Johannesburg South Africa Mission

(7 September 2009)

2009-09-07T09:28:00.001-07:00

Dear Family, (7 September 2009)

This week has been pretty awesome. On Tuesday, which was the 1 of September, it was the first day of Spring. It quite hot here so you can really just call it summer. It's kind of a special day here, especially in the township. Youth throughout Daveyton got buckets of water, some had hoses, and they would splash people on the streets and have a little war. A couple times, on that day, Elder Simmonds and I saw crowds of kids on the streets. We had courage though and decided to just continue down those streets like nothing was up. Secretly we wanted to get splashed. When the kids saw us walking they would shout “mlungu, mlungu!” or “white person, white person!” We knew it was coming, we told them no, no, but they got us anyway. It was sweet. Nothing got damaged and it was a nice way to cool off. It's Summer Time!
Elder Simmonds and I had a pretty nice planning session this past Thursday. We planned for our 12 investigators who are on baptismal date for the 27 September. We were so sure they would all make the date. We were so sure about what we were doing that we even penned in their appointments for the next week. We were certain we would be able to see them at the times we planned. Well as the week continued we slowly realized that not all of the 12 were serious. We are a little saddened that we probably won't get 12 on 27 September, but we are still super excited for this area. We are finding lots of Zimbabweans and they are so sweet, and ready for the gospel.
We are teaching a man named Mzwandile, he is 27 and has a lot of problems. He drinks and he doesn't have money to buy food pretty much everyday. He lives by himself in a home that his grandmother left behind for him. Well one day we came to his door, but nobody answered. I didn't want to be rude but I thought it was important to see him so slowly but surely I walked in for I was trying to get over my fear of entering his house without permission. I found him on his bed, and I almost had to shout to wake him up. He was wasted. We talked to him while he was drunk. He told us how things were hard and he even said that he has thought of killing himself. We told him to definitely not do that. He thanked us for coming in. I really think that he was trying to act like he wasn't home because he told us that he doesn't like us to see him drunk. Many times he will ask us for food or for money. Elder Simmonds and I have decided that the next time we see him which is on Wednesday we are going to buy him a kota. He came to church this Sunday which was really good for him. Even after church he asked me to buy him bread.
This past Sunday was pretty good for us. I'm really starting to love teaching at church and giving talks. The 4 of us Elders taught Elder's quorum and encouraged the quorum to do their home teaching for it effects our recent converts. We tried to help them see that it is about love, and how them doing their home teaching unifies the ward. I really believe that that is a reason the Lord has given us home teaching. He has made a simple and easy way to unite us and to help the Elders magnify their callings, and their priesthood. I wasn't the best home teacher back home, but I will do better. If you are not doing your home teaching you are not holding your priesthood righteously. The Lord has given it to us as part of the church organization. Also I was able to teach Gospel Principles on Sunday which was super sweet. I taught about Missionary Work. I love teaching that class and tieing the lesson into the Restoration. Brother Jokozela, one of the counselors in the Bishopric gave me an assignment to speak in sacrament meeting next Sunday for about 15-18 minutes. Back home I would have been terrified, but mission has really been helping me to be able to speak to people. We had 7 new people come to church, and 2 of them hadn't even met the missionaries before they just saw the church and wanted to visit. The 2 of them spoke to us after church and told us they wanted us to visit them.
We recently met a lady named Jeanette. She is so sweet. When we came back after giving her the Book of Mormon she had read from page 1 until page 143. She told us that now she was starting to understand. Even this Sunday she came to church along with her Landlord Esther Mbata who is actually a member of the Jericho church we went to last week.
Max is one of our investigators who is on date for the 27 September. He is so sweet, and he's from Zimbabwe. He got a peace job on Saturday. A peace job is a job someone just picks up on the streets. Like maybe they will be hired for a quick job that may take a day or 2 like painting or fixing something. Well Max was asked to come back to finish the job on Sunday and he agreed. When we spoke to him on Saturday night he told us this, but then told us that he decided not to go back. He told us that he knows Sunday is the day to remember Jesus Christ. I was so happy to see him put the Lord first. His attitude was that he would be able to find another job. Once again, I love Zimbabwean. Things are going really well here in Daveyton, once again I feel like I want to stay here for a long time. There were so many wonderful things that went on this past week. I wish I could write about all of them, but I have to limit it somewhere.
Last night I had this weird dream that I was back home and I was sad. I had finished my mission, but I was sad because I had left my friends, and family that I have made here in Africa. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father sent me to this wonderful land of Africa amongst this wonderful people.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (31 August 2009)

This past week has been great as always. Elder Simmonds and I put together our 4 months goals. We have planned to baptize 10 in September 10 in October 7 in November and 3 in December for a total of 30 baptisms for our area. We are going to try to shoot hard for our goal.
One thing I've figured that I must learn from mission is how to recognize and have the courage to follow the spirit. Because Elder Simmonds and I walk around everywhere I have many promptings a day to stop and talk to people. Sometimes I follow the prompting and other times I put it off for one reason or another. Sometimes I say to myself that we don't have time, that we have to make it to our next appointment. As I think about this excuse I find it not to be reasonable. Really I don't like to give any excuses. I don't want to be the kind of father who will say no son I have to get this finished. So I figure I need to put most important things first. If the spirit is directing me to talk to someone then I must no matter what because that is what Heavenly Father wants me to do. Listening to the spirit and following it right away is what I must do to lead this area for that is how Bishops and Stake Presidents and any leader of the church works. I have been called to receive revelation for missionary work in Daveyton so I must follow the spirit for it to work properly. I don't know if I'm putting this right for you to understand but the main point is follow the spirit's promptings.
Many times when I follow the spirit or that prompting I get I find some really sweet people. We met a young man named Jabulani as I felt prompted to tract a specific area. When we finished lesson 1 with him we asked him if he had any questions. He then asked us how he could become a member of our church. Elder Simmonds was so surprized with his question that he didn't understand what he was saying. We put Jabulani on date for the 27 of September 2009. Peter the prophet is coming along. He submits to what we commit him to do. He is just weird, I think he has a certain problem but I think he will be a great member as he continues to learn from us. He loved the talk by President Eyring entitled Man Down. We used this talk to help him see the power of the priesthood in helping others.
We had our Stake Conference this past Sunday. President Armstrong, president of the Johannesburg temple spoke to us. I really like his talk because he talked about temples. He said that if we can not enjoy or feel comfortable in the house of the Lord here on the Earth then how do we expect to live in his kingdom after this life. He also stated that as we do work to save souls we are receiving salvation ourselves because we will be forgiven of our sins. Before we went to conference we had the opportunity to go to an African church. We were only able to stay for about an hour so we were only able to listen to the choirs but it was so nice. I love African gospel music. Just before we left the pastor stood up and recognized us for coming. He called us forward to receive our blessings and he shook our hands. It was quite sweet. He said to the congregation that us visiting them was proof that the church was a holy place. I guess our investigators that we went with told the pastor or somebody else let the pastor know that we were leaving. It was quite interesting that the pastor would recognize us like that, we're just missionaries. We were however the only white people there so that might have been part of it.
Elder Simmonds is such a sweet Elder. On the 27 August 2009 he gave me a holiday, it was Happy Elder Lane Day. He made me breakfast (French Toast) polished my shoes, ironed my shirt, and told me that I could not do my dishes. His service really cheered me up and helped me to be happy. I love my companion.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (24 August 2009)

Well I found out this week that staying in the flat all day is not fun. I’ve stayed in the flat all day before but this time was not fun at all. I was sick and had a fever of 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. I just slept all day except for towards the night when I got up to write in my journal and to do a little study. Going out to work the next day felt so nice. This work truly is a blessing in my life that will carry on when I go home.
We baptized a young man named Ishmael on Sunday. He is so sweet. He has really changed his life over. He was telling us how grateful he was for his grandmother for helping him come to church and change his life. He’s becoming a sweet young man.
As I studied this past week I found a sweet parallel between Christ’s atonement and the Fall of Adam and Eve. Was it good that the Jews killed Christ? No it wasn’t, but it was very important that it happened. Was it good that Adam and Eve ate the Forbidden fruit? No it wasn’t, but it was very important that they did. Also as I prepared for our District Meeting, and delivered it I found something that we find often as we meet new people. For District meeting we read the story of Lamoni found in Alma 18. I think it is in verse 5 where it says that the people believed that they could do whatever they wanted and it was right. Well in the same verse it showed that they didn’t really believe that, or at least Lamoni didn’t because it said he feared lest he had done something wrong. Many times in this work people will say things that they “believe.” It’s not, however, what they really believe it just sounds good therefore they accept it, but when it comes down to it they don’t believe. Like one thing is that everyone says that there is one God and many churches when in reality they have felt at one point in time that there is one that is right. I think I’ve mentioned this before in an email, that people don’t really believe this, they just say it to try and make everyone feel good where they are.
On Saturday we did a Mormon Helping Hands project with some of the other wards in the stake. We helped to improve the state of an orphanage. We paved cement, made a garden painted walls and many other things. It was really sweet to help others especially because I was able to see President Hodgskin and his wife, and also the Sokos. They were some people from my first area in Secunda. It was funny because Sister Hodgskin said that it looked like I lost some weight. It’s probably because we are working so hard here, walking everywhere and having to sleep without eating sometimes. Don’t worry, I’m not dieing, just sometimes there’s more important things than food.
We just got a sweet haircut from some Indian people today. They do a real nice job, and even give you a cool head massage after the job is done and give you a wicked spike. I wish I had these guys my whole mission. It’s only R20, and that’s only like 3 dollars or so. Things get hard sometimes in the work of the Lord but I know that if I turn to Him then He will help. I love my savior, the scriptures are so good to me, and I love my family.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (17 August 2009)

I love my mission. Every week there is something new to learn and to experience. One of our families we are teaching committed to be baptized in the true church if they found out the Book of Mormon is true. They are the Ngqezas. They really feel the spirit as we teach them. They understand well and should be coming to church next Sunday. The mother's name is Yaliwe and the father is Bheki. We will be seeing them tonight to see how they felt when they read and prayed about the Book of Mormon.
We put another person on date as well. His name is Max, and he is Fortunate's younger brother. This past Sunday was his second time coming to church. He committed to be baptized on the 20 September 2009 if he finds out the Book of Mormon and church are true. I think he will be a major help in motivating his sister to come to church. Fortunate has still not come to church once.
Itayi and Memory came to church for their second time. They are stars. Both them and Max are from Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean people are such a humble and spiritually in tune people. I am quite confident that the 3 of them will make their dates. Itayi and Max are friends anyways, they knew each other before we met them. Oh yeah Itayi had a birthday on Saturday. He turned 26. He has never received a present so Elder Simmonds and I put a nice present together for him. He was speechless, he didn't know what to say. Sometimes I'm afraid to give my heart to people because I'm afraid they won't be a part of the Gospel. It's not that they have to become a member for me to be their friend, but it's just not what I'm here for. I'm not here to make friends, but to help people be converted to the gospel.
I had an experience this past Saturday where one of our appointments was not home. It was around 8:20 pm and the thought came to me to call the other Elders to tell them that we were ready to be picked up whenever they were. As I thought though, I realized that that was not right, and I decided we would continue to work. (Elder Simmonds is so sweet because he is pretty much up to anything.) We went to check a guy named Isaac and as we went I saw a house that I was impressed to go to but passed by thinking in my head that we would go after checking Isaac. As we continued to walk I continued to think. I realized that I was prompted at the time I was prompted for a reason and that it was the spirit guiding me, so we turned back. We knocked on the door and a man named Forward welcomed us in. We were able to teach him and his family the Restoration. They accepted it well, were pleased that we came and even set a return appointment. They are in a transition, the wife Norma will be having a child soon. It's interesting how the spirit was ready to guide me when I was ready to do what was right. We must learn to follow promptings otherwise we will never recognize the spirit.
We had a young man named Ishmael interviewed for baptism. He is 17 and lives with his grandmother, Gogo Tembe, who is a member of the church. He can't read so Elder Simmonds and I are doing our best to help him, and he is progressing well in that. He is gaining confidence and is coming out of his shell. He is going to be a great young man. Even before he started coming to church he had made changes in his life for the better. I hope that we would all more perfectly fight to learn gospel truths the way we would fight for air if we were drowning. There is no end to knowledge.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (11 August 2009)

Itayi and Memory, a couple we have been teaching, ran into some troubles this past week. Their Landlord sold their shack they were living in right from under them. He had them move all their stuff out and then the new owner came to take it away. When we went to see them that day, it being Saturday, Memory was sitting on their little sofa outside and Itayi was at the foundation of the shack picking some stuff up from the ground. It was amazing to see the faith they had. They didn’t seem to worry much or even be mad at the landlord.
We had a couple new people at church this past week. Sandra finally came to church, and seemed to really enjoy it. I really think that she will accept a baptismal date soon, and that her husband Arthur will follow her footsteps. Also we had an investigator named Winnie who came to church she also seemed to enjoy her visit.
I’ve found that many times when people are asking stupid questions, and are saying they don’t understand they really do want to understand. We met a family, and the brother to the family, Isaac, seems to be really interested. We visited them twice this week and on the second visit he asked a lot of questions. He had issues with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon focusing on him. We kept telling him that the book was about Christ but he didn’t understand that until I finally had him open it and follow along as I read passages from it. Isaac finally understood and wanted us to come back. He believes that we might be able to help him see the truth, and sees that we are true servants of the Lord. He told us that we are not like other people who will get mad when they ask questions and leave. He goes to an Old Apostolic church with his family. The rest of his family doesn’t really understand English well.
On Tuesday we had Mission Tour and were able to listen to Elder Bricknell speak to us. It was very nice to hear from him. During the conference he asked me to stand up and give a 3 minute lesson 1. I was a little nervous for I was giving it in from of missionaries older and younger than me who already know it themselves. I stubbled a little bit, but was able to punch it hard at the end with the spirit when I actually felt and remember that what I was sharing was the truth. Sister Bricknell told us missionaries that we need to smile more. When we show our smiles people will be more willing to listen to us.
On Sunday we had about half an hour of no appointments so we did some tracting to take up the time. The first house we knock on an old Baba let us in. We shared the Restoration with him. My attitude during that lesson changed from just giving information to trying to help this Baba receive salvation. We committed him to baptism, but he did not accept it at first, he still wanted to ask us questions. We told him that he needed to ask God if this was true and knelt down with him so he would ask. He didn’t but didn’t ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He told us that he didn’t know enough. He wanted something more to read about him so we introduced the Book of Mormon to him. He committed to reading it, and wanted us to come back so we could explain some things to him. We shall see him today. I’m trying my best to keep myself centered around the missionary purpose, and as I do this I find great joy!

