Week 87: The way to a young man's heart....SPORTS!

Hello Friends and Family,

Well this week has been great! We had Zone Conference on Tuesday. We were able to receive training on how to become teachers like our Savior Jesus Christ. Thursday we took 2 hour road trip to Secunda to deliver some things to the Elders out there. Let's just say this transfer is going to be filled with road trips lol. 

The highlight of our week definitely has to be the young men that we are working with.  Our ward for the longest time has only had one active young man.  This has weighed very heavy upon our Young Men's President.  He expressed to us how he went into General Conference with questions in regards to the young men and how to grow the number of young men we have.  That is when Elder Carl B. Cook gave his talk during the Priesthood Session, an answer to our Young Men President's prayer.  Elder Willison and I have also shifted our focus to the young men.  We see the biggest opportunity in our area currently is with the young men.  This week we made some great progress!  We were able to find 4 new young men to teach the gospel to all of which are friends with three less-active young men.  With the help of the Young Men's President we have organized sports on Saturday for all of the young men.  This past Saturday we had 5 young men show up.  4 non members and 1 less-active. We had wished to have more but this is just the start.  All of them expressed the fun that they had and how they want to do it each week.  On Sunday we stopped by to say hi to these young men.  We quickly found ourselves surrounded with young men who all mentioned they had heard of the fun that these other young men had and how they want to come next week.  Within a week we have gained a group of 10 young men who are either interested or are participated in the youth program now.  They all seem very open to us coming and teaching them the Restored Gospel. Through the Young Men's President we have now created a group chat that we can now communicate with all of these young men about activities that we will be doing and about coming to church. I wish I could describe the excitement that this has brought to us and our Young Men's President, Bro. Mthombeni. We are excited for what's ahead.

Shout out to Sis. Roberts who will be completing her mission this week!  Salem, Oregon is losing an amazing missionary.

Sincerely, Elder Rash

Winter has arrived and he needed a warm robe to motivate him to get out of bed.

There's a storm a brewing

This was Zone Conference a while back.  I just forgot to add the picture.

Week 86: Happy Easter

Hello Friends and Family,

Well this week started off with a few trips to the airport. I got to drop off my companion and future roommate, Elder Spencer, at the airport. Then later in the day we got to go to the airport again to drop off all the Americans who were heading home, including my companion of three weeks, Elder Nau. It was sad to see these guys go, but it was great to see that they were all excited knowing that they had served the Lord with all their heart. I’m grateful for this group who went home and their great example.

We learned a great lesson in regards to persistence this week. About 2 months ago Elder Spencer and I were approached by a lady who wanted us to come visit her. Long story short we scheduled appointments and had her cancel on us time after time. We lost contact for a bit and then we ran into her at a complex in our area. We once again began seeking to meet with her. After about 2 months we were finally able to have a lesson with her this past week. This lady, Simone, opened up to us. She shared how she wants to leave the things of this world, how she is suffering from depression and voices in her head that are causing her to lose sleep and all happiness. As she was sharing these things and we were asking questions, you could tell she was very nervous and considerably distraught. Elder Willison and I took the opportunity to teach her about the priesthood power that was given to the apostles in Matt 10:1 and how it is on the earth again and that we held it. We explained to her that blessings could be performed with that power. Elder Willison and I then had the opportunity to lay our hands on her head and give her a blessing. After the blessing you could see a completely change in Simone. She was no longer shaking with nerves or crying tears of anguish. She had a sense of relief and hope. She proceeded to ask us question after question about the plan of salvation. It was an amazing time that we had with her. I know that there is a reason the Lord impressed us to continue to persist with Simone. It was clear in the lesson we had with her.

On Sunday, I had the privilege to speak in church. As I prepared for my talk on the Savior, I had much time to reflect on the lonely journey that he went through of bearing the burden of our salvation. He may have been entirely alone at the end of his journey when he cried out “My God my God why hasn’t tho forsaken me.” we however do not have to walk our mortal journey alone. We have the Savior Jesus Christ and his yoke which we can take upon ourselves to ease our burdens. Christ is side by side with us as we walk this mortal journey, and at times he is carrying us. Christ conquered death. He lives again. And so shall we.

Sincerely, Elder Rash

The group heading home!  Well  Done!

Saying Goodbye to Elder Spencer....but not for long!  See ya at BYU!
 

Elder Rash and Elder Willison hanging out with a cute family

Making funny faces is always a must!

Week 85: General Conference is like GOLD!

