A Week to Remember

Nov 18, 2013

Dear family and friends,

It has definitely been a week to remember to say the least. So much has happened and I don't really know where to begin so I'll take it day by day with the major stuff that happened.

Tuesday- I had to go on exchanges with the other Elders that are in our area here in Osizweni. My companion stayed with the car so I went on bikes with one of them. It was so nice to get out of the car and be able to ride bikes around. We went tracting and found a guy who believes in this "S" church. “S” is this guy that claims to be the Jesus Christ for Africans and he does a lot of miracles. I asked this guy why he started believing in him and he told us because “S” can perform great miracles. We were able to sit down with him and help him understand the role of prophets and Jesus Christ. He is newly converted to this “S” church so we want to help put him back in the right direction! The lesson was great and he began to understand the role of prophets, we helped him see that Jesus Christ prophesied of many false Christs and prophets in our day. At the end of the night we got caught in a terrible thunderstorm that came out of nowhere so we were soaked in rain as we arrived at a members house but it was fun nonetheless!

Wednesday- We are teaching a young woman named N_____. She is about 20 years old and we started teaching her when I arrived in the area. She is a very intelligent sister and she has a strong desire to know this is true. We had a great lesson with her, we taught her the plan of salvation again but in more detail this time while using the Book of Mormon. She has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and she told us: "I'm beginning to feel it is 'real' and that what you are telling me is true." When this sister is baptized she will be a strong member because she is really developing a true testimony before deciding to be baptized.

Friday- Once again we had to go on exchanges (our zone is big so we have to do a lot of exchanges to check on everyone) with some Elders who are doing training. I went with a young Elder from Utah into the area for the day. We had an awesome day and found some really cool people! First off we found an American girl living in the township. Yeah I was pretty shocked when I saw another white person here, we started talking to her and discovered she is working for the Peace Corps. She will be living there for 27 months, she is from California and she said she knows the church very well. We got a return appointment with her but unfortunately I won't be able to go since that's not my area. It will be interesting to see if the Elders will progress with her at all, it would be so cool to be able to baptize an American here in South Africa.

We also found a mother and daughter while tracting. They were very friendly and invited us in to teach them, we sat down and decided to teach them the plan of salvation. It was a great lesson and the daughter especially had profound questions to ask us. It was wonderful to be able to answer all of their questions with regards to our purpose in life and life after death, the restored gospel is pretty incredible when it comes to answering questions.

Saturday- My companion had to go home early unfortunately. I drove him down to Durban and left him at the mission home. This pretty much took up the entire day since Durban is a very long drive from Newcastle. It was nice to be able to see President and Sister Zackrison again though. I'm currently in a trio with no new companion, transfers are coming up this next Tuesday so I will be getting a new companion in about a week. Until then I'll be living in the house where 4 Elders are staying in our district.

Sunday- Another amazing Sabbath day! We had 2 more baptisms and we also had the 2 confirmations from last Sundays baptisms. The 2 sisters that were baptized were named T___ and T____. T____ has been taught for a while by missionaries but we started teaching T_____ when I got to the area. It has been great to see her progress, she has a strong testimony and she will be a powerful member in the church.

The best part about Sunday is that the sister we taught last Sunday named S____ came to church. This is the sister that we had an amazing lesson with last week and the Lord has prepared this mother. She really enjoyed church and we had a lesson with her after church. We finished the restoration with her and the spirit in that room was undeniable, she was overwhelmed and she once again told us she felt so happy. She said that all of her questions are being answered and she feels as though the Lord has led us to her. It will be awesome to keep teaching her!!

We also have 2 brothers who started coming to church a couple of weeks ago. I thought they were the other Elders investigators but it turns out we had given them a pamphlet a few weeks ago and they read it and decided to come to church. They have come for 3 Sundays now and we are going to start teaching them. It's always nice when you have investigators show up off the street, it makes our job very easy. The work here is going so well and I'm excited to be serving the Lord in this part of His vineyard. The Lord is preparing the hearts and the minds of His children, he truly does place us where He needs us.

The transfer is coming to a close and no more exchanges this coming week!! I'll be letting you know who my new companion is next Monday.

Love you all,

Elder Summers