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (3 August 2009)

The work goes up and down all the time here for me. Elder Simmonds and I are determined to find Father-Led-Families. This means no more teaching families without the father present. This can be so hard here in South Africa. We find and teach a lot of woman. Many fathers get plastered with alcohol, I guess it's a way they try to escape the poverty. Even many homes are just old Gogos with their daughters and grandchildren. Culture is also a challenge. There is always a funeral on Sunday, and many people believe in their ancestors. The funny thing is that they only believe in ancestors because their parents taught them to believe in them. The second of the ten commandments speaks of the third and forth generations experiencing the effects of false traditions. The scriptures are so true.
We had a wonderful lesson with Arthur and Sandra. We testified of the truthfulness of the Joseph Smith and of the church, and asked Arthur to kneel with us and pray to ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith is a true prophet. He prayed in his language so I'm not sure exactly what he said but both of them felt the spirit. Sandra even said that she felt her heart beat in and out of her chest. She said she didn't know why she felt that way but we were sure to tell her it was the spirit. Arthur said that the way he felt was the reason to why he always enjoys us coming over. They didn't come to church this Sunday, they are too attached to their church. They just have to take that leap of faith and visit our church and they will experience the greatest joy ever. We must go through the darkness before we will be able to see the light.
During my studies this past week my thoughts were brought to one of the baptisms I performed on the 26 July 2009. Her name was Esther, the water was cold and she was having a hard time going under. Just before he last time I baptized her she was telling me that she couldn't do it, she couldn't bring herself back up. I told her that she shouldn't worry for I would bring her back up. I told her that she just has to trust me. As I pondered on this exchange of words I received great insight. We can not do it if we trust in ourselves. We must turn our trust to the Savior. If we do not we will not be able to come back up. Baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true baptism spoken of is Ephesians 4:5. The person performing the baptism must have the authority for they are acting in place of Jesus Christ or under direction of Him to bring the child of God out of the depths of death If there is no authority then it does not work, it is not Christ bringing you up out of the water it is someone else, it is merely a man. I don't know if you got the depth, and power that I felt as I realized how symbolic baptism really is. It was a very spiritual moment for me during that study. I know this church is true.
I had the wonderful experience of interviewing an awesome lady for baptism. When I asked her what made her believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet she began to tell me his story and how he received answers from God. I then clarified my question and asked her, “How do you know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet?” She then told me that she had prayed, and as she explained she began to cry. The tears that fell were tears of joy. She was feeling it once again. She related that she was a little surprised when she got the answer because she had never felt it before, but she was happy. I love my mission and the great people I am able to meet here.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (27 July 2009)
It’s so weird; ever since I came to Daveyton I’ve had some sort of sickness whether it is a soar throat or a runny nose. Something is always bothering me, maybe it’s just because it is winter, I don’t know. My stomach is bothering me right now even as I type, it’s annoying, and I just want to go to sleep so it will go away. This will pass so it’s not that big of a deal don’t worry.
Last Monday we told Peter the prophet that he wasn’t a prophet. He didn’t like that so much but took it pretty well. He still thinks he is a prophet, and still enjoys our visits. As of Sunday he has come to church 3 times in a row. He is on date, but if he doesn’t truly realize he is not a prophet he is not going to be baptized. We can’t have false prophets in the true church.
Enoch and Gloria are still not married, and are not even progressing that well. They haven’t been to church in a while. If something doesn’t change they will not be baptized on the 23 August 2009. They always enjoy our teaching appointments but they just don’t come to church. Maybe we will have to go to their house at 7:00 in the morning and wake them up to come. I don’t know.
Fortunate is one of our investigators from Zimbabwe. We had a really cool visit with her this past week. She hasn’t been to church yet because she lives quite a distance away, has a child, and has asthma. During our visit she asked us if she could go to the Celestial Kingdom if she continued to listen to the truth from us but not come to church. Elder Simmonds used that question to nicely slide into our next discussion, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We told her that through Christ and through following his gospel we could live with God. Fortunate thanked us for the visits and told us that ever since we have been seeing her she has been having a better life.
Arthur continues to slowly ease into the truth. We set an appointment with him on Tuesday. I remembered that he has church things that night so I asked him if it would still be alright because that is the time we set aside for him. He told us if we came then he wouldn’t go to his other churches activity. Even he told us to come early so that we would have enough time to discuss. Sandra his wife knows the Book of Mormon is true and said she will be coming to church next week. Arthur is still praying, I think he has received an answer already he just might not realize it. We read Mormon 8 with him and his older brother Vusi was present. He was asking all these questions and saying the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible. I turned to Arthur and asked him, “From what you have read of the Book of Mormon Arthur have you seen any contradictions?” and he said “no.” That was sweet. I then told Vusi that I wanted to continue with reading the Book of Mormon. The next verses talked about those who condemn the word of God, and the Book of Mormon. Eesh, that was a little weird.
Tony finally came to church with Gogo Lidia. I was so happy when I saw him come. I hope he will continue to come every week. We also had a new investigator come. Her name is Esnath. We have only taught her the first little bit of Lesson 1, and that was probably over 10 days ago, but she still came. We went to walk with her to church and she was boiling water so that she could bath. Later on we saw her enter the chapel, and that was really cool.
We had 7 baptisms for the Daveyton ward this past Sunday; Maria, Sibongile, and Katlego from our side and 4 others from the Zone Leader’s side of town. I baptized Maria and Esther, from the Zone Leader’s side. Esther was a little scared and the water was freezing so it took her a couple times to go under all the way. She is the only one that I have had to re-baptize because of not going under all the way. Also Elder Simmonds had his first baptism ever when he baptized Katlego. He did it perfectly. Things are going great here, it’s just that people don’t progress exactly as I would like. Thank you for reading.
Love,
Elder Lane

Dear Family, (20 July 2009)

Well my new companion is Elder Simmonds from Bountiful, Utah. He is a pretty sweet Elder. Its great training him because he is willing to do things the right way. Also it is a little bit easier to do things the right way with him here. Every morning and night that we have been companions we have prayed together which really brings unity. Missionaries are always praying but I wanted to get in the habit of praying with someone every morning right after awaking and every night just before bed that way I will be more ready for a sweet marriage. Also he is excited for the work, and has righteous desires.
One of our investigators named Vuyiswa was planning to move to Nelspruit. I knew it would not be good for her because she probably wouldn’t be able to stay close to the missionaries up there. There had been several times where she said she would be leaving but then the people never came for her. Well it happened that she told us that on the 16 she would for sure be gone. I prayed one night that she wouldn’t go so that she would be able to keep her baptismal date and continue to progress. She isn’t progressing the fastest that’s why I wanted her to stay. I’m happy to report that she did stay. I told her I prayed that she would stay because I felt it would be best and she was a little mad at me. Hopefully she will be baptized on the 16th of August 2009.
I had a sweet baptismal interview this past week. The baptismal candidate was an older man of the age of around 50. His name is Christopher and he is from Zimbabwe, Ndebele speaking. He has been here since December of last year trying to find a job to provide for his family. He hasn’t found much success in that. He lives in a little shack, isn’t able to pay for electricity and is skipping meals so that his mealie will last him. His spiritual strength is his powerhouse though. We had a reactivation activity on Sunday after church and he came. He’s not even a member and yet he is helping to reactivate the less-actives. He’s been to church ever since the missionaries first found him. He will be baptized on the 26th of July 2009 along with 3 of our investigators, Maria, Sibongile and Katlego.
Our YSA branch just received a new branch mission leader. His name is Dave and he is sweet. He has really been able to get his life on track. He even came teaching with us on Friday. He has a lot of excitement and is ready to help the branch grow. We are going to start scheduling all our YSA investigators on Fridays so that Dave can meet them.
One of our new Father-Led-Families is pretty sweet. The couple is Arthur and Sandra. Sandra told us that before she met us she knew that we were good people. Both of them believe and know the Book of Mormon is true. The only problem is they haven’t had a real strong witness from the Holy Ghost that it is true. They are still a little fixed on their church or at least Arthur is. They are wonderful people. When we tried setting another appointment to see them Arthur said that we could even come the next day. That is one of the greatest things to hear as a missionary, someone inviting you to come everyday. Another couple is Antonio and Angelina. They are struggling a little bit with their old church, the Jehovah’s Witness, but we are still working with them. Just this past night I showed them that their, “perfect,” Bible did not contain all the scriptures that normal Bibles have. When I showed them that, they really started thinking.
It amazes me sometimes how I can do the same thing over and over again every week. It amazes me how I can keep the mission schedule as close as I have been over and over again every day. The Lord truly sets His servants apart and gives them power and authority. I’m living with a very good missionary named Elder Brereton who will be going home in about 4 weeks. To see him increase his efforts as it gets closer to his end helps me to stay on track and to look into the future a little bit. I don’t want to regret not giving it my all. We had sometime waiting for the other missionaries and I didn’t feel so good just waiting. As soon as I thought of my purpose I got up and walked to where people would be passing and tried to talk and share what I could. I am already a reserved person, but I continue to try to share what I can which makes me feel good. Sometimes as missionaries you want to be lazy. We usually get fed after church on Sundays and we always joke about how it’s nap time. When I really think about it napping would not make me happy because it is not fulfilling my purpose. The only way to have true happiness on a mission to is strive your best to fulfilling your calling and “…invite others to come unto Christ.” I love my mission.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (13 July 2009)
It’s so hard writing these things. I have to pick and choose what I tell you guys about because there is always so much that goes on. We received transfer news this past week. Elder Leve is moving on to be a district leader in Bedfordview. His area is Bedfordview/Edenvale. I was called to be a trainer again. I will be getting a new missionary from the Provo MTC. I am quite excited, I hope this time I will really be able to train though. I’m a little overwhelmed just because there are so many things I want to make sure I teach him. Elder Shumpert was called to be the new Assistant to the President. Elder Belnap will be staying in the flat up until October which will probably be when I leave, but we shall see.
We had 16 new investigators this past week. I’ll speak of a few of them. We have a lady named Nthabiseng who we met. She is really cool we met her while following up on someone that we tracted into whom she is friends with. We’ve only seen her twice but she has really opened up to us tell us her problems and issues. We are hoping she will come to church so that we can introduce her to the Bishop. The other investigator I want to talk about is Mzwandile. He is awesome. I guess Elder Leve and Elder Stoker had spoken to him before I got here, and recently he came up to us and asked us why we never saw him. Well we set an appointment with him. He has a drinking problem and smoking problem which is not a secret because he was drunk when we spoke to him; we had the second thought of by passing him, but decided to set a time. He told us he wants to change but he hasn’t been able to get the right help from other churches. As we taught him he told us he was searching for the truth. He was not home for our next appointment so we were a little sad. Later on in the week though we walked by his house and spoke to him briefly. He told us he was reading the Book of Mormon. He told us he read about Joseph Smith seeing Moroni. We asked if he prayed about it and he told us he did and that he believes it is true. Sadly neither of these new investigators were at church.
The rest of Shadracks famly, except for his son, came to church this past Sunday which was awesome. They too only came for the first hour but it’s progress. For some reason Shadrack did not come. A “prophet” who we met on Saturday visited our church today. He is a pretty cool guy. When we found him we found him at a Sangoma’s house. As I started chatting with him he invited us in to share. As we shared he listened intently. We were only able to teach about prophets but he set a return appointment with us. He seemed to really enjoy church. Also we had another Portuguese couple come to church for the first time. They didn’t understand much unless someone spoke in Zulu. I gave the lady, Julia a Portuguese Book of Mormon that I had so that she could have something to understand while sitting at sacrament meeting. It appeared that she read quite a bit of it. All in all we had 8 new people come to church. If people would just come consistently things would be perfect.
We had the best lesson ever with Enoch and Gloria. Bishop Mokoena, the former Bishop, came teaching them with us on Sunday. We taught them about Eternal Marriage. They really want to get married. The only thing stopping them from doing that though is that Enoch does not want to offend Gloria’s family by not paying Lebola for her. He doesn’t have a lot of money for Lebola (like most people here) which is 18 cows. That’s not the set amount but I guess that’s what Gloria’s parents want. Bishop Mokoena was able to speak to them about different things they could do. He even told us he would be willing to help negotiate with the parents. Gloria and Enoch are grown people but this culture thing can be hard. Bishop Mokoena is a marriage officer so he’s had a lot of experience with helping people get past the culture. He is so awesome; he even invited to pick them up for Family Home Evening tonight at his house, and Enoch and Gloria accepted. Bishop Mokoena thanked us for inviting him to come with us. I could see he was excited and happy as I was when I went teaching with the missionaries back home. Missionary Minded Members are awesome. There is great joy awaiting those who are ready to act.
Love,
Elder Lane

Dear Family, (6 July 2009)

