Monday, August 29, 2011

Baptisms!





Dear Family and Friends,

Hey guys! it was an alright week, taught people from the bottom of my heart and did the Lord's work! :) what better can you get! haha Had our baptism of Jacob and Phumla yesterday! :) yeah man! haha they were pretty excited when they got into the water. Brother Freddy baptized them it was his first time baptising someone so he needed a little training haha. it was really nice tho, they were smiling all day and it was a spiritual experience for them both and for the people that were there, had a better turn out this time than we did for the mbambus. so yeah! great stuff, sis Lotter was surprised to see so many baptisms in 2 months, she said were having a baptism every month, you guys are doing a really good job. it felt good to hear someone say that to me, knowing that i am making a difference in the ward and that i'm helping it and not diminishing it. Bishop of course thanked us for our hard work. i love bishop taim, hes a good bishop, always on top of things. and very supportive of the missionaries. never had a bishop in any of my areas where he has been so friendly and supportive to the elders. I love this ward a lot.

so that was the highlight of the week i guess haha a baptism is always wonderful and highlightful! HEHE On monday we went to the zls boarding and played tennis, it was fun. not sure what were going to do today tho... hmmm....but after that we went to Laura dollmans and had FHE with her and Kimberly. cathy dollman lauras mother is out of the house for a while staying with a friend so we just met with Laura and Kimberly. it was a nice evening.

tuesday- we saw Nomsa, RC, she had a family crisis back home in zimbabwe so we went there to cheer her up a bit. haha i always seem to cheer people up, ok it depends on if i'm happy and cheerful and smiling. but i do a good job at it i think. We also met with Meshack, he is a golden! haha he reads what we give him and he came to church yesterday i think he enjoyed it. We've been seeing him 3 times a week well this past week anyway. He only has been in south africa for a few weeks so he is still new to the area and doesn't know his way around very good but he managed to find the church which was awesome! we have him a baptismal date for the 30 of Oct this past week and doing really good with it.were excited for him. We also saw taylor, he is doing alright, he had 2 deaths in his family so this past week he was busy with funerals and what what. we went there last night and met with him and we got talking and he is currently working 27-7 he doesn't have anytime for himself. i don't understand how someone can work so much and still have the energy to go about what hes doing. he said last night that he needs to slow down and calm himself. he as a very nice paying job, he works with property and he is only 26 years old. i was shocked to hear that a 26yr old is that wealthy. he bought his first property when he was 18 and the cost of that building tripled in a year so he sold it and got lots off of that. and now he owns 4 apartments that he rents out and also does his daytime job from 8-4:30, which alone pays him quite well. so he is doing very well for himself. but he really needs to slow down, he hadn't slept in a few days. he works with a lot of American clients so he has appointments with them at 10 in the evening because of the time change and so forth. wow... haha. busy man.

we found out that anele, who had a baptism date for the end of sept is in jail now. ha. so we can't do anything till he comes out. he was caught with meth in his pocket. So his mother told us that he was in jail and that court is today and going to settle all of that and so forth. he seemed so sincere when we saw him on wednesday to change his life and now he is in prison.... shame is all i can say. its quite amazing to see what drugs can do to someone isn't it? hmm..

Eugene is awesome haha we saw him on wednesday and saturday. we taught him the 10 commandments and the sabbath day and then went over the plan of salvation with him on saturday. he is just awesome haha came to church yesterday and his brother Tyrone came with him too. so that was cool. hes inviting his family to take part of the restored gospel. thats how the world is going to know about the restored gospel is through family and friends introducing them to the message and then to the missionaries. thats the only way. referrals is key or member missionary work.

We went to a part less active family on wednesday evening. the Thom family. The mother and 3 kids come sis thom is the young womens pres, but her husband doesn't claim to be a member anymore. i think its because he is a fly fisher by profession and well sundays are good days to go fishing, hes been to the states a few times, been to Idaho! for fishing. haha hes a really nice guy tho, has his own fly shop by his house and they fed us some nice stir fry. ate it with chop sticks haha. but i asked him why he doesn't to church he basically shut me right up by saying that he has nothing to say about it. so its not his time i guess.

We went to the Mthembus on thursday evening for a DA. we had chicken and rice and beans and garlic bread. it was yummy. but funny thing. have you ever had dessert first?? I have haha we had ice cream with a really good cake of some sort. haha we ate it first cause the other food, the dinner wasn't quite done yet and we were a little pushed on time so Sis Jackie brought out the dessert first haha. it was interesting. but nice. i always enjoy being in that home. such wonderful people.

I went on exchanges with elder pearson in bellville on friday. it was a good day. they have a some really good investigators. i enjoyed it with him. he is a funny elder and really cool to serve with.

Saturday was a really nice day, had a few appointments fall through but the day in general was nice, as as i said we saw Eugene and Meshack and Jacob and Phumla. We also met with John. He is doing good. he is the friend of peter from burundie. he hadn't read much from the Book of Mormon. he was busy with work. he struggles with english, so i ordered a Swahili Book of Mormon for him and he was really happy when i gave it to him. we taught him about prayer and scripture study. and got him to pray in english before we left too! :) he wasn't going to but we were patient and persistent and well it happened and it was a really good prayer too. then we visited the Welo family. they are orignialy from DRC, members. bro Welo is very successful in his security business and sis welo works at pick n pay. so she works a lot on sundays. but they have a strong testimony. wonderful family. I love visiting members and getting to know them and to hear their testimonies. its such a pleasure to do that and get close to all of them and feel of their love for the gospel and even for me as a missionary.

Sunday was a good day. Had 6 investigators as church. is was a big gospel principles class. i taught the class, it was on the Lord's law of health. good participation from the class. for sacrament meeting I shared my testimony and my favorite scriptures, funny story bout that. I walked in the chapel and bishop comes up and asks me when transfers was, i told him that its this coming wednesday. so he said that well you've been here a while so you might leave us so would you share your testimony and a spiritual thought. i just thought...wow...haha so i did. and then sis jackie Lotter gave a talk from the liahona about how the Spirit is here with us and that we are not alone. and then Peirt Mayburg gave a talk on how we can avoid temptations. very nice. then we had the baptism. for lunch we went to the pattersons. they fed us chicken curry and pumpkin and veggies and then had custard and cake. very nice i was very full when i walked out of their home. they all made fun of me cause i ate too much. haha haven't been that full in a long time. it was a good feeling to have even if it was uncomfortable for a min. haha. then we went and saw peter. he is doing ok. i hope we finally addressed his concern about the sabbath day. he didn't seem too pleased when we were done. but i don't know, the Spirit needs to work in him and convert him. he is a 7th day adventist so it has been a struggle to get him to realize that sunday is the day we go to church and worship. I know that if he prays the Lord will let him know, but i think there is unbelief there with peter and he won't ask in faith. we'll see what happens.

Well that was the week for you! haha i hope it was eventful. I know that the Lord loves us and if we do our part of the work of this wonderful plan we will have our will come into his will and we will receive happiness. Christ is the mediator between us and returning to our Heavenly Father. I love you all and hope things continue to go well back home. love you guys! church is true book is blue and you can know it too!

your missionary,
Elder Robert S Rigby (SACTM)

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