Week 39: Basketball in Africa leads to investigators

Another great week in Phokeng! Elder Bindrup and I are seeing a lot of success and miracles here in Phokeng.

Last week we met a Sis. named Margaret and her husband Edward. They are super interested in the gospel. Margaret has been to church twice now. Edward hasn't been able to yet because of work. But we're able to put them on date for baptism this week for July 15th. We are excited to see them progress.

The Lord has been blessing us with many people to teach. We had 12 new investigators this week. Many of which are solid investigators. I was able to use one of my talents in finding one of these new investigators. So a little bit of background. Here in Phokeng people love to play basketball, FINALLY! There is actually some kind of NBA program this side. So Elder Bindrup have been able to play quite a bit of basketball lately. So earlier this week we went to Tshepo's (a member who comes with us basically everyday) school to pick him up to come teaching with us. When we arrived he and many other people were playing basketball. So Elder Bindrup and I challenged them to a game of 3 on 3. Elder Bindrup, Tshepo, and I versus these other 3. They accepted but the stipulations were if we won they had to come to church and if they won we had to come watch their basketball game this Saturday. Let's just say we won and one of them came to church. His name is Thabiso. As we taught him the restoration and he understood really well. And had a few really great questions. We also invited him to baptism and he accepted. We'll be putting him on date this week. We will also be going to his basketball game on Saturday anyways lol. The first real game of basketball I have watched in quite some time. Also I discovered from this experience that I am out of shape and very rusty.

To conclude I'll share with you one other miracle Elder Bindrup and I experienced. When we first arrived here in Phokeng we went through the area book contacting many former investigators, many of which were from 2-4 years ago. Last week we had an appointment scheduled with one of them named Precious. The day before our appointment we received an sms stating to not come tomorrow and that she would call us when she wanted us to. Usually that means they are not interested. So Elder Bindrup and I didn't think anything of it. On Sunday we received a phone call from Precious stating she wanted us to come visit her. We had no one to visit at that time so we asked if we could come right then. She said we could. It turned out we were literally around the corner from her house. As we met with her she mentioned how she had a problem with Joseph Smith and how he saw God and Jesus Christ. She told us how after a couple weeks she told the missionaries to stop coming. This was two years ago. She then proceeded to tell us how she had been thinking about it a lot and felt like it could be true and that she was ready to be baptized. We taught her about how God answers prayers through the Holy Ghost and how we can recognize these answers. After sharing that with her she shared with us many experiences she had had with the spirit and how she just didn't realize that was her answer but now she recognizes that that was her answer. It was a powerful experience and the spirit was very strong. We invited her to baptism. After we concluded she said something very powerful. She said how after she is baptized she wants to go to the temple. She had heard many members of the church mention the temple and she has already set it as her goal after baptism. We also discovered that she had come and visited the church once again on Mother's Day, the Sunday before Elder Bindrup and I arrived.

I have a testimony that this work is truly led and guided by the Lord. I have felt the spirit so strong this week in my service. Especially as I have testified of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that as we live worthy of the spirit, the lord pours it upon us in great abundance. God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Savior and He lives, and the Holy Ghost is the comforter. And this is the work of Angels.

Love, Elder Rash

Devon's dad sent him an e-mail full of questions. These are his responses:

Tell us all about Elder Bindrup?

Elder Bindrup is athletic. He swam in high school. He even made it to nationals. So he should hopefully get me back in shape. He is part South Korean. He loves spicy things just like me. We have quite a bit in common.

Tell us more about Phokeng?

Well Phokeng is a wealthy village. Almost everyone that lives in Phokeng works at one of the many platinum mines that surround the area. You find very big houses but also tin shacks in phokeng. There are fruit trees everywhere. Almost every house has mango, orange, clementine, and avocado trees. And sometimes people have more than that in their yard. So we literally always have oranges. Or are always eating them during the day. There are a lot of dirt and rocky roads. There are some paved roads but they are usually dirt. It is very hilly as well.

How has the work gone so far?

The work is going really well so far. We have seen the lord blessing us with people to teach and people who are prepared. We are working really hard and strengthening the relationship and trust with the branch.

How long has it been since missionaries were there?

They had been sharing missionaries with Rustenburg for about 5 months

Why did they close it down?

They closed it down due to the low number of missionaries that we had in our mission. So what Pres. Leavitt had to do was put one set of missionaries out here who covered Phokeng as well as Rustenburg (a town about 25 minutes away). It was hard for the missionaries to cover both areas do to the distance between the two. The missionaries kind of neglected Phokeng and spent little time there.

Do you have new investigators lined up now?

We have many new investigators lined up. We had about 12 this week and have many more scheduled for this coming week.

I was looking at Phokeng on google earth and it looked like there were like 4 or 5 other villages all around Phokeng. Does your area cover that entire area?

Yup! Our area covers all the way up to the National park. However since these other villages are pretty far from the chapel we don't really go there unless we have a referral that is out there. This week we will be going to a village that is out by Sun City (the tourist town next to the national park) to teach a Potential Investigator. So that will be fun. To be able to see more of our area. It's about a 30 min drive to there.

I saw where the church is next to the stadium on Google earth. Why do you guys not live in Phokeng?

We don't live in Phokeng because there aren't really any safe/secure flats in Phokeng. The area presidency is really working on getting all missionaries either living in their areas or as close as possible. So it's a work in progress. There may come a time that missionaries are living in Phokeng. But they are really wanting to make sure that wherever we stay it is safe and secure.

How is it being a district leader now? Have you been on splits with the other companions?

I definitely feel like a district leader now. The load a have is a lot more. Im having to train and correct missionaries more now. Since before my stewardship was just overthe Zone Leaders lol. We are going on exchanges tomorrow actually. i was waiting till Elder bindrup and I got on our feet in our area before I scheduled an exchange with the other missionaries. But im excited. I definitely enjoy being a district leader in this district more.

Tell us about what you have done for the first couple of weeks in the new area?

We have had members show us around to other members homes, less-actives homes, and previous investigators. We have gone through the area book contacting former investigators, and we have done a lot of finding (contacting and tracting)