The Dangers of Life In South Africa

Hello Guys,

This week has been another good one. Not so many lessons to teach but a lot of great things happened. I will share a couple.

On Tuesday we had a great lesson with a lady called Dudu, her daughter joined in and also a girl who lives round the corner from Dudu. We taught about 'The Restoration'. It was a really good lesson they asked lots of questions, about the restoration and why there were so many churches and about the Great Apostasy. So it was a really good lesson :)

About 3 we went back to the flat because i was feeling really really sick, so I went back and rested, but I'm all better now thankfully.

We have a new  investigator, he is the brother of Brother Mashishi who is the second Councillor in the elders quorum, but he hasn't been to church for many years. his name is Thabo.

He has been to church 2 times and he is accepting the gospel very well, as soon as we introduced the word of wisdom, it was good because he does not drink alcohol, he does not take drugs. He drank 6 cups of tea a day but has said he will change to Rooibos tea which we can drink, so that was good. Also he smokes and is willing to give that up too, we gave him a priesthood blessing to help him, so hopefully he will be able to stop very soon. 

This guy is powerful :) he has accepted to be baptized :)

We also have this new guy Johannes, we met him the other week he is a really powerful guy, we first came into contact with him when we were out tracting,  he also has a wife and child so hopefully we can encourage both of them to join in with the lesson. That guy will be a stake president one day :)

On Friday we couldn't go to the area. A little while ago the community burnt some members of a gang here and recently 8 of the people involved got arrested and there court case was Friday and the people from Khutsong protested at the court.  The court case was postponed till sometime this week. So the people went back to Khutsong and burnt tires, threw big huge ones in the road and the area was a riot so it was to dangerous for us to be in our area.

So we ended up spending the day in Carletonville and went with the elders here so it started off quite a scary day with everything going on in our area but we had a good day in the end. We just have to have faith that the LORD WILL PROTECT US  in situations like this.

Saturday was safe to go into the area thankfully. At 7 we had our last appointment with a guy named Isaac. We turned up and there was a birthday party going on, we were going to leave but the brother said no you have to come give a speech.

 So we go in stand there for about 20 minutes listening to people give speeches and sing songs. Then my companion Elder Kolditz was asked to give a speech and they all loved it they called him Trevor Noah :)

Afterwards they fed us, then the party started and there was girls who started to talk to us so we got out of there quick :)

Sunday we had 1 baptism and the other elders in khutsong had 5 so it was a full baptismal service. I will try to send pictures next week of the baptism :)

This week has been good.

We have had a lot of fun :)

I’m loving being here in south Africa

Love you Guys 

Elder Turney  

Branch Confrence

Hi guys,

This week has been another good week filled with lots of lessons. We had 2 people due to get baptized this month and then we found out that one was moving to cape town so we had to move it to this Sunday so that he could be confirmed next Sunday but he told us yesterday when he was meant to get baptized that he was leaving tomorrow so we could not baptism him, so the elders in cape town will get to baptism him.

So that was sad that he was leaving, but we taught him the Gospel that’s what counts .We are teaching some really cool new investigators but the problem with them all is trying to get them to  church cause of the transport. So it’s quite easy to invite them to come to church, but its another thing trying to get them there, when they live quite far away.

But we are trying to get them to see the importance of coming to church. On Sunday we had the stake president come for Branch Conference it was really good to hear their words of council. There were some stats shared. 

Roodeport stake 

Average Registered members of a Ward 200+-

Average attendance of member in a Ward 100+-

Khutsong Branch 

Registered members 540 

Average Sunday attendance 167 

As you can see from these stats we exceed the average for the stake, we have more than enough people for it to become a ward, but hardly anyone pays tithing and that’s what is holding us back, I know people are poor here but tithing is a tenth of what we have if we only have a very small amount coming in then we only pay a small amount going out, so I have not figured out yet why no one pays is it just they don’t want to, or  can’t or maybe they don’t understand the principle I just don’t know ( I hope by the time I leave to come home the branch will have  become a Ward, that would be really nice.

 I could stay here in this branch my whole mission. I love the members and families here. They are so nice to the missionaries and they treat you so well. We didn’t have anyone to feed us yesterday so we went to our area and parked our car to go teach lessons. Then one of the member realized we hadn't been fed so she fed us eggs and bread. It was so nice of her, even when they don’t have much they are always willing to share, we felt so blessed.

The people here treat the missionaries so well, they love us, and we love them :)

We are finding great success here in South Africa, people are beginning to accept what we have to say which is really nice.

Extract from Jonathans Best friend Elder Stapley

This past week in Johannesburg has been very violent. I cannot describe the feelings of constantly, everyday seeing these people murder, kill, and plunder each other. Especially these people who I serve every day and love as if I have known them forever. I get a slight taste for what the prophet Mormon felt in the Book of Mormon. To see a civilization become so drowned in wickedness then destroy themselves and be destroyed by another civilization.

