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

04/27/2015- TEMPLE TRIP

This week was very busy. We had a very nice family home evening. It was the first one since we started doing family home evenings with willing families. Leading up to Friday we were teaching like crazy. The recent converts are doing great. I'm very happy for all of them and they are happy too.

On Thursday my companion and I made a spanish rice aroni my mother had sent me a long time ago and had a trunky moment haha.

Elder Hepworth top left in the back

On Friday we went to the temple and it was awesome. My mom has the hook ups because the one giving me clothes said let me shake your hand I chat with your mom all the time. I also saw the senior couples who go to our branch every Sunday. After the session we went over to the area office to visit some people my companion knows. I met a couple from Burley, Idaho but I forgot there name. Then Elder Cook the area president came out and I talked to him. It was quite a day of meeting people.

On Saturday and Sunday we had general conference. It was the first time I focused and took notes for all the talks. I was exhausted afterwards. 10 hours is a long time haha. I know conference is old news back home but it was amazing. So many of the talks felt like they were directed to me. The number of missionaries is going down which wasn't a shock because the boom is over. We have so many missionaries going home soon. This mission is going to shrink. I think the main focus of the conference was on families and marriage. Pretty important stuff. I better get on that as soon as I get home haha. I liked the talk that said an RM is not a retired mormon. It just reminded me how bad I don't want to go back to who I used to be. The talk about Nelson Mandela was awesome as well. It hit home I guess you could say. My temporary home. Remember not to be latter-day quiters, latter-day sinners, or latter-day hypocrites. We are just sinners who keep on trying according to Nelson Mandela. Thank you for all the prayers and support. You all are in my prayers have a good week.


Elder Hepworth

04-22-2015 - TWO BAPTISMS THIS WEEK

Louisa and Nhlanhla baptized 04-17-2015

Another week down. The weeks are just flying by. This week was pretty good. We didn't teach a lot of people because we had meetings and
interviews and we had to fill up the baptismal font. This week we probably won't have much because we have a temple trip on Friday which
will be awesome. Then on Saturday and Sunday we will be watching general conference. Those will be long days ha. My interview with
President went well. He said the next time I see you will be almost 3/4 of the way done. It is shocking me that I'm getting old. I have learned so much being out here. I like how my companion mentioned mission in a district meeting. He said you come out with greenie fire
to get you going. Then it turns into a huge fire. Then it dies down
and turns into a fine torch. I feel like I'm becoming more of the
torch. Making more of an impact. Having these baptisms in the past
weeks has been awesome. Yesterday we had four confirmations and two
baptisms. Yeah those we awesome stats but these folks are amazing. I
had the pleasure to baptize another one of them. His name is Nhlanhla.
He is 17 and has a powerful testimony. The other one was the mother of
a member.  She is in her 50's. She used to dodge the missionaries but
now we got her ha. I have started the Book of Mormon over again and
this week I read Lehi's dream. I just want to mention how important it
is to hold onto the iron rod. Don't EVER think you can let go. I hope
everything is going well back home. I pray that it is. Have a good
week!

Louisa and her family

I had the pleasure to baptize another one of them. His name is Nhlanhla

04-13-2015- FOUR BAPTISMS

4 BAPTISMS ON 04-10-2015

Alright so this week was pretty interesting. It started off by having a family home evening on Monday night but the guy didn't remember he signed his family up so we winged it. It was still good though. Then on Tuesday we took our branch mission leader to go with us and he wasn't his self at all. We decided to take him home and his attitude progressed through the whole week. He was acting very quiet and depressed. We were worried what we had done to him or what was wrong. Then on Saturday during correlation he told us he was pranking us and it made us very mad. It was the sickest prank ever. Then on Sunday they talked about forgiveness in church. Good thing we already forgave him. It messed up our week though because we needed him but didn't want to take him ha. We continued the week of witnessing this week. On Wednesday we put up a banner and handed out cards to watch the video. Then we were forced to take the banner down and people were just ripping, crumpling them, and throwing them on the ground. So it was a failure but we did find one powerful new investigator from it. She came to church yesterday. The main focus this week was from the 4 baptisms that we had yesterday. I got to perform two of them and it was awesome. I only had to do it once. I was pretty nervous because I didn't want to mess up their African names. Two of them were husband and wife and then an old man and old woman not related. It was such a good baptism. So many people attended and supported and everything went smooth. When they bore there testimonies the branch president got up and said it looks like the missionaries caught big fish haha. We will be having two more baptisms this next week. I had some revelation this week. I am almost done with the new testament but I remembered the verse in 1 cor. 10:13 that talks about God won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. My revelation was that it  is more like this.... We are in a battle and God will not allow the army we face to be stronger than us. The thing is God has given us armour to give us the strength he expects out of us. If we chose not to put the armour on then we will fall. That is what makes it seem like God allows us to be tempted more than we can handle. So make sure to put on your armour. Well have a good week everyone!

Families of those being baptized

This is the Dwengas. A husband and wife baptized. 

This is gogo Betty. She is awesome. Her family daughters and son in law were baptized last November. 

This is Johannes and his wife. His wife came to support him but not a member.