Dear Family, (26 January 2009)

Dear Family, (26 January 2009)

I’ve decided to change the title of my emails to Dear Family. Anyone is still able to read it but I just felt that I should change it for now.
This past week has been pretty crazy. On Tuesday we got robbed. It was nothing too horrible. A guy came up to us while we were teaching Siphiwe outside her Tuck Shop, and acted like he was interested in learning from us. I gave him a pamphlet with our names and number on it and told him that if he read it all and called us then we would come by and give him an even better book. He opened it up and started “reading” it almost immediately. I was a little surprised but just thought he was really interested. We continued to teach Siphiwe and the guy reached his hand in my pocket and stole our phone. I was able to grab his hand when it was in my pocket but then for some reason I stopped and just let go. As missionaries we are taught to not fight back when robbed and to cooperate, you never know what the thief is hiding. Siphiwe was upset about the whole thing. She asked after that happened did he just rob you, (for it happened so quickly). I told her yes and she said “Ah he can’t do that this is a tuck shop, we’ll get your phone back. I know someone who knows him.”
Well on Thursday we filed a police report and then on Friday we got the phone back. The police though had nothing to do with us getting our phone back, it was actually a miracle. The kid sold the phone after he stole it. His Mom found out and was upset, she knew about us Mlungus and somehow got the phone to our Bishop who then gave it to us. It truly was a Christmas miracle. That was the story in a nutshell. We were not hurt. The only bad part was that we wasted some time, didn’t have the phone for a while, and all our contacts were gone and our cool pictures we had taken.
Siphiwe, the Tuck Shop lady is awesome. She is one of out best investigators. She reads the Book of Mormon, comprehends it, and asked questions. On Friday when we saw her she asked us Priesthood meeting, and told us that she was the age of Relief Society. She seemed quite interested in that. It was amazing; someone actually read the back of the pamphlet where it talks about our church meetings. The only problem with Siphiwe is that she can’t come to church because she works on Sunday. She works everyday at the Tuck Shop from 7:00am-8:00pm. We met her boss on Friday and she seemed like a nice lady. We helped her take some of her products for the shop into her house. Hopefully she will like us and there will come a point where we will be able to request from her that Siphiwe be able to come to church.
Saturday we got transfer news. President called me at about 10:40am that morning and asked me if I would train. I told him I would. I am excited and privileged to be able to train a new missionary. I think it will be really good for me. I hope that the missionary can look back at me as a trainer and appreciate me for my example to him. Elder Lind will be going to Vereeniging, in the Bedfordview Zone, about an hour and a half away or so. Things are top notch here.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends, (18 January 2009)

We had 2 of our investigators interviewed for baptism this week. These kids are 16 and are twins. I’ve been having some doubts about them. I’ve even had thoughts com into my mind like “is it the Holy Ghost telling me they shouldn’t be baptized or am I just having fears?” You see I really wanted to make our goals for our baptisms. The night before the interview I prayed that if it wasn’t Heavenly Father’s will for them to be baptized that something would come up to prevent them from being baptized. Well Heavenly Father answered my prayers, and they didn’t pass. I never really thought that not passing would be good. It’s good that they didn’t pass when they weren’t ready. I’ve learned that if you are questioning whether the spirit is speaking to you or not then He probably is.
Since this experience I’ve been praying for strength to do things even though they might be hard such as postponing a baptism. I probably should have told Elder Roper they weren’t ready. I had an experience just on Sunday where the Lord strengthened me to be able to do something difficult. We taught a young man, a recent convert, and when we taught him I noticed he had an earring in. I prayed during that appointment that I would be able to talk to him about it in the right way. I really felt that I needed to address the issue with him right then rather than talking to him about it at a later date. Well I got up the courage to talk to him about it and he took it off as I spoke to him about how we shouldn’t damage our bodies.
Nana, one of our baptismal candidates is doing really well. On Sunday she started talking to some of the members and asking them to participate in her baptismal program. Previously I had asked her to do this. She is keeping her commitments which will lead her to be able to make and keep covenants in the temple.
On Saturday we had a basketball tournament with members from the Dobsonville and Soweto wards. We put up a sign-up sheet for a couple of weeks so the members could sign up teams of 4 to play against us. We had 4 teams that signed up but not a whole lot of people came. We told them that if they lost against us then they would have to give us 2 referrals and we would get to teach them in their home. If we lost then we would bake them some goodies. Needless to say we did not lose. We haven’t gotten any referrals yet but we’ll be asking for them.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends, (12 January 2009)