Hello Friends and Family,

Well after a long and stressful day of preparing for the transfer we have tomorrow, I am finally getting around to sending my weekly email. A lot happened this week and I have a lot of thoughts, I hope I'll be able to convey them all.

This week we were able to have a lesson with Boet! It was great! Boet is an amazing man. He is in his 50's or 60's. He is a white man (only in South Africa where you have to clarify that lol). He is divorced and lives by himself next door to one of our members. We've been doing service for him over the past couple of weeks and as I shared last week, he was super open and eager for us to come share the gospel with him. On Friday we were able to. We had a great lesson about the restoration and about the darkness that he feels he is in. Boet can talk. We had a 4 hour lesson with him, not by choice. But it was great for us to be able to let him talk and for us to just listen. Listening to other people has become one of my favorite things to do, especially when I know that something in what they say will allow me to relate the gospel to their lives. At the end of the lesson we invited Boet to general conference. He happily and readily accepted the invitation. We also invited him to close with a prayer. I won't forget this moment, as we stood there Boet bowed his head and began to offer a humble and sincere plea with God, about midway through the prayer the spirit rushed into the room and Boet began to become very emotional. It was a very tender and special moment and an opportunity for us to let Boet know that grown men do cry lol.  Unfortunately, we got a message Friday night from Boet informing us that his friend had to move and that he was rushing over to help her move and that he would be helping on Saturday as well so he wouldn't be able to make it for conference. I've never felt so disappointed before. However, we know that it was a sincere reason why he wasn't able to come. We are excited for this coming week. 

Also, on Friday we were able to conduct the MTC experience. This is when we take the MTC missionaries out into the mission field to do some finding and teaching for a few hours. I was privileged to be paired with Elder Previatti who is from Brazil and will be coming to our mission. We had a great time together. It was amazing to see Elder Previatti use the fact that he is learning English to his advantage in starting conversations with others. I was also able to learn a valuable lesson from Elder Previatti. As we concluded speaking with a man who didn't seem too interested, I began to turn to leave. As I did Elder Previatti stopped me by asking the man if we could leave him with a prayer to bless him and his day. The man's whole demeanor changed after the prayer. Elder Previatti is going to do some amazing things on his mission.

Saturday and Sunday we were finally able to watch general conference. I loved every minute of general conference! General conference is like gold for missionaries. Especially when we are able to get people that we are teaching to come. Bro. and Sis. Alexander, who we have been teaching for a while now and we have been struggling to get them to come to church because they are devoted and very active in their church, came to conference. One thing that we have been stuck on with them is about the Plan of Salvation and helping them receive an answer if the Book of Mormon is true or not. They attended the Saturday Afternoon session, literally almost every talk was focused on the concerns that they have been having. Elder Mathias Helds talk was perfect for them! His conversion story is very similar to where they are at currently in their search to find out if these things are true. 

Another talk that I enjoyed was Elder Dieter F Uchtdorfs talk from the Saturday Morning session. If you thought missionary work was hard, go read his talk. Here are the 5 simple things we can do to help us in sharing the gospel.

First, draw close to God.

Second, fill your heart with love for others.

Third, strive to walk the path of discipleship.

Fourth, share what is in your heart.

Fifth, trust the Lord to work His miracles.

The 3rd talk that I absolutely loved was Elder Carl B Cook from the Priesthood session. If you want to know what missionary work is like in Africa, go watch his talk. I have seen the principles taught in his talk take place throughout my mission. In my last area the young men went from 1 to 20 because of 1 young man that was baptized who then was an example to his friends, which they then followed, and so on. His talk really made me realize how much I am going to miss South Africa.

Unfortunately on Sunday Wayden dropped us. We are still good friends with him and still gave him the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and search to find out if it is true but he feels like the Rema church which he has been attending with his girlfriend is where he should be. It was disappointing but we know a very strong seed has been planted.

Well Elder Spencer has finished his mission. It has been great to serve with him and to be able to learn a lot from him. He finished strong and was a very good example to me. Unfortunately I couldn’t get rid of him forever, I’ll be seeing him and living with him once again in 4 months when we room together at BYU lol. Also, in sad news, Elder Nau collapsed earlier in the week last week. This caused much more concern and urgency to obtain a full diagnosis of what is causing these collapses. After counsel between him, his parents, President and Sister Leavitt, and medical professionals they came to the decision that it would be best for him to return home to obtain the medical treatment necessary to discover what is wrong with the hope of returning to the mission field depending on the diagnosis. These two Elders are great men and we had a blast serving together. Elder Willison and I will continue to serve together as we seek to grow the Lord's vineyard in Florida.

