Monday, June 13, 2011

Investigators





Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings! I'm so glad you got my SD card and that you enjoyed the pictures :) yes i/we had lots of fun taking them and laughing about experiences and so forth. Well the week was good, as i said last week it was transfers so i got my new companion, Elder Ramochla. He is funny haha his laugh is a like a little monkey lol i just crack up everytime he laughs at something. haha. he was trained in Gramstown by elder Macharoi and then he went to Gugelethu. he really enjoyed it there and is kinda sad that he left but happy at the same time. he needed a new area. but he likes this area now that hes been a few days and met the ward and so forth. haha he even had to give a talk yesterday in church. he wasn't happy when i told him that bishop had asked him to give a talk and he hadn't even met him yet. not like my story of coming at least one sunday and then having to give a talk the next week. but yeah. hes cool tho i really enjoy working with him so far, hes a really good teacher and only been out 5 months.
We didn't have any investigators pitch up yesterday at church. dang it! :( i don't know why? we even went to the mbambu family to ask why they didn't make it. so i hope when we see them tomorrow things will be better for them and the family will start to progress. they really want to get baptized. jay jay, the 13yr old wants to get baptized before his father and sister haha. we just told them that it would be better for all of you to get baptized the same day. he then agreed to that. he goes to youth every tuesday. so he really wants to progress. Candida, the sister who is 11 really hasn't shown much effort but she's young so i don't really know what to expect from her but yeah.
Anele didn't pitch up either like he said he would. we saw him sat and he told us that he had a friend that past away that was really close to him so we were going to talk about the Word of Wisdom but then after he told us that we read Alma 40 with him and talked about life after death, to help him receive comfort. he felt better after the lesson. hes a good guy just struggling with finding work and keeping appointments. i'm sure he didn't pitch up yesterday because he couldn't wake up.... thats been his reason for not coming before so i even asked him sat if we could call him in the morning and he said no i'll get up. but didn't come.
jacob and pumla didn't come either. yo, it was a bad sunday for investigators i guess. we didn't see them yesterday but we saw them saturday morning and we taught them the 10 commandments and keeping the sabbath day holy. i kind of rebuked them for not reading everyday and just laughing about it. they need to know that they can't get baptized unless they do what the lord wants them to do. wonderful couple but they need to act more as well. we'll see them tomorrow as well and find out more details. they are really struggling financially. so maybe that had an effect on coming to church. those are the main people that we expected to come.
Caroline dropped us this past week. her husband doesn't want us to come anymore. he doesn't like the fact that we are teaching his wife when she already has a church. man, people don't get that it doesn't matter if you have a church or not we are still going to teach you more about the Saviour! so she is sad about it and hopes and prays that he will change his mind in the future and let us come again and teach them. she was really getting excited about our message too! dang it! :(
We visited the Mthembu family on wed evening. and we had a really nice time. they are such sweet people and are so good to us. i think we are even getting close to having bro mthembu come to church...:) he is so funny and had a blast giving elder Ramochla a hard time about Lesotho. haha it was funny. Sis Mthembu is expecting her baby next month so they are excited about that. but a great family. Also visited the hill family friday and then again yesterday afternoon. yo they fed us on friday and then yesterday a sister gave us food at church so we went home after church and had that and then we went to the hill family and we had just ate and they fed us again haha i couldn't say no they wouldn't let me. and then we went to Vickys later around 5:30 and she fed us too! oh my goodness i struggled there haha i look over at my companion and he is just really struggling to get the food down. we were so full when we got home yesterday. haha So mom, yes your son is being taking care of. i definitely don't go without food. haha. no wonder i've gained weight.
we went to Sebastian's and Reins wedding on saturday. it was very nice. just a few couples were invited and the missionaries, because we are teaching the bride. so thats where the photo was at.
Well i love you guys! :) hope all is well and everyone stays healthy. Have a gooder week and remember who you are and what you stand for :) peace!
your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)
ps requesting Reeses pieces for sis dollman. :)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Food Glorious Food

Dear Everyone!,

Hi! :) how is everyone? sounds like Arizona is the place to be...i wanta jet ski! Thats not fair i must say! but oh well at least i have sunshine most of the year and not just a few months :) well this past week its been raining, today its raining must be winter in cape town. luckily i have a car cause i don't have a rain jacket. the week was really good tho, we had some really good lessons.

