Mother's Day

It was so great to be able to talk to him on mother's day! He sounded so good and so happy. I don't think I remember him sounding this happy on the last call we had, but maybe I just didn't notice. He had tons of stories to tell and talked about the kind of food he wants at his homecoming (which sounded disgusting). It was just fun to see him and listen to him for a while. Less than 30 days until he is home!

"What a start to the week, so after emailing last week we go out of the email shop and start walking through town towards our car. We reach the place where we park and begin to look around....but our car is no where to be seen. I say we must have parked further down, knowing that this indeed is the spot. We look down and up and again, nothing. We saw some police officers across the road and made our approach to them to inquire about our missing vehicle. We asked if it was towed or possibly stolen. Their answer was less than comforting. They took us to the traffic department but unfortunately it was after 6pm and all have left the building. luckily we were able to check the tracker on the car and find out that had not been turned on since we left it which meant it must have been towed. Early next morning we went to the station to ask about our vehicle. It indeed was towed the municipality use the area that we parked as a way to get money by towing cars and making people pay to get them back. the place is not marked with signs to say no parking and is just behind a parking area which seems to be connected but unfortunately and apparently is not. We were unable to get our car back that day because the senior couple were out of town and we had no means of paying the release fee, so the other Elders picked us up and took us home. We live pretty far from our area but we didn't want to sit in all day so we packed our bags and put on our walking shoes. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the area and then another 20 to get to the appointment we had. we were able to be pretty productive and have a good day before making the 1hr trek back to our flat that night. Just look at the bright side, burning those extra kilograms before I get home :)
we were able to get our car back the following day and things have been great ever since"

"Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week, just the same joy that comes every week as you give yourself to the service of the Lord. Being a missionary bring such happiness!!! Our investigators are doing well and boy do I love em! We are hoping that we will have a baptism before the end of the transfer but we will see how thing go, we want to make sure that they are really prepared and firm in their testimony before we take the next step. 

As you all know it was mothers day this past Sunday which is in my top 3 Sundays of the year!!!! especially as a missionary because we got to Skype to our families :) 

Mothers are just something incredible right!? I shared this while skyping home but I will share it with the rest of you now. 

You know how in school when they tell you to write an essay they make you do a rough draft first. Now the rough draft serves as a way to see what your essay will look like, to look for mistakes and to be able to outline your plan. they usually are pretty close to what the essay is meant to become, just lacking some things or having some faults and errors. So just as we make a rough draft before the final product, God does the same. First he created Man, big, bulky, clunky, and rough around the edges. He then saw what he had made and realized we would need some improvement, so he started out on his final product. smoothing out the edges, adding a little here and a little there. He perfected his creation and the product is known as women. I mean just look at women, their love, their patience, their tenderness, their motherly love. and so much more. I mean who can look into a mothers eyes and not see the sparkle of heavens light!? so ya women and especially mothers are grand and just about perfect! I am thankful for Mothers and the Mothers to be!!!!

I hope you all appreciate and love your mothers and motherly figures in your life!

Elder North"

One Month!!!!

Now my only excuse for not getting these posted is that I'm just so ready for him to be home, haha. It's crazy to think that one month from now he will be!

May 1st

"I will be staying in Bleomfontein as my dying area, My son Elder Mbangi will be leaving to go to Kwa Dabeka in KNZ. I will be receiving Elder Sithole. He is one transfer behind me and is from Zimbabwe.

I am entering into my last transfer of my mission, I come home next month which just blows my mind. but lets not focus on that for now :)

It was a great week! We had two baptisms!!! Nokuzotha and Rethabile were baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! It was quite the journey for both of them and Satan has been working his best to try and stop them. Through out the trials and struggles, even the recent ones, they have not wavered. Many people would have stopped or quite, but not these two young ladies! they have gone through so much and yet have so much happiness!

Because of transfers I wont be able to email that much today

I love this gospel. I love Jesus Christ! He is my friend and savior. If I could ask you to do just one thing. it would be to read the Book of Mormon and listen to your heart. That's it. One thing to change your life forever. It has forever changed mine and I am so thankful for it!"

He sent some awesome pictures and video clips from that week!

May 8th

"So My new companion is Elder Sithole, He is from Zimbabwe!!!!  This is my 5th Zim companion and I love it!

He is a wicked good singer so we are going to practice some songs, he is also going to give me the music for nearer my God to thee in Sotho, Zulu and Afrikans so that will be awesome.

We have been working super hard ever since he got here and have had some great teaching experiences.

First of all was with Jessica, so we have been teaching Jessica for a while now and she is just grand. When we first gave her a book of Mormon she called her "apostle" and told him about what we teach, his response was that she should listen and what we were sharing is good. well first of all, that never happens! She she has grown to just love the Book of Mormon and even takes it with her to school, she has found two people for us to teach by sharing the book of Mormon with her class mates and standing up for truth, even though she is still not baptized! She also shared it on social media and had another friend ask for more information and became really excited to learn more about Jesus Christ. She says that she just has this burning feeling that she needs to share this with everyone!

We even gave her 10 copies of the Book of Mormon and also some pamphlets so she can give them to people she knows.

We have also been meeting with this other lady named Shelombe while we meet with Jessica. they are friends and both from Limpopo, Jessica is Venda and Shelombe is Tsonga. Well I never thought that Shelombe was really interested until we started to ask her more questions. only to find out that she has read all the way to Jacob in the book of Mormon! she has read over 120 pages! she is incredible!!! So that just made my day. unfortunately because of transport they were unable to come to church this week but we are excited for next week!

Auspicious was confirmed this week, it was a great experience to be able to confirm her in sacrament meeting. We brought her a new member kit which has some gospel resources. we gave her a picture and asked her what is was. She responded with "the temple?" we said yes and told her in was the temple in Joburg and that she will be able to go there and do work for her parents who have passed away. she couldn't believe that such a beautiful and wonderful building was found in south africa! she just kept staring at it. she then looked up and said, don't you guys see what this is!?!? this is a slice of heaven here on earth! It reminded me of the blessings of the temple and the great love and peace I feel each time I am privileged to enter. We continued to make the temple her goal and hope she can go next month!!!

Elder Sithole and I are doing great. He is just an incredible teacher and in each lesson, I am just filled with the spirit as he teaches. He is a super cool guy as well and I am excited to work the next 5 weeks with him. Wish it could be longer though.... He is the oldest in his family and the first missionary. 

I am doing so good, I have made some amazing friends here in Bloem and love the area. I am blessed to be able to stay another transfer with them.

Love you all and hope you all have a grand week!!!!"

We got to skype him today!! But I'll talk about that in my post for his letter this coming week :)