05/25/2015- Siyabonga means thank you in Zulu.

This is a place by our flat. Siyabonga means thank you in Zulu. We thought the sign worked great for missionary work too.

This week was very good. We had a lot of success. At the end of the week we had taught 33 lessons which is a lot. I think it is or pretty close to the most lessons I have taught in a week. It wasn't like we were just trying to pump out lessons too. We had quality lessons and saw all the people that we really needed to. On Monday we had family home evening. It was really fun because she is the primary president so we played a lot of fun games. As we were leaving they told us to sit down because they made dinner. It was Mokgodu and Dumbolo. I'm not so sure if I spelled it right and you probably will not be able to pronounce it until I get back. Dumbolo is a very nice bread that they make. I love it a lot. Mokgodu on the other hand is not nice. It is the intestines of cow. Most of the time it smells like poo but she cleaned it very well and made it like a stew. It wasn't nice but we got it down. The worst part was we got burps that night and they tasted so gross haha. Oh the things we eat here. On Sunday we had 6 confirmations in sacrament meeting which took up like half of the time ha. 3 of them were ours and 3 were the other guys. The success we are having is so nice but what makes me happier is how powerful they are. On Sunday we picked up Nhlanhla our recent convert who has been baptized for a month. We didn't see him at church and we asked what happened. He said he did go to church but went in a neighboring ward to just visit and see how it is there. We believed him because he talked about the things he had learned and it was the exact stuff we learned about. He said he commented and everyone starred at him and he thought he said something wrong but they were just amazed at how spiritual he is. Later we were teaching an investigator who came to church and said she loved it and can't wait to become a member. We really need to put her on date but we haven't been seeing her for very long ha. The lord is sending us awesome prepared people. Anyways as we were there she talked a lot and she has been through a lot. She asked Nhlanhla to pray before we left and his prayer was sincere and for her. As he was praying I was like wow and then after we saw she was crying. It is a rare occasion to make an investigator cry. He is going to be a great missionary and do great things. This week I set goals to meet this transfer. Goal setting is very important. If we don't set goals and learn how to reach them. Then we will get old and realize we only reached a part of our potential. Heavenly Father stretches us and forms us into what he wants us to be. If you feel comfortable you might not be doing enough. At least that is what I have learned. Have a good week everyone. You are in my prayers. 

Elder Hepworth

05-18-2015- OLGA BAPTIZED

Olga baptized by the branch mission leader Mduduzi

Hello everyone,

Olga and Her Friends from Church 05-15-2015

Another week down. It is weird to think that time is also running back home. Hearing that my siblings are almost out of school for the second time and my brother will be 17 is crazy. I don't know if I have talked about this before but I want to mention load shedding. It is something that has been affecting us greatly over the past few months and seems like it will never end. Basically it's the power company turning off power in certain areas for two hours. We have gone to watch the Restoration DVD with people and it goes out. We have had candle lit lessons and it is really annoying. The power company is Eskom. It is the only power company in South Africa and runs everything and does what it wants. That is a clear example why there are no monopolies in the good old USA. Everyone in the district stayed this transfer but on transfer day some other guys took our car so we were stranded at the flat all day and it was super boring. This week we had another baptism. Her name is Olga Kola and it sounds like coca cola. She is awesome. We had two interviews for her this week. One by our district leader and one by the mission president. He said she is super ready for baptism. Mduduzi our branch mission leader baptized her. On Saturday we had kind of a Mormon Helping Hands haha. We were at the chapel and the grounds are huge and there are tons of weeds. So the men wacked and burned weeds while the women cleaned the chapel. Burning everything is just how they do it in South Africa. We took Nhlanhla the recent convert with us to teach. He loved it and said he has liked how he felt all day. He also realized mission isn't easy though. There is a big garden at the chapel with chillis in it. We had a chilli each and they were so hot we were crying. I hope everyone had a good week. As the summer approached have fun. I will be bundling up here. Lastly I would just like to talk about the atonement. I taught the atonement in gospel principles yesterday and it went great. We all know what the atonement is but I want to talk about why and what we need to do. The reason we have the atonement is because there are two things separating us from God...spiritual and physical death. The atonement built bridges over these gaps and it is free to get over physical death. Spiritual death we much pay by living the gospel. Jesus Christ is so important to us so prove it to him. 

 

Elder Hepworth

05/10-2015- MOTHER'S DAY 5 BAPTISMS- Which makes 11 this transfer

 

Hello everybody,

Happy mother's day yesterday to all the mothers out there. It was really great seeing my family and talking to them. My siblings are growing up without me and it's weird ha. Yesterday was really fun because we had 5 baptisms in the branch. 2 were ours and 3 were the other two elders. That is 11 baptisms in one transfer. It has been so fun being here and I'm lucky to stay another transfer. So we will see what great work we can do now. The baptisms went great. My companion and I both had the opportunity to baptized ours investigators. It was my companions first time and it was a cool experience for him. After that we went to some senior couples in Joburg. There name is the Jarvi's and they work in the area office but come to our branch every Sunday. That is where we skyped and we had dinner with them. The lasagna was awesome. Not the usual pap or rice and chicken ha. Oh and don't even get me started on the brownies. This week was pretty good. Just the usual work. On Friday we just had baptismal interviews all day. This place is great because when we baptize we just get more awesome people to teach. On Saturday it as our branch mission leaders 29th birthday so we threw a little party after correlation meeting. He definitely loved it. Also on Saturday we met two women who were both referrals. There names are Felica and Monica. Missionary work is so much better when it is done with referrals. Missionary work isn't easy but totally worth it. It definitely is changing me. Especially since my year mark. I hope everyone has a great week. 

 

Elder Hepworth

 

Elder Hollingsworth and Elder Hepworth

Angels ??

Mduduzi Branch Mission Leader's Birthday 05/09/2015

 

05/04/2015- REACHED 14 MONTH MARK

Hello everyone,

Another week down. Today I have reached 14 months. Time is flying by so fast. This week was good. It was the first calm week we have had for awhile. This week I finished the new testament. It has been a goal of mine for awhile and I finally finished. Now to start Doctrine and Covenants. We had exchanges on Friday and I had the Islander with me in my area. He is an awesome guy. He was born in 1996 which made me feel old ha. This week we were really tired and didn't have anything to do so we went to the chapel to take a break. Then some random guy walks in and is looking for a priest to pray for him. So we prayed with him and gave him a restoration pamphlet to read. We are having so much success in this area. There will be two more baptisms on Sunday. They are young men named Rodney and Isaiah. They are powerful. On Saturday we set up sports and invited tons of people to come. Nobody showed up and nobody showed up to clean the chapel so we cleaned it for them. It was a little disappointing. So on Sunday I got up and bore my testimony on being a doer of the work and not hearer only ha. Happy Mother's day next Sunday. All the missionary moms are stoked. Especially my mom. Well have a good week. Don't forget to use the tools we have in the church to make us stronger.

Elder Hepworth