A couple weeks ago Mbuso, one of our recent converts was in an accident. He was hit by a car and was in a coma. There was much fasting and praying for him. We’ve spoken to his sister and have found out more about what happened. He was hit twice by 2 different vehicles. It happened near a garage, or gas station. It just so happened that an ambulance was close by and he was able to be taken to the hospital very quickly. His sisters tell us that he is recovering well and is now at home, breathing on his own. He is also starting to communicate.
On Sunday we baptized Skhumbuzo Given Kuneme. The baptismal service started off slow, and not the way we planned. I was a little frustrated by this, and I wasn’t feeling the spirit. After a while I decided to pray that I would be happier and be able to feel the spirit. Things weren’t going as I expected so I was a little mad, but a thought came into my mind that helped me to see a little differently. The thought came that those who were attending the baptism might not have expected as much as I did and they were having a wonderful time. After Skhumbuzo was baptized, when he bore his testimony, was when I really felt the spirit and felt good about the whole service. He said that he felt like it was his birthday. He testified that he knew baptism was important and that it shouldn’t be taken lightly. I felt very satisfied after that.
Lately we’ve been taking Brother Maponya out teaching with us. He is a return missionary. He is such a funny guy and I have fun being around him. He teaches well, is a great example, and even gives us referrals that we can see the days he is with us.
One of our investigators, Thabiso, is turning 18 on the 20th of May. He really wants to be baptized but his grandparents don’t want it. We’ve made a strong effort to try to get them to sign the baptismal record but they just don’t want him to be baptized twice. He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church when he was little. His blessings are only postponed for the time being. He will be baptized.
Hopefully things will start picking back up here in this New Year now that the holidays are over. I’m hoping and praying for miracles.
Today we went to a Rhino and Lion animal reserve. It was a lot of fun. We took a lot of pictures, some videos, and we were even able to play with some lion cubs. It was a little scary but if they tried to bite you, you could tap them on the nose and say “no”. They would then release, or stop for the time being. Today was a lot of fun.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends, (5 January 2009)

Monday we did not have P-day because we had Mission Tour. Elder Koelliker of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us. I will include an excerpt from my journal of that experience. “We were privileged to hear from Elder Koelliker today for Mission Tour. He talked about callings and said something very powerful which shot my thoughts to Eternity. He said ‘callings are not eternal, being a Father is.’ This hit me deep. When it’s all said and done, when we become Gods it won’t matter what callings we had here on Earth. What will matter is that we made it.” Callings will come and go but we will always be Father and Mothers, husbands and wives. My journal continues “He also talked about the spirit and how helping investigators feel it is our major role. We can help them feel it by using our testimony. Also very important is that we should get investigators to pray about Joseph Smith.” They need that witness, and it’s sometimes hard for me to express the importance for them to know themselves.
President Poulsen requested from us baptismal goals for January, February, March, and April. He promised us miracles if we work hard for our goals. Elder Lind and I set goals for 3 baptism in January, 4 in February, 5 in March and 6 in April. I believe this is possible with the Lords help, and that it will cause us to stretch work hard, and plan well. We already see that our January and February goals are being filled which is wonderful.
We had a great time on New Years day. We played sport and had a braai at the mission office. I got a little sun burnt but nothing major.
Skhumbuzo was interviewed for baptism this past week. His is ready and will be baptized on the 11 January 2009. He really desires to learn the truth and do what’s right.
We went tracting in one of the squatter camps in our area this past Tuesday. We took a member along with us. We taught a couple lessons but nothing too promising. Well on Sunday an old lady named Miriam who we taught at the camp came to church. She said she looked for the church for a couple hours until she finally found it. This is the kind of commitment and dedication I wish all of our investigators could have. Missionary work is hard when you set goals and really try to accomplish those goals in a set time. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends, (29 December 2008)

