14 Jan 2013 in Mthatha, South Africa

Good Morning Mom and Dad!

The answer is no... They still have not found him. We have been teaching his wife, but I can't even image how hard it is for her. She found a job as a teacher, because she has to support her two children, but it isn't looking so good for him. Over a week now and nothing... that's not good.

 

That's cool that you are writing my companion's mom. We probably will not be comps anymore though after tomorrow. Exchanges are this week. I don't know what my news is yet... I'll find out today sometime, but most probably I will be staying here in Mthatha and I'll get a new companion and stay District Leader.

 

Us four Mthatha District members.

 Haha! The lesson you taught in priesthood was the same lesson I taught in priesthood. I sat down in Priesthood ready to enjoy a nice lesson, when Bro. Boateng calls me up to the front of the class, hands me the "Teachings of Lorenzo Snow" book and says that he needs me to teach the lesson today. Well with such lengthy preparations, I taught the whole priesthood the lesson I had well prepared... PAHA! More like I just glanced down at the topic headings and taught whatever came into my head, then while others were talking I would quickly scan the paragraphs and tie some into the lesson. So I'm sure that your lesson was much nicer than mine.

Sounds like quadding was fun! I didn't even know that Ben was back yet from his mission, not to mention in Southern Alberta! Is he going to school in Lethbridge? I can't believe it has been a year already since Talia was born! Wowsa! It doesn't feel like it at all!  And Jennet going on mission sounds SWEET! That's exciting! Keep me posted on how that goes! Thanks for being on top of the priesthood line of authority. I appreciate that!

I'll just quickly try to update you on how the week went. It was pretty awesome! The area is picking up a bit and we are progressing a couple of investigators towards baptism in February! I think the area will be on fire soon now that the holiday season is officially closing this week and school is in. So things should pick up.

Elder Van Zyl in the Apron Elder Dolben and I gave him for Christmas (look at the pictures on the wall behind him. I had too much fun with the chapel scanner one day)…

I went on exchanges this Wednesday with Elder Van Zyl. We had some free time in the morning so we went tracting. Elder Van Zly chose a spot and we parked the car then started to knock doors. The first house we went to there was nobody answering, so we tried the back door, and still nothing. We were about to leave when I felt prompted to try the little houses that were behind the big house (here in Africa people live in little rooms and usually there are a bunch of them behind every normal sized house). I knocked on the first one and nobody answered, but the neighbor heard us knocking and opened up and we started to talk to him. Eventually he invited us inside and we started to get to know him a bit. We found out that he was a pastor of another church. He was interested in our message so we started to share it. I was praying a lot during that lesson, and it seemed like the lesson was actually flowing very smoothly. We taught the whole first lesson and even left him a Book of Mormon and a restoration Pamphlet, and before we even closed, he was asking us when we were going to come back and share more with him. That was the first time that had ever happened to me! Go tracting and the first person to speak to us invited us in, accepted the message, committed to a return appointment, and was a pastor of another church! That doesn't happen very much if ever! That was really cool! I was just kind of blown away by that! Mission is great! I love it TOO MUCH!

We had 3 investigators come to church! That was cool! Next transfer is only going to be 5 weeks long because of the new periods of time that people will be in the MTC (2 weeks instead of 3) so after this next transfer, we will be having those 18 yr old Elders Coming into our mission. There are going to be a bunch more missionaries in our mission also! It's going to be intense! I'm excited!

The "Little Bridge." that has a face off with vehicles.

The weather was nice this week. It was raining pretty much all week, which I enjoyed because it was cool. But today is roasting hot!!! I'm sweating like crazy! It's impossible to escape the heat also! Thanks for all of the support! Aunt Terri I got the package! Thanks! I still haven't got the one from Mom and Dad... Maybe next week? We'll see... Love you all!

-Elder Jones