Baptism,Talk and Priesthood all in one Day

Hello Guys,

The above pictures are of the none healthy diet we missionaries live on pizza is a safe food to eat, but not cheap so a nice treat, the other pictures are view from the Johannesburg Temple looking over parts of Johannesburg

 Like i said in last weeks blog this week has been better. we haven't had as many lessons but the lessons we have had have been really good. 
Yesterday we went and visited Tshidi and Vuo. we took brother and sister Madlingozi with us. we focused on families and we watched together forever. It really touched them, they said they are going to come to church in 2 weeks, which is really good.

Taking members with us is really helping they can relate to the people we teach :) Abraham who was baptized and confirmed a few weeks ago, was at church yesterday as usual and he received the Aaronic priesthood, which was really nice to see.

 Also at church i gave a talk on the plan of salvation. I also got to baptize one of the people taught by the other missionaries in Khutsong, it was a really good experience, i will hopefully send some pictures next week :)or as soon as i can>

We also have this other investigator called Dudu, she is making some real progress, we did some service for her Saturday, we moved this big pile of sand for her. it was fun but our hands hurt afterwards, but it was nice helping her.

The sad thing about this country is that nobody and i mean nobody here does anything for free which is really sad. so they were happy that they didn't have to pay us. It's nice to do service here even though not many people want you to help them, people here are very stubborn. 

Africa really is a beautiful place, even though there is a lot of poverty, its still a very beautiful place. i would definitely come here on a holiday :) 

The culture is very different to the UK but the people here are so nice even though most Africana's (the white people) never look happy,  you just have to smile and wave and hope they smile back :) 

I love you guys 

Elder Turney xxxxx 

Slow Week but the work goes on

Hello guys,

This week has been OK, quite a slow week nothing exciting really happened, so not much to write this week.

A  Couple of things have happened.

 So on Wednesday we were walking to our next appointment and this guy called us into his house. We sat down and he said he knew about our church, about Joseph smith, about the gold plates and some other stuff. So we began teaching him and he seems like a really nice guy. He could become really powerful member, he seems keen to learn and of course we are always keen to teach people.

 Its a wonderful experience as a missionary when people call you over and what to know more about the church because you know they have a genuine interest in learning, we will see where this goes.

                We also have one of our investigators called Dudu, she is really doing well so much so that, we put her on date for baptism at the end of April. So hopefully she will make :)

Not much more has happened our lessons numbers have been quite low this week, we have been working really  hard but everyone seemed to be avoiding us so that's always fun :)

Such is the life of a Missionary it becomes part of the job of a missionary to have people avoid you we try not to let it get us down, if only they would stop and take the time to listen for a few minutes they would realize it could change there life’s for the better the way it has changed mine.

                I will make sure I write a big one next week cause we shouldn't have anything interrupt us. 

I love you guys; keep looking for missionary opportunity's :) 

Love Elder Turney xxxx  

No internet but the work goes on

Hey Guys

Sorry this week’s blog it’s a day late, but the internet café near us didn't have any internet signal at all yesterday. The week before we were late because of power cuts, but its all part of Missionary life.

 So this week has been busy but good. On Monday we emailed and shopped but because my companion was becoming district leader we had to go to the mission office in Roodeport for his meeting.

Tuesday was transfers so all but me and my companion went to the office, Our old district leader went, that’s why my companion has now become district leader, the new Elder that replaced him in our district is Elder Whiteside's he is a missionary that came out with me and we were in the MTC together, which is awesome :)

I also found out that I will be getting transferred on March 18th, and the postal service is on strike so if you send me a letter it may not get to my flat before I get transferred. So I would suggest that you send it to the mission office, for the time being, just to be safe.

So the rest of this week has been normal no amazing experiences. Abraham who was baptized and confirmed recently is making good progress he is slowly but surely remembering stuff, which is really good :)

Also I’m not sure if I told you guys about Rafilway she is a pastor’s daughter. She is making good progress. She told her dad that next week she will be coming to our church and not to her dads which is really good, but I also appreciate that that must be hard for her family we know how we feel when family members of our church go else where.

 Also she has an older sister who is in love with me and apparently I’m all she talks about, so I will have to keep a close eye on that, not a good situation for a missionary to be in.

 Just got to remember Mission rules always stay with your companion don’t put yourself in situations of being on your own with people now you can appreciate why we have these rules.. And why we must stick to them. Hopefully it will all be ok :)

I’m continuing to love my mission; I really know why they call it the beast 2 years. I would encourage anyone who has that desire to serve a mission, go talk to your bishop, and get the process started.

You will not regret it I promise you :)

Love You All

Elder Turney xx

Another Week of Riots but the work goes on

Hello Guys 

This week has been a good week. we have had some really good things happen. On Sunday we had one of our investigators. Thabo Mashishi who is the brother to a very less active member. 

Thabo got up and bore his testimony he said he knew the church is true. Last week we gave him a blessing to help him over come smoking, and he said that he hasn't touched it since we gave him the blessing. 

That was really powerful. Also his brother who is really less active, we saw him and his wife Saturday and he said when we saw him the other day when he was outside his house, that he isn't coming back to church till next year, and when we saw him Saturday we got the impression he is coming back very soon. he said the only thing he is doing wrong in life is not coming to church. everything else he is keeping to :) so we keep praying for him.

Also we have been out of our area due to some riots so some days we have missed being in the area but the days we were in the area were good :) 

On Sunday we had Abraham confirmed so that was nice to see. on Wednesday and Friday we had exchanges and i was in Carltonville, so it was a fun couple of days spent here. 

They rides bikes in Carltonville, and my bum was so saw from riding the bikes but it was a nice change from sitting in the car :) 

Sorry there has not being much to write this week as i told you, we have been out the area a few days this week due to riots and it's been very dangerous so we have not been able to get as much work done. 

The riots seem to have stopped for now so we are hoping this week will be more normal. 

Transfers are tomorrow but me and my companion are staying here, he is becoming the new district leader so that's fun. 

The church is true, without any doubt in my heart. I love you all 

Elder Turney xx

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