03/30/2015- ELDER HEPWORTH USING SKILLS FROM HOME

Hey everybody,

The email shop this week is horribly slow. I'm pretty lucky to have it
because some missionaries are struggling to get on. I did have to load
it in basic html ha. I think they are messing with the missionary
website as well because it looks completely different. Well this week
was pretty awesome. On Monday it was pretty boring though. We
basically just sat around at the flat. Today we are going to a mall
though and a Burger King. The first time I will have seen one and ate
it in over a year.

On Monday evenings we have started a thing where we
go do family home evening with families that sign up and we are
teaching the members the basics to strengthen them.

This week I turned our bath tub into a shower with my redneck skills.

We have a lot of people who are progressing. We had 11 people at church this week. The ones that should be getting baptized on the 12th of April are doing great.

One thing that I have struggled with is having a study journal and we talked about it during district meeting and I will start this week. How many of you are keeping one?

I just want to let my family know that they shouldn't be completely surprised when a different man comes home. Mission is the bomb and it is changing me while I change others lives. I hope everyone has a good week. You all are in my prayers.

Elder Hepworth

03/23/2015 - FINISHED READING THE BOOK OF MORMON FOR 3RD TIME

 

 

Hello everyone,

I can't believe I'm in the email shop already. This week has flown by. I had a really good week. This week I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time. It is STILL true. I have a testimony of this church and nobody can change that. Moroni 10:30 really stood out to me this time. It shows that each time you read the book something new will come out. That is how the word of God works. We really should come unto Christ and get the good gifts. The gifts of the gospel and adopt talents that our Heavenly Father has given us. On Tuesday we go and visit this family that has had a major change. When we first went there they were apostate and they will testify. We challenge them to teach us the lessons and they did it and studied together every night and it was awesome. On Friday we had exchanges and  I got to go to the other area and relax a little ha. On Saturday there was a funeral for some less active members relative. The way they do funerals here is totally different and hard to explain in words but it is unique. We are doing great out here. The weather is starting to cool down and winter is coming. Sounds weird right? Yesterday it rained all day and we were walking and our motivation was the people need our message and our wives are getting hotter because of this haha. I'm having tons of fun. My last thought which I had this week is how good it feels to be good and how bad it feels to be bad. Pretty deep I know. I'm grateful for the changes mission and our Heavenly Father have brought in me. I hope never to go back. Stay awesome everyone and have a good week!

Elder Hepworth

"Our Crazy Funny Pic....I am classic."

"Granny Frida...The Awesome Gogo"





Birthday Party for Investigator

03/16/2015 TSAKANE TOWNSHIP- ELDER HEPWORTH'S AREA

Tsakane Township

We had a pretty good week and I will just get right into it. On Monday we  went to a return missionaries house and taught him and his family. Part of his family aren't members so it was really cool. He also bought pizza and  I'm not complaining about that. We had zone conference on Wednesday where we go through some workshops and learn from our leaders. There was a lot of changes regarding dress and grooming. One of the biggest changes is that we can't have backpacks anymore. We need to use messenger bags. Our President is so cool though. They have been working on one for just the South Africa Johannesburg mission. So we will be getting one of them soon. Will send a picture when it comes. We have been doing so good as far as having investigators but getting them into the waters has been a struggle. We have had 6 baptisms fall through will all of there own unique circumstances. So I don't know when the next baptism will be ha but we will keep working hard. On Sunday we took with us a lady named Thuli to go and fellowship some of our investigators that need it. She got them excited because she is one of those bubbly people. We also went to go and teach one less active and it turned out to be her cousin. She had no idea and said we were a blessing and she would never forget that day. It is cool how such little promptings that we listen to can bless the lives of us so much. A man never stands taller than when he is on his knees (or woman). I have been changing my prayers lately. Instead of asking for things so much. I ask for strength and courage to overcome all things. I am grateful for prayer and I really desire to keep these good habits up when I go home. Thank you for all the support again. Have a lekkar week.

Elder Hepworth

NOTE:  Translation of "lekkar" is "nice" in Afrikaans (one of the official languages of South Africa).

Tsakane Township

Elder Hepworth's New Guitar

New Past Time In Elder's Flat

03/16/2015 WHAT MAKES ELDER HEPWORTH TRUNKY?

What makes Elder Hepworth "trunky" besides missing the Idaho Mountains?  To our surprise..... a backhoe!  He misses working with his dad at Hepworth Excavation!

He said that every time he sees construction equipment he stops and stares and thinks of home.  He wants to ask them to operate it sometime, but doesn't know if it is "mission right."

03/09/2015- CATCHING UP ON 6 MONTH AND 1 YEAR TRADITION- BURNING OF TIE AND SHIRT

Hello everybody,

This week was a pretty good one. It was my year mark and I can't believe I can say last year I was in South Africa. We had a nice party and had a lot of fun. At 6 months you burn a tie at 1 year you burn a shirt and at 18 months you burn pants and when you get home you burn a suit. So I had to do some catching up and burn a tie and shirt. The time is flying by. Last Monday we went to visit this grandma who we call granny Frida. She is the sweetest lady ever. I felt totally comfortable telling her she is going to the celestial kingdom. She stays in a shack and feeds us every Monday and  doesn't have electricity. The work is going great we have so many people to teach. They just show up to church and then we start teaching them. We had zone meeting on Friday and it wasn't very fun because our zone leaders thought it would be a good activity to go tracting in the middle of the day to show us how ineffective it is ha. Even though we have so many people to teach we are struggling to get them in the water. We were supposed to have a baptism this Sunday but the day before his interview we walked in on him drinking coffee. It is so discouraging. I feel like in my last area I was physically climbing mountains but now I'm climbing them emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Oh well life goes on. I hope everyone has a good week. Thank you for everything. 

Elder Hepworth

Hepworth/Arthur

Bergman/Hepworth

 

Bergman/Hepworth

Hepworth/Holmquist/Arthur

03-02-2015- ELDER HEPWORTH'S 1 YEAR MARK!

It is now March. This week I will be hitting my year mark on Friday. It is crazy to think that it has been a year and that I'm halfway done. This week was pretty good. On Tuesday there was only two of us in the area  because two had to stay home to watch the guys fixing some tile in the flat. On Saturday we went two a 2 year olds birthday party and it was the craziest thing. They had a dj and tons of people and lots of food and I'm pretty sure the kid didn't even know what was happening ha. We have been having a lot of success lately. We had 13 investigators come to church on Sunday. The speakers weren't working right though so I hope that the ones that it was there first time enjoyed it. I have been going through a lot lately and you know how it just happens that the scriptures help you. I was reading in Ether 6 and related them crossing the ocean to us and our trials. Go ahead and read it. Trials can push us to the promised land or the people that our Heavenly Father wants us to be and when we feel like we are in the deep of water calling upon the Lord. He will bring us out. Thank you for all the support and love. I pray for you all.