This past week we've spent a lot of time teaching which has been really fun. We've had a total of 34 member present lessons. We have actually been tight on time as we've taught. We've had to shorten lessons to make sure we can walk to our next appointment on time. The only exception has been Sunday. We had 7 appointments and 6 of them fell through. I was quite sad. Missionary life is helping me to know what kind of member I want to be when I get home. I see how very important missionary work is. Every aspect of this gospel has to do with it. If every member would act like the missionaries they really are then things would go really well all over the world. I love this service, there is so much to learn.
Our visit with George was quite interesting this past week. A Jehovah's Witness joined us for the lesson, his name is Perry. We actually met him a while back. He was knocking on George's door when we came for our appointment. We knew who Perry was, and I thought I'd just ask him if we could share. He told us there was no point in that. Inspired words then came from my mouth. I told him that there would be a point because either he is going to the right church or we are. We then shared briefly about the Restoration. Perry showed interest in discussing more so we told him he could visit with us again when we came to see George. Well he came on Saturday and just listened as we shared the Plan of Salvation with George. Perry did not say a word, but did open to the Bible verses we shared. After the lesson he said he had question, but he would ask them later when we had more time. We will see Perry again on Friday with George. Maybe we met George because it would be through him we would meet Perry. We shall see.
We met another wonderful Portugues speaking family. They had actually been going to the Jehovah's Witness church but did not seem to know a lot about it. As we shared lesson one working through Nkululeko who could speak with them in Zulu, they felt the spirit. They at first didn't believe but then we were able to explain prophets to them in a simple way in which they could see that they were necesary and important. The father, Antonio prayed about our message and felt really good. He believes the church is true, and so does his wife Angel. We put them along with their 2 daughters on baptismal date. The one is 9 and the other is 7 but will turn 8 by the date. We watched the Restoration dvd with them in Portugues. I didn't really understand the language, but they did and they felt the spirit. It was wonderful though because as we watched I felt the spirit bear powerful witness to me once again that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ and that he is a true prophet who restored Jesus Christ's one and only true church.
Prayers have been answered this past week. Shadrack came to church with his Bible and Book of Mormon in hand. I was so glad to see him. I was a little disappointed thought because I didn't see him after the first class. I never saw him in Sacrament meeting. His progress in the Lord's kingdom is in Heavenly Father's hands. I hope that Shadrack has received an answer to his prayers. We will have to see come Wednesday. Alfred, who is another Portugues speaker came to church as well. We have been teaching him and his wife with the help of Nkululeko. I'm not really sure if it's his wife though. It's hard to tell sometimes here in South Africa. People will live together forever and not be married but call each other husband and wife. Alfred stayed for all of church and said he really liked it. He said he will continue to come and that his wife will come next week as well. We now have 22 on date to be baptized. I'm hoping and praying that, we as a companionship, will be able to help these fine spirits come to church, gain testimonies, and then seal the deal with baptism, and continue faithfully. The Lord's work is not always easy but it is worth it. Let us keep the faith!

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (29 June 2009)

I had quite an interesting learning experience this past week. The part in the white handbook where it says our loyalty is first to the Lord took on new meaning for me. Now that I am a mission leader I realize that just because one is authorized by a mission leader to be able to do something doesn't mean one should do it. I learned this by way of my own mistake. I allowed something which probably shouldn't have been allowed. I felt guilty about it and pondered what I had done. Luckily before we had totally wasted kilometers to go do what I allowed I took back my authorization and felt good in so doing. Loyalty to the Lord.
Enoch and Gloria are progressing well. We taught them about the word of wisdom. When we told them that the Lord commanded us not to drink coffee and tea Gloria slipped out a “woops” and Enoch said that there would no longer be found coffee and tea in his home. When we asked them if they had any they showed us their tea bags. We then asked them if we could throw them away for them and they happily agreed. We all had a good time laughing about their silly sin which they realized was wrong, and which they were so willing to let go.
Elder Leve and I were getting a little worried about Shadrack and his family just because when we tried setting a return appointment with them Shadrack said he would talk to his wife and then let us know. Usually when people do that they mean they don't care to see us again especially when we've only just met them. Well a couple days later as we were doing our work we passed Shadrack's home and he was out replacing a light bulb. We asked him if he had found a time for us to see his family again and thankfully he said we could come Wednesday evening. We shall see what will commence with this family, hopefully good things for we put 2 of them on date for baptism.
We found a couple really nice new investigators this week. We found an old man named George and saw him 3 times. He is an interesting character. He repeats a lot of phrases as we teach to express that he understands. He often says things like “is it!” and “that's right, that's the thing.” It's quite funny. He also raises and lowers his eyebrows too. On Sunday morning we went to pick him up to walk with him to church and he was outside his house preparing to go to the mall. I was a little disappointed but didn't lose all hope. I asked him if he would come to church for just an hour and he agreed to do so. Well George ended up coming and stayed for the whole 3 hours and even stayed an hour after to witness our baptismal service. We was fellowshipped well. One of the old Bishops, Bishop Mokoena sat next to him during Sacrament meeting.
Nkululeko, the recent convert that comes teaching with us everyday is awesome. On Sunday morning he went to Sophie and Queen's home to walk with them to church. They ended up catching taxis to church and paid for Nkululeko to come with them. Queen didn't come because she had to stay home for some reason but another family member who has been present for our lessons with them came. Her name is Betty. During the week when we taught them Sophie told us that she had prayed about the Joseph Smith and that she had felt good about it. These investigators were also fellowshipped well. Sister Mathebula who referred us to them sat with them during Sacrament meeting. The Daveyton ward is so awesome.
We've also been teaching a woman named Simphiwe. We found her through Sibongile and Maria. Simphiwe's daughter is usually present when we teach Sibongile and has come to church often. We finally realized out of all the kids that are present for those lessons that she wasn't a part of the family but just a friend. The friends name is Lusanda and she stays nearby to the Nkhosi family. We taught her mother about the Restoration and she asked good questions. We definitely felt the spirit. When we came for our second visit Simphiwe told us that her and her husband had not intention in joining our church. I just kind of brushed it off and said alright and then we proceeded to watch the Restoration dvd. After watching it Simphiwe said that Joseph Smith was a prophet. The spirit bore witness to her as she watched that it was true. She didn't however know what it meant that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I brought up then how she said she had no intention of join our church and I told her that if Joseph Smith was a true prophet then that means our church is the one and only true church of Jesus Christ. We then committed her to praying about these things again and she agreed to do so. She hadn't before but now she said that she saw the great importance of doing it.
Great things are happening here in Daveyton. I love it. The only downside is the coal smoke that comes from the tile floored, brick walled homes. Daveyton's coal smoke at night is like the fog we sometimes get back home in the mornings or at night time. The only problem is that smoke is not good to breath in, and I maybe getting sick from it. I don't know why it is so bad. I guess they don't know how to burn coal or they are just doing it to make it burn slowly. I don't know but it definitely is not healthy. Thanks for reading.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (22 June 2009)

I want to give you guys a little better idea of what kind of work is going on here. Elder Leve, Elder Belnap, Elder Brereton and I are all working in the Daveyton ward area. Elder Belnap and Brereton have 29 investigators on date for baptism and Elder Leve and I have 10. The Lords work is booming. My ultimate goal here is to have as much success as the Zone Leaders. There is no reason not to for we are working with the same ward and people. One of the things Elder Leve and I have instituted which we have seen the Zone Leaders do is letting people know what’s up from the very beginning. We are putting them on date early on in the teaching process. This helps our investigators see what we are really about and gives them a goal and reason to change their lives.
We had 2 baptisms on Sunday. Faith January and Nombulelo Tshaka were both baptized into the singles branch. I haven’t gotten to know them a whole lot since I’ve been here but I’m pleased to see them get baptized.
There is a rise in missionary work and that rise is a result of working with members. I think that is the ultimate thing that will cause a rise in missionary work actually and it will work anywhere and everywhere. Before it use to just be asking for referrals but now it is becoming more of a team effort. Members are popping up here and there with people to teach. If we will, as missionaries, open our eyes we will see new people right in front of us as we are teaching who are ready to change.
We met a really cool and humble Zimbabwean family who seems just perfect. Their names are Brilliant and Fortunate. They are a referral from Sister Mathebula. (She has also given us another one named Sophie and Queen. I don’t know if I have mentioned them before. If they work out good then you will probably here about them again.) They are not from around here so they didn’t know which church to go to. Luckily we were able to come to their door at their somewhat prolonged time of confusion. Unfortunately they were not able to come to church on Sunday. I think something Elder Leve and I will have to do is set appointments for Saturday to try and get key investigators to church. If we see them on this day then they won’t have a lot of time to forget.
We also started teaching a recent convert’s daughter. The recent convert is Nomsa and the daughter is Minky. For the longest time Minky has not been interested in church. On Sunday though after we had been talking to her she realized that she needed to try and fix things with her mom and just come to church. After she realized that she then told herself that she would come to church because she wanted to, not just because her mom wanted her to. She decided to have a good time at church and she did. This past Sunday was her first time visiting our church and she said she is coming back.
The work here is awesome and I love it. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith that what you have planned will work out. Sometimes it’s hard to get your hopes up about people and to keep it up. Sometimes it’s hard to keep investigators progressing. Sometimes it’s hard to keep a smile and be happy. Sometimes it’s hard, everything, but it’s totally worth it when you see the Lord bring it all together for you.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (15 June 2009)

I'm starting to realize how grand the spirit really is. I'm striving harder to help my investigators feel it at every appointment, and to help them see that they need to feel it on their own as well. We had an experience with a lady named Sibongile. She is a non member sister to one of our recent-converts named Nkululeko. We strived hard to see her even just for a few minutes. After sharing I came to a realization that perhaps you shouldn't just share with anyone at anytime. I wanted to help Sibongile feel the spirit but she was just too preoccupied with time. I wanted her experience with missionaries to be powerful but she just wasn't focussed very much. Oh well perhaps she said she will come around, it's just not her time or maybe something will happen that I don't know. The Spirit is the key.
3 of our investigators came to church for the fist time on Sunday. Enoch and Gloria, a boy friend and girl friend who are living together came for the first time. We were very happy to see them walking towards us in the chapel. They seemed to have a wonderful time. Vuyiswa, a Young Single Adult who lives on Nkululeko's street, also came. Earlier in the week we had put her on baptismal date for the 26 of July. She told us that she felt good feeling when she prayed about Joseph Smith. When she gets baptized there will be 3 YSA from Nkululeko's street who will be members.
Nkululeko is a young man who was just baptized on the 31 May 2009. He is awesome. He practically comes teaching with us all day everyday. He loves it so much, and is learning a lot as he shares the gospel with our investigators. We let him share little things here and there, and if an investigator feels more comfortable speaking Zulu then they will talk to him, and he will tell us what's up. Members are just a great asset to the work. Do you guys remember the guy in the wheel chair named Michael? I'm pretty sure I wrote about him. Well we taught him this past week and he ate up every part of the Restoration that we fed him. He sees the confusion and desires to know more.
We knocked on a sweet door on Saturday. We thought it was a friend of Nkululeko's but it wasn't, it was better. The home was a home of a Methodist father and his family. The father's name is Shadrack. He can't speak very well because he had his voice box removed because of cancer. When we told him that we were missionaries he let us right in. We asked his daughter, Busi if she wanted to join us but she said no. As Shadrack went to grab his Bible I thought to myself "This can be a Father-Led-Family, let me try Busi again." I went back to where Busi was watching t.v. and told her that we would love for her to join us. I also told her we wouldn't be long. She then decided to join us. It was so awesome. Shadrack is a very smart man. He saw the need for prophets, and for the true church. He told us that he knew a lot about our church, and that his twin brother had been going to our church but other then that we don't know too much about his back ground with the church. I'd really like to know what's going on in his brain and spirit. He and Busi both understood and accepted to pray about Joseph Smith. When we finished Shadrack told us with his small raspy voice that he was pleased. As Nkululeko, Elder Leve and I bore testimony of the Restoration we could feel the spirit present.
We have 3 more put on date this week so that makes 9 in total. If we get all these ones baptized by the end of August then that means we will only need to find and baptize 8 more people to make our goal of 20 baptisms by the end of August. I'm very excited for we already have potential for baptismal date such as Enoch and Gloria. The culture and traditions can be a hard wall for the gospel in peoples lifes. In African culture you need to pay Lebola if you want to get married. The man will need to give money or cows to the woman's family before he can marry her and if he doesn't then it is a shame. That is the barrier that Enoch and Gloria are facing. When you have many people living in poor conditions it can take years before someone can save enough money. That could be the reason for some of the troubles here in Africa, I don't know. Well truly the Spirit is the key, and I am learning to use it upon the hearts of the people more. I love it. This church is so true, I feel it many times when I teach about it.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (8 June 2009)

It's been a little weird going into another area after being in Dobsonville for 7 months. I am once again in a 4 man flat. We are living with the Zone leaders. We work in the same town, Daveyton. The Zone leaders are using a car and Elder Leve and I are on bikes. If I stay here for 3 transfers then I will have been in a biking area for 17 months. That is pretty crazy for being in a mission that has more cars than any other mission in the world. Our section of Daveyton is a little slow compared to my last area and way slow for some reason compared to the Zone Leaders area. They have 27 people on date for baptism. We have 7. They had 15 at church and we had 5. Our area covers a singles branch and a family ward. The ward is quite big, the biggest I have worked in here in South Africa. I am quite excited to see what I can do to help this area improve. Elder Leve is a pretty cool guy. He's been out for about 11 months now. This is his second area. He is from Tennessee. We get along well now, and I'm sure it will continue, he's a hard worker.
We met a Father-Led-Family the end of this week. The family had been meeting with the Jehovah's witnesses for a couple months. We were welcomed in the house because we were actually looking for the son. When we asked the mother if we could share she denied us. She said she had a fight with her neighbor or something. I sat down and just made myself comfortable. I told the mother that she needed us to share with her so she could feel better. She eventually let us. We read 3 Nephi 11 with them and explained the story to them. They listened intently. I could see in their face that they were feeling the spirit. The mother said she was confused because she hadn't heard of Christ going to America, but she wasn't being argumentative about it. They asked some questions and we were able to show them from the Bible that Christ spoke of other sheep that he would visit. The family, mother, father, and a granddaughter all accepted what we taught. We asked them to pray about the Book of Mormon and they said they would. The mother, Tryphina, said she would pray that night. This place has a lot of potential.
Alright I forgot to tell a story from Dobsonville last week. We were teaching a woman named Dimakatso for the second time. As we were about to share the Book of Mormon she told us that she didn't want to hear learn about it. She didn't even want to hear about Joseph Smith anymore. All she wanted to hear about was Jesus and the Bible. We came to share about the truth, not just the Bible so we were getting ready to leave. We were getting a little frustrated too with her childish arguments so we decided to closed with a prayer. As Elder Rajohanesa closed with a pray I had the spirit speak to me. It was telling me to just share the Bible with her. As this thought came to me I fought it a little in my head saying, “What if I can't help her understand. What if I won't be able to find the scriptures she needs.” We had run into a lady before who just wanted to hear the Bible and so we left her with a prayer as well. I remember leaving her place and thinking we should have just shared the Bible with her if that's what she wants. Well this time I wasn't going to have that feeling again. When Elder Rajohanesa closed his prayer I said out loud, “Well actually we'll share the Bible if that's what you want.” My object in sharing the Bible was to help her understand Christ's ministry, the need for authority, and the apostasy better. If she didn't want to hear about the Book of Mormon then obviously she didn't understand the other things. As I read the truths plainly found in the Bible she saw that things made sense. She even admitted to us that she was confused about all the churches. She agreed to having us over again. She wanted us to teach her how to pray. I don't know how it's going with her now. The last time I saw her was the appointment we had after that visit, and she wasn't even able to see us that day anyway. Have faith, work hard, and follow the spirit and you will be happy. A missionary can not get discouraged, there is no time for that and plus it sucks when you get discouraged anyway. Faith is the answer, and being happy is the answer. I know this work is true!

