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 :)

Conference!

I was at another U23 team camp, so I'm a little behind again on letters. It's insane that it's already April! Only three weeks left of school until the semester is over and a little over two months until Mikel comes home! It almost doesn't even feel real that he's coming home. It's like this figment of my imagination that's never actually going to happen.. but it's close! I've gotten to the point though where I'm so tired of emailing. Not because I don't love hearing from him and telling him about my week, but because I would so much rather just tell him in person haha. Almost there though, so I've just gotta push through.

March 27th

"We had a great visit with an investigator named Auspicious.  She related to us how everything that happened at church last Sunday applied directly to what she was about to go through. At church I gave a talk about how the Book of Mormon had helped me find peace in life's trials. Then in the gospel principle class we spoke about the Holy Ghost and how we can receive answers to prayer. We spoke of the spirits role in our life. In Relief Society they spoke on prayer. That week, Auspicious got a call from her family saying that her brother is sick and because of the medical expenses they will be unable to pay for her school or food any longer. She was told she must find a job. She didn't know how she would be able to do that with her busy class schedule and so late into the semester. She was flustered, upset, and scared. She then remembered church and then started reading the Book of Mormon. She came across 1 Nephi 3:7 which tells us that God gives nothing unto his children unless he provides a way for them to accomplish it. She explained to us that after she read this she was calm. She got a call from her brother asking if she was okay with everything. She could honestly reply, yes, everything is fine, God is in control. She then just went on with faith. Not knowing how she was going to buy food for the month she moved forward. Trusting in the Lords promise. She then received an email the next day from a company she did an internship over a year ago. The email stated that they would like to pay for her tuition and also give her grocery money. She had not had any contact with this company for a year. She had told no one of her failing circumstance. It was a miracle to say the least. After that she really knew that God is in control and that he loves us. He will provide a way, if we just keep our heads up and trust in him, all will work out in the end." 

Rugby game! Free State Cheetahs vs the Sharks

"Rethabile was in Kimberley this week so we were unable to teach her but I think she is coming back today and we will get right back into it.

Nothing to crazy has been going on, just living life as a missionary! 

Today for P-day we went and played volleyball with Auspicious and some of her friends it was pretty fun, next week we will play soccer against them. 

I got letters!!!! from Hailey, Grandma Marry, and Taryn!!! 

Thank you! sure way to make a missionaries day!!!"

April 3rd

"Conference Week!! Well sort of!  Because of the time difference we can not really watch conference live. for example the Sunday pm session started at 10pm our time and would end at midnight, but we have been able to watch the Saturday session and boy was it grand!!

I loved the very first talk I heard by president Eyring about how "the best technology can never replace revelation" I have noticed this on my mission. We don't have a lot of access to technology like other missions because of safety issues so we do not use ipads or tablets of any kind. 

I have noticed that people these days don't want to study and find answers for themselves. we simply google, yahoo and bing our way through. I think this causes a bit of a problem. When you really search for something by turning page after page. book after book, person after person, looking, searching, discovering and ultimately finding, you actually come to ingrain into you very soul the truths of life you have been searching for. thus The best things always come out from the hard things. We find more our selves as we dig deep and keep digging. We gain an answer and understanding that will never fade a way. We allow the spirit of revelation to fill our minds eye as we seek for the direction and council of the Lord on who we should proceed. We are becoming a lazy generation "smart phones and dumb people" People who don't know how to find answers from God anymore because the alternative is easier, quicker, and mostly reliable. but is that good enough for you? only being mostly reliable. who has ever heard of a company slogan like that?  Choose us, we wont let you down.... most of the time! Have you ever heard a coach say its okay, we gave it 80 percent. NO! almost, and mostly and sometimes is not good enough, at least not for me! I constantly tell people, I may lie, but do you know who will never lie to you? Only God! at the end of the day, He is the truth and the light! If we are looking for truth or light in our life then we should turn to the source of all truth and of all light."

"this is a super nice turf that we play at in Bloemanda every saturday morning and most mondays."

Elder Mbangi

"Dancing a little too hard and whoops..." hahahaha

"I also learned something this week while teaching! Its cool when you are asked a question and you know the answer to something you never thought about. 

We were asked this week if you could change the mind of God, it was an interesting question and we wanted to understand more. so we said, why do you ask? Their is a story the the book of Kings in the old Testament of the bible of a man who is told by the prophet that he will soon die. The dying man prays to God that he might live longer, God grants the prayer and extends the life of the man. Thus the question, was the man able to change the mind of God? My answer was no, we can not change Gods mind. God is bound by law though. laws that even govern us. for example. every action has a reaction. one of newtons laws (slightly shorted) 

God wants to bless us, we are his children and He wants to give us all He has. but according to law He can not just give us blessings. we first need to act so that God can then re-act. We learn through the scriptures that to every act their is an affixed punishment or blessing. It is only upon the action of faith in which God can bestow us blessings from on high. He wishes to flood our lives with the showers of heaven but is held back by the lack of acting faith on our part. without us acting God can do no work. (Ether 12:12) We know that Faith is an action word. We can just say we have faith we need to show it (James 2:17) 

The man did not change Gods mind but simply allowed God the opportunity to give Him blessings He was already prepared and wanting to give. "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." (LDS Bible dictionary- Prayer)

To check out conference or more about our church click below.

https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng

Wow prayer is important right! just a cool thought to me though that God is bound by law of action and reaction God never punishes unless we act against his will. He is always watching and waiting to pour blessing upon us as we choose to follow Him."

We got to go to a museum!

"This week we put a women named Thuli on a baptismal day, we are hopeful for her to progress and start coming to church. After we taught the restoration of the gospel she was eager to accept her own copy of the book of Mormon. 

Auspicious was able to come to conference this week which was awesome. We talked about how we would be guided by modern day prophets and apostles. We should prepare ourselves to receive guidance in our lives and get answers the questions. She prepared a list of 10 questions that she wants answered. sadly I am not allowed to see her list and they are questions pertaining to her personal life. She received on answer and I pray she gets more through the coming sessions of conference.

Have a wonderful week, and beautiful Easter!!!"

I'm super excited to listen to conference. Due to games and travel I wasn't able to listen to it except for the Sunday afternoon session. I love conference and the spiritual nourishment it gives us every 6 months!