"Sorry I didn't get the chance to send out an email last week. We were having some technical difficulties with my sons email account.... Still havn't gotten it sorted so that's a bit of a bummer.
Its been raining a lot lately, actually a ton, quite different for Free State area but its been good for the crops, we have been praying for rain for years this side. I think it might have to do with the dineo storm hitting the coast. It is sometimes hard to get motivated to go out and tract in the rain, but nothing can stop us!
Anyways yes my son is Elder Mbangi from Cape Town SA, he is Xhosa. Maybe I will be able to learn a bit of xhosa now, xhosa is like isiZulu but has even more clicks. When I speak Zulu a fluent Xhosa can pick up the jist of what I am saying but when it comes to me hearing anything in Xhosa its over!
He is 19 yrs old, just a week younger than me and is the only member in his family. He is a power dude. He already is a great and powerful teacher and loves the book of mormon and the gospel. We both share a strong testimony of our Father in Heaven.
I know I have probably mentioned it before but Ill do it again and it probably wont be the last time. Who is God? think about that! He is the creator, the reason for everything the one who showers us with blessings right!? well that is correct, He is our creator which makes Him our Father. He is a perfect Father and because of that all He wants to do is bless us. He only wants the best things for us. (Matt7:7-11) When we truly begin to understand that God is our loving Heavenly Father it answers just about everything! Why am I suffering, well if you know that God is your Father and loves you perfectly and would never do anything to hurt you then you begin to realize that these trials or sufferings are for our gain, our learning, our benefit in every way. If a parent was to scared to let their baby fall down while trying to walk, would the baby ever learn to walk? NO! We learn through trials. it just seems to be the nature of humanity. Even Christ himself learned through suffering (Heb5:8)
God is perfect right?
-yes
Him being perfect can He make mistakes?
-no
So, every thing he does is??.....
-Perfect
Exactly, God our Father being perfect can not make mistakes, He can only make perfection, all He does is perfect.
So, who made you?
-God
And if He cant make mistakes that means you are perfect, we are all divine, we all have the potential for perfection, we were made destined for perfection. (Matt5:48) You are perfect just the way you are! Not while you are trying to be someone else or do things to fit in, you, just the way your are is literally perfection. Because the way you are is the way God made you and we dont have to try to conform or change to feel acceptance or self worth. When we know that God is our Father than we already have an infinite worth and self value. Your Father is the greatest King known to all of humanity and you are his son or daughter. You are all Prince's or princesses! and the best part is you dont have to do anything to be that. you are just that. Perfect. I love knowing that we have a Heavenly Father who is there for us. just like the baby who falls down trying to walk. He picks us up. and encourages us to move forward.
Elder Mbangi and I have been continuing to try and find new investigators to teach. its going okay. We have had a few set back this week as some people have decided they would not like to visit with us anymore but hey, such is life and it just moves on and so do we.
We are really excited about the people we do have though. Today we get to go see three young women we have been teaching for a little bit. Boy do I love them! I just love how excited some people are about the gospel. It makes me excited and so happy. I love seeing people smile and find joy and I think thats why I love being a missionary, because I just get to help others find that in their lives!!! its wonderful!
We will be teaching them about Faith, Repentance and baptism today. I am excited, they tend to ask a lot of interesting questions. like, What tribe is moses from or, Why was marry chosen to be the mother of Christ, or other wonderful and interesting biblical questions. I love them but we are going to try to shift the focus on to the things we have prepared to help them progress more.
I love kids! We are teaching this boy Nati who is a recent converts child. he is 8 years old and teaching him is a blast. We are hoping to get him baptized the beginning of the month but we will see. Kids just have this extra light about them and when they learn something new or for the first time you see that spark just fare a bit and its the coolest thing ever!
I see more and more why Children are the kingdom of heaven! (Matt19:14)
Sindi is also doing well, we just finished all the missionary discussion and will now be focusing on more direct principles and ordinances. She still isnt ready for baptism but I hope and pray she will be soon. It gets hard when you grow to love the people you are teaching so much and then they dont progress like you hope. It literally hurts my heart and just makes me super sad. Everyone has their time though and no effort is ever wasted, no good deed goes without reward.
I am excited for this week, we will see how everything goes. I am trying my best to keep up the energy and enthusiasm. Its a great feeling coming home at the end of the day just so tired that you dont even want to plan for tomorrow. The only thing you want to do is sleep so you skip cooking dinner and just go to bed.
oh that reminds me haha we made an awesome dinner last night. So like normal we get home about 9 to 9:30 and then we plan for tomorrow. this takes us to 10 we then have to cook to eat dinner. so I started boiling the chicken and then realized we had potatoes so I started boiling those as well. through some frozen veggies in it as well. Started to boil the rice. and then make the beans. We then baked the chicken to crisp it up and put it all together. It was a really thrown together meal because I started the chicken and rice not knowing what we would eat it with, then I realized we had potatoes and veggies but still we didnt have anything to make a nice chicken stew so then we found some beans and started those and by the end everything turned out nice and delicious. so we eat at 11 and then go to bed. I am used to eating late, my son is getting used to it now after two weeks. we eat lunch around 12 and then dinner around 10-11 somewhere in their. so its quite the gap.
Anyways I love you all and pray you are well,
Elder North"
He did mention to me that his companion was struggling a little bit with feeling homesick. He is the only member of the church in his family so they aren't really thrilled about him being away for two years and his father is sick as well as some other family issues. But I hope that he starts to get immersed the the work and his family is able to see the blessings of him serving.