Thursday 20 September 2012

17 Sept 2012 Knysna South Africa

Molweni!
I love you guys! I really needed this email! I just really needed to hear some support and love... I can't even tell you how much help you are! 20 missionaries came in this last transfer and 12 left. Everything went well with the transfer, and I am now with my new companion. I'll attach some photos.
 I love my new companion! He is from Madagascar! I'll talk more about him further down in my letter. But I am extremely lucky to have him as my greenie.
By the way! Those pictures look awesome! That Komodo looks SO SWEET!!!! You have no idea how cool my parents are! :D you are awesome! I'm glad that you are still doing well in school mom! And I'm glad that Viktoria was able to pop by and visit before she leaves on her mission! Thanks for updating me with everything too! I love you both so much! I can hardly believe that it has been 9 months since I've seen you! Wow! Mission fly’s by!


For this past week, hectic stuff is going on in the world of mission! We just had 20 new missionaries come into the South Africa Cape Town Mission and 12 left... I am now a district leader and trainer of a 2 man district here in Knysna... in the middle of nowhere! The task is daunting and overwhelming! I've also noticed that Satan has taken this opportunity to attack! It's a challenge and I'm doing my best to overcome it! I'm just grateful for all of the support and help that I get from home! By the way, to those people who have sent me letters in the past month... I'm sorry if you don't get a reply for a while... I have just been ridiculously busy, that I don't have time to write letters! I hardly have time to sleep anymore!

Knysna is still booming, but I think that the work here is going to calm down a bit because I'm training... We have to do 2-3 hours of companionship study every single day........ so that is going to put a damper on the work here... My companion is from Madagascar! Yup, another one! He is even from the same Branch back home as my last companion, Elder Andriamanantena. It is pretty sweet! My new companion’s name is Elder Raharizoandrinirina........ ya your guess is as good as mine! It barely fits on the name tag! People just call him Elder Rizoa for short...

He is learning English as well, so I’m sure that this is very tough for him. He can speak it fairly well, but when it comes to teaching and stuff, you can tell that it is his 3rd language... This puts an interesting challenge on my shoulders, because now I am training him in being a missionary, and teaching him English, along with being a district leader... ya... we are both struggling through this together... but that also means that pretty much the only time when I am actually not teaching is when I'm asleep...
 I am constantly in teaching mode,  and it is draining, but it is the Lords will...
I am learning alot from him though and I am super lucky to have him as my companion! He is very loving and supportive and patient and kind... Even when I suck at being a missionary he supports me! I am still getting used to the fact that when we are in lessons, they are not going to be taught the way I’m expecting them to be taught... it is very difficult for me to just let go and let him loose and do his thing... I always feel as though I need to intervene and fix everything, when really I should just let him loose... I am still adjusting to the change but I will become more comfortable over time... It is definitely a challenge... but other than that the week has been fairly ok..



I had a blast visiting my old area last Tuesday when I was in Cape Town! I visited 3 out of 4 of my recent converts! I hope that they came to church today! 1 is super solid (Anda, the one I taught from start to finish) and the other 3 (Ntomboxolo, Tamara, and Nobuntu) are less active...  but I hope I gave them a spiritual boost! I was also able to visit some other families that I miss so much! It was awesome! I loved it!


Once again thank you for all the support I constantly get! It is a huge help! I love mission! It's really hard! But I love it!

-Elder Jones

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