 2 kids. Shared a very brief message of the restoration and told them where the church was and they said they would come. Guess what? They actually came! They left after the second hour, don't know why. They left so fast that we couldn't even get through all the people before they were in the car and gone. BUT they came and I think they enjoyed. We shall see on Weds when we have an appointment with them. I really hope that we get to teach them cause they are a perfect family to come into the church! They are looking for a family church right now cause they just moved to the area and the father isn't really religious, he goes to church cause his wife wants to. They need it so bad! Heavenly Father knows it too cause we could have just sat on the curb and waited 15 mins for our appointment and not have found the Molefe family.

We got to go to an Easter devotional after church where the bishop showed that movie that you watched, "He is Risen". I liked it a lot! Have you seen the DVD's, Mormon Messages? If not I bet you could get them at Deseret Book. They are super cool and have tons of short messages that you could share when you invite people for dinner or for FHE or whatever. Thanks for being a great example of member missionary work! Did you find out what the missionaries do to organize the member missionary work in the ward? -I wanna know! Can you show me?- can you guess the Phil Collins song and the movie?

This week Elder Martin got 2 packages for Easter that were sent on Mar 09 and I still didn't get the one that you sent for Valentines...I don't think I'm getting that one :( There was a post strike for like a month that I didn't even know about and I think it was during the time that you sent it.

Have a super week! Nate and Dad, be safe and shred the gnar!!

Love y'all!
-Elder Dirkmaat :D

Another Baptism!

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #72



Kgaugelo's Baptism!

Wow! A family got baptized! That's awesome! It seems like the missionary work is powerful at home! That's cool that dad got to go on splits with the missionaries the other day. There are tons of people here in Vosloorus that are just like that guy that you went to teach, dad. It's a challenge to help them feel the spirit and be humble enough to accept it and make changes. Sometimes we go to a lesson and they want to do is teach us or hear what we think about some certain doctrine. For example, yesterday we went to this guy and sat down and I asked him how his day was and he said it fine and that he's just having a nice relaxing spiritual recoup for the next week and then all of the sudden he went off telling us some weird stuff about the spirit and what it is and told us about some codes in the Bible that we need to understand and that all the steeples on our temples represent the pyramid with the all seeing eye on the american dollar . It was weird so we left. But then you get other people like a guy that we saw later in the day who really does want to learn. People who are teachable are the ones who recognize that they don't know everything. We can help them realize that in a gentle way by teaching them about the restoration plain and simple and especially making sure that the spirit is present. When that happens they will be interestd and want learn more and be willing to "experiment upon the word." This guy, Opah, is exactly like that. We taught him some simple things and he didn't understand them very clearly and so we were bale to answer the sincere questions that he had and now he can't wait for us to come back.

Here in Vosloorus the members love the missionaries but they're is not too much of their involvement in the actual missionary work. We are trying to change that. The Bishopric just surprised us with a new ward mission plan yesterday. They said that they want to have 9 families and 7 other individuals baptized by the end of the year. So far there are 3 individuals and 1 half family I think. We got some work to do! But that also means the members do as well! What do the missionaries do in La Costa to organize the splits and members being in the teaching process? It's always difficult to organize that here so i want to know if they have some sort of system.

We had a baptism yesterday for Kgaugelo! He has been taught for the past couple months along with 4 of his friends. He was he first one that was ready out of them all and the rest should be baptized in April! Kgaugelo is only 2 days older than me haha. He is planning on going on a mission and he cannot wait to come teaching with us once he gets confirmed this Sunday! I am excited for this group of friends. They are all so happy and seem like members already. They even invited 2 of their other friends to come to church with them and see Kgaugelo get baptized yesterday.

I got to go on exchanges this week with Elder Jenkinson this week cause he is now my Zone Leader! That was pretty cool! His area also borders my area is joburg and one of the neighborhoods that we worked in there was split between Joburg 1 and Bedfordview(his area) so we went there and had a lesson. It was nice to be back and to be with him!

We are teaching many families here. We had lessons with seven different father led families this week but it seems like the only people who are progressing are the ones who are not father led families. It seems that the fathers are always so darn busy that we cannot meet with them often enough to help them progress. In Joburg it was hard to find a father led family in the first place and now it's so easy but the problem is actually meeting with them. Ha. I think all we need to do is have better planning and try to focus more on them.

I am enjoying being here in the township though. Yes like you said least week. it is super clean compared to most townships. It is more spread out and there are not many students like in other townships. We did go to a part of our area this week that reminded me of Botswana except super cramped and tight. It was dirt roads and shacks and not many trees all super close together. It's crazy how different a place can be when it's only a 5 minute walk away.