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (1 June 2009)

Well this week has been pretty exciting. Samuel, who has quit smoking for a while, told us this past week of how he has faced temptations. He spoke of one time how one of his friends offered him a cigarette and he had to tell him he quit. Another time just out side a store someone I guess had dropped a full packet of cigarettes. He was tempted to take it but walked past it. Then he thought and went back for it. He took it gave it to his friend Ronny, because he smokes. Not what I would have done but he didn’t smoke them which is important. He also had an experience where he was reading the news paper at work and a co-worker of his said something to him and gave him something in his hand. When Samuel realized what it was he was a little frightened. He threw the cigarette on the ground and crushed it. Samuel is power; he and his wife were baptized this last Sunday.
We had quite a scare this weekend. Our chapel has not had water for about 2 weeks now and we thought it would be back by this past weekend but it wasn’t. We were having doubt about our baptisms. Some people were saying just postpone it. Baptisms are what missionaries live for you can’t just postpone it for a silly reason like that. Of course their needs to be water but we were not going to let this happen. We were to have 5 people baptized. Well like I said there was some doubt, and I even was about to fall into tears for fear that the baptism would not take place. We were worried almost all Saturday trying to figure out what we would do. Luckily I had some faith in me and I brought myself to my knees. I prayed vocally in the chapel that the Lord would help us. Well eventually a neighbor to the church which we were waiting for came home. We asked her if we could use her water to fill our font for a baptism and to answer my prayer she was very willing. We rounded up a couple hoses and took them through the church into the font. It took about 3 hours to fill but it was worth it. We thanked the lady who was not home at the time we finished by giving her a Book of Mormon and a baptismal program. On Sunday morning we received an sms (an sms is what they call a text message) from her thanking us for the book. The baptism was wonderful and all 5 candidates were baptized. Heavenly Father does hear and answer prayers. He did for me and because of that we were able to reach our monthly goal of baptisms for the month of May.
Transfer news came this weekend. President Poulsen called me early Friday morning to give me a new assignment. I will be serving in the Daveyton District as District Leader, in the Benoni Zone. My new companion is Elder Leve. Daveyton is another strong township area. In the call President expressed his hope for me and my new companion to continue the great work which is already taking place there. I’m a little scared about being a District Leader but am confident the Lord will help me do what He has called me to do. Also this Sunday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. It was quite amazing because this was the first time I wasn’t so nervous. Surprisingly there was little fear as I got up to share what I had prayed about sharing with the Dobsonville ward. I spoke about baptism. I hope their hearts were touched. Missionary work is such a pleasure. I hope by next week I’ll be able to share wonderful things about Daveyton. It’s a little funny because I had actually spent the night in the Daveyton flat back when I was in my first area.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (25 May 2009)

All I have to say for this week is 21. Nope I didn't turn 21, not yet. Nope I wasn't robbed of 21 rands. Yes you guessed it. We had 21 investigators at church this week. It was very nice. In Gospel Principles class we had a little over 10 people. I don't know if we will have this many next Sunday, but it felt great. You always feel good when the people you've been teaching in their homes come to church. Out of the 21 one 7 of them came for the first time. One of them was Dorothy. During the week I made a deal with her that if she would come to our church we would go to a church meeting of her's this upcoming Tuesday. I wasn't sure if she was really going to come, but she did. She came with the Mokoena family, who are her neighbors.
We were able to do some street contacting to and from appointments. This bore the great fruit of a Father-led-family that we were able to teach this week. They were very pleased to hear from us and will be seeing us again next week. For many people here in the township it's hard for them to grasp the concept of only one true church. Even when we tell them about Joseph Smith and the Restoration they don't totally soak it in. People will always tell us, "I believe that their is one God and many churches." or they'll say "We are all praying to the same God." Nevertheless we are striving to be patient and help these people internalize what we are teaching.
Godfrey is still doing well. He continues to follow the commandments we teach him. He promised he would come to church the 31st of May so we shall see. Hopefully the Spirit will really work it's magic and Godfrey will be able to follow that Light of Christ which leads all mankind to the truth. We contacted a woman named Irene. We were really looking for her daughter, Refilwe, but she wasn't home. When I asked Irene if we could teach her she said, "I'm busy." that's the common excuse. I asked her what she was busy with and she said the laundry. She was just standing there so I asked her, "Are you just busy watching your laundry drying." for it was laying across the wall. She said no that she had some more. We offered to help and she told us that she didn't believe us. Elder Cunico and I proceeded to walk through the gate, go to her washing and wash. Elder Cunico and I were on exchanges that day. Irene was both suprized and happy for our service. She said she would visit our church. I am going to give her a call later today to set an appointment.
We also met a woman named Nunu, and her niece Keleilwe this past week. As we shared the Plan of Salvation from the Book of Mormon Nunu noticed that it had a lot of good information. She saw that it answered questions of the soul, and even wanted to have one. We let her borrow the one we were going to give her so that she would read it. Both of Nunu and Keleilwe along with a friend of theirs came to church, and they came nice and early. Many of the members here come late. We don't start until about 10 past 9:00am usually or somewhere around there. After sacrament we get a flow of people coming in as the doors are opened. People run on African time here, and African time can be really really late sometimes. It was funny this time because for the first couple of minutes as I sat in the chapel I saw more of our investigators than I saw members.
Scripture study as a missionary is wonderful. I was just studying today in 3 Nephi. I read chapter 6. When I read verse 29 this thought came into my mind, "Truly this Earth is a trial and a testing period. The laws and justice which man establish here are not infinite, they can be broken. The justice and laws in heaven however are infinite, and will not and cannot be broken." There are a couple things to learn from this. One is that Christ's atonement works under laws; laws that cannot be broken, laws that demand our repentance if He is going to be able to cleanse us. I also get some of this from Helaman 5, and actually it all over the scriptures. This is just a little of the thoughts I've had during my studies of the scriptures this week. Let us all repent and turn unto Christ, for if we repent, then we can be forgiven and eventually return to live with our Father.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (18 May 2009)

Another week has come and gone. Oh how time flies. This last week I expressed this to the other Elders in the flat by stating that it was a week since our last district meeting. Elder Fowles, the youngest, finding my statement to be quite obvious, replied with “yeah and it’s over 19 and a half years since I was born. When I am teaching I am happy and times slips by.
Godfrey (I found out that I’ve been spelling his name wrong) is quite a cool guy. Ever since we taught him the Word of Wisdom he has given up his coffee that he used to drink. We also recently taught him about the Law of Chastity and he said that he would stop doing those things which he now knows are in violation of God’s commandments. The only problem with Godfrey is getting him to leave his other church and come to ours. He’s planning to visit on the 31st of May which will be really good because we will be having a baptismal service that Sunday. Hopefully he will feel the spirit so strongly that he will gain a testimony that truly this is the church and this is where God wants him to be.
Another of our fairly new investigators is progressing quite well. This past week she told us that she felt the stirrings inside when she prayed about the Book of Mormon. She said that she had tears. You can imagine the excitement then that Elder Rajohanesa and I had when we saw her come to church for the first time this Sunday. Her name is Thoko and she is awesome. We reviewed the Plan of Salvation with her by making a diagram for her and when we asked her questions about it she was able to remember what we had taught her previously. She has a daughter of about 18 years old and a son of 11 years old who will probably in the short future be following their mother’s example.
Also this week we were able to find unplanned opportunities to serve. As we were traveling from one destination to another we found a family move some bricks in their yard. When we offered to help the daughter, Sihle quickly replied with “yes!” As we came into the yard getting ready to work the mother Madube asked “how much?” She was expecting that we wanted money for our services but we told her for free. Many people here in South Africa go around looking for what they call peace jobs. They don’t have jobs so they offer services to do little projects for people. This family was very thankful for our little service that we provided for them. We started chatting to them about the church for that is why we give service, to find opportunities to offer salvation to people. They told us of their church that they go to, and we told them that ours was just near by. They then told us that they would come visit ours because it is closer. The mother asked us for our numbers so that she could call us in the future. They did and gave us more specifics on when they would be visiting our church. They told us they would come next Sunday. Families are popping out of nowhere and they are blessings of God giving to earnestly seeking missionaries. They are given to us, and we to them so that our joy might be more perfect.
We had 2 of our hopefully 7 people on baptismal date for the 31st of May interviewed for baptism. Both passed and seem happy. One is a young man named Vuyo. He will be the only member in his family. He has been coming for well over a year with another family who are members. Vuyo lives with his parents, an older brother, and a younger sister. Hopefully when they come to their son and brother’s baptism they will feel the spirit and desire to learn more from us, the missionaries. I hope you find joy in these emails. I sure do enjoy the letters that I receive from friends and family on mission as well. It is so great to hear about their experiences and growth. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family (11 May 2009)

This week has been quite exciting. We've found a few new investigators who seem to be looking for the truth. Two of them are brothers, Xolani and Nqaba. They both had lots of questions and were trying to see if we knew our stuff. We were able to leave them with powerful statements of truth which I'm sure pierced them to some effect by the Holy Spirit. Xolani is looking for a church to join. I'm glad we came to him before he had made a choice. Both Xolani and Nqaba desire us back this upcoming week. Xolani was actually a referral from a member who came teaching with us that day. Godfree who I have mentioned before is doing well. We promised him that he would feel something different at our church if he came and have great joy. He then stated that he would have to come then if we were going to promise him such things. This is where faith in God really comes in. I need to really believe that God is going to help Godfree to feel the spirit if I make that kind of a promise. We also testified to him that he needed to seriously inquire of the Lord as to whether what we have been sharing with him is true. He committed to doing so.
Samuel is amazing. In Preach My Gospel there is a list of things you can do to help people overcome addictions. We went through this list and spoke with Samuel about the cons of smoking and the pros of quitting. We wrote this list on a piece of paper. We also created this statement and put it below the list: "As of tonight I will never smoke again in my life." We had him sign and date it and put it up on a wall where he could see it. We also had him put a little picture of Christ right by it. Since that night he has never smoked. If you want to keep God's commandments and are converted then you can do anything through Christ.
Our mission president, President Poulsen, is awesome. At our last Zone Conference he had us make goals for our next upcoming 4 months. On Thursday during our planning Elder Rajohanesa and I set goals. Our goals for these upcoming months are more then our last 4 months. The beginning 4 months of this year we had a goal of 18 baptism. These next months though we set a goal for 21 baptism. This goal is more inspired then the last I can say. We really prayed about it and even prayed at certain times of our planning for the individuals we had planned to be baptized. We asked the Lord if these people would be baptized the date we had planned. We received feels towards the different plans we set. We planned 5 baptism for May, 6 for June, 5 for July, and 5 for August. We didn't just set goals though, we even made specific plans as to how we were going to accomplish them. We drive about 10-15 km to our area each day, I'm not sure exactly how much it is but we do drive a distance. Elder Rajohanesa and I decided to start setting appointments for 8:00pm in the evening which we don't usually do. We also have started talking to more people to and from appointments and activities. Another thing we've initiating is the Book of Mormon Loan program. We've done this amongst the members and have had them loan the Book of Mormon to friends.
Happy Mother's day Mom, and all you other mothers. Sorry you get under appreciated sometimes, you truly are of great worth. A challenge to everyone I'd like to give is to say thank you more to your mothers and to show that you really appreciate them. Hymn number 292 is a great hymn to ponder during this recognition of Mothers. A member of the South-East Africa area presidency joined us for our Sacrament meeting on Sunday. He briefly spoke about and quoted the last 2 verses of this hymn. He expressed the importance of going to the temple to be married under Gods authority for time and for all eternity. He also made it a point to say that man and woman are equal; they are a partnership. Women are so very important. A man can not kneel at the altar alone. A man can not gain exaltation alone. The temple is truly the House of the Lord where He dwells. I have another challenge for everyone. Go to the temple if you have not recently been. By recent, I mean a month. You will receive great strength to withstand the evil one and stay steady on the straight and narrow path which leads to our Father in Heaven. Ok this last paragraph wasn't written very well, but I hope you understand.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (4 May 2009)

