Howzit (as the Africans would say),
Well this week wasn't terribly interesting until the very end of the week. We only had a few appointments again, and some of the people we are teaching we had to drop. So we spent a lot of time tracting this week. We hate having to tract because it rarely ever turns out any good results; it just feels like we're wasting time when we do it, but it's really one of the only things we can do because the members really aren't willing to help us out at all. We try to get them involved, but most of the time they tell us they are too busy. There are a few members that put forth a good effort to help us, but we hate having to rely on those ones constantly. We're, over the next few weeks, going to be teaching lessons in Priesthood, Relief Society, YSA and Primary about every member being a missionary and how to set up family mission plans. I hope it works in motivating the members here because they all have a lot of potential to do a lot of good.
The family that we had to drop this week, I don't remember if I've told you about them already or not, is the Wiesners. They're an old Afrikaans. They basically expressed to us that they were born in the Afrikaans church, and that's where they are going to die even if they come to know that the Book of Mormon is true. They are the most prideful people I've met. They pretty much, in a round about way, told us that they believe that God loves the Afrikaaners more than anyone else. So after like 4 months of wasted missionary efforts, we had to drop them.
We did meet with a new family this week which seems promising. It's a guy named Sakhile and his sister, but they seemed to be very interested in what we had to say so far about the restoration, but we'll see how the next visit goes before I get too excited.
We were also able to eat dinner at the Sheasby's, a less active family, home this week. We have been visiting them a lot lately and they are almost completely active again and it's pretty awesome. They're a young couple with 3 small children, but they are some of the funniest people I've met. Elder Blake and I love going over to their house even though it's a pretty good bike ride to get there and back.
The highlight of the week though, is that we had 2 baptisms on Sunday. I was able to baptize a girl named Jessica, and Elder Blake baptized Markus. 2 white baptisms in the same week. It was awesome. Most missionaries here never get 1 white baptism the entire time they're here. It got the branch excited too. So much, that a couple of the members even came up to us and offered to go on splits with us. That has never happened to me here before. It was awesome. Jessica's mother Yvonne is going to be baptized on the 26th also.
That's really all that happened this week though. I'm really glad that I have Elder Blake as my companion, even though a lot of the time he can be really dramatic. I hear so many horror stories about other missionaries companions that are in the field right now. I only have like 3 more weeks with Elder Blake, and I don't know what I'll do with an area as hard as this one and a companion that I don't get along with. I hope it goes well.
Sorry that I don't have more to write this week. Not very many exciting things happen in this area. I love you all though and hope you all have another awesome week. Thank you for all the letters also.
-Elder Balmforth
Me, Jessica, Markus, Elder Blake pre-baptism
My Zone leader, Elder Crawford
No comments:
Post a Comment