I hope that my emails are descriptive enough and that you really get a feel for what it's like to be here! If not, let me know and I will do better!

Have a great week! I love you all!

-Elder Dirkmaat :D

Right Time Right Place

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #71

y wena's!

I'm sorry I'm not creative with my opening lines. ha. As long as it's something with an exclamation mark to make sure you know I'm excited! haha. Sorry, none of my companions have a blog besides Elder Foote. I know a lot of other missionaries with blogs and it also seems like every single new missionary already knows who I am am! hahaha.

It's been a great week for me! The other elders(Vosloorus 2)had a baptism yesterday so I got to do my first interview which was really cool. The district leader interviews the people who are ready for baptism that have been taught by the missionaries in his district and so I got to do that. The baptism was for a mother and her son. the mother had to be interviewed by the mission president so I got to interview her son, Unathi. I was nervous like 2 weeks ago, when I found out I would be a district leader and would be doing these interviews, that it was gonna be hard and I was gonna mess up or something but it's really quite simple! You just go and have a conversation with them, ask them questions and try to get an idea for their testimony and readiness for baptism, and most importantly listen to the spirit and everything will be alright! the interview was on Thursday and ever since Tues I was just excited for it and not worried at all! It kind of reminded me of when I first started mission that I was always scared to go teach people but now I cannot wait to teach somebody and have an appointment with them. Sometimes during our visits I talk too much now and I have to stop myself and give time to my companion. It's weird how I hardly talked at all and now the challenge is to talk less.

We are going to have a baptism for a great guy named Kgaugelo this coming Sunday. he is 20 yrs old and has made huge changes to be ready for this. He and 4 of his friends have all been being taught but he is the only one that is ready cause he is the only one who is always home and progressing. The others are always busy and out of town so it's more difficult to teach them. 2 of them have their baptism date for April 14 and the others don't have date right now. Kgaugelo says that he wants to go serve a mission so he's gonna be kinda like Charles except Charles was only 16. Kgaugelo can go now and Charles has to wait a bit. After Kgaugelo gets baptized we are gonna start taking him teaching with us and he even said that he wants to come very day!

We met an awesome family this week. On Friday we were absolutely finished. We had like 6 appointments ditch and had tracked a lot and didn't want to do anything. We decided to just tract this street we were on. The first door We knocked a mother answered. Elder Martin said ...something to her that had to do with families. From our point of view it sounded really bad and we laughed afterwards BUT, she yelled to her husband "they want to teach us about families!" and let us in and we taught them! Their son Hlayisane is 20 yrs old and within the first 5 or 10 mins he was telling us that he wants to come to church. Most people we wouldn't take that seriously but he came with his little brother and sister! His parents didn't come sadly but he did! He loved it too! He said it was too short. When the teacher ended the last class he was surprised and thought we still had at least 30 mins more. At the end he asked us for a tithing slip and envelope so he could bring it next week and told us he was going to be at church every week for the rest of his life. In the gospel principles class the teacher taught about the book of Mormon. We had not said a word to him about it yet and then afterwards he said that he needed the book now. This guy is powerful! I wish everybody could feel it the same way he has! That would probably make missionary work too easy though.

So glad that Heavenly Father prepares people at the right time and the right pace and that Elder Martin and I were ready to find them! If we had come 5 or 10 mins earlier or later Hlayisane would not have been there and probably wold not have had the opportunity to come to church this Sunday and feel what he did! Sometimes working sucks cause it seems like nothing is happening but every single time it's the last street or the last door before you go home that Heavenly Father says "alright good work, I trust you to teach this family" If we didn't put in that last effort in the 11th hour we would have never found them!

Thanks for the updates! It sounds like everything is lekker back home. My family is amazing! It's gonna be weird to see you all again cause form what I hear it seems like you are all a lot stronger in the gospel and growing everyday! Thanks!

I love you!
-Elder Bobby Dirkmaat :D

New Area - Vosloorus!

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #70

Hey wena's!

i am now in Vosloorus! I can see Joburg from here. Vosloorus is a township in the Bedfordview Stake. My companion is Elder Martin from Switzerland! English is his 4th language after Swiss, German and French so sometimes i have a hard time understanding what he is saying haha. We are having a great time though! We have taught 17 lessons together so far and 14 of them were to different people and I still have more people to meet! I am still lost as to where they all stay. We live like 15 k's away from the area so we drive there everyday and there are 4 missionaries in the ward. We just split the area. It's gonna be a great area! being a district leader is also gonna be a great experience. Like all the responsibilities in the church, it is an opportunity to serve. basically the missionaries in the district report their weekly doings to me and I report it to the zone leaders and I jsut help the missionaries in my district find ways to improve their areas and become better missionaries. Now instead of helping investigators and my companion i also have 4 other missionaries to help that I have a responsibility for. It's pretty cool. I think I will enjoy it!

