Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Sereo's and Other Happenings

Myself, Elder Bakker, Elder Boreham (from South Africa) and Elder Barnhurst (from Philmore, Ut) they work the west side of Mamelodi.

This week was pretty sweet. We put 3 fathers on baptism date. One of which basically said that he's going to do whatever it takes to be baptized and find the truth. Two of them we actually had our first appointment with this week! On the second appointment we put them on date! It was sweet.

We had zone conference this week. I learned a lot about the spirit that I thought I knew...but I really didn't. Our mission president is very smart. We went into some deep doctrine that has changed my whole perspective of missionary work.

The best thing this week had to do with Isaac's family, the Sereo's. We had planned to cook for them on Thursday and bring it to them in the evening. So we got everything ready and then headed over there at about 7pm. They hadn't arrived yet so we waited. In a few minutes Isaac and his wife, Asnath, drove up with all their grandkids in the car. I guess they had just decided to take the day off and spend the day with the family at the park (it was a public holiday anyways). That family works so hard. It was nice to be able to see them taking time off to spend as a family. Isaac and Asnath have had some serious problems in the past and she even told us that she had been asking God if she should get a divorce but she kept getting an answer to stay even though she was miserable. Since we've been working on teaching them about the gospel and how to strengthen their family they have had so much more happiness in the home. So now the next step has been to bring them the gospel and have them be baptized. We've been trying very, very hard. So on Thursday we only had a few minutes to share a short "our purpose" lesson. Then Asnath asked, "If I was baptized in my church do I still need to be baptized in yours if I come to it?". That was such a break-through question. Elder Bakker explained again about the Restoration and Priesthood Authority. She said that we'd be surprised one day...she'll be coming to church every Sunday. She just needs to get some things in order. So pretty soon we're going to try and get them on baptism date. We'll see how it goes! If you could pray for the Sereo's (ser-ay-oh). My whole heart is into that family.

So yeah, that's my week. Next Saturday is transfer news. We'll see if my companion is leaving. I'm really not sure what's going to happen. Whatever the Lord wants.

Oh and next week is General Conference!!!! Sweet. Don't forget to watch the World Report and look for the Pretoria Helping Hands segment! I was there...see if you can see me. I'd be wearing a yellow hat and my orange shirt that has the panda on it (See pictures of the day below). Check and see!

love, elder robinson

Some more pictures of life on the mission:

You know I keep talking about Isaac and his wife Asnath, this is Asnath. We were helping her peel potatoes. I love that family...it's The Sereo family. They are my main focus out of all the families we are teaching. Isaac will definitely be a bishop someday.


Some pictures from the Helping Hands Day we did a few weeks ago. We had the largest helping hands activity in Africa...right here in Pretoria. The World Report was there so look for us in between general conference sessions in a few weeks.




Pretoria streets and homes:





Baptisms, Hiking and Teaching, A Day's Work


It was an awesome day in church this week. We had 17 investigators at church! That is my new record...previously in Tsakane we had 14! Even Isaac showed up with all his granddaughters.

Here are some pictures of the last month or so:

A picture of Flora's baptism. The little girl in white is a child of record that was being baptized the same day and they just had me baptize her since I was in the water...her father is not so active:

The family with her is her aunt and cousins (her immediate family was not there, unfortunately).

The baptism was awesome and everyone felt the spirit when Flora gave such a powerful testimony. It was awesome.

The child that I'm holding upside down is Siyabonga, and the girl in front is his older sister Thulisile. They are Flora's children and are completey insane.


The painting I bought. It's huge! But it's on canvaas that is easy to roll up. I may send it home...for now it brightens up my study room as you can see.


Elder Robinson and Elder Bakker teaching the Good News!




Elder Bakker studying:




Here are some pictures from the hike we did last Monday at Hartebees Port.






Love, elder robinson

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Spring Day!

rah rah rahrahrah rah rah rahrahrah gooooooooooooo COUGARS! haha 1 year and I'll be singing that again! SWEET!

This Summer will be hotter for sure since I'm in Pretoria. My suits are holding up pretty well...except for some buttons. I've only lost one shirt...and thats because I burned it haha. I had gotten a bunch of red paint splattered on it in my first few months in Tsakane. So I burned it when I turned a year.

I do still talk to Alex pretty much every week. It's awesome. He's an awesome missionary, but he never told me he was training! Well, I never told him I was district leader. DL basically just means you do baptismal interviews and take stats and watchover the district (which is 6 guys).

So something cool that happend this week. On Tuesday it was Spring Day (September 1st is the first day of summer). So the township basically becomes one big water fight. Elder Bakker and I were riding down this busy road and weren't thinking too much of the water fights...then we began to get closer to a round-about up ahead. I was in front and began to notice that it was wet. There were people gathered on the side with buckets and they were soaking everyone that came by! That was where we needed to go so I said what the heck, why not. I rode straight through. As soon as I got close I started hearing "makgua! Bicycle!" One guy came running from behind and another from the front...and I got drenched, from head to toe. I rode on through and then looked back to see if my companion was wet. They destoyed him too and actually knocked him off his bike. Instead of heling him they continued to throw the water on. It was hilarious. Then we went to our next appointment drenched. They tried to get us later but we were too quick for them.

But it doesn't end there. The next day we had the car and we wanted revenge. We drove past some other kids who were getting everyone wet and we decided to attack. So we went to a member's house, filled a bucket with water and went in. I was driving so my companion ran out, soaked one guy and then got four buckets in the face. It was awesome. There's nothing like Spring Day in the township.

Anyways, another sweet thing that happened was that Flora passed her interview this week! Sweet! So she'll be baptized on the 20th of September. Also, we had stake conference. It was sweet. But at the general session we had it in a big auditorium and the sound was terrible. hey would try to turn it up and the speakers would just begin to reverberate. So none of our investigators had any idea what was going on. But they still enjoyed the experience. It was a nice day.

Thanks again for the support and love. You're still in my prayers.

Love, elder robinson