Mabopane

Obedience

Another great week here in Mabopane! It seems like times is flying by too fast here. This past week we had stake conference! It was great! The theme was on Charity and Forgiveness, and it was a great opportunity for our investigators to feel the spirit strongly. One quote I really liked from it was "When Obedience is no longer an irritance, and becomes a quest, God will endow you with power!" Obedience is the Price to have the full power of God with you at all times! This quote goes with everything in our lives, when we are obedient with anything that is a righteous desire we will gain power!

Thumi and Maria will be having their interview tomorrow for baptism and should be baptised this week if everything goes. Thumi is so powerful! She doesn't understand things very well sometimes, but really feels the spirit and knows that these things are true! She hasn't missed a sunday since we have started teaching her!

As we met with James this past week he was so excited about everything! He told us how he has some close friends that he wants to introduce to the Gospel as well! He is already doing missionary work... It's a testimony builder each and every time we meet with him.

Nono is doing great also! We taught her about the Word of Wisdom this past week and she willingly gave up coffee. She told us how much she loves coffee, but she wants to do what the Lord asks of her!

This past week I came across the scripture in Alma 7:11-12. It is a very common scripture and I love using it to describe how well Christ knows each of us, but this time as I read it took on a whole new meaning for me! In verse 12 it talks about the word succor, which means "to run to." I always thought about that scripture as us running to Christ, but this time as I read I was able to realize how it is Christ that is running to us! Not only does He call us to come and to follow Him, but He is unfailingly running to help us! How great it is to know that our Brother and our Friend is constantly working to help us! I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of our Savior and the opportunity I have to come closer to Him each and every day, to truly come to know Him!

I love you all so much!

Elder Farnes

Trust

This past week has been sweet! Lots of people are progressing towards becoming more and more converted unto the Lord and are preparing themselves to follow Christ. We also have an incredible new investigator. The work of the Lord is great!

Sister Thumi and Maria are preparing for their baptismal interview this week! Sister Thumi hasn't missed a week  of church since we have started teaching, even when she went out of town she found a church to go to! She struggles with remembering things but she knows this is the Truth! Sister Maria is in a part member family and is solid as well! We are teaching a lot of part member families and it is going great! Some more investigators that are progressing well in part member families are Bonginkosi, Lebogang, Amoneng, and Nono. Hopefully we can get them all prepared for March as well! We also have a sweet new investigator named James. He is a professional soccer player and is a flat out stud! Our first appt. with him he bore testimony of the Truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the Church! He has been through a lot and he said that this gospel fulfills him like nothing else can! He came to church as well and is so prepared! Mabopane is going great!

This past week in my study I was reading through Mosiah. In Mosiah 21:7-15 the people of Limhi went up against the Lamanites to battle relying or using their own strength. They did this three times each time being defeated! It was only when they humbled themselves and recognized the need for the Lord that He was then able to help them and their burdens were eased. How often do we try and solve our problems without God and THEN turn to him after we have failed. We need to turn to Him first, to be entirely dependent upon Him and His love for us. We need to allow him to lead us in our lives. (Mosiah 24:15) As we do this He will lead us!!

Love you all!

Elder Farnes

Happy Valentines Day!

Moved! Sweet Week!

This past week has been sweet! We moved into our new flat on Friday!!!! It is way nice and there are not as many cockroaches now... haha!

The work is progressing well here in Mabopane. The Bishop has asked us to focus some of our time on re-activation which has been good. Our investigators are doing great! Sister Thumi should be baptised at the end of this month or the beginning of next and as well Bongikosi, Maria, and Nono should be baptised in March! The members here are sweet as well... making friendships that will last for eternity!

This past week we had a guy that knew a TON about our church! He stopped us and started to just mock us.... He got me pretty irritated! He was getting up in my face and was wanting to bible bash and get me to show some anger or frustration! He went on for a while and when he had finished I just bore him my Testimony and we left. It was a cool experience to have the Holy Ghost testify to me once again of the truthfulness of this work as I was bearing my testimony! I am so grateful to be apart of this Church and to be sharing this amazing Gospel with the people here in South Africa!

The Last part of what we can consecrate to God is our Eyes! Some scriptures for it are D&C 4:5, 3 Nephi 13:22-23, and D&C 88:67. As we give our eyes to Him we will be fulled with light and more understanding! We will be able to see things as He does and feel of his love even more for others! Consecrating ourselves to the Lord is something that we must strive to do. After all we can do we can never become profitable servants (Mosiah 2:21) so it is up to us to try and come as close to it as we can!

I love you!

Elder Farnes

Pics

Salome Baptized!

This past week has been so great! Salome was baptized yesterday and it was one of the best experiences so far on mission to be apart of it! To see the excitement that their whole family had as they found out Friday night after her interview with President Omer and to witness their pure joy as Brother Abbey was able to baptise his wife. Their family has now been completed. She had been through 7 pairs of missionaries and it was so amazing to be able to witness the spirit work with her. The light of Christ has truly come into her life in the past couple months and she is a completely new person. We also set the goal for them to be sealed together as a family in a year from now and they said that they are going to start saving a little each year so that one day they can go and serve a couples mission. This is what mission is all about! I love it!

I am staying in Mabopane for another transfer which is great! Our investigators are progressing well and we are going to start working a little more with some less actives!

Back to Consecration! The third thing that we need to give to God is our hearts! In D&C 64:22 It says how the Lord requires our hearts! He doesn't beat around the bush with it... He requires it and we need to give Him it! In Mosiah 5:13 it talks about the importance of our hearts! It is the only TRUE way to come to know Christ instead of just knowing about him or of him! 

"The greatest battle you will ever fight will be within the silent chambers of your heart."

I love you all so much! I pray that we may give ourselves to the true Master!

Elder Farnes 

Bikes and Elephants!

This past week has been really good! We got bikes which has been sweet! I  love being able to talk to everyone as we go by instead of just driving by in a car. Our investigators are doing great! They are really coming along! We had 8 investigators at church which was sweet and had a powerful lesson with the three amigos (Oli, Bongane, and Tshwanelo). We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they were loving it. They understood everything perfectly and understood that they needed to be rebaptized! We put them on date for March and they were so excited! We stood up to leave and they all gave us BIG hugs! haha!!

Salome has to have a 2nd interview from President Omer this week or the next so we had to post pone her baptism. She was disappointed but understands why and is still crazy excited to be baptized! I still can't get over how much she has changed!!

This Morning we were able to play with some Elephants! It was so cool! I was able to grab it's tusks and just mess with it! An experience of a lifetime! There was a full grown mom and two of her kids!

I forgot to grab the thing about consecration this morning because we left so early but this past week I loved reading through Jacob chapter 5. As you go through it you see the Saviors love for us. Time and time again he says how he doesn't want to give up on the olive trees and near the end you see his love especially as he says in desperation "What more could I have done?" in three different verses! His love for us his so pure and so perfect. He does everything for us. I am so grateful for the experience I was able to have while reading that this past week!

I love you all so much!

Elder Farnes