Sincerely, Elder Rash

The MTC Experience with Elder Previatti from Brazil

All the missionaries still in the MTC with their day companion for the
 MTC experience

President Leavitt getting the perfect picture

Grilling is one of his favorite things to do

Devon loves these men.  They will be attending BYU together
(Elder Rash, Elder Spencer and Elder Jolley)

Week 84: By Small and Simple things....

Hello Friends and Family,

We had a great week this week!

On Wednesday, while Elder Spencer and Willison went to MLC, Elder Nau and I went and did service for a man named Boet (a member's neighbor). After doing some service he invited us into his home and began sharing all kinds of stories with us. He shared with us how his son participated in professional shooting.  He ended up bringing out and showing us his sons $5,000 air rifle.  As we were leaving Boet said “You know guys, I think I need to visit your church.  I don’t have a church right now and I’m feeling a bit lost.”  Boet is an amazing man! He is so kind and genuine.  A little bit of background, on the road that the church is there are two other church’s.  After making that comment Boet proceeded to share with us how he had visited the other two church’s on that road in years past and how maybe it’s time to visit the third one, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He is very open to us coming and teaching him as well as coming to church.  We are super excited to work with Boet this week!

Also this past week we made many final preparations for a multi ward activity that us missionaries organized. We called it the Stripling Warrior Hunger Games.  It was a ward vs. ward vs. ward activity involving three wards and multiple competitions.  After about a month of preparation we got to see the outcome on Saturday.  The activity was scheduled to begin at 10 am.  At 10 am there were a total of 5 people and we were expecting 150-200.  By 10:30 am there were 16 people.  We finally decided to begin.  By 11:15 there were close to 100 or so people!  It was a great activity and all of the members had an amazing time!  Since Saturday we have had numerous members express the fun that they had and many members express the regret they have for not going. 

Sunday we were able to visit Wayden again.  This time we didn’t have a lesson or anything, because he had a job interview that he needed to create a presentation for.  Instead we came so he could practice presenting to us.  Before we left he stopped us and said “Guys I’ve been feeling something. I’m starting to feel that I believe in God.” 

I know that God is there as well. I’ve seen the small miracles and blessings in the work especially in the past few weeks. 

Love, Elder Rash

Note from mom:  Devon sent TONS of pictures and videos this week!  I wish I could post all of them, but that would be overload!  For their P-Day last week, they went to the Soweto Towers and enjoyed being together as a Zone.  They are trying to make the most of these last few weeks as Elder Spencer goes home next week.  Devon will miss him terribly, but looks forward to being his roommate at BYU!

Top of Soweto Towers

Elder Sande making a traditional meal called Rolex

Multi Ward Activity

Cooking up lunch for after the activity

What a turn out!

Before Devon sat on this, it was a box....

This is what happened whiled he was sitting on it!

Arriving at the towers

Getting ready to go to the top of the towers

What is at the top of the towers?

They rode a sketchy elevator to the top

What a beautiful view from the top

Some of these elders were a little afraid of heights

Lots of wind, but my boys wasn't afraid of the top

I love this handsome missionary

The Four Amigo's

Morning exercise....basketball!

Don't worry....it's not a fire arm!  Just a very expensive Airsoft Gun!

Week 83: Prophets and revelation in modern times

Hello Friends and Family,

Well this week has been good. Sorry for the late email but life gets busy and you lose track of time.

This week we had dinner with the Dwomoh family. I can now say I have eaten authentic Ghanaian cuisine.

This week we saw that having basically two companionships has blessed the area. We have been able to do twice the finding and spend twice the amount of time in the area.

This week we received word that Millicent, the daughter of Sis. Anna (recent convert) and person we are teaching, had a miscarriage and lost her twins. This was such a heartbreak. I’m grateful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation and that we were able to share this knowledge with her.  She has handled it well.  We were able to share with her D&C 137: 10, “10 And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven.”

This week I was also able to complete reading the Doctrine and Covenants. I am grateful that the Lord works through prophets even in modern times.  I’m grateful for the modern revelation that is found in the Doctrine and Covenants and the clarification it brings in a world of confusion and degrading morals and standards. In a week's time (2 weeks for us in South Africa) we will have the privilege of hearing from President Russell M. Nelson, the Lord's modern day prophet. May we each not only listen to the counsel given to us but also be willing to act upon the Lords will. 

Love, Elder Rash

Eating a Ghanaian cuisine

Visiting Nelson Mandela's statue with the Truman's

City Lights

Handsome missionary and City Lights

A whole bunch of handsome missionaries and City Lights

Enjoying their meal

Tracting.....