We've really been focusing on Jacob and Pumla and getting them to progress by reading everyday. they just don't do it, even if its just for 10 min they come up with excuses of being busy or i came home late and etc... but other than than Jacob is doing really good. he came to church again this week, unfortunately Pumla didn't make it again, i guess she didn't have anything to keep her warm since it was kinda cold yesterday morning. but in Priesthood we bore our testimonies and Jacob stood up and bore his testimony in Swahili and a member Bro Freddie translated for him into English. it was COOL! HAHA now all the brethren know him and want to help him. it was great, he has really changed from the first time i met him he has seen the truth in our teaching and he knows its true, now its just getting him baptized. hopefully it will happen at the end of them month. their date is the 26th of june. Pumla isn't showing much progression at the moment so i don't know if she will be baptized the same day, like they wanted. but they are a wonderful couple.

Vicky is just a joke and doesn't keep commitments, but she doesn't want us to stop coming. she says she feels bad things happen when she cancels our appointments so she sees the truth but isn't really acting on it. doesn't read doesn't come to church. so basically all we have done with her and Lauren, her daughter who is 18, is read with them from the Book of Mormon. and help them understand the importance of it. but as the tables turn she has now quit her job because she didn't like what was going on at work with her colleagues and what what so she walked out and now she needs to find a better job so she can pay the rent on their flat. She just cried when we told her that she needs to put more effort into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She knows what she needs to do, just isn't doing it. so i hope and pray that things will get better for her and her family. shes a wonderful lady, very loving and will do anything for her kids but she doesn't feel that they will do the same for her, she's disappointed. I felt for her. i didn't know what to say other than Jesus Christ is the only one who can help her. for her to find comfort in prayer and scripture study. i love these ladies but i'm running out of ideas to help them. So pray that they will act on their faith.

The Mbambu family, part member family, are doing good. we saw them tuesday evening and we were able to talk about the restoration and explain more in detail about it and the Book of Mormon. Levus, the father is really showing interest, but hasn't made it to church yet. didn't come yesterday in fact the entire family didn't make it. last week because they were tired and then this week because they were expecting a friend to come visit and then didn't come till yesterday evening. we stopped by yesterday to see what the cause was and thats what they told us. and then they surprised us with food haha. this was at 3 and then we had our da and 5 haha and then we saw the hill family, (LA) and they fed us too, and this was at 7 so i we got 3 DAs yesterday. yo i was full last night. no wonder i've gained weight haha people like to feed me. which i have no problem with :)

The dollman family fed us yesterday at 5 and we had spaghetti with chicken instead of mince meat. it was really nice you should try it mom haha. after that we went to the Hill family, less actives and we got there and bro Hill asked us how much time we had and i said all the time you need. why?..Well we need blessings all of us. so We gave every member of the family blessings. total of 6. it was very nice. they are a wonderful family but struggling with unity and the boys not listening to their parents and so forth. and its exams this week so they wanted us to give them blessings. the Spirit definitely came to the rescue when i didn't know what to say in the 3 blessings i was voice for. Bro hill as arthritis in his knees so we anointed and blessed him for that and also comfort blessing. had a wonderful evening with them. Bro hills humor is something else let me tell ya haha. he is one of a kind. i just wish they would come to church.

We had only 2 investigators at church yesterday. Reine and Jacob. Anele didn't make it, Caroline didn't make it and Pumla didn't make it like they promised. so we'll find out details later this week.

Transfers is this week. got my news this morning the assistants called us and Elder Mukula is going to Queenstown and i am staying here and getting a new comp Elder Ramochela, from lusuthu i think. he has been in the zone so i've met him and he came out in january so still a newbe hehe. i'm excited to work with him. should be good. but yeah

Well i love you all and hope you travel safe home tomorrow and that all is well back home. I miss you guys. I'm glad you liked the O'Dells i love them :) have a gooder week.

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

*PS we got Rob's SD card today with 879 files so I'll post some when I get through them all :)