Amazing! This will be my last email of the year. Happy New Years everyone. This past week we had Christ Eve and Christmas. Christmas felt very different on a mission here in South Africa. It seems more like a time to have a braai and party then to stay at home with your family. I think the weather is a major factor with that. When it’s cold outside you want to stay inside with the family. When it’s sunny and warm you want to go out and enjoy the day. Christmas Eve we came in early and had some guys from our district come sleep over and have some fun with us. ON Christmas we didn’t work at all. We had breakfast with Elder and Sister Sumers at their flat with a bunch of other missionaries. We then had lunch with some people who were from Elder Ropers old area. After that we went to the Dobsonville chapel to receive our calls from home. It was great to hear from the family.
We visited Skhumbuzo on Friday. We planned to teach him the Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Tithing. When we got there his girlfriend was with him. I was a little timid to share the Law of Chastity to him with he girlfriend there and was wondering if we should teach something different. As I opened our teaching appointment with a prayer I was impressed and felt that what we planned was the right thing to share with them. We shared all that we planned to share and the lesson went well. Both of them were committed to following these commandments. Skhumbuzo’s girlfriend is a member of a different church though so she won’t be paying tithing. Her name is Kgatliso.
We didn’t have as much time to work this past week. On Saturday though we did do a little bit of tracting and met a wonderful Seventh Day Adventist family, Michael and Leticia Mpofu. We taught them the message of the Restoration and it made sense to them. Leticia told us that she saw some things in her church that she didn’t like and often wondered if she was in the right church. This caused her to be very eager to ask the Lord about the Restoration. Both she and Michael were very open to praying and undertood the reason for asking God. Tracting can be very effective. I’m thankful to the Lord for leading us to the Mpofus. If we never had gone tracting we would have never met 2 of our people on baptismal date and or this wonder family.
All our baptismal candidates seem to be progressing and doing well. 3 of them were at church and the other 2 were away for the holiday. A couple days ago I was looking through the former investigators in our area book and found a record for the twins, Thabiso and Thabang. The record was from 2004 when they were 12. They were put as former investigators because the previous missionaries thought they were too young and needed to learn more. I’m a little frightened about our investigators on baptismal date. It’s a challenging thing to promise God to follow Him your whole life and then to keep that promise. I hope and pray that I will have done what I needed to do to prepare these investigators to keep their promises.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends, (22 December 2008)

We met Sifiso for the first time this week. He is Esther’s husband. Esther has been a member for a couple years now. She and Sifiso just moved into the area. She wanted us to teach her husband so we are. On Tuesday we taught him about the Book of Mormon in depth. He understood the history of it, and was quite excited to learn more. Sifiso and Esther live a ways away from the chapel so we can only see them when we have the car. We had the car twice this week so we also saw them on Friday. Sifiso said he would read and pray. Heavenly Father keeps droping these people who are truly seeking the truth right into our laps. Ever since I’ve gotten here we’ve had Skhumbuzo, Sifiso, and Thabiso and Thabang come to church and desire to be baptized. This past Sunday we met 2 new people who came to church and wanted to learn more. They are Phatudi and Vuyisile. We are truly being blessed here in the Dobsonville ward.
On Wednesday and Saturday we gained new investigators from existing investigators. On Wednesday we took Bishop Tshabalala to see Thabiso, (not the twin.) We wanted Bishop to come so he could talk the grandparents into letting Thabiso be baptized. We didn’t plan to well because neither Thabiso nor his grandparents were home. His aunt Kgomotso however was there, and seeing as Bishop was with us we were able to teach her the Restoration. She accepted the lesson well and agreed to see us again. On Thursday we had our mission Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of games, a braai, and fun, fun, fun. I played some basketball pretty hard, and it felt great. We had the whole day for the Christmas party. Towards the end of it we had a little devotional in the chapel. We sang Christmas Songs and listen to a recording of the Apostles share their testimonies of our Savior. It was a lot of fun, and it helped us to focus on the Savior. Merry Christmas everyone! On Saturday we invited Nana’s sister, Basetsane outside to join us in the lesson. We taught Nana The Gospel of Jesus Christ that day and committed her to be baptized on the 8 February 2009. We asked Basetsane if she would like to join us for the lessons and she said yes. We are going to see both of them at 2pm next Saturday. Basetsane seemed to really enjoy church, and she even volunteered to read in class. Both of them came to church which was really nice. Eventually we might be able to teach their whole family. Oh and Kalebogile joined them at church as well.
We taught the twins, Thabis and Thabang the Law of Chastity on Wednesday. Both of them wear earrings so I read from True to the Faith under the topic of Modesty to try and help them see that that is mistreating your body. Thabiso has a contract to dance and he is supposed to wear earrings according to that contract. He suggested that he could take them out for church. I was very happy that he came up with that solution, and will be trying to do what’s right within his circumstances.
I had quite a funny experience this weekend. We were headed to the chapel to have lunch and decided to talk to some of the Jehovah’s witnesses outside the shopping centre near the church. I started talking to one, discussing some things with her and then bam! In comes some Seventh-day Adventists to join in the conversation which slowly became an argument. I chuckled a little when I saw 3 of the most prominent proselyting churches discussing their beliefs. I didn’t leave on a bad note, so that was good. I got to know their names and told them we had to be going. I figure if part of my lunch is focusing these churches on me then it will stop them from confusing others and gathering them to the wrong church. I decided to play a little defense that day. I love serving the Lord here in South Africa. I meet a lot of interesting people.

