Birch Acres Area, Week 2

Elder Farnes and Elder Nherera

This past week has been amazing!! I absolutely love being a missionary. I have my trainer now. His name is Elder Nherera. He's 21 and from Zimbabwe. He was a convert about 7 years ago and is a stud. We get along great and we teach really well together.

My companion and I are opening up a new mission. It's called Birch Acres and we're starting completely from scratch. We didn't even have an area book for the first few days. I love the area though. It's not too big so we ride bikes everywhere. The town is what the missionaries call "cheesy" because its half township and half town with a squatter camp. I love the township though. The people here are amazing and I love them so much. Since we're starting from scratch we have been tracting all day every day. It's a lot of fun and were starting to get some great investigators. Most people here have gates and dogs so to get in you tap the gate with a coin until people come out. You have to be persistent, but that's part of the fun. Tracting is a blast.

We have two guys already set for a baptismal date. One of them is named Kamagelo. He's a 13 year old kid who is just flat out the man. He's been going to church for 6 months and when we went to teach him he took notes and knew so much about the gospel. He is SO excited to get baptized and become an official member of the church. His baptismal date is on August 11. The other guy is named Phillip. He moved here from Ghana about 7 months ago and the Lord has definitely prepared him. He was so eager to learn and to start coming to church. His baptismal date is August 25th.We have a few more people this week we're hopefully going to commit to baptism and we're praying that we can find a family for us to start teaching.

President Omer really wants to establish the church in South Africa so in order to be baptized if you're older than 16 you have to come to church for 5 weeks before you can be baptized and if you're younger than 16 and you're going without you're parents you have to go for 6 months.

There is just a branch here in Birch Acres of about 40-50 people. They are extremely strong in the church and truly converted. They love having the missionaries here. We've already been fed 3 times and the food has been delicious. I'm the only white guy in the branch and one of the only white people in the city. It's awesome... I love it!

In John 14:6 it talks about how the only way to return to our heavenly father is through Jesus Christ. It's so true and I feel so blessed to be able to help people and to invite people to come unto Christ!!

I love you all so much!

Elder Farnes

President and Sister Omer