On Monday this past week we had quite an awesome experience. Elder Rajohanesa and I were able to teach a really cool Father-Led-Family. The family was a father, a mother and their 20 year old twin daughters. We were a little intimidated at first just because we aren’t usually able to teach families with the fathers there. The father’s name was Lucky and he seemed like he knew his stuff, and was a great leader of the home. As we taught he added some of his own thoughts as we asked for them. We got less fearful the more we were able to get to know the father and the family as a whole. The one daughter named Lucy has actually been able to come to church a couple times throughout the year. The mothers name is Violet and she told us of some of her dreams that seems as though they may have come from God. Elder Rajohanesa taught Joseph Smith’s history and related how some of the pastors of Joseph’s time may have taught that it didn’t matter which church you went to just so long as it suited you. As Elder Raj. taught this Violet made the comment that she believes the same thing. When we told the family that this is not how God would have it and told them that our Heavenly Father has one church which He recognizes Violet confessed. She told us that she hadn’t been to church in a while and that she wasn’t going because she often had the question of which one do I go to. Deep down inside Violet knew there had to be one that was right for everyone but because she didn’t know which one that was she went with the common misconception of the world today, “just believe in Jesus whichever way suits you.”
Sipho is doing great! We found out that he has been smoking for 32 years and that this was his first attempt to quit. He has done it; he hasn’t smoked since we first fasted with him which was about 10 days ago. He says that he doesn’t even feel the craving or desire when those around him are smoking and drinking. He’s been fasting for Motlalepula, and this week even asked us if he could fast for his brother that smokes and drinks. We told him that he could definitely do that.
This past week we had some time where not all of our appointments followed through. As we pondered what we should do, (because of a lack of well planned back-up plans which can be a struggle for me sometimes.) I said a little prayer in my heart that we would do what the Lord wanted us to do. As we tried some of our options I was determined to visit an old investigator of ours, Gomza. He was not home but Angie was. Angie has often sat in on our discussions but we had never actually been for her. We decided that day that it didn’t matter that Gomza wasn’t there we were going to teach Angie instead. Angie turned out to be a very good investigator. She had good questions. When I committed her to baptism she said she would be baptized if she found out that what we shared was true. I’m sure that she will make it for she was the one whom the Lord wanted us to teach at that time. He truly does guide His missionaries if they will but turn to Him.
This Saturday we had a wonderful Zone Conference, it was powerful. We listened to a clip of a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christoffersen. He spoke about our missionary purpose which is to:

“Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”
He taught how missionaries should be driven by this purpose, and how it should burn within them. He spoke of the purpose and the missionary program not as a program but as a cause. We, missionaries, are a part of the greatest cause in the universe. That is the cause of truth, and peace; the cause of Christ. We are not offering merely information, but we are offering salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m striving more to have this purpose burn within me.
President Poulsen presented a new program that we as missionaries should try. It’s called the Book of Mormon loan program. I even want to challenge all of you who are reading this to do it. Take a Book of Mormon and offer to loan it to a family member, friend, or neighbor. Tell them that it is a book that you have read and enjoyed and that you want them to read it and tell you what they think. Give them a time frame where you will pick the book back up from them so they get a sense of urgency. When you pick the book up follow-up and ask them how they liked it. For any of you who have not read the Book of Mormon I challenge you to get a hold of one and read it. It is a life changing book about our Savior and His ministry to His children in the American continents centuries ago. I love you all, and hope that you can find joy in the challenge issued.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (27 April 2009)

This week has been a lot of fun. The work is going so well. Two of our investigators who have been smoking for years were able to quit. It was Brother Stephen Mogodi, and Sipho. We decided that we would fast with them so that they might be able to cut the addiction. On Sunday after Gospel Principles class Sipho had to leave. I asked him how the fast went. He told me that he did it for the full 24 hours even though Motlalepula didn’t, who we were also fasting for. I then asked him the big question, if he was able to not smoke during that time as well. He said he did it. That brought so much joy to my soul. I got a little teary eyed and just embraced him on the shoulder and said to him, that’s great Sipho, that’s great. Sometimes it’s hard to follow up with investigators because you are afraid that they failed or did not accomplish that which you desired them to do, but it is always necessary.
Another really cool event happened this week. We committed Samuel and his wife, Nhlanhla, to be baptized on the 31 May 2009. We gave them that commitment on Friday. They were a little unsure about it, and so we told them to pray about it. At our next appointment which was on Sunday we asked them again if they would be baptized that date, and they both agreed. Nhlanhla told us that they had discussed it as a couple and decided that there was no reason to post-pone. I think the real thing that was holding them back was smoking. Samuel I guess realized that he can quit by that date. He’s already gotten alcohol out of his life, I’m sure he can get smoking out as well.
We met a couple of cool new investigators recently. One’s name is Godfree. He lives by himself in an outside room of a home. We taught him about the Restoration and told him about Joseph Smith. He read the Book of Mormon and told us that he doesn’t have any doubt whether it is true or not. He believes it is true. The only problem is that he doesn’t fully understand what it means to know that the Book of Mormon is true. We explained to him that it means that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church of Jesus Christ on the earth. He’s not ready to leave his church right now but hopefully he will come around as we continue to teach him.
Well this one was quite short but it was sweet. Elder Hasina Andriamanafaka Rajohanesa and I are really hoping for more and more fruits to pick as we diligently serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all. Thanks for reading.

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (20 April 2009)

This past wednesday was really awesome. We had 8 appointments scheduled throughout the day and each one of them were kept. I can see this in the short future for each area and for everyday, where missionaries are just here to teach and that's it. That would be a wonderful thing fot that would mean that members are really magnifying their calling as member missionaries.
We received transfer news this Saturday. I found out that I am staying in Dobsonvillle for another transfer. How wnderful is that! Knowing that this place of Dobsonville is going to be my home for atleast another 6 weeks makes me really want to work hard to help this area grow in membership and unity. I'm sure President Poulsen expects good things from this companionship that is why he is letting us stay together for 3 transfers.
Here in South Africa they have what they call Sangomas, which are traditional healers. Another more negative name for them can be "witch doctors." They talk to ancestors and throw bones to be able to tell you your future and fix your problems. When a person is to become a Sangoma it is because they think their ancestors are calling them to be one. Noluthando, one of our investigators thinks she needs to be a Sangoma for this very reason, especially because her mother was one before she passed away. We let her know that these things are just traditions and she does not have to do it if she doesn't want to. I later asked her if she was going to be one and she said no. Noluthando is a great listener. Whenever we teach she is attentive and is able to relate to us what she has learned after we are done teaching.
On Sunday we had a wonderful stake conference. Our stake president, President Mkhabela, spoke about unity and how when a people are united they can do anything. He related the 9/11 event to unity and how the United States delt with it in great unity. He talked about patriotism not only of ones country but of the faith. He helped me relize that I am not just representing Jesus Christ here in South Africa but I am representing my country, my home and my friends and family. President Mkhabela is truly called of God to lead the people of the Soweto Stake of Zion.
William W. Parmley, Of the Sevent, was also a speaker at our conference. In his talk he posed a question, answered it, and explained it. He stated that this question is a question that almost every Latter-day Saint will be asked. The question was "what makes your church different from all the other Christian churches?" He instructed, or suggested that we answer that question by saying, "Ours is the restored church." He then explained the apostasy and restoration beautifully. One point he brought up that I really liked was that clearly the Apostles were determined to keep 12 Apostles on the earth. This is why Paul, Barnabas, James and Matthias were all called. Where is the unbroken chain of Apostleship which was intended to be? There is none for all the Apostles were killed, that is why Heavenly Father did restore it to a young man named Joseph Smith by whom also He restored His church.
Stake conference truly was wonderful. President Parmley and his wife spoke on the Saturday session about our living prophet, Thomas S. Monson. They told many miraculous stories of how President Monson was concerned for the one and went to help. As they spoke about our dear prophet I received a strong conviction that the prophet Thomas S. Monson is the true and living prophet of the world, given to testify and exemplify our Savior. I know that this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the one and only true church of our Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Lane

(13 April 2009)

2009-04-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, (13 April 2009)
I hope that everyone had a good Friday and a happy Easter. Almost everyone here goes to church on Friday. I find it a little weird how everyone calls it Good Friday. What exactly do they mean? I mean The Savior did not have a good Friday all those many years ago. The real good part was that He lived again, and he lives now. I don’t know, it is a wonderful occasion though where we get to remember our savior even more. It’s pretty crazy to think about but I will not have anymore Easters here in South Africa.
We had a pretty sad occurrence happen this week. We received a really good referral from some other missionaries but once we spoke to the referrals father he didn’t want us to have anything to do with his family. He said don’t come near my family. We tried a couple different times to get him to understand but he thought he knew better. We only spoke to him on the phone, but it really hurt to get rejected like that. I didn’t feel like I was human, I felt lower than dirt. I was reminded of a couple scriptures “woe unto men who are learned for they think they are wise.” And also the one found in Matthew 7 “beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves.” This guy was a pastor and thought he knew about our church. He had been taught his whole life false doctrine and therefore he thought it was right. Just because a belief or practice has been done for a long time doesn’t mean it is right or best. Well I forgive him and hope that one day he will repent.
We were able to follow up with 2 families with the talk about program that we did with them. We filled out a family mission plan with each family which the mission provided. The Mtshali family made a plan to have Family Home Evening with some of their neighbors and invite us the missionaries over to share some things. The other family, the Mokgabudis, made a plan and set appointments with their neighbors for us to come over and share the Restored Gospel. The Talk About program really works, and I am looking forward to working more with these families and their neighbors.
We taught Samuel and his family again this week. Samuel and Inocencia are doing really well. Again, Samuel’s mother and siblings are members but he is not, and only his 10 year old son in his family is a member. Samuel and Inocencia proudly told us that Samuel has been off alcohol for 3 months. Also Samuel is really taking to heart what we teach. A couple Sundays ago I taught the Gospel Principles class about Faith. I gave them an example, it is as follows: The Savior is on one side of a great pit and we are on the other side. He is calling to us to come to Him and we are praying to God that we can be with Him. Christ then gives us the commandments or stepping stones to get to him. If we do not follow and take the steps then our prayers are in vain because of ourselves. They all came to church again this week; I was very pleased to see them.
It’s nearing my time to leave Soweto. I don’t want to go. I really love these people and am excited about the new people we have found.
We had a very powerful baptism this past Sunday, 2 young single adults friends were baptized together. It was wonderful. Their names are Tebogo and Samukelisiwe. I was privileged to perform both baptisms. Tebogo’s mother came who is not a member but I’m sure she felt the spirit bear witness to her that what her daughter had taken part in was real and true. As Tebogo came out of the water she was smiling and as she was coming out of the font she was laughing and saying how good she felt. She wasn’t even exactly sure why she felt so good. I know that it was the spirit bearing witness to them that they had not just gone under water to join another church but they had entered into a covenant to serve God, and by doing so they became daughters of God and had entered His kingdom here on Earth. Baptismal services always bring a great weight on my shoulders and I feel a lot of pressure. I am glad it went well and that the pressure is now gone. I also look forward to having more pressure and more relief as my mission goes on for this is what brings great joy. God stretches you and then you are able to form into that stretch, this is how we grow. If you never do anything hard then you will always stay the same. There is so much to write about but so little time. Thank you for reading.
Love,
Elder Lane

Dear Family, (6 April 2009)

Finding people goes quite well when you have the spirit. Whenever it’s time to go tracting or try finding people to teach it can be hard to start. You can be unsure where to start, who to talk to, and what to say. You can be a little scared. Once you get started though it goes well, especially when you have faith. In my first 2 areas, Secunda and Alberton there was a lot of tracting and find, and it was everyday. When you have to find everyday and it becomes routine it can be very hard to have the spirit. I am finding though that here in Dobsonville where the work goes well I am able to have more faith as I find because we are not doing it all the time. I’m not saying that’s the way it should be but it is just something that I have noticed about myself. When you go out all day trying to find people and everyone shuts you down it’s hard to have faith. In finding people to teach you should always have faith and you should try to teach everyone you come across with the end in mind. I’ve been able to do more of this, and really try harder to let people know what the truth is. I give up less easily. I hope that if I go back to a more hardened people I will be able to carry this faith to find each day, even if it will be everyday all the time.
One of our investigators has a problem with smoking. I think I’ve mentioned her before. Her name is Motlalepula. Well this past week we bought her and her uncle some sweets to eat instead of smoking. Motlalepula told us that she didn’t think we were this serious. When she saw that we had sacrificed some money to help her she saw more of the importance to quit, and now she had more of a motivation (She didn’t want to waste our money) Her uncle, Sipho came to church for the first time this week which was really cool. He is progressing well; they even both said that the sweets were helping them a little.
On Monday we had Family Home Evening with a member and her sister’s family. The member’s name is Sarah Thoahlane, and she came from Bloemfontein to visit. Her sister’s name is Elizabeth. When we came to teach FHE she didn’t seem too excited, she is a Born Again Christian. She even seemed a little opposing to what we shared; she didn’t think it was appropriate for the whole family even though it was a General Conference address that is given to our church as a whole. On Friday we stopped by to say hi, Elizabeth was sick. We found out that she had actually been sick for a couple weeks, and that she was probably sick when we taught her on Monday, and that might have been the cause of her attitude. Elder Rajohanesa was impressed to pray for her. We then told her we hoped she would get better and we left. The day after, on Saturday we heard a cry from a taxi as it drove by. It was Elizabeth, her countenance was totally changed. She was going out of her way to say hi and seemed pleased to see us out and about. She said something to the effect that she would see us during the week. She seemed to have a different attitude towards us after we saw her that Friday. I hope we can continue to gain her trust.
General Conference was this past weekend and it was wonderful. I was filled with the spirit. I especially liked what one of the speakers said about Family Home Evening. He said that it was holy. When I heard this I likened it unto the Sabbath day which is also holy. When he spoke I felt that FHE was something which needed to be observed at all costs. As the Prophet spoke during Conference this thought came into my mind, “It has been easy for me to follow Christ most of my life. Would I still follow him if it was hard?” I was then reminded of the covenant I enter with Him when I was baptized. I promised Him I would take upon me His name, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. I must follow Him when it gets hard. I must follow Him always. I believe, and hope that I can be strong no matter what happens in my life. Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave a wonderful talk on covenants I recommend listening to it.
I am learning so much in this service and I am becoming Someone, I am becoming as Christ is, and so should all of us. Serving a mission is a dream come true. Happy Birthday to our Savior and to the Restoration of His church!