Elder Lane

Dear Family and Friends, (15 December 2008) :)

This week has been a pretty good week. Last Monday President Poulsen gave us some new key indicators. We are to keep track of less-active part-member families that we teach and father led families. Also President eliminated keeping track of proselyting hours. This new system of key indicators shows President’s trust in us, and it will help us to focus more on finding families. I think the work will start to get even better. I’m trying to get members to come with us more. I think that will be really good for the ward.
Thabiso and Thabang, the two brothers who asked to be baptized last week, are now on baptismal date. We hope to baptize them in January. They’ve been taught by missionaries before and seem to know quite a bit. We also have a couple others who may by close to a baptismal date.
On Friday we took a member of the Bishopric with us to a lesson. It was a very good lesson. The investigator was happy to see that her neighbor came with us to teach her. The investigator we saw was Matsiye, Nandi’s mother. She’s one that we might put on date soon, she just needs to come to church then I’ll feel more comfortable doing it. Also this Friday we were on foot and it was raining really hard so we got soaking wet. We taught one lady named Linda in her kitchen. We got somewhat dry as we taught her.
Transfer news came on Saturday. Elder Palsson is headed up to Botswana, and Elder Roper will be training for his second time.
Sunday was quite nice. We had 9 investigators come to church. Our Gospel Principles class had about 15 people. It was awesome; it felt like we were impacting a lot of people. Ncumisa and Nkosana came for the first time which I was really pleased to see. They are living together but are not married. It seems that what we have taught them so far has been helping them so I hope that they continue down this path with us. They seemed to really enjoy church, and Nkosana told me her learned a lot. Nana came for the third time. When we taught her on Saturday she asked us how she would know if she was ready for baptism. We told her she’d have to learn some more things, commandments and follow them and then she would be ready. She’s glad that we are teaching her because she used to think it was alright to just sit at home and read the Bible, and not go to church.
On Wednesday we had a lovely lesson with a part-member family. The wife, sister Seooe is a member but her husband isn’t. When we were finished teaching sister Seooe said she was glad we came and that she knows we were sent to her home to give that specific message. She told us that she hopes her and her husband will be able to better follow the commandments we taught them. That is one of the most rewarding things here on a mission, when you teach someone and they tell you that the message you shared was what they needed right then. I love it, and I love this work.
I know my days are totally out of order. I’ll have to work on that. Tuesday we went to an orphanage. Rebecca, one of the members, invited us to go with her. We asked her if there was anything we could do for her one day when we finished teaching her and she said we could come to the orphanage with her. The company she works for was donating a bunch of stuff. They had a whole program put together and they requested that I share a thought. Before they started they had a Reverend pray and he shared a thought as well. When it was all done Rebecca and the people she worked with told us how much they appreciated us coming. I felt really good when they expressed that to us. I feel that my mission is doing more for me than I could ever do for anyone else. I love it, I love it, I love it.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends (8 December 2008)

