Daily Archives: May 12, 2014

May 12 – A Week to Recover and a Scare

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Not a very productive missionary week for us. I was diagnosed as having the shingles on Friday May 2nd and the doctor immediately started me on anti-biotics and pain pills. The shingles themselves were just annoying but for some reason I have had headaches since conference and that was the reason for the pain medicine. So for most of the week I did nothing but lay around our flat reading but also doing a lot of sleeping.

Mary did go to Church on the 4th so she could play for all the meetings. By the middle of the week I felt good enough to go out and drive Mary so she could hold some piano lessons. On Saturday we had another missionary street display set up. About all I did was to do transportation and give encouragement. It went well and the elders are filled up with appointments for the next 10 days or so.

Sunday as we were getting ready for Church Mary noticed a rash she had not seen before and we were sure it was the outset of shingles – talk about a unwanted Mother’s Day present. She decided it was not a good idea for her to go and expose everyone so although she was to speak during Sacrament she stayed home.  She was really missed because we are not really good at singing with out the keyboard. I got to speak in her place and for 15 minutes preparation it was pretty good. I count it as a real tender mercy.

After Church the branch held a Mother’s Day/Farewell luncheon. Sister Florence Tsunke is leaving the branch after being a leader here since she was baptized in 2008. By the time I got home I was completely wiped out and slept for about 12 of the next 16 hours.

This morning it looks like Mary does not have shingles because she has no headache and the rash has started to fade. We will see how it is in a couple of days.

May14 - Florence FW - New blanket May14 - Florence FW - Trying it out

The sisters in the branch gave sister Florence this beautiful purple comforter to take with her as a memory. She looks good in it!

May14 - Florence FW - Kujane May14 - Florence FW - Members

Sister Kujane was one of those who spoke about how Sister Florence was like a mother to her when she joined the Church. Most of the members stayed after the meeting to honor mothes and sister Florence.

May14 - backyard in sun May14 - CC - Sign

This is what Autumn looks like in our backyard. I felt after sleeping so much I needed to take a walk so I decided to visit the memorial to those who died in the British concentration camp set up here in Potchefstroom during the Boer’s War. All told some 26,000 Boer women and children dies in various camps set up to try and stop their men from fighting.

May14 - CC - Memorial May14 - CC - list of deaths

As I walked around the memorial – there are two the first is just in honor of those who died and the other lists all the deaths in the camp. As I walked around reading the names I came across 18 Swanepoels and I immediately thought of our own sister Bobbi Swanepoel. I called her and told her of my find. She did not know about this but she did tell me that her genealogy goes back to the original Dutch settlers in the 15th century. I told her I would take pictures of the name so she could check them against her genealogy. There is a beautiful Dutch Reform Church  on the same grounds. BTW the green roofs you see in the background are those of our compound – we are just two houses away from this memorial but I had to walk around the block to get there.

May14 - CC - Swanepoel May14 - CC - Church



President Anderson’s Letter – 11 May

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“They are praying for us to find them and bring them access to the Atonement:

“We had the most miraculous experience harvesting. We saw a young woman with her head down through her kitchen window. She invited us in to pray for her, a young single mom struggling to find a job. After the prayer (before we even said anything!) she said, ‘I feel so good. I know God sent you to me. I was in my kitchen so sad, and I prayed to God. Then you knocked on my door and I feel so happy now!’ She will be baptized on the 18th!!”

As we declare our purpose and who we represent, God will confirm that power and authority to them that we can help them to the Atonement:

“At the beginning of this week we went to see our investigator, with the plan of following up on his commitment to keep the Word of Wisdom. When we got there it was evident that he was still struggling with it. My companion and I immediately began to teach doctrine, but he really wasn’t getting it. After several minutes a question came to my mind. I asked him ‘…  who are we?’ and he responded with, ‘ Some great friends that are trying to help me out. And missionaries too I guess.’ Then I saw where the spirit was going with the question I had asked. I responded with ‘Yes we are all those things. But we’re also something else,  we are Representatives of Jesus Christ.’ My awesome companion jumped in and testified to him that we were called by God to stand in Christ’s place. I then told him that when we ask him to do something, it is because Jesus Christ wants him to do that thing. I then told him that Christ wanted him to keep the Word of wisdom. And he said in a very firm voice, ‘It’s Done!’  We asked if he believed what we had said and he responded that he knew we were telling the truth. He said ‘ I understand now, and I will stop smoking. It’s done.’”

God will lead us to those who will recognize the truth and embrace the Atonement:

“On Monday, we decided on what place we wanted to go to harvest. As we arrived at the place, we decided on a street, and then started to lock up our bikes so that we could start to harvest. I felt the impression that we needed to walk down the entire street too, I told my companion about it, so we started walking. As we walked down the street, we did not see anyone that we could contact, but we knew that for some reason, we needed to be on that other street. At the very end of the street we were walking down, there was a guy sitting out on his front porch smoking a cigarette. The walk down the street took a solid 2 minutes, and he was watching us the entire time. It felt a little awkward, but we were supposed to be there! We contacted him after walking down the entire street towards him. We went inside and blessed him and his family, and they were very receptive. When we came back to teach them for the first time the next day, they said ‘We’ve been thinking about that baptism, and we’ve decided that we want to do it!’ We were soo excited. On Saturday, it was their 14 year old daughter’s  Birthday, so we bought cake and ice cream and then had a ‘birthday party’ chapel tour at the church with the Father and daughter. They loved it. While on the chapel tour, the mom called the Father because they were supposed to be at their house for the daughter’s birthday. The Father’s responded ‘We’ll be there in a little bit-we’re visiting the new church that we’re going to join.’”