Love,

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (31 March 2009)
Sorry I did not write yesterday, circumstances prevented me from doing so. Missionary life is so wonderful. One of our investigators named Miriam was having some troubles with the first of the 10 Commandments; Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. We told her that this included worshipping and praying to ancestors. She had a very tough time with that and told us that she couldn’t give certain things up because it was her culture. She told us she was raised in her culture and that she would die in her culture. It seemed as though we had a major barrier in front of us. Well a couple days later her daughter went on a temple trip with the primary and this brought up the conversation of work for the dead. We felt the spirit strongly as we shared about ancestral work. I believe this helped Miriam to understand the commandment more and what was good and what wasn’t. This can be a problem here amongst the Africans. Their culture is their culture.
We had a similar encounter with another of our investigators. He was also brought to the topic of work for the dead. He was reading the Family Guide Book, and came across ordinances for the dead. This man’s name is Sifiso Nhlapo, and his wife is a member. He had a lot of questions about it. We answered him the best we could. It was nice talking to him about this topic though because he made the connection more easily. He saw that his tradition’[s and culture were as he put it “demonized from the truth.” I then proceeded to tell him that all beliefs and religions branched off of the truth at some point, so each belief has similarities to the truth but they are altered and not correct. Sifiso was very excited to see the truth, and how it related a little to his old ways.
Elder Rajohanesa and I had a wonderful exchange this Sunday. He complimented me on a Gospel Principles class taught well. As I thought a little bit on the compliment he gave me I realized that the night before I had prayed that I would teach a good lesson. I even prayed that I would be able to teach like Elder Rajohanesa, for he is a great Gospel Principles teacher. I told him that, I said, “you want to know why it was so good, it was because I prayed that I would be able to teach like you.” The Dobsonville Ward, and area are going very well, and I think it is because of our great comanionship unity. Just the other day we had Bro. Mtshali, Elder’s Quorum instructor, request that we come to his home and get referrals from him. I was so pleased to hear a member requesting that, it is a wonderful thing. I’m continuing to fast for our goals and we are receiving help. We had received news from some other missionaries that an investigator of there’s who is on date has moved into our area. It is great stuff.
We had Zone Conference this past week on Wednesday, and as always it was very helpful. President Poulsen has a saying that he always says. It is “if you always do what you’ve always done then you’ll always get what you’ve always had.” I really like that saying. It helps you see that if you want to do better and receive increasing results then you have to find more and better ways to do them. I recently enjoyed Matthew 11:29-30. The reference may be off a little but it is the scripture that talks about the Saviors yoke, and how his way is easy. Truly if you take Christ’s yoke upon you then you will be able to get things done, and life will be easier and happier. Thank you all very much for reading.
Love,
Elder Lane
Dear Family, (23 March 2009)

Last Monday after email I found out that an investigator of mine was baptized from my first area, Secunda. Elder Yarrington and I found him tracting. His name is Martin Mabaso, and he was baptized last month some time. I was so happy to hear that another person that I found was baptized. This brings great joy to my soul. When I think back to our meetings with Martin they were very good. He had a true desire to learn. He was a busy man so it was hard for us to see him on a regular basis. When I was there he only came to church once, and it was after church was over. He came in his work clothes just to see where it was.
This week we taught Maselwa again, and we put him on baptismal date for the 26 April 2009. He had some good questions about the life after death, (probably because his father had passed away recently.) He read 3 Nephi 11 that we left with him. He said he read it 3 times so that he could understand it. He then was able to explain the chapter to us in detail. He believes what we share it true, and feels good about it. He came to church again this Sunday. His prayers have not yet been answered but he says he prays about the Book of Mormon everyday.
There is a less-active part-member family that we have been teaching. We had some spare time this week so we decided to visit them. The investigator in the family is Sifiso. His wife is the member, Esther. In the past it didn’t seem like Sifiso would go anywhere, but this week he asked us how he could be a member of the church. We told him he needed to be baptized and that our visits were to help prepare him. He seemed like he wanted to be a member so I asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he said because he wanted to know how the other life style was like. He wants to change from the way he is now he told us, and find out what it’s like. Our last visit with him was on Sunday. He read 2 Nephi 31 and Mosiah 18 that we had left with him. He said that he felt enlightened when he read. He said for the first time he marked scriptures that stood out to him. This visit on Sunday was nice because he didn’t speak so much. He listened more. Usually Sifiso has a lot to say, and has a lot of questions, but I think now he sees that what we share is good, and whatsoever is good is light, and light is truth. We will probably put Sifiso on date soon if he can come to church a couple times in a row. He hasn’t been in a while. Oh and also when we had visited them that first time in a couple weeks Sifiso said that he had thought about calling us to see where we had been. He told us not to give up on him.
Miriam, another one of our investigators on date for baptism had a wonderful experience with the Book of Mormon. She gave us an excuse that she was going to court and that caused her to be nervous and a little worried so she hadn’t read. We told her that if she read the Book of Mormon before she went to court then she would feel better. Well she read the Book of Mormon and the court case went well, in favor of her.
The Mdlalose family is doing well. Sunday was a tender moment for Sister Mdlalose I’m sure for the event even brang tears to my eyes. Probably for the first time she had all of her children at church, (excluding Dumisani who just left for mission.) and her husband. They all sat together as a family. Hopefully Samuel, who we have been teaching, will have his whole family as well to sit with him and his mother, and the res of the family. Samuel’s wife Inocencia should be coming to church next week. Hopefully they will one day be able to all be baptized and go to the temple.
Sorry I can not update you guys on every investigator and how they are doing. I wish I could. I hope you get an idea of the wonderful experiences that I am having here in South Africa. I love these people and I love this place.

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (16 March 2009)

I received some great news last Monday. Mbuso our recent-convert who had a concussion and was in a coma is back to full health. His leg is still messed up, but he is able to walk with crutches. Bishop Tshabalala gave me the news, and told me that I should call Mbuso. It’s funny because I had been thinking about calling Mbuso earlier anyway. Well I spoke to Mbuso, and it was amazing, it was like I was really talking to him. The previous times I had spoken to him he was totally out of it and didn’t remember me at all. Now he remembers and was very happy to hear from me. He was well enough to go with his mother, who is not a member, to church down in Durban this last Sunday. My prayers have been answered. It’s great to have Mbuso back.
This past week we started teaching a family, Samuel and his wife, Inocencia. Samuel’s mother is a member, and she is Dumisani’s mother as well who just left on his mission on 6 March 2009. Samuel has been to our church in the past but he was never really motivated to go anywhere. His son Khaya is about 10 years old and was baptized a couple years ago. He has very good support from his grandmother. Well Samuel is progressing very well now. He is coming to church often, he enjoys it, and he is learning a lot. When we taught him and his wife the Restoration Samuel was able to make sense of things because of the few times he had been to church previous to us coming to his home to teach him. He tells us that he really wants to change, and you can see it in his face that he is ready to do what it takes. His mother, Sister Mdlalose, is very excited to see her oldest son progressing towards baptism. She asked us on Sunday when his baptism was. Maybe this will motivate her husband to change, who is having similar challenges.
We have 3 baptisms planned for the 12th of April. One of the candidates is an 18 year old young woman who is also a relative to the Mdlalose family. Maybe when Dumisani gets back from mission his whole family will be members. Well anyway this young woman’s name is Tebogo and she has been coming to church very often. Sister Mdlalose is also a great support for her, and she is making lots of friends in YSA. Last week when we taught her we asked her to think and pray about a date that she would want to be baptized. Just before we asked her to do this I said a silent prayer that she would be baptized when the Lord had planned her to be baptized. Well just on Sunday we found out that she had chosen the same date we were planning for her to be baptized, the 12th of April 2009. Truly this is when the Lord foreordained her to be baptized.
The days are going by faster and faster, which means the work is going well here, and I love it. I am gradually noticing the change that has been coming over me this past year or so. I hope this change will stay with me the rest of my life, and will continue to help me make more changes, to repent more and more, and to become more Christ-like, unto perfection someday.
I was able to step out of myself a little these past couple of days and see myself how investigators may see me. They see me as a disciple of Christ, not just someone who is teaching the Gospel but as someone who is living it. This was apparent to me when one of our investigators shed some tears when she found out that her missionaries weren’t going to be here forever. I am a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ; He has not only called me to teach His gospel, but to live it, and as I do so I am able to have the power to convince men by His spirit.

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (9 March 2009)

This week has been a good one. We had 15 investigators at church. It felt so wonderful to have that many people come who are not members yet. There was one guy who came who was invited by the missionaries to come a long time ago, but I don’t remember if it was me or not. It sounds like it might have just been a pass along card sort of thing, like just a quick street contact. Also there were some other people who came for the first time with friends who were members, and we were able to speak to them and set appointments with them.
We have a really smart investigator named Gomza, and he is fun to teach. He is 22 years old. He came to church for the first time last Sunday. We saw him during the week and he had a lot of questions, as he always does. This time though he had a sense of urgency as he asked his questions. Church wasn’t what he expected. He didn’t feel fulfilled as people bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He was a little puzzled and confused. This is probably because we hadn’t really taught him about them. Our first lesson with him was the Plan of Salvation. When we saw him this week we decided to teach him lesson 1, The Restoration. As we taught his doubts started to go away, and he felt the spirit. When we committed him to pray about Joseph Smith he said “well I must.” That felt really good to see an investigator really understand what you are saying. The people, for the most part, here in the township are a simple people.
Another one of our investigators named Jabulile has received an answer to her prayers. We taught her this week about the Resurrection, Judgment, and the Kingdoms of Glory. When I asked her about her prayers she told us that she wasn’t sure if she had received it. I then asked her how she felt and she said that she had felt good, and then she told us that she had even cried in her prayers. She told us that she felt very peaceful, and happy. Even while we taught her and talked about her prayers she started to get a little teary-eyed. Before she thought that her answer would come by ear, but we reminded her that it comes by the Holy Spirit which gives us overwhelming feelings of happiness, and wholeness. I committed her to ask one more time now that she knew what to look for. I felt the spirit strongly in that lesson. We then committed her for baptism on the 12 April 2009. It was very nice too because I had an MTC Elder with me, and he was able to have a sweet experience before he got out into the field. We take the missionaries from the Missionary Training Centre with us on splits for about 2 hours 2 Saturdays out of the month.
We did the Walkabout/Talkabout again this week. This time we did it with one of best recent-converts, Nana. We walked around her neighborhood and talked to her about her neighbors and planned certain things which Nana could do to introduce her neighbors to the Gospel such as giving out a pamphlet, or a Proclamation to the World: The Family. She even introduced us to a couple neighbors right then and there. One of the neighbors Nana introduced us to was named Tebogo. We asked her if we could briefly share with her but she said she was too busy with the dishes. We tried to tell her we could do the dishes for her but she didn’t accept. Nana hearing this then physically pulled her away from doing the dishes so that we could teach her. It was a little awkward with her forcing Tebogo from the dishes but she was able to be persistent and accomplish that which she was set out to do. We then took action and sat down with Tebogo and briefly spoke with her and set a return appointment. While we spoke to Tebogo Nana preceded to do the dishes for her. Tebogo and Nana seemed to know each other pretty well so there were know hard feelings. I guess Tebogo realized the importance of what we wanted to share. It was a real cool experience. Sometimes it takes different ways to get across to people the urgency of the message. This work is the Lord's, and it is awesome!

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (2 March 2009)

This past week has been powerful. I have felt the spirit of the work very strongly, and I believe in miracles. I’m trying my best to have faith to be able to accomplish our goals, and I’m trying to exercise that faith by my works. I made a little deal with our Father in Heaven, and I pleaded with Him that He would help us accomplish our goals. I asked Him to help me have faith and I told Him that I would fast every week up until the last full week in April if He would give us help. I’m going to do what I said I would do and trust in God that He will do what I have asked Him to do. I've got to work, work, work.
One of our investigators, named Mamokete, took the challenge that our Heavenly Father gives about the Book of Mormon. She read the book, pondered it and prayed to Heavenly Father asking Him if it is true. A while back she told us that her home was very busy and that it’s hard to find a quiet time their. We told her to find somewhere quiet that she could pray even if she had to go somewhere else. At our last appointment with her she told us that she had waited until around 11:00pm for everyone to go to sleep, and then she took some time to ask God about the book. She said that she felt good, and that she believes that the Book of Mormon, and the prophet Joseph Smith are true. Mamokete had faith, and she took the time to set aside time to really ask the Lord and she received her answer, the answer. I was very pleased to hear her testimony.
We have a family of 3 that we just put on baptismal date this past week, Miriam, the mother, her daughter Palisa, and her son Paris. Miriam is scared of water, but we told her that baptism is what our Heavenly Father wants, and that this is the true baptism so He will protect her. It was very nice to hear Paris pray for us. He’s in his teens but doesn’t have much experience with prayer. We asked him to pray for us and his prayer was almost identical to the way Lesson 1 pamphlet teaches people to pray.
On Saturday we tried this Talkabout Program that our mission president has introduced. It’s where the missionaries walk around with the members of the church in the member’s neighborhood, and talk to their neighbors. We tried this with a member of our bishopric and we were able to set an appointment with one of their neighbors. It didn’t work fully the way it is suppose to but with time us missionaries will be able to do better at it.
We have 9 people on date for baptism as of this past week. Seven of which have been to church at least once. The other 2 who are the closest to baptism have not been to church yet because it is really hard for them to get there. We are trying to encourage them and give them hope. They are scheduled to be baptized the 22 March 2009. Elder Rajohanesa and I are trying our best to help this stone "cut out of the mountain without hands” roll as fast as the Lord wants it to. Things are great here in South Africa.