Yes! That was a great lesson on Sunday! Isn't it cool that the church is the same around the world and I also got to learn the same lesson at church!? :D I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. Don't forget who you are and what you can become! It reminds me also of something that Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf said once. "The creator of the universe is the father of your spirit." And then he said something about our potential to become and create just like Him.

When I think about the joy and happiness that I feel when I learn eternal truths I wonder what other people feel when we teach them the same things. There are so many people that we teach the truth and they reject it. It's hard to understand how they don't feel the same way we do. That's the hard part about missionary work. Missionaries are always trying to become better teachers and to have the spirit with them so that the people we talk to can feel the way we do. It's hard! But the happiness that is felt when somebody else recognizes the spirit and allows it to enter their heart is unforgettable and pleasing to our Heavenly Father and that's why we do it. The restored gospel is 100% true! I'm not the greatest teacher and not everybody wants to accept what we teach but I do know that what I am doing is right. I want everybody in the whole world to know the truth and practice and be ready to meet and live with God someday.

I still have lots to learn and things to do as a full time missionary but I always wonder what it will be like when I am home. Will I be a missionary like I hope and see myself being? I can't wait till Nate gets to go on a mission and feel these things in his life! Committing to serve a mission is the best decision he has ever made in his life so far. It's the best decision I made!

I hope you have a great week family! Do some missionary work! I know you are and it's awesome! Makes me happy :D

Love you!
-Elder Bobby Dirkmaat :D

Good Times

Here is Wilson and Mary and their daughter patience! I know you have all wanted to see them really badly! Wilson is hilarious hahahahah!!!! I just had to send this first one!!! I laugh so hard every time I look at it!! The one in the Quiksilver shirt is Bro. James who is friends and stays with Bro. Tau. They are all from Zimbabwe. This picture kind of gives some info on what their homes are like. Just one room, the bed on the left, the kitchen on the right. Cement walls and nothing else! Pretty crazy!

 

Area- Johannesburg, South Africa
Companion- Elder Wilkinson
Letter #69

Hello! From your Mission Mormonary in south Africa!! :D

So here's the inside scoop. I am going to a new area tomorrow and I am becoming a district leader. I wish i could stay here cause I am gonna miss seeing so many people get baptized over the next month or two! It always seems to happen that way and I don't know why. It has been a fantastic 6 months here in Johannesburg! i have loved it! We shall see where the Lord sends me next.

Here's the highlight of the week. We have been teaching Wilson and his wife, Mary, for the past 3 months. Wilson is ready for baptism as soon as he can get married to Mary legally. we thought it was going to happen this week but the embassy is being dumb and says that they both have to go to Zimbabwe together to get the letter required for bishop to be able to marry them. So they didn't get it this week and Wilson is still not baptized. So that's not the highlight! The highlight is that Mary has been making promises to us every week that she is going to come to church and she never has. Well she came yesterday and she absolutely loved it!! It took her this whole time to come and now that she has she told us that she is going to go to church every Sunday for the rest of her life and she is going to get baptized as soon as possible. She said her favorite part was fast and testimony meeting and the Relief Society class. She also enjoyed Sunday School but the other two were her favorite. She said that she was so impressed by all the children that went to bare their testimonies and then also in relief Society there was a sister who told about how she felt very small and insignificant compared to all the other members when she came to church for the first time but through reading the book of Mormon and gospel principles class and going to church she loves it and couldn't be happier any where else. Mary said that is exactly how she felt and she wants to be just like that sister. So grateful that Heavenly Father prepared all of those people to be there and share their testimonies on the day that Mary first came to church! It took her 3 months to come and now she wishes she had come the very first Sunday we met! It's interesting how things happen but they always happen fro a reason!

We got to continue meeting with DaCosta and the best thing that he said to us which was actually a day that we just passed by was, "I have been reading and praying everyday and I'm learning! I feel something inside and I wasnt more!" WOOO!

So many great things are happening in this area. I love it! So sad that I have to leave but great things are bound to happen everywhere that the gospel is being taught and learned!

I love you family have a fabtastic week and keep seeing miracles in your lives! :)

-Elder Dirkmaat :D