Working in the Vineyard

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey! what a week! haha been quite busy and teaching the Gospel from the bottom of my heart to my fellow brothers and sisters in Gods vineyard. I truly love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and missionary work is hard but i do think that its teaching me things that i will remember the rest of my life. We had a decent week with lots of teaching actually. so that was gooder. my fellow district missionaries are working hard and enjoying our time serving together. although
Elder Mhkize is dieing, slowly but surely. he has one week left but he is doing a wonderful job of leading the district. We had exchanges on saturday. he came to be with me in my area and oh my goodness haha when old companions get together for the entire day haha some intense and funny things happen. I really enjoyed the time i had with him, he is such a great teacher who, in any situation can discern the thoughts of the investigators and really try to understand their concerns. Its unbelievable. most of the day we visited less actives and it was good time spent with them to help resolve their concerns. Met with the cupido family. the wife is less active mostly cause she is 55 and doesn't like to go out when its hot. bro Cupido came on sunday for the first time in a while. he is in the young mens presidency in our branch. it was good to see him there.

We met with Stephen Alfreds. he is in his thirties and not married. he is also a returned missionary. he served in Joburg back in 1998-2000. so he didn't have Preach my Gospel. he loved his mission but now he doesn't like what is happening at church with the leadership and all the offences people are taking. its really bad in Mitchells plain. Thats at least one of the reasons he doesn't come to church. He knows it Heavenly Fathers Kingdom on Earth but just has many problems with whats happening in the church. He is a very cool guy tho. loves music and movies, like i do haha. he plays in a band well 2 bands actually. so something to look up when i get home. See how good his band is. His mother is the Stake Relief Society President. So she also knows why he doesn't come so its going slowly but i think he will eventually come around. we are going to ask him to come fellowshipping with us when we feel the time is right. hopefully that will spark his interest in coming back to church soon. SO overall saturday on exchanges was really good. i had fun with Elder Mhkize and learned even more from the "dieing" missionary haha.

That night we went to a members house and had a braii to celebrate Elder Mkhizes and the members birthday. He is the big 21! haha and feeling it too. She is 24. had other people there to celebrate it with us. four missionaries outside braiiing the meat and oh my goodness i have never seen so much meat for one birthday party in my life haha people in south africa love meat! So Mkhize and I started up the braii and braiied all of it haha it was fun! and then there was cake! and well, all of you know how i am with cake haha. IT was yummy!

Sunday was very nice. We had 2 investigators attend church. Bro Malinga and then Bro Mngomezulu came. it was great to see both of them. We went early to show bro Mngomezulu the way to church, so he followed us in his car. Oh and by the way my comp and i have a car now haha! :) its fabulous. the Plenns went home so the APs are now driving the car that the Plenns had and so now we are driving the APs car. i love it haha. work had improved too! we can now go to the area that is far and see people that need to progress!

We had zone training with President and sister Probst on Wednesday. It was on the importance of introducing the Book Of Mormon. We role played introducing it and repracticed. Then we had lunch. The Herberts prepared the food and oh it was good haha. sloppy joes and watermelon and macaroni salad. with cookies for dessert. i loved it haha everyone did. the afternoon session President took us through the importance of the first couple of chapters of 1 Nephi and how it even relates to Joesph Smith and what he had to go through. It was pretty cool. Nephi and Joseph Smith had to go through a lot of the same things. So everyone read the first few chapters of Nephi and compare it to Joseph Smith and see what you get. :) After that we watched "Facing the Giants" a movie about a football coach who puts his faith in God and helps his team win state. it was cool. SO look it up.

Well its the start of week 6 wow. time is flying by. I have 10 months left. Steve is doing good tho haha him and i are in good touch. Hes enjoying his mission in Ghana. Next week is transfer week. i will be staying and will be taking Mhkizes leadership position here in Mitchells Plain. Pres told me that when i first came here. Don't know if I'm ready for that again. i pray that i will be.

Well have a good week everyone! I love you all and hope all is well!

Your Missionary,
Elder Rigby (SACTM)