What is scary is this place is right on track. The sin and wickedness here is horrible the conditions here make me some nights cry when going to bed as I feel so much empathy for the African people, yet witness them kill their neighbors. I went to 5 funerals this week for people. 2 people in my ward and 3 in the other ward, who share the chapel with us.

It's beyond heart-breaking

We are all blessed to live in such a wonderful country where we are safe.

As here where it seems is every man vs every man.

This is the reality of life here in South Africa, We are here to teach people the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we are faced with many challenge many things we would never face in our own countries. Mission life is not meant to be easy but I know it will be worth it.

Thanks guys for all your emails, they really help.

I love you all, take care 

Elder Turney

Busy Week helps the time pass

 Hi Guys,

As I anticipated in my last email, this week has been a lot better. with last week being so low in goals, the reason is because we spent the whole week trackting and finding new people to teach so we could have lots of lessons for the week just gone.

In total we taught 27 lessons, we have 10 new investigators and 7 member lessons. So the hard work that was from last week has paid off. I would like to share a couple of experiences my companion and I had this week.

On Wednesday we were doing some door knocking. We knocked on this one house and this guy who must be 25 came to the door and we introduced ourselves and said what we do, and asked if we could come back another time when he wasn't busy to share our message. He said that he wasn't busy right now and invited us in. we came inside and opened with a prayer.

We found out this guy knows a lot about our church from the television which was interesting. We taught the whole of lesson 1 and he had a lot of questions about our religion and he also asked what we do for the youth to keep them away from drugs and guns, so we explained about our youth program and the YSA program and he was really impressed. We have another appointment with him soon so hopefully we can teach him a lot more.

Another experience was after seeing him. We knocked on a few more doors, and came across a lady called Bonnie. She welcomed us in with open arms. We introduced what we do, then we shared the restoration but in 10 minutes instead of in 20-30 minutes. She seemed to also love our message and she wants us to come back and teach her. So we are seeing her soon, I will keep you all updated on their progress.

Also something the mission focuses on here in Johannesburg is father led families and we have come across a few this week. One Is a man named Isaac, he has 1 son and his wife, we went and shared the restoration and he seems really interested in what we have to share, we are seeing him and his family on Tuesday so I will also keep you guys updated.

We have 2 baptisms on the 26th and they were both interviewed and they both passed. We have just one issue, the 2 guys being baptized are Tony and Abraham, Abraham is the one we have the issue with, he has no legs so  we are still trying to think of a way to baptism him, we haven't any idea of how we can, but when there is a will there is a way.

Thank you again for all your emails, they really help a lot and I’m feeling all of your love.

They were right mission is the best 2 years of your life, I have grown so much and its only been 5 months, I still have 19 months left so I’m looking forward to the different me at the end of these 2 amazing years.

 Heavenly father loves each of us and don't ever forget that.

Love Elder Turney

First week of the New Year HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

Hey guys

This week has been quiet with the work. We only had 6 lessons and the goal is 20 so we kind of fell behind, but it’s all down to people being on holiday.

It’s been a good week though. Monday was the usual with emailing, shopping and playing sports.

Tuesday we spent the whole day at the Nkombisa's, it was a good day.

On Wednesday we spent the day at the Madlongizi's, we had a braai (south African bbq) listened to some music so it was a really good day.

On Thursday we had interviews with president, after interviews we were meant to go to Carnivore which is where you pay R200 and eat elephant, zebra and lots of other exotic meats but they were closed that day, so we settled for Romans, and KFC and McDonald’s.

When we got to the area we saw the Madlingozi family and taught them about prayer and the importance of prayer.

Friday we had district meeting, which was on goal setting. After district meeting we went to snowy lane and I got this really nice chicken and mayonnaise sub, it was divine, I also got an ice cream afterwards.

We did some trackting till 6 when we saw Itumeleng and we taught lessons 1(the restoration), it was a powerful lesson, we invited him to be baptized and he said we would, we tried to set a date but he said let me read the Book of Mormon first so we said that's fine.

We then saw Kafilway afterwards and taught The Restoration, it was a really good lesson.

Saturday we only had the one lesson. It was with Brother Malike and we taught about prayer. My companion joined in with choir at church while I slept. We also did some trackting during the day.

Sunday we had church, we got fed by the Nkombisa's after church and later on in the day we got fed again, by some investigators they fed us beef with pasta and potato salad it was really nice. Our only lesson was with, brother Abraham who is due to be baptized on January 26th, we taught about the law of chastity. It was a god lesson he is really progressing. Overall it’s been a good week. Hopefully next week will be better, we have 10 lessons planned on Tuesday so if we get all them that will be really good.

Thank you guys for all your emails they really help.

Take care guys 

Love Elder Turney