Molweni,
I love getting emails from you both! Thanks so much! Don't worry about
there being no pictures, I don't have any pictures this week either. Great
minds think alike I suppose!
As for spiders, I don't really think we'll have a problem with the big
spiders like that one, although I saw one at the gas station just down the road
from us, but for the most part they are just little ones, and even then, there
aren't many. One night though, I woke up and had a lump on my right bicep, and
it was sore and itchy. It was not a mosquito bite nor a flea bite (i know very
well what those feel like! I have some flea bites on me right now that I got 2
nights ago) the only thing I could think of was that it was a spider bite. It
stayed sore and somewhat swollen for like 4 days and then eventually went
away... Spiders are definitely different here then back home! they are more
ferocious here (even the tiny little ones!).
Haha I wish i could have been a part of your discussion with Uncle Luke.
We've had similar discussions here. It's incredible to see how the Lord works
and how he is building an army of missionaries right now! There is a great work
coming forth! You are right though, I am right in the middle of it! At the end
of this transfer (so on Dec 5th) there will only be 28 missionaries in the
mission who are older than me on mission. I will only be 1 year out on mission
and that means there will be around 100 missionaries younger than me on
mission. (I speak of older or younger as of months on mission not the age of
the missionaries). I asked our mission president if there would be an increase
of missionaries to come in our mission and he said that there will be an
increase of missionaries serving here. Elder Palmer's mission is going to
possibly receive an increase of 73 missionaries. Our mission won't have that
large of an influx, but it could possibly go up 30-40, maybe 50 missionaries!
If that be the case, then me, at 12 months or 13.5 months or even 15 months on
mission will be older than 100-150 missionaries and ill still have tons of time
remaining on my mission. That then means that I will be used in leadership
positions, or training positions like you said, for the remaining year of my
mission! That's intense!
I remember back home at my farewell,
the words of Brother Bikman (Seminary teacher), talking to Mom (but I was
standing right there) at the entrance to the kitchen, and he said that my
mission president would be using me as a leader in the mission. Those words
have just been ringing through my head over and over again. That is going to be
a daunting task to be a leader over such a plenteous amount of young
missionaries, both age wise and months on mission wise. I'm going to have a lot
of responsibility, but the Lord works in marvelous ways. There's a reason why I
have been called to serve at the time that I have been. Same goes for Elder
Palmer. He is going to continue in his leadership, or in training, for the
remainder of his mission and he is going to be a pivotal and important tool in
training and leading the new missionaries in his mission! We have been called
at this time strategically by the Lord for specific purposes! There's a reason
why the mission force is being increased in such a profound way! The Lord is
spreading His gospel, and it will cover the whole face of the Earth!
Enough mission talk...
I'm glad to hear that everyone is
doing well. I'm also glad to hear that Dad is back at work! A 32 GB SD card
sounds fabulous! I have that 32 GB flash drive that you sent a long time ago,
and I almost broke it! It was sticking out of the little DVD player that we
have at the flat to listen to conference talks and music and what not, and by
accident I hit it and it almost snapped! I was so worried that I had lost
everything! Thank goodness it still works, but I need to be careful with it, so
once I get that SD card, ill backup everything to that! I'm excited for this
package you are sending me! Like super excited! Christmas is going to be
Lekker! You are the best! Thanks for the letter mom! I got one this week! You
are right about the post though... this country is insane... how anything
functions normally is just mind blowing... there is so much corruption in this
country. For the most part though I seem to be getting all of my packages.
There has just been one or two from Tori that I didn't end up getting (to be
honest I think that the mission just sent them to the wrong Elder Jones in our
mission). I love you both so much!