(16 February 2009)

2009-02-16T09:20:00.001-08:00

Dear Family, (16 February 2009)

On Sunday we visited one of our investigators and found out that she has cancer. Both Elder Rajohanesa and I felt impressed to give her a blessing. I felt the spirit as she was blessed. On our way to meet the other missionaries that spirit was carried with us and we broke out into song. My testimony was strengthened that night.
Also this week we contacted and taught 2 referrals that we received from the office. Both were single mothers, which isn’t exactly what we should focus on but they were great. They really seemed to believe the things which we taught. We also received another new investigator from the Sifuba family. They have had a relative staying with them for quite some time, and he has been coming to church for a couple months now. His name is Nkululeko, and he is a potential Melchizedek holder. Sister Sifuba was awesome to have present at that lesson because she had a wonderful conversion story.
This week we put Tryphina on baptismal date for the 22 March 2009. Sadly enough she wasn’t able to make it to church this Sunday. Out of our 14 new investigators from this week only 1 showed up. Her name is Bella, and we had only met her on Saturday. She came to church and Sister Rebecca fellowshipped her well, and even had her over to her home after church.
I’m finding it hard sometimes to not compare myself to other missionaries and their success. I just hope that I’m doing all I’m suppose to do to receive more success and the Lords sees fit to give it to me. It’s nice to push yourself especially to hit your goals which you have made, but many times it is stressful. I’m hoping to find a balance somewhere. We had Zone Conference this week, and president Poulsen spoke about the clay that we have in our mission, or the things that we need to fix and do better at. It just seems like there is so much to improve on. It can be very discouraging at times, but I know with the Lords help I can do what He wants me to do. Thank you all for reading. I appreciate it a lot.

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (9 February 2009)

On Saturday evening we were able to teach a “father led family” (a key indicator that president is having us tract.) that we tracted into previously. We shared the message of the Restoration with the father and mother. They accepted it well and we were able to set an appointment to see them next week. The father’s name is Ephraim, and he has a twin named Stephen. When we were done teaching Ephraim and his wife Monica we decided to help Stephen drag a big tree they had cut down out of their yard. The tree was very heavy. Stephen tied a big wire from his vehicle to the tree and was dragging it with the car as we lifted the tree up and guided it. That probably wouldn’t have been the way I would have done it, but hey we were able to help. Stephen thanked us for the help and asked us if we had set another appointment with his brother. He then told us we would be joining us next time. Service really does work. When you serve others they are more willing to accept you and trust you. They will want to listen to you.
Also on Saturday I was able to speak to Mbuso. He is the Recent Convert that got in the accident back in Durban on Christmas day. I’ve never known someone who has been in such an accident. I think I feel for him more than I have ever felt for anyone else. When I spoke to him he was crying and telling me how he missed us (Elder Lind and I.) He said that he wanted to go to church and he wanted us to come visit him. I was so hurt to hear him like that. He seemed to be really scared, not sure what he would do with his future. The doctors are talking about amputating his leg, which I’m sure, is the cause of a lot of his fears. I was just very heart broken to see him in this much altered state from which I was used to seeing him in. The Lord preserved his life for a reason, and I hope that in time he will recover perfectly.
We’ve received a couple referrals from the members. The two referrals that we received have been to church a couple times already. One of them is a cousin to Dumisani, our ward mission leader. Her name is Tebogo. The other is a friend to a recent convert of ours, KB, who moved from the Soweto ward. Her name is Samu. Both believe the church is true; we are just working on them receiving the witness from God and not just us. Our lesson with Samu was great; we were even able to teach her mother there with us, who goes to another church. She said she may come to our church if we visit hers.
On Sunday we had my first baptism where I have baptized someone that I have found through tracting. Nana Gare was baptized. She was supposed to be baptized by a brother in the ward, but he wasn’t there so I ended up baptizing her, which was awesome. At first she was really scared to get into the font but I told her it would be quick if she would cooperate and not fear. It was wonderful. I only had to do it once because she went under completely the first time. She told me that she wanted me to force her under so that she wouldn’t have to do it again. If you are not completely submersed in the water then the ordinance needs to be performed again. Also Nana had me give a talk on the Holy Ghost for her baptism. As I gave my talk I looked out in the congregation and noticed some people sleeping. I knew who they were so I decided to call them by name and thank them for sleeping while I spoke. The congregation thought that was pretty funny and so did I. You got to have a laugh once in a while at church meetings.
An old Gogo named Amanda kept her commitment to come to church. We hadn’t taught her but just briefly spoke to her in her home this past week. She came to church and brought some of her granddaughters. We decided to visit her on Sunday in the evening. Amanda told us that her granddaughters loved church and that they were coming back next week along with her. We then taught her and her grandson, Bradley briefly, and set an appointment to come back. My new companion is awesome, and I love him dearly. He works great as a missionary and I think the work will progress very well here.
Rebecca, one of our members here in Dobsonville who we visit, somehow was able to find my emails that I send from searching Google. She told me that she printed them all out and read them all. She seemed to enjoy them. It made me feel really good to know that someone found my writings to be so interesting that they read through all of them. I really appreciate those who read. Thank you.

Elder Lane

Dear Family (2 February 2009)

2009-02-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

Dear Family (2 February 2009)

Last Monday president contacted me and told me that I would not be training. The guy I was going to train ended up going home. He told me that I would be getting Elder Rajohanesa from Madagascar. He came out with Elder Roper and has been out for about 14 months. I was very disappointed and sad that I wasn’t going to be training I even cried, how weird is that? I had a lot of things going through my mind, like when would I then be able to train? I didn’t want to be one of those guys who trained just as they were going to be leaving mission. Well Elder Rajohanesa came to me and things are great. He is a great missionary, and I’m sure there is a lot that Heavenly Father wants me to learn from him. He teaches very powerfully and seems to know Preach My Gospel well. Before transfers came I prayed that I would be ready for what Heavenly Father wanted to give me. I wasn’t ready for him to tell me I would train and then take it back, but I think it was good for me. I think that although it looks like things didn’t go the way they were suppose to that they happened for the best. I’m starting to learn more and more how much Heavenly Father’s hand is in this work.
On Sunday we had the opportunity to teach a congregation; it was a church meeting in a garage. We were actually looking for a potential investigator that we met the previous day, when we were invited to join them. We decided to try it out especially because a future investigator might have been there. We walked in as they were singing a hymn, and the men leading the service invited us to come to the front. Elder Rajohanesa and I joined them at the front and took a seat. These people were very charismatic in there worship. They spoke in some African language and had someone interpreting for them. They spoke to us and referred to us as pastor and elder, and wanted us to share with them. They wanted us to heal them spiritually. They continued their service and then invited me to share something. I shared from Luke 22:40-44. As I read I felt the spirit and was touched by the phrase “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly…” Our Savior was suffering for us, and when the pain got worse he prayed harder, and was strengthened by an angel. I got a little teary-eyed and had to pause. As I paused they started to sing. I liked that a lot about them. The act of them singing gave me a chance to compose myself. After the song I was able to proceed. When I was done I bore my testimony and sat down. Elder Rajohanesa then began to share. He shared about the Restoration, and Joseph Smith, and even invited everyone to come visit us at our church. He bore testimony and then sat down as well. As he shared the Restoration I was a little scared but then I prayed in my heart that all would go well. We left a bunch of pamphlets, some with our names and number, with the people. They seemed very happy that we came and shared with them. The pastors thanked us and even took our pamphlets and put them on top of their Bibles. They told us we were welcome to come again. A couple of them even told us they would visit us. The potential investigator, Tsholofelo, even said he would come visit us at church next week. Elder Rajohanesa was powerful, and I hope that next time I find myself in that situation that I will be able to share the Restoration as he did.
We met with Nkosana on Sunday night. I asked him if he had any questions about church. He told us that it seemed like we focused on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith more then the Bible, and we was wondering why. I then reminded him that if we know Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon are true then we know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is where Heavenly Father wants us to be. We focus on them a lot because people need to learn about them, and then pray and ask God if they are true so that they can know for themselves from God if they are true. He hadn’t been reading the Book of Mormon, partly because it was too hard to understand, so we decided to read it with him. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and then talked to him more about praying and asking God. I then prayed to show him and Ncumisa an example of how we wanted them to ask God. I prayed and asked Heavenly Father specifically if the Book of Mormon was true and then paused in my prayer for a while to feel. I then closed my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ and told them that if they didn’t receive an answer then we wanted them to pray by themselves or together as to whether the book was true. I think Nkosana might have felt something but I’m not sure. We are going to see him and Ncumisa again on Friday. This work is great and the fruits of it make me a happy person. Thank you everyone for reading. God Bless.

Elder Lane

Dear Family, (26 January 2009)

2009-01-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

(27 October 2008)

2008-10-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (27 October 2008)

This past Monday we had an appointment with a guy named Peet. We first met him a couple of weeks back. He didn’t really accept the message but we figured we’d try and see him again if he was willing. He wasn’t able to see us though so he arranged so that an under deacon from his church (the Old Apostalic church) could see us. This guys name was Willem Schoeman. He came to Peet’s house to pick us up and take us to his home. He was very accepting of our message and really wants to see us again. He said that he learned things from us. He asked us questions with a desire to get answers from us. He asked us about the Mosaic Law and why the Jews had a different law from the New Testament. My mind was brought to Abinadi. We have an appointment with Willem tonight. I can’t wait to teach him about the Book of Mormon and give him chapters to read about Abinadi.
We taught Ralph again this week. As we share things with him he really ponders it. We taught him the first bit of the Plan of Salvation. He said how he could buy some of the things, like how God has a body of flesh and bone, but then he would question it. I felt that what Ralph needed was a testimony of the Book of Mormon so I shared with him again the commitment to find out if it’s true. He said he would read it a whole week; he wouldn’t even touch his Bible. I hope and pray that God will show him the truth. It’s all in His hands.
This week at church we had 3 investigators. This is pretty good for us here in Alberton. One of them was a young man named Gladwin, he is 13 years old and he came with his mother, Ruth, who is a member. We also had Heather come again, the volunteer from Broken Wings. I asked her about her Book of Mormon reading and she told me she was on 1 Nephi 11. Earlier in the week we taught her, along with a branch missionary who came with us, the Restoration. She is quite open to the message. Her husband David even listened in on the message. He was alright with it, but I think it will take him a while longer to accept it and change his ways. He tells us that he’s not really a church guy. We were also able to get an investigator named Wellington to church who we’ve taught a couple of times. I’m not sure if he’s gotten a definite yes to the message but he seems certain it is true. Lots of investigators at church makes it so much more exciting.
The rains here in South Africa come during the summer which is right now. Saturday night we had to ride home in the pouring rain. We were almost the furthest away from our flat that we can be. It was about a 10-13 Kilometer bike ride. It took us about 40 minutes. The whole ride it was pouring rain, we biked through huge puddles, as I peddled the water would almost totally engulf my shoes. Even some cars as they passed by would drive through puddles and we would get splashed. When we got home you couldn’t tell the difference between someone being shoved into a swimming pool and me. I was totally soaked. Luckily my scriptures were placed in a plastic grocery bag. At first I wasn’t very happy about the whole thing, but then I just embraced it. I sung a couple primary Hymns, “I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain” and even looked for cars to splash me. It was almost like jumping in a lake. At first it sucks and it is really cold but then you get use to it and it was pretty fun. At first I didn’t even want to go out in the rain from our appointment but my companion did and so we did. I’m glad Elder Burnett was willing to work even though it was raining. These experiences I'm having are priceless, I love it.

Elder Lane

(20 October 2008)

2008-10-20T16:34:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (20 October 2008)

We taught the Pretorius Family this week. It was mainly just Andre though. We read the Book of Mormon with him, Mosiah 5. He agreed with everything we read. We also read some verses that President Poulsen suggested we should share such as Ether 4:11-12, Omni 1:25, and John 14:26-27. We shared these verses to show him that that which is good is from God. President also suggested we ask him to go to the church for information about the church rather than to an outside source. We gave him the church's websites to look go to. Andre is still a little skeptical but he agreed to having us come each week to read the Book of Mormon with him.
On Saturday we had a fireside. WE had an alright turn out. The Stake President, Branch President, one of his councilors, and their wives and some others came. We played Jeopardy based on the scriptures, and Preach My Gospel. They didn't know some of the answers which gave us the opportunity to teach them a little about missionary work. It seemed like a really good idea and way to help the branch understand missionary work it's just that not a lot of people came and even some of those who did come got a little side tracted while we were playing.
This is the second week in a row that Sister Kirchmann, our part-member family on date, has missed church. I decided that I would start calling her each Sunday she wasn't at church to show her that we care and that we miss her. Hopefully this will help motivate her to come. Calling her will hopefully cause to bring to her mind why she didn't come, and she'll see that the excuses really don't justify her. On the upside though this is the second week in a row that Heather Wood has come to church. She is the lady that volunteers at Broken Wings. Heather's car wasn't working so we got the Ashmores, an elderly couple to give her a ride to church. Heather is also elderly so I'm sure they had some things in common to talk about.
This week for District meeting we read, and talked about chapter 5 in Preach My Gospel. It is on the Book of Mormon. This along with a couple of lessons we've had this week have really helped me to understand the Book of Mormon's power in the conversion process. We taught Ralph again this week. We haven't seen him in a while. He was a little concerned that we maybe revered Joseph Smith too much. I helped him see that he is only important because he is a prophet of God. We did a little catching up with Ralph and then left him a lesson 2 pamphlet committed him to read that and then also gave him 2 Nephi 2 to read. We see him Wednesday, and he said he will read those things by then so we can discuss them.

Elder Lane

(13 October 2008)

2008-10-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (13 October 2008)

This week during weekly planning I followed the prompting I received and called Andres Pretorius to see if we could come read the Book of Mormon with him and his family. I was a little apprehensive at first, but I knew I needed to do it. I was pleased to hear him accept our invitation. We are going to see them this Thursday.
On Saturday we met a wonderful guy named Wellington. He told us that before we had shared our message he had the belief that there was only one church. When we shared a brief lesson 1, because of time, he told us he believed us. We set an appointment to see him this Thursday. He told us that he was excited for our next visit.
Heather, the lady who volunteers at Broken Wings came to church with us. I think she enjoyed it a lot. It was a fast and testimony meeting, and the members were quite good at making her feel welcomed. After church we went to a braai at her home, we met her friends and her husband, and made friends with them.
Also this past Sunday we went to a fireside where Elder Holland spoke. He was physically within eyesight of me, it was awesome. The Sandton chapel, where he was speaking, was overflowing with people. What I thought was very powerful was how he bore his testimony and then said “this is the truth” with a brief pause after it. He stated that the second coming started with the boy Joseph’s visitation from the Father and the Son. We are in the second coming now, it has started. There will never again be an apostasy. The church of the Lamb will present the church to the Lamb when He comes, how interesting is that. Christ will not come again unless there is His organization to accept Him with the saints. That’s why it started with Joseph Smith. There is just too much to learn. I love the prophets and the apostles. Elder Holland also told us that we are blessed because we have this knowledge that there are prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ here on the earth in our days. Me, being here on a mission for Jesus Christ is a dream come true, I love it. Many times I pray that I can increase in my abilities as a missionary. I hope that I will increase in power as I am here, not decrease. I hope these emails are a joy to those who read them. Thank you.

Elder Lane

(6 October 2008)

2008-10-06T19:49:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (6 October 2008)

I must say that General Conference has been a great joy to me. I have definitely appreciated the Prophets and Apostles more now that I’m out here serving the Lord. I loved all of the talks. Some of which I particularly felt gave me direct guidance were President Uchtdorf’s talk on Lifting Where You Stand, and Elder Robert D. Hales’ talk on Christian Courage in our conversations with others.
We had quite an interesting visit with the Pretorius family. Our last visit before this one was great we bore powerful testimony and I felt the spirit. They accepted the challenge to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. This visit, however, was different. Andres, the father, got a hold of some anti-mormon literature. He doesn’t have anything against the Book of Mormon but he’s not sure about Joseph Smith. I brought a little contention there and realized my emotions were getting a little out of hand so I decided to just be quiet and let Elder Burnett do all the talking. We tried bearing testimony but Andres kept firing back with “How do you know it wasn’t the Devil?” At that time we were not able to explain things very well. You know the saying; if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all? Well on the bike ride home I thought about our visit and that saying. I felt bad for allowing Satan to shut me. I was afraid I would make things worse if I spoke. What I should have done was prayed for the strength and the ability to make these feelings leave that way I could effectively teach and testify. It’s not enough to just be quiet, we must not just stop saying bad things but cleanse are feelings within. If you can’t say anything nice, pray to Heavenly Father so you can say something nice. Conference certainly gave me some guidance for next time. During Zone Conference as Elder Anderson, one of the APs, was giving his talk I was impressed that we should go back to the Pretorius family and just read the Book of Mormon with them. I have hope that this is not the end of the Pretorius family’s progression to eternal life.
Last Monday evening while we were tracting we came to a call box. When I rang it the lady at the other end, Chantelle, (not sure if her name is spelled correctly) said her husband wasn’t home and that she doesn’t usually let people in. I asked her if we could set an appointment to come back, and she accepted! She even offered to cook us dinner. We went to her home Wednesday evening and she invited her friend and her friend’s daughter to join us, they were there when we got there. Things went very smoothly. Her husband greeted us at the door we sat down and ate, and had some good conversation. As we were speaking at the dinner table I asked her what made her accept our invitation. She wasn’t sure why she accepted, but she was praying hard that the Lord would not let anything bad come into her home. If we had not made our appointment she would have thought that angels led the evil, us, away. We taught Lesson 1 up to the Great Apostasy. Chantelle showed great interest in knowing which church is true and how to find out which one it is. She said that she loves her church, but she is open to hearing the word of God. Our next appointment is a braai on the 11th. We will finish lesson 1 with them, her friend, Amanda will also be there again as well. I love this work.

Elder Lane

(29 September 2008)

2008-09-29T19:57:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (29 September 2008)

Some guys tried to scam us this week. A guy (guy 1) told us that his boss needed our help with some mini Bibles, and then he also grabbed some “random” guy (guy 2) off the street to help (this random guy was part of the scam though). We told him sure we can help. We then started to walk to his “bosses” house. Just before we got to the house he told us he (guy 1) needed to call the boss first before we went in, and he was asking us to come close. That’s where we really started questioning him. Once we started doing this, and pressing forward to the boss’s house without calling first then he started to back off. Guy 2 was trying to ease things and say what do you guys want, we can call the boss first and you can talk to him. We kept bugging to SEE the boss tough. Guy 1 then said if you guys can’t do it then that’s fine you can go. We then said alright fine and we walked off. Guy 2 then ironically said he couldn’t do the job either. We then saw the two guys walk off together. After they were out of sight I knocked on the “boss’s” gate. Nobody answered. I think they wanted to steal our phone or something. Luckily this was the closest I’ve been to crime here in South Africa.
Now for some good experiences, I found out that my trainer, Elder Yarrington was transferred to our old Zone, Benoni, as Zone Leader. I thought that was pretty cool. We taught the Pretorius family this week. I wasn’t so sure about the father, Andres, but the mother, Karin, I had high hopes for. This week we shared the Restoration DVD, and the Book of Mormon. As we watched the DVD I prayed that I would be able to transition smoothly into my testimony and to bear it powerfully. Andres gladly accepted the Book of Mormon, and this time they were more willing to have us come back, they agreed to next week at the same time.
On Sunday Elder Burnett and I were privileged to go to a missionary fireside in another Zone. There we were able to get some ideas for our fireside we want to do here in Alberton. President Bricknell spoke on member missionary work. He is a great guy, I remember him speaking to us in the MTC. A major thing I got from the fireside is that us as members don’t do missionary work as much as we should because of fear. President Bricknell said we shouldn’t be afraid; the Lord will be with us every time that we share His Gospel. I would like to encourage all Family and Friends to strengthen their efforts in missionary work. When missionary work improves in a ward or branch every other aspect will improve.
With my experience in difficult areas I’m gaining a stronger faith in Christ. I know it is only through Him that people will be converted to the Gospel. I am relying more in Heavenly Father through prayer to convert these people that we teach. I know I must rely on God. This is His work, and I have the privilege to teach people truth and then witness the Holy Ghost work in them, and touch their hearts.

Elder Lane

(22 September 2008)

2008-09-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends (22 September 2008)

This Saturday was our Mormon Helping Hands project. What we did was we had a meeting where he had some speakers, and then the church gave a donation to the orphan kids that we teach. We gave them each a new pair of shoes, a pair of pants and a t-shirt. Brother and Sister Van Rensburg then taught the orphans about having a high self-esteem. All in all I thought the project went fairly well. Sunday our Branch Presidency was reorganized. President Brummer was released as Branch President and his one counselor, Brother Lambinon was released, and then called as the Branch President. Oh yeah this past Sunday was my first time ever going to a Gospel Principles class. I’ve never been to one, and we’ve never been able to have one here on my mission yet. It was nice, we had Brother and Sister Kirchmann there, and then Jake and Claire joined us as well. Robert Nel, our branch mission leader taught the lesson.
Just before the service project we had our correlation meeting with Robert. We talked a little bit about our fireside and he told us that we should do Jeopardy with the branch, and have questions surrounding different aspects of the gospel. We want to make this fireside kind of a get together where the members can see that we are fun and cool people.
One of the guys at Broken Wings knitted Elder Burnett and myself a scarf, it was pretty nice of him. The people there are always making stuff for us, and giving them to us.
The work is going fairly well here in Alberton. We’ve met a woman named Karin, at first she stated she had her church and wasn’t interested, but as we talked to her she invited us in and we were able to teach her. This week we taught her and her husband lesson 1. Her husband believes us but doesn’t seem too interested. He doesn’t believe there is one church. I told him that yeah it would seem like there isn’t one church with all the confusion, but don’t you think Christ would have us unified in one church? Karin told us that she wants us to come back to share what more Heavenly Father had told Joseph Smith. She also stated that she would like to join that one church of Christ. I’m not sure if she fully understood our message.
We’re teaching a woman named Denise, and she seems quite interested in the Gospel and in coming to church. We had a funny experience with her and her family this week. Elder Burnett was saying the prayer, and in the middle of it he said something that sounded like amen and so the family thought the prayer was over and said amen. Elder Burnett and I paused for a brief moment, and then Elder Burnett close properly really quick, and then I said amen. It was quite weird.
Just this morning I was reading 2 Nephi 25. I just planned on reading that chapter. It is where Nephi speaks about Isaiah, and how his words are important, and can only be felt by those filled with the spirit. When I was finished reading that chapter I felt the spirit, and decided I would try and start over with the Isaiah chapters. I then read 2 Nephi 12. As I read my mind was enlightened and I was able to learn by the spirit. I’m so glad I decided to continue reading more after I knew I had the spirit for the power, the understanding and the concentration that I had for that time did not stay with me too much longer. I love the scriptures and love learning the mysteries of God.

Elder Lane

(15 September 2008)

2008-09-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (15 September 2008)

This week we started doing service at center for adult disabled people. We plan to do it each week. It was quite an interesting experience. The place is called Broken Wings and it’s a place where disabled adults can go to do activities. It’s basically just so that they don’t have to stay at home doing nothing. We were there just to be their friends, and to help them with their activities if they needed it. Most of them were doing bead work while we were there, they did some singing also.
We’ve received a couple new investigators this week. One was a man named Corne and his family. We taught him and his wife the Restoration. I believe he is seeking truth. After the lesson he asked what the difference would be if he left his church to come to ours or if he just stayed in his church. We told him that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the fullness of the Gospel and that if he joined Christ true church then he would be able to obtain the fullness of joy here in this life. We didn’t want to make him feel pressured. He did say that he would pray about our message, and he is willing to have us teach him more.
We had lunch with Stuart Harris this week. He took us to a nice restaurant and we were able to become friends more. We didn’t really get a chance to teach him, but he said that we can teach him next week. He told us that he’s a guy who likes to really read and digest what he is reading. He hadn’t finished reading the Restoration pamphlet that we gave him, but he said he would by this upcoming week.
Ralph is coming along. He told us that it’s best to address those things that make us different and then there can be a slide of beliefs. He is still having trouble with accepting the fact that the Book of Mormon is a separate book from the Bible. We read a little out of it with him, and he says he agrees with the passages. Ralph is a real nice guy. He is going to feed us dinner next of next week, on the 26th. He even offered to take us fishing.
Now all we need to do is hold on to these investigators that we are meeting and help them progress in the knowledge of and commitment to God. None of our investigators came to church this week. We are thinking of going to the Kirchmann’s home early on Sunday to wake them up. We didn’t think we would have to this week, but it looks like we will have to start doing that. One way we’ve tried to build our relationship with the Kirchmanns is by making them cookies. We did that this week, and they really enjoyed them. I hope my letters are easy to follow, and not too long and boring. I love the Gospel!

Elder Lane

(August 25, 2008)

2008-08-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends, (25 August 2008)
I’ve recently found and applied the tracting secret to my mission. At the MTC they talked about it a little, but only recently have I enjoyed the blessings of using it. As I have gone tracting I usually just tell people who we are and what we are doing, but the tracting secret is to talk to the people like you love them, like you are interested in their lives. The secret is to start off your talk with people at the door with something that has to do with them whether it is their garden, their religion, or their day or what have you. We don’t necessarily get into more doors, but the people do seem to be more pleasant as you show interest in them.Biking here in Alberton is getting a little easier. I’m starting to get in shape again. Another thing I’ve tried doing more is talking to people that pass us by, or who we pass. Seeing as we do a lot of tracting I’ve decided that I might as well try and teach people on the streets that we pass. As I have done this it has helped me be less reserved. It also is a lot more effective and interesting than knocking on people’s doors. We met one guy while doing this. His name is Linda. He was outside the Methodist church watching the gate until it was time to close it. We decided to talk to him, and share some of the Restoration. He ended up desiring to read the Book of Mormon. We gave him one and got his details. He said he would be interested in having us over to teach him more.Alberton is a branch, it’s nice though because Sunday is 3 hours instead of only 2, like in Secunda. During this past week Elder Burnett and I went to an orphanage to teach some of the kids there about God. It was quite fun. There was about ten guys there in their teenage years. It was fun to get them involved in the lesson and ask them questions. They seemed to be excited. I also gave them a Book of Mormon. I asked them “who should keep track of this?” They all raised their hands, and said me. I ended up giving it to one of them and told him to share it with the rest, they said they would read it.The other Elders in our flat, Elder Owen, and Elder Roper do service at a Meals-on-Wheels in their area. They invited us to go to service with them. It was nice because we got fed lunch, and the people gave us a whole bunch of free food. Experience of a mission can never be replaced. I love it here, doing the Work amongst this people.
Elder Lane