This past Thursday I devised a new plan for our weekly planning. We planned for the whole upcoming week. What we did was we wrote in pencil our plans, like who we were going to see and when. Then as we confirmed those appointments we wrote them in pen. I think it’s quite a great idea. Now we know who we’ve confirmed with and who we haven’t confirmed with. Preach My Gospel suggests writing your goals on the investigators records in pencil, but not in the planner. I guess that’s where I go the idea.
On Sunday I was privileged to perform a confirmation and a naming and blessing of an infant. I felt the power of the Lord manifested through me and I loved it. I felt so good as I performed those blessings. The baby who I blessed was Brian Leul Methulwe. Also on Sunday I taught my first Gospel Principles lesson. I really enjoyed that. It was a lot of fun to be a teacher at church. I taught the young men in my first area but for some reason Gospel Principles was so much more fun. Maybe it’s because I prepared for the lesson. We only had two recent converts and one investigator in the class but it was still a blast.
Again this week we had some people come to church. We didn’t even know they were investigators. There were 2 of them and they accidentally went to the Soweto ward which meets before us. They requested to be baptized so we set an appointment to teach them the Restoration. Fasting works my brothers and sisters. Our Elder’s quorum keeps talking about home teaching and how they can improve that and how they can retain new converts. I hope that the ward will pick up on their missionary efforts. Well that’s it for this week. I hope everyone is doing well. Please feel free to send me a letter:

Elder William Lane
Private Bag X4
Ansfrere 1711
South Africa

Elder Lane

Dear Family and Friends (1 December 2008)

Since our Zone Conference, about 2 weeks ago, I’ve been studying Preach My Gospel a lot more. I’m finding that a constant study of it is helping me to become a better missionary. While teaching I’m able to remember things that I am supposed to do and then I do them.
Recently I was studying about the Light of Christ in Chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel. As I studied my mind was led to deep thought and pondering. Preach My Gospel teaches that the Light of Christ “’is given to every man, that he may know good from evil.’” In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve didn’t know good from evil therefore they didn’t have the Light of Christ. This light is the “…persevering influence that comes upon mankind because of Jesus Christ.” As stated in Preach My Gospel. In the Garden the Gospel was not taught to Adam and Eve for it was not needed. Those who believe that Adam and Eve could have had children in the Garden of Eden are making the statement that man could have been saved without Jesus Christ. The Restoration and the Plan of Salvation have given me great respect and understand of our Savior. I know that being saved through Christ is doctrine; it was the plan from the beginning and is the only way to our Father in Heaven.
This Sunday we had two awesome investigators come to church. They seem like they will progress really well. They were Petunia and Nana and they both came to church for their second time. Petunia brought a friend this time, and Nana’s niece, Kalebogile, went to her primary class this time. Both of them were fellowshipped pretty well by the members which was really nice to see. Also this Sunday we had my first baptism ever performed. We baptized two investigators, and then a member’s son was also baptized. The investigators we baptized were Simphiwe Nxumalo, and Siphiwe Dlamini. I was privileged to baptize Siphiwe Mzisazi Dlamini, it was wonderful. They were both young kids so they will be able to grow up in the Gospel. I hope all is going well.

Elder Lane

Dear Family and Friends, (24 November 2008)

Things here in Dobsonville are going extremely well, better than last week. I love it. On Sunday we went to Braamfischerville again to walk with investigators to church. It was awesome because on our way we saw Linda, Simon, and Gladys walking towards us ready for church. I was so happy to see them making even a little bit of progress by meeting us.
On Saturday we taught Simon and Linda the Plan of Salvation. The plan really made sense to Linda. I think she understands why Adam and Eve had to fall which is such an important thing to understand. She told us so does that mean we have a curse. At first I said no but then I realized yes it is sort of a curse and that’s why Jesus Christ is so important. It is only through Him that the curse can be bypassed.
I am gaining such a powerful testimony of fasting. I fasted this weekend that more people would come to church and that we would find more sincere investigators. Sunday at church we had an investigator pop up out of nowhere. His name is Skhumbuzo and he’s been coming to church for a couple weeks now. We didn’t know about him though, which yeah, is our bad, I hardly know all the members though. I need to put myself out there and get to know them. I’m always afraid to ask people their names though because they’ll tell me their names but it will be hard for me to understand what they are saying because the African names are still a little different to me. They’ll say there names really fast but there names are like a different language and when you are hearing another language you need people to speak slowly. Well anyway Skhumbuzo asked us to be baptized so we set an appointment with him. Also a kid named Thabiso came to church. He is one of our investigators but I’ve never seen him before because his grandparents didn’t want him coming to church, and didn’t want us teaching him. Today he told his grandparents that they couldn’t stop him from coming to church and so he came. These wonderful events happened because our Father in Heaven is accepting my sacrifice. I love Him.
In Gospel Principles class we had a discussion on who our Father in Heaven is. I’ve come to realize through the Restored Gospel how much our Father in Heaven loves us. I’ll try to explain in words what I felt and learned in class: Seeing as God is perfect that means he has perfect joy and happiness. He loves us so much that he makes it possible for us to obtain the title of God and have that perfect joy and happiness that he enjoys in that role. All other Christian religions just believe that we will return to live with God to eternally worship him and be subjected to him. Heather Wood, one of our investigators from Alberton would always tell us that to let your children go is to give them the greatest gift you can. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he wants us to gain what He has. Hopefully I made sense. Sorry this email is kind of all over the place.
One of our recent converts, Mbuso Mncwabe, came out teaching with us on Tuesday. I called him up to ask him if he’d like to come and he told us he’d love to. Mbuso is such a powerful member. He’s changed his life completely over to Jesus Christ within the last couple of months. I wasn’t able to witness the change but I see the way he is now and it amazes me.
I love this Gospel. I know it’s the only complete truth out there. Rebecca, another one of our recent converts, told us how she used to think that becoming a member would be too hard, but now she sees that that was false. She sees how much the Gospel is a blessing in her life. She sees that the commandments are there to make us happy and to keep us free from the chains of Satan. Thank you everyone for reading. I love you all, and hope that through reading my emails you can obtain a piece of the joy that I feel here in South Africa in the service of our Lord.

Elder Lane

Dear Family and Friends (17 November 2008)

This past week I've felt like a machine. We taught a total of 48 lessons as opposed to 25 lessons which is about the highest I've gotten previous to coming to Dobsonville. Here in township you get lesson after lesson when you get tracting. It's almost like you can't go tracting 10 minutes without getting someone to teach. Back in town you'd be lucky if you got 1 lesson with a whole day of tracting. All the lessons aren't quality here in township but I'm still learning how opperate things. It's actually pretty good to be able to teach so many lessons because then you have a bigger pool to draw and find true seekers of truth.
On Wednesday Nhlanhla bailed on us. As we walked to his house to see him we say his neighbors, Tumi and Ips, struggling to move bricks from outside their yard to inside their yard. I told Elder Lind that if Nhlanhla isn't home then we are going to help them so we did. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to move all the bricks inside their yard. We talked to them about church and stuff and even invited them to our musical fireside that we had Sunday; they came and they loved it. Elder Roper played the piano and sang hymns, he was really good. We had over 50 people come. We're going to try and set an appointment with them this week so we can share the message of the Restoration with them.
We went to Braamfischerville to walk with people to church again this Sunday. Only 2 people walked with us. It was nice because they were new investigators. If only 1 new person would come with us to church I would walk each week. It's about a 15 minute walk to Braamfischer from the church. In total we had 7 investigators at church. Mandla, the kid who was lost for 2 years, came to church. He is 17 and really enjoyed it. He told us he is coming to our church each week. I think Mandla is solid because he was planning to walk with his friend to church but his friend never showed up so he caught a taxi and came himself.
Sunday we gave Mbuso the priesthood and ordained him to the office of Priest. He was so excited, he truly understands the priesthood and the importance and honor it is to hold it. Following that he came with us to visit Siphiwe who will be baptized on the 30 November. Sunday evening we had a Zone meeting at Elder and Sister Summer's flat, ( they work in the office.) We prayed sang songs and shared spiritual experiences. I loved it. Elder Jones, one of our Zone Leaders, told us that President Poulsen would be joining us in the future for our meetings. He then told us that we should share experiences that will raise the spirits of President because he deals with a lot. When we were sharing experiences one of the Elders share about our experience we had in going to the temple on Friday. He said that we should stay true to the convenants that we make and that we should go to the temple with a question that way we will look for revelation. Temple trips here on mission don't seem as special as they were back home. I think that's because we just go every transfer and it's expected that we go. I need to strive even harder to make temple trips special. I hope you are all doing well, and thanks for reading.

Elder Lane

Dear Family and Friends, (10 November 2008)

I’ve now spent about the last 5 days in my new are, Dobsonville. Township is quite a dramatic change from town. On Saturday Elder Lind and I went tracting (yes it is Lind not Lynn) the whole day. We were able to teach 10 other lessons over the course of about 8 hours. It was so awesome, and that is actually really good. Elder Lind is from Montana, and this is his second transfer out. He’s only been out for about 8 weeks.
I feel quite a bit responsible for teaching him some things and to take charge of the area and show him more of how things are suppose to go. He was with his trainer for only 6 weeks, and I know that I was a little afraid even after 12 weeks when Elder Yarrington left me. I’m going to do what I can to help him Elder Lind out and take some charge of the area. As I teach with Elder Lind I’m able to see how much I’ve grown in these past 9 months. When I first came out I taught and dealt with people in a similar fashion to Elder Lind. Now I’m a lot more comfortable and confident in doing it. Teaching those 10 lessons on Saturday was awesome! We were able to teach the way Preach My Gospel teaches we should teach. We avoided “falling into a routine when presenting the message” of the Restoration. We taught the principles in order but clumped them together differently. We even would change up who started the lessons.
On Saturday when we tracted we invited people to walk with us to church, seeing it was only about a 10-15 minute walk to the church from where we were. We had over 10 people say they would walk with us. When Sunday came around we went to every house to pick them up but only 3 people ended up coming with us. The others gave us excuses like, oh I forgot, or oh I’m sick or they just lied again and said let us get ready and we’ll be there soon. Township people are awesome and willing to listen but when it comes to keeping commitments they are lacking. I’m not sure what it is, perhaps they don’t value their word.
On Friday Elder Lind and I visited a church in Dobsonville, the El-Shaddai Healing Centre. One of our investigators comes from that church, his name is Nhlanhla. HL in the African languages makes a sound similar to TH, and when said sometimes sounds like the CL in the word claw. So Nhlanhla would be said something to the effect n-claw-n-claw. We went to the church and everyone was standing and singing for about an hour and a half until the pastor came. She finally came and then spoke about believing and then she could heal people. It was very different. The whole time I was there I felt like I was doing something bad. I think that was because the music they played for worship was not really missionary appropriate music. I’ve visited other churches, I’ve seen how they worship and I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s one and only church here on the Earth.

Elder Lane


Dear Family and Friends, (3 November 2008)

Transfer news was a real shocker this transfer. Our mission is having a shortage of missionaries so President Poulsen needed to shut an area down. I guess the least productive area was Alberton because it was the area that was shut down. Elder Burnett and I are both being transferred. Elder Burnett will be going to Tsekane which use to be in my old zone, Benoni, but is now in the Springs zone. His companion will be Elder Robinson (sorry Elder, probably spelt wrong) who has only been out for 2 transfers. I will be going to Dobsonville which is in Soweto. Soweto is one of the major townships here in the mission. My new companion will be Elder Lynn. I’m not sure if it’s spelt Lynn because I here he’s only been out for a transfer and there was no Elder Lynn in the transfer news from a transfer ago. Here’s the pretty cool thing. I will be flat mates with Elder Roper again. He will be my new district leader. When you get moved from an area so early, and you don’t expect it, it doesn’t feel so good. I wanted to stay longer and get to know the people more, but I’m needed elsewhere so I will go. There are kind of mixed emotions with it all. I’m excited but also sad.
We have a golden investigator here in Alberton named Wellington who was quite sad to here that we would both be leaving. I will not be surprised if he is baptized in the coming weeks. He believes all that we have taught him (Lesson 1 and Lesson 2) and is eager to learn more. He told us that we have taught him a lot. His prayers especially have been more meaningful since we’ve met him. He has been listening to the Lord as he prays. He never thought about doing that until he spoke to us. We also said good-bye to Sister Kirchmann and her family. She told us that she is going to request that Elder Burnett and I come back to baptize her. These 2 investigators along with a couple others will be passed on to the Ridgeway Elders who will continue nourishing them with the good word. I’m going to truly miss the people of Alberton. It almost feels like those times when cousins come over for a visit and you have so say good-bye to them for another year. I’m grateful that I was able to touch some hearts here and I pray that I can continue doing it where ever I go.

Elder Lane