What a hectic week! Man I love mission! Well I'll just quick give an
update on what is going down with pretty much all of our investigators... At
this point in time, almost all of our investigators are from outside of South
Africa. Mostly Malawians but some Zimbabweans. We were ready and prepared to
baptize 2 Malawians. We had the baptism interview set for this past Saturday
and everything. Well it was on Wednesday, in the morning, as I was showering the
idea popped into my head, "are we allowed to baptize illegal
foreigners?" I asked the Zone leaders and they asked President Wood and
President said that they need to obey and honor the law in order to be
baptized. Well I talked with them about it, and long story short, they received
their working permits from the Home Affairs (govn't building), but the person
who gave them the permit told them that it was going to be a really long
expensive process to get a working permit, but if they wanted, they could give
him extra money, and he would give them one right away. Well what else could
they do, they couldn't wait the 5 years and alot of money to get one so they
went for the bribe and got the one they have now. Does that sound like
corruption or what?
So now the people we want to baptize are ready and willing to do
anything to get it all fixed and going properly, but they can't afford to do it
legally and they can't afford to go back home to Malawi... so they are in a
pickle. It was such an incredible experience to sit down and talk with this
family and discuss the situation. It was incredible to see their faithfulness
and their willingness to just drop everything that is not right and to just do
that which is right instantly. They are so converted to the Gospel that
everything that I say, they are instantly willing to obey. They fear God more
than man and they understand the importance of living the Gospel. They are such
a huge inspiration for me! I learn so much from them, and my testimony has been
strengthened by their examples! They are the same family who had the issue
before with the marriage policy and they were so willing to follow, that they separated
from their wives in order to keep the law of chastity. We later found out that
the tribal marriages in Malawi were legally accepted, and that they weren't
breaking the law of chastity, but for an entire month they were willing to drop
even their own wives for the sake of keeping the commandments! Absolutely
incredible!
The mission president told me to send him copies of their papers and
that he is going to bring this issue up to the people in the Area Office for
all of the Southern Africa, and see what they have to say about the situation.
If you don't understand exactly what the whole situation is about, don't worry,
there is too much for me to type out right now, so I tried to briefly summarize
everything. This is a really big issue because almost all the Malawians who are
working in this country, and potentially all foreigners, have had to bribe to
get a permit (whether its real or fake we don't know) of some sort to be here.
In order to baptize them, they need to obey and honor the law. So this is a big
issue for our whole mission! Haha! I think it's funny how a situation with my
investigators ended up being a mission wide, if not continental wide issue that
needs to be brought up to the Area authorities in the Area office! Thanks to a
revelation that I received in the shower on Wednesday!
The bummer about the whole story is that we have to postpone everything
with baptisms of foreigners until all of this is figured out. We have 2 that we
were supposed to get baptized this Sunday, but it’s not going to happen...
There are 4-5 more who will be prepared for baptism within the next month or so
(some of these people I have been working with for over 5 months but couldn't
baptize them because of English but now they've learnt it), and I won't be able
to see any of them be baptized because 95% chance that I am leaving Knysna at
the end of this transfer (Dec 5th)... So that's a bummer... I won't get to see
the baptisms of any of the people that I've worked so hard with... That's
always depressing, but it mattered not!!! It's all the same whether I see it or
I don't as long as they get baptized, I did my job preparing them! Some lucky
missionary is going to pop into the area right at a time when lots of people are
ready to be baptized!
So that was kinda the big event that happened this week...
It was cool though, because on Friday we went to George and had a
District Meeting there and President and Sister Wood were in attendance! And
the best part was that I didn't have to teach or prepare District Meeting!
Woot! Then President Wood took all 6 of us out for lunch at Nando's! Also
another highlight this week! We had 9 investigators at church yesterday! And
there were about 3 other people there that have come but we have not been able
to teach them yet! so about 12 non members there at church! Cool Beans! It was
really awesome to see! We had about 50 people there total at church! Which is
not bad for this little branch!
I just love mission! It is such an incredible joy to see people receive,
accept, then live the Gospel! It just blows my mind how merciful and loving
Heavenly Father is and how willing and ready He is to just forgive all of His
children of their sins and mistakes and accept them into his open arms! I've
felt it and seen it in my life! And I get to witness it in other lives! I'm so
grateful to be serving at this time and I'm extremely grateful for all of the
constant support that I get from friends and family! I love you all so much!
Take Luck